Narrative Theory
What is narrative and why is it important to audiences?
Narrative is the structure of the storyline (beginning, middle, end). Every film needs a narrative otherwise the story generally has no meaning to it. The audience needs meaning and a structure to follow in the film so they have a clear understanding to what is going on.
There are 4 elements allowing the audience to find meaning; genre, characters, structure, connotation and denotation. These are important because it gives the audience characteristics to the narrative make the storyline. You need these 4 elements for a good storyline to engage the audience well.
Propp..
He was mainly interested in narrative folktales. He believed that folktales were about the same basic struggles, therefore had the same characters. He believed that character have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text. The characters that propp based around his theory was a princess, hero, villain, dispatcher, helper, doner, father.
Todorov..
He believed there was three stages in the narrative of films; equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. This was otherwise known as start, middle and end. Equilibrium means the beginning, where the characters are introduced to the audience and appear stable. Disequilibrium means the middle, where something disruptive happens towards the characters and a change occurs which needs to be resolved, there is a big climax and disequilibrium usually. Lastly, New Equilibrium means the end, where usually the disruption which occurred in the disequilibrium is resolved, and the narrative is closed. This usually is a happy ending.
Aristotle..
He believed that there was importance in the plot. He believed it was important to arose emotion from the audience and this is mainly within tragedy (fear and emotion). Only focusing on the thought and meaning in the emotions through the film. This evokes emotion through the themes.
Barthes..
He believed there was semiology within the narrative. In his theory, symbolic meant connotation, semic meant denotation, and cultural understanding meant events which can be recognized as being part of a culture.
Thrillers tend to take Todorov's theory because it has a simple beginning, middle and end (equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium). This helps films have a more wider range of where the story can go and how it starts and ends.
In conclusion, the narrative theory that I would use is Todorov or Aristote because I feel they give me a nice structure to make a psychological thriller.
Narrative is the structure of the storyline (beginning, middle, end). Every film needs a narrative otherwise the story generally has no meaning to it. The audience needs meaning and a structure to follow in the film so they have a clear understanding to what is going on.
There are 4 elements allowing the audience to find meaning; genre, characters, structure, connotation and denotation. These are important because it gives the audience characteristics to the narrative make the storyline. You need these 4 elements for a good storyline to engage the audience well.
Propp..
He was mainly interested in narrative folktales. He believed that folktales were about the same basic struggles, therefore had the same characters. He believed that character have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text. The characters that propp based around his theory was a princess, hero, villain, dispatcher, helper, doner, father.
Todorov..
He believed there was three stages in the narrative of films; equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. This was otherwise known as start, middle and end. Equilibrium means the beginning, where the characters are introduced to the audience and appear stable. Disequilibrium means the middle, where something disruptive happens towards the characters and a change occurs which needs to be resolved, there is a big climax and disequilibrium usually. Lastly, New Equilibrium means the end, where usually the disruption which occurred in the disequilibrium is resolved, and the narrative is closed. This usually is a happy ending.
Aristotle..
He believed that there was importance in the plot. He believed it was important to arose emotion from the audience and this is mainly within tragedy (fear and emotion). Only focusing on the thought and meaning in the emotions through the film. This evokes emotion through the themes.
Barthes..
He believed there was semiology within the narrative. In his theory, symbolic meant connotation, semic meant denotation, and cultural understanding meant events which can be recognized as being part of a culture.
Thrillers tend to take Todorov's theory because it has a simple beginning, middle and end (equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium). This helps films have a more wider range of where the story can go and how it starts and ends.
In conclusion, the narrative theory that I would use is Todorov or Aristote because I feel they give me a nice structure to make a psychological thriller.
A good attempt here and all four theorist researched into.
ReplyDeleteTo improve;
-where you have mentioned 'creating meaning through text', be clear to state how each of the four you discuss provide the audience with a certain element of understanding the narrative.
-can you find diagrams of the theory and use this to help define each theorist?
-can you link to thrillers more? Maybe provide a clip and analyse where each theorist idea is present?