Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1379] IFETS DISCUSSION
From: adamson (adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp)
Date: Fri 16 Mar 2001 - 02:55:08 MET
From: "adamson" <adamson@mail.sp.myu.ac.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1379] IFETS DISCUSSION Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 10:55:08 +0900
In response to John Laurie's plea for input to the discussion, I off the
following knit-picking and provocations.
In his prediscussion paper John Laurie, referrencing Butler, writes:
Narrative is a coherent flow, to a goal or purpose. It is to have a
beginning, and end, and some excitement in between. That's all!
By this definition "aaaBBBccc" and "beginning EXCITEMENT end" and "<!."
would seem to be narratives. Also opening a window, looking at something,
and then closing a window would seem to be a narrative.
My electronic Random House defines narrative as
n.
1. a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or
fictitious.
2. a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story.
3. the art, technique, or process of narrating: Somerset Maugham was a
master of narrative. ?
adj.
4. consisting of or being a narrative: a narrative poem.
5. of or pertaining to narration: narrative skill.
6. Fine Arts. representing stories or events pictorially or sculpturally:
narrative painting.
and narrate as
?v.t.
1. to give an account or tell the story of (events, experiences, etc.)
2. to add a spoken commentary to (a film, television program, etc.) : to
narrate a slide show. ?
v.i.
3. to relate or recount events, experiences, etc., in speech or writing.
All of these Random house definitions relate to 'story', which seems to me
to be more than simple continuity. Also they are distinguished from the
actions of the story itself. They are some sort of a meta description of the
story. Thus, opening a webpage, doing something with it, and then closing it
is a series of actions, but my recounting of it is a narrative. This would
seem to explain why there are few narratives on the WWW.
With that said, I must agree with John that narrative is important in
teaching and learning. Whenever possible I base my language teaching on
narrative. I use complete stories, which the students begin reading in the
first classes of a course and complete in the last few classes. Ideally each
class has a clear beginning and end with somethings in the middle, hopefully
exciting or at least interesting. Each week also ideally has a beginning and
an end, dealing with one chapter of the on-going narrative.
Do we need a broader definition of narrative (Butler) for mechanics and a
story related definition for the academic content?
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