1. Assignment 15: Narrative Theory
Patrycia Butrym
Esere Simei-Akajagbo
Shivonne Weekes
Courtney Buabeng

2. By Esere & Shivonne
Film: Memento
(2000)
Todorov’s Theory
•
Disequilibrium
•Has two time lines: One in colour & black and
white- reveals present time or reversed time
•Purpose- to experience what the main
character experiences
•Encourages the audience to feel sympathy as
he cant make create new long term memories
Attempt to
repair
•
Equilibrium
•
He gets revenger on the killer
of his wife.
Purpose – to know that he is
at piece.
This encourages the audience
to be relieved and know he is
at rest.
Equilibrium
• Equilibrium is
challenged
•The narrative isn't in
chronological order
•Therefore it doesn't
relax the audience
•It causes frustrationaudience are confused
Recognition
Disequilibrium
New
Equilibrium
• The character founds out who kills
his wife. He going to do something
about it .
• Does he remembered that he
killed him.
• Purpose - to show he has realised
something even though he has
short-term memory loss.
• Purpose - its not in chronological
order to show that he might
forget that he killed the murder
of his wife.
• It encourages the audience to
believe he is going to remember
and going to get revenge.
• It encourages the audience to be
confused and leaves a cliffhanger.

3. Genre
Film
Sci-Fi
The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire
Drama
Kidulthood
Romance
The Notebook
Action
Fast and Furious 6
Examples

4. By Patrycia & Courtney
Levi-Strauss Theory
Film
Opposite 1
Opposite 2
Explanation
Teddy and Leonardo are
opposites as Teddy is conveyed
as an“ evil”, deceitful robber
who rapes and kills Leonardo’s
wife. Whereas, Leonardo is
seen as the “good” character
who merely hunts the man who
he believes kill his wife.
“Memento”
Leonard Shelby, a man
who is suffering from
short-term memory loss,
uses notes and tattoos to
hunt for the man he thinks
killed his wife.
Teddy is a manipulative
thief who takes the
advantage of Leonardo’s
amnesia to direct him
away from killing him for
the murder of Leonardo’s
wife.
Levi-Strauss’s theory is that the
world in itself is described in
binary opposites. As they
provide narrative structure, it is
noticeable that there cannot be
any story without it’s opposite.
Over the years, the use of
binary opposites have
developed and is much harder
to recognise in films. Horror
films are the main type of
genre which use the binary
opposition in order to define
the difference between the
word “good” and the opposing
word “evil.”

5. Barthes Theory

6. Esere
Enigma Code Example
Crime Thriller
Side Effects
It is mystery based, because at the
start of the film it makes the
audience question:
•Why is she sleepwalking?
•Why does she need to take drugs?
•Why was he released from prison?

7. Esere
Action Code Example
Crime Thriller
Panic Room
Action:
•Burglars break in looking for
money
•Mum and daughter make it to the
safe room- the panic room
Assumptions:
•Panic room- is where the money is
•The mum sacrifices herself for her
daughters safety

8. Semantic Code Example
COLOUR
LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE
ICONOGRAPHY

9. Courtney
Colour: Black
‘Black Rain’
Thriller
Black leather jacket
and glasses- Power,
negativity and
mystery.
‘Death At A Funeral’
Comedy
‘Police Academy’
Crime/Comedy
Police uniformAuthority and honour.
Suit and tie with gloves.
Funeral hat- Grief and
respect.

10. Learn From Experience
Villain-Portrayed as sinister and
disturbed, who causes
disruption and threaten the
safety of the Heroine.
Heroine- Presented as the most
in danger and inert from being
threatened by the villain and in
need of rescue from the hero.
Courtney
False Hero- Distracts Hero from mission and pretends
to be on side with Hero but deceives him. Initially,
they aren’t suspected until little clues reveal them.
Hero- Strong, attractive and
independent. Always on
quest to solve disequilibrium
and has good intentions.

11. Courtney
Iconography
Iconographic features such as
helicopters, explosions and
weapons have clear
connotations and meanings to
the audience for them to
recognise the genre of the film.
Weapons/Violence + Explosions
= Action.

12. Symbolic Code Example
‘CHEAPEN BY THE DOZEN’
OPPOSITES: YOUNG AND OLD

13. Courtney
‘Young’ Example
•The young people are rendered as
bothersome and up to no good.
•They work as a team to cause trouble,
whether intentionally or accidently.
•They are out of control and are free to do
what pleases them without much
consequence.
•They are always joking around and doing pranks.
•They’re badness is associated with something dark
and sinister.
•Mostly shown indoors
•Are associated with causing mess and
disruption as well as fast pace sounds
and music, and are deemed as the
perpetrators despite of their age.

14. Courtney
‘Old’ Example
•No matter what, have the
responsibility of caring for
the kids regardless of how
troublesome they are. (E.g.
Providing food.)
•The parents who are mature and
adults are seen as the victims and suffer
the destruction of the children’s actions
and decisions.
•They are often showed outside, representing their need for
freedom.
• The mother-Takes things seriously and are burdened with
worries.

15. Shivonne
Cultural Code Example
• Often the text relates to things in popular
culture or historical events.
• An example of this would be “The Godfather”: Family, Guns,
drugs, drug dealers, revenge, the location such as Las Vegas,
New York and houses, and cars

16. Propp’s Theory

17. Esere
Hero
Mulan
A Disney animation- ‘Mulan’ shows:
•Anyone can be a hero
•It doesn’t matter about your age,
gender, size or race
•Here the protagonist is a woman:
brave and a skilled fighterstereotypes are challenged
•Who is on a quest to save her
town

18. Esere
Villain
The Little Mermaid
A Disney animation- ‘The Little
Mermaid’ shows:
• The villain is a sea witch called
Ursula
•She's a very dark and sinister
villain- with a sense of humour
•Whose aim is to disrupt Ariel's life
Black and purple- connotes with danger,
mystery and darkness

19. Shivonne
Dispatcher
• Dispatcher is the one that usually helps the
hero on its way.
• It is often the father or the helper of the
father.
• He/she send the hero off to prove he can win
his worth.
• An example is ‘avengers assemble’

20. Courtney
Donor
The grandmother in
‘Cinderella’ advices
and gives Cinderella
magical tools to
help her with her
journey to the ball.

21. Courtney
Helper
Jackie Chan in ‘Rush
Hour’ is Chris Rock’s
helper who assists Chris
on his mission to
restoring the
disequilibrium and
saving a little girl who
gets kidnapped.

22. Courtney
Heroine
In ‘2 Guns’ the heroine is
kidnapped and
threatened to be killed
by the villains. She is
passive and is forced to
wait on the Hero to
rescue her from her
status quo.

23. Esere
False Hero
Aladdin
A Disney animation- ‘Aladdin’
shows:
• The false hero is Jafar
•His aim is to rule Agrabah
•Jafar tricks and manipulate Aladdin
to leave the kingdom to retrieve a
lamp so he could rule and be in
charge
Black and purple- connotes with danger,
mystery and darkness

24. Other Terms

25. Courtney
Diegesis
The diegesis of ‘Les Miserables’ is created
from the French Revolution which is an
event that occur in reality. The characters,
props and setting of the internal world is
created to show what the French people of
that time experienced.

26. Esere
Narrative Range
Unrestricted Narration
Man On A Ledge
‘Man On A Ledge’:
• Creates tension
•Ex-cop threatens to jump of a
ledge
•The unrestricted narratives makes
the enigmas unclear- the audience
expect certain conventions to
happen as at the start the man
wants to jump off
•It distracts the audience from the
bigger picture

27. Esere
Narrative Range
Restricted Narration
Black Swan
‘Black Swan’:
• Provides viewers with Nina’s
perspective
•The restricted narrative creates
little enigmas
•The title ‘Black Swan’- is revealed
by the enigmas
• Creates suspense

28. Shivonne
Narrative Depth
• Objective Character Identification:
• This is when the audience is given contact with
the characters point of views such as dreams,
fantasies and memories. An example of this is
‘127 hours’ and ‘The Godfather’
• Subjective Character Identification:
• This is when the audience is given contact what a
range of characters see and do. An example of
this is ‘limitless’ and ‘Premium Rush’

29. Cameron’s Theory
Modular Narratives

30. Shivonne
Forking Path
• The forking path is a narrative that shows
possible outcomes that can occur from small
changes in single events. This introduces a
numerous of plotlines which usually
challenges one another.
• For example – ‘Final Destination 5’

31. Shivonne
Forking Path

32. Shivonne

33. Patrycia
Episodic
Example: LOST
Example: Momento
• This is an collection of multiple stories. It is
organised in two ways :
-Narrative Anthology...Consists a series of
shorter tales which are disconnected
however they share a random similarity.
EXAMPLES: Different episodes but all of them
contain survivors of a shipwreck.
-Abstract...This is characterized by the operation
of a non-narrative formal system which
appears to question the organization of
narrative elements
EXAMPLES: A range of sequences of the
alphabet & numbers

34. Courtney
Anachronic
‘Final Destination’ consists of flashforward's into future events and is later on
revealed how that predicted event will pan
out.

35. Esere
Modular Narrative
Split Screen
Scott Pilgram vs The
World
‘Scott Pilgram vs The World’:
• Split screen- shows actions/events
are happening at the same time
•In this case, its expressing the
same emotion: the action are the
same.