This document summarizes some of the main theorists of narrative theory, including Claude Levi-Strauss, Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, and Roland Barthes. It explains that Levi-Strauss believed stories operate according to binary opposites, while Todorov thought stories happened in certain stages. Propp analyzed Russian fairy tales and proposed they involved characters filling roles like hero, villain, and donor. Barthes suggested narratives have five codes that help readers make sense of them, such as action, symbolic, and cultural codes.

1. NARRATIVE
THEORY
By Harry Barrett and Harrison
Costi

2. MAIN THEORISTS
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Tzvetan Todorov
• Vladimir Propp
• Roland Barthes

3. CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
• Levi-Strauss’ ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he
believed all stories operate according to certain binary
opposites.
• For Example:
Good Evil
Powerful Powerless
Male Female
Cool Uncool

4. TZVENTAN TODOROV
• He was a Bulgarian literacy theorist who believed every story
happened in the following stages:

5. VLADMIR PROPP
• He was Russian critic and literacy theorist who had analysed over
100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920s
• He proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their
actions into clearly defined roles and functions within stories
• Propp proposed that characters in stories fell into the following
categories:
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 the hero)
The helper (gives support to the hero)
The princess (the reward for the hero but also needs
protection from the villain)

6. ROLAND BARTHES
• Barthes was a French Semiologist who suggested that
narrative works have five different codes which activate the
reader to make sense of it.
• Barthes codes were:
Action
Symbolic
Semic
Cultural
Enigma

7. THANKS FOR WATCHING!