Researcher ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-5176-0654
Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Media Studies
Reader 1
Kim-Trang Tran
Reader 2
Ryan Engley
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2022 Alejandra L Blackmore
Abstract
This thesis explores how popular narrative structures imply that our reality should be stagnant, thereby leaving us as viewers unprepared for the notion of change. I introduce the term “narrative permanence” as a story structure that assumes the foundations of a narrative are absolute. These stories therefore consider structural change as a threat or abnormal. I analyzed examples such as The Simpsons and news coverage of the BP oil spill to demonstrate how popular media frames change as an unnatural occurrence that must be neutralized. My thesis then culminated in an animated short about a person living in a seaside town that’s been abandoned due to extreme weather. The protagonist’s struggle to maintain their lifestyle in an ever-changing landscape challenges narrative permanence by making structural change the foundation of the narrative, while a desire to remain stagnant is the obstacle that must be overcome.
Recommended Citation
Blackmore, Alejandra Louise, "Seaglass: An Animated Rejection of Narrative Permanence" (2022). Scripps Senior Theses. 1815.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1815
Included in
Fiction Commons, Film Production Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Television Commons
