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Narrative in the media industry is the way events in stories are put

together to be presented to an audience. Narrative is about the

construction of the story for example, the way it has been put

together, not the story itself. A use of narrative is a voice overduring a theatre showing or film.

Wikipedia A narrative is a constructive format (as a work of speech, writing,song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre) that describes a

sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb

narrare, "to tell", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled.

What is Narrative?

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Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He

has lived in France since 1963 with his wife Nancy

Huston and their two children, writing books and essays

about literary theory, thought history and culture theory.

Russian theorist Todorov, suggests that all narratives

follow a three part structure. They begin with

equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress assomething comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and

finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

Equilibrium Disequilibrium Equilibrium. This

simple formula can be applied to virtually all narratives -

it is a more formal way of thinking about the beginning,

middle and end, and it takes into account Aristotle'stheory that all drama is conflict ie there is a

disequilibrium at the heart of every narrative.

What Narrative theorists can you

find?

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What Narrative theorists can you

find?Another theorist, Vladimir Propp was a Soviet formalistscholar who analised the basic plot components of Russianfolk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrativeelements. Who came up with the theory that there are only acertain number of characters, who crop up in mostnarratives. It is easy to spot the hero and villain in mostcases, but here are some others: Protagonist (or Hero) -Leads the narrative, is usually looking for something (aquest) or trying to solve something (a mystery). Does nothave to be male, Antagonist (or Villain) - Gets in theprotagonist's way, Heroine - Is usually some sort of prize orreward for the hero. If your hero is male, your heroine wouldbe female, Father - An authority figure who offers a reward tothe hero for completing their quest. That reward might be a

prince or a princess or a cool new job, Helper - Helps the hero- often acts as a sidekick, Donor - Gives the hero something - aclue, a talisman, a special power - which helps them completetheir quest, Mentor - Teaches and guides the hero. Thesecharacters and the typical things that they do can be seenacross a wide range of narratives. We expect them to be there,and to behave in a certain way.

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What Narrative theorists can you

find?Claude Lvi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and

ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George

Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology. 20th century

theorist Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that all narratives

had to be driven forward by conflict that was cause by a

series of opposing forces. He called this the theory of

Binary Opposition, and it is used to describe how each

main force in a narrative has its equal and opposite.

Analysing a narrative means identifying these opposing

forces: light/dark, good/evil, noise/silence, youth/age,

right/wrong, poverty/wealth, strength/weakness,

inside/outside and understanding how the conflict

between them will drive the narrative on until, finally,some sort of balance or resolution is achieved.

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What Narrative theorists link to

the Horror genre?

Tzvetan Todorovs theory relates to the Horror genre because his theory of a 3

part structure often tends to occur during Horror movies. His formula of a

Equilibrium DisequilibriumEquilibrium follows the same conventions

of what would be viewed in a Horror movie.

Vladamir Propps theory links to the Horror genre because his theory of there

always being only a certain number of characters who crop up in most

narratives links into the common Horror genre characters. For example, A

hero and Villain, a Heroin.

Claude Lvi-Strauss theory links to the Horror genre because his theory ofBinary Opposition which analyses opposing forces relates to horror as there is

always good and evil, sometimes a hero but always a villain or a group of

villains, strengths and weaknesses.