Major

Communication Studies

Advisor

Martha Waitkun

Advisor Department

Communication Studies

Date

1-2017

Keywords

Fischer; Narrative Paradigm; third-wave feminism; bridal

Abstract

Walter Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm states that people are natural born storytellers, they will convey thoughts and feelings through creating a story. These stories must adhere to two principles, fidelity and coherence. While coherence addresses the structure of the narrative, if this story has any resemblance to an archetype, fidelity deals with the story’s rationality, does it make sense? Fischer’s narrative can be applied across many different disciplines.

For this particular analysis I chose to apply Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm to different bridal narratives. While being a bride is an archetype itself, within that narrative there are distinct themed narratives that have their own specific key elements, each having their own coherence and fidelity. Each specific narrative was compared against the same standards in order to assess the coherence and fidelity. In addition to Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm I chose to explore Feminist Theory. I wanted to see how feminist theory has evolved and changed along with the evolution of women, their voices, their opinions, and their rights. More specifically I looked at third-wave feminism; a woman’s right to choices.

Feminist theory also addresses how gender roles are created; these roles are perpetuated by fairytales that are passed down from generation to generation. These fairytales create archetypes that brides try to recreate with their freedom of specific choices; these choices are then filtered by fidelity and coherence thus explained by Walter Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm.

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