My Narrative Analysis John Fulford ~ ‘The Walk to South School’
What is the concept or meaning? • This hand drawn map, created by John Fulford for his nieces, outlines the route to the elementary school. • The hand drawn and personal manner in which the narrative was made, adds special meaning to the map. • The comparison between the route that John Fulford took to elementary school and the route that his nieces take, 30 years later and the red marks that represent the changes that occurred over time lend a treasure map feel, further demonstrating why this map counts as a narrative.
How do the style and aesthetics relate to the concept? The aesthetic of the way the map is drawn reflects and relates to the concept as the map is drawn in an almost child like manner, with natural lines, drawn in marker pen. Additionally, the proportion of the items within the map further relates to this childlike concept, with the ‘tiny orange fiat’ being the same size as McMunnay’s house. The way in which everyday items are described further lends to this concept. For example, a light described on the map is described as ‘blinking light’. The way in which places on the map are allocated meaning, links to the idea of child focused story telling. A few examples of this can be seen on the map, the labels ‘good skateboard hill’, ‘white picket fence - good for sticks’ and ‘good spot to ask a girl to go steady’.
How does it relate to narrative theory? • Collaborative maps, which can be seen both historically and in Postmodernism, relates to this narrative as the map was created as a joint e fg ort, with input from both John and his two nieces. This becomes the dialogue of the narrative, with the map telling the story of a walk and how it has changed over the span of 30 years. • The fact that this narrative map is not rigid in its construction leaves the path taken to the elementary school and back partially down to the reader. • Authorship, more specifically the death of the author as explored by Roland Barthes means that digital interactive maps such as google maps can be seen as post modern narratives as they allow the user, which now includes everyone, to make decisions on how the map is used and where it leads. This enables the place of the author to be occupied by anyone. Roland Barthes explained that the birth of the reader comes at the death of the author.
How does it inspire my own narrative? This narrative will inspire my own narrative on multiple levels. The comparison of two timeframes could inspire the concept of my narrative, as I could possibly show change over time. The personal style in which the narrative was created could be reflected in the narrative map I create.
Link to the narrative: John Fulford ~ The walk to south school
Bibliography McQuillan, M. (ed.) (2000) The Narrative Reader , London: Routledge. p.3 - 33 Harmon, Katherine. (2) You are Here . New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 131, illus. Wood, Denis. (2010) Rethinking the Power of Maps . New York: The Guildford Press. Seymour, Laura. (2018) Roland Barthes's The Death of the Author (The Macat Library) .
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