Internals from elaboration

Elaboration or Narration, as so-called discourse relations (or rhetorical relations), are modelled in Segmented Discourse Structure Theory (SDRT) as relations between discourse constituents (or constituents for short). These are either propositions that come into being by interpretation of sentences occurring in a text; the propositions then have the status of DRSes. Or, constituents are compounds of such DRSes, constructed from DRSes (or compounds of them) by discourse relations. Elaboration and Narration in that sense, rather than referring to text types, provide links between constituents that allow them to combine in ways that, for a recipient, a resulting text is coherent and has (some) elaborative or narrative properties

Event-sequences, plots and narration in computer games

Starting with the debate between ludologists and narratologists this essay tries to show that there is a narrative aspect in computer games which has nothing to do with background stories and cut scenes. A closer analysis of two sequences, taken from the MMORPG Everquest II and the adventure game Black Mirror, is the basis for a distinction between three aspects of this kind of narrative in computer games: the sequence of activities of the player, the sequence of events as it is determined by the mechanics of the game and this sequence of events understood as a plot, that is as a sequence of chronologically ordered and causally linked events. This kind of narrative is quite distant to the prototypical narrative which is the basis of most of the narratology. But actually all media, not only computer games, need their own narratology

Naive realism and the scientific narration of perception

Naive realism is a widely debated topic in the philosophy of the mind. In this article I will review the theses of naive realism through the works of one of the most influential philosophers who supported and developed them, Michael Martin. Once the reasons why naive realism should be supported are discussed, I will propose an empirical argument to show that naive realism and the most basic scientific knowledge of perceptive processes are contradictory

Re use: archaeology and storytelling

Attempts to describe and characterise the re use of existing buildings in recent interior architectural theory have often centred on the language and syntax associated with literary arts. Remodelling and interior interventions are often described in terms of translation, interpretation, poetry, essay and narrative. This is not without substance and indeed it is not only the act that is described in such terms but the very thing itself. The intervention or remodelled architectural form is an essay on and narration of the existing building. It translates and interoperates a previous history and story manifest within the fabric of the existing building and act as its biographer. This act of storytelling is predetermined by the excavation of the story. As a precursor to the narration, the designer translates and adopts the behaviour of the archaeologist. It is a process of careful and predetermined removal and discovery that allows the depiction of previous lives, events and culture to become part of the present. The intervention as a mechanism for re use is a biographic interpretation of the previous and an auto biographic narration of the present. It is this ability to be both representational of the past and the present that establishes the significance of the intervention as a key contributor to place within this persistent context. This paper aims to contribution to current discourse in relation to the validity and authenticity of the built interior and the re use of the existing

The Authentic Aboriginal Voice in Rolf de Heer's 'Ten Canoes' (2006)

By privileging Aboriginal language, Aboriginal-accented narration and the Aboriginal style of story-telling ("cascading repetition narration") in "Ten Canoes", writer, co-director and co-producer Rolf de Heer has made a film promoting indigenous Australian pride. He portrays the 'magpie goose people' of Arnhem Land as empowered and in control of their language, their culture and their lives, rather than conforming with the frequent media presentation of Aboriginals as passive victims of colonial maltreatment and disrespect. An era of idyllic well-being preceding white settlement of Australia can be imagined, and de Heer convincingly takes the viewer back to that black and white time of a thousand years ago – and suggests an even earlier more rapturous and colourful Dreamtime. In doing so, unlike other 'Aboriginal' films, he tells an authentic Aboriginal story in an authentic Aboriginal manner

Narration of the story of the death of Imam Hossein

During the month of Moharram, after the processions round the village, in the evenings certain individuals hosted a gathering in their house or in the mosque. A religious and literate villager told the story of the suffering and death of Imam Hossein and his family. The audience cries, and when the emotions get too strong, the leader starts to sing the story. These ‘rozeh’ where a speaker explains an aspect of religion are also held during Ramazan and on other religious days.Materials collected during field research for a D.Phil (Oxford University) in Iran in 1974 and 1975/6, and during short return visits in 1992, 1995, 1996. Audio recordings include: folk stories, music and songs, rituals, people’s own historical recollections

Transmedial Narration

This open access book is a methodical treatise on narration in different types of media. A theoretical rather than a historical study, Transmedial Narration is relevant for an understanding of narration in all times, including our own. By reconstructing the theoretical framework of transmedial narration, this book enables the inclusion of all kinds of communicative media forms on their own terms. The treatise is divided into three parts. Part I presents established and newly developed concepts that are vital for formulating a nuanced theoretical model of transmedial narration. Part II investigates the specific transmedial media characteristics that are most central for realizing narratives in a plenitude of different media types. Finally, Part III contains brief studies in which the narrative potentials of painting, instrumental music, mathematical equations, and guided tours are illuminated with the aid of the theoretical framework developed throughout the book. Suitable for advanced students and scholars, this book provides tools to disentangle the narrative potential of any form of communication

Wittgenstein on the foundations of language : A non foundational narration

The primary objective of this paper is to show that for later Wittgenstein, language cannot be based on a pre-linguistic foundation. Following closely on the tracks of the philosopher, it argues that none of the proposed foundations that are claimed to relate language to reality - viz. verbal definitions, ostensive techniques, mental images, quantitative measurement , Fregean thought or intention - is able to sustain its assumed pre-interpretive character. In a dense exegetical engagement with Wittgenstein, the paper lays out that the hallowed pre-interpretive reference taken to underlie the varying modes of interpretations or descriptions is actually a grammatical interplay, where what seems to be the pre-interpretive simple in one game turns out to be an elaborately complex construction in another. In the ultimate analysis, language and behaviour forge a non-foundational blend that internalizes and does not represent a supposedly extra-linguistic reality