Narrative Theorists and their Theories

Narrative Theorists and their Theories

A narrative is a sequence of events that happen to let the audience what is happening. There are several narrative theories’ to analyse.

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzevtan Todorov who is a Bulgarian philosopher was born 1st March, 1939 in Sofia. Todorov came up with the theory that a story will follow a set structure to keep the audience engaged and want to continue reading to discover what happens in the end. A narrative structure is what the audience follows when they watch a film. It helps them to understand the content of a film and comprehend the meanings intended by the producer/filmmaker. Tzvetan Todorov formed the theory of the 'Classic Hollywood narrative'. He believed that a narrative came in three stages, this was opening with a equilibrium, then getting disrupted and the equilibrium later getting balanced or either a new or the opening equilibrium is returned. This theory relates too many films; an example of this would be “Lord of the Rings”

Vladimir Propp

 Vladimir Propp was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. Vladimir Propp  started his theory by broking up fairy tales into sections. Through these sections he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that happened within the Russian fairytale. He discovered that there was usually 31 functions and 8 character types that he said occurred in all narratives. The 8 character types are:

1. The villain— struggles against the hero.
2.  The dispatcher  — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in their quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. 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 cannot be clearly distinguished.
6. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Claude levi-strauss was a French anthropolo-gist. His research has been adapted by media theorists to revel underlying themes symbolic oppositions in media text. They are usually expressed in the form of binary opposites for example good-bad, hot-cold, light- dark etc.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes was born on 12 November 1915 in the town of Cherbourg in Normandy.

Roland Barthes' narrative theory claims that a narrative can be broken down into five codes or sets of rules. These are:

Action code- which refers to the events taking place
Enigma code -this is something that is hidden from the audience to create a sense mystery.
Semic code -something that the audience can recognize through characterisation and connection.
symbolic code- symbolism that refers to the connection of a sign . Audience recognition

 Cultural code – something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness.