[Online] GGS Teaching Assistantship Programme: Narrative and Advertisement: The Magic and Power of Storytelling!

This workshop is part of the GGS Teaching Assistantship Programme 2021.

Content

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. [Storytellers set] the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation to come” – Steve Jobs.

Narration is an anthropological human competence widely used and studied in literature and cultural studies. In fact, the internal structure of fairy tales, novels, or movies have been replicated in other narrative scenarios because such structure underlies complex characteristics that connect us with others and our surroundings on an emotional level. Have you ever wondered why we like particular characters in movies or TV shows, or why we felt appealed to speakers such as Steve Jobs or Elon Musk? It is due to the power and magic of storytelling.    

Just recently, as a form to organize, comprehend and interact with the world, narrative has attracted attention in different areas of life. Advertisement is not alien to it. But what is the underlying appealing features of narrative and storytelling that captivate us? In this workshop, we will discuss what narration is, its importance nowadays, its main characteristics, and finally we will analyze some YouTube videos that use narration in a multimodal fashion to advertise products. You will self-discover underlying features of the narrative toolbox in advertisement to show realities from different perspectives in order to draw audiences in.

Further information is available in the syllabus.