Narrative Theories Research Task

What Is Narrative?

Narrative is simply the story in a format including various types of media such as images, videos and texts etc. It can describe fictional or non-fictional events.

Why Narrative Is Important?

Narrative is said to be important as it creates a structure to a story and makes it more easier for us as a audience to understand a plot/story.

Narrative Theories

1. Equilibrium Theory - Consists of three structures, the equilibrium, the disequilibrium and the new state of    equilibrium. For Example the film spiderman has the equilibrium that spiderman is a normal student studying at college before he is bit by a radioactive spider which then becomes the disequilibrium. The new state of equilibrium is obviously the result of the spiders bite which turns 'Peter Parker' into 'Spiderman'.

2. Characters Type Theory -  Founded by Vladimir Propp came up with the theory that there are only a certain number of characters who crop up in most narratives. It is easy to spot the hero and the villain in most cases, but here are some others:

Hero - Leads the narrative, usually looking for something e.g. a quest or trying to solve something.

Villain - Conflicts with hero

Heroine - Its usually some sort of prize or reward for thew hero.

Father - An authority figure, could offer a reward for the hero for completing something.

Helper - Helps the hero

Donor - Gives the hero something

Mentor - Teaches and guides the hero

3. Binary Opposition Theory - Created by a french anthropologist called Claude Levi-Strauss, it looks at a  pair of concepts which are complete opposites. The theory is seen fundamental when looking at philosophy, culture and language in humans. Examples of the theory include: Good vs Bad, Old vs Young, Male vs Female and White vs Black etc.

Most Effective In My Production

Due to the fact the genre me and my group have chosen is horror, i think that personally, the characters type theory will be the most effective to use as it will differentiate the good and the bad meaning the characters will not be hard to label as a audience. The bad, which will be some sort of psychotic killer will be easier to label as the villain due to the fact he will be dressed differently and will have props like a knife or a blade of some sought, any ordinary person will not carry such items. The hero and his helper will also differentiate from the villain as they will look ordinary and also have the type of character which tells audiences they are innocently being attacked by a crazed lunatic.

This will be effective in our opening as it will let the audiences easily decide personalities for each character and hook them into wanting to discover more about them and what happens to them, meaning they will more likely want to watch the whole film.