Narrative Theory

In class we explored the ideas of four narrative theorists; Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson. We then tried to apply these theories to the 1980 horror, The Shining.
Propp worked on Russian folk tales and proposed a set of character and narrative functions which he argued were the universal undelying structure of all narrative. His ideas, at best, are only a partial just for The Shining.

FOUR MEDIA THEOISTS

TZETAN TODOROV

Tzetan Todorov’s narrative theory suggests that narratives follow a three part structure where they all begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced out, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and lastly each a resolution. It is a more formal way of thinking about the beginning, middle and end.



VLADIMIR PROPP

Vladimir Propp studied the narrative structure of folk tales. He concluded that all the characters could be resolved into only seven character types. Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.
The 8 character roles are (I used The Shining as my examples).
1. The Villain(s) Jack
2. The Hero Wendy/Danny
3. The Donor – who provides an object with some magic property Dick (The Chef)
4. The Helper who aids the hero Wendy/Danny
5. The rincess (the sought for person) -
6. Her Father – who rewards the hero -
7. The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way Wendy/Danny
8. The False Hero Jack
Although this theory can be used for certain films, characters very rarely fall simply into one role, and sometimes not all 8 roles are present in the narrative structure. For example, The Shining does not contain a princess or her father. This could be because the character functions were proposed from Propp's analysis of russian folk tales rather than modern day narratives.


CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS


Claude Levi-Strauss came up with an idea that in order to understand an idea, you have to know the opposite. For example, to know what is LIGHT you have to know what is DARK. To know when something is GOOD, you have to know when something is EVIL. Etc. For an exampe, in The Shining we see two young girls that appear quite innocent and cute but when they appear on screen with shots of blood pouring down elevator shafts etc. flash up suggesting they are a very hauntng/evil feeling within the hotel.


BORDWELL AND THOMPSON

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as

"A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occuring in time and space."

Whilst not creating a full thoery of narrative, they put together some ver interesting ideas. For them, a narrative begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and efect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narative.