Volume 17, Issue 66 (2024)                   LCQ 2024, 17(66): 245-295 | Back to browse issues page


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Nekoei R, goodarzi nezhad A, SHIRKAVAND V. The Scope of Story Information in the Short Story “Woolen Jacket” and Its Adaptation for Television. LCQ 2024; 17 (66) :245-295
URL: http://lcq.modares.ac.ir/article-29-72613-en.html
1- Shiraz university , nekoeireza@yahoo.com
2- ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY SARVESTAN BRANCH
3- ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY BOINZAHRA BRANCH
Abstract:   (2805 Views)
In verbal and televised narratives, the scope of story information has an important role in holding the readers’ or viewers’ attention. The writers of this article use a comparative method to compare and contrast the scope of story information and the way the attention of the readers and viewers is held in Hooshang Moradi Kermani’s short story, “Woolen Jacket”, and its adaptation for television, “Jacket”, directed by Kioumars Pour-Ahmad, based on the narratological theory of Robert McKee. The findings of the research reveal that the type of focalization in the short story “Woolen Jacket” is internal or inside view, which results in the dominance of the element of suspense in the story. In order to create a diversity in the scope of story information and make the narrative more attractive, this type of focalization employs the element of mystery, too. This is accomplished with the help of techniques such as flashforward, internal narrative, ellipsis, etc. In this process, surprise also helps the mystery, since every time the internal focalizer and the reader are surprised, the mystery of the story develops. The TV adaptation of the story is also narrated from the perspective of a dominant internal focalizer. The only difference is that a large part of the film is dedicated to the focalization of other actants, which results in the increase of the number of the actants in the film and, consequently, highlights the significance of giving attention to the presence of others and the different discourses in the narrative. These discourses usually enter the film by the use of the technique of internal narration which leads to the development of the element of mystery. The element of suspense is only combined with the element of mystery in a verbal narrative; however, in the film, given the affordances of the camera and the creativity of the director for enriching the narrative, the element of suspense is combined with both the element of mystery and dramatic irony. Also, powerful instances of suspense and surprise are created as a result of the accompaniment of the events with music and their representation in a multidimensional way from different angles. In this form of narrative, we experience more sympathy and affinity with the internal focalizer. As a result, we can conclude that the TV adaptation of the story has made use of various and more complex multimedia possibilities and techniques for distributing story information and holding the viewers’ attention.
Introduction
The scope of story information in the plot creates a narrative information hierarchy which might be different in any particular story or movie. At any given moment, we may ask whether the reader or the viewer has more, less or the same amount of information than the story’s focalizers. The manipulation of the scope of information in the story may have significant influences on the way the reader’s or the viewer’s attention is attracted (see Bordwell & Thompson 1997: 85). McKee believes that a writer or a director can make use of three ways to distribute the narrative information in the story or the film and create a relationship between the reader or the viewer with the work: mystery, suspense and dramatic irony. These techniques determine the relationship between the reader or the viewer with the story. This relationship changes, of course, concomitant with the process of revelations for attracting attention.
In mystery, the reader or the viewer knows less than the focalizers. Mystery is divided into closed and open mystery. Open mystery is the Columbo format in which the reader or the viewer witnesses the crime and knows who the murderer is. In suspense, the reader or the viewer and the focalizers have the same amount of narrative information. In dramatic irony, the reader or the viewer knows more than the focalizers.

Literature Review
The story collection Qesse-hay-e Majid (Majid’s Tales) by Houshang Moradi Kermani has always attracted the attention of researchers of children’s literature for different reasons. For example, Sam-Khaniani and Mousavinia (2014), Hashemian and Rajabi Hamedani (2016), Binazir (2018), Alavi and Qanbari (2018) and Sadrzadeh and his colleagues (2022) have conducted researches about the stories in this collection.
However, Kiumars Pourahmad’s television adaptation of one of the stories, “The Woolen Jacket”, has not yet enjoyed as much attention as the book. Rasouli (2015) is arguably the only researcher who has explained its type of adaptation. The present article, then, is of great significance since there has not been any independent research on the scope of story information in the short story “Jakat-e Pashmi” (“The Woolen Jacket”), its television adaptation or any other story or film for that matter.

Research Objectives and Questions
The main focus of the present article is the scope of story information and the comparison of the way the reader’s or the viewer’s attention is attracted and kept in the short story “The Woolen Jacket” from the story collection Majid’s Tales by Houshang Moradi Kermani (1979) and its adaptation into a television film, Jacket, directed by Kiumars Pourahmad (1990) based on Rober McKee’s narratological theory.
The research tries to find answers to the following questions: 1) What methods are used in the plot of the short story “The Woolen Jacket” and its television adaptation for attracting the attention of the reader and the viewer? 2) What are the similarities and differences in the techniques of attracting the reader’s or the viewer’s attention in the short story “The Woolen Jacket” and its television adaptation?

Methodology
This research uses a comparative study method based on Robert McKee’s narratological theory. First, the short story “The Woolen Jacket” and its television adaptation were divided into their various constituent plot elements and simultaneously, their scope of story information was analyzed and the ways for attracting the reader’s or the viewer’s attention were studied. Then, by comparing the similarities and differences between the two, the reasons behind the differences in the ways of attracting the reader’s or the viewer’s attention are identified. It is the contention of the authors of the present article that the television adaptation makes use of more diverse and complex techniques for distributing the story information and attracting the attention of the viewers, thanks to the multimedia possibilities such as artificial light and shadows, identifiable sounds and images and dramatic acts in comparison with textual possibilities.

Conclusion
The researchers found out that there are a number of techniques in the distribution of narrative information which determine the relationship between the reader or the viewer and the story. These techniques change concomitant with the writer’s or the director’s method of attracting the attention. There are significant similarities and differences in these techniques based on the dominant focalizer in the story and its narrative affordances. First, we observed that the focalizer in the short story “The Woolen Jacket” is internal which, because of the similarity of the amount of narrative information of the readers and himself, makes the element of suspense dominant in the story. For creating diversity in the scope of story information and the attractiveness of the narrative, this focalizer makes use of the element of mystery along with such techniques as flashforward, internal narrative, ellipsis, etc. Another dominant technique used by this focalizer is surprise which adds to the mysteries of the story. Also, due to the spatial limitation of this focalizer, there is no dramatic irony in the story. On the other hand, we observed that in the television adaptation, a major section of the time of the film is dedicated to the focalization of other actants. Although in the verbal narrative the element of suspense is only combined with the element of mystery, in the film, the element of suspense is combined with both elements of mystery and dramatic irony, thanks to the affordances of the camera and the creativity of the director. In other words, the camera provides the opportunity to go to places in which the internal focalizer cannot be present. Also, we can see the events with sounds and music and from various angles in a multidimensional way, which create more powerful suspense and surprises. Therefore, it can be said that the television adaptation makes use of more diverse and complex affordances and multimedia techniques for distributing the story information and keeping the viewers’ attention.
 
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Article Type: Original Research | Subject: Child literature
Received: 2023/11/24 | Accepted: 2024/09/8 | Published: 2024/08/31

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