narrative

Saturday night at the American Ballet Theater's performance of Giselle, I had this strange realization. Sitting patiently in Lincoln Center for the performance to begin, I was reading the description of the ballet when it donned on me -- I know EXACTLY what is going to happen! For some reason it had not occurred to me previously that the handouts they give you in ballets and operas disclose the entire story, in effect removing any sense of surprise or shock from the narrative. The point, I suppose, is so that you can understand the gestures and some of the actions without taking away too much attention from the amazing acrobatic feats of the graceful dancers. At times, the story stops completely and you are watching a series of impossible leaps, twirls, and lifts. It's all really breath-taking.

But then I got to wonder about how this full-disclosure of all narrative elements differs from films and other forms of visual art. I guess this type of non-sensical interruption happens in musicals, where the narrative stops and suddenly a full-on dance number is performed. But even then, the song might either advance the narrative or comment on the situation at hand. Other films certainly reject this idea of telling the story and in fact rely on the excitement of the unknown.

Now I'm trying to think about painting and sculpture -- arts that aren't traditionally "durational," even though scholars love to theorize about the temporal aspects of painting and sculpture. Was it Clement Greenberg who juxtaposed theater and visual arts? I'm not sure -- someone important certainly faulted Minimalism for becoming nothing but a stage prop. The narrative of a painting or sculpture is something different entirely. I mean, does a figurative scene necessarily contain a narrative? Does a still-life? How about an Abstract Expressionist canvas? If so, how do we experience the narrative? Do we know it in advance (perhaps from the wall tag or text in a book)? Do we experience it simultaneously to apprehending the image? I guess I'm mostly thinking about the space between text, image, time, and place, and how we experience something differently if the narrative expectation is removed or upended.