NARRATIVE AND FILM THEORIES RESEARCH

BY: VERA OSEI

DEFINITION OF NARRATIVE

Narrative is a way of putting a story to be presented to an audience.

It is a telling of a story which is often in words about something that happens in a particular scene of a story.

It is an account, event or experience of a story.

TYPES OF NARRATIVES

Linear narrative: it follows the structure of equilibrium at the start, disequilibrium in the middle and new equilibrium at the end.

Binary oppositions: which always involve good vs evil, civilised vs uncivilised and modern vs traditional.

Post modern narrative: it messes with what is conventionally considered a story.

TVZETAN TODOROV( NARRATIVE F ILM THEORIST: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE)

Tvzetan Todorov is a Franco- Bulgarian philosopher. He lived in France since 1963 with his wife and two children.

He loved writing books and essays about thought history, culture theory and literacy theory.

He has published a total number of 21 books including the poetics of prose in 1971.

Equilibrium: it is a narrative that starts with a state of harmony, example a group of people enjoying their live.

Disequilibrium: it is a world of stability which involves disruption, example when an evil event happens to character in a movie.

New Equilibrium: it is when the evil in a movie is removed and it restores harmony.

The shining

This describes equilibrium as it has the character enjoying himself because he thinks that everything is perfect.

It contrast with disequilibrium because it has some disturbing images in the middle the movie

This links with new equilibrium as it shows a peaceful atmosphere between the characters.

Claude Levi-Strauss

He was born on the 28th of November 1908 in Brussels, Belgium.

His main interest was based on society, kinship and anthropology.

He was honoured by universities throughout the world and held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de france (1959–1982); he was elected a member of the Academie Française in 1973

Binary Opposition: This is a sophisticated but important idea that will help you understand how ideas and meanings are being shaped, created or reinforced in a text. It is 'a theory of meaning' and an idea that can be applied to all texts; it is especially useful when analysing poetry where meaning has been 'compressed' into a very few words.

FILM EXPLAINING CLAUDE’S THEORY

This scene is clearly used to illustrate fear and danger. Close up shot of his face explains what is happening in the scene without the audience not even seeing the next stage.

This particular scene shows the audience a basic understanding of the movie which links to the binary opposition

Texas chainsaw

VLADIMIR PROPP

Vladimir was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

He was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He attended St. Petersburg University (1913–1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy.

Characters and their purpose in propp’s theory.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 (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative) Her father 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

Film used to explain Vladimir's theory

Misery

This shows various types of characters and what their rules are in the movie. And it also introduces the main characters daughter.

This scene shows the character been played by this woman as a care taker of the sick or a doctor.

This scene shows a character of a man losing his family and ends up in an accident as he tries to escape the true world.

THE END

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