Key Narrative Theories

Todorov's 5-Part Narrative Formula 

Todorov is associated with the theory that every narrative can be broken down into three basic stages: situation,conflict,resolution (or equilibrium, new equilibrium). Crucially, your protagonist is not the same as the outset,but has been changed in some way from events. Your old friend Tzvetan Todorov actually posted five stages (though we generally refer to the 3-part model):

1.  a stage of equilibrium at the outset;
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Levi-Strauss:Binary opposites & Dramatic Conflict

When we consider the use of stereotypes, it is often evident how a binary opposition is at play: how we describe a stereotypical poor or working class person, for example,is broadly the opposite of how we'd describe a middle or upper class person.

Scenes within dramas often reflect a use of this idea, with clashing pairs (male,female;rural, urban; rich, poor; heterosexual homosexual; good, bad; dominant, submissive etc.) of opposites,in other words binary opposites, sparking conflict or tension.

There is a philosophical argument underpinning this idea: when the world around us ( so,not just fictional texts) is organised and categorised through pairs of binary opposites, there is generally a powerful, or 'good',side: men are powerful, women are submissive; the poor unintelligent, the wealthy intelligent (a stereotype seen very clearly in Tess of the D'Urbevilles).

Propp's 8 Recurring Character Types

As well as proposing that narratives can be broken down into 31 basic functions, Valdimir Propp (in his study of fairy tales which continues to influence literary and media studies today)  argued that there are essentially just seven types, or archetypes:

1. The villain- struggles against the hero.
2. The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The (magical) helper- helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prince- the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of a 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 princess and her father- gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries he hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6. The dispatcher- character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
7. The hero/victim- reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero/anti-hero/usurper- takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.

The roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.


Barthes Concept of Narrative Enigma

A puzzle created within a narrative. A random person is being shot in a program but don't know by whom; a stranger arrives: who is she/he? What is she/he doing here? These are narrative enigmas. Trying to figure out these puzzles is part of the pleasure of watching fictional texts.
In 1980 over 25 million UK viewers watched when the US drama Dallas ended a season with the main antagonist getting shot. The nation was gripped, and speculation raged for months as to the identity of the killer. The tapes containing the episode revealing the killer had to be imported under armed guard, and the outcome was reported as a lead news story in the papers and on TV news.