The Concept of Narrative: An Analysis of Requiem for a Dream(.com) and Donnie Darko(.com

Abstract

This article will discuss the concept of narrative and how this idea has been defined by writers from various academic specialisations such as film studies, literary studies, narratology and new media studies. This initial discussion of how narrative has variously been conceptualised leads to an analysis of several test case examples of 'official' websites from the films Donnie Darko (dir. Richard Kelly II, USA, 2001) and Requiem for a Dream (dir. Darren Aronofsky, USA, 2000), both still available at www.donniedarko.com and www.requiemforadream.com. The issue of establishing narrative in terms of its defining qualities and limits becomes important in assessing whether these particular test case websites qualify as narratives themselves and how they extend, supplement, reorient and supplant the cinematic texts. The analysis will apply various approaches and techniques from film/literary studies and narratology in an in-depth, close reading of the websites and films. In probing cases that are liminal in terms of the boundaries of narrative, the article suggests that some websites and films may be considered types of non-narrative assemblages that however still retain the emotionality and catharsis usually associated with narrative. The affective power of mainstream cinema and other media is usually assumed to be conveyed by patterns of narrative development through an arc-like, three-act structure and a highly-expected, final outcome, but this emotionalism may not be connected to narrative elements themselves. Lastly, the article will explore some of the methodological problems of analysing both film and computer media, as some writers tend to see the latter as ameliorating the supposed deficiencies of the former in way that instantiates and furthers a progressivist ideology and a technological determinism.