CTVA 309 Lecture - Week 2 9/01

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts in literary analysis, film adaptation, narrative structures, and storytelling techniques discussed in the lecture.

Adaptation

A creative process defined as a form of translation, such as translating a literary text into a cinematic text.

Motif

A repeated element in a story—such as an object, specific words, or stylistic patterns—that plays a key role in driving dramatic elements.

Story Time

The specific historical or fictional time period in which a story's events are set.

Production Time

The historical context and time during which a book was published or a film was made.

Textual Maze

The progression of adapting a work across multiple successive texts, such as moving from a novel to a play and then to a film.

Self-Reflexive Text

A text or film that explicitly reflects upon itself, its own medium, or the process of its own creation.

Doppelgänger

A twin or double character introduced into a story to represent opposing psychological traits or behaviors to the protagonist.

Deus Ex Machina

A narrative technique or artificial plot device used to bring a story to a sudden resolution or closure.

Monkey Mind

A term describing the highly fragmented way the human mind functions when jumping rapidly between thoughts.

Narrative

An imaginary construct of events, situations, and characters linked together in a meaningful way within a specific space and time.

Plot

The deliberate selection and structural arrangement of events and characters within a story.

Diegesis

The complete fictional world in which the story and its dramatic events take place.

Point of View

The specific vantage point from which a narrative is presented and told to the audience.

Omniscient Narration

An all-knowing narrative style where the narrator presents information and perspective that the characters themselves do not possess.

Restricted Narration

A storytelling approach, such as first-person narration, where the audience's knowledge is strictly limited to what a single character knows or experiences.

Voice-Over Narration

A narrative technique where an off-screen voice speaks over the visual action to tell the story or share thoughts.

Narrative Structure

The aesthetic and logical organization of story elements arranged to achieve maximum emotional, intellectual, or political impact on the audience.

Aristotelian Narration

A classical linear storytelling format featuring a clear beginning, middle, and end organized through exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution.

Genre

A classification of creative works sharing similar styles, performance elements, and audience impacts, forming an implicit contract between producers and viewers.