Narrative Theories

Todorov

He suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance.

He suggested that the conventional naratives are in 5 stages:

A state of equilibrium A disruption of the equilibrium by some action. A recognition that there has been a disruption. An attempt to repair the disruption A reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Todorov’s theory

Propp

Propp identified the 8 character roles that can be applied to all narratives they are:

The villain The hero The donor The helper who aids the hero The princess (reward for the hero) Her father (who rewards the hero) The dispatcher ( who sends the hero on his way) The false hero.

And example of these character roles in Shrek 2 would be:The villain as the fairy godmother, and prince charmingThe hero world be Shrek.The donor would be The helper would be donkey.The princess would be princess FionaHer father would be king HaroldThe dispatcher would also be donkey and puss in boots.The false hero would be prince charming.

Levi-Strauss

He looked at the narrative theory of binary opposites for example good and Evil.

He wasn’t interested in the order in which the events were arranged in the plot.

He looked at the deeper arrangement within the themes.

Some binary opposites may be: Good – Bad Past – Present Life -Death

Barthes

he looked at texts to see how they were put together:

he found 5 codes which were: The action code Enigma code The semantic code The cultural code The symbolic