2. What is narrative and plot?
Narrative: Narrative is the art of telling story or an
account of connected events.
Plot: The main events of a film, book, TV programme
and are presented in a connected sequence.
There are key elements that make up a story and these
aspects need to be combined to create a grander product
of the story.
These elements include characters, plot, setting etc.
Narrative is the way that these elements are combined to
create a coherent text.
4. What it shows (in my opinion)
Martin Luther King is shown waving down to hundreds
of people giving him a status of power and influence
over mainly shown by the positioning of MLK and the
followers as well as the vast amount followers in
watching him.
The context of the photograph is that it’s a historical
event of the oppression of black people being rejected
and MLK being victorious against the oppressive force
of America
This image was taken on Algiers Street and was one of
the most iconic image of the 20th century.
5. Roland Barthes & Action Codes
Barthes specified a multitude of Narrative Codes with
the most relevant being Action/Enigma Codes.
Action Codes allow the audience to understand what is
to come and how to react to what’s going to happen
next.
An example would be two characters talking about what
someone is doing then the film cutting to them.
This action allows the film to transition to a different
storyline completely and prepares the audience for this.
6. Roland Barthes and Enigma Code
Enigma Codes are where the media text presents the
audience with a question that will be answered by the
end of the media text
An example would be at the beginning of a Detective
Show where a murder victim is shown and the murderer
and his motive is unknown to the audience and will be
revealed through the episode.
Other Narrative Codes:
Symbols and Signs are used as identifiers and clues to
help piece the story slowly together.
7. Claude Levi Strauss & Binary Oppositions
Binary Opposition: a pair of related ideas that possess
opposite meanings and are used in movie to carry
forward a narrative theme
Examples:
Good & Bad
Male & Female
Man & Machine
Dark & Light
8. Vladimir Propp and Folklore
Propp was a theorist who studied Fairy Tales and Folklore
From this work he identified 31 plot elements, and develop 8
spheres of action narrative theory or character types which
include:
1 – The villain
2 – The hero
3 – The donor
4 – The helper
5 – The princess
6 – Her Father
7 – The dispatcher
8 – The False hero
9. Todorovs Equilibrium
He was a Bulgarian Theorist who was interested
Narrative Structure
His most popular theory was Equilibrium and it goes
1) Equilibrium: There is a state of Equilibrium and all is
well
2) An event disrupts this and the order is broken
3) A recognition of the disorder occures
4) There is a effort to repair the disorder
5) A restoration takes place and a new Equilibrium is
present