Classic narrative

9
CLASSIC NARRATIVE Patterns and Theories

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Transcript of Classic narrative

Page 1: Classic narrative

CLASSIC NARRATIVE

Patterns and Theories

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CLASSIC NARRATIVE PATTERNS AND THEORIES

Bulgarian theorist Tzvetan Todorov discovered that folk tales

and fairy stories all followed a similar structural pattern. This

is known as the Classic Narrative Pattern, and is directly

applicable to mainstream films and TV dramas today.

Vladimir Propp proposed that there are distinctive character

types and actions in all fairy tales and this is often applied to

other stories as well although both theories are not always

applied successfully.

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THE CLASSIC NARRATIVE PATTERN WORKS LIKE THIS:

Equilibrium Disruption Resolution Restored order New equilibrium

It may be a false state of order or equilibrium at the end of the film to allow for a sequel.

Before resolution is achieved, there will be many thwarted attempts by the hero to resolve matters

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FOR EXAMPLE

In horror, the equilibrium is typically represented by either an American

middle-class family, or by a young heterosexual couple. The disruption is

always in the form of the monster (wide definition). Thwarted attempts are

made to catch or kill the monster, by the hero. Resolution is brought about

by its capture or death. Order is restored when the family or couple are

reunited, and a new equilibrium is achieved that is similar to the opening

but different in that nothing can be the same again as loved ones have died

along the way and/or everyone has been affected by the process. In Horror,

the manner in which the order can be false is when the monster may not

really be dead and will/can rise again for the sequel. This may be signified

to the audience at the end of the film, but is often hidden from the

characters.

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CLASSIC NARRATIVE PATTERNS AND THEORIES

In the same vein of STRUCTURALIST ideas about narrative, Claude Levi-Strauss,

a French anthropologist, considered how storytelling is used as a means of coping

with the fundamental contradictions and irresolvable difficulties of a society. Each

culture therefore produces its myths: a story which is not true, but something which

is repeated so many times it becomes part of a culture’s reality or ‘common sense’

He developed Propp’s theory a stage further by looking at the structure of stories.

He analysed how meaning might be derived from narrative structure not by looking

at a connected series of actions (as Propp did) but by looking at connections

between story elements (e.g themes, characters). He also proposed that if one

element is identified as giving one meaning, there must be another element which is

not that meaning. More specifically, the meaning must be the opposite.

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LEVI-STRAUSS

Levi-Strauss said that story elements which give meaning will usually appear in

pairs. For example a story will typically be organised into binary opposites such as:

hero/villain

rich/poor

male/female

fear/happiness.

If one considers a typical western film the binary opposites could be:

Cowboys/Indians/native Americans

Sheriff/outlaws

Nature/the railroad

Wilderness/cultivation

Peace/fighting

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CLASSIC NARRATIVE PATTERNS AND THEORIES

Although Roland Barthes was initially a structuralist thinker, as

times changed and thought and philosophy about language,

culture and existence progressed, Barthes changed his ideas and

in relation to narrative theory. He wrote an essay on a French

novel. The essay was called S/Z.. In it he identified a number of

codes (sets of rules) which he proposed are linked together in the

production of all kinds of stories. Therefore he postulated that all

stories use the same five codes and that all genre signifiers can be

grouped under them to create narrative.

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CODES

These codes are:

Action code: depicts the events which take place in the narrative – the who,

where, when of the story. Action codes are sequential.

Semantic code: refers to character and characterisation. The actions in the story

are explained by the character’s viewpoint on events.

Enigma code: involves the setting up of a mystery, its development and its

resolution.

Referential code: involves explaining or informing. Mise-en-scene is a referential

code.

Symbolic code: involves the reading of the connotations of signs which transforms

them into symbolic representations. e.g a character can symbolise bravery.

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CLASSIC NARRATIVE PATTERNS AND THEORIES

The ones we are most concerned with are the ACTION CODE and the

ENIGMA CODE.

There have been other theorists since such as Vogler, Syd Field, McKee

although they mostly follow in the ‘structuralist’ tradition – trying to impose

order and rules onto narratives.

As media students and ‘deconstructers’ of texts, we need to utilise ALL of

their ideas to arrive at some sense of meaning, taking the best, the most

appropriate and/or most useful for the deconstruction in hand. Imagine you

have a toolbox with many tools in it, you don’t use a hammer to saw wood or a

screwdriver to drive in a nail…so it is with these theories.

The most important thing is that you GAIN A GENERAL GRASP OF THE

UNDERLYING IDEAS – it’s not a test of who thought, wrote or did what, when

but to have an understanding of how these ideas contribute to how we might

make sense of narratives now.