Narratology - Todorov

Question 1

Define the term narratology.

Answer 1

Is the study of the way stories are structured theorised by Todorov.

Question 2

Define the term narrative codes.

Answer 2

The media language used to tell the story.

Question 3

Define the term narration.

Answer 3

The telling of the story.

Question 4

Define the term diegesis.

Answer 4

The act of telling a story through narration

Question 5

Define the term mimesis

Answer 5

The act of telling a story by showing (via representations).

Question 6

Define the term narrative.

Answer 6

The structure of the story.

Question 7

Define the term quest narrative.

Answer 7

Is one of the oldest and surest ways of telling a story.
The form of a quest narrative is an author’s description of a character’s desire to do something, see something, experience something, discover something. For example, the Odyssey poem is a quest narrative where Odyssey’s has a journey back to his wife and son serving as a quest.

Question 8

‘Character types’

Answer 8

Propp used terms from fairy-tales to identify some of the most important roles these include:
• the hero – the person on a quest to solve the problems, resolve the disruption
• the villain – the person who tried to block the heroes progress in his quest
• the dispatcher – the person who sends the hero on his quest
• the helper – the person who helps the hero during his quest
• the donor – the person who helps the hero by sacrificing something on the hero’s
behalf
• the damsel in distress – the person who needs saving to help resolve the
narrative
• the princess – the person who becomes a prize for the hero.

Question 9

Define the term causality.

Answer 9

An event that’s absolutely necessary for the occurrence of the next event theorised by Propp.

Question 10

Define the term plot.

Answer 10

Elements and generic conventions from which the story is made.

Question 11

Define the term master plot.

Answer 11

Is the central conflict or theme of a story summarised into a basic overview of events. Some story arcs are so popular we can immediately recognise the plot and even predict the ending. Therefore, reinforcing a society’s ideology.

Question 12

Identify the order of Todorov’s narrative structure.

Answer 12

Equilibrium > disruption/ disequilibrium > quest > conflict > climax > new resolution

Question 13

Define the term equilibrium.

Answer 13

Everything is balanced, normal and there aren’t any problems at the beginning of the story.

Question 14

Define the term disequilibrium.

Answer 14

Disruption/ Recognition of disruption
When something bad happens and that something needs to be done to fix this.
The unbalanced world between the problem and the climax.

Question 15

Define the term new equilibrium.

Answer 15

Attempt to repair/ Reinstatement
Usually, at the end of the narrative, the disruption will be solved and everything tends to go back to normal (happy ending).

Question 16

State the equilibrium in Stranger Things.

Answer 16

Introduces the four boys playing inside a suburban family home – Identifying the social norms suggested by the narrative. The sequence focuses on the nuclear family living in a suburban home as the norm, with responsible parents caring for their children.

Question 17

Define the term nuclear family.

Answer 17

A typical family

Consists of = Mum + Dad + 2 or more children.

Question 18

State the disruption in Stranger Things.

Answer 18

Will’s disappearance – Suggests Will is more vulnerable as a latchkey kid, reinforcing social norms around the nuclear family, which is that if mother had a husband around Will wouldn’t be missing and that unsupervised children are more at risk.

Question 19

Define the term latchkey kid.

Answer 19

A child who is at home without adult supervision for some part of the day, especially after school until a parent returns from work.

Question 20

State the resolution in Stranger Things.

Answer 20

There is no resolution of the main narrative arc in ep 1. Will’s disappearance is not resolved until the final episode of season 1.

Question 21

What’s a strength of narratology in Stanger Things?

Answer 21

Useful in identifying values and ideologies suggested by a narrative.

Question 22

What’s a limitation of narratology in Stanger Things?

Answer 22

Applying narratology to only the first episode suggests a different set of ideologies than applying it across the whole of the first season.

Question 23

Give examples of how different ideologies were when comparing the first episodes to the whole of the first season.

Answer 23

The first episode suggests a socially conservative set of values that portrays the working-class single-parent Byers family less positively than the two-parent middle-class Wheeler family.

However, the resolution of the first season sees Joyce Byers go into the Upside Down to rescue Will, whereas the Wheelers are oblivious to what is happening to Nancy and Mike, subverting the ideology established in episode one.

In the first episode, the recognition of the disequilibrium and the attempts to repair it is focused on the masculine authority of Hopper and the police.

This patriarchal ideology challenged over the course of the first season by the agency shown by female characters such as Nancy, Joyce and Eleven.