An Integrated Approach to Narrative Generation: From Mishima and Kabuki to Narrative Generation Systems

Introduction

The objective of this chapter, as a whole, is to introduce and outlook the composition of the author’s narrative generation studies, which incorporates fundamental considerations, narrative research and analysis, system design and development, and narrative generation practice. However, because Ogata (2016a) stated the fundamental considerations in detail, that part is omitted in this chapter. This chapter comprehensively describes the range from the narrative research and analysis to the system design and development as a continuous organically-integrated research. Part of narrative research and analysis corresponds to the study of a kind of narrative communication and, in particular, this theme especially researches and analyzes the problems of characters and stories contained in a novel by Yukio Mishima and kabuki (Ogata, 2016b). On the other hand, the system design and development corresponds to the study of narrative generation or a kind of narrative simulation and, in this chapter, the author particularly conducts narrative simulations using the Integrated Narrative Generation System (INGS) and the Geinō Information System (GIS) explained in Chapter 1. Both narrative communication and narrative simulation are central concepts or terms in this book. Although the author’s study in particular aims to practically develop and distribute real narrative works produced by narrative generation systems themselves or the interactions or collaborations in diverse methods between narrative generation systems and humans, this chapter introduces the process up until the phase before the abovementioned final goal by using partial materials.

The central part of this chapter is composed of the “BACKGROUND,” five subsequent sections, and finally, the continuation into “FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS” and “CONCLUSION.” The middle five parts are as follows:

In the first section, “NARRATIVE ANALYSES FOR DIVERSE NARRATIVE PHENOMENA AND ELEMENTS: A NARRATIVE GENERATION PERSPECTIVE,” the author shows various results acquired through previous narrative analyses and lists future directions. In particular, the main purpose of these narrative analyses is not the reading and interpretation of works. Generally speaking, a main goal of narrative analyses in literary studies has been to read and interpret works, and diverse methods and theories were developed toward correct readings and interpretations, further novel and amazing ones. Narrative analyses sometimes explore the structure and representation of a narrative text themselves and, at other times, study the environment and context surrounding a text. By contrast, a chief purpose of the author’s narrative analyses here is not in reading and interpreting the text, but gaining implications for the design of narrative generation mechanisms and the development of systems. Consequently, the results will be related to the design and development of narrative generation systems.

The second section is “AN ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BY YUKIO MISHIMA: THE NOVEL AS A PLURAL APPARATUS AND A TEXT ANALYSIS BASED ON THE CHARACTERS.” In this section, using a medium-length novel, Gogo no Eikō [The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea] (1963) by Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), the author researches and analyzes in detail the actions and thoughts of the main characters to make clear that the reality in this novel is created through the actions and thoughts of various characters and the mutual relations. The present step of this research and analysis indicate that, in the story generation mechanism in INGS, the story generation functions created by each character, in addition to the author’s story generation function, must be added to the story generation mechanism that has been modeled as the function of author as a whole.