This document summarizes biographical information about several scholars and provides examples of literary concepts: Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp were philosophers from Bulgaria and Russia respectively. Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist. Home Alone is used to illustrate the concepts of equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium. Binary opposition and flashbacks are discussed and exemplified using the movies Edward Scissorhands and The Butterfly Effect. Stereotypes in movies are mentioned using the example of Enchanted.

1. Tzvetan Todorov & Vladimir Propp, Claude Levi – Strauss By Paula Duru

2. Tzvetan is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. Born: Sofia Bulgaria Residence: Paris, France Nationality: French/Bulgarian Todorov has been a visiting professor at several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

3. Claude Levi – Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist. Born: 28 November 1908 Brussels, Belgium Died: 30 October 2009 (aged 100) Claude was honoured by universities throughout the world and held the chair of Social Anthropology at the College of France

4. Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar. Born 17 th April 1895 Nationality: Russian Died: August 22 nd 1970 Propp majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.

5. where everything is balanced. A situation where everything is unbalanced. When the disequilibrium has found a resolution and when the equilibrium is restored. Beginning Middle End

6. Home Alone is a example of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. Equilibrium – Main character a young boy called Kevin lives in harmony with his family at home. A argument occurs with him and his family. So he wakes up and finds out his family has gone on holiday and he is left at home alone. Kevin is left to stay home until his family come back. Disequilibrium – After a few hours of being home alone two burglars realise that Kevin is home alone. They then start to put their plan into action and try to get into the house with Kevin alone. Kevin tries to deny them access into the house. New Equilibrium - After a series of traps laid out by Kevin, the burglars are eventually caught and Kevin’s family make it back home just in time and this is called the new equilibrium where everything is back to normal.

7. Binary Opposition “ Binary Opposite” where texts are organised around sets of opposite values such as good and evil. I understood Binary Opposition by watching the movie Edward Scissorhands and understanding the opposition or Light and Dark. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =eq2PPFUhfpo&feature= player_embedded

8. Flashbacks This is a flashback that I saw in “The Butterfly Effect” http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v = cEELtaAnVjU

9. Characters = Stereotypes In movies I always see stereotypes occur. It always shows the foreigner as the villain, the dumb blonde as the heroin and the handsome guy as the hero. Will this ever change? I saw something similar to this in a Disney movie I watched called “Enchanted” http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =uW6dNiOIOhA&feature= player_embedded