This past week, we learned what narrations are and how to conduct a narrative analysis. The purpose of conducting this type of analysis is to identify the moral of the story and determine whether it compliments or challenges our own. If we really wanted to, we could try to analyze any pop culture text from a narrative perspective. We could pick a random article from a newspaper or pick a song that we heard on the radio. Narrative is everywhere in pop culture but, like we mentioned in class, just because it can be analyzed doesn't mean it should be.
One reason we should criticize and analyze narratives in popular culture is because of the impact it has on society. The things we see on TV, on the Internet and when we go to the movies shape and reinforce our beliefs, so of course it is important to want to uncover the moral of these stories. It is particularly important, in my opinion, to apply narrative criticism to texts that are exposed to children (books, TV shows, movies, video games, etc.) During this stage in their lives, they are absorbing everything in their surroundings. This is the period where they are gaining the information they will later use to base their beliefs on.
I recently watched a video posted by TED Talks called "The hidden meanings in kids' movies." The speaker Colin Stokes, although in a much broader sense, creates something very close to a narrative analysis of movies for kids such as the ones released by PIXAR. He challenges the popular moral of these stories which is to prove you are a man by defeating the villain to claim the girl as a reward. If you were to watch a movie with these morals and not criticize them from a narrative perspective, you might not be able to uncover the hidden meaning or moral buried in them. You could completely disagree with the message it is delivering but will still show it to your kids because you aren't able to determine the moral being conveyed. This is why narrative criticism is important. It is the tool we can use to decipher morals that we would otherwise be oblivious to.
One reason we should criticize and analyze narratives in popular culture is because of the impact it has on society. The things we see on TV, on the Internet and when we go to the movies shape and reinforce our beliefs, so of course it is important to want to uncover the moral of these stories. It is particularly important, in my opinion, to apply narrative criticism to texts that are exposed to children (books, TV shows, movies, video games, etc.) During this stage in their lives, they are absorbing everything in their surroundings. This is the period where they are gaining the information they will later use to base their beliefs on.
I recently watched a video posted by TED Talks called "The hidden meanings in kids' movies." The speaker Colin Stokes, although in a much broader sense, creates something very close to a narrative analysis of movies for kids such as the ones released by PIXAR. He challenges the popular moral of these stories which is to prove you are a man by defeating the villain to claim the girl as a reward. If you were to watch a movie with these morals and not criticize them from a narrative perspective, you might not be able to uncover the hidden meaning or moral buried in them. You could completely disagree with the message it is delivering but will still show it to your kids because you aren't able to determine the moral being conveyed. This is why narrative criticism is important. It is the tool we can use to decipher morals that we would otherwise be oblivious to.
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