Family Trees & Timelines 2

Family Trees & Timelines 1

Just a small collection of nice family trees and timelines.

Some definition

I thought it was probably time I put a definition up here. I've come across a lot of definitions of narratives but this one seemed the most appropriate.

A narrative can be defined as a sequence of events deliberately arranged to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance*. Academic Marie-Laure Ryan has proposed that there are three main elements that qualify a text as a narrative:

'A narrative text must create a world and populate it with characters and objects.... The world referred to by the text must undergo changes of state that are caused by non-habitual physical events ...The text must allow the reconstruction of an interpretative network of goals, plans, casual relations, and psychological motivations around the narrated events."

The 'pregnant moment'

In discussing pictorial narratives there is one big question — and that is whether you can tell a story in one picture. One technique is as German writer Gotthold Ephraim-Lessing described it, 'a pregnant moment'. The pregnant moment technique is when one image encompasses a variety of situations and events seemingly happening at the same time. Often this moment in time is representing the climax of a well known story, and the technique is most commonly used in painting. Academic Emma Kafalenos states that Lessing's 'pregnant moment' is as valid as a sequential narrative because "we ask ourselves what has happened, what is about to occur, and where we are in the sequence of a narrative." 'When thinking of Kafelenos' description, I can't help but think of James Jean's sketchbooks. Although they aren't a traditional moment in a well-known myth or story, I see a moment in time and can't help but be curious of the full story.

2D motion

I got a bit excited when I saw this book. I remember being enthralled with them as a kid and I've loved seeing the card version floating around lately. This is a great example of how motion can feature in a '2D' form (and therefore graphic surfaces can feature a moving narrative).

Triptych

"[In the past] narrative pictures had an essential cultural function to perform: they inscribed stories permanently for those who could not read.'
M.L.Ryan

Temporal sequence?