NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION_TODOROV

Todorov's Narrative Stages

There are five stages:

1. Equilibrium – the setting is established, key character(s) are introduced and

the storyline has begun to be set up.

2. This is then followed by a disruption whereby an oppositional character(s)

appear and the story takes a particular direction

3. Then there is recognition of disruption, in that the lives of characters and

events are interwoven. Tension builds throughout this section, which is often

the longest.

4. An attempt to repair the disruption is at the highest point of tension within

the film after which there is a change in the dynamic.

5. Finally, there is a re-instatement of equilibrium where matters are sorted

out, problems are solved and questions are answered. The equilibrium can be

described as new as the story has been resolved but the events have

possibly changed people.

Propp's Character Functions

Character Profiles.  Discuss the Proppian and 'Stock' characters you can identify.
Propp concluded that all characters could be resolved into 7 broad character functions in the 100 tales he analyzed:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in their quest.
4. The princess or prize and her father — 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.
5. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
6. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
7. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Barthes

Barthes is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter a lot more potential meanings.

We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, and create one meaning for that text. We can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning.

And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.

All you need to say, very basically, is that texts may be ´open´ (ie unravelled in a lot of different ways) or ´closed´ (there is only one obvious thread to pull on).

Barthes also sets out the theory of …

Enigma codes; a theory that suggests a text (whether that be television, film, a poster etc) portrays a mystery to draw an audience in, pose questions and, as such, become intrigued in the piece. For instance, a murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story, which 

poses the question "Who is the murderer?"

Action codes: what will happen next?

She falls over - will he catch her?

She has been caught - what will he do with her?

Like in CSI Miami when the bloke puts on his shades.