BLOG POST 03_NARRATIVE THEORY
- dizhao
- Nov 17, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 12, 2023
Todorov's narrative theory:
Todorov studied classic fairy tales and stories.
He found out that narratives have a clear beginning, middle, and end. And there will always have three stages in a story: equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium.
Equilibrium: the story starts in a stable and peaceful world. Characters are presented as part of that stability.
Disequilibrium: a character (the actions of a villain) or event that disrupts the equilibrium. Destabilise the story's equilibrium.
New equilibrium: Disruption is repaired and the new equilibrium restored at the end is different from the one at the start.
Anachronic devices (flash forward/flashback): this is when the story does not begin with an equilibrium, subvert of what Todorov's theory is.
Flash forward provides moments of disequilibrium before equilibrium - telling the end of the story before the story begins.
Flashbacks are also injected to disrupt the highly predictable nature of the three-act structure stated by Todorov.
Propp's 7 character types:
Vladimir Propp said that characters could be defined by their "spheres of action" and their role in the story's progression.
He identified 7 character types:
The hero: Propp suggested two types of hero. One is the seeker-hero, who relies more heavily on the donor to perform their quest. The other one is the victim-hero, who needs to overcome a weakness to complete their quest.
The villain: causes some form of disruption or misfortune, damage or harm the stability.
The donor: like an agent of the hero to help and defeat the villain.
The helper: helps the hero to acquire the object needed to solve the disruption brought by the villain. Saving them from the struggles encountered on their journey, and overcoming any difficulties.
The princess: In most folk tales, the hero is set to rescue a princess. The princess is like a victim, taken by the villain, and needs to be saved by the destined hero.
The dispatcher: the dispatcher calls for help after the villain did something bad.
The false hero: once the hero finishes solving the disruption, the false hero comes and takes the credit for the victory.
Example: Lion King:
Strauss: Binary Oppositions:
Binary oppositions: the use of paired elements within a narrative that provide contrast.
Character oppositions: where characters have contrasting characteristics/traits. For example, audiences expect villains to battle heroes (the film 'Harry Potter'), youth contrasts maturity, and masculinity contrasts femininity.
Narrative oppositions: media stories also construct moments of opposition.
Stylistic oppositions: while shooting, camera work might shift from stasis to more movements such as pan, tilt, or tracking shots.
Media products construct ideologies by positioning their audiences to favor one side of the opposition.
Barthes' 5 codes:
Hermeneutic (Enigma) codes: constructs mystery and encourage audiences to further engage with media products in order to solve the puzzle by themselves. Often will be used in crime or thriller movies since filmmakers want audiences to guess what will happen until the final reveal of the story.
Proairetic (action) codes: moments of action within a media text. Create excitement and provide explanations for audiences.
Semantic codes: any element within a media text that produces a single connotative effect - the emotions, ideas, or symbolic meanings produced by that element. (LIghting, mise-en-scene, and colour usage)
Symbolic codes: symbols that convey a deeper meaning. Themes/visual motifs can be referenced throughout the story.
Cultural codes: the inclusion of material that generates meaning from outside the media product. For example, cultural codes might include the use fof proverbs, sayings, or idioms.
Why audiences might respond well to particular narrative structures?
For the targeted audiences: when producers make the film, they will have these targeted audiences in mind while shaping the codes and conventions of narrative forms. Therefore, audiences would find it engaging and intriguing.
Todorov's three stages: Audiences would be expecting these three stages: equilibrium, disequilibrium, and the new equilibrium. They will follow this specific structure whenever they watch a film. However, techniques like anachronic devices might be used. Therefore, audiences will be surprised and shocked by how producers made the sequence conversely and are opposed to what they thought about the structure. They will be interested in the change of the usual use of structure and will keep on watching.
Why do some directors want to challenge the structures?
Not every story has a hero that saves the princess. Loads of films have done this to obey the regular structure that Propp stated. In Hunger Games, Katniss saved herself and took the revenge of killing President Alma Coin. There's no prince who saves or took revenge for the princess. In Kill Bill, The Bride saved herself and then went on a bloody rampage.
SAW opening analysis:
Many narrative theories have been demonstrated in the opening of the thriller film 'Saw'.
Character opposition:
Throughout the opening of 'Saw', there are two main characters revealed to us, one is the doctor, and the other one is called Adam. The doctor showed himself as a very calm character and is trying to think of good solutions to the problem that they are facing. However, Adam is excited, scared, and flustered all the time. This shows a direct contrast between the two characters portrayed in the story, and have used Strauss's binary opposition theory.
Anachronic devices:
In the opening, we see a quite different story structure. A disequilibrium is portrayed at the very beginning. This disobeys Todorov's normal three stages of the timeline. The disequilibrium is presented with the two main characters waking up in a dirty and old room, locked up with metal chains. There was a dead body lying on the ground with a gun and tape on his hands. Usually, a normal chronological story won't have a dead body, not until the middle stage of a film.
Enigmas:
At the start of the opening, there is a blue shining light. It's moving inside a bathtub filled with water. Along with the dark lighting of the surroundings, the blue light stands out so the audience will only focus on the light. This presents an enigma which it creates mysteries for the audience at the start of the film. Audiences would want to figure out how the light relates to the story and why the man was inside a bathtub full of water.
Moreover, a very new clock was hung on the wall in a room full of dirty and rusted items. This clock juxtaposes with the setting of the story. But also, the clock might reinforce the importance of time in this film, this might be a clue for the characters or for the audience.
The corpse on the ground is also a mystery. The main character and the audience does not know who the man is, or what his face looks like. This remained a secret for a while so another confusion brought to the audience to wait and solve them later on in the film.
To conclude, Saw used anachronic order to tell the story, this structural choice of first presenting the disequilibrium clearly shows the audience which genre of film this is as mentioned by Neale's genre theory, every genre has specific codes and conventions and the audience has expectations for them. And the unclear disruption boosts the audience's desire to keep watching and figure out what's going on. Throughout the opening, many symbols and enigmas are revealed to the audience to give them more mysteries to solve. This pushes the plot to keep going, and questions from the audience will be solved.
Learning different narrative theories and structures helps me to understand how to create an opening that is attractive and intriguing for the audience to keep on watching. This is very important as a good film opening hook audiences to think of questions and brings them in as the story progresses. Therefore, I can create my own film opening using narrative theories that suggest effects to attract more audiences.
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