ABSTRACT

In “Movies, Narration and the Emotions” there is an attempt to suggest the ways in which a certain form of narrative organization, which we can call “erotetic narration,” can be coordinated with the emotional address of the motion picture in terms of what can be called “criterial prefocusing.” On this view, the primary way in which the emotions are engaged is character-directed, the protagonist’s goals providing grounds that generate the narrative questions that the movie goes on to answer.