Narrative

Narrative as we understand it today is produced through a combination of theories. The definition of narrative is a story, or text, constructed through either moving images or words. This can be presented in either chronological order, or a non linear structure which may show the middle or ending first and then establish how the story reached this point later on. Examples of films that do not follow a linear narrative include Pulp Fiction and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

I will now discuss some more popular theories relating to narrative. 

Firstly, Todorov's theory states that all films follow an established structure, which includes an equilibrium, disruption, resolution and finally new equilibrium. 

To expand on that, Todorov believes that most productions start in a state of peace, following this, the peace is somehow disrupted and the characters must attempt to reach a resolution. Once they accomplish this, a new peace can be established within the text, but this is not the same as the initial equilibrium because something was probably lost along the way. For example, characters dying, or objects with a lot of focus on them within the text being damaged or destroyed in some way which has a large impact on the characters.

Next, Vladimir Propp was a scholar and literary critic that established types of characters that can be seen in every story. Not all character types will be used in every piece of narrative, but the characters that are used can fit one of the descriptions set by Propp. These descriptions are the following;

The Villain - Fights the hero in some way

The Dispatcher - Makes the villains evil known and sends the hero off to stop him

The Helper(s) - Assists the hero on his mission in some way

The Donor - Prepares the hero in some way, by either donating some sort of object or providing a vital piece of information 

False Hero - Takes credit for the actions of the hero 

Finally, Roland Barthes established a set of codes that are carefully woven into any narrative. The first is the first one is the Hermeneutic Code which refers to any element of the story that is not completely and thoroughly explained. The reason this is used is because the authors job is to keep the audience guessing until the end, leaving enigma codes for them to consider while they are consuming the narrative. The Proairetic Code builds tension and references past events in the narrative that indicates something else is going to happen. These two codes work together to keep the audience interested until the end of the story. The Semantic Code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of a word. This can be used to paint richer pictures with limited text. The Symbolic Code acts at a wider level than the symbolic code, it organises semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning, allowing writers explore complicated sets of ideas whilst using basic descriptions.  The Cultural Code refers to anything that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation of truth within a text.