NARRATIVEMedia StudiesMedia Studies

“Narrative is a way of organising spatial and temporal data into a cause and effect chain of events with a beginning, middle and end that embodies a judgement about the nature of the events as well as demonstrates how it is possible to know, and hence to narrate, the events. “ Brannigan E. Narrative Comprehension and Film

Features of NarrativeStructure• Aristotle’s beginning, middle and end.• Todorov’s equilibrium>disequilibrium>re-equilibrium• Propp’s “functions”

2. Temporal order, temporal duration, temporal frequency

3. Story and Plot• Explicitly presented actions/events• Implicitly inferred actions/events• Non diegetic material (captions/titles, drama enhancing

music etc.)

Other Features1. Constructional Devices

Cinematography Mise- en- scene Editing Sound

2. Genre Associations Genre Codes (e.g. Iconography) Genre Conventions

3. Narrative Codes Levi Straus’s Binary Oppositions Character Psychology Semiotic Analysis

Todorov Initial Situation (Equilibrium)

Disruption (Non equilibrium)

Restoration (Re Equilibrium)

‘The Shining’

Propp 1928 Based upon the Russian Folktale 1928

Types of Characters, Specific Forms of Action, function in the Narrative.

Thirty One Functions identified.

Specific research on narrative

• Vladimir Propp

• Russian Formalist in the 1930s• He identified seven archetypal

characters..

Propp’s character archetypes

The Villain The Donor/giver of knowledge The Helper The Princess (sought after person) The Dispatcher The Hero (or victim) The False Hero

Propp’s character archetypes

The Villain Darth Vader The Donor Obi Won Kenobe The Helper Han Solo The Princess Princess Leah The Dispatcher R2 - D2 The Hero Luke Skywalker The False Hero Darth Vader (Luke’s dad)

Definitions from Bordwell and Thompson (1991)

Plot: What we see on screen. Includes extra-narrative things.

Story: all that we know about the narrative including seen and unseen.

Cause and effect: Cause and effect. Causes can come from a character.

Levi Strauss Binary Opposites

• Protagonist/Antagonist

• Action /Inaction

• Good looking / Ugly

• Witty / Humourless

Barthes

Audience Decodes• Enigma Code (sets up a question to be answered

later)• Action Code - understood by cross reference to

other narratives in our culture• Semic Code (How characters, actions ,events,

settings etc. take on meaning within a culture.• Symbolic Code - Binary Oppositions or

Psychological symbols• Cultural Codes - understood through our interaction

with the wider world.