This presentation deals with the closure concept and how it takes place in narratives. It is based on The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H.Porter Abbott. uploaded may,25,2015 Ziya Amiri Sadr

1. CLOSURE IN NARRATIVES
(BASED ON, CAMBRIDGE’S INTRODUCTION TO NARRATIVE, BY
H.PORTER ABBOTT)
CHAPTER 5

2. 1.MAHSA NOORI
2.SADAF FARAMARZI
3.ZIYA AMIRI SADR
RAZI UNIVERSITY, KERMANSHAH, IRAN, APRIL 2015
Created and presented by:

3. CONFLICTS STRUCTURE A
NARRATIVE
Life is all about power. The will to power and the power of willing to
live. Narratives are an instrument of power. In almost every narrative
power is at stake, we see this by the emergence of conflicts in a
narrative.
Conflict in Greek >>> AGON
Hence:
protAGONist (hero) and antAGONist (hero’s chief opponent)

4. CONFLICTS CAN BE ANYTHING !
CONFLICT
CHARACTERS
VALUES
NATUREFEELINGS
IDEAS

5. CLOSURE AND CONFLICT
When a narrative resolves a conflict, it achieves closure, and this
logically
must come at the end of the narrative.

6. A VERY SHORT STORY CALLED
“TABOO”
His guardian Angel whispered to Fabian, behind his shoulder:
"Careful, Fabian!
It is said that you will die the minute you
say the word doyen."
"Doyen?" asks Fabian, curiously.
And he dies.

7. ENDING AND CLOSURE
These are rather wonderful narratives, and certainly one of the things
that makes them work so well is how decisively they end. In each of
these two stories
there is a clear (though not necessarily simple) conflict which is
resolved
absolutely with the final words of the narrative. But closure does not
have to come at the end of a narrative; in fact, it
does not have to come at all. So it is important to keep the two
concepts-
the ENDING and CLOSURE-distinct from each other.

8. CLASSICS VS. MODERN
We’re all familiar with these classical famous words “a well made play
must have a beginning, a middle and an ending”
Maybe this principle worked out well for the classics but in modern
time narratives, it’s a rather different kind of a story.

9. EX. MODERN TIME NARRATIVES (THESE NARRATIVES
ARE RATHER DIFFERENT THAN THE CLASSIC
NARRATIVES)
I
N
D
E
F
I
N
E
N
C
Y
Soap operas can go on forever !!!
-Days of Our Lives (1965–present)
-The Bold and the Beautiful (1987–present)
The "prequel” phenomenon
-Georg Lucas’s Star wars
-Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and its prequel The Hobbit
Comic books never end !!!
-Man of Steel > Stan Lee
-Hellboy > Stan Lee

10. WHAT’S SO DIFFERENT ?
What so different is that these narratives can be like this:
No ending
No beginning
If there’s a beginning, there is a chance that it can be manipulated
later (see prequel phenomenon)
In short, it’s their indefinency that makes them rather different than
the classics.

11. CLOSURE AND SUSPENSE
The term "closure" can refer to more than the resolution of a story's central
conflict. It actually has to do with a broad range of expectations and
uncertainties
that arise during a narrative. Closure is therefore best understood as
something we
look for in a narrative. Something that is either satisfying or frustrating.
If the object is to satisfy this desire which is often the case- it can't be
satisfied too quickly, because we seem also
to enjoy being in the state of imbalance or tension that precedes closure. In
fact, narrative is marked almost everywhere by its lack of closure. Commonly
called suspense, this lack is one of the two things that above everything else
give narrative its life.

12. CLOSURE AND SURPRISE
The other thing is “surprise” . All successful narratives of
any length are chains of suspense and surprise that keep us in an
unpredictable
state of impatience, wonderment, and partial amusement. We are
held this
way until the final moment of closure.

13. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS !
CONFLICT
SUSPENSE and
SURPRISE
CLOSURE

14. CLOSURE AND “BARTHES”
In the process of understanding a narrative we must refer to the
decoding principles of Roland Barthes.
He asserts that; “the reader brings a set of narrative codes to any
readable narrative. The author and the reader share two fundamental
codes to make a narrative readable”
1. Proairetic code
2. Hermeneutic code

15. CLOSURE AND BARTHES CODES
In these two codes Barthes is referring to the different ways that a
narrative arouses both expectations (Proairetic) and questions
(Hermeneutic) and then either give us satisfaction or frustration. This
is actually where the closure is recognized.
If expectations are fulfilled
And questions are answered
Then closure occurs.

16. CLOSURE AT THE LEVEL OF EXPECTATIONS
At this level we recognize the kind of
action or sequence of events that we are reading. Once actions start in a
certain way, we expect what follows to be consistent with the overall code.
Concerning expectations, there appears to be two imperfectly
balanced needs for closures within readers. On the one hand to see the
expectations fulfilled, on the other to see them violated.
Prince Princess
Princess gets
rescued
Fall in love with
each other
Romance

17. “SURPRISE” OR “VIOLATION OF
EXPECTATIONS”
Bedtime Story
"Careful, honey, the gun is loaded," he said, re-entering the bedroom.
Her back rested against the corner of the bed. “Is this gun for your wife?"
"No. Its too chancy. I'm hiring a professional killer for her."
"How about me?"
He smirked. "Cute. But who'd be dumb enough to hire a lady hit man?"
She wet her lips, and looking along the gun barrel. "Your wife."

18. SURPRISE AND EXPECTATIONS
If narratives were to be just as we expect them always to be and
operate in the same way as they always do, then we
would have nothing but stereotypes and wooden clichés for our
literature.
What truly gives life to a narrative is the violation of our expectations.
This violation is called surprise.

19. CLOSURE AT THE LEVEL OF
QUESTIONS
At the level of expectations we anticipated What will happen. Now at
the level of questions we anticipate Enlightenment.

20. LET’S READ A STORY
For sale: baby shoes, never worn !

21. CLOSURE AT THE LEVEL OF
QUESTIONS
Who did it?
Where are we? What's going on? Who are these people? What is their
relationship? What do they want?
This is another kind of suspense in narratives, which is called the
level of questions and it is also a level of answers. Just as there can be a
steady
stream of questions, so too there can be a steady stream of answers in a
narrative.
These answers may not be the right answers. Or they may be partial answers.
But this thread of information keeps us going until the narrative (in most
cases) provides
the answer and closure comes.

22. EXPECTATIONS VS. QUESTIONS
Expectations
They are definitely going to catch the
murderer !
I think that She will marry Peter at the end
!
The wrestler will have a hart attack !
Questions
Who is the murderer ?
Which one she would marry? Peter or
George ?
During which fight, is he having a heart
attack ?

23. CLOSURE IS SOMETHING THAT WE TEND TO LOOK
FOR IN NARRATIVES !
Powerful narratives, don't tell us what to think but cause us to think.
Narrative is a machine for thinking. But most of the times we think
that a narratives must resolve the issues that it raises. The presence or
absence of closure by itself can not be taken
as a standard of narrative failure or success.
The fact that closure
does not have to happen in narrative makes it especially important to
keep
closure separate from the formal concept of an ending.

24. WE READ IN DIFFERENT WAYS !
Closure brings satisfaction to desire, relief to suspense, and clarity to
confusion. lt normalizes. it confirms the master plot.
But:
At the same time,
we don't want closure too quickly. We seem to like the experience of
remaining in doubt while moving toward closure.