This document discusses narrative theory and theorists Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov. It summarizes Propp's analysis of Russian fairy tales which identified character roles like the hero, villain, and donor. Todorov suggests most narratives have an initial state of equilibrium, a disruption causing disequilibrium, and a return to a new equilibrium. Both theories can be applied to horror films - Propp's character roles are often present, and horror films follow Todorov's pattern of moving from one equilibrium to another through disruption and resolution.
Title: Lucy
Genre: Science-Fiction/Action
Director: Luc Besson
Screenwriter: Eric Serra
Main casts:
Scarlett Johansson as Lucy
Morgan Freeman as Professor Norman
Lucy is a 25-year-old American woman living and studying in Taiwan.
Her boyfriend tricks him to deliver a briefcase with four bags of highly valuable drug called CPH4.
Before delivering the briefcase she sees her boyfriend being shot and killed.
She is captured
a bag of drug is forcibly putted into her stomach
The three other bags are inserted into three other boy’s stomach to transport the drug for sales in Europe.
While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the stomach and causes breaking the bag, releasing a large quantity of the drug into her body.
As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly enhanced physical and mental capabilities
Lucy goes to a hospital to get the bag of drug removed from her stomach
She returns to Mr. Jang’s hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults Mr. Jang and telepathically extracts the locations of all three drug dealers from his brain.
Lucy contacts this scientist called Professor Norman.
she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three bags of the drugs
She stands in front of Jang’s members
With the help of Del Rio, Lucy recovers the drugs and moves to meet Professor Norman. She agrees to share everything she knows (all her knowledge) with him, after Professor Norman points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge.
Jang and his group also want the drug and a gunfight happens with the French police outside the lab which Lucy and Norman are in.
she is injected with the contents of all three bags of drugs
Her body begins to change into a black substance, spreading over computers and other objects in the lab
she transforms these into an unconventionally shaped, next generation Supercomputer that will contain all of her enhanced knowledge of the universe.
Mr. Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy’s head from behind, intending to kill her
He shoots, but in an instant before the bullet reaches to her, Lucy reaches 100% of her brain capacity and disappears within the space time continuum
where she explains that: “everything is connected and existence is only proven through time”.
Del Rio enters the lab and shoots Mr. Jang
Professor Norman takes a flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer created by Lucy’s body.
Del Rio asks Professor Norman “Where is she?” immediately his cellphone sounds and he sees a text massage:
With an overhead shot, Lucy’s voice is heard stating:
“Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it”.
According to Simpson (2004), “one principle that is common to many models of discourse analysis is the understanding that all naturally occurring language takes place in a context of use”. He divides up the idea of context into three categories: Physica
Title: Lucy
Genre: Science-Fiction/Action
Director: Luc Besson
Screenwriter: Eric Serra
Main casts:
Scarlett Johansson as Lucy
Morgan Freeman as Professor Norman
Lucy is a 25-year-old American woman living and studying in Taiwan.
Her boyfriend tricks him to deliver a briefcase with four bags of highly valuable drug called CPH4.
Before delivering the briefcase she sees her boyfriend being shot and killed.
She is captured
a bag of drug is forcibly putted into her stomach
The three other bags are inserted into three other boy’s stomach to transport the drug for sales in Europe.
While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the stomach and causes breaking the bag, releasing a large quantity of the drug into her body.
As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly enhanced physical and mental capabilities
Lucy goes to a hospital to get the bag of drug removed from her stomach
She returns to Mr. Jang’s hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults Mr. Jang and telepathically extracts the locations of all three drug dealers from his brain.
Lucy contacts this scientist called Professor Norman.
she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three bags of the drugs
She stands in front of Jang’s members
With the help of Del Rio, Lucy recovers the drugs and moves to meet Professor Norman. She agrees to share everything she knows (all her knowledge) with him, after Professor Norman points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge.
Jang and his group also want the drug and a gunfight happens with the French police outside the lab which Lucy and Norman are in.
she is injected with the contents of all three bags of drugs
Her body begins to change into a black substance, spreading over computers and other objects in the lab
she transforms these into an unconventionally shaped, next generation Supercomputer that will contain all of her enhanced knowledge of the universe.
Mr. Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy’s head from behind, intending to kill her
He shoots, but in an instant before the bullet reaches to her, Lucy reaches 100% of her brain capacity and disappears within the space time continuum
where she explains that: “everything is connected and existence is only proven through time”.
Del Rio enters the lab and shoots Mr. Jang
Professor Norman takes a flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer created by Lucy’s body.
Del Rio asks Professor Norman “Where is she?” immediately his cellphone sounds and he sees a text massage:
With an overhead shot, Lucy’s voice is heard stating:
“Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it”.
According to Simpson (2004), “one principle that is common to many models of discourse analysis is the understanding that all naturally occurring language takes place in a context of use”. He divides up the idea of context into three categories: Physica
1. Narrative investigation
What is narrative?
A story of account of events/experiences or something similar whether true
or fictitious
What Narrative theorists can you find?
1. Vladimir Propp (Russian Literary theorist)
Analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920’s
He proposed that is was possible to classify the characters and their
actions into clearly defined roles and functions
Films such as star wars fits Props model precisely but significant
number of more recent films such as pulp fiction do not
Props character roles
- The HERO (seeks something)
- The VILLAIN (Apposes the hero)
- The DONOR (helps the hero)
- The DISPATCHER (sends the hero on is way)
- The FASLE HERO (Falsely assuming the role of the hero)
- The HELPER (gives support to the hero)
- The PRINCESS (Reward for the hero but also needs
protection from the villain)
- He FATHER (Over Protective)
2. Tzvetan Todorov (Bulgarian literary theorist)
Suggests that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in
which life is normal and the protagonist/main character happy.
This state of normality is normally disrupted by an outside force,
which has to be fought against in order to return the state of
equilibrium
This model can be easily applied to a variety of films
Equilibrium Disequilibrium New Equilibrium
2. What narrative theories can you link to the horror genre?
Vladimir Propp’s Theory can be linked to the horror genre as in
most typical horror films this ranking of characters is usually
present give or take a few roles, these characters roles will
become apparent to the audience early on in the film with the
main roles of The Hero and the Villain are usually the first to be
shown as these are typically the protagonists throughout the
film
Tzvetan Todorov’s theory is very easy to recognise within the
horror genre as it is displayed the whole way through the film,
the equilibrium at the start will become apparent the audience
and that creates suspense, as they are aware something is going
to happen to create disequilibrium, and even once equilibrium is
restore nearer the end of the film some audiences will still find
3. them selves questioning whether the equilibrium is fully back to
normal, if it is not this is usually when a sequel of the original
film will be made to carry on the story.