Narrative Structure Theorists

Tzvetan Todorov 

"All narratives follow the basic structure of Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium."

 Or more specifically...

1) Equilibrium

2) Disequlibrium

3) (Acknowledgement of disruption)

4) (Attempt to repair disruption)

5) Equilibrium

For example 'Bad Neighbors' (2014)


Equlibrium: New couple move into quite estate. They have a newly born baby, happy together, steady job. All is well as they see potential buyers of another house for sale next to theirs, they see for example and old couple go to buy the house and aren't at all worried about the future.









When they finally meet the new buyers, it is a ferternity house. Although at first cautious, they go over to greet them and everything is fine. The students are very nice welcoming the baby and the couple, and they also importantly promise to keep the noise down. Peace is maintained at least for the time being.

 









Disequilibrium: The new family soon realize that the students have no intention of 'keeping it down' and start being disturbed by wild parties all night long with no regard for their situation.

 The disturbance culminates in them calling the police, which they were specifically told not to do by Freddie. This breaks their short friendship and leaves the Frat house seeking revenge.

Acknowledgement of Disruption: Both sides of the dispute acknowledge that there is now a war and it is just a question of who drives who out. 







 Attempt to repair disruption: A series of plans, pranks and tricks start from both sides in an effort out ultimately win their battle with neither willing to budge.



Equilibrium: The protagonists being the family, come out on top in the end as the Frat house is made to move. However, the antagonist, Freddie, accepts his wrong doings and makes up with them forming a friendship once again. Everything is peaceful and the situation is resolved.

Vladimir Propp's and Tzvetan Todorov’s Narrative Theory from SathMan1

 Vladimir Propp

His Theory essentially stated that in any story you will only ever have 8 types of character.









1) The Villain - Fights the hero in some way.
2) The Dispatcher - Character who makes the villain's evil known and sends the hero off.
3) The (magical) helper - Helps the hero in the quest.
4) The Princess or prize - The hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain and resulting in a 'Happily ever after' moment. 
5) Princess' Father - Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero.
6) The Donor - Prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7) The hero or victim/seeker hero - reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8) False hero - takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess. 

Vladimir propp's and tzvetan todorov narrative theory from Branahvan Rajasooriar

Claude Levi-Strauss 

He suggested that all narratives are based around conflicts of binary oppositions. 

For example...

Good vs Evil
Black vs White 
Peace vs War
Democracy vs Dictatorship
Man vs Woman 
East vs West
Man vs Nature
Protagonist vs Antagonist

Claude levi strauss[1] from Raj1992

This is a brief verbal look further into is theory.

Roland Barthes 

Codes Theory

"Text is a Galaxy of signifires, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it through several entrances..." etc. etc. 

So pretty much, in English, what Barthes means is: 

•  The text is similar to a tangled ball of threads 
•  Naturally, the thread needs to be unraveled
• Once unraveled, we encounter a wide range of potential meanings
• You could start by looking at a text/moving image in one way. But there will inevitably be another interpretation or viewpoint to see it from
• This raveling and unraveling process is endless

Or alternatively we can look at a brief, but more in depth view of the theory...  

This task has given me a good insight into just how I will structure my narrative. I found it really interesting researching into what these people had discovered about the majority films. A lot of them being fairly accurate almost encourages me to it very differently, but having looked into some of the successful films that use this structure I'm fairly sure I will follow it for the most part.