Narrative theory

Tzvetan Todorov:

The Bulgarian structuralist linguist Todorov, suggested that most stories of this time (the 60's onwards) start with an equilibrium or status quo, meaning that all forces which are suggested in the film, are in balance. However this balance, is usually disrupted by a singular event, which then causes a chain of events to follow. However this instability which is caused to the story, is later rectified, and the film will return to a state of equilibrium by the end of the story.

Vladimir Propp:

Propp looked at 100's of folk tales during his time, in an attempt to find out whether they shared any structures or functions. In doing this, Propp identified 8 character roles which were found within these tales. He found a villain, hero, donor (who provides an object with some magic property), helper (helps the hero), princess, princesses father, dispatcher (sends the hero away) and a false hero.

These character roles, that Propp identified are still present in many narratives today. As most narratives involve a hero and a villain.

Claude Levi-Strauss and Roland Barthes:

These two researchers, looked into the narrative structure of binary oppositions. For example, good and evil are an example of a binary opposition. They did not worry about what order the events would happen in, they just researched the themes that are found within these narratives. They found that in science fiction films, these types of binary oppositions are often found:
Earth and Space,
Good and Evil,
Humans and Aliens,
Past and Present,
Normal and Strange,
Known and Unknown.

These are all assumptions that are generalised, but obviously these results can often defy convention, and opposites can easily and often become allies.

Bordwell and Thompson


These two men defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space." They noted that a narrative typically begins with a singular situation, and then a change is caused which creates a new situation, and brings an end to the narrative. They also suggested that narrative defines where situations take place, when they take place, and how quickly they take place.