NARRATIVE THEORISTS

Becky Ung
 WHAT IS A NARRATIVE?

This is a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship in time and space.
PLOT = everything visible and audibly present in text what the reader
observes
STORY = all events of the narrative, both explicit and implicit what the
reader understands
 TODROV

He reduced the narrative theory into a simple recurring structure and claimed
that documentaries followed some kind of this structure. At the start , there is
always an equilibrium which is then disrupted, setting in motion a chain of
event. This creates a disequilibrium. The resolution of the story is the creation
of a different equilibrium.
E.g: People vs OJ simpson
OJ and Nicole lived happily before she was murdered (equilibrium)
Nicole was murdered and OJ was suspected to have killed her (disequilibrium)
The trial took place and at the end, OJ was deemed to be not guilty (new
equilibrium)
 PROPP

He came up with a theory that narrative structure can be determined by role. These
roles help us understand the constructed nature of the narrative. There are 8
character roles with 31 functions:
Villain tries to stop the hero in their quest
Hero the person on the quest, the narrative follows them
Dispatcher the person that sends the hero on their quest
False hero a person that appears good but is actually evil
Donor prepares the hero for their quest
Helper offers to help the hero in their quest (sidekick)
Princess seen as the reward and is searched for in the quest
Father offers the reward
Propp helps us understand that each character has a purpose within the narrative and
audience identification. The characters are merely vessels for action
 LEVI STRAUSS

He suggested that the production of meaning depended on the concept of binary

opposites. The climax of the narrative comes from the binary opposites. For
example:
Good vs Evil
Peace vs War
Man vs Nature
This involves looking at the conflict between two qualities and understands.
Depending on what your documentary is, the producer may want the audience
to side with one quality creating some sort of bias. This may go through
mediation and gatekeeping where the producer takes away certain piece of
information to perhaps create some sort of bias.
 ROLAND BARTHES

He argued that narrative is told through a series of codes that are used to
control the way in which information is given to the audience. We can look at the
narrative in different perspectives and create different types of meaning. They are
sorted into two codes:
Enigma codes- narrative devices tease and raise tension within the audience by
creating a puzzle to solve
Action codes- the resolution is produced through action
 BRANIGAN

Branigan argues that the narrative structure embodies a judgment. He agrees

with Todorov as he quotes his theory on equilibrium.
He believes that narrative is a way of experiencing a group of sentences or
pictures which together attribute to a beginning, middle and end to something