2. Gospel Grand Narrative
Nearly every story
mirrors Christ's sacrifice
or the prodigal’s
return home.
I call this ‘Holy’ subtext.
3. Biblical Sin/disease
Meta-Narrative enters the
Paradise
Paradigm world.
Paradise is The
restored Some villains live Hook/Fall
for the sequel
Separation
from the
Showdown In most narratives,
the hero risks his father
or 1st Adam
life to find the cure as Orphan
Sacrifice that will restore
paradise.
1st Adam
Act 2 is filled 2nd Adam Most stories
as
with suspense as Martyr combine the 1st
Wanderer
like being and 2nd Adam, as
chased, keeping Enter 2nd most stories are
secrets, and Adam as parables of the
racing against Warrior grand narrative.
time.
4. Absentation
The grand narrative on the previous slide has
also been called the Absentation structure or
the orphan model.
Here are some more examples. In
popular films and television.
5. Prince of Persia Once upon a time there
(2010) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Model Things were
Thankfully
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
6. Pirates of the Once upon a time there
Caribbean (2003) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Model Things were
Thankfully
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
7. Batman Begins Once upon a time there
(2005) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Model Things were
Thankfully
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
8. Hunger Games Once upon a time there
(2012) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Thankfully
Model Things were
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
9. The Avengers Once upon a time there
(2012) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Model Things were
Thankfully
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
10. Spider-man Once upon a time there
(2002) was a lonely orphan…
..who was
And everyone
friends with
lives Happily
The social
ever after
outcasts.
End
Orphan
Model Things were
Thankfully
[hero] defeats good until the
[villain] with evil…
a…
Parables
…tried to take over… Today
Consulting
11. Meta-narrative
This concept of story telling
was widely accepted in
western society until
Lyotard and the book The
Postmodern Condition.
13. Meta-narrative
• Within the narrative purview of literature,
Lyotard defines the postmodern condition as a
rebellion against the grand narrative idea.
15. Meta-narrative
The rebellion to
grand narrative was
happening parallel
to Campbell and
Vogler developing
evidence for cultural
and film mono-myth
theory.
16. 1. Ordinary
Act 3 12. Return World Act 1
with Elixir 2. Call to
Return adventure Separation
3. Refusing
11. Climax, the Call
Showdown Classic mono-myth 4. Meeting
Mentor
structure
Known World
10. The Unknown World 5. Crossing
the
Road Back
threshold
6. Testing
9. Reward
7. Approach
Act 2B 8. Central Act 2A
Ordeal,
Initiation rebirth Decent
17. Meta-narrative
People gravitated to the postmodern view
mostly for political reasons.
70’s and 80’s were the ‘me’ generation.
Now it is the ‘we’ generation.
18. Meta-narrative
Funnily enough, Lyotard later admitted that he
had fabricated a significant amount of research
to validate the theories he posited in his book.
He even referenced a number of books that
never existed.
21. Meta-narrative
For more detail
into this story
check out this book.
Specifically
pages 24-27.
22. Meta-narrative
With the rapid spread of
technology, postmodernism
has been eclipsed by
transmodernism.
We are all literally connected;
narrative and all. Even with
rebellion, this shift has caused
more people to return to
meta-narrative theory.
23. Meta-narrative
According to
Walter R. Fisher,
human communication
is storytelling
and we are all telling
the same story.
24. Meta-narrative
According to Richardson,
there is evidence that
the same gospel
meta-narrative was
embedded in every culture
before missionaries
met them.
25. Meta-narrative
For example,
the Chinese word
for righteousness can
literally be translated
into he who is
under the lamb.
27. Meta-narrative
Chinese culture
also tells the
grand narrative
through Shang Ti.
28. Meta-narrative
In Korea, the name
used for the one true
God in their version
of the Grand
narrative is Hananim.
29. Meta-narrative
These stories of
‘the one true God’
predate
Confucianism,
Toaism and Buddhism
by an unknown
number of centuries.
30. Meta-narrative
C.S. Lewis was an
atheist most of his
life but, as a professor
of literature, he became
fascinated with all of
the ‘dying God’ myths
in the ancient
pagan cultures.
31. Meta-narrative
Tolkien explained
to him that all
these myths reflected
the ‘true myth’
(or grand narrative)
found in the gospel.
32. Meta-narrative
“Pagan stories are God expressing Himself
through the minds of poets, using such
images as He found there, while
-J.R.R. Tolkien .
Christianity is God expressing Himself
through what we would call real things”
33. Meta-narrative
The apostle Paul
makes a similar case
at Mars Hill
when he referenced
the altar dedicated to
the ‘Unknown God.’
34. About 400 years before Paul steps on the scene
there were three alters in that place, all
dedicated to the one Unknown God.
35. There was a plague in the land and a prophet
suggested that there is a God above the other
Gods that may be able to deliver them.
36. When Paul steps on the scene he was simply
reminding them of Gospel meta-narrative that
was already embedded in their culture.
37. The ones who stayed and listened to him were a
part of that culture.
38. The ones who left were not, they were visiting.
So his references did not mean much to them.
39. Christians have a model, here in scripture, to
apply a meta-narrative/grand narrative theory
to present-day film and television culture.
Notes de l'éditeur
Ed Tylor, the father of anthropology, had apparent negative feelings towards religion, and especially Christianity. He devised an evolutionary theory as to how theology developed; it has gone unchallenged for decades. [The postmodern theory of competing narratives came out of this flawed view of various cultures] He claimed that cultures go from animism to polytheism and finally end with monotheism. Unfortunately, the Church bought into Tylor’s logic about religious evolution but the truth is that most cultures around the world began with the belief in the one true God, the creator. Endnotes Don Richardson, Eternity in their Hearts (Ventura: Regal Books, 2005), 55.
He goes on to say that missionaries are able to bring clarity to of the gospel message but the message, the narrative, was already there. Everyone is telling the same story.
