Organizing multi-dimensional stories - 2023 12 11

 

My approach to storytelling is Incorporating narratology, multimodal theory, new media studies, interactive theory, Internet studies, social media studies, and statistics to produce and disseminate short, concise, blog posts that interweave visual imagery, research knowledge and quotidian anecdotes. This approach is designed to activate multiple points of engagement in the reader, to set up a reading experience that activates the reader's dialogic imagination, their unique interpretation and meaning making of the individual components in the blog post, but also the complex emergence of meaning through the juxtaposition of the different, unfolding parts of the story.

Each day I am faced with an impossible complex of requirements, responses, and emerging outcomes. I am looking after my Mom. I am socially and professionally isolated. I am driven to make sense of my experience. I am required to show up every day, every hour, to attend to the needs of my frail elder Mom. I spend the majority of my hours helping Mom, or in solitude. If I don't make sense of this day-to-day demand and reality, I can easily tip into a state of overwhelm. Every morning I wake up and start another day - looking after Mom, looking after myself, and finding meaning in the experience to inspire my efforts.

"nar·ra·tol·o·gy /ˌnerəˈtäləjē/ noun 1. the branch of knowledge or literary criticism that deals with the structure and function of narrative and its themes, conventions, and symbols. Narratee: The figure of discourse to whom a story is told by the narrator. Narrative: Semiotic representation of a sequence of events, meaningfully connected by time and cause. Narratology: The systematic study of narratives in order to understand their structure (how they work) and function (what they are for). Wikipedia Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception.[1] It is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov (Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969).[2] Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp (Morphology of the Folktale, 1928), and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in The Dialogic Imagination (1975).  Cognitive narratology is a more recent development that allows for a broader understanding of narrative. Rather than focus on the structure of the story, cognitive narratology asks ""how humans make sense of stories"" and ""how humans use stories as sense-making instruments"".[3]"

Each day I make sense of the story that brought me to this moment, to this day, to this circumstance. I make sense of the narrative arc that is my life story, and the overlap of my life story arc with the life story arc of my Mom. I make sense of my connection to my Mom and the significant events of our shared lives. Mom's narrative arc covers 93 years and counting. My narrative arc covers almost 68 years and counting.

My task of writing multi-layered and multi-duration narrative arcs is based on a relational concept of language. In this conception, I draw from the work of Bakhtin, as elucidated in "The Dialogic Imagination". Bakhtin conceived language as a complex reflection of centrifugal forces that seek to keep things apart, and centripetal forces that seek to make things cohere. Bakhtin did not consider these forces a duality, rather he was interested in the making of meaning from language as a process of meaning-making, rather than a conveyor of static information. Similarly, my layering of narrative arcs within each dispatch conjures meanings through the relationships of images and texts, and the internal associations they conjure in the reader.

Each day I make sense of this new reality. My mother is living with me and intends to 'let nature take it's course' to die in my home. I have never done this before and my day to day life is made up of uncounted decisions that give Mom the best quality of life I can, while, at the same time, preparing for the moment when I walk in her room and she is no longer breathing. I write, draw, paint, and sing songs to help myself make sense of this experience and accept what grace I can find to meet the needs.

Bakhtin said that language, beyond formal linguistics, is also stratified by socio-ideological positions: languages belong to professions, genres, generations ... language is alive and spreads wider and penetrates deeper in the process of becoming. My multi-layered narrative arcs include my history of professional language: social science, project management, visual art, education, digital technology studies.

My layers of narrative include Mom's schizophrenic verbalizations inflected with moderate dementia. They include discussing Mom's wishes to have MAID available to her if she needs it with the palliative care nurse. They include the breezy greetings and discussions about Mom's health with the caregiver who gave her shower today. They include multiple members of family, all who bring their own personal, historical, and contemporary interpretations of family relationships, in particular, now, at Christmas time.

Multidimensional storytelling does not quite capture the multi-layered and multi-duration long arc stories of interleaving lifetimes. Narratology provides a way to organize the structure of the storytelling I am attempting at this time. The essays of Michail Bakhtin from the Dialogic Imagination provide a way to understand language and meaning making as a process of becoming that is constantly re-interpreted depending on the position of the reader.

Mom has gone to lay down to nap until bedtime. As she winds down, I hear her recite a series of words that I can never remember what they were after their utterance. The only way I can know what they were is to capture a recording and transcribe it. Her use of language is other-worldly. When I try to make sense of it I feel unmoored, disoriented. This is the story of this time in my life and Mom's life. It needs to be told.

Spinelli, Simona. “Multidimensional Storytelling: An Analytical Framework for Digital, Interactive and Transmedia Narratives,” n.d.

Dictionary.com - narratology Wikipedia - narratology

Bakhtin, Michail Michajlovič, Michael Holquist, Caryl Emerson. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. 18. paperback printing. University of Texas Press Slavic Series 1. Austin, Tex: Univ. of Texas Press, 2011.