Narrative Investigation

Narrative in the media industry is the way events in stories are put together to be presented to an audience. Narrative is about the construction of the story for example, the way it has been put together, not the story itself. A use of narrative is a voice over during a theatre showing or film.

Wikipedia – “A narrative is a constructive format (as a work of speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre) that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to tell", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled.”

What is Narrative?

Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He has lived in France since 1963 with his wife Nancy Huston and their two children, writing books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture theory. Russian theorist Todorov, suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure. They begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored. Equilibrium – the ‘status quo’ where things are as they should be Disequilibrium – the status quo is disrupted by an event Equilibrium – is restored at the end of the story by the actions of the hero. This simple formula can be applied to virtually all narratives - it is a more formal way of thinking about the beginning, middle and end, and it takes into account Aristotle's theory that all drama is conflict ie there is a disequilibrium at the heart of every narrative. However, when broken down further we begin to fins five stages; 1- A state of equilibrium (all is as is should be). 2 – A disruption of that order by an event. 3 – A recognition that the disorder has occurred. 4 – An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption. 5 – A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium.

What Narrative theorists can you find?

What Narrative theorists can you find?

Another theorist, Vladimir Propp was a Soviet formalist scholar who analised the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Who came up with the theory that there are only a certain number of characters, who crop up in most narratives. It is easy to spot the hero and villain in most cases, but here are some others: Protagonist (or Hero) - Leads the narrative, is usually looking for something (a quest) or trying to solve something (a mystery). Does not have to be male, Antagonist (or Villain) - Gets in the protagonist's way, Heroine - Is usually some sort of prize or reward for the hero. If your hero is male, your heroine would be female, Father - An authority figure who offers a reward to the hero for completing their quest. That reward might be a prince or a princess or a cool new job, Helper - Helps the hero - often acts as a sidekick, Donor - Gives the hero something - a clue, a talisman, a special power - which helps them complete their quest, Mentor - Teaches and guides the hero. These characters and the typical things that they do can be seen across a wide range of narratives. We expect them to be there, and to behave in a certain way.

What Narrative theorists can you find?Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology”. 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: light/dark, good/evil, noise/silence, youth/age, right/wrong, poverty/wealth, strength/weakness, inside/outside and understanding how the conflict between them will drive the narrative on until, finally, some sort of balance or resolution is achieved.

What Narrative theorists can you find?

Roland Barthes believes that there are 5 action codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative. Hermeneutic (narrative turning points) – we know where the story will go next. Proairetic (basic narrative-points) – e.g detective interviews suspect or femme fatale seduces hero. Cultural (prior social knowledge) – e.g our attitudes to gender or racial stereotypes. Semic (medium- related codes) – intertextuality. Symbolic (themes) – iconography or a theme such as ‘image versus reality’

Victor Shklovsky he attempted to distinguish between the plot, which he defined as the events we actually ‘see’ in the narrative; and the story, which contains all the information or events affecting the characters both on and off screen. He gave them typically difficult names: Fabula = the story i.e whole world of the story before, during and after what we see. Syuzhet = only the events that we see or hear within the field of vision.

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson In their book ‘Film Art’ (1997) Borwell and Thompson give three different time zones for film narratives: STORY – ‘the set of all the events in the narratives, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers, compose the story’ PLOT – ‘the term plot is used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us’ SCREEN TIME – ‘the time taken to broadcast the film’ Diefesis is therefore the Greek for the ‘narrative world’ of the plot during the screen time.

What Narrative theorists can you find?

Gill Branston and Roy Stafford happen to very usefully apply the relevance of Fabula/Syuzhet theory to the crime genre: we should feel at the end of a good detective story or thriller that we have been pleasurably puzzled, so that the ‘solution’, our piecing together of the story and in its proper order out of the evidence offered by the plot, will come as a pleasure. We should not feel that the plot has cheated; that parts of the story have suddenly been revealed which we couldn’t possibly have guessed at. The butler cannot, at the last minute, suddenly be revealed to have been a poisons expert.

Freytag Freytag created the theory of ‘Freytag’s Pyramid’ and believes that all narrative were formed in this way…

Climax

Exposition Denouement

Falling ActionRising Action

Main story, something big happens!

Problems begin to be resolved and everything starts to return back to normal.

Everything is back to normal.

Everything that happens up until the main middle part, unfolding the plot meeting other characters.

The beginning, sets the location and introduces the characters.

What Narrative theorists link to the Horror genre?

Tzvetan Todorov’s theory relates to the Horror genre because his theory of a 3 part structure often tends to occur during Horror movies. His formula of a “Equilibrium Disequilibrium Equilibrium” follows the same conventions of what would be viewed in a Horror movie.

Vladamir Propp’s theory links to the Horror genre because his theory of there always being only a certain number of characters who crop up in most narratives links into the common Horror genre characters. For example, A hero and Villain, a Heroin.

Claude Lévi-Strauss’ theory links to the Horror genre because his theory of Binary Opposition which analyses opposing forces relates to horror as there is always good and evil, sometimes a hero but always a villain or a group of villains, strengths and weaknesses.