Narrative Theory
Narrative differences may concern three different grammatical domains: semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. In narrative theory, semantics becomes the study of plot, or story; syntax becomes the study of discourse, or narrative techniques; and pragmatics, an area still relatively unfamiliar to literary critics, becomes the study of narrative as performance.
Marie-Laure Ryan: narrative theorist
Marie-Laure Ryan is a distinguished narrative theorist and independent scholar, who started exploring Cyberculture and its Narrativity in the early '90s. She as written many books & articles of which some you'll find represented below:
article 1: Marie-Laure Ryan - The Text as World (abstract from the book below)
Narrative Structures: weaving the braid
‘Each different action of the user creates a different response from the system and consequently generates a different story. In such a system, the generation and presentation of the story would follow the chronological order of its events and reflect the temporal experience of the characters’ (Ryan, 2005).
Marie – Laure Ryan lists 9 possible interactive narrative structures (see above):
The Complete graph structure,
The network structure,
The Tree structure,
The Vector with Side Branches,
The Maze structure,
The Directed Network, or Flow Chat,
The Hidden Story structure,
The Braided Plot,
Action Space, Epic Wandering and Story-World.
In terms of building a real time interactive film storyboard, it needs a dynamic narrative database-based system. Each of the events is narrative fragment that has logical and consequential coherence that links by nodes. Users can swim in the self-renewable and never-ending narrative pool with a various and diversified series of stories.
The system is able to construct an infinite number of appropriate responses, which means the interactive narrative could create three forms of immersion:
Spatial (thanks to the 3D environment),
Temporal (the action takes place in real time),
Emotional (the user deeply cares for his avatar).
This type of system could be made interactive by handing over some decisions to the user. The user and the system could take turns generating events, and the story would be the product of their collaboration. The balance of control could be adjusted by giving more turns to the user or to the system. the story world will evolve somewhat randomly, rather than striving toward a global narrative pattern’ (Ryan, 2005).
article 2: The Narrative Braid: A Model for Tackling The Narrative Paradox in Adaptive Documentaries article 3: Chapter 2.2 Interactive Film dissertation Weixuan Zhao (2010)
Narrative Theory: The Fourth Wall
Breaking the fourth wall was common in Elizabethan theatre, specifically in Shakespeare's works. There is an unparalleled connection between audience and story in VR when a storyteller knows how to manage the medium. An almost visceral reaction can be evoked in audiences when a Director knows how to leverage Virtual Reality to tell his/her story.
House of cards intro awesome clip breaks fourth wall Kevin spacey
When Henry looks directly at us - in context- in the well made VR film of the same name, there is no denying the feeling of ‘presence’ the audience feels when viewing Henry in VR. However, stil it is needed to respect Personal Space in VR, just as much as it is in real-world situations. Two zones are of most interest (according to Hall(1963):
Personal Distance Zone
Social Distance Zone
article 4: The Fourth Wall and Designing Immersive VR experiences: case studies
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