Equilibrium - a
sense of normality, calm.
Disruption –
Something makes the story change direction – usually in the middle of the text.
Restoration – A
new equilibrium is made. The disruption
is dealt with.
MCKEE'S 5 PART STRUCTURE
Robert McKee has a simple 5 part structure for narratives:
1. Inciting incident
2. Progressive Complications
3. Crisis
4. Climax
5. Resolution
CHRIS VOGLER'S HERO'S JOURNEY
Steps the hero supposedly undertakes within a narrative.
PROPP'S STOCK CHARACTERS
Vladimir Propp came up with a series of ‘Stock characters’ that
texts may contain. He came up with this
idea after studying fairytales.
1. The
villain
2. The donor (or provider)
3. The helper
4. The princess (or sought-for person) and her father
5. The dispatcher
6. The hero
7. The false hero.
2. The donor (or provider)
3. The helper
4. The princess (or sought-for person) and her father
5. The dispatcher
6. The hero
7. The false hero.
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS' BINARY OPPOSITIONS
(no, he doesn’t make jeans!)
came up with the idea that stories are driven through the use of binary
oppositions:
Good vs
evil
Male vs
female
Humanity vs technology
Nature vs
industrialization
East vs
West
Dark vs
light
Dirt vs
cleanliness
ROLAND BARTHES CODES
Enigma/hermeneutic code - anything that sets up a question in the narrative
Semic Code - the way in which the character, actions, events, settings take place on meaning; mise-en-scene, semiotic analysis, psychoanalytical theory
Symbolic code - Signifying binary oppositions or psychological symbols
Action code - Codes of behaviour in the diegetic world that are universally understood, from our de-coding of other narratives.
Cultural/Referential Code - Codes that are defined by the world outside the narrative diegesis, with are understood through our interaction with the wider world
OPEN NARRATIVE
The end is left open. Nobody knows what
happens in the end. Usually used in soap
operas to keep the audience watching.
CLIFF HANGER
A narrative device whereby the story’s ending is dramatically or abruptly left
open and the audience are left with a question; what will happen next?
CLOSED NARRATIVE
We have some sort of closure. The story
has finished.
FLASHBACK
Where
the narrative may go back historically/previously to another point in time.
The narrative order isn't chronological and may jump around in time.
MCGUFFIN - ALFRED HITCHCOCK
A bit like a red-herring; devices are put into the narrative to throw the audience on to a different track, leaving them in suspense.
NARRATIVE RANGE AND DEPTH
LINEAR
Where the narrative happens in chronological
order.
MCGUFFIN - ALFRED HITCHCOCK
A bit like a red-herring; devices are put into the narrative to throw the audience on to a different track, leaving them in suspense.
NARRATIVE RANGE AND DEPTH
Objective: We see the text from an audience’s point of
view – we are a voyeur.
Omniscient: We
see everything, we are God-like.
Subjective: We are
positioned with a character(s).
Restricted: We
only see things from their point of view.
