This document discusses several narrative theorists and their contributions to understanding narrative structure. Vladimir Propp analyzed Russian fairytales and proposed that narratives can be classified based on character roles such as hero, villain, and princess. Tzvetan Todorov suggested that most narratives follow a disruption-fight-return to equilibrium structure. Roland Barthes identified five codes that enable readers to make sense of narratives, including action and enigma devices. Claude Levi-Strauss examined how stories unconsciously reflect the culture they come from through symbolic oppositions.

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Narrative theory
By Ellie Codd

2.  The way in which a story is told in both fictional and
non fictional media texts.
What is a narrative?

3.  Russian critcic and literary theorist.
 Analysied over 100 russian fairytales
 He proposed that it was possible to classify
defined roles and functions,
 Films such as star wars fit Propp’s model, but a
significant number of more recent films such as
pulp fiction don’t.
Vladimir Propp

4.  The hero- (seeking something)
 The villain- (opposes the hero)
 The princess- (The reward for the hero)
Propps character roles

5.  Bulgarian literacy theorist
 Suggests that most narratives start with a state
of equilibrium in which life is ‘normal’ and the
protagonists are content.
 The state of normality is disrupted by an
outside force which has to be fought against in
order to return to a state of equilibrium.
 This model can easily be applied to a wide
range of media texts.
Tzvetan Todorov

7.  French Semiologist
 Suggested that a narrative works with 5
different codes which enable the reader to
make sense of it.
 He also instigated the terms ‘denotation’ and
‘connotation’ to analyse an image
Roland Barthes

8.  ACTION- A narrative device by which a
resolution is produced through action e.g.
shoot out.
 ENGIMA- A narrative device that teases the
audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be
solved. It works to delay the story's ending.
 CULTURAL- A narrative device which the
audience can recognise as being part of a
culture.
Barthes codes

9.  Social Anthropologist
 Studied myths of tribal cultures
 Examined how stories unconsciously reflect the
values, beliefs and myths of a culture
 These are usually expressed in the form of binary
opposites.
 His research has been adapted by media
theorists to reveal underlying themes and
symbolic oppositions in media texts.
Claude Levi – Strauss