Evaluation Q1: Theories and Theorists

          In this post i am going to be talking about the theories and theorists that i had researched at the start of the year and how i have related them to my three pieces of media work.

          Narrative: The way in which a story is told in both non fiction and fiction media texts.

          Propp: Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and literary theorist, he analysed over 100 different russian fairy tales. His theory suggested that you could classify characters and their actions into clearly defined set roles and set function. These character roles would include:-

The villain (struggles against the hero)

The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)

The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)

The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)

Her father

The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

          They were typical characteristics of the fairy tales in which he studied which can be applied to nearly every kind of media text whether it be fiction or non-fiction. I had to take into account his theories when producing my trailer, from a previous post you can see this research above into Propp. When making my trailer and deciding on my story line I looked at my ideas and tried to link my characters into these characteristics, even though they don’t fit perfectly e.g. I don’t have any fair maidens being swept of their feet by a prince .. but the principles can be applied quite closely. My hero, would of course be my main character, the villain could be argued to be society as a whole and how he can’t find a job and has lots of bills to pay and nothing seems to go right for him. The donor/ princess could be represented through how an opportunity arrises for him to be able to seek an occupation.

         Tzvevan Todorov: Was again a Russian Literary theorist who suggested that narratives start with a state of equilibrium, in which life is normal and happy. The theory shows how within a media concept and text there is a happy situation, this happy situation then may turn bad by a problem or situation within it, the characters have to over come this problem creating a new equilibrium. I feel that I have challenged this theory within my trailer as I have started from the middle where there is a disequilibrium, and moving into equilibrium, I felt that I wanted to do this with my trailer as  with other films in which I have studied for ideas are mainly British films and they seem to have a common trend with starting with this disequilibrium so i felt that it would be more effective to go with this route. 

         Roland Barthes: He was a French semiologist who suggested a theory that narrative works by using five different codes which encourage and audience to make sense of that media. These five characteristics are listed below and i have said why they are used i will go onto put a power point up looking at these connotations etc.

• Action: Resolution is sorted through action – war – shoot out – fight
• Enigma: It works by preventing a story ending how you want it to, this could be a device that places a puzzle within the works.
• Symbolic: Connotation
• Semeotic: Denotation
• Cultural: The differences within culture

He also related to

Pragmatics: Relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them

 Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning

Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures          The last theorist is Claude Levi-Strauss, he was a French Anthropologist who suggested the theory of binary opposition, this is the oppositions that occur in many medias around today, this could be the difference between weak and strong, black and white etc. Within my trailer i used this theory to help explain my story line. The main character within my trailer is poor, unemployed and prodominatley lower class, this could be the differeces within binary opposition where within my story board he is constantly over ruled by upper class people, within the story line i spoke about how when the story reaches an equillibrium the character becomes employed and starts making a name of himself. This is why i feel like there is an evident binary opposition within my trailer.

References :

http://www.slideshare.net/guest9e3b3b/narrative-theory-2104298

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_theory_(Media)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

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