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Precis: " Narrative" (2018) by Jason Mittell

In Jason Mittell’s chapter on “Narrative" from the book The Craft of Criticism (2018), he suggests that we should consider the study of narrative as an approach itself, where the central object of analysis is storytelling form and structure, not primarily the content of a story (35). In order to do so, Mittell divides his discussion into three parts, namely ‘narrative concepts’, ‘techniques’, and ‘structures’. He further explains that narrative concepts refers to 'story' (pertaining to the elements such as character, setting and events), ‘discourse' (pertaining to the method through which the story becomes accessible through a specific instance of storytelling (35) which puts focus on analyzing the different versions, tones, points-of-views, etc of each renditions of the story), and ‘medium' (pertaining to the format that the particular storytelling takes place (36) and how the medium shapes the narrative). For his discussion on techniques, Mittell gives a brief historical timeline on the development of narrative theories in his discussion on ‘intellectual history’ that traces from Aristotle’s Poetics (providing practical theory pertaining to the genres, importance of well-balanced plot and goal-driven protagonists as well as the emotional impact of pathos and catharsis (36) ), to the Russian Formalist School (pertaining to the literary criticism of a number of related schools of thought that paid close attention to the norms and conventions that could be found across various literary forms leading to the distinction of story and discourse (37) ), New Critics in the US (that were focused on close reading and analysis of the text) , and the Structuralism movement (pertaining to the emphasis on how cultural forms like narratives share common underlying norms and patterns, emphasizing both ahistorical universals and a systemic, almost scientific approach to categorizing culture through taxonomies and binary oppositions (37).) Finally, he would discuss the structure of narrative by exploring three important concepts: ‘character’ (pertaining to the subject of the narrative that can serve a number of different narrative functions, with one key variable being the relative prominence of any character within the story (38) and scholarships on characters explores how a narrative can imbue certain figures with a sense of interior life, motivation, and emotional depth to create empathy for audiences and generate the connections that engage viewers (39) ); ‘narrative events’ (pertaining to the incidents within the story to which the crucial element of storytelling is found – causality); and finally, ‘setting' (which pertains to where the story takes place, though in this aspect, it is further explored as the storyworld, which means the full story universe conveyed by a narrative comprising the setting, characters and events (39)).

(October 17, 2019)

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