B) Narrative

TZVETAN TODOROV

Very basically suggests that narrative is equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.  A more advanced method to this is the five stage structure:

  • Equilibrium
  • Disruption (by an event - an agent of change)
  • Recognition that disruption has occurred
  • An attempt to repair the damage
  • Restoration and new equilibrium

VLADIMIR PROPP

Stock characters and actions to specific genre's.  20th century idea of structuralism.
Stock Characters:

  • The Hero
  • Helper
  • Villain
  • False Hero
  • donor
  • Dispatcher
  • Princess
  • Princess's Father

CLAUDE LEVI - STRAUSS

Presents the idea of binary oppositions.  Looks at the different between two types of narratives.

  • love/hate
  • young/old
  • good/evil
  • masculine/feminine
  • control/panic
  • quiet/loud
  • many more are available to explore and to present through the media.

ROLAND BARTHES

He explained narrative as a series of codes that can be read by the audience.

  • Action code - proairetic - device by which any action implies further action.  A cowboy draws his gun and we wonder what the resolution will be.  Suspense created by the action itself. 
  • Enigma code - hermeneutic - device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved.  By snares (deliberate evasion of truth), equivocations (partial answer or lammings / openly acknowledgement that there is no answer)
  • Semic (Semantic) code - connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over denotative meaning.
  • Symbolic code - similar, hard to distinguish but organised.
  • Cultural code - referential - device which the audience can recognise as referring to a science or a body of knowledges or proverbs.
Barthes looked into this idea of codes but basically the texts may be 'open' (ie. unravelled in a lot of different ways) or 'closed' (there is only one obvious thread to pull on).


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