Narrative Theory Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp

A Narrative is something that demonstrates a series of fictional and nonfictional events. A Narrative Theory is the way that these fictional and nonfictional events come about, assembling from the beginning to the end and all the factors involved in creating that specific story.

Roland Barthes Roland Barthes was an influential literary theorist that discovered 5 codes which are consolidated together to ultimately produce some sort of meaning to the story. It is down to the audience to construct an understanding of the documentary. In order to do this, we must utilise the 5 codes that Barthes has discovered: 1. The Hermeneutic Code: The voice of truth (Making the viewer/audience want more) 2. The Proairetic Code: Empirical Voice (More to the story) 3. The Symbolic Code: The voice of symbols (symbolism) 4. The Semantice Code: The voice of the person (Something that refers to meaning) 5. The Referential Code: The voice of science (Cultural) In our film, Goodbye High School, we are able to use two of these codes. The Hermeneutic Code, and The Proairetic Code.

Goodbye High School The Hermeneutic Code We have used The Hermeneutic Code during our five minute film. We have used this specific code because our films storyline is unexpected, although our film title, Goodbye High School, does provides our viewers with an idea about what the film is going to be about, which is that our film is about leaving high school. However, what is actually going to happen in the film remains unknown. Parts of our film provides our audience with a slow progression of

finding out the truth, in the sense that we give the audience an enigma thats raised in their heads, causing suspense and when it comes to the tip of the ice, we break it by providing the answer. For example: when Olivia and her boyfriend Peter break up with each other, she finds out that he was gay. Similarly, we have used Jamming to give the sense of lost hope to the audience by building suspense and questions and, we break the code by providing the answer to their questions.

The Proairetic Code We have used The Proairetic Code in our five minute film because we have used a voiceover for most of the duration of the film. If in our film we didnt use the voiceover, the audience would not have understood the entire storyline. The fact that weve used the voiceover and not just the cinematography , editing and Mise-en-scene, has added to the storyline which makes the audience more interested.

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Propp was also an influential literary theorist; he tended to alienate fairy tales into alienated sections. Vladimir Propp analysed an estimated 100 fairy tales, while breaking them each down into separate sections, listing which ones occurred in the actual movie. After doing this, Vladimir Propp would proceed on to divide the characters into their 31 functions, both positive and negative functions, which ultimately depended on the film. Once Propp had identified the character, this ultimately made it easier to foreshadow events just by using each characters background information. The main reason for this because next you look specifically for behavioural patterns, through their own sphere of action. Propp looked at 8 broad character types to find out the nature behind a character, after looking at these 8 broad character types, you may look at the sphere of action. 1. The Villain the character who is against the hero 2. The Helper the character who helps aid the hero

3. The Dispatcher the character who dispatches the hero 4. Princess the character who is the prize which is given to the hero 5. Her Father the character to sets the hero a task, which identifies the false hero, and marries the real hero 6. The Donor the character who aids the hero in planning for what might come, and/or provides the hero with a magical item 7. The Hero the main person who people look up to, saves the situation, etc 8. The Bogus (False) Hero the character who pretends he is the real hero, and tends to take credit for things that the real hero has done

Tzvetan Tordov Tzvetan Tordov is also a literary theorist from Bulgaria, who wrote about both culture theory and literary theory. He raised the point of equilibrium, which is generally when a protagonist tends to live a normal, happy life that is disrupted by something.

In order to analyse a narrative with this kind of text, these 6 codes/components must be used: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Character Symbolic codes Verbal codes Technical codes Narrative conflicts Structural codes

Raman Bahra