Narrative theory

1. NARRATIVE THEORY
By Joe Wilson

2. TIM O’SULLIVAN (1998)
• Tim O’Sullivan argues that all texts tell a story in some way.
• After looking over media texts, all texts can tell stories about ourselves, or
us as a culture.
• Narrative theory shows what we experience while reading a story, is
understanding a set of conventions.
• Narrative - Structure of the story
• Digesis - The place that the story takes place.
• Verisimilitude - This is the quality of appearing real or true. For us to
connect with the text then it has to feel very true to life by following the
rules of continuity.

3. BORDWELL AND THOMPSON
(1997)
• Two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diegetic world
where the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience
really see.
• Fabula (story) – All the events that we see and infer. The Fabula is the
chronological series of events that are represented.
• Syuzhet (plot) – Everything that we can see or hear on the screen. The
order, manner and techniques of their representation in the narrative.

4. PAM COOK (1985)
• According to Pam Cook, the standard narrative structure should always
have:
• Linearity if cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma
resolution
• A high degree of narrative closure
• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude.

5. TZVETAN TODOROV (1977)
• Todorov suggested 5 stages that a narrative can be built on:
• Stage 1 – A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is normal and
stable.
• Stage 2 – This stability is disrupted by some kind of force. This creates
disequilibrium.
• Stage 3 – Recognition of the disruption.
• Stage 4 – Recreate equilibrium by taking action against the disruption.
• Stage 5 – Restoration of the new equilibrium. Final state of equilibrium is
different to the initial state of equilibrium because the narrative and/or
characters have been changed b he disruption.

6. • Suggested that narrative works with 5 different codes.
• The enigma code works to keep setting up problems or puzzles for the
audience. This makes the audience want to know more and can frustrate
the audience.
• His action code is based on our cultural understanding of actions that act
as a shorthand to advancing the narrative. This can add suspense to the
text.
• The semantic code suggests or refers to additional meanings. It is used to
add an extra meaning to the literal meaning.
• The symbolic code is about symbolism. It uses opposites to show contrast
and tension.
• Referential code refers to anything in the text which refers to external
knowledge.
ROLAND BARTHES (1977)

7. ADRIAN TILLEY (1991)
• Adrian Tilley suggests that particular sounds signify different meanings.
His example was that the buckling of a gun in the western genre could
mean that a shoot out was going to happen.

8. KATE DOMAILLE (2001)
• Kate Domaille suggested that every story ever told can be fitted in to one of eight
narrative types. These stories are:
• Achilles – The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless. E.g.
Superman
• Candide – The indomitable hero who can not be put down. E.g. Rocky
• Cinderella – The dream comes true. E.g. Pretty woman
• Circe – The chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent, and the victim. E.g. The
terminator
• Faust – Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs
to him. E.g. Wall street
• Orpheus – The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of
the loss or the journey which follows. E.g. The sixth sense
• Romeo and Juliet – The love story. E.g. The Titanic
• Tristan and Iseult – The love triangle, man loves woman… unfortunately one or both
are spoken for, or a third party intervenes. E.g. Casablanca

9. VLADIMIR PROPP (1928)
• The Russian theorist studied the narrative structure of Russian folk tales
and he then concluded that the characters could only be resolved in to 7
broad character types.
• The villain – Struggles against the hero
• The donor – Prepares the hero or gives the hero an object
• The helper – Helps the hero in the quest
• The princess and her father – gives the task to the hero, identifies the false
hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative.
• The dispatcher – Sends the hero off on the journey
• The hero – Reacts to the donor and weds the princess.
• False hero – Takes credit for hero's actions.

10. JOSEPH CAMPBELL (1949)
• Joseph Campbell suggests that there is an underlying structure of
iconography, themes, concepts, and narrative structure that is common to
the religions, myths, legends and almost every culture in the world.
• Ordinary world – The world the hero will choose to abandon
• Call to adventure – A problem or challenge arises
• Refusal of the call – Fear or reluctance may strike hero
• Meeting the mentor – The mentor is key
• Crossing the first threshold – hero commits
• Test, allies, enemies – Must learn rules to govern quest
• Approach to innermost cave – Most dangerous confrontation
• Ordeal – Hero must face fear

11. JOSEPH CAMPBELL (1949)
CONTINUED
• The road back – Vengeful forces are unleashed by villain
• Resurrection – Final confrontation with death
• Return with the elixir – Return to ordinary world with something that has
been gained form the adventure.

12. CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS (1958)
• Suggested that all stories operated to certain clear binary opposites. Some
examples are:
• Good vs bad
• Black vs White
• Rich vs Poor
• These ideas are importance because they say that essentially a complicated
world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. There is no inbetween.

13. ANDREW GOODWIN (1992)
• Goodwin argues that narrative relations are highly complex and meaning
can be created by the viewers own personal music taste. Many are
dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce the psot-modern
‘re-use’ tradition.

14. SVEN CARLSSON (1999)
• Suggests that music videos in general, fall in to two rough groups:
• Performance – When a music video shows an artist singing or dancing
rather than them acting or an actor playing a character.
• Conceptual – When the clip shows something that is not normally related
to the song. This is often with artistic ambition.

15. PERFORMANCE CLIPS
• If a music video consists mainly of performance footage then it is
considered to be a performance clip. Performance clips are clips that show
the vocalist in one or more settings.
• Some common places that the vocalist will perform are recording studios,
rehearsal rooms, or down the street, which is common in rap.
• The performance can be of three different types of performance: Song
performance, Dance performance, and instrumental performance.

16. NARRATIVE CLIPS
• If a music video is like a short narrative movie, that plays along with the
music, then this could be considered to be a narrative clip. A narrative clip
has a visual story that can be easily followed. If it is a pure narrative clip
then it will not contain lip-synced singing.

17. ART CLIP
• If the clip contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip
synced singing then it is a pure art clip.
• The main difference between an art clip and a contemporary video is the
style of music.
• Art clips often use new, and very modern electro-acoustic music.
• Contemporary uses all sorts of other music, such as rock, pop, indie.