Interactive Storytelling – lectures summary
Lecture 1 – defining storytelling and narratives .......................................................... 2
Lecture 2 – defining Interactive narratives ............................................................... 11
Lecture 3 – narrativity meets interactivity ................................................................ 19
Lecture 4 – experiencing interactive narratives ........................................................ 24
Lecture 5 – effects of interactive narratives ............................................................. 32
Lecture 6 – crossing the line – misleading narratives ................................................ 41
Guest lecture – Herald and Wispfire........................................................................ 50
Q&A ..................................................................................................................... 52
EXAM ................................................................................................................ 53
, Lecture 1 – defining storytelling and narratives
Historical context – long and rich research tradition
- Aristotles poetica: tragedy versus comedy, narrative forms (epic/dramatic),
- Russian formalism:
o Vladimir Propps character roles
o Viktor Sklovskij: fabula (story level) vs sujet (discourse level) vs media/text
▪ → Page 33 handbook
▪ Sujet : finished arrangement of the narrated events
- Narratology including french structuralism: discipline studying narrative principle
and narrative representations
o Seymour Chatman’s kernels vs satellites
o Gerard Genette’s focalization
▪ → will be discussed later
Definitions of a narrative
- A narrative has many different definitions
o Representation/sequences of events which can return in all kinds of forms,
independent of medium and form
o The ‘what’ part of a narrative as opposed to its ‘how’ part
- Our definition: a specific chronological event sequence (one event after another) as
experienced by specific persons in a specific spatiotemporal setting
o Specific: details are involved, concrete information about the time, the
characters
Narrative: story and discourse (Kinnebrock & Bilandzic, 2006 in Smed et al., 2021)
- Narrative: the overarching term which consists of the story and discourse
- Story: content/ the ‘what’ part:
o Chronological sequence of events on a timeline (everything that is
happening, plot, fabula, arc)
o Who are the characters?
o Includes both story and its telling, resulting in discourse
2
, - Discourse; the ‘how/expression’ part:
o How is the story represented (through a film, how you tell it), discourse
structure, point of view, focalization
- → So, what vs how
Story structure, events and discourse structure
- Story structure = plot = sequence of events on a timeline = event structure
o Event: a change of state, something happening, usually involving a character
o Plot event: plot point; narrative turn
▪ Dramatically significant
o Causality: a cause-and-effect chain of events
- → How the events are organized
- → To make sure it is structured (by having a main character, villain, tellable event,
etc.
- Discourse structure: the order in which the events are told
o Chronological, in medias res, flashbacks, flashforwards
▪ Flashback harry potter, the murder of his parents
- Discourse structures can evoke certain emotions:
o Suspense, surprise, curiosity
Story structure; the ‘what’ level of the narrative
- Freytag’s Dramatic arc (pyramid)
o Start from an initial situation; harry potter at his uncle
o Something happens up until a climax
- Other story structures:
o Aristotle; beginning – middle – end
o Three act structure (Smed et al., 2021)
o Campbell’s hero journey (monomyth)
o Labov & Waletzky’s story structure, including an evaluation
3
, Hero's journey
- The hero at the start
o Harry potter, Katniss Everdeen (hunger
games)
o Call to adventure and learn new things
o They change because of the things that
happen
o They return as a changed person
Labov and Waletzky story structure
- Inherent structural order of narratives
- Coda: for example, going back to a couple to see how they are doing now
Tellability
- A tellable event is the critical event in the store structure
- The event that makes the story worth telling and worthy of the audience’s attention
o Newsworthiness/reportability/remarkable part of the story
- Finding a tellable event is the starting point when you determine a story structure
o Important building block of a narrative
- Examples
o Being acquitted in court after having left your child in the car on a summer
day
4
Lecture 1 – defining storytelling and narratives .......................................................... 2
Lecture 2 – defining Interactive narratives ............................................................... 11
Lecture 3 – narrativity meets interactivity ................................................................ 19
Lecture 4 – experiencing interactive narratives ........................................................ 24
Lecture 5 – effects of interactive narratives ............................................................. 32
Lecture 6 – crossing the line – misleading narratives ................................................ 41
Guest lecture – Herald and Wispfire........................................................................ 50
Q&A ..................................................................................................................... 52
EXAM ................................................................................................................ 53
, Lecture 1 – defining storytelling and narratives
Historical context – long and rich research tradition
- Aristotles poetica: tragedy versus comedy, narrative forms (epic/dramatic),
- Russian formalism:
o Vladimir Propps character roles
o Viktor Sklovskij: fabula (story level) vs sujet (discourse level) vs media/text
▪ → Page 33 handbook
▪ Sujet : finished arrangement of the narrated events
- Narratology including french structuralism: discipline studying narrative principle
and narrative representations
o Seymour Chatman’s kernels vs satellites
o Gerard Genette’s focalization
▪ → will be discussed later
Definitions of a narrative
- A narrative has many different definitions
o Representation/sequences of events which can return in all kinds of forms,
independent of medium and form
o The ‘what’ part of a narrative as opposed to its ‘how’ part
- Our definition: a specific chronological event sequence (one event after another) as
experienced by specific persons in a specific spatiotemporal setting
o Specific: details are involved, concrete information about the time, the
characters
Narrative: story and discourse (Kinnebrock & Bilandzic, 2006 in Smed et al., 2021)
- Narrative: the overarching term which consists of the story and discourse
- Story: content/ the ‘what’ part:
o Chronological sequence of events on a timeline (everything that is
happening, plot, fabula, arc)
o Who are the characters?
o Includes both story and its telling, resulting in discourse
2
, - Discourse; the ‘how/expression’ part:
o How is the story represented (through a film, how you tell it), discourse
structure, point of view, focalization
- → So, what vs how
Story structure, events and discourse structure
- Story structure = plot = sequence of events on a timeline = event structure
o Event: a change of state, something happening, usually involving a character
o Plot event: plot point; narrative turn
▪ Dramatically significant
o Causality: a cause-and-effect chain of events
- → How the events are organized
- → To make sure it is structured (by having a main character, villain, tellable event,
etc.
- Discourse structure: the order in which the events are told
o Chronological, in medias res, flashbacks, flashforwards
▪ Flashback harry potter, the murder of his parents
- Discourse structures can evoke certain emotions:
o Suspense, surprise, curiosity
Story structure; the ‘what’ level of the narrative
- Freytag’s Dramatic arc (pyramid)
o Start from an initial situation; harry potter at his uncle
o Something happens up until a climax
- Other story structures:
o Aristotle; beginning – middle – end
o Three act structure (Smed et al., 2021)
o Campbell’s hero journey (monomyth)
o Labov & Waletzky’s story structure, including an evaluation
3
, Hero's journey
- The hero at the start
o Harry potter, Katniss Everdeen (hunger
games)
o Call to adventure and learn new things
o They change because of the things that
happen
o They return as a changed person
Labov and Waletzky story structure
- Inherent structural order of narratives
- Coda: for example, going back to a couple to see how they are doing now
Tellability
- A tellable event is the critical event in the store structure
- The event that makes the story worth telling and worthy of the audience’s attention
o Newsworthiness/reportability/remarkable part of the story
- Finding a tellable event is the starting point when you determine a story structure
o Important building block of a narrative
- Examples
o Being acquitted in court after having left your child in the car on a summer
day
4
