This document discusses several narrative and film theorists including:
1. Todorov who proposed that narratives follow a five stage structure from equilibrium to disruption to new equilibrium.
2. Propp who identified common character archetypes in fairy tales like villains, dispatchers, and heroes.
3. Levi-Strauss who saw narratives as reflecting cultural myths through binary oppositions like good vs evil.
It also provides examples of applying these theories to analyze the narratives of Star Wars and The Matrix.
2. Narrative- is kind of retelling the story of
something that happened but not the
story of itself but the telling of the story.
3. Closed Narrative:
1. The viewers are aware that they are watching a whole story
2. There are small number of dominant character
3. The characters are place in the hierarchy of importance
4. Audience are invited to make judgments on the characters
5. Time is beaten and not with the actual time
6. In a specific story times and events are special and not related to
the outside world
7. Audience regularly has evidence about the characters but from
only one single text
4. Open Narrative:
1. There are more then one story lines
2. There are many more characters- characters move in
and out of fame and narrative meaning
3. Time is more in order and more with the world time
4. The modern and postmodern text are often linked
between dissimilar piece of the narrative required and
work on the parts of the viewers so they can
understand the concept.
5. The narrative demonstrates one of the character as an
old women who then spreads her story of the deep-sea linear
6. • He was a was a French philosopher
• He was a Bulgarian literary theorist
• He came up with the idea of equilibrium
• Claimed all stories had a basic structure based on equilibrium
7. Equilibrium: It is when there is an equal balance between any powers, influences
and the equality of effect.
Disequilibrium : It is a state in which things are not
stable or certain, but are likely to change sudden or be
disrupted.
New Equilibrium: A restoration of balance and is found at the end of the
narrative.
8. Todorov suggest that narrative are organised in 5 stages:
1. A state of equilibrium (state of normality- good, bad or neutral)
2. A disruption of the equilibrium (a character or an action)
3. The main Protagonist know that the equilibrium has been disrupted
4. Character tries to correct this in order to restore equilibrium
5. Equilibrium is given back but, because casual change have
happened, there are differences (good, bad or neutral) from original
equilibrium, which establish it as a new equilibrium.
9. Applying Tordorov’s Theory
Equilibrium Disruption Resolution
Stage 1: One of the protagonist character
Equilibrium is a lonely wedding planners
who’s looking for ‘Mr Right’
Stage 2: Disruption
Stage 3: Resolution
The journalist and the girl
Falls in love and screws the
article
About the women
10. Applying Tordorov’s Theory
Stage 1: One of the main characters
Equilibrium are suppose to be getting
married, two days before a
‘stag do’ him and his friend
decided to go to Las Vegas.
Stage 2: Disruption The wake up one
morning not knowing
what happen the night
Stage 3: Resolution before because they
were drugged. The
groom was missing so
they all went out o
They find their friend
search for him.
and returned home in
time for the wedding.
11. • He was a social Anthropologist
• He studied myths of tribal cultures
• Studied how stories automatically reflect the values, belief
and myth of the culture.
• He states that in any narrative there is a constant creation of
conflict/opposition that pushes the narrative forwards
Key Terms
Binary opposition: is an opposite of two
extremes.
12. Claude Levi-Strauss approach to Narrative
• Levi-Strauss saw that we make sense of the world, people and events by
seeing and using binary opposition everywhere.
He observed that all narratives are organised around
the conflict between such binary opposites.
Examples of Binary Opposites
• Good Vs. Bad • Protagonist vs. antagonist
• Black vs. White • Actions vs. inaction
• Peace vs. War • Motivator Vs. Observer
• Young vs. Old • East vs. West
14. • He was a Russian critic and literary theorist
• He analysed over 100 Russian fairy-tale in the 1920’s
• He says that it is likely to classify the characters and
their actions into clearly defined roles and function
• He states that all fairy tales have common narrative
structures and character functions.
15. He developed a character theory for studying media texts.
There were 8 broads character types in the 100 tale he
analysed:
1. The Villain (opposes the hero)
2. The Dispatcher (who sends the hero on its way)
3. The Helper (who aids the hero)
4. The Princess Or Prize (the reward for the hero)
5. Her Father (who rewards the hero)
6. The Donor (offers an object with magical stuff)
7. The Hero (seeks something)
8. False Hero (falsely assuming the role of hero)
16. 1. The Villain Darth Vader
2. False Hero
3. The Donor Obi Wan
4. The Helper
5. The Dispatcher
6. The Princess Or Prize Leia
7. Her Father Leia’s Father
8. The Hero Luke Skywalker
1. The Villain Agents
2. False Hero Cypher
3. The Donor Morpheus
4. The Dispatcher
Trinity
5. The Helper
6. The Princess Or Prize
7. The Hero Neo
