Narrative theory - Ceren&Kerry

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Narrative Theory By Kerry and Cezza K

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G325 NARRATIVE

Transcript of Narrative theory - Ceren&Kerry

Page 1: Narrative theory - Ceren&Kerry

Narrative Theory

By Kerry and Cezza K

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• “Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns) whilst narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time etc…)” – Key Concepts in Communication – Fiske el al

• “In Media studies, looking at narrative structure implies that we explore the way in which the information is contained within a text that is revealed to us.” – Media Studies: The Essential Resource – Rayner, Wall & Kruger

Narrative

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Levi-Strauss• French anthropologist

• Proposes narrative is presented through binary opposites

• Opposite ideologies that when presented together have symbolic connotations

• Good vs bad• Savage vs civilised• Strong vs weak• Ugly vs beautiful

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Binary Opposites & Title Sequence

• Particularly as our piece was of the horror genre, we incorporated binary opposites

• Dark vs light : we contrasted dull, dark lighting of the dirty woods with the white wall that had childhood photographs to construct an uncomfortable, eerie atmostphere

• We inferred good vs evil through by suggesting an evil presence in the film through the dark cinematography (visually dark and we burnt photos of children) and eerie music (we distorted a nursery rhyme)

• Children could represent good/innocence; childhood photos being engulfed by flames is evil

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Roland Barthes• French theorist

• Proposed that texts were either open or closed, five narrative codes/devices

1) Proairetic/action – any action elements in narrative, resolution reached through action, used to build tension

2) Hermenuetic/Enigma – a part of the narrative that is unresolved, stimulates, pleases or frustrates the audience

3) Semantic code – a part of the narrative that connotes or suggests a certain meaning, inferred meaning

4) Symbolic code – uses opposites to demonstrate symbolism5) Cultural – narrative in which the audience accept something to be

true, i.e science and religion, everyday knowledge that cannot be challenged, culturally dominant

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Roland Barthes & Title Sequence

• Not all five codes can be applied to our product

• The “Enigma” code applies the most: we purposely did not infer to any specific narrative elements but instead focused on communicating the genre through the visuals

• The effect of this was to engage the audience and encourage them to watch the rest of our product

• We referred to the enigma code through the use of dark cinematography – we employed shadows and dull lighting throughout to disorient the audience – and our choice of eerie music also contributed to this

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Roland Barthes & Title Sequence

• The symbolic code – relates to binary opposition

• Also the semantic code: used symbols that had connotations of horror films

• Infer a supernatural element of our film by detailing the elements of water, fire and earth. Similarly, we used a doll’s house to connote innocence so destroying it connoting the destruction of innocence

• Action code – we ended our title sequence with the doll’s house being burnt to represent tension reaching its climax, could be seen as the resolution of our title sequence

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Vladmir Propp• Analysed Russian folk tales in order to identify

narrative structure

• Focuses on characters and the structure they bring to narrative

• The hero – a character who seeks something• The villain - who opposes or blocks the hero• The donor - who helps the hero by providing an object with

magical properties• The dispatcher - sends the hero on his quest via a message• The false hero – disrupts the hero’s success by making false

claims• The helper – aids the hero• The princess – reward for the hero and object of villain’s plot• The princess’ father - acts to reward the hero for his effort

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Propp’s Narrative Theory & Title Sequence

• We purposely opposed Propp’s narrative theory in our title sequence, no reference to a distinct narrative let alone character structures

• The effect of this was to make the audience uncomfortable; no element of familiarity, goes against the hegemony of narrative

• Felt it would be more effective to focus on visuals – dark cinematography/ mise-en-scene and eerie music

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Todorov• Bulgarian essayist, proposes three-five stages of narrative, 1969

• Equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium

1) Equilibrium – normality, in which the protagonists are comfortable/happy

2) Disruption – something occurs to disrupt the normal order

3) Recognition – the characters recognize that this disruption has occurred

4) Resolving – an attempt to repair or resolve this disruption

5) Restoration – either the previous equilibrium is restored or a NEW equilibrium is reinstated

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Todorov• Can be applied to most films

• Narratives do not need to be linear

• The progression from initial equilibrium to restoration always involves a transformation

• The middle period of narrative can depict actions that transgress everyday habits and routines

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Todorov & title sequence

• Again did not specifically reference these three/five stages as a means of disorienting the audience by remaining vague

• Title sequence features the ‘disruption’ stage of Todorov’s theory

• By contrasting childhood photos (innocence) with images of horror connotations, our product disrupted normality or an equilibrium

• The effect of again is to make the audience uncomfortable and reflect the horror genre of our product