NARRATIVE THEORIES Tomas Mann McLeod

ROLAND BARTHES

"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..." (S/Z - 1974 translation).

What I feel Roland Barthes is saying here is that a media text is, as we look further into the text and read between the lines with analysis, we unlock more and more signifiers which are open to more and more interpretations – leading to different people having different interpretations of media texts – leading to Hall’s theory of reception.

VLADIMIR PROPP

Vladimir Propp came up with the theory that in fairy tails there are set characters that carry out set actions throughout the genre, however this theory is still relevant today as many of Propp’s stock characters can be identified in current media texts.

There is the:

Villian (the antagonist), the donor, the helper, the princess (the prize or goal), the dispatcher, the hero (who departs on a search) and the false hero.

TODOROV

Todorov came up with a narrative theory, which was originally specified to plays, however it can often be applied to film and TV so we still use it today. It is broken down into 4 sections, an equilibrium, a disruption of the equilibrium, a resolution to the disruption and a new equilibrium.