What I learnt (Narrative Theories and Representation)

Narrative
Narrative is concerned with the form or structure of the text itself, the way it tells the story, how it is shaped. Narrative refers to the story that is told or written. 
In the context of mass media the story is the media text and a whole team of people have been involved in creating and shaping it for the audience.
 Narrative is therefore A PROCESS OF ORGANISING AND STRUCTURING.

Difference between Story & Narrative “Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns),
narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess…)”

Narrative Theories

 

Field and 3 Act Structure, Syd Field
Syd Field  identified how conventional narrative feature length films share conventional characteristics in their construction/the way the story is told, and that successful scripts can be written by adhering to this theory. The narrative is split into three sections:

• Set up,
• confrontation,
•  resolution,

and has two significant plot points between the acts.

Example

“The film is structured in terms of Syd Fields ‘3 Act Structure’. In the set up, we get to know the characters of Somerset and Mills, and the nature of their relationship. At plot point 1 the ‘problematic’ (Problematic – something that needs solving) is established and the confrontation stage of Field’s theory features Mills and Somerset trying to catch the antagonist”

 

Propp and Character types (Russian formalist theory) 

  Propp analysed hundreds of folk tales and argued that there are 31 basic character functions. Through this he demonstrated the relationship between characters and the structure of the narrative. Fairytales are useful to analyse because they contain stock characters and structural ingredients. After studying 115 fairytales, Propp was able to identify seven main character ‘roles’:

1 the villain

2 the donor (or provider)

3 the helper

4 the princess (or sought-for person) and her father

5 the dispatcher

6 the hero

7 the false hero

.

These roles represent the building blocks of narratives, it is their actions, in what Propp calls ‘functions’, that construct the narrative Propp states that several roles may well be filled by the same character and that some may also be filled by more than one character.

 

Todorov and Narrative Structure, Tzvetan Todorov Russian Formalist theory

Todorov described the way in which the conventional narrative’s flow is divided into 3 sections – (an early antecedent of Field’s 3 act structure) A state of equilibrium is disrupted (by the problematic) to ceate a sense of ‘disequilibrium) before achieving a sense of ‘new equilibrium’ when the problem is resolved.

Example

“…although the problem has been resolved by the end of ‘21 grams’, the world will never be the same again. This is what Todorov termed a ‘new equilibrium’, normal life has been restored. But it is quite different to the life the characters lived before the accident happened and disequilibrium was caused.

 

Story & Plot associated with Tzvetan Todorov (Another Russian Formalist Theory)

The story (fabula) is all the events shown and implied by the film in chronological order. The plot (syuzhet) is just the events actually shown, in the order they are shown.

Example

“…the story and plot of Pulp Fiction are quite different, and part of the pleasure for the audience is ‘figuring out’ the story from the plot. The story ends with the road movie stock situation of Butch and Fabienne riding off into the sunset on a chopper. Conversely. The end of the plot finishes minutes after the opening of the plot, with Vince and Jules leaving the Hawthorne Grill.

 

Narrative Codes, Roland Barthes

Barthes suggested that narrative works with different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it.

• Enigma Code – little puzzles to be solved
• Action codes – looks, significant words, close ups which suggest an event such as ‘jealousy’, ‘falling in love’ accident waiting to happen etc
• Symbolic code – an object, event or action which refers to something outside itself – like the flower which represents ET’s life.

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Theories of Representation

 

Representation

"...all media texts are re-presentations of reality." Everything you see, hear or read in the media has been constructed.

 

Consider:
Who produced it?
What is being represented? How is it represented? Using what codes? Within what genre? How is the representation made to seem ‘true’, ‘commonsense’ or ‘natural’?
What is foregrounded and what is backgrounded? Are there any notable absences?
Whose representation is it? Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?
At whom is this representation targeted? How do you know?
What does the representation mean to you? What does the representation mean to others? How do you account for the differences?
How do people make sense of it? According to what codes?
With what alternative representations could it be compared? How does it differ?

Reflectionist vs constructionist, Associated with Stuart Hall
There are three different approaches to understanding how representation works:
Reflective – The media simply reflects meanings which already exist in the ‘real’ world.
Intentional – The media simply reflects what the producer wants to say
Constructionist – Media is constructed in the active relationship between producer, text and audience.
Example;
“This ‘intentional’ approach to the meaning of representation is typical of the Hypodermic Syringe Theory, but it is generally accepted that audiences have greater media literacy than ever before making active meanings of the texts they consume..”

Constructions of Realism

Explores the relationship between the text, and aspects of the real world it represents. ‘Realism’ in contrast to ‘Reality’ is often highly constructed. Types of realism include:

- social realism,

- documentary realism

- emotional realism.

(Often contrasted with spectacular or melodramatic representations.)
Example:
The documentary and social realism of ‘Sweet Sixteen’ is convincing, carefully constructed by Loach’s approach to film-making. He uses non professional actors, and encourages them to improvise much of the script. Furthermore it is shot in natural light on grainy film stock.

Gramsci and Hegemony, associated with Antonio Gramsci
Gramsci suggested that power is achieved by dominant groups by persuading subordinate groups that social structures and dominant ideological values are in their interests, and convincing them to consent to their socio-economic position.
According to Gramsci, hegemony is political power that flows from intellectual and moral leadership, authority, or consensus as distinguished from armed force. A ruling class forms and maintains its hegemony in civil society by creating cultural and political consensus through unions, political parties, schools, media, the church, voluntary associations etc.
Example
Although the stereotypical target audience for Eastenders is female, the representation of gender roles in the show play the hegemonic function of reinforcing dominant patriarchal values.

Binary Oppositions –  de Saussure and Levi-Strauss
Structuralist (structuralism – societies and sociological or cultural practices can be analysed, along the lines of a language, as signifying systems) approach which suggests we may understand a representation in it’s contrast (opposition) to other representations in the same text.
Example
The audience gain greater understanding of the character Mills and Somerset in Se7en by their binary opposition to each other. Whilst Mills is young, white, at the beginning of his career, messy and married, Somerset is old, black, at the end of his career, organised and single. The audience therefore know the characters not only by what they are, but also by what they are not.


Moral Panics   – Stanley Cohen
Cohen identified the role of the media in generating (sometimes unfounded) public anxiety about issues such as law and order and public health.
Example
“…the dominant representation of homosexuality was affected negatively in the 1980s when a moral panic was created by the media linking homosexuality with AIDS, pacifying the concerns of the heterosexual mass audience.”