2. “Narrative is a way of organising spatial
and temporal data into a cause and effect
chain of events with a beginning, middle
and end that embodies a judgement about
the nature of the events as well as
demonstrates how it is possible to know,
and hence to narrate, the events. “
Brannigan E. Narrative Comprehension and Film
3. Features of Narrative
Structure
• Aristotle’s beginning, middle and end.
• Todorov’s equilibrium>disequilibrium>re-equilibrium
• Propp’s “functions”
2. Temporal order, temporal duration,
temporal frequency
3. Story and Plot
• Explicitly presented actions/events
• Implicitly inferred actions/events
• Non diegetic material (captions/titles, drama enhancing music
etc.)
4. Other Features
1. Constructional Devices
Cinematography
Mise- en- scene
Editing
Sound
2. Genre Associations
Genre Codes (e.g. Iconography)
Genre Conventions
3. Narrative Codes
Levi Straus’s Binary Oppositions
Character Psychology
Semiotic Analysis
6. Propp 1928
Based upon the Russian Folktale 1928
Types of Characters, Specific Forms of
Action, function in the Narrative.
Thirty One Functions identified.
7. Specific research on narrative
• Vladimir Propp
• Russian Formalist in the 1930s
• He identified seven archetypal
characters..
8. Propp’s character archetypes
The Villain
The Donor/giver of knowledge
The Helper
The Princess (sought after person)
The Dispatcher
The Hero (or victim)
The False Hero
9.
10. Propp’s character archetypes
The Villain Darth Vader
The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
The Helper Han Solo
The Princess Princess Leah
The Dispatcher R2 - D2
The Hero Luke Skywalker
The False Hero Darth Vader (Luke’s dad)
11. Definitions from Bordwell and
Thompson (1991)
Plot: What we see on screen. Includes extra-
narrative things.
Story: all that we know about the narrative
including seen and unseen.
Cause and effect: Cause and effect. Causes
can come from a character.
12. Levi Strauss
Binary Opposites
• Protagonist/Antagonist
• Action /Inaction
• Good looking / Ugly
• Witty / Humourless
13. Barthes
Audience Decodes
• Enigma Code (sets up a question to be answered
later)
• Action Code - understood by cross reference to
other narratives in our culture
• Semic Code (How characters, actions ,events,
settings etc. take on meaning within a culture.
• Symbolic Code - Binary Oppositions or
Psychological symbols
• Cultural Codes - understood through our interaction
with the wider world.
