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Monday 19 April 2010

Narrative Theories

Aristotle
Aristotle believed that all narratives have a beginning, middle and an end
According to him there are 5 different stages to the Narrative Structure,
They are as follows:

  • Exposition
  • Development
  • Complication
  • Climax
  • Resolution
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp came up with his own structure for narratives after studying many hundrards of Russian Folk Tales. After his studies he found that all Narratives have a common structure and in this common structure there are 7 different roles which a character may play in the story,
They are as follows:
  1. Villian - Struggle With Hero
  2. Donor - Prepares/ Provides the hero with magical agent
  3. Helper - Assists, Rescue, Solves/Transfigures the hero
  4. Princess - A person who is in trouble with the villian and is saved by the Hero. (Often ends up marrying the Hero and Punishing the Villian)
  5. Hero - Departs on a search for the princess, Reacts to doner, marries princess at the end.
  6. False Hero - Claims to be the Hero and tries to take all of the credit.
Joseph Campbell
Campbell also believes that most narratives follow a similar structure and contain universally recognisable character situations i.e archetypes. Archetypes are recurring character types. Joseph Campbell had 6 archetypes for characters.
They are as follows:
  • Hero
  • Shadow
  • Outcast
  • Devil Figure
  • Women Figure
  • Wise Old Man
Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi Strauss came up with the theory of binary opposites. He believed that for everything that there is in narrative there is an opposite for it as well.
His Binary Opposites Were:
  • Good Vs Evil
  • Strong Vs Weak
  • Young Vs Old
  • Boy Vs Girl
  • Black Vs White
  • East Vs West
  • Man Vs Nature
  • Ignorance Vs Wisdom
  • Humanity Vs Technology

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