Overview

From mainstream blockbusters to art house cinema, narrative and narration are the driving forces that organize a film. Yet attempts to explain these forces are often mired in notoriously complex terminology and dense theory. Warren Buckland provides a clear and accessible introduction that explains how narrative and narration work using straightforward language. Narrative and Narration distills the basic components of cinematic storytelling into a set of core concepts: narrative structure, processes of narration, and narrative agents. The book opens with a discussion of the emergence of narrative and narration in early cinema and proceeds to illustrate key ideas through numerous case studies. Each chapter guides readers through different methods that they can use to analyze cinematic storytelling. Buckland also discusses how departures from traditional modes, such as feminist narratives, art cinema, and unreliable narrators, can complicate and corroborate the book's understanding of narrative and narration. Examples include mainstream films, both classic and contemporary; art house films of every stripe; and two relatively new styles of cinematic storytelling: the puzzle film and those driven by a narrative logic derived from video games. Narrative and Narration is a concise introduction that provides readers with fundamental tools to understand cinematic storytelling.

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Reviews

Narrative and Narration provides a brilliant survey of a tricky and sometimes confusing field. Warren Buckland covers an extensive range of concepts and approaches to narrative and narration, while also clearly defining the differences between these terms. Excellent cinematic examples are utilized, and the book is written with a precision that makes difficult concepts easy to understand. -- Richard Rushton, Lancaster University

A masterful summary of the discoveries that have made narrative theory one of the most intellectually powerful paradigms in film studies. One of the great pleasures in reading Buckland's clear and concise book are the acute analyses he provides of a range of popular films, readings that illustrate the strengths of the method-and the strengths of the author. Genuinely illuminating. -- Robert Burgoyne, author of <i>The Hollywood Historical Film</i> Buckland's book encompasses a vast array of issues concerned with film narration. It expounds principal theories, the most pervasive narrative modes in the history of cinema, basic notions and categories, as well as providing exemplary analyses of carefully chosen films. Lucid, concise, and competent, Narrative and Narration constitutes a perfect introduction to the field. -- Miroslaw Przylipiak, University of Gdansk Narrative and Narration provides a brilliant survey of a tricky and sometimes confusing field. Warren Buckland covers an extensive range of concepts and approaches to narrative and narration, while also clearly defining the differences between these terms. Excellent cinematic examples are utilized, and the book is written with a precision that makes difficult concepts easy to understand. -- Richard Rushton, Lancaster University The book is an astute synthesis of film narratology, and it is extremely useful for university courses in film semiotics. * New Review of Film and Television Studies *

Author Information

Warren Buckland is reader in film studies at Oxford Brookes University. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Film Studies: An Introduction, fifth edition (2015); Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema (2009); and Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster (2006).

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