Narrative Theory

Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions controlling the arrangement of a story into a sequence.
Altogether I researched three narrative theories:

TZVETAN TODOROV
Todorov suggested that stories begin with a steadiness where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

VLADIMIR PROPP
Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles are
1. The villain(s)
2. The hero
3. The donor - who provides an object with some magic property.
4. The helper who aids the hero.
5. The princess (the sought for person) - reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes.
6. Her father - who rewards the hero.
7. The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way.
8. The false hero.
The character roles and the functions identified by Propp can be applied to all kinds of narrative, for example in TV news programmes we are often presented with 'heroes' and ‘villains'.


CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts.
An example would be GOOD and EVIL
- we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL.
Levi -Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative:
Earth vs. Space,
Good vs. Evil
Humans vs. Aliens
Past vs. Present
Normal vs. Strange
Known vs. Unknown