The Evolution of Narratives

By Eloise Preston

"The different ways by which language contributes toward the making of place may be shown by exploring a wide range of situations and cultural contexts” (Tuan, 1991). The statement that Tuan makes is a perfect example of how culture and place play a large role in the development of language. Day by day, we as a society are evolving and trends come and go, our generation experiences this first hand as we are known as a very tech savvy oriented generation. Just like fashion, interior design, multi media, communication networks and electronic goods our current social media platforms are destined to either advance into something better or made redundant. But the real underlying questions are where does it all go? Do our photos, statuses  and tweets simply disappear? Are they stored away as an archive somewhere online? Or will they be transformed into products of entertainment for future generations? 

 “Even fictional stories can reflect the ways the author sees and experiences the world” ( Kuttainen, 2015),  this statement is illustrates how much power the author holds, and that based on their own personal experiences, cultures and morals they can easily influence the audience's perspective. An example of how narratives evolve is the stories told the Grimm Brothers, before these tales were modernised, they were a story that had a underpinning historical representation of the culture of that certain time and place. In our today's time and place they have been altered and are now an entertainment source for children, this gives us a clear indication of how language can easily be manipulated in order to satisfy the current culture. 

Nowadays, social media receives lots of criticism claiming it is negatively influencing our lives. Arguably, one could say that social media is simply another contemporary platform for creating personalised narratives similarly to the way the Grimm Brothers produced their stories. I definitely believe that over time, the images we upload on Instagram, the statuses we share on Facebook and the tweets we post on Twitter will inevitably be changed by our future generations to merge with their new cultures whilst still having an underlying reference to our own time and place. 

References: 

Kuttainen, V (2015) Week 5 Lecture Slides, Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au 

Tuan, Y,(1991) Language and the making of place: A narrative descriptive approach. Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/Conc-camcontent-bb_bb60/items/getitem.jsp?as_course_code=14-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2&content_id=_1631890_1&course_id=_60553_1&doc_id=30163 

Image Credit:

B, Grimm (2012) Fairy Tales from Brothers Grimm, Retrieved from:https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780141343075/fairy-tales-brothers-grimm