Narrative Theory

Narrative - a communicative at which involves a 'teller' and a 'listener' - all narratives include a sequence of events (they are located in time) - all narratives are constructed.

Vladimir Propp - 1928

• looks at the formal properties of Russian folk tales
• breaks them down into 'narratemes' (basic narrative units)
• provides a typology of narrative structures
• character roles - hero (not necessarily heroic but protagonist) - villain - donor - helper - princess - her father - dispatcher - false hero.
• functions - overcoming an obstacle - defying a prohibition - punishment of villain - winning of princess

Todorov - Structuralism  

• supports Propp - stories have these same universal formal properties
• Todorov analyses classic realist texts
• he argues that there is an underlying structure in narratives
• EQUILIBRIUM - DISEQUILIBRIUM - EQUILIBRIUM
• the new equilibrium is restoring the status quo - what is 'normal' or 'appropriate'
• it is thought that we wish for an ideologically comforting solution - Want it to end in a certain way.
•  Non fiction modes - THE NEWS

Barthes - Structuralism

• stresses the complexity of narrative
• suggests narrative can have up to FIVE distinct codes

1. HERMENEUTIC CODE - activates viewer - gets them interested
2. ENIGMAS (puzzle) - introduced - resolved - reintroduced 
3. SYMBOLIC CODES - symbolically represented (signs, connotative)
4. CULTURAL CODES - 'authoritative knowledge'
5. ASSUMPTIONS - within science/history/law