Gert Vercauteren

Personal information

First name

Gert

Last name

Vercauteren

Institutional affiliation

Artesis University College Antwerp - University of Antwerp Department of Translation and Interpreting Schildersstraat 41 2000 Antwerp Belgium

Narratological interest

I am currently preparing a PhD on content selection in audio description of films for blind and partially sighted people. As many (beginning) describers have difficulties 'reading' films and deciding what is relevant or not in a specific scene (and/or story) the aim of my PhD is to try and develop a model that will help them decide what elements have to be described to provide the audience with a narratologically coherent description.
The PhD starts from the basic idea that films are visual narratives and as such a good knowledge of the different general 'building blocks' of narratives, their functions and their mutual relationships is crucial for creating good descriptions.
My interest lies thus in general narratology on the one hand (focussing on the structuralist methodology on the one hand (to identify the basic elements in narratives) & on cognitive narratology on the other to refine the structuralist model and to study the reception of narratives), and on film narratology on the other (to apply the different concepts drawn from general narratology to the specific medium of film).