Structuralism explores how meaning is formulated within culture through systems of signs and codes. Key theorists who developed structuralist film theory include Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan. Roland Barthes contributed several theories to structuralism, including myth theory, the enigma code, the ball of thread theory, and the pleasure of the text theory. Vladimir Propp identified eight character types that commonly recur in narratives. Post-structuralism emerged as a critique of structuralism, rejecting the idea of inherent structures in texts. Modernism and postmodernism further rejected strict structures in favor of discontinuity and rule-breaking.

1. Media Theories

2. Structuralism
Ferdinand de Saussure:
Structuralism states that culture is to be
understood as a system of signs. From this
semiology (system of signs) was achieved.
Structuralism explores the structures
through which meaning is formulated
within a culture. Ferdinand de Saussure
also developed the idea of paradigms, which
is a group of conventions in texts.
Foucault and Lacan:
Foucault and Lacan developed the theory of Structuralism.
Suggesting that structure exists in all texts, and that art forms
are short hands purely based on our cultural understanding.
(We can also apply this this to film.)
Kant’s Theory:
Kant’s theory is the conditions of
possibilities. Which is slightly a
similar idea the idea of binary
opposites.

3. Roland Barthes’ Theories
Myth theory:
What starts of as a myth, becomes reality and are
often distorted. Horror uses this, and plays on myths
that become reality, by using our fears, such as;
ecological, social, the youth of today.
Structualists film theory emphasises how
films convey meaning through the use of
codes and conventions most dissimilar to
the way languages are used to construct
meaning in communication.

4. The Enigma code:
Barthes enigma code states that a
text portrays an element of
mystery to entice the audience,
thus intriguing them further to
view/read a text.
Ball of thread theory:
Barthes states that a text is like a
tangle of threads in which we have to
separate them in order to see the
potential meanings of it, as there is
more than one way of looking at it.
Each and every interpretation is as
valid as the other with reasons behind
why you might look at it in different
ways. there’s loads of ways in
interpreting a text, he also states that
there’s loads of reasons behind why
you would interpret it in that way.
Theorists and philosophers who
devised the idea of the enigma
code. This theory suggests that a
text (film/poster/television)
portrays an element of mystery to
entice the audience.

5. Pleasure of the text theory:
Barthes states that before we go
to the cinema we know what is
going to happen in the film. For
example if we go to see an
action film we automatically
know that the ‘hero’ will save
the day, same as if we go to see
a romantic comedy, we know
that the couple will eventually
find happiness after overcoming
their obstacles. You can almost
guess what happens in most
mainstream films and seeing
this play out is the pleasure we
receive from the text/film.
However, there’s another layer of pleasure that
we receive when the unexpected happens:
You only get a ‘Jouissance’ when you don’t
expect it – 6th sense, usual suspects.

6. Todorov’s Theory of Narrative.
Todorov came up with the idea that every story has a certain type
of structure.
Equilibrium: At the start of every story; everything is balanced;
harmony accord.
Moment of disequilibrium: Something has happened;
someone bad turns up, equilibrium is shattered.
Disequilibrium: The ‘hero’ struggles to fix the wrong, that
beset them and returns to a place of equilibrium.
New Equilibrium: Villain is defeated and peace is
restored but at a cost. Something or someone has always
been lost and the new equilibrium is tainted by this
experience.
This links into horror movies, as in
most horror movies, as in most
horror movies, it starts off happy,
calm, then further along the
moment of disequilibrium happens,
then in the middle of the film till
just before the end, the
disequilibrium occurs, and then
finally it usually ends in a new
equilibrium

7. The 4 C’s
Other than Todorov , we can also look at the 4 C’s, which is another structural device implied in
most stories.
Conflict: The hero is challenged by an outside force.
Complications: The hero’s efforts to get what they
want are thwarted (often 3 times)
Crisis: Beset with such difficulties, the hero comes
close to quitting (usually talked out of quitting by a
helper, or god, or some device.)
Climax: Finally decided against quitting, the hero
has one last guess and achieves what they wanted.

8. Levi Strauss: Binary Opposites.
Claude Levi Strauss stated that constant creation of
conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can
only end on a resolution of conflict. Oppositions can
be used (light/darkness, movement/stillness) or
conceptual (love/hate, control/panic.) and to do
with the soundtrack.
This links in with horror films as in most horror films
there are loads of conflicts, for example good verses
evil, night verses dark.

9. Louis Althusser - interpolation
Louis believed that media products, lead us to a false
recognition of ourselves, so we get lost in our ideal image
of ourselves. That will never be possible.
This is used a lot in advertising, they make us think
that if for example we buy the product, we well be
like the model advertising the product.

10. Propp’s: Eight Character Types:
Propp was a folklorist, who worked out that in
tales, there were 31 separate storylines only
that kept representing themselves.
We can see that in horror there are a limited
number of storylines, that keep repeating.
Also, Propp worked out that in texts there are a
limited number of character types. We can
transpose these to film.
•The Villain
•The (Magical) helper
•Her Father
•The Hero or victim/seeker ‘hero’
•The dispatcher
•The princess or prize
•The donor
•False hero

11. The Final Girl: A feminist approach to
audience identification.
What you already know:
• Girls always survive
• If a girl dies, it is because she’s promiscuous
• Girls are not often the villain
• Often the victim, due to the vulnerability, and
the link between horror and rape.
Formal theoretical assumptions
about horror:
• It is passive
• We identify with the victims
• It’s male- cantered and driven.

12. New Ideas:
• Theories and media commentators now accept
that these old assumptions are wrong
Key Words:
• Sadism: Deriving gratification from
another's pain or domination of another
• Masochism: Deriving gratification from
ones own pain or from submission to
another of others.
• Voyeurism: Deriving gratification from
the observation
Freud’s Fault – Freud’s Theory:
• Freud was concerned with working of the
mind; the subconscious, id, ego and
superego.
• Identified the Oedipus complex: Oedipus
murdered his father and married his
mother.

13. What has this got to do with horror films?:
• Carol Clover in ‘men, women and chainsaws’ argues that as
an audience we are structurally ‘forced into identifying, not
with the killer but with the resourceful surviving finale.
• So instead of identifying with the sadistic voyeurs, Clover
suggests that over identification has switched to the victim
(a masochistic voyeur)
• Clovers application of psychoanalytical theory (Oedipus
complex, Freud) to horror
• Sadism = POST- OEDIPAL attention switches from the
mother to the father (away from a natured submission baby-
state to a more independent self-motivated child state)
• Masochism however is PRE-OEDIPAL the mother is less
powerful, so as an audience we are masochistic & pre-
oedipal because we take pleasure in identifying with the
female.

14. Examples:
• Jamie lee Curtis: Halloween
• Betsy Palmer: Friday 13th
• Heather Langenkamp: A nightmare on elm street
• Eliza Dushku: Wrong Turn
Our identification with the surviving girl, means
that as an audience we were subject to feminist
theory as well as structualist theory.
In most horror film there is always a final girl,
below I have listed a few ‘final girls’ from horror
movies.

15. Post Structuralism:
• Structuralism (early 20th century) structure exists in
all art forms.
• Post structuralism is a theory which exists only as a
critique of structuralism and has no form of its own.
It argues that there is no structure which is inherent
in every text.
• They attempted to distance themselves from
structuralism

16. Modernism:
Modernism: A movement away from structure, it developed out of post
structuralism.
A new direction in art, literature theology, etc., emphasising
new ideas and including a deliberate break with the past.
Modernism grew, as a reaction to the first world war,
artists began to question conventional structures through
their art. The movement embraced discontinuity and
rejected smooth change. It approves the disruption,
rejecting or moving beyond simple realism in literature
and art.
Modernism: There can be meaning without rules and structure.

17. Deconstruction:
• Deconstruction is an active process.
• In this instance It does not simply mean analysing or breaking down
into meaning (as we often use when studying a text)
• Deconstruction is what the art form does. It attempts to deconstruct
the reader/viewer’s expectations and its about being smart how this
process happens.
• Its about getting to a film with a set of expectations. The film
deconstructs your expectations.
• ‘Shaun of the dead’ deconstructs your pre-conceived notions about
horror film genre, character etc.

18. Postmodernism:
• Doing the unexpected in a knowing way. It’s about knowing the
rules a d breaking them.
• The loss of rule of combination is called “bricolage” (French
term, meaning jumble, like brick-a-brack shop)
• Postmodern films are self-referred. They play with generic
conventions knowingly. There’s a deliberate subversion of
paradigms.
• W.B: postmodernism is different from parody (poking fun at
something to create a humorous reaction) it’s different between
a postmodern film like “Shaun of the dead” and a spoof.

19. Laura Mulvey: The male gaze
In classical Hollywood cinema, viewers were encouraged to
identify with the protagonist of the film, who tended to be a
man. Meanwhile Hollywood female characters of the 1950s
and 60s were according to Mulvey, coded with “to-be-looked-
at-ness”.