Narrative Theories

1. Narrative Theories Roland Barthes, Clude Levi-Strauss, Vladimir Propp,, TzvetanTodorov,

2. What is a narrative? It is a way in which a story can be told in both fictional and non-fictional forms of media.

3. Vladimir propp Vladimir Propp was a Russian man who became a critic and literary theorist. In the 1920’s he analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales. After this he came up with a theory proposing that it was possible to classify characters and the actions they performed into clearly defined groups. A great example of a movie which perfectly illustrates these groups is Star Wars. However a significant amount of more recent movies (such as Pulp Fiction) go against his theory. The model has been found most useful due to the fact that it is able to highlight similarities between quite significantly different stories.

4. Propp’s Character Roles • The Princess • Needs protection against the villain. • The hero's reward. • Princesses Father • Can be seen as an obstacle for the hero (to win her heart) • The Hero • The one who is seeking something. • The Helper • Supports the hero and provides help • The Villain • The one who is going against the hero. • The False Hero • Falsely taking on the image of the hero (trying to deceive characters) • The Donor • Helps the Hero by providing them with an object which will help then complete their quest. • The dispatcher • Giving the hero their task and sending them on their way

5. TzvetanTodorov New and improved Equilibrium Imbalanced Equilibrium Equilibrium Tzvetan was a Bulgarian literary theorist. He suggested in his theory that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which everything seems normal and the protagonist is happy. There is then a disruption by a negative force from the outside unbalancing the equilibrium and this negative force has to be fought against so that the state of equilibrium can be restored. This theory can be applied to a vast number of films however not all of this are written in with this format therefore disproving his theory.

6. Roland Barthes • Culture • Using both connotations and denotations to enable the audience to recognise a culture. • Action • Resolution is produced through action Barthes Codes • Semic • Using denotations • Enigma • Teasing the audience by showing a riddle or puzzle to be solved. Mr Bathes was a French Semiologist. Who suggested in his theories that narritiveswork with 5 different codes which allow readers to make sense of what is going on • Symbolic • Using connotations

7. Claude Levi-Strauss His theory has been and is still used to this day whereby media theorists reveal underlying themes and symbolic meaning in media text. He was a Social Anthropologist who studied the myths of tribal cultures. He studied how stories unconsciously show or represent values, beliefs and myths of different cultures. He represented these in a form of binary oppositions

8. The Binary oppositions These were known as a conflict or situation in which people were unable to see eye to eye between 2 qualities or terms. An example of these contrasts would be would be: Christian Pagan Weak Strong Garden The wild Inside society Outside society