Narrative theory

The definition of narrative is the way in which a story

is told either fictional or non fictional through media
texts. We study 4 main theorists Todorov, Propp, Barthes
and Strauss.

Tzvetan Todorov
1. A state of equilibrium (All is, as it
should be.)
2. A disruption of that order by an event.
3. A recognition that the disorder had occurred.
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the
disruption.
5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium
Todorov narrative theory relates to our
production pinpoint in many ways. The EQILIBRIUM is that
our protagonist Ricky is at home playing pretending to
sick so he can stay home and play video games. The
DISRUPTION is when Ricky is taken into the gaming world
and is set tasks that he must achieve. The RECOGNITION is
when Ricky realizes that he is in the game and begins to
change location to where he feels the mission is best.
The ATTEMPT TO REPAIR is when Rickys mum turns off his
console this also counts as the NEW EQUILIBRIUM because
his life then goes back to normal because his mum tells
him to go to school.

Vladimir Propp
Propp was a Russian literary theorist, he mainly analysed
the basic components of Russian folktales. Propp claimed
that all stories have characters that can be broken down
into 8 categories. His theory can also be
related to film, it also highlights the
similarities and differences between films. His
8 categories are:
The villain
The dispatcher
The donor
The hero
The father
The helper
The princess
The false hero

Keanon McSween

Although Propps narrative has been proven to correlate

to many films both long and short. Due to the small
amount of characters and the limited intersection of each
character during the film, there is no clear distinction
between the categories and the characters in our film.

Levi Strauss
Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose
work was key in the development of the theory of
structuralism and structural anthropology. Strauss
studied how stories can unconsciously reflect the values,
beliefs and myths of a culture; he claimed that these are
usually expressed as binary opposites. Strauss
found that all narratives are organized around
the conflict between binary opposites. His
binary oppositions when converted by media
theorists are:
Good vs evil
Human vs nature
Protagonist vs antagonist
Man vs woman
Human vs alien
Humanity vs technology
Strausss narrative theory loosely relates to our
production, as our narrative does not have a heavily
dramatized storyline only two of the binary opposites are
shown in our production. The first binary opposite shown
in our production is Human vs Technology this is because
our protagonist world is changed once he is brought into
the gaming world and he cannot come back to the real
world until the game is over. The second binary opposite
is Good vs Evil this is because in our narrative our
protagonist Ricky is portrayed as the good guy and all
his opponents are portrayed as the bad guys who he has to
defeat to move on in the game.

Keanon McSween