Narrative Theory - 1st Draft

Ahmed Khan
Narrative Theory

A Narrative is the way in which a story is told fictional or non fictional into a sequence.

Valdimir Propp:
In 1920’s the Russian critic looked over 100 fairytales. He wrote book ‘morphology’ and recommended that you can allocate the characters actions to decide their roles. He identified 8 character roles and highlights the connections between different stories.
Propps Character Roles are:
The Hero (who seeks something)
The Villain (who disputes against the hero)
The Donor (who aids the Hero by giving him a magic object)
The Dispatcher (Sends the Hero on his way)
The False Hero (Crookedly assumes the role of being the Hero)
The Helper (who helps the hero)
The Princess (The bounty for the Hero, however also seeks refugee from the villain)
Her Father

Tzevetan Todorov:
Is a Bulgarian literary theorist, who recommended that quite frequently narratives start with a state of equilibrium where life is normal and the protagonist pleased.
However this state is then disrupted by an external force. This external force needs to be fought to establish the state of equilibrium and maintain it.
This technique will be applied to our opening sequence as Ahmed the teenager coming out of detention getting on with his every day life, will be a victim of the supernatural being. This technique is also applied to the majority of films.
Equilibrium ------------ Disequilibrium ------------ New Equilibrium

Roland Barthes:
Is a French semiologist who recommended that narrative functions with five different codes which energizes the reader to make sense of it.
Barthes Codes Are:
• Action - A narrative device by which a decision is generated through action for example a shootout.
• Enigma - A narrative device aggravates the audience by showing a puzzle or riddle to be answered. Its functions to set back the story’s ending happily.
• Symbolic - (connotation)
• Semic - (denotation)
• Cultural - A narrative device which the audience can identify being part of a culture.
Claude Levi-Strauss:
A social Antropologist who studied myths of tribal cultures. Who analysed how stories without thinking reflect the values, beliefs and myths of culture.
These are usually signified in the form of Binary oppositions.
His research has been adjusted to different situations or conditions by the media theorists to show fundamental themes and symbolic oppositions in media.
Binary Oppositions are conflicts between two qualities or terms for example:
• Weak and Strong or Good and Evil
• Binary oppositions will be also applied to our opening sqeuence which shows Ahmed being weak and the supernatural being strong which haunts Ahmed.
Using Narrative to build up suspense:
A restricted narrative can be used to amaze the audience for example, in our opening sequence when Ahmed is running after the girl on the tri cycle he deosnt know was waiting for him round the corner, neither does the audience. However the other half of restricted narrative can be used to build up more suspense and the audience can predict what might be waiting round the corner, which the character will have no clue of.