NARRATIVES OF WAR: IMMERSIVE TECHNIQUES IN LITERARY AND CINEMATIC TEXTS
Abstract
This research focuses on the study of narratives of war, as depicted in cinematic texts of various genres. The research material comprises narratives created between 2020 and 2022 which reflect the ongoing russian war against Ukraine. The uniqueness of these narratives lies in the fact that the author, the reader/viewer, and the unfolding events exist within a unified temporal space. The stories of people in a country at war are real-life accounts of occupation, of living in conflict zones, where individuals face war daily. A distinctive immersive experience is generated because readers/viewers share the same experience of living in a country engaged in a liberation struggle against an aggressor. Thus narratives of war become stories about life during war, life under occupation, life under shelling and threat, which unfolds parallel to everyday life, family concerns, and genuine emotions. The narrative techniques employed in these works are unique due to the seamless continuity of the story, focalization, narration, the real experience of the author and the viewer, and the temporal continuum that envelops both the artistic and real worlds. In this way, a temporal-spatial immersive blend of the real and fictional, objective and emotional, reinterpreted and lived, is created. The paper offers a general typology of the narratives of war: war narrative chronicles, fictional cinematic narratives of war, and immersive narratives of war. One of the unique properties of these narratives is the parallel development of the war story taking place in the country and the stories of ordinary people living under occupation, under shelling, in danger, yet striving to maintain dignity, moral values, and the significance of genuine emotions. These narratives of war, created exclusively by witnesses of military events in Ukraine, are based on real or reinterpreted life stories and maintain the truthfulness and objectivity of the depiction of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
References
2. Херсонські есеї: жити, щоб перемагати :збірка есеїв / упорядн. С. Омельчук, О. Козакова. Херсон - Івано-Франківськ, 2023. 184 с.
3. Черемісін, О. В. Літопис цивільного спротиву Херсона у вимірах повномасштабної агресії росії проти України у 2022 році / упоряд. О. В. Черемісін. Суми: Університетська книга, 2023. 482 с. (https://ekhsuir.kspu.edu/ handle/123456789/19058 )
4. «Чорний лебідь» в історії Херсонського державного університету, або Хроніки релокованого вишу (2022). Хроніки. Частина 3 / головн. ред. О. В. Співаковський.- Херсон ; Івано-Франківськ : ХДУ, 2023. – 224 с.
5. Alber J., & Fludernik M.. Mediacy and narrative mediation. In P. Hühn, J. Pier, W. Schmid, & J. Schönert (Eds.), Handbook of Narratology. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. P. 174-190.
6. Bell A. Possible worlds theory and contemporary narratology. In A. Bell, & M.-L. Ryan (Eds.), Digital Fictionality: Possible Worlds Theory, Ontology, and Hyperlinks. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. P. 249-272.
7. Chatman S. Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1980. 288 c.
8. Elleström L. Transmedial narration. Narratives and stories indifferent media. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 152 с.
9. Family secretly film life in Russian-occupied Ukraine - BBC News. Електронний ресурс https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QSaxduOxogU (дата звернення 01.08.2024)
10. Kress G. Multimodal discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee, & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2012. P. 35-50.
11. Nørgaard, N. New perspectives on narrative and multimodality. In R. Page (Ed.), Multimodality and the literary text: Making sense of Safran Foer’s ‘Extremely loud and incredibly close’. New York, London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 2010. C. 115-126.
12. Ryan M.-L. Narrative a virtual reality: Immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 422 c.
13. Ryan M.-L. Transmedia narratology and transmedia storytelling. Artnodes: e-journal on art, science and technology, 18. https://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i18.3049. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/312259787_Transmedia_narratology_and_ transmedia_storytelling (дата звернення 01.08.2024).
14. Shevchenko I.S. (Ed.). Multimodality and transmediality: Interdisciplinary studies: The Second International Conference, 19-20 April 2024. Kharkiv, Ukraine: V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 2024. 98 с.
15. Tsilyk, I. (Director) The Earth is Blue as an Orange [Film]. Albatros Communicos Moonmakers, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11394290/ (дата звернення 01.08.2024).
16. Vorozhbit N. Bad Roads, 2020. Retrieved from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_gNmir8qc (дата звернення 01.08.2024).
17. Witnessing the War in Ukraine: Vectors of Reflection, Practices of Documentation, 2023. Retrieved from: https:// ksu24.kspu.edu/s/GDHni (дата звернення 01.08.2024).
