In my career as an aspiring fiction writer, I have not only developed stories from the oral tradition leading into radio broadcast, but have also successfully had stories published individually in newspapers and magazines and in book format. At my time of writing in Guyana, radio and newspapers were the only means of getting one's work out to the public. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin write in Post-Colonial Studies The Key Concepts:
Post colonial cultural studies have led to a general reevaluation of the importance of orality and oral culture and a recognition that the dominance of the written in the construction of ideas and civilization is itself a partial view of the more complex cultural practice. Even highly literate cultures have vigorous oral cultures, as the discipline of cultural studies has convincingly demonstrated. (pp. 165-66)
My research at Virginia Commonwealth University has not only reinforced these views that the oral and written can co-exist (and not necessarily with having the written text overwrite the oral) but can also complement and enhance each other in a variety of different forms. What we come to know as multi-media is in fact a blending of oral traditions in a multi-faceted consumer-focused blend of cultural exuberance employing a variety of electronic formats such as audio, video, and animation, all within the encompassing logic of the narrative text.
It is clearly my contention then that the narrative fabric holds, supports and advances cultural expression and communication as is apparent, in the cave-wall paintings of Paleolithic humans, in the narrative elements in Renaissance paintings, in Dicken's narrative illustrations, and in present-day to my own animation where I have successfully brought Caribbean folklore into the mainstay of a multi-media animation recording.
My dissertation will focus on the development of select narrative texts written by those Anglophone Caribbean writers considered to be the masters alongside those of new writers where oral narratives have successfuly lend themselves to the development of a new-age electronic Caribbean culture.
With these concepts in mind, I have developed an annotated narrative sequence of events which have led from my early writings to its present multi-faceted forms.
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An annotated listing of multi-media presentations developing inter-active narrative elements in the core courses (12 credits).
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MATX601: Texts and Textuality.
Link to Orality. The first seminar multi-media project in the program touches on the relationship between the oral and the written, and carefully examines theoretical approach and its practical renditions in written dialogue, audio and filmic sequence.
Link to Caribbean Culture. This final seminar project illustrates how media culture can transcend boundaries. To a measurable extent, the main and most predominant form of communication among Caribbean peoples -- the English dialects of the Caribbean nations -- has been preserved in the United States, despite overwhelming odds, in so much so that these dialects are visible in the literature, traditions and cultural consciousness and media applications of the English speaking Caribbean immigrants.
Indeed, several theoretical concepts with corresponding illustrative multi-media elements covered in this first semester course were fully explored and amply illustrated in two second semester courses; please refer to links opposite for ENGL624 Caribbean Literature and ENGL630 Form and Theory of Fiction.
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MATX602: History of Media, Art & Text.
Paleolithic Art in Cave Wall Paintings. This dream-like world, punctuated with flickering light, sound and action, at precise moments would have created an energized and electrifying effect for our early ancestors. A number of features have come together. It is not only perspective in creating art, but light and sound must have influenced and encouraged Paleolithic man in creating the atmosphere conducive to narrative and storytelling. In a sense, it could be seen how movies did exist in Paleolithic times; stills, movement, rapid action, all against the backdrop of adventure and thrills. Sound, picture, action! Indeed, the Paleolithic cave then has all the makings of a full-color feature movie!
William Blake: Illustrating the text. William Blake not only did pioneering work in artistic design (poem interleaved with illustrations) but also introduced eighteen century children readers to the true picture book Songs of Innocence. As Blake developed and produced his work he functioned as writer, designer and printer.
Renaissance Art: Narrative elements. This movement has captured world interests with its remarkable true-to-life depictions of human social activities in its paintings, sculptures, architecture and mechanical drawings. The introduction and development of realism and story-telling in Renaissance paintings has forever changed the narrative.
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MATX603: History of Multimedia and Intertextuality.
Charles Dickens: Illustrating the unseen. "The epistemology (idealism and realism) of reading, divided into the historical moment (when readers have seen enough images to pre-visualize the text, a sort of proto-movie-in-the-head) and a more pure psychology (behavior of the mind) of reading”: Charles Dickens, A Case Study.
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MATX604: Production and Application Workshop. Final Project involves creating an audio and animation for one of the stories "The Pumpkin Thieves" (1,800words) from the book The Invincible Brer Anansi. This project successfully brought together elements of oral and written narrative.
Audio Link This project involves the creation of a multi-track recording of narration and voice characterization, and successfully brought to life an original folk-tale with all its oral complexities, into a fulfilling audio recording ripe with lively dialogue and quick, brisk narration in full Caribbean flavor. Indeed, dialogue complements and enhances narration; sometimes the two are so closely intertwined, they are inseparable.
Animation Link A careful study was first undertaken to visualize the main characters with all their habits and mannerisms against the backdrop of a compelling narrative. Here, care was taken to bring out to full rendition an animation true to the original story with exuberance.
