Theories on Narrative

Within the field of film narrative, there are many theologists with many varying theories about the nature of narrative itself. To fully understand how I should craft a successful plot for my film, I first need to understand how different variations of narrative work, and how these different theologists feel a good narrative should be structured. I have therefore looked into some of the better known thoughts on narrative, and this is what I have discovered:-




Tzvetan Todorov

Firstly I looked at the ideas of Tzvetan Todorov, a Franco-bulgarian philosopher, who has published many books and essays about literary theory, thought history and cultural history. Although the theory i'm interested in is supposed to be based upon fictional writings, it can be also be used when describing film narrative. The basic idea is this;

He believed that there is five stages to a narrative structure.
1.A state of Equilibrium. (All as is if it should be)
2. A disruption to that order (by an event)
3. A recognition that the disorder has occured.
4. An attempt to repair the damage.
5. A return or restoration to start a NEW equilibrium.


Although this can be true for many older films, and most films meant for children (such as the works of Disney) most modern films do not follow this, possibly so that the film does not become too obvious, instead they use twists, withheld information, or alternate time patterns (such as flashbacks) This makes films which are much more grabbing to the viewer, as they want to watch all the way to end to find out how it all "fits together". A good example of a film which does this very well is Memento which completely warps Todorovs ' theory, and in the process creating a very compelling, and somewhat confusing film.

Vladimir Propp

Another theory that goes hand in hand with Todorov's is Vladimir Propp's. He was a Russian and soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plots of Russian folk tales. Again this was based on the narrative of fictional writing, but it can be transferred to film. His theory was about the roles of character with narrative, he surmised that there are 8 basic 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 or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
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 cannot 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.

within narrative, some characters can have more than one role, for example the princess' father can also be the doner, or the dispatcher. Again this thoery is true with many older films, and childrens movies, however, many modern films play around with people's roles. For example, within the film "Batman begins" made in 2005, the character Henri Ducard (played by Liam Neeson) starts off as the helper, training Bruce Wayne with an elite vigilante group. However, you later find out that he is the true villain of the story, not "the scarecrow" as you were originally led to believe.

Claude levi-Strauss

Claude levi-Strauss', a French anthropologist and ethnologist, believed that an effective narrative is made of many binary oppositions. These oppostions within media narratives are sets of conflicting values which reveal the structure of the text/film. These oppositions grab peoples interests, as usually we can identify with one of the values, whilst the other is alien. This combination is appealing, as we always want one value to conquer the other. The simplest opposition, and the most often used, is good vs evil. We all want to be seen as good, therefore we can relate to this. And most people want to be seen as against "evil" and therefore want to see good vanquish evil. Most films usually stick to this idea of opposites, however, some films play around with, and warp, your sense of these conflictions. For example in the film 1983 "Scarface" the character Tony Montana is a Cuban criminal, who eventually creates a huge drug based empire. However, the viewer is made to see Tony as the "good guy", and by the end of the film you want to see him succeed against the police (who are supposed to be good) and his competitors.

Roland Barthes

Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic and semotician. His theory on narrative encompassed a broader sprectrum than the others, he looked at why items, characters, timings and information is used and described within films and text. His narrative theories are broken down into five set of rules or codes;

1. Action code which refers to the events taking place
2. Enigma code which refers to the questions raised and answered
3. Semantic code which refers to the characters and characterisation
4. Referential code which refers to the information and explanation
5. Symbolic code which refers to the connotations of signs

This is used in almost every film made, old and new; directors purposefully use the setting, events and characterisation to give the narrative a certain feel. A good example of this is Orson welles' epic Citizen Caine. The opening scene sets up the mood for the rest of the film very cleverly, through events, information given and signs:-