Narrative Theory Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp.

A narrative is a format that describes a list of events both fictional and non-fictional. Narrative Theory is the way they come about, building the story from start to end and all the components involved to create that story. Vladimir Propp was a literary theorist who separated fairy tales into separate sections. He analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales, breaking them down into their separate sections, listing a series of them that occurred during the movie. Then he would break the characters into their 31 functions, positive and negative functions, depending on the movie. Once the character has been identified, it would be easy to foreshadow events just by their background information. The reason for this is because you next look for the behavioural patterns of the character, through their sphere of action. The way to find out the nature behind a character, Propp looked at the only 8 broad character types, then to look at their Sphere of Action. The 8 character types are:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The villain Character who is against the hero. The Dispatcher Character who sends the Hero off. The Helper Character providing help to the Hero Princess Character who is the Prize, given to the Hero. Her Father Character who gives the Hero a task, identifying the False Hero and marries the Hero. 6. The Donor Helps the Hero to plan for what might come and or gives a magical item to the Hero 7. The Hero The main person, who people look up to, saves the situation, seeks out for things. 8. The Bogus (False) Hero false hero who tries to take credit for what the hero has done. For example; there is a movie with a male protagonist who later turns into an antagonist, he has an innocent personality, his first sphere would be Hero, then whilst committing dreadful crimes/ sins, he may depict the sphere of the Villain to show a difference in his personality. Roland Barthes was also an influential literary theorist that found 5 codes that are blended together to create meaning to a story. As the audience, it is for us to create an understanding of the storys opening sequence. To do this, the 5 codes are used, which are:

The Hermeneutic Code: The voice of Truth (Making viewer want more) The Proairetic Code: Empirical voice (More to the story) The Semantice Code: The voice of the Person (Something that refers to meaning) The Symbolic Code: The voice of the Symbols (Symbolism) The Referential Code: The voice of Science (Cultural)

For The Grindylow, we are only able to use 2 out of the 5 codes. The Hermeneutic Code Theses are the parts of a story that is problematic or arent fully explained. They are enigmas or questions that an audience would want an answer to, relating to the story. For example; a story in which there have been several murders is a story that can be used by this code, mainly because questions or enigmas would be raised as to why this person has committed many murders, what could be the possible reasons behind this? The questions would be answered as the movie builds to the climax or the end, or the movie may exit without these enigmas/ questions being answered, to show a twist in the story and then the continuation of the story in the second part of the film.

To keep the audience engaged in the film, there are steps that build up to find out the truth behind the story, the way in which this is done is to conceal it is:

The Snare: This teases the audience into thinking that the movie is at the point where the truth is about to be revealed but it isnt, it is avoided, probably by building up the tension and then changing the scene to find that the truth hasnt been uncovered yet. Partial Answers: This was to reveal some of the truth behind a story, to tease the audience and make them think differently Equivocation: This is a mixture of both of the above, snare and partial answers, it was used to further confuse the audience. Jamming: This was to let the audience know that a situation or problem might not be fixed or resolved.

The Grindylow Hermeneutic Code We have used this particular Code, as our storyline is much unexpected, the title makes it obvious that the film is about a water demon but how anything happened or what happens, is unknown and the way people die or disappear is also unexpected. In our film, when Percy is cleaning, the radio cuts off a few times and the enigmas created are as such, why is it cutting off? There is no one there so how is it cutting off? Does this mark the end of Percys life? Our film also gives the audience a build up of finding out the truth as the truth of our film is that there is a demon wondering around the corridors and is not showing itself, why not? We have the element of Equivocation because of the fact that our protagonist seems to have paranoia but it isnt paranoia something is lurking about but he doesnt know. He thinks that someone is behind him, we give the Equivocation to the audience that something might happen to him but we realise it is just the boss. This Equivocation shows the audience that what they anticipate may not be what it will be realistically. The Proairetic Code These are actions that imply further actions or reactions. This makes the audience guess what will happen next. For example; in our film we have a protagonist that is in a supernatural field and is being paranoid because of it. He then wonders whos turned the tap on or left it open, including the lights? He goes to turn the tap off and starts to clean out of know where a man come, at this point the audience would have wondered or questioned themselves whether it was someone that was his Boss of someone what might have the power to harm him. What this does is create tension in the atmosphere, building the guesses the audience makes because they anticipate more and more as the tension grows. Tzvetan Todorov is a literary theorist, from Bulgaria, who wrote about literary theory and culture theory. He put forward the point of equilibrium, which is when a protagonist lives a happy and regular life but that is disrupted by something To be able to analyse a narrative with this kind of text, these 6 components/ codes would be needed: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Character Symbolic Codes Verbal Codes Technical codes Structural Codes And narrative conflict.

By Mariam Nawab