NARRATIVE THEORISTS

Becky Ung
 WHAT IS A NARRATIVE?

• This is a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship in time and space.
• PLOT = everything visible and audibly present in text – what the reader
observes
• STORY = all events of the narrative, both explicit and implicit – what the
reader understands
 TODROV

• He reduced the narrative theory into a simple recurring structure and claimed
that documentaries followed some kind of this structure. At the start , there is
always an equilibrium which is then disrupted, setting in motion a chain of
event. This creates a disequilibrium. The resolution of the story is the creation
of a different equilibrium.
• E.g: People vs OJ simpson
• OJ and Nicole lived happily before she was murdered (equilibrium)
• Nicole was murdered and OJ was suspected to have killed her (disequilibrium)
• The trial took place and at the end, OJ was deemed to be not guilty (new
equilibrium)
 PROPP

He came up with a theory that narrative structure can be determined by role. These
roles help us understand the constructed nature of the narrative. There are 8
character roles with 31 functions:
• Villain – tries to stop the hero in their quest
• Hero – the person on the quest, the narrative follows them
• Dispatcher – the person that sends the hero on their quest
• False hero – a person that appears good but is actually evil
• Donor prepares the hero for their quest
• Helper – offers to help the hero in their quest (sidekick)
• Princess – seen as the reward and is searched for in the quest
• Father – offers the reward
Propp helps us understand that each character has a purpose within the narrative and
audience identification. The characters are merely vessels for action
 LEVI STRAUSS

He suggested that the production of meaning depended on the concept of binary

opposites. The climax of the narrative comes from the binary opposites. For
example:
Good vs Evil
Peace vs War
Man vs Nature
This involves looking at the conflict between two qualities and understands.
Depending on what your documentary is, the producer may want the audience
to side with one quality creating some sort of bias. This may go through
mediation and gatekeeping where the producer takes away certain piece of
information to perhaps create some sort of bias.
 ROLAND BARTHES

He argued that narrative is told through a series of codes that are used to
control the way in which information is given to the audience. We can look at the
narrative in different perspectives and create different types of meaning. They are
sorted into two codes:
Enigma codes- narrative devices tease and raise tension within the audience by
creating a puzzle to solve
Action codes- the resolution is produced through action
 BRANIGAN

• Branigan argues that the narrative structure embodies a judgment. He agrees

with Todorov as he quotes his theory on equilibrium.
• He believes that narrative is a way of experiencing a group of sentences or
pictures which together attribute to a beginning, middle and end to something
 WHAT WILL WE USE?

• Roland Barthes – He will be used as his theory states that there is an enigma code where tension
rises within the audience. Our documentary will look at two main perspective; emojis cannot
function as a language on itself and emojis can co-exist with language. There is also an argument that
emojis are limiting the progression of the English language. The preferred reading is that our
documentary will make the audience question it but through mediation, the expert (an English
language teacher) will help us reaffirm and reassure the audience that he personally doesn’t think
that emojis will limit the progression. This is the action code where the problem is resolved through
actions.
• Levi Strauss’ theory of binary opposites will also be used. There will be two conflicting ends of
learning and ignorance. The argument is that emojis may be slowing down how we speak because
children may be struggling to learn proper grammar. However, our documentary will lean towards
the learning spectrum of binary opposites in order to create bias. Through mediation, there will be
constant reassurance that emojis are secondary to language and can actual co-exist. Moreover, we
will still show both sides of the argument in order to balance out the binary opposites and to show
an actual argument.