Classic narrative
-
Upload
westhatchmediastudies -
Category
Education
-
view
721 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Classic narrative
CLASSIC NARRATIVE
Patterns and Theories
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.