Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory Media Studies AS

Narrative: the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts.

Vladimir Propp
Russian critic and literary theorist.
Analysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s.
He proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions.
Films such as Star Wars fit Propp’s model precisely, but a a significant number of more recent films such as Pulp Fiction do not.
The model is useful, however as it highlights the similarities between seemingly quite different stories.

Propp’s Character Roles
The hero (seeks something)
The villain (opposes the hero)
The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object)
The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)
The false hero (falsely assuming the role of hero)
The helper (gives support to the hero)
The princess (the reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain)
Her father

Tzvetan Todorov
Bulgarian literary theorist
Suggests most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is ‘normal’ and protagonists happy.
This state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium.
This model can easily be applied to a wide range of films.

Equilibrium Disequilibrium New Equilibrium

Roland Barthes
French semiologist.
Suggested that narrative works with five different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it.
(also used the terms denotation and connotation to analyse images)

Barthes’ Codes
Action – a narrative device by which a resolution is produced through action, e.g. a shoot-out.
Enigma – a narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. Works to delay the story’s ending pleasurably.
Symbolic – (connotation)
Semic – (denotation)
Cultural – a narrative device which the audience can recognise as being part of a culture e.g. a “made man” in a gangster film is part of the mafia culture.

Claude Levi-Strauss
Social Anthropologist.
Studied myths of tribal cultures.
Examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture.
These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions .
His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts.

Binary Oppositions
A conflict between two qualities or terms.
For example 1970’s Western films:
Homesteaders Native Americans
christian pagan
domestic savage
weak strong
garden wilderness
inside society outside society

Task:
Apply the key narrative theorists to the ending of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’.
Propp Todorov
Barthes Levi-Strauss

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Narrative Theory

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