Narrative theory

NARRATIVE THEORY

In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience. Narrative is related to audience theory as narrative is used to appeal to the audience. Narrative elements are created to entice an audience or to keep them interested. When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning, there are a series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of: 

• Genres 
• Character
• Form
• Time

We can use knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text. In particular, Time is something that we understand as a convention - narratives do not take place in real time but may telescope out (the slow motion shot which replays a winning goal) or in (an 80 year life can be condensed into a two hour biopic). Therefore we consider "the time of the thing told and the time of the telling." - Christian Metz (Notes Towards A Phenomenology of Narrative). 

It is only because we are used to reading narratives from a very early age, and are able to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow. Narrative and storytelling are usually similar across different cultures as most themes are consistent in old folk stories even though the cultures may not have met. So what are the common traits of storytelling? Starting with, Vladimir Propp who studied Russian folk stories and suggested that characters in stories all have a narrative function. He identified 31 functions of characters, however there are seven main functions that are particularly worth noting and these seven functions can be applied to most mainstream films or big sagas (e.g The Star Wars films):

1. The hero
2. The villain (struggles against the hero)
3. The donor/enabler (prepares the hero/gives them some magical object)
4. The helper
5. The princess (often sought for during the narrative)
6. The false hero (perceived as a good character in the beginning but emerges as evil)
7. The dispatcher (character who sends the hero off on their quest)

The next theorist is Todorov, who suggested the conventional narrative methods are structured into five stages:

1. A state of the equilibrium
2. A disruption of the equilibrium
3. A recognition of the disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption (usually this is achieved by the characters defeating the person responsible for the disruption)
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium (going back to the start with some minor changes) (e.g Star Trek)

Robert McKee (alternative to Todorov) – still five stages but as follows:

• Inciting Incident: An event happens that sets the story going
• Progressive Complications: For a key character, things just keep getting worse
• Crisis: Things get even worse – it looks like it’s all over for the hero
• Climax: Things are now so bad, drastic action is called for
• Resolution: Whatever the problem was is sorted out and all is well again.
  
  

This idea of story telling can be developed by the work of Claude-Levi Strauss and his notion of Binary Opposition. He suggested that all narratives are driven by a constant creation of conflict and the narrative can only end on a resolution of the conflict. Examples of conflicts include:

• the battle between good and evil
• light and dark 
• fear and confidence

We understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi ‑Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative:

• Earth/Space
• Good/Evil
• Humans/Aliens
• Past/Present
• Normal/Strange
• Known/Unknown

Roland Barthes came up with the idea of narrative codes. These codes can be applied to many actions films (e.g the 300) The two main codes worth recognising are:

1. The Hermeneutic Code (enigma codes) - things that make the audience ask questions. The answers to these questions are then slowly revealed throughout the story. Enigmas are puzzles, questions the audience wants answered. Enigma codes are created by the producer controlling the amount of information released to the audience and determining at what stage certain bits of information will be given. The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.
2. The Proairetic Code (action codes) - any action that moves the narrative forward (e.g the 300).
3. Semantic Code (denotation and connotation): This code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word. It is by the use of these extended meanings that authors can paint rich pictures with relatively limited set of signifiers.
4. Symbolic Code: This is very similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done through the use of binary opposites, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflicting ideas.
5. Cultural Code: (referential code) Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness (e.g. youth culture use certain words that are understood by that culture; a British film may well show schools, pubs and landmarks that British audiences recognize). The cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works. These elements give the text plausibility with its audience. 

Barthes also proclaimed the ‘death of the author’ – he meant that the producers of texts and texts themselves are essentially meaningless and texts only become meaningful in the process of consumption by audiences. Meaning can only be discovered by exploring how audiences interpret texts. Roland Barthes describes a text as: "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.

Barthes wanted to - he was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so. All you need to know, again, very basically, is that texts may be ´open´ (ie unravelled in a lot of different ways) or ´closed´ (there is only one obvious thread to pull on). Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:

• Action/proiarectic code & enigma code (ie Answers & questions)
• Symbols & Signs
• Points of Cultural Reference
• Simple description/reproduction

Another theorist is Allan Cameron who argued that in the last 20 years "popular cinema has displayed a turn towards narrative complexity". He also identified four different types of modular narrative:         

1. Anachronic (e.g Pulp Fiction) - modified flashbacks and flash forwards                                                    

                                                   - no clear dominance between any narrative threads                                     

  2. Forking-path (e.g Sliding Doors) - alternate versions of the story                                                                

                                                          - outcomes that might result from slight changes       

 3. Episodic - collection of stories joined by a common theme (e.g The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Halloween Special)
 4. Split screen - spatial rather than temporal lines (e.g 24)

Joseph Campbell – based on years of research, he proposed the idea of ‘universal monomyth’ that is essentially the condensed, basic hero narrative that forms the basis for every myth and legend in the world and is, therefore, common to all cultures:

1. Ordinary World – the ordered world that the hero will choose (or be forced) to abandon.
2. Call To Adventure – a problem or challenge arises.
3. Refusal Of The Call – fear or reluctance may strike the hero.
4. Meeting With The Mentor – the mentor is a key character.
5. Crossing The First Threshold – the hero commits to the adventure.
6. Test, Allies, Enemies – the hero must learn the rules that will govern his quest.
7. Approach To The Innermost Cave – the most dangerous confrontation yet, perhaps the location of the treasure, or the object of the quest.
8. Ordeal – the hero must face his fear or mortal enemy who will seem more powerful. Mental or physical torture may occur.
9. Reward (Seizing The Sword) – the hero can celebrate the victory.
10. The Road Back – vengeful forces controlled by the villain are unleashed.
11. Resurrection – perhaps a final confrontation with death.
12. Return With The Elixir – return to the ordinary world with some wisdom, knowledge or something else gained from the adventure.

Noel Carroll - Traditional 3 part structure for horror: 

1. ‘Onset phase’ where a disorder is created, 
2. ‘Discovery phase’, where characters discover the disorder, 
3. ‘Disruption phase’ where characters destroy the source and restore normality.

Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

1. Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.
2. A high degree of narrative closure.
3. A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.

Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands “implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between story, a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation, and discourse, the discursive presentation or narration of events.”

Kate Domaille (2001) every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are as follows:

1. Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.
2. Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.
3. Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.
4. Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. The Terminator.
5. Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g. Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street.
6. Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Born On the Fourth Of July.
7. Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.
8. Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle. Man loves woman…unfortunately one or both of them are  already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.
   
   

Fiske et al (1983) - "Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)"

Syd Field – American Screenwriter came up with a formulaic approach to film structure in three acts. 

1. the set up
2. confrontation 
3. resolution

Tim O’Sullivan (1998) argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story.  Media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures.

DECONSTRUCTING NARRATIVES

Think of a feature film, and jot down a) the strict chronological order in which events occur b) the order in which each of the main characters finds out about these events a) shows story, b) shows plot construction. Plot keeps audiences interested eg) in whether the children will discover Mrs Doubtfire is really their father, or shocks them, eg) the 'twist in the tale" at the end of The Sixth Sense. Identifying Narrator Who is telling this story is a vital question to be asked when analysing any media text. Stories may be related in the first or third person, POVs may change, but the narrator will always:

• reveal the events which make up the story
• mediate those events for the audience
• evaluate those events for the audience

The narrator also tends to POSITION the audience into a particular relationship with the characters on the screen.

COMPREHENDING TIME

Very few screen stories take place in real time. Whole lives can be dealt with in the 90 minutes of a feature film, an 8 month siege be encompassed within a 60 minute TV documentary. There are many conventions to denote time passing, from the time/date information typed up on each new scene of The X-Files to the aeroplane passing over a map of a continent in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other devices to manipulate time include

• flashbacks
• dream sequences
• repetition
• different characters' POV
• flash forwards
• real time interludes
• pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place

LOCATING NARRATIVE

Each story has a location. This may be physical and geographical (eg a war zone) or it may be mythic (eg the Wild West). Virtual locations are now a feature of many newsrooms (eg the computers and holograms of the BBC's Nine O'Clock News). There are sets of conventions to do with that location, often associated with genre and form (eg all space ships seem to look the same inside). A good way to test your understanding of narrative is to apply the theories to a non-linear narrative such as the movie Memento (2002). You can find a study guide to Memento here.

USING NARRATIVE TO BUILD SUSPENSE

Restricted narrative can be used to surprise an audience, e.g. when a character does not know what is waiting around the corner and neither does the audience. A degree of unrestricted narrative, the other 'half', can be used to effectively build suspense, as the audience are anticipating the events to come, of which the character has no knowledge. We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb beneath you and it's about to explode". In this first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of explosion. In the second case we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed

NARRATIVE IN FILMS

Most of the films we see at the cinema are narrative films, films that tell a story. Even films which are factual often employ story methods to get this point across, for instance a documentary may follow the 'story' of a group of environmental warriors over a period of six months in their fight to prevent a road being built. We are so steeped in the narrative tradition that we approach a film with certain expectations, whether we know anything about the story or not. For example: We expect The opening to give us information about who, what and where. There to be characters who interact with each other. To see a series of incidents, which are connected with each other. Problems and/or conflicts. The ending to resolve the action or cast new light on what has happened. As the viewer watches a film, they pick up cues, recall information, anticipate what will follow, and generally participate in the creation of the film's form. The film shapes the particular expectations by summoning up curiosity, suspense, and surprise. The viewer also develops specific hunches about the outcome of the action, and these may control our expectations right up to the end. The ending has the task of satisfying or cheating the expectations prompted by the film as a whole. The ending may also activate memory by cueing the spectator to review earlier events, possibly in a new light. As we examine the narrative form, we will consider at various points how it engages the viewer in a dynamic activity.

HOW TO ANALYSE A NARRATIVE

1. Terminal code - anything technical: sound, camera angle, editing etc (Bear Window)
2. Verbal code - how is language used to convey the story? (Shawshank redemption)
3. Symbolic code - clues within the narrative (The Shng)
4. Structure - Todorov's theory (Superman returns)
5. Character - see Propp's theory (lady in the water)
6. Narrative conflict - see Levi-Strauss binary opposition (The Dark Knight)

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Narrative can be defined as "a chain of events in cause‑effect relationships occurring in time and space". 

It typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a 

new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Todorov's narrative theory is based on this; an 

equilibrium is set up which is then disrupted, causing disequilibrium, which is resolved into a new equilibrium by 

the end of the tale. When we are watching a film we try to connect the events to make sense of what is 

happening, to see a line of cause and effect. This is by far the most important factor in narrative because even if 

there is no obvious connection, we still try to make one. This is a natural reaction because making connections is 

how we make sense of the world around us, for example looking for a reason for feeling sick and concluding that 

we ate an undercooked sausage. What we are actually doing in film terms is connecting the images that we see 

in both time and space and creating a causal effect between them.

How does the director manipulate cause and effect? The director can create a mood or atmosphere by choosing certain shots in a certain order, to build a picture in our minds. We automatically link what is happening in one shot with what happens in those either side of it, as this is what happens in real life. Thus, by showing us a window frame and then a shot of a house, we presume the house is what you see out of that window. In this way we are interacting with the film.Some directors have exploited this idea to extremes. 

Lev Kuleshov, a Russian filmmaker in the 1920's experimented by showing people shots of an actor in between shots of different objects ‑ food, a dead woman and a child. The audience interpreted the actor's expressions (although it never changed!) as being hungry, sad and. affectionate. This is because our brains try to make continuitive sense of what we see. This placing together of images is called montage.

Sergei Eisenstein, another Russian filmmaker of the same era, believed that it was more effective if consecutive shots were not obviously linked as the audience were forced to think and interact more to make the mental jump from shot to shot. Montage can be used effectively in propaganda, where the filmmaker wants the audience to believe in a certain idea or concept. In a more light‑hearted way it is used today in pop videos and advertising, to encourage us to make associations and link ideas.

PLOT VS NARRATIVE

Plot - used to describe the events on screen and how they are organised and presented. The plot may also include non-diegetic material that is not part of the story world e.g music and voice overs. Props coined the term 'Syuznet' for this
Story - The whole set of events in a narrative way that we bring to the plot in order to make sense of it. They will not only show plot elements on screen, but things we assume have already happened 'Fabula' for this

SIGNIFICANCE OF NARRATIVES
Narrative helps to form the world around us and our opinion of it, and a lot of teaching is found through narratives. There are many different ways in which we are surrounded by storm form:

• Children listen to fairytales and myths which progress to short stories, novels, histories
• Religion is often presented through collections of stories and moral tales - bible and koran
• Scientific breakthrough is often presented as stories of trials
• Visual mediums like paintings and art pieces tell stories without words

TWO MAIN NARRATIVE MODES

Narrative of events - events that drive the plot forward e.g the bro shoots an enemy, dives into a lake, defuses a bomb
Narrative of drama - nothing happens in terms of events but a lot happens dramatically e.g heroine argues with the hero, states he was never her type and leaves