Narrative Theory

The narrative theory is the way in which a story is told in both fictional and nonfictional. Vladmire Propp was a Russian critic and a literary theorist. He analysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s. He proposed that it was possible to classify the characters by there actions into individual roles and functions. Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian literary theorist; he suggested most narratives start with a state of equilibrium. The state of equilibrium in which life is normal and protagonists happy; the normality is disrupted by an outside. Analysing a narrative will involve: Technical Codes Verbal Codes Symbolic Codes Structure Character Narrative Conflict

There are various types of characters, which include The hero (seeks something) The villain (opposes the hero) The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object) The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way) The false hero (falsely assuming the role of the hero) The helper (gives support to the hero) The princess (the reward for the hero, also needs protection from the villain) Her father Roland Barthes was a French semiologist; he suggested that narrative works with five different codes that activate the reader to make sense, his five codes were used in every narrative and which he also used to analyses the different dimensions of realism. Barthes codes included: 1. The hermeneutic code: The code that refers to elements of the story, which are not explained. This makes the audience think and want to know more. 2. The proairetic code: The code relates to the narrative suggesting that there is further more to the story 3. The semantic code: This code deals with parts within the text that suggests or refers to a meaning. 4. The cultural code: This code is about symbolism within the text. 5. The symbolic code: This code refers to things in the current cultural domain.

Haunted
During our 2minute production we will be using some aspects of Tzcetan Todorov and Roland Barthes theory, the aspect we will be using is:

The Villain:
The villain in our production will be the ghost; the reason why the ghost is our villain in our production is because throughout the production the ghost is seen following Jessica (the main character) and haunting her.

The Hermeneutic Code:

Weve used the hermeneutic code in our production, the hermeneutic code is where the elements in the story are not explained which makes the audience think and want to know more. Weve used this in our production at the end; at the end of our production the ghost is seen touching Jessica and both of them disappearing, as an audience that would make them think whats happened and why they have disappeared which means that they want to know more about the storyline.