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Narrative: The way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts.

 

 

Vladimir Propp

Russian critic and literary theorist. Analysed over 100 Russian fairytales. He proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. The film Star Wars fit Propp’s model, but a a significant number of more recent films such as Pulp Fiction do not. 

 

Propps Character Roles

  • Propp’s Character Roles

  • The hero (seeks something)

  • The villain (opposes the hero)

  • The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object)

  • The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)

  • The false hero (falsely assuming the role of hero)

  • The helper (gives support to the hero)

  • The princess (the reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain)

  • Her father

giggity

 

 

Narrative Theory

Tzvetan Todorov

Literary theorist from Bullgaria  suggests most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is ‘normal’ and protagonists happy. This  is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium.

 

Equilibrium                 Disequilibrium                 new equilibrium

 

 

 

Roland Barthes

Was a French semiologist. Said that narrative works with five different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it. 

 

Barthe's Code

 

  • Action – a narrative device by which a resolution is produced through action

  • Enigma – a narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved

  • Symbolic – (connotation)

  • Semic – (denotation)

  • Cultural – a narrative device which the audience can recognise as being part of a culture like gangster.

 

Claude Levi-Strauss

 

 

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