Narrative Theory

Theory #1: Vladmir Propp, a Russian critic, active in the 1920's, published his 'Morphology of the Folk Tale' in 1928. While the Soviet cinema was producing excellent films, Propp was essentially interested in the narrative folk tales. He noticed folk tales were similar in many areas. They were about the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions.Charcters according to Propp, have narrative function - they provide a structure for the text.

The Hero - a character that seeks something
The Villain - who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest
The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties
The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
The False Hero - who disrupts the hero's succes by making false claims
The Helper - who aids the hero
The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villains plot
Her Father - who acts to reward the hero for his efforts

He also believed there were actions of functions of narrative preparation. These were;

- A community/kingdom/family is in an order state of being
- A member of the community/kingdom/family leaves home
- A warning is given to the leaders of the community or a rule is imposed on the hero
- The warning is discounted/the rule is broken
- The villain attempts to discover something about the victim of the broken rule
- The villain tries to deceive the victim to gain advantage
- The victim unwillingly helps the villain

Theory #2: Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of films and texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.

Equilibrium is a state of normality, where everything is as it should be within the world of the story. The story and it's world will be disrupted by something, this is the dequilibrium. By the end of the story, a new equilibrium will be created, and this is now known as the 'happy ending'.

In Todorov's theory, the story line is not seen as a linear structure, as it comes full circle back to where it started. The whole idea of narratives following Todorov's theory is the characters attempting to restore the equilibrium, but the equilibrium changes at the end of the film once it is attained. He also claims that characters change throughout the progression of the Diseqilibrium and the disruption itself usually takes place outside the 'normal' social events.

Theory #3: Aristotle believed that the more you look into headings or titles, it is easy to realise that it will come under one of a few different types of heading:

- Inciting Incident - Explaining something that may be the big incident in the film, in the title to help attract people to look at this story.

- Dramatic Question - This question may be rhetorical to add emphasis, and may also again attract the                 audience to it

- Character Goal - May explain what the main character is looking to complete/do

- Antagonist/Protagonist - This may explain what sort of hero/villain will be in the story e.g the film 'Devil'

- Stakes - This shows possibly what the hero is fighting for, an example may be the film 'Million Dollar Baby'

- Resolution - This is a heading that may provide the answer, or what is necessary of the main characters to resolve the problem at hand.

- Sympathy/Empathy - This may be used more in romantic stories, as sympathy and empathy is often linked with loss, stress, depression etc.

These headings are very close to those suggested by Aristotle - the leader in narrative theory. Aristotle's literary criticism is probably most famous for the 'unities' - time, place and action. Aristotle's most complete analysis is of 'tragedy', which is arguably the basis of most 'serious drama'.

The theory of our groups narrative is Todorov's. Our idea is that there will be an equilibrium, and it will be disturbed by a villain. It is unsure whether the equilibrium will be re-found or a new one is made, after the disequilibrium happens takes place.