Narrative Thoery Research

Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation of the characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of the disruption. For example a narrative starts of ‘normal’ then there is a disturbance in something, which challenges the character. The character then recognises it and starts to put it right. Then the disturbance is fixed and things go back to normal or a new equilibrium. In a narrative there is an organisation of facts/events. Everything has a beginning, middle and an end.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who examined 100’s of folk tales to see if they had pattern/similarities. He found out most of them had 8 characters and 31 narrative functions. The characters are the villain(s), the hero, the donor – who provides and object with magic power, the helper who aids the hero, the princess (someone who needs help), her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher who sends the hero, the fake hero. This kind of narrative is usually seen in fairy tales and in TV news programmes where they portray the ‘hero’ and the ‘villain’.
Claude Levi Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposition. His theory is that narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness) or conceptual (love/hate) and to do with sound track binary oppositions.

In out music video we can use the narrative theories to show the story, if we are doing a narrative music video. We can use Propp’s theory to introduce the character at the beginning. Then use Todorov’s theory to establish the narrative structure.
We can establish core themes by using Levi Strauss’s theory. The music video can show the story of a girl (heroin) who has to overcome the problem (complaining to her boyfriend) and leaves him in the end (resolution).