2. Starter:
• Can you remember the three reasons why genre
appeals to audiences?
• Can you remember the four reasons why genre is
useful for institutions?
3. What is narrative?
• Narrative refers to the ‘telling’ of a sequence of
events organised into a story
• Stories give order and shape to a series of events.
• Narrative seems to be essential to human
experience of the world.
• We enjoy stories all through our lives.
• Religion is often presented through a collection
of “stories/moral tales” e.g. the Bible, the
Ramayana, etc.
• Can you think of one narrative that has played
an important part in your life?
4. Narratives are limited
• New stories are uncommon.
• Most narratives are variations on a limited
number of timeless themes.
• The characters and settings may vary but the
structure remains the same.
• This is one of the reasons we still study
Shakespeare – his plays are classic narratives
told very well.
• e.g. Where have you seen the love triangle
narrative?
5. Audience Expectation
• Different film genres have different narrative
conventions.
• When watching scifi, audiences have less expectation of
a happy ending than they do when watching romcoms.
What do you expect the narrative to be in the following
genres? Choose two and bullet point three main plot
points:
Horror
Disaster
Rom Com
Comedy
6. Theory: Todorov
• All stories begin with an ‘equilibrium’
(a state of normality – good, bad or
neutral).
• This is disrupted by some event,
setting in motion a series of other
events.
• Problems are solved so that order can
be restored and the narrative ends with
a second but different ‘equilibrium’.
Equilibrium – Disruption of Equilibrium – Reordered Equilibrium
Let’s apply this to Cinderella and Toy Story…
7. • Cinderella
▫ Equilibrium: Cinderella has a bad life. She is treated
like a slave by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters.
▫ Disruption: Arrival of the Fairy Godmother
▫ Reordered equilibrium: They get married and live
happily ever after.
• Toy Story 3
▫ Equilibrium: Andy has grown up and doesn’t play with
Woody anymore.
▫ Disruption: The bags are mixed up.
▫ Reordered equilibrium: Andy gives the toys away and
they are happy because they’re getting played with.
8. Theory: Levi-Strauss
• Binary oppositions
• Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values,
for example GOOD and EVIL.
• He observed that all narratives are organised
around the conflict between binary opposites.
9. Match up the Binary Oppositions
• Good
• Technology
• Black
• West
• Boy
• Girl
• Peace
• Wisdom
• Civilised
• Evil
• Democracy
• Woman
• Conqueror
• Nature
• First World
• White
• Domestic
• War
• Young
• Ugly
• Humans
• Savage
• Protagonist
• Dictatorship
• Man
• Third World
• Good-looking
• Foreign/alien
• Strong
• Antagonist
• East
• Conquered
• Humanity
• Weak
• Ignorance
• Old
11. Let’s apply Todorov and Levi-Strauss’s
theories to this…
• The Hunger Games Trailer
• Different types of binary opposition drive the
narrative in The Hunger Games.
• One of the most important binary oppositions
is….
• This shapes the narrative because…
• This is effective because (link to audience)
• Other oppositions include…
• These are important because…
12. • Vogler
• Step Up 2
• Propp
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2
Trailer
13. Theory: Barthes
• The Enigma Code: The Enigma Code refers to any
element of the story that makes the audience
wonder what will happen next. The programme CSI
is a good example as most of it is an enigma code as
we try to work out how the murder happened.
• The Action Code: The Action Code also builds
tension, referring to any other action or event that
gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.
For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an
adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this
action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent
or is wounded himself.
17. Plenary: Match the theory to the
theorist
Theorist: Theory:
•Levi-Strauss
•Barthes
•Todorov
• Enigma and
Action Codes
• Disruption of
Equilibrium
• Binary
Oppositions
