2. Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher. His theory was that
each narrative has 5 different parts:
Equilibrium- the narrative starts happy and normal
Disruption- some kind of event or problem occurs and creates a
problem.
Realisation- the problem is then noticed by the people/characters
involved in the narrative.
Reparation- there is then an attempt made to fix the problem.
Restoration of Equilibrium- this results in the problem being resolved
and eventually the restoration of the equilibrium (the happy ending).
3. Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory suggested that:
The narrative structure can be determined by the role.
Character role helps us to understand the constructed nature of
the narrative.
There are 8 character roles.
There are 31 functions to character
Vladimir Propp helps to us to understand that each character role
has a purpose within the narrative and audience identification.
4. These character roles are:
The villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the antagonist)
The donor,
The helper,
The Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal
and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain
The dispatcher,
The hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and
weds
The false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often
seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess).
5. Claude Levi- Shrauss
Claude Levi- shrauss suggested that the production of meaning
depended on the concept of binary oppositions.
This involves opposites such as;
Good vs Evil
Boy vs girl
Black vs whtie
Hero vs Villain
Freedom vs Captivity
Fear vs Courage
Trust vs Betrayal
6. Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes describes text as: ‘a galaxy of signifiers, not a
structure of signifiers; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain
access to it by several entrances, none of which can be
authoritavely declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes
extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable… the
systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but
their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of the
language…’
7. We have done this task to research the theorists to give us a wider
knowledge into documentaries and their structure and origins.
Using the information found whilst carrying out this task helped us
in deciding what narrative theorist to follow. We have chosen to
follow Claude Levi-Shrauss’ narrative theorist as we are going to
be portraying the good vs evil of social media in terms of the
impact that social media is having on our generation.
