Week 03: Reading

This weeks reading deals largely with reading into text and analysing structure and narrative form. The reading begins by explaining the different forms of narrative structure:

Fragmented narratives; are mainly defined by non-sequential time-frames, and non-unified multi-narratives.

Multi-strand narratives; also have multiple narrative lines, but 'multi-strand' narratives are typically more related to one another, but are usually told in a disordered manner.

Classical narration; refers to the classical style of film making typically found in Hollywood films from around 1917 – 1960, where cause-effect plays a driving force behind the narrative and the protagonists narration is hidden in the narrative itself.

Canonical story structure; a consistent format of narration with three acts, introduction, complication and resolution.

The reading then goes into the foundation of Structuralism, structuralism suggests that at the core of every narrative is organised around binary oppositions which are typically centred around typical oppositions (evil-good, race, gender ect.).

The reading then uses this technique of identifying binary oppositions to analyse the film Natural Born Killers, I will apply this process to the Star Wars films, comparing the Empire (the antagonistic ruling faction from the first three films) to the Rebels (protagonists):

Empire (Antagonist)	Rebels (Protagonist)
Seeks control through power	Seeks order through enlightenment
Large and cumbersome	Small and tactical
Arrogant	Humble
Almost exclusively made up of Human-looking characters, and display border-line racist / prejudices mentality	Contains cultural and species diversity, indicating greater acceptance of differences, reinforced by precocity to use indigenous creatures for help
Almost all characters from the empires ruling class have English accents	All have either American accents or speak in alien languages
Space ships are typically grey with red lasers	Space ships are typically white with blue or green lasers