Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Waikato, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this research was to look more closely at the relationships between narrative and non-narrative persuasive messages, and to begin to determine how and why these message formats might work together. I situated this study within Rogers’ roadmap for future theoretical work on entertainment education (E-E), and specifically addressed Slater and Rouner’s call for more research on the impact of epilogues in E-E. Synthesizing components of the elaboration likelihood model with recent theorizing regarding persuasion through narrative, I made predictions regarding the effect of transportation and character identification on perceived salience, attitudes, behavioral intention, and behavior in narrative, argument, and narrative + argument conditions. Undergraduate students were asked to watch one of seven videos. After watching the videos participants were asked to respond to questions reflecting their views of the subject matter in the videos, their experience while watching the videos, and their opinion of the video quality. The questionnaire included scales measuring transportation into the narrative and character development, measures of perceived issue relevance, and persuasion toward the topic of mandatory H1N1 vaccinations. Findings showed no relationship between the narrative format and transportation or perceived salience, however, transportation did predict perceived salience in messages combining both argument and narrative + argument formats. Recommendations were made for modification and future applications of the instruments used in the study and for continued research in the various stages of persuasion through narrative, argumentative, and combined format messaging.

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

True Selves: Narrative Distance in Stories of Fiction and Nonfiction consists of a scholarly preface and four creative works. The preface discusses narrative distance as used in both fiction and nonfiction, and as compares to other narrative agents such as point of view, especially in contemporary creative writing. The selection of stories examines relationships, especially familial, and themes of isolation, community, and memory. Collection includes two chapters of a novel-in-progress, Fences, short fiction story "Trees and Furniture," and creative nonfiction essays, "Floating" and "On the Sparrow."

"Narrative Units" traces the development of a unique perspective on narrative form in the theory and practice of the early British novel. From Aristotle's Poetics through twentieth-century formalism, structuralism, and narratology, major theories of narrative have approached narrative form as a unified whole, whether that whole is defined as plot, structure, or discourse. By contrast, early British novelists tended to conceive of narrative as a looser accretion of individual parts, identified with terms such as "adventure," "episode," "incident," "accident," "situation," "moment," "scene," "period,” and "crisis," as well as temporal spans such as hours, days, weeks, and years. This dissertation examines the social, philosophical, and technical implications of viewing narrative through this lens of narrative parts, or what I call “narrative units.” The project begins by comparing the emphasis on narrative units in the early British novel with dominant traditions in narrative theory, which tend to prioritize narrative totalities. It then proceeds to analyze the functioning of narrative units in the novels of three key innovators of the tradition: Henry Fielding, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen. In each of these case studies I identify the key units deployed by the author, considering the dialogic relationship between them and the unique narrative dynamics that they bring about. Ultimately, I show that the unusual emphasis on narrative units in the long eighteenth century emerges in response to a series of major social and intellectual crises of the eighteenth century: in Fielding, the epistemological opacity of cities and institutions; in Radcliffe, the fragmentation of self in the sentimental subject; in Austen, the breakdown of community in a rapidly accelerating society. I conclude that by prioritizing and emphasizing narrative parts over narrative wholes, these authors deformed and disrupted prevailing models of narrative, from Aristotelian plot and Enlightenment progress to the sentimental flow of feelings, and along the way developed a new poetics of uncertainty, stasis, and fragmentation. In identifying and analyzing the historical vocabulary deployed by authors themselves to articulate the fundamental structure of their narratives, “Narrative Units” develops a new methodology for the study of narrative, offers a new approach to the history of the novel, and contributes to current critical efforts to synthesize formalist and historicist methods of literary study.

The intent of this project is to study the use of multiple narrators who occupy the same space over a spread of time. While the subject matter has been one of intense study over the years, the approach to implore this technique of fiction has opened the characters, plot, and story to greater exploration.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Peter Kingston. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-257).

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of narrative devices in the fiction and collected non-fiction of Joan Didion in order to evaluate her abilities as a novelist and as a New journalist. The works considered include the novels Run River, Play It As It Lays, and The Book of Common Prayer; the non-fiction works include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and Salvador.The narrative devices examined are those essential to the sense of story in fiction: plot, character, setting, and point of view. The same devices are examined in the nonfiction works because of their similarity to what Tom Wolfe identifies as the characteristics of New Journalism: scene-by-scene construction, dialogue, third person point of view, and the detailing of status life.Conclusions1. Didion's fiction is weak. She combines narrative elements artificially rather than artistically. The plots in each novel are contrived, beset with problems of plausibility and insufficient character motivation. Didion's personal sensibility affects her fictive point of view, making it artificial and subjective. Setting has a disproportionate emphasis.2. In both genre Didion emphasizes a common theme: the effect of time and place on her own sensibility. Although this strengthens the non-fiction, it weakens the fiction. Her over-abundant use of setting details is appropriate in her non-fiction where the subject is herself in specific times and places. In the fiction the setting overshadows other narrative elements.3. Didion uses narrative devices effectively in her non-fiction. She exercises methods of developing characters and detailing setting in the non-fiction as well as, or better than, in her fiction. Her selection' and arrangement process creates a unity much like plot in fiction.4. Didion writes essays primarily. According to Wolfe's guidelines, only three of the works in her collected non-fiction qualify as New Journalism. Although she uses techniques of characterization, scene construction, and status life detail, Didion's point of view, with the exception of the three works, is the subjective perspective of the essayist.5. Didion writes better in the real world of nonfiction than she does in the imaginary world of fiction.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-271).

Thesis (M.A.) in English--University of Maine, 2009. / Includes vita.