G325 - Narrative

Today we are:
Recapping what narrative is
Exploring the different theories on
narrative and applying them to our
films
 Narrative
• What is narrative?
• Narrative is the organisation given to a series of facts (which are
linked somehow). Humans need narrative to make sense of things - in
everything we seek a beginning a middle and an end. We understand
and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of other
media texts. It is very different to what is known as “the story.”

• What is the difference between narrative and story?

• “Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something
happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related
to the audience (once upon a time there was a princess...)
• Key concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983).
 Media Narrative
- Open Narrative
• Two main types of media narrative - open and
closed

• Open narratives are continuous and have no

certain ending. TV soaps and drama’s are open
narratives and remain that way until they are
pulled off air. They have to accommodate new and
existing audiences, and they allow characters to
move in and out of the piece easily (change status)
 Closed Narratives
• Closed narratives have a clear
beginning, middle and an end. They
presuppose a constant audience from
start to finish. Many films take up
this narrative. Characters are less
likely to change status and an order
of hierarchy remains within the piece.
 Narrative Theories
• Conventional narrative theory can be explored via the work of Russian Formalists from the 1920’s.
Vladimir Propp’s Theory of Narrative
• Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or functions.
From a comprehensive study of folktales Propp came up with seven different character types:
• • The hero, usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium
• often by embarking upon a quest (or search). Propp distinguishes between
• the victim hero, who is the centre of the villain's attentions, and the seeker
• hero who aids others who are the villains victims. The hero is invariably the
• texts central character.
• • The villain who usually creates the narrative disruption.
• • The donor gives the hero something, it may be an object, information or
• advice, which helps in resolution of the narrative.
• • The helper aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium.
• • The princess (the victim) is usually the character most threatened by the
• villain and has to be saved, at the climax, by the hero. The father's (who in
• fairy tales was often the king) role is usually to give the princess away to the hero at the narrative's
conclusion. He may also dispatch the hero.
• • The dispatcher sends the hero on her or his task (who can typically be the princess father)
• • The false hero appears to be good but is revealed, at the narrative's end, to have been bad
• Characters can fulfill more than one sphere character type, for example; a princess may also be a
helper.
 Propp’s narrative theory
• The more fantasy fictional the narrative,
the more likely these roles will apply. E.g:
the Wizard of Oz (1939) and Bond films.
However, in film narratives without obvious
antagonists and protagonists, these
functions are not so evident.
 Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory of
Narrative
Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian Literacy Theorist. He wrote this in the ‘Poetics of Prose’
(1971).

Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:

• 1. a state of equilibrium at the outset;
• 2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
• 3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
• 4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
• 5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium
• This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many
‘mainstream’ film narratives.

Most narratives begin in a state of equilibrium where people and events are assumed to be
in the same state as they were before the narrative began. Then there is a problem
that brings about disruption. Recognition about the disruption then follows, continued
by attempts to overcome this disruption. Finally the disruption is overcome and a state
of equilibrium returns as the narrative ends.
 Linear Narrative -
Conventional Narrative

• When a film runs from A to B

• The film does not stop until the

problem is resolved - (Todorov’s
theory)
 Fractured Narrative
• When the story jumps back and forth in time, via
flashbacks or flash forwards.

• The viewer has to piece the plot and film together

• This links in with Experimental narrative

approaches
 Modular Narratives/ Experimental
Narrative Approaches

• Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema by Allan Cameron

• Modular Narratives “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to
• manipulation”. Cameron has identified four different types of modular narrative:

• • Anachronic
• • Forking Paths
• • Episodic
• • Split Screens

• Anachronic modular narratives involve the use of flashbacks and/or flash

forwards,with no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads. These
narratives also often repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective.
Examples include: Pulp Fiction and Memento.
 Modular/Experimental Narratives
• Forking-path narratives juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing
the possible outcomes that might result from small changes in a single event
or group of events. The forking-path narrative introduces a number of
plotlines that usually contradict one another. Examples include Groundhog
Day and Run Lola Run.

• Episodic narratives are organised as an abstract series or narrative

anthology. Abstract series type of modular narrative is characterized by
the operation of a nonnarrative formal system which appears to dictate (or
at least overlay) the organization of narrative elements such as a sequence
of numbers or the alphabet. Anthology consists of a series of shorter tales
which are apparently disconnected but share a random similarity, such as all
‘episodes’ being survivors of a shipwreck.
 Modular/Experimental Narratives
• Split screen narratives are different from the other types of
modular narrative discussed here, because their modularity is
articulated along spatial rather than temporal lines. These films
divide the screen into two or more frames, juxtaposing events
within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion. Examples
include Timecode.
 Your Production
• Which narrative do your productions
fit into?

• Complete the sheet highlighting which

production would be best to write
about with regards to this question