2. Todorov – Narrative Theory:
Tzvetan Todorov suggested there were 5 stages to a narrative:
1. Equilibrium – A happy start
2. A disruption of this equilibrium by an event – A problem occurs
3. A realisation that a disruption has happened
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption – the problem is solved
5. A restoration of the eqilibrium – A happy ending
These music video narratives can be can be applied to Todorov’s Theory:
Foo Fighters – Learn to fly
1. Equilibrium – Everyone getting onto the plane.
2. Disruption – The crew take some drinks which makes them fall over and go to sleep.
3. Realisation – Everyone is thrown around the plane as it gets out of control.
4. Attempt to repair the damage – The singer goes to the front of the plane and manages to
land.
5. Restoration of the equilibrium – Everyone gets off of the plane safely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ_3sBZEm0&ob=av2e
3. Propp – Character Types:
1. The villain—struggles against the hero
2. The donor—prepares the hero or gives the hero some
magical object
3. The (magical) helper—helps the hero in the quest
4. The princess and her father—gives the task to the hero,
identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought
for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally,
the princess and the father can not be clearly
distinguished
5. The dispatcher—character who makes the lack known
and sends the hero off.
6. The hero or victim/seeker hero—reacts to the donor,
weds the princess
7. False hero—takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to
marry the princess.
8. Who acts to reward a hero through his effort.
4. Levi-Strauss – Binary Oppositions:
Claude Lévi-Strauss is a theorist who came up with the idea that films
contains binary opposites, these opposites may clash in the film
making the activity more exciting. For example if you are watching a
film there is normally a Hero, opposite to that would be a Villain, which
you will almost always get in a film with a Hero.
Narrative & Binary Opposites
Machine v Monster
1. Find the binary oppositions with which the text is organized using
typical codes and conventions, for example, male/female; rich/poor;
dominant/oppressed; black/white etc.
2. Criticize or undo the invidious structure of these oppositions in that
in any of these oppositions there is a preferred term. Revising the
terms is an excellent strategy.
3. Reconstruct a new meaning.
Examples are; Twilight and Harry Potter.
5. Barthes – Narrative Codes:
1. Proairetic code (the voice of empirics): The code of actions. Any action
initiated must be completed. The cumulative actions constitute the plot
events of the text.
2. Hermeneutic code (the voice of truth): The code of enigmas or puzzles.
3. Connotative [or Semic] code (the voice of the person): The accumulation
of connotations. Semes, sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute
character. “The proper noun surrounded by connotations.”
4. Cultural or referential code (the voice of science [or knowledge]):
Though all codes are cultural we reserve this designation for the storehouse
of knowledge we use in interpreting everyday experience.
5. Symbolic code (voice of the symbol): Binary oppositions or themes. The
inscription into the text of the antithesis central to the organization of the
cultural code.
