Narrative

Tim O'Sullivan et al (1998)

• All text tells us some kind of story.
• Media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves. Usually the story of us as a culture or set of cultures.
• Shows that what we experience when we 'read' a story is to understand the set of constructions or conventions.

Narrative : The structure of a story

Diegesis :The fictional time and space implied by the narrative - the world in which the story takes place

Verisimilitude : To engage us it must appear real to us as we watch it.

Bordwell and Thompson (1997)

• Offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diegetic world of the narrative.
• Fabula (story) events in the narrative that we see and infer. 
• Syuzhet (plot) everything visible and audibly present before us 

Tzvetan Todorov (1977)

1. •Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal.
2. •Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.
3. •Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
4. •Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption.
5. •Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.

Barthes (1977) 

Narrative works with five different codes and the enigma code works to keep up setting problems or puzzles for the audience. His action code (a look, significant word, movement) is based on our cultural and stereotypical understanding of actions that act as a shorthand to advancing the narrative.

Kate Domaille (2001)

Identifies 8 narrative types:

•Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.

•Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.

•Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.

•Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. Smokey And The Bandit, Duel, The Terminator.

•Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.

•Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of losss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born On the Fourth Of July.

•Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.

•Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle, Man loves woman…unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.

Vladimir Propp (1928)

Identified 7 broad characters:

•The villain - struggles against the hero.

•The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

•The (magical) helper - helps the hero in the quest.

•The princess and her father - gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

•The dispatcher - character who makes the lack known  and sends the hero off.

•The hero or victim/seeker hero - reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

•[False hero] - takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.