Narrative Theory outlines four main narrative theories: Barthes, Todorov, Levi-Strauss, and Propp. Tzvetan Todorov's theory suggests narratives follow a pattern of equilibrium, disruption, and new equilibrium. Roland Barthes identified five codes that help readers understand narratives: action, enigma, symbolic, semic, and cultural. Claude Levi-Strauss analyzed how stories communicate a culture's beliefs through binary oppositions between characters. Vladimir Propp classified characters into seven roles or functions commonly found in fairytales.

1. Narrative Theory
By: Manoli Yammine

2. What is Narrative Theory
Narrative is a sequence of events put side to side and
presented to its target audience as a story. There are
many theories as to how and why narratives are laid
out the way they are. Four well known narrative
theories are Barthes, Todorov, Levi Strauss & Propp,
all with different approaches to narrative.

3. Tzvetan Todorov
• This theory is made by Tzvetan Todorov who is a
Bulgarian literacy theorist.
• He suggested that almost all narratives should start with
a state of Equilibrium which must illustrate life is normal
and protagonist is happy.
• Normality should get disrupted by something in which it
has to be fought against to bring back to a normal state
of equilibrium.
• The theory provided to us by Tzvetan is easily applied to
many films across the world.
• Equilibrium>Disruption of the state of Equilibrium and the
recovery of the state> New Equilibrium

4. Tzvetan Todorov Example
• An example of this could be
mission impossible as the
movie starts of with the main
character played by Tom
cruise as a normal man in a
ordinary life> then > there is
a plot twist where he has an
offer to go back to his life as
a spy which he does > then
> he fixes the problem and
brings back equilibrate.

5. Roland Barthes
• Roland Barthes is a French Semiologist.
• His theory suggested that a narrative only works with five different codes
which helps the reader to understand and make sense of the narrative.
1 Action: helping the audience understand the plot by action. Ex: A shoot-
out.
2 Enigma: Enigma is meant to tease the audience by giving them something
to think about which keeps them interested in the move to find out the
answer, the answer is always reviled to the audience in the end of the
movie to release them from their stresses state of mind (works like a
puzzle).
3 Symbolic: a feeling initially created by the use of word.
4 Semic: the meaning of the word, the creation of a feeling or idea due to
the words.
5 Cultural: A narrative piece of work which could be seen as cultural for
bringing the essence of a certain culture. Ex: Cowboy movies bring back
the old American culture back.

6. Roland Barthes Example
• Action code: A good example of
this is 300 the movie as the army
general looks at the opposite
army and nods his head to attack.
• Enigma code: Batman vs
Superman is a good example of
this as superman is shown dead
at the end of the movie but after
they bury him the last shot shows
us the sand raise from his coffin.

7. Claude Levi-Strauss
• He was a Social Anthropologist who studied myths
of a tribal culture.
• He tested how stories could echo beliefs, myths
and morals of a culture, he determined that these
points are usually communicated in a way which
is called Binary Oppositions.
• A compilation between two characters.
Examples or oppositions are:
Good vs Evil
Calm vs Chaos
Justice vs Crime

8. Claude Levi-Strauss
Example
• A movie that is appropriate for this is
The Dark Night where the main
characters are Batman agains the Joker.
Batman is shown as the good guy who
is calm and wants to bring justice, while
the Joker is represented as the bad/evil
guy who creates chaos in the city and is
the main source of crime. Batman is
always there to save the day whiles the
Joker is the person who steels, blows
up, kidnaps and many other crimes
forcing the bat man to stop him.

9. Vladimir Propp
•He was a Russian critic and literary theorist, in his time he
had analyzed over a 100 Russian fairytales in which he
proposed that he could classify all the characters and their
actions and put them in role and functions.
•He names 7 character types:
The villain
The donor
The helper
The princess and her father
The dispatcher
The hero or victim/seeker hero
False hero

10. Vladimir Propp Example
The villain
• An example of a villain could be the Joker as he fights against batman and
does a lot of crime related work.
The donor
• John Blake is a cop in The Dark Night Rises who disturbs the hero peace by
giving him information about the villains.
The helper
• Robin is show to us as batman helpers as he accompanies him through out
all his quests.
The princess and her father
• Aladdin is a good example for this as the main character had to go through a
series of tasks and succeed to achieve the princesses hand in
marriage.
The dispatcher
• Jim Gordon is the dispatcher in The Dark Night Rises as he sends the
batman on a mission.
The hero or victim/seeker hero
• An example of this could be batman as he helps the city agains the Joker in
THE DARK NIGHT showing us his heroic character
False hero
• The prince in Shrek is portrait as a hero until it is unveiled that he is the
false hero and instead Shrek is the real hero.