the two peoples no longer exists, and the Soviet flag flutters on the Reichstag. Accordingly, the film Good Bye Lenin! (2003) tells the story of the renewed border dissolution after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Protagonist Alexander Kerner’s mother Christiane, a loyal believer in the communist regime, is bedridden with a heart condition, so Alexander and the family try to conceal the fall of the Berlin Wall because Alexander believes that the shock of learning the truth would kill her.
The most significant event, however, is the extinction of a room: when an entire semantic room is destroyed or disappears. Examples of such events are the sinking of the Titanic, the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars, or the demise of Mordor after the destruction of the One Ring. Mount Doom burns the remaining Nazgûl and covers Mordor with lava with its final eruption. Everything Sauron has built with the power of the One Ring is destroyed, along with its creator. The entire semantic space of tyranny he has erected is destroyed. When socialist rulers, in 1950, demolished the old Berlin City Palace, the resulting worldwide indignation was possibly due to the fact that the destruction of space is perceived as such an important event. The new socialist system, already responsible for a border shift, then destroyed the space of the old order by blowing up an already-damaged building.
Chapter 3 summary:
The space in which the actions and events of a story are portrayed is more than just a stage or a container; it carries meaning and contributes to the production of meaning on a semantic level. This was first described systematically by semiotician Juri Lotman. The setting is thus a semantic field divided into two semantically complementary fields separated by a border. Only the hero of the narrative can overcome this boundary. The two semantic spaces are shaped in topological, topographic, and semantic oppositions. However, a crossing of borders is not a compelling characteristic of every story; semantizations can also be realized without crossing borders, for example through colors, language or the activation of narrative scripts. Media scientist Henry Jenkins calls the latter strategy “evocative spaces.” Space events can also be hierarchized. A border shift or border dissolution is perceived as more significant than a border crossing, a maximally significant event is a destruction of space.
| EXERCISE: | |
| Please describe the semanticization of two opposite spaces in one of your favorite movies. |
4 Binary Narrative Oppositions – Opposites Make Sense
4.1 The Meaning of the Narrative
Are there pointless stories? One may have this impression with so-called “fake news,” or with a surrealistic play. However, narrative science has established that stories should always communicate in a meaningful way. The literary scholar WERNER WOLF, for example, sees the narrative as an essential element which offers meaning for human existence, and even sees stories as the most important contribution to the human quest for meaning. In everyday language, this is reflected in Wilhelm Busch’s dictum of “the moral of the story” or in every literature teacher’s question about the author’s intention. At first glance, this finding may seem trivial. Shouldn’t all communication be meaningful? Even a lexical entry, an instruction manual or a mathematical formula such as a² + b² = c², which represents a basis for calculating the proportions of right-angled triangles, are meaningful communications – but they don’t appear to be narrative. The question arises as to the specific manner in which way narratives produce meaning.
It is, again, Juri Lotman who distinguishes the production of meaning in narrative and scientific texts when he writes:
“Scientific truth exists in one semantic field. Artistic truth exists simultaneously in several fields within their mutual correlation.” (249)
In scientific or instructive texts, such as instruction manuals, unambiguity is key. A mathematical formula should not allow room for interpretation but should communicate a clear calculation method. Artistic or narrative texts, on the other hand, permit an ambiguity from which a reader must first make sense.
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