Narrative Theories

Tim O'Sullivan (1998)

Tim's theory states that all media texts tell the audience a story whether this is through mediation or whether this story is of ourself - not usually our own personal story but as a culture of set of cultures. He also states that a narrative theory sets out to show what we experience when we 'read' a story.

Kate Domaille (2001)

Kate's theory is that all media texts can fit in one of eight narrative types:

Achilles
A fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless person. For example, Superman Returns, 'Superman reappears after a long absence, but is challenged by an old foe who uses Kryptonian technology for world domination.' And also Fatal Attraction Movie 'a married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.'

Candide
Indomitable hero who can't be defeated or be put down. For example James Bond, all 23 films produced tell the story of a spy who defeats the bad guys and comes out on top each film as well as in the novels produced. Another example is the character Indiana Jones who is most famously known for using his signature whip and collecting artifacts before the antagonistic characters.

Cinderella
The dream comes true, narrative. For example Pretty Woman, 'a man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.'

Circle
Is the chase between the hero and the villain, good against bad. For example, Iron Man, the first film is based on the character making his money on weapons but after being captured by the Afghans he has being fighting against, he comes to realise that the company he has been working with, isn't what it seems. An ultimate fight against his good friend sees the fight won by good.

Faust
This narrative story is about 'selling your soul to the devil' which may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him. An example of this plot is Wall Street, 'a young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.'

Orpheus
The loss of something personal or the gift that is taken away. Could be about the tragedy of loss or the journey which features the loss. For example, Love Story, 'a boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.'

Romeo and Juliet
The traditional love story between two people. For example, Titanic, 'a seventeen-year-old aristocrat, expecting to be married to a rich claimant by her mother, falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.'

Tristan and Iseult
A love triangle where either the man loves woman, unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes. For example, Casablance, 'set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.'

Bordwell & Thompson (1997)

His theory offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see.

Fabula (story) - is all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. The fabula is defined as the chronological series of events that are represented or implied.

Syuzhet (plot) - is everything visible and audibly present before us. Syuzhet is considered to be the order, manner and techniques of their presentation in the narrative.

Pam Cook (1985)

Pam Cook's theory states that the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have: linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution, high degree of narrative closure, fictional world that contains verisimilitude.

Todorov (1977)

Todorov theory shows the stages of the narrative within a media text and shows how the equilibrium is restored.

Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal.
Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.
Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption.
Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction it to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final stage of equilibrium is not the same as the initial state.



An example of this theory is seen in the music video 'Mistletoe' by Justin Bieber. The music video starts of with the happy couple out and together where the equilibrium is stable between the two characters. At 0:35 the equilibrium is disturbed as an opposing female grabs the attention of the male in the relationship. This is quickly restored when attention to the opposing female is dropped and back onto the main female who hes on a date with. From 0:50 the equilibrium is clearly stable until 1:31 where the male character is then distracted away from his girlfriend. She then walks way to show that the equilibrium is disrupted and no longer stable. 1:45 shows when the male realizes he has upset her and that the equilibrium has been disrupted. The male character then tries to repair the disruption by sending her a present and meeting her outside her home to make up. At 2:18, the couple are seen together smiling and laughing suggesting that the equilibrium has been restored. The rest of the music video we see the characters happy and sharing a kiss of which we know the equilibrium is stable again.

Barthes (1977)

Barthes theory suggested that narrative works with five different codes and the enigma code works to keep up setting problems or puzzles for the audience. His action code (a look, significant word, movement) is based on our cultural and stereotypical understanding of actions that act as a shorthand to advancing the narrative.

Adrian Tilley(1991)

Tilley created the iconic use of the buckling of the gun belt in the Western genre as a means of signifying the preferred reading of an imminent shoot out, and this works in the same way as the starting of a car engine ect.

Vladimir Propp (1928)

The Russian theorist Propp studied the narrative structure of Russian Folk Tales. He concluded that all the characters could be resolved into only 7 broad character types in the 100 tales analysed.

The Villain - Struggles against the hero.
The Donor - Prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
The Helper (magical) - Helps the hero in the quest.
The Princess and her Father - Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
The Dispatcher - Character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
The Hero or Victim/Seeker hero - Reacts to the donor, weds the Princess.
The False Hero - Takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.

Claude Levi - Staws - (1958)

Levi idea believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites eg Good vs Evil, Black vs White, Rich vs Poor ect. The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between.


This clip is a trailer for the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, of which Spider-man (good) and many villains such as The Green Goblin and Electro (bad). This trailer best shows the narrative of the movie in brief and shows the battle between good and bad. The clip represents how successful the theory is in the sense that most superhero and action films are based on the battle between good and evil.

Andrew Goodwin (1992)

Goodwin's theory argues that in music video, 'narrative relations are highly complex' and meaning can be created from the individual audio-viewer's musical personal musical taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses multidiscursive phenomena of Western culture. Many are dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce the postmodern 're-use' tradition.

Sven Carlsson (1999)

Carlsson's theory suggests that music videos in general, videos fall into two rough groups: performance clips and conceptual clips. When a music video mostly shows an artist (or artists) singing or dancing, it is a performance clip. And when the clip shows something else during its duration, often with artistic ambitions, it is a conceptual clip.



In this music video, Meghan Trainor is seen performing the song and dancing. When the artist is singing to the song varies medium close ups and extreme close ups are used whereas when the artist is dancing long shots are used to show her dancing to the song. This music video is a performance music video as there is no conceptual clips in the music video. However in the Taylor Swift music video, 'Blank Spaces' the music video takes a different approach.



Taylor Swift's music video is considered a conceptual as it only includes clips of a narrative story. This music video can also link to Todorvo's theory. Stage 1 being that the relationship is stable thus both characters are happy from 0.27. However stage 2 takes place at 1.48 where the artists sees that her companion is texting another girl. This is when the equilibrium is disrupted. Stage 4 occurs when the male recognizes this and seeks out to fix it though jealous takes over and the female artists destroys all of his belongings. Stage 5 then take place as the male character leaves. But equilibrium stables when a new potential male companion enters the scene, restoring the stability.