I'm in a group of 3 with my class mates working on a slasher film opening with DOM ELLIS and DECLAN WILLIAMS and on this blog you will see the research planning and production aspects of the film of which we are producing which had the working title of Black Nightmare.







Monday, 19 November 2012

Key Narrative Theories

There are 4 key theories when narrative is used in media these are that of Propp, Todarov, Levi-Strauss and Barthes'

Propp (Character Types)
The Hero – a character that seeks something
The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest
The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties
The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims
The Helper – who aids the hero
The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots
Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort
 
Todarov (model of narrative structure)
The theory is simply, The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium (everything is as it should be) Then It then suffers some disruption (disequilibrium) Resulting in a New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:
A state of equilibrium
A disruption of that order by an event
A recognition that the disorder has occurred
An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
A return or restoration of a New equilibrium

Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss noticed an important feature of these 'binary opposites' that one side of the binary pair is always seen by a particular society or culture as more valued over the other.

Barthes'
Barthes argued that the reader produced new meanings when reading a text, making use of previous experiences. Therefore different people read different things from a text. Texts may be open and have many meanings/interpretations or texts could be closed and have only one meaning.




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