Literature Review 2

In every narrative plot, there will be events happening to brings out the story and leaves a deep image to the audience.

Aristotle’s discuss some concepts about narrative:

• fixed sequence
• definite beginning and ending
• a story's "certain definite magnitude" and
• the conception of unity or wholeness

Aristotle says: “A well-constructed Plot, therefore, cannot either begin or end at any point one likes; beginning and end in it must be of the forms just described. Again: to be beautiful, a living creature, and every whole made up of parts, must not only present a certain order in its arrangement of parts, but also be of a certain definite magnitude" (Landow, 1997).

A particular strength of this argument of aristotle shows the common use of this narrative structure in various print media as narrative has always been the universal human appeal. However, in the digital age narrative there will be a contrasting idea compared to the oral and print age(Landow, 1997). In hypercomic, interaction has been added to the narrative structure as it generates communication of human and the story. It allows the audience to be more immersed to the story.

In Monika Fludernik’s  “An Introduction to Narratology” she has a section that discuss about story and contouring. Fludernik has a similar preference relating to Aristotle’s idea. In the journal, it says that in classical narratology, it stresses a lot on the sequencing of what happens next and the common trend of the plot(Fludernik, 2009). This will not be appropriate of it is applied to longer stretches of text.

Marie Laure Ryan concludes that “narrate development should not be entirely dependent on non-interactive cut scenes. The user’s activies should be part of the story, and move the plot forward, rather than being nothing more than means to get more of the story.”(Atkins and Krzywinska, 2007). Ryan’s idea has supported my discussion about narrative in the digital age.  Interactivity has been playing an important role that makes the story more appealing to the audience. For instance, narrative game which is event oriented allows the user to interact with objects in the scenes and get clues to allow the story to proceed to the next plot and learn what will happen next if a certain action is perform. This should sparks the audience curiosity to be eager to know what will be coming up next and the refore be immersed in the narrative. Ryan also wrote in "Embedded Narratives and Tellability" shows that the plot is not only character driven but also includes their plans, wishes and even a sub-plot.

My essay will discuss how is narrative structure applied in hypercomic and how is the plot created using different element to get the user's attentions.

References

Atkins, B. and Krzywinska, T. (2007). Videogame, player, text. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Fludernik, m. (2014). [online] Available at: http://elsru.ir/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Monika-Fludernik-An-Introduction-to-Narratology-2009.pdf [Accessed 16 Nov. 2014].

George P. Landow (1997). Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), pp. 181-82 and 184-86.