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Analysing the narrative of media products


With Luke we looked into the importance of narrative in media products such as TV and film, and how it plays an important part in keeping the audience interested in what their watching. We looked at the three key theorists of narrative.

Todorov

 He believed:
  • The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium, e.g. everything is as it should be in a state of equal balance between powers of any kind.
  • It then suffers some disruption or disequilibrium
  • When the resolution is reached a new equilibrium is produced

5 stages:
  1. A state of equilibrium (all as it should be)
  2. A disruption of that order by an event (disequilibrium) 
  3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred
  4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
  5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium 


Propp

  • Propp came up with a theory that is based upon ancient folk tales
  • He said that all narratives feature a set of stock characters, these include:
  1. Hero/False Hero
  2. Villain/False Villain
  3. Donor
  4. Helper
  5. Princess/Prize
  6. Father
  7. Dispatcher
  8. Victim

Levi - Strauss

  • He believed in binary oppositions
  • He stated that a constant creation of conflict or opposition propels a narrative
  • He believed that the narrative could only end on a resolution of the conflict
For example:

  • Visual - Light vs. darkness/movement vs. stillness
  • Conceptual - Love vs. hate/ control vs. panic
  • Or they can simply be narrative or genre based such as good vs. evil, earth vs. aliens or cops vs. robbers 



To really understand and see how these theories work in tv and film we watched an episode of "Black Mirror" entitled "San Junipero".




When watching this we made notes on how the narrative worked and how it linked to the different narrative theories. There were definitely elements of Todorov's theory, at first everything seemed fine (equilibrium) and then at one point an argument broken out between the two main characters which caused disequilibrium. And eventually at the end the two main characters make friends again and so a new equilibrium is produced.

Some of Propp's ideas were also seen in the episode, for example there were victims and a princess/prize (the prize was the marriage and coming together of two main characters).

There were also elements of the other theory's for example 'Levi Strauss's' example played a part. There was a bit of conflict between the two main characters which did propel the narrative and also at the end the main characters made friends again, so his idea of a resolution of the conflict being produced at the end was true in this episode.

I watched another movie called Titanic, to see if I could link the narrative theory with this film. There are definitely elements of Todorov's theory. For example everything starts of fine (in equilibrium), as the ship is beginning to set off from the dock. However when the ship hits the ice-burg there is a disruption ti the equilibrium. There is also a love triangle that goes on during the movie and like in Propp's theory, the main character (Jack) is presented as the Hero,  Rose is presented as the princess/prize and Rose's fiancee Caledon, is presented as the villain.

There is also elements of  Levi-Strauss's theory, as the constant conflict between the love triangle drives the narrative forward.





















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