This past week, Jerry and Xiaolong presented doctoral level theories on narrative and animation, and it was incredibly impressive to see both of my classmates explain and articulate doctorate-level knowledge in their non-primary language.
“When the Past Lies Ahead and the Future Lags Behind: Backward Narration in Film, Television and Literature” (Brütsch, Matthias)
URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/70981/1/Bru%CC%88tsch_Backward_Narration_2012-1.pdf
I was extremely fascinated by Xiaolong’s presentation on new narrative structures, especially when it was broken down into four types as defined by plot vs. events, and episodic vs. sustained. The Brutish theory table that he presented was insightful and interesting, and I am still processing the new concepts. I really enjoyed Jerry’s examples of new narrative structures being incorporated into more mainstream animation, as well as his explanation as to why he chose primarily new American and Japanese animation to showcase this trend.
Of all the films we watched, I was especially moved by “The Flying Sailor” (2022), and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion we had on different ways of approaching the story thereafter.
I did laugh a bit too hard at “A Single Life” (2014), and then it gave me pause on simply enjoying life in the moment instead of trying to skip to the ‘good’ parts. But also, dark comedy for dark times.
This class made me rethink my approach to Nolan’s “Inception” (2010), which I am still deeply critical about because I consider it an inferior derivative of Kon’s “Paprika” (2006) – but I am willing to watch Nolan’s dream heist again just to see how the film could have incorporated new narrative structures instead.
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