WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.400 [Closed Captions] 2 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.700 One set of advanced visualizations available 3 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:13.600 for the texts in Digital Yoknapatawpha is the narrative analysis dashboard. 4 00:00:13.600 --> 00:00:18.500 This is available under visualizations “Narrative Analysis,” 5 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:25.000 The dashboard brings together several different ways to investigate Faulkner’s narratives these include overviews of 6 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:26.366 “Plot Structure,” 7 00:00:26.366 --> 00:00:27.899 “Narrative Status,” 8 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:29.966 “Narrative Progression,” 9 00:00:29.966 --> 00:00:31.899 and “Event Frequency by Date.” 10 00:00:31.900 --> 00:00:38.700 This video covers how each of these charts works, and how they can be used to analyze Faulkner's fiction. 11 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:45.700 You can navigate to each section by using the timestamps in the table of contents. 12 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:47.900 [Function Overview] 13 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:53.800 For ease of use there is a quick reference guide to all of the information under the legend. 14 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:58.800 For a more in-depth view there is an extensive commentary that explains the underlying 15 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:03.900 principles of the narrative theory that was used to design the charts. 16 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:08.033 The dashboard has several interactive features. 17 00:01:08.033 --> 00:01:12.299 First, users can select a text in the drop-down. 18 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:16.100 By default the texts are ordered by publication date, 19 00:01:16.100 --> 00:01:20.600 but they can also be sorted alphabetically by clicking the toggle on the right. 20 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:24.666 Hovering over the data points reveals more information about them. 21 00:01:24.666 --> 00:01:28.732 Clicking on legend entries turns that data series on and off. 22 00:01:28.733 --> 00:01:36.899 Clicking on the camera in the top right frame of each chart will download that chart as a PNG file. 23 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:40.933 The dashboard also allows users to compare up to four texts. 24 00:01:40.933 --> 00:01:45.066 Clicking “add chart” adds a new chart to the viewport. 25 00:01:45.066 --> 00:01:48.232 Users can then select the story they want to compare. 26 00:01:48.233 --> 00:01:54.199 The additional charts for each story can be retrieved by clicking “additional insights.” 27 00:01:54.200 --> 00:02:02.500 The new charts can also be deleted, and leaving only one chart returns the dashboard to its default display. 28 00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:05.100 [Plot Structure] 29 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:09.166 The main display shows the plot structure of each story. 30 00:02:09.166 --> 00:02:14.999 The plot structure is calculated by comparing the order of events in the story on the vertical axis 31 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.900 with the order in which those events are told on the horizontal axis. 32 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.600 If an event in a story happens later, it is higher up. 33 00:02:23.600 --> 00:02:28.200 Conversely, if an event happens earlier, it is lower down. 34 00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:31.400 In the story displayed here, “Retreat,” 35 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:35.900 we see that the events go up as the chart goes across. 36 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:39.700 This indicates that a story is told in the order that it happens. 37 00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:41.166 It is very linear. 38 00:02:41.166 --> 00:02:44.899 Faulkner rarely has linear narratives though. 39 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:49.933 This is why first-time readers of “A Rose for Emily” can find it challenging. 40 00:02:49.933 --> 00:02:53.399 The story opens with its ending: Emily's death. 41 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:56.200 Even though this is one of the first events in the story, 42 00:02:56.200 --> 00:02:59.700 it actually happens much later in the chronology. 43 00:02:59.700 --> 00:03:03.400 That is why the event is high up on the vertical axis. 44 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:09.000 Meanwhile, the death of Emily's father is an event that happens very early in the chronology, 45 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 but is told to the reader in the middle of the story. 46 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.500 It is very far down on the vertical axis. 47 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:19.600 The different ups and downs on the chart are all indicative of moving back 48 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:25.800 and forward through the chronology, and represent flash forwards and flashbacks. 49 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:30.600 We can intuit from this chart that “A Rose for Emily” is not very linear. 50 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:36.600 One question we can ask is why Faulkner decided to tell this story in such a scattered fashion. 51 00:03:36.600 --> 00:03:42.000 Is the fragmentation the result of the townspeople patching the story together through gossip? 52 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.300 Did the narrative jumps prevent us from seeing Emily as a full person? 53 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:52.600 In the default mode, the plot structure chart is represented through “Rank Order.” 54 00:03:52.600 --> 00:03:58.600 This means that all events have been given a chronological number and ordered by that number. 55 00:03:58.600 --> 00:04:04.500 This does not take into consideration the date of an event. 56 00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:08.700 Clicking “Date Order,” orders events by the approximate date range during which they happen in the story. 57 00:04:08.700 --> 00:04:12.933 Because not all dates in the story could be precisely determined, 58 00:04:12.933 --> 00:04:18.899 the editors entered them as a range of earliest possible date and latest possible date. 59 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:23.400 Looking at the “Date Order” chart, we see a similar pattern emerge. 60 00:04:23.400 --> 00:04:31.500 The story starts in 1924 and skips back to 1850 at the earliest, and then returns to the 1920s. 61 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:38.933 The chart highlights how much of the story is actually about a period several generations preceding Emily's death. 62 00:04:38.933 --> 00:04:41.599 Told from the perspective of the present, 63 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:46.300 to what extent is this a story about the values of the past? 64 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:52.200 It is interesting to compare the plot structure of “A Rose for Emily” to other stories. 65 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:56.600 In comparison to “Retreat,” the story is far more nonlinear, 66 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:01.200 but in comparison to a highly experimental novel, like Absalom, Absalom!, 67 00:05:01.200 --> 00:05:03.333 it is probably a little easier to read. 68 00:05:03.333 --> 00:05:06.399 The difference between the different charts, 69 00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:12.100 highlights just how much Faulkner reinvented his writing with each new work. 70 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:14.600 [Narrative Status] 71 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:18.500 Each event in the text has been coded with a narrative status. 72 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:22.000 This is the way in which that part of the story is conveyed. 73 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.466 The categories include 74 00:05:24.466 --> 00:05:25.732 “narrated,” 75 00:05:25.866 --> 00:05:27.366 “remembered,” 76 00:05:27.366 --> 00:05:28.199 “told,” 77 00:05:28.200 --> 00:05:30.000 “hypothesized,” 78 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.900 and the special category “narrated + consciousness.” 79 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:40.300 A novel like the Sound and the Fury, uses all five different ways of telling the story. 80 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:43.600 We can note just how much of this novel is remembered, 81 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:47.600 and that suggests that the past is always present. 82 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:53.500 Hovering over each pie piece will give more information on that particular narrative status. 83 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:58.300 For “A Rose for Emily” there is only one narrative status: “narrated.” 84 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:02.400 This too was a conscious choice on Faulkner's part, and perhaps his reason 85 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:10.100 for doing so was to lock Emily's life into one narrow perspective: that of the townspeople. 86 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:12.100 [Narrative Progression] 87 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:15.000 The “Narrative Progression” chart shows how many jumps backward 88 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:16.600 and forward the text makes. 89 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:19.800 This is a different representation of the information 90 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:24.100 in the plot structure chart that makes it easier to understand how linear 91 00:06:24.100 --> 00:06:28.800 or non-linear a story is compared to other Faulkner texts. 92 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:32.200 For example, in comparison to “A Rose for Emily” 93 00:06:32.200 --> 00:06:36.900 the story “Ambuscade” is far more linear. 94 00:06:36.900 --> 00:06:39.600 [Event Frequency by Date] 95 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.600 “The Event Frequency by Date” chart gives an overview of 96 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:49.400 when most of the events in the story take place and also measures the total time span of a story. 97 00:06:49.400 --> 00:06:54.900 This chart is useful in determining what historical period is more frequent in the story. 98 00:06:54.900 --> 00:06:59.200 For “A Rose for Emily” this period is around the 1880s. 99 00:06:59.200 --> 00:07:04.100 This is when her father dies, and when Homer Barron mysteriously disappears. 100 00:07:04.100 --> 00:07:07.200 Thus, even though the story is narrated from the present, 101 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:11.200 most of the important events take place in the past. 102 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:16.800 The four different charts display the same text from different, sometimes contradictory perspectives. 103 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:22.200 Looking at the charts for “A Rose for Emily,” the dashboard suggest that this is a nonlinear 104 00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:26.600 story spanning 74 years that begins with its ending. 105 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:29.200 It is conveyed to the reader through a narrator, 106 00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:32.333 and the majority of its events are in the 1880s. 107 00:07:32.333 --> 00:07:37.333 Taken together, these insights point us to the two major events of this period: 108 00:07:37.333 --> 00:07:38.899 the death of her father, 109 00:07:38.900 --> 00:07:41.600 and her relationship with Homer Barron. 110 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.800 We may wonder how Emily's relationship with 111 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:48.666 and subsequent loss of her father shaped her relationship with Homer Barron. 112 00:07:48.666 --> 00:07:53.999 In turn, we could also ask why Homer Barron had an interest in Emily in the first place. 113 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Was the boisterous and social, migrant laborer, Homer, genuinely in love with Emily, a demure recluse? 114 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Or did he simply cast eyes upon her 115 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.300 because she was a grieving, rich, single woman without an eligible suitor in town? 116 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:14.500 Was she interested in Homer because her father would have disapproved of him? 117 00:08:14.500 --> 00:08:17.200 Would he have ever married Emily? 118 00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:22.100 Or was this simply a temporary flirtation that Emily saw as something more? 119 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.300 These are some of the possible questions that come to 120 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:29.666 mind when visiting and revisiting one of falkner's timeless classics.