This document discusses key concepts in narrative theory, including definitions of narrative and story. It explores where narratives are encountered in everyday life and how they are structured. Some common narrative devices are explained, such as openings that create enigmas to grab attention, action codes that set up conflicts, and binary oppositions that establish meanings. Classical narrative theories of Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp are outlined, describing typical narrative structures including equilibrium, disruption, recognition, attempt to repair, and restoration. The document also briefly discusses multi-strand narratives and closed versus open endings.

1. AS Media Studies;
Narrative Theory
Once upon a time…

2. Story? Narrative? Plot?
• What is narrative?
• While the term ‘narrative’ certainly is
not used as commonly as ‘story’, most
people know that it refers, in some way.
• We encounter narratives on a daily basis.

3. Where do we see/hear stories on a
day to day basis?
• TV Programmes
• Novels or short stories
• Films
• Advertisements
• Newspapers or on TV and radio
• Via the internet
• Through talk, ‘gossip’ and chat.

4. Once upon a time…
• Many of us experience our first story at a very young
age, possibly beginning with the immortal phrase of
countless fairy tales, ‘Once upon a time…’
• What does this phrase really mean to us?
• “Once” =
• “Once” invites us into the narrative world which is
set in the past; indeed, most narratives are
recounted in the past tense.
• “upon a time” =
• Situates us in a world we know is different to our
own, in a time that is not now.

5. Once upon a time…
• Write down quickly what story you expect to
happen after the line below.
• ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks
were striking thirteen.’

6. Film posters and Openings
• Openings are intended to grab and hold the attention
of the receiver of the text. People will lose interest
if it doesn’t capture the attention immediately.
• The extract is from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-
four. The sentence is made intriguing because the
clocks strike ‘thirteen’. This immediately sets up a
puzzle or an ENIGMA CODE as Barthes would call it.
• We would probably expect a science fiction style
narrative (the novel was written in 1949 and is an
alarming vision of a time and place where the world
has different rules.)

7. Enigma Codes

8. Action Codes
• Barthes also suggests that action codes exist
this term applies to any action that suggestion
further narrative action. For example, a
cowboy draws his gun on an enemy and we
wonder what the resolution of this will be.
•

9. Action codes

10. Levi-Strauss and binary
oppositions.
Claude Levi-Strauss, a French theorist (not the
jeans!) gave media studies a number of influential
theories that help us to understand how meaning is
established quickly in openings.
Binary Oppositions create meaning through
establishing what something is not. We understand
the world through a system of power weighted
oppositions.

11. Binary Oppositions
Man vs Woman
White vs Black
Young vs Old
Hero vs Villain
West vs East
Good vs Bad

12. Binary Opposition
• Binary oppositions can help
establish who the ‘good’
and the ‘bad’ characters
are in very quickly.
• The idea that we cannot
conceive the concept of
‘good’ without the presence
of ‘bad’ with which to
compare it to and therefore
define it against.
• Binary oppositions are
obviously present in
narratives because
fundamentally a narrative
must be based on a conflict
of forces, opposition
between usually a hero and
villain.

13. Narrative –Narrative –
Tzvetan Todorov
Equilibrium - A
sense of
normality, the
calm before the
storm. Disruption - The
point where the
story changes: a
death, an event,
a situation.
Recognition of
Disruption
Attempt to
repair
Restoration of a
New Equilibrium
- Where
normality is
restored.

14. Vladimir Propp’S seven spheres of action:
Hero: Individual(s) who's quest is to restore the equilibrium.
Villain: Individual(s) who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium.
Donor: Individual(s) who gives the hero(s) something, advice,
information or an object.
Helper: Individual(s) who aids the hero(s) with their set task.
Princess (Prince): Individual(s) which need help, protecting
and saving.
Dispatcher: Individual(s) who send the hero(s) on their quest.
False Hero: Individual(s) who set out to undermine the hero's
quest by pretending to aid them.
Often unmasked at the end of the film

15. Multi-strand Narrative
A multi-strand narrative structure means
there are several narratives running at the
same time. This is very common in
television and radio soaps and ongoing
drama series, such as Holby City, and The
Bill.

16. Narrative Structure - Endings
• Narrative structure is the way the story or plot
unfolds. Is the story an open or closed structure. A
closed structure means the story ends satisfactorily
as in most films - this is known as closure, with the
girl getting the boy or the hero saving the planet.
• An open ending means there is no final conclusion to
the story - a television has no final ending, it just has
minor endings ( a character gets killed). It is left
open for the story to continue.