Beyond and Beside Narrative (Discussion)

Bill Nichols' terms

All groups: Explain film scholar Bill Nichols' sense of the following terms:

• historical world or historical reality
  • Why does he prefer this term to "reality"?
• social actor
  • Why does he prefer this term to "individuals" or, simply, "people" in non-narrative works?

Modes of representation

Television depicts historical reality and addresses itself to the viewer about that reality through four principal "modes". Individual genres and programs are not limited to one single mode, but instead draw upon each as needed.

Drawing upon the examples of non-narrative television viewed in class (Lobster Wars, The Daily Show, Two-A-Days, Cops, news coverage of an incident in Goražde) explain each mode:

1. Group 4: Expository (or rhetorical)
2. Group 1: Interactive
3. Group 2: Observational
4. Group 2: Reflexive

Bibliography

1. Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007.