Research: Narrative Theories

Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher who came up with his own narrative theory involving equilibrium and disequilibrium. The theory itself is really simple, the narrative begins with a fictional scene with everything as is should be, this is known as the equilibrium. Then the equilibrium will suffer a disruption and there will be an obstacle to overcome. Towards the end of the narrative the equilibrium will be restored or a new equilibrium will be created. Todorov labelled five stages to his equilibrium and disequilibrium theory are these are:

1. A state of equilibrium (everything as it should be)
2. A disruption to the equilibrium
3. Recognising the disruption to the equilibrium
4. An attempt to repair and restore the equilibrium
5. Return to the equilibrium or create a new equilibrium

Todorov’s narrative theory can be applied to spoof horror film Shaun of the Dead, for example. At the beginning of the film stage one occurs, when main character Shaun and some of his friends, including flat mate Ed are in their local pub enjoying a drink. On Shaun’s way home from the pub he starts to hear weird noises and an eerie atmosphere begins, unbeknown to both the audience and Shaun, this is where stage two occurs. The next morning when Shaun returns from a quick trip to his local shop Shaun and Ed discover zombies in their back garden, this is where stage three happens. Stage four happens soon after when Shaun and Ed round up all of their family and friends and attempt to get them all safely to their local pub and “wait for it to all blow over”. After a long battle with the zombies, stage five occurs at the end of the film when Ed has been turned into a zombie but has been tamed and now lives in the shed.

Propp

Vladimir Propp was a Russian scholar who spent a lot of time analysing the basic plot components of Russian folk tales. It was this analysis that led to him developing his own narrative theory of characters taking on ‘spheres of action’ or functions. Propp came up with seven character types which all fit into the generic narrative of a film. These seven character types are:

1. The Hero – this is usually a male character and attempts to restore the disrupted equilibrium, often by embarking on a dramatic quest to save the victims.
2. The Villain – this is normally the character that creates the disruption to the narrative.
3. The Donor – this character usually helps the hero in some way by giving them something to save the day, this could be an object or a piece of information.
4. The Helper – this could also be referred to as the sidekick as this character helps the hero restore the equilibrium.
5. The Princess – also known in some cases as the victim, this is the character who is the most threatened by the villain and needs to be rescued from this threat.
6. The Dispatcher – this is the character that sends the hero out on their mission to restore the equilibrium.
7. The False Hero – this is a sly character in the film as they appear to be a good character until their evil ways are revealed.

Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist and came up with the theory of binary opposites, frequently used in media products. The simple definition of binary opposite is literally a complete opposite, for example, light vs dark. This relates to narrative theory as Lévi-Strauss observed that all narratives are organised around the conflict between such binary opposites. Other binary opposites often used in film narratives are:

• Good vs Evil
• Peace vs War
• Young vs Old
• Domestic vs Foregin/Alien

The latter being used in horror films the most. Using my continuing example in this post of Shaun of the Dead the binary opposites drawn from this film’s narrative are good vs evil and domestic vs foreign/alien.