Over view of these structuralist ideas about narrative including Propp, Todoorv and Levi-Strauss.

1. Introducing ‘narrative’

2. What does narrative mean?
 The way that stories are told, how meaning is constructed
to achieve the understanding of the audience.
 Groups events into cause and effect – action and
inaction.
 Organises time and space in very compressed form.
 The voice of the narrative can vary; whose story is
being told and from whose perspective?
 Narrative plot refers to everything audibly or visibly
present, i.e. selective.
 Narrative story refers to all the events, explicitly
presented or referred.
 In film, narrative is constructed through elements like
camerawork, lighting, sound, mise-en-scene and editing.

3. Why is narrative important to us?
We use narratives or stories to make sense of our lives and the
world around us. There are different ways in which we use the
narrative form:
 As children we listen to fairytales and myths/legends. As we
grow older, we read short stories, novels, history and
biographies.
 Religion is often presented through a collection of stories/moral
tales e.g. the Koran, the Bible, the Ramayana, etc.
 Scientific breakthrough is often presented as stories of an
experimenter/scientist’s trials.
 Cultural phenomena such as plays, films, dance and paintings
tell stories.
 News events are told as stories.
 Dreams are retold as stories.

4. Approaches to studying narrative
 There are many ways of looking at and
thinking about narratives.
 For nearly 2300 years various ‘thinkers’,
philosophers and theorists have tried to
explain how narratives work.

5. Aristotle
Over 2000 years ago the Greek philosopher
Aristotle observed that all narratives have:
 a beginning
 a middle
 an end

6. Five-stage narrative structure
 Exposition – setting scene and introducing characters:-
Little Red Riding Hood has to take food to grandmother who is ill
 Development – situation develops, more characters introduced:-
She sets out through woods where wolf is lurking
 Complication – something happens to complicate lives of
characters:-She meets wolf, he delays her and rushes ahead
and ties up grandmother
 Climax – decisive moment reached; matters come to head;
suspense high:-She arrives, comments on size of
grandmother’s ears, etc., Wolf eats her up
 Resolution – matters are resolved and satisfactory end is
reached :- Wolf falls asleep, passing forester investigates
noise, rescues grandmother from cupboard and Red Riding
Hood by cutting Wolf’s stomach open

7. Todorov’s approach to narrative
 Todorov suggests that all narratives begin with
equilibrium or an initial situation (where
everything is balanced).
 This is followed by some form of disruption,
which is later resolved.
 With the resolution at the end of the narrative a
new equilibrium is usually established.

8. Todorov’s approach to narrative
There are five stages a narrative has to pass
Through:
1. The state of equilibrium (state of normality – good, bad or
neutral).
2. An event disrupts the equilibrium (a character or an action).
3. The main protagonist recognises that the equilibrium has been
disrupted.
4. Protagonist attempts to rectify this in order to restore
equilibrium.
5. Equilibrium is restored but, because causal transformations
have occurred, there are differences (good, bad, or neutral)
from original equilibrium, which establish it as a new
equilibrium.

9. Todorov’s approach to narrative
 In these stages, narrative is not seen as a linear
structure but a circular one. The narrative is driven by
attempts to restore the equilibrium. However, the
equilibrium attained at the end of the story is not
identical to the initial equilibrium.
 Todorov argues that narrative involves a
transformation. The characters or the situations are
transformed through the progress of the disruption. The
disruption itself usually takes place outside the normal
social framework, outside the ‘normal’ social events
(e.g., a murder happens and people are terrified or
someone vanishes and the characters have to solve the
mystery).

10. Propp’s approach to narrative
 Vladimir Propp studied hundreds of Russian folk and
fairytales before deciding that all narratives have a common
structure.
 He observed that narratives are shaped and directed by
certain types of characters and specific kinds of actions
 He believed that there are 31 possible stages or functions in
any narrative.
 These may not all appear in a single story, but nevertheless
always appear in the same sequence.
 A function is a plot motif or event in the story.
 A tale may skip functions but it cannot shuffle their
unvarying order.

11. Propp’s approach to narrative
Propp believed that there are eight roles which any character may assume
in the story:
 Villain - struggles with hero
 Donor - prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent
 Helper - assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigures the hero
 Princess - a sought-for person (and/or her father) who exists as
goal and often recognises and marries hero and/or punishes villain
 Dispatcher - sends hero off
 Hero - departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to donor and
weds at end
 False Hero - claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting
like a real hero
 Princess’ father – rewards the hero

12. Propp’s 31 narrative functions
Path B: Unrecognised arrival, task,
recognition, punishment, wedding
23. Hero, unrecognised, arrived home or in another country.
24. False hero presents unfounded claims.
25. Difficult task is proposed to hero (trial by drink, riddle, test of
strength).
26. Task is resolved or accomplished.
27. Hero is recognised, often by mark or object.
28. False hero or villain is exposed and/or punished.
29. Hero is given new appearance (is made whole, handsome, etc.).
30. Villain is pursued.
31. Hero is married and ascends throne.

13. An example: Star Wars
The hero
is dispatched on a search,
struggles with and defeats
the villain, marries the
Princess.
The Hero is introduced in the
initial situation.
Example: Luke Skywalker

14. An example: Star Wars
The dispatcher
directs the hero to depart on the
search. The dispatcher is usually
introduced in the initial situation.
Example:
Luke’s Uncle Owen, in Star Wars
IV:A New Hope.
(The uncle directs Luke to take
care of the droids, which is why
he goes out into the desert on
that fateful night)

15. An example: Star Wars
The villain
Near the beginning of the
tale the villain performs an
act of villainy. Later the
villain struggles with and is
defeated by the hero.
The villain appears twice in
the story, first as a surprise,
the second as a result of the
hero’s search.
Example: Darth Vader

16. An example: Star Wars
The helper
helps the hero search out
and struggle with the Villain
and generally provides
assistance in difficult
situations.
The Helper is provided to the
Hero by the Donor.
Example: Ben Kenobi in Star
Wars (or Han Solo?)

17. An example: Star Wars
The donor
provides the hero with a
magical agent that will help in
the pursuit of, and struggle
with, the Villain.
The Hero usually encounters
the Donor by accident once
the tale is under way.
Examples of Donors include:
Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars,
the magical agent given is ‘the
Force’

18. An example: Star Wars
The false hero
Who disrupts the hero’s
success by making false claims.
See Point 28 above - The False
Hero is at last seen to be what
they are. They often expose
themselves through the display
of non-heroic actions, including
cowardice, cheating and other
false actions. Or Lando
Calrissian
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/

19. An example: Star Wars The Princess (and/or her
Father) assign the hero tasks to
perform, recognise the Hero
when he returns, and expose
False Heroes and Villains. The
Princess usually marries the
Hero.
The Princess and/or her Father
are usually introduced in the
initial situation
Example: Princess Leia, in Star
Wars

20. An example: Star Wars
The Princess’ Father
(= The Rebellion)
who acts to reward the Hero for
his efforts

21. Claude Lévi-Strauss
Binary Oppositions
 After studying hundreds of myths and legends
from around the world, Levi-Strauss observed
that we make sense of the world, people and
events by seeing and using binary opposites
everywhere.
 He observed that all narratives are organised
around the conflict between such binary
opposites, or narratives progress through the
threat of conflict arising from binary opposites

22. Claude Levi-Strauss’s approach
to narrative
 As well as Aristotle deciding that 'all drama is
conflict' in the 4th century BC, 20th century
theorist Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that all
narratives had to be driven forward by conflict
that was cause by a series of opposing forces. he
called this the theory of Binary Opposition, and
it is used to describe how each main force in a
narrative has its equal and opposite. Analysing a
narrative means identifying these opposing forces

23. Examples of binary opposites
 Good vs evil
 Black vs white
 Boy vs girl
 Peace vs war
 Civilised vs savage
 Democracy vs dictatorship
 Conqueror vs conquered
 First world vs third world
 Domestic vs foreign/alien
 Articulate vs inarticulate
 Young vs old
 Man vs nature
 Protagonist vs antagonist
 Action vs inaction
 Motivator vs observer
 Empowered vs victim
 Man vs woman
 Good-looking vs ugly
 Strong vs weak
 Decisive vs indecisive
 East vs west
 Humanity vs technology
 Ignorance vs wisdom

24. Summary of Structuralism
A Structuralist approach to film narrative
argues:
 That there is an underlying structure,
which can be uncovered, and that
elements of this structure are common to
all narratives.
 In short narratives share a common
structure