Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Informational Narratology and Automated Content Generation
Takashi Ogata

Department of Software Informatics, Iwate Prefectural University
Takizawa, Iwate, 020-0693, Japan
Yoji Kawamura

Kindai University
Higashi-osaka, Osaka, 577-8502, Japan
Akihito Kanai

Hosei University
Machida, Tokyo, 194-0298, Japan
E-mail: t-ogata@iwate-pu.ac.jp, kawamura@bus.kindai.ac.jp, kanai@hosei.ac.jp

Abstract
Several studies have proposed a concept called “informational narratology” or “information narratology.” In thispaper, we integrate narratological studies, including narratology and various literary theories, into information
technologies, such as artificial intelligence and cognitive science, in order to mainly design and develop systems
that automatically generate, create, or produce digital narrative contents related to a variety of existing or futurenarrative genres. Under this framework, we design and develop narrative generation systems, advertise image
processing systems, and develop narrative film operation systems. In this paper, we present an overview of theconcept of informational narratology, and introduce the above three studies as concrete approaches to its
development.
Keywords: Informational narratology, automated content generation, narrative generation, multiple narrative
structures, integrated narrative generation system.

narrative studies in diverse academic fields including
narratology, literary theories, AI, and cognitive science.
We have performed narrative-related studies fromvarious viewpoints. However, a common outstanding
feature is the objective to integrate narratologicalthemes and materials related to literary theories into
information science and technologies such as AI andcognitive science. For narrative-related studies from theabove perspective, we have proposed a new researchframework and concept called “informational
narratology”
or“information
narratology.”
Informational narratology focuses on the areas ofnarrative generation and creation, and is different fromthe previous or traditional narratology, which focuses on

1. Introduction“Narrative” is one of the most important words in thefields of literature and humanities. Furthermore, it isalso an academic term that is related to wider areas suchas clinical psychology, artificial intelligence (AI), andcognitive science. The concept of the narrative in AI
and cognitive science is used particularly as a kind of
schemata through which a variety of information in anenvironment is synthetically recognized and represented.
Studies of narrative text analysis have also been
attempted using various narrative-relating methods andtechniques. Ogata & Kanai1 and Ogata2 reviewed

Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
227

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

model and narrative production-consumption model,
which are integrated by the next multiple-narrative
structure model, are implemented by the INGS
corresponding to the narrative generation-reception
model and the GIS corresponding to the narrative
production-consumption model.
From the perspectives of the mutual relationship or
inclusive relationship, as well as a larger narrativemodel, narrative production, i.e., the consumption
process, includes the narrative generation-reception
process. Therefore, from a broad perspective, a narrative
as a generation-reception process is constructed by a
production-consumption process. We use the term
“multiplenarrative structure model” to show such
multiple narrative phenomena. In addition, at othervarious levels, the multiple-narrative structures model isa very significant characteristic in narrative phenomena.
According to the above theoretical frameworks,
Ogata aims to develop a practical method of narrative
generation through the collaboration of narrativegeneration systems and humans. At the same time, at alarger social level, he envisions a narrative generationsociety, where diverse narratives are created andreceived through the interaction between humans andmachines, as mutually equivalent existences, although
they have different characteristics and merits,
respectively.

the narrative aspects of reading and interpretation.
Informational narratology also focuses on automatednarrative content generation using computers and AI toutilize the formalized characteristics of narratology.
In this paper, we present an overview of three
approaches to the informational narratology, whichwere developed by the respective authors of this paper,to show the potential and effectiveness of automatednarrative generation. We mainly designed anddeveloped systems that automatically generate, create,
and produce digital narrative contents for several
existing or future genres through narrative
communication and simulation. In particular, we
designed and developed narrative generation systems(Ogata), advertising image processing systems(Kawamura), and narrative film processing systems(Kanai). In this paper, we propose an overview of theabove three systems as mutually related approaches toembody the informational narratology.
2. Theories and Systems of Narrative
Generation by Ogata
Although narrative generation systems called Integrated
Narrative Generation System (INGS)2 and Geino
Information System (GIS)3, which are central parts inthe current work by Ogata, have been designed anddeveloped, they are based on the following theories for
informational narratology.

2.2. Phenomenological Multiplicity of Narrativeand Expanded Literary Theory

2.1. An Overview

Ogata’s plan is based primarily on considering anarrative phenomenon that appears with very diverse
forms as a single framework. We refer to a personallevel’s narrative model as a narrative generationreception model and a social level’s narrative model asa narrative production-consumption model. Thesemodels form an integrated and entire model including
multiple narrative structures, where the former model is
included in the latter model, and where the repetition of
the former constructs the latter.
Further, we refer to previous or traditional
narratology and literary theories in order to apply themto the expanded literary theory as a theoreticalfoundation. Although recent narratology and literary
theories have focused on destroying the constructive
ideas that rely on the terms of de-construction andothers, they have gained an important and novel
academic value by considering narratives as objects that

Ogata recognized that there are narratologicalphenomena through which diverse narratives always
emerge and exist. Ogata4 tentatively showed ahierarchical list that comprehends diverse narrative
genres to indicate the large space of the narratologicalphenomena. Another reason for this attempt is to create
new narrative works that absorb and re-construct avariety of elements and characteristics of previous or
traditional narratives in the relationships with future
digital narratives and narrative generation systems(INGS and GIS) developed by Ogata.
Ogata considered two types of narrative processes:
the narrative generation-reception process at thepersonal narrative level, and the narrative productionconsumption process at the social narrative level. As themodels and systemization of these processes, INGS and
GIS correspond to the former and latter, respectively. In
other words, both the narrative generation-reception

228

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

generation in a single level. Ogata1 provided a detailed
description.
There are corresponding relationships between the
INGS and humans. For example, the conceptual
dictionaries in the INGS are equivalent to theconceptual memory of a personal human. The narrative
content knowledge bases in the INGS are similar tohuman episodic memory. Further, narrative generation
techniques such as the story-generation techniques in
the INGS correspond to the knowledge for making andoperating event sequences in the human brain.

can be analyzed technologically depending on
structuralism theories. The expanded literary theory5
returns to this original idea of narratology in an effort toseek to newly create model-oriented narratology andliterary theory.
2.3. Model of Multiple Narrative Structures
The narrative generation-reception model refers to thenarrative generation level by single subjects, namely thelevel of narrative generation realized by each human as
an individual. We refer to this level as a “human systemof narratives.” On the other hand, the narrative
production-consumption model is a social and collective
narrative generation level in which many narrative
generation-reception systems are included, and thislevel is considered a “social system of narrative.” In therelationship between narrative generation-reception andproduction-consumption levels, both levels interact witheach other to create an entire narrative phenomenon.
The multiple narrative structures model1 is an ideathat focuses on a narrative phenomenon from theviewpoint of the multiplicity of the narrative. In anotherfeature, a single narrative work is structured using suchvarious types of narrative elements as a story or stories,
characters, a world or worlds, and so on. These elements
are not constructed as a hierarchical structure, and it isdifficult to determine the most important element. The
narrative elements in a narrative work are composed
through appealing each existence and many types ofmutual relations among narrative elements. Ogata has
surveyed and analyzed kabuki as a narrative genre toshow multiple narrative structures from various
perspectives.3

2.5. Geino Information System: GIS
On the other hand, the GIS is a systematization of themodel of the narrative production-consumption process.
The GIS is a narrative generation model at the social
level, which actualizes both narrative generationreception and narrative production-consumption
processes through collaboration with the INGS.3 Fig. 1
shows an overview of the GIS architecture, which
includes the INGS. Although this system is not actually
executed in the current timing different from the INGS,
in the near future, we plan to implement it as a system
including several INGSs.
The GIS is a social level system considering thefollowing points: First, a society is a space where
diverse narratives are continuously generated andreceived in parallel. However, on the other hand, withrespect to a specific narrative production system, it is asubject that continuously repeats narrative production
cycles. A society refers to a situation where diverse
narrative production-consumption subjects, including
individuals, are produced in parallel (namely spatially)and sequentially (namely temporally). According to ourtheoretical framework, a society refers to a temporal andspatial field where there are many INGS as well as the
GIS as a collection of INGSs. Therefore, although asingle GIS does not indicate an entire society, the GIS ismodeled as a geino production mechanism that is a kindof social-narrative production and a consumption
system as a small-scaled social mechanism or system.

2.4. Integrated Narrative Generation System:INGS
The narratological study by Ogata is not sociology. It
does not remain within the range of the model
development and the analysis of societies. The study
aims to design and construct actual systems that are
dependent on the above two levels of narrative
generation and the interaction model. Although theanalysis and modeling of a phenomenon are objective
and static tasks, we insert a subjective and dynamic
method into the objective and static model.
The INGS is a mechanism that systematizes theabove narrative generation-reception model. The
purpose of this mechanism is to simulate narrative

2.6. Vision of Human-Machine Symbiosis System
of Narrative
From the above theories and systems, we seek toapproach a situation that we refer to as a “humansociety symbiosis system.” Alternately, we consider thatsuch a situation will need to be realized in the future229

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

both human-narrative generation and social-narrative
generation coexist. If we consider each narrative
generation mechanism, such as the GIS, it is related tothe problem of the specific gravity of narrative
generation.
The most extreme type is a narrative productionconsumption mechanism that does not involve humans
at all. Then, the most extreme type in the reverse sense
is a previous type’s narrative generation mechanism,
which is formed by only humans or which at least does
not include any machines as narrative generation
systems. In addition, with respect to concrete usage
forms of the GIS, we seek to undertake various narrative
generation and representation forms where humans andmachines coexist.
As stated above, based on the model of multiple
narrative structures, we can envision the phenomenon
where both narrative generation mechanisms as humans
and narrative generation mechanisms as machines
coexist at various levels, and this applies also in theconcrete implementation level.

Geino History (Sequence) <Contents><Receiver Mechanism>
Receptionmechanis

Geino
event

Narrativeas image

Life event
sequence

Life
event

Reactionmechanism

Geino event
sequenceTrailinformation
Life
work
Interpretation
Strategy(Meta level)

Geino
work

<Narrator>
Integrated narrative
generation system

Generation
mechanismContents
knowledgebaseGeino work
resource
Life work
resource
Geinojinresource<Sender> (Author as a whole)Fig. 1. GIS Architecture

3. An Attempt of the Commercial Film
Production Support System (CFPSS) Basedon the Image Rhetoric of Commercial Filmsociety. This is a narrative situation where humanauthors and machine authors live together with nomutual discrimination in order to continue tocollaboratively create narrative works in various genres.
This is not necessarily just a wish, but an expectationthat the historical progress will take such a route.
In such a social situation, we aim to determine thepositioning of narrative-generation systems. There areseveral phenomenological forms shown below:
With respect to a narrative generation system as asingle unit, first, we consider a form where a narrative
generation system autonomously exists as itself. Next,
there is a form where a human makes narratives using anarrative generation system or a narrative generation
system makes narratives using humans. These arevariations of a narrative generation case involving thecollaboration of both humans and machines. There aremany possibilities for collaboration methods. For
example, we can consider various possibilities such as
methods through which a human completes a narrative,
where once a narrative generation system is made, it
adds a new part to a narrative that a human made. As
these are very practical problems, we will not be able toclassify in advance all of the possibilities normatively.
On the other hand, in the case of the narrative
generation at a social level, there is a situation where

There are case studies into effective commercial films
with a focus on marketing and advertisement.6 Some ofthese studies include elements of advertising expressionthat have been classified and extracted to enhance
advertising effects. Alternatively, other studies
classifying advertising expressions according to thenature of the information (comparative, unique selling
proposition, preemptive, hyperbole, generic-informatic),
and the nature of transformation (user image, brandimage, use occasion, generic-transformatic) examine theideas of advertising expressions.7 However, thesestudies provide insight into advertising expressions froma particular vantage point, and are not conducive todeveloping specific rules for creating images at the
microcosm level. Related to print advertisements (text,
photo, poster etc.), studies examine an interpretation andanalysis of the effect of advertising rhetoric onviewers.8,9,10 However, these studies do not include
analyses related to commercial films. Moreover, as
these research approaches aim to interpret and analyze
existing advertisements, these studies also exclude
information systems to generate specific advertisements
according to operating rhetoric. Under such

230

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Using an advertising story technique, a system wasdeveloped to generate commercial films through aninteraction between the users and the system, which wastested with an observational experiment. Since thesystem easily generates commercial films that comply
with a variety of requirements, it can be utilized forvarious experiments in the future. These types ofexperiments will clarify and enhance the creative knowhow (image techniques and rhetoric) to produce
individual advertisements.

circumstances, Kawamura provided one of the few
studies aiming to build an information system thatanalyzes the advertising image techniques (advertisingstory, editing). 11,12,13
Fig. 2 shows the plan of CFPSS.11 The concept of
CFPSS is to generate the various commercial films
adapted to the user’s keywords and sentences (lifescenario) input. CFPSS includes a database of 3643
image shots converted to a commercial film, thatsearches and classifies image shots based on keywords
and sentences. The system includes a function to
generate the storyboard based on the selection ofadvertising story, and playback in the order arranged in
the storyboard. The menu of advertising story is asfollows;12
•

•

•

•

4. Cutting Techniques and Non-Story Type
Rhetoric
For computational and informational narrative film
generation, many kinds of cognitive effects can be
actualized using a strategy that employs story and nonstory rhetorical aspects17. Many cognitive effects fromnarrative films are created through the interaction
between cognitive process, story, discourse, andrhetoric. For example, irrational rhetoric cutting
techniques for narrative space and time in the film canchange the viewer's cognitive transition from storydriven to rhetoric-driven processing. Based on cognitivetransition due to narrative processing from story-based
to non-story based, cognitive effects such as intensive
nostalgia effects can emerge.
The process of the viewer coming to understandthe past story may lead to some cognitive effects.
Conversely, many films have a primary purpose otherthan to tell a story. This happens when the purpose of
the director is the film rhetoric itself, or the non-story
rhetorical aspects rather than the story. When the above
issues are considered, a system for computational andinformational narrative film generation must include
story and non-story rhetorical aspects.
Based on the cutting techniques used to makegenerate irrational relationships with time or charactersin continuous shots, a viewer or a reader can feel lessconstrained with regard to story comprehension andreset the viewpoint to subtle elements, such asindividual shots.
In addition, there are two different cognitive
process types for the rhetoric of film. Cognitive effects
from certain rhetoric, such as story type rhetoric, areprimarily generated by the story or consistent narrative(cognitive process type-1). Conversely, the cognitiveeffects from the other rhetoric, such as non-story typerhetoric, are caused by the rhetoric of films, in particular

Provider story type: The primary structure
expresses the provider’s story (production anddistribution, product function, effect on company).
This is the “story of the product” and “story of thecompany.”
Consumer story type: This primary structure
expresses consumers’ stories (consumption
situation, product acceptance, consumption effect).
This is the “story of consumption.”
Overall type: This structure generally expresses
both the provider’s and consumer’s stories. This isrepresented as provider story type + consumer story
type.
Image type: This structure expresses images related
to the consumer situation, though does not express
product acceptance and consumption effects in thefilm. Rather this structure represents a productfunction. This category also includes structures
expressing an image that does not belong to theconsumer, provider, or product function.

Fig. 2. CFPSS Plan.

231

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Non-story type rhetoric is created through cutting
techniques used to make irrational relationships between
1) the rhetorical elements of two shots; 2) events andimages; or 3) sounds and images16. The irrational
relationships through the cutting techniques are used inmany artistic films and music videos in order togenerate situations unfamiliar to the viewers and tocreate new realities.

the cutting techniques (cognitive process type-2). Manyfilms combine both type of rhetoric. Therefore, theviewers transfer cognitive processes from type-1 totype-2 while viewing the same film.
Cognitive process type-1, the process in which theviewers understand the story, has some cognitiveeffects. In this process, the “experience” of the film's
goal-directed characters and consistent narrative maylead to some affective response. However, the cognitiveeffects such as nostalgia effects may arise from othersources, as well as cognitive process type-2.
When the constraint is relaxed, an irrational cut of
non-story type rhetoric may cause a “resetting ofviewpoint” and “affect, which does not arise throughcomprehending a story, but through the audiovisual
situations.” A resetting of viewpoint indicates that theviewer's viewpoint shifts from the need to be told astory to a grasp of the non-story narrative. This reflects
the object associations within the moving image and the“mood” or the details of the moving image. “Affect,
which does not arise through comprehending a story,
but through the audiovisual situation” is caused by theaudiovisual situation that emerges from the film's moodand object associations.
In non-story type rhetoric, the editing, recording,and photography are not always subordinate to theoverall story. As stated above, the focus is on non-story
narrative, the film's mood and object associations or thereality related to the unfamiliar situations rather than on
the events in the story. Such associations and situations
cause cognitive effects that do not arise in the process ofcomprehending a story. Kanai14,15 indicated that when aviewer is able to relax his or her constraint with regard
to the need to comprehend a story, this strengthens thosecognitive effects including nostalgia effects, which do
not arise in the process of comprehending the story. On
the contrary, with story type rhetoric, the cognitiveeffects are those generated by the overall story.
The unfamiliar situations derived from non-story
rhetorical elements create new realities. Unfamiliar
situations can emerge through the sudden appearance ofa section of non-story type rhetoric. In this case, aviewer sometimes cannot understand the consistentstory. Therefore, attention to the situation itself isenhanced. The unfamiliar situations generate new
cognitive effects related to unknown memories andaffects that do not arise through story comprehension.

5. Conclusions
In this paper, we described the basic ideas of
informational narratology as a fusion of narratology,
including literary theories and informatics such as AI
and cognitive science. In particular, an important
direction of informational narratology is the point that it
focuses on content generation or production throughnarrative communication and simulation. Previously, we
performed research that focused on each narrative
content generation, as discussed above in this paper.
Ogata stated the idea and concept of the model ofmultiple narrative structures, and presented an overview
of two mutually related systems, the Integrated
Narrative Generation System (INGS) and Geino
Information System (GIS), to show the implementationof the model. Kawamura discussed the Commercial
Film Production Support System (CFPSS) based on the
Image Rhetoric of Commercial Film. Kawamura’s study
mainly focuses on the perspective of the reception in
narrative communication. Kanai, who focuses on
computational and informational narrative film
generation, mainly analyzed the cognitive effects byreceivers for movie films, and used a strategy that
employs story and non-story rhetorical perspectives.
However, these studies were not integrated in theprevious research. If these researches are synthesized, inparticular by developing narrative content-generation
systems, it will enable the expansion of the constructive
feature, namely an academic approach throughexecuting system development, of the informational
narratology.
Therefore, one or our future plans is to integrate theabove narrative content generation systems proposed by
the three authors into a larger system. This will also
help to bridge informational narratology studies to thesocial experimental stage for the distribution ofgenerated or produced narratives.

232

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 4, No. 3 (December 2017) 227–233___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Acknowledgements

8. E. F. McQuarrie and D. G. Mick, Figures of rhetoric inadvertising language, J. Consumer Research 22(4) (1996)
424-438.
9. B. A. Huhmann and P. A. Albinsson, Does rhetoric
impact advertising effectiveness with liking controlled?,
European J. Marketing 46(11/12) (2012) 1476-1500.
10. I. G. Theodorakis, C. Koritos and V. Stathakopoulos,
Rhetorical maneuvers in a controversial tide: assessing
the boundaries of advertising rhetoric, J. Advertising
44(1) (2015) 14-24.
11. Y. Kawamura, An analysis of the rhetoric of commercial
film -toward the building of a commercial film
production support system based on image rhetoric, in
Proc. 2003 IEEE Int. Conf. Systems, Man andCybernetics, (Washington, DC., 2003), 993-1000.
12. Y. Kawamura, An analysis on the story and editing
techniques of commercial film -toward the building of acommercial film production support information system,
J. Advertising Science 50 (2009) 16-32. (In Japanese).
13. Y. Kawamura, An attempt of the commercial film
production support system based on the image rhetoric ofcommercial film (Chapter 4), in T. Ogata and T.
Akimoto, Computational and Cognitive Approaches toNarralotogy, (IGI Global) (2016) 117-138.
14. A. Kanai, The story as a constraint on film. In
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on
Cognitive Science (Beijing, China, 2001a), pp. 503-506.
15. A. Kanai, Cognitive process model toward the rhetoric of
the film, Cognitive Studies, 8 (2) (2001b) 139-150.
16. A. Kanai and T. Ogata, Non-story Processing on the film
rhetoric composition system. In Proceedings of 18th
Congress of the International Association of Empirical
Aesthetics (Lisbon, Portugal, 2004), pp. 433-406.
17. A. Kanai, Non-Story, Nostalgia, and film cognition:
nostalgia-based
narrative
rhetoric
composition.
Computational
andCognitive
Approaches
toNarratology, eds. T. Ogata and T. Akimoto (IGI Global,
2016) pp. 376-390.

This work is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant
Number 26330258, Support Center for Advanced
Telecommunications Technologies Research Grant(2015-2017),
andKayamoriFoundationofInformational Science Advancement Research Grant(2017).
References
1. T. Ogata and A. Kanai, A, An introduction to Informatics
of Narratology: Towards the Thoughts and Technologies
of Narrative Generation (Gakubunsha, Tokyo, Japan,2010).
2. T. Ogata, Computational and cognitive approaches tonarratology from the perspective of narrative generation,in Computational and Cognitive Approaches toNarratology, eds. T. Ogata and T. Akimoto (IGI Global,
Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA, 2016), pp. 1-73.
3. T. Ogata, Kabuki as multiple narrative structures, inComputational
andCognitive
Approaches
toNarratology, eds. T. Ogata and T. Akimoto (IGI Global,
Hershey, Pennsylvania, 2016), pp. 400-431.
4. T. Ogata, A comprehensive consideration of a narrative
genre system, in Literature, in Proc. of 2nd Annual
Conference of Literature, Cognition, and Computer
Research Group in Japan Cognitive Science Society(Tokyo, Japan, 1999), pp.85-91.
5. T. Ogata, Expanded literary theory for automatic
narrative generation, in Proc. of Joint 7th Int. Conf. on
Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and 15th Int.
Sympo. on Advanced Intelligent Systems (Kitakyushu,
Japan, 2014), pp. 1558-1563.
6. D. W. Stewart and D. H. Furse, Effective television
advertising: A study of 1000 commercials (Lexington
Books, Lexington, MA, 1986).
7. H. A. Laskey, E. Day and M. R. Crask, Typology of main
message strategies for television commercial, J.
Advertising 18(1) (1989) 36-41.

233