Introduction to Narrative theory

What is narrative? In media, narrative is the organisation of a series of different facts. If we relate this to everyday life, the human mind could be used as a vehicle of circumstance In order to portray this idea. This is due to the human mind needing ‘narrative’ in order to be able to make sense of what is going on around us. In our heads we are able to make connections between differing events to then gather our own interpretations and opinions that are personal to us. If you think about life in general, as humans we look for a beginning, a middle and an end this can be applied to anything in storylines from a romance, an action movie and can even relate to our own lives. This enables films to connect to the audience on a more personal level.

Why is it important to film and media texts? Media texts are organised in such a way that makes them easy to understand. This is due to it being difficult to construct a meaning out of everyday experiences, so little effort must be needed in order to understand a media text. Therefore we have expectations of how that text will be constructed.

Propp Propp elaborated on the Russian Formalist study of language to be able to analyse his own folk tales. He broke down the tales into the smallest possible units, which he called narrative functions, necessary for the narrative to exist. Each narrative function is used as an activating event, that drives the narrative forward, possibly taking it in a different direction. Not every function appears in every story, however they always seem to appear in this order.

Character categories The villain, (antagonist) The donor The helper The Princess (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain The dispatcher, who sends the hero on their way The hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), The false hero, who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)

Linking to a film - Shrek The villain – Dragon The donor – Fairy godmother/ The gingerbread man The helper – Donkey The princess – Fiona The dispatcher – Lord farquaad The hero – Shrek The false hero – Fairy godmother/ Lord Farquaad

Barthes Barthes was a French theorist who studied symbols and cultural signs. He believed that text had 5 codes which are incorporated into any narrative. These are... The hermeneutic code (HER) The enigma/ proairetic code (ACT) The symbolic code (SYM) The cultural code (REF) The semantic code (SEM)

(HER) – The way in which the story hides the truth from the audience and uses clues to create a sense of mystery. (ACT) – The way tension is amounted and the audience are left guessing about what happens next in the plot. (SEM) – An element in the text that may have a double meaning, which the plot suggests. (SYM) – Similar to semantic code, but on a deeper level. (REF) –Attempts to explore the audience’s broader cultural knowledge.

Todorov Todorov’s narrative theory enforces the idea that most plots follow the same pattern, following 5 steps… 1. Equilibrium – The first part of the story is usually happy, where most of the characters are content 2. A disruption – Something that disrupts the happiness 3. Realisation – The part when everyone realises the problem 4. Restored order – The characters attempt to repair the damage made 5. Equilibrium again – The problem is resolved and normality can resume.

Linking to a film - Frozen Equilibrium – peaceful setting of a castle, with little disturbance A disruption – The prince arrives Realisation – Everyone realises the prince’s true intentions Restored order – Elsa sets off to find her sister Equilibrium again – Restored order, returning back to normal

Claude Levi - Strauss Claude found out that humans make sense of the world, by seeing and using binary opposites. He then applied this to narratives, suggesting that they are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites. Examples include: Good vs Evil Peace vs War Protagonist vs Antagonist Boy vs Good Young vs Old

Linking to films Good vs Evil – Batman vs The joker - Peter pan vs Captain Hook - James Bond vs Goldfinger - Harry Potter vs Voldemort Binary opposites used to be easy to spot in films however they are now a lot more complex, for example within the new Twilight films. Within this plot they reveal vampires vs werewolves, which is a much more modern approach.