2. Narrative Investigation
What is narrative?
“ a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time”
(Bordwell & Thompson).
Narrative theory analyses the way in which media texts
communicate meaning about events.
Narrative theory can be applied to range of different media
including film, TV, photographs and magazines.
Narrative analysis of internet based media is more problematic,
though may still be relevant. For example, you could consider how
someone’s Facebook profile creates a narrative about their life.
3. Theorists
• Edward Branigan - Argues that narrative is a way of organising spatial and temporal data into a
cause-effect chain of events with a beginning, a middle and end that embodies a judgement
about the nature of events. His key point is that the narrative will embody a judgement – ideology
and narrative.
• Vladimir Propp – Proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into
clearly defined roles and functions. He suggests that there are a limited number of character
types that share a function, when an audience reads a media text it deploys its knowledge of
these character types in order to decode the meaning of the text.
- The Hero (seeks something)
- The Villain (opposes the hero)
- The Donor (helps the hero by providing useful objects)
- The Dispatcher (sends the hero on their way)
- The Helper (gives support to the hero)
- The Girl (reward for the hero, also needs protection from villain)
• Tzvetan Todorov – Suggests most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is normal
and the protagonist is happy. The state of normality is then disrupted by an outside force, which
has to be fought against in order to return to the state of equilibrium.
