Lukasa - Types

Types

Narratives occur in a space and unfold in time. In narrative art, the artist chooses how to portray the story, represent the space, and how to shape time within the artwork. Narrative art can be categorized into various types, also known as modes or styles. A piece of artwork is not limited to only one type of narrative. An artwork may have a narrative type as a whole, as well as portions of the artwork itself that depict separate types of narratives.

• Simultaneous Narrative
• Monoscenic Narrative
• Continuous Narrative
• Synoptic Narrative
• Panoptic Narrative
• Progressive Narrative
• Sequential Narrative
• Layered Narrative

It important to understand that landscape is not the same as a “place” or “scene”. A depicted action in itself can suggest a different scene or setting. The quote below is a good explanation of this way of understanding scenes in narrative artwork.

You can imagine the Trojan War taking place at Troy without having to depict the actual city of Troy.

You can show Achilles dragging Hector’s body around the city of Troy without having to depict the

walls of the city. Nonetheless, the idea that each action is limited to a specific place can still pertain,

because the Trojan War did take place at Troy and Achilles did drag Hector’s body around the city. —