Research: Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

 

What is narrative and why is it important to audiences?

 

Narrative is the structure of a story, the beginning, middle and end. This is important for a film and  the audience as it is initially what happens in a film and how it happens. Narrative is important so that it is easy for the audience to follow the film unless the story is altered to create confusion to make the audience think.

 

The four elements to help the audience find meaning;

-Connotation & denotation: this allows the audience to pick up different messages and ideas from an iconography, theme, costume (etc.) shown.

-Characters: allows the audience to see who the star of the film is and what their roles are within the film and what their relationship is towards the other characters.

-Genre: allows the viewers to see what the narrative is about, what type of characters will be in the film, what types of lighting and setting will be seen and what will be conventional to the genre.

-Structure: helps the viewers to understand where the start, middle and end is within the film.

 

Propp

Vladimir Propp was Russian a folklorist so he was basically interested in the narrative of folk tales. Propp had a theory that folk tales were about the same basic struggles, therefore had the same type of characters. Characters have a narrative function in which they provide a structure for the text.

 

Propp's characters:

-The hero; a character that seeks for better things

-The villain; who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest

-The dispatcher; who sends the hero on his/her quest

-The false hero; who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims

-The doner; who provides an object with magical properties

-The helper; who aids the hero

-The princess; acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villains plots

-Her father; who rewards the hero for his effort

 

Stages

1. Complication
2. Transference
3. Struggle
4. Return
5. Recognition

Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov was also a theorist like Propp but his theory towards narrative is different but similar to Propp's. Todorov's theory was narrative stages that he thought happens in a narrative.

Stages:

1. State of equilibrium (Start)
2. Disruption
3. Recognition(Middle)
4. Repair
5. New equilibrium(End)

 

These stages could also be broken down into just three stages:

• Equilibrium; Start, and is usually when the characters and story appears stable.
• Disequilibrium; Middle, which is when something is disrupted or a change occurs that needs to be resolved.
• New equilibrium; End, which is when the disruption/situation is resolved.

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who also had a theory on narrative which was simply having a beginning, middle and end. Aristotle focused on evoking emotions through themes and that this was important to arouse emotions from the audience, and this occurred mainly within tragedy.

Barthes

Roland Barthes was a French philosopher and theorist who's theory on narrative was the semiology within narrative.

• Symbolic - connotation
• Semic - Denotation
• Cultural understanding - events which can be recognised as being part of a culture.

Conclusion:

All the information above has helped me develop a deeper understanding on narrative and narrative theory. In my thriller I will use all of the four theorist theories as I believe that without all of them a story, narrative cannot be created. So all theories are needed within a narrative.