Narrative Theories

Claude Levi-Strauss:

Looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD VS EVIL. Levi-Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events are arranged, but the themes arrangement.

Vladimir Propp:

Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratives, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

Functions

After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions:^[2]

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The donor —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.
6. The dispatcher —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.^[4]

ABSENTATION, INTERDICTION, VIOLATION of INTERDICTION, RECONNAISSANCE, DELIVERY, TRICKERY, COMPLICITY, VILLAINY or LACK, MEDIATION, BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION, DEPARTURE, FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR, HERO'S REACTION, RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT, GUIDANCE, STRUGGLE, BRANDING, VICTORY, LIQUIDATION, RETURN, PURSUIT, RESCUE, UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL, UNFOUNDED CLAIMS, DIFFICULT TASK: SOLUTION, RECOGNITION: EXPOSURE, TRANSFIGURATION PUNISHMENT, WEDDING.

Roland Barthes:

Roland Barthes describes a text as

"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signified; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." (S/Z - 1974 translation)

What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on.