Narrative Theory
24/10/13
Vasil Nikolov
Narrative means the way a story can be told. Stories are usually told in in two ways, fictional and non-fictional.
Vladimir Propp is a Russian critic and a literary theorist that has analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920`s in order to proposed that it was possible to classify the characters into clearly defined roles and functions. Some films such as Star Wars are possible to be classified to Propp`s theory as the characters fulfil the roles. Some find the model useful as it highlights the similarities between different stories.
According to Propp, the characters are categorised in the following order. The hero is the person who would be in a quest to find something. Then there is the villian, who has to oppose the hero. Then there is the donor by helping the hero with a magical object. Following the donor, we have the dispatcher who sends the hero on a quest to find the thing he is searching for. Interestingly there is also a false hero as he (falsly assumes the role of the hero). Finally there are the helper who gives the support to the hero, the princess (usually portrayed as the victim and reward for the hero) and her father who rewards the hero with his kingdom and daughter.
Tzvetan Todorov is the
next theorist. He arrives from the former soviet republic of Bulgaria. He was a
literary theorist, who believed that stories started in a state of equilibrium
and everyone is happy. Then the
state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be
fought against in order to return to a
state of equilibrium.
This model can easily be applied to a wide range of films.
The final theorist is Claude Levi-Strauss who was a Social Anthropologist. He studied myths of tribal cultures
and examined how stories
unconsciously reflected the values, beliefs and myths of a certain culture.
These are usually expressed in the form of a
binary opposition. His research has been adapted by media theorists to
reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts.
Our film is supported by Tzvetan Todorov`s theory as our film starts at level of equilibrium and then depresiates into disequilibrium as there are forrces that cause the event to become a thriller/horror story.
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This post demonstrates a basic understanding of the narrative theory and this is because you have not explored the three theories in enough detail, (Propp, Todorov, Aristotle).
ReplyDeleteAlso you need to explain, which theory will follow your group narrative in a lot more detail.