Narrative Theories.pptx

8/10/2019 Narrative Theories.pptx

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Narrative is the way that the certain events are put together,

they will be shown to an audience. Narrative can be shown

through a story that has a beginning, middle and the end. Anexample where Narrative can be used is Music Videos, some

music videos may tell a story which has shown a clear

beginning, middle and end.

There are 3 different Narrative Theories which are created by

Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov and Claude Levi-Strauss. They

have different views on Narrative and they each show their own

opinion on how they are structured.


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Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and

productions, which indicates that there were 7 character types in the 100 tales he

analysed, which could be applied to other media, these were:

The villain (struggles against the hero)

The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)

The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)

The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)

The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)

The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

The hero ( victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess)


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Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed that

they all went through 5 stages, these 5 stages are:

A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be)

A disruption of that order by an event.

A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

A return or restoration of a new equilibrium


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Claude Levi-Strauss is a theorist who cameup with the idea that films contains binary

opposites, these binary opposites were as follows Good vs Evil Dark vs Light Strong vs Weak Past vs Future Feminine vs Masculine Boy vs Girl Young vs Old Man vs Woman.


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Music Video: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

The Hero Will attempt to try to

save the princess from the villain.

In this Music Video he tries to save

the princess from the gang which

are after both of them.

The PrincessWill get saved by the

hero from the villain, the hero and

the princess are in a relationship.

The VillainThese are the gang and

they are after the hero and the

princess.

Overview: In this music video the hero and princess start out safe and at their home, as

they are in a relationship they show this throughout the first part of the music video.

After they realise that the villain are after them and the hero stands in front of the

princess and protects her from them as they have guns. He tries to fight them off to

save himself and the princess, however within this process the hero gets shot by the

villain and therefore dies trying to save the princess life.


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At the start of the Music Video everything is

normal and he is happy, preparing his daughters

birthday cake for later. Everything is how it should

be and therefore this is the state of equilibrium.

Nothing dramatic is going on so far.

However there becomes a disequilibrium when

the main actor J Cole gets arrested and the police

decide to raid his house, in the process of doing

this they accidentally shot his daughter. This

dramatically changes the equilibrium and

therefore no one is happy anymore.

Towards the end of this video, the state of

equilibrium has been restored as now she is in

heaven, playing with her friends. She looks

happy and we can notice she is all wearing

white. Furthermore she is drawing a picture for

her dad and this restores the equilibrium

Music Video: J. Cole - Crooked Smile ft. TLC


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As soon as the music video starts

there is a clear close up shot of the

man and woman, this shows the

binary opposite of Man vs Woman.

Also here there is the binary opposite

of the light background with them

standing out in front being a dark

colour. This therefore shows Light vsDark.

Further on in this music video, the lyrics If I were a boy shows her doing the mans role and she is going to work, as

his job which is a Police Officer. She does the day to day duties that he would be doing and therefore will also show

Woman vs Man. Adding to this the whole video is in black and white which could show the opposite which can be

compared to them being opposite.

Documents

Narrative Theories.pptx