Narrative Theory

Question 1

What is ‘narrative’?

Answer 1

Most people know that it refers, in some way, to stories; in fact stories are endemic to our lives.

Question 2

What does the ‘narrative’ have to do for the audience quickly?

Answer 2

The audience needs to have a:

• Who is the hero and the villain
• A recognisable setting
• An understandable style
• A conventional ‘narrative’ structure which includes cause-effect motivation.

Question 3

What does the theorist ‘Roland Barthes’ believe in?

Answer 3

Barthes studied the ways in which meanings are produced by texts through signs and codes systems. Through an understanding of semiotics, we are equipped with the specific lang. to understand ‘narrative’.

Question 4

What are the two key ‘narrative’ codes Roland Barthes spoke about?

Answer 4

1. Action = a kind of shorthand is used to alert the audience that something is happening and to advance the narrative.
2. Enigma = set up throughout a text. Part of the pleasure which audiences gain from a text is in identifying the enigmas and attempting to solve them.

Question 5

What does the theorist ‘Claude Lev-Strauss’ believe in?

Answer 5

Binary opposites create meaning through establishing what something is not. We understand the world through a system of power weighted oppositions.
Examples:
- Man vs Woman
- White vs Black
- Hero vs Villian
- Good vs Bad

Question 6

What does the theorist ‘Vladimir Propp’ believe in?

Answer 6

Character types:

• This is when the acknowledge that characters drive the ‘narrative’.
• Hero, villain, donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper, princess, princess’ father.

Question 7

What does the theorist ‘Tzvetan Todorov’ believe in?

Answer 7

Tzvetan Todorov spoke of 2 ‘narrative’ structures:

1. Linear
2. Circular

Question 8

What is ‘Tzvetan Todorov’ cause and format layout?

Answer 8

1. The narrative starts with equilibrium.
2. An action/ character disrupts the equilibrium.
3. A quest to restore the equilibrium ensues.
4. The narrative moves to a confrontation/ climax.
5. Resolution/equilibrium restored.

Question 9

What does the theorist ‘Carol Vernallis’ believe in?

Answer 9

• Music videos do not embody complete narratives or convey finely wrought stories.
• Music videos follow the song’s form, which tends to be cyclical and episodic rather than sequentially directed.
  -Music videos tend to be a consideration of a topic rather than an enactment of it.
  Music video image gains from holding back info., confronting the viewer with ambiguous or unclear depictions.