buchholz defense

Narrative Space and Serialized Forms:

Story-spaces for the Mass Market in Victorian Print and Contemporary Television

ByLaura Buchholz

Dissertation Defense April 22, 2014

Purpose: This dissertation examines the relationship between textual

constructions of narrative space and the material forms of

serialized narratives across print and television medias (1).

By underscoring how the act of storytelling is affected by the

distinct intersection of narrative structure, material form, and

media delivery, this project articulates how each aspect acts upon

the other in a way that acknowledges no one characteristic can

be considered by itself (1).

Why Narrative Space?

“Narrative space” or “Storyworld Space” is not the same as setting (3).

Setting: place and time, specific locations that exist within the storyworld

Narrative space: constitutes the narrative world and all it contains as a structure present in all narrative.

Contributes to the field in theorizing space in the context of shift from separation of story/discourse to the construction of “storyworlds” or mental models.

Why Serialization?

Defined: Hughes and Lund: “a continuing story over and

extended time with enforced interruptions” (29)

Material breaks already known to effect structure of

plot in time in unique way. How does space relate to

that structure?(35)

Dichotomy of large multi-focused storyworlds

presented in fragmented and limited parts foregrounds

configurative processes (35)

Serialization draws on a multimodality of media in

narrative discourse in a unique ways that extend the

interaction with the storyworld (35)

Case #1(Chapter 2): London

as Text in Mysteries of London

Theoretical Framework

Why Zoran?

Emphasis on

transforming space into

discourse (44)

Emphasis on the

simultaneity of process

(43)

Levels foreground how

much is left out of the

discourse (44)

Why Mysteries?

Immense open-ended

length (48-49)

Wide popularity (45,48)

Small 8 page penny-part

installments (48)

“Encyclopedic” nature

(50)

Implications

Spatially- Space and time are always intertwined in narrative as

opposed to two separate modes--narration and description (90).

Spatial Units- house

Serially-Progression from one spatial unit to another is affected by

limitations of serial installments (90). Spatial Complex/ Fields of

Visions

Critically- Reading the spatial structures in Mysteries shows how space

is a destabilizing force throughout the story- constructing London as

ultimately unknowable/ contrasted with space outside London (90).

Total space/Storyworld

Case #2 (Chapter 3) Illustrations and

Verbal Discourse


Deictic Shifts- Importance of entry/narrative

beginnings (Zubin and Hewitt, Herman, Mary-Laure

Ryan, Richardson, Phelan (101-102)

Placement of illustrations matter relative to

corresponding narration- Leighton and Surridge (99)

Multi-framed plates in Jack Sheppard

Implications

Spatially- illustrations play a key role in establishing

cognitive entrance to the storyworld space that is masked

when moved for volume editions.

Serially-placement of illustrations in installments matters –

presentation of space tied to prefiguring and masking

future plotted events.

Critically- Jack Sheppard’s London is a place of

performance/stage/ and later self-aware as print media

Case Study #3 (Chapter 4)

Re-serializing Serials


Michel de Certeau- Stories as “spatial trajectories” that “traverse and organize places; they select and link them together and make sentences out of them” (164)

James Phelan- Narrative progression is the structure by which implied authors lead narrative audiences to interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments Experiencing Fiction. (165)

Mathew Bolton- Rhetorical implications of transferring “media specific affordances” as ways of authorial expression in narrative progression “across medial boundaries” (183)

Implications

Opening episodes- establish juxtaposition between characters that move and characters that do not in relation to the character's potential for agency (188).

Middle episodes- have self contained progression that relies in part on progression through spaces in the episode. Spatial progression becomes space a rhetorical device that prompt and complicate audiences’ judgments (213).

Final episodes-As progression of plot is altered, so is progression of spatial trajectories- space takes on a narrative function that potential change the rhetorical configuration and judgments (216).

Case Study #4 (Chapter 5):

Reconstructing Lost


Wiki’s display the product of the fan adapted narrative-

Storyworld adapted to new form with new narrative

affordances: Ryan, Murray, Booth (232).

Wiki’s display the process of reconfiguration and judgment

making between episodes: Lang, Mittell (234-35).

Why Lost?

Complex type of puzzle solving the show encouraged

included and at times necessitated understanding the

space (236).

No “official” configuration was ever released by the

show’s creators, leaving some questions unanswered with

multiple possibilities (238).

Implications

Organized information in a hierarchy that materially

separated “verifiable evidence” from “theories” (242)

Analysis reveals how multiple approaches to configuring

space are deployed by participants in a simultaneous fashion-

showing not just each theoretical model in practice, but how

these models interact (257).

Analysis of practice should act recursively on our theories

(262).

Findings:

Narrative/Seriality/Individua

l Works Narrative Studies:

Zoren’s framework is valuable and should be explored and utilized further with emphasis on process of recursive revision and reconfiguration (264)

Illustrations and verbal texts give each provide a means to “read” the other even when discordant and counterfactual configurations are presented.

Spatial trajectories of characters in televised media rhetorical mode of narration/ Changing configuration in adaptation potential changes rhetorical judgments.

Cooperative wiki’s demonstrate a synthesis of theoretical approaches that accommodates cognitive dissonance in interpretation.

Material/Serial

Physical limitations of the installment length affects

modulation between locations (266)

Distance between picture and narration in placement

affects how the texts are read and reconfigured (266)

Serialized structure enhances themes of containment/

incarceration (266)

Fan wiki’s should how audiences fill in gaps between

episodes and constantly reconfigure based on new

information.

Interpretive

Attention to space in The Mysteries of London highlights unstable nature of the storyworld Reynolds creates, as space is destabilized by the continuous introduction of new information. (267)

Attention to space in Jack Sheppard highlights how London is constructed as theatre- Jack is meant to be scene as private spaces become spaces of performance and spectacle. (267)

Attention to space in LD and BH shows how agency is constructed through the way characters move through space, and how while Dickens highlights the connection between Chesney Wold and Bleak house at the conclusion of the novel, Davies arrangement severs the connection more definitively. (267-8)

Attention to how fans reconstruct the space of the Lost island shows how locations and places always take on greater meaning- necessary for comprehension of the whole. (268)

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