Media Studies Notes

Narrative Theory

• Narrative is created to appeal the audience. It entices the audience. 
• Most themes are consistent in old folk stories even if they are from different cultures. 

• Vladamir Propp studied Russian folk stories and discovered 31 character functions. 
• Propp discovered that there are 7 character types in most folk stories : 
• The Hero 
• The Villain (struggles against the hero) 
• The donor/enabler (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
• The helper (helps the hero in the quest)
• The Princess (often sought for during the narrative) 
• The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
• The dispatcher (character who sends the hero off) 

• Todorov discovered that narratives are created in 5 stages : 
• Equilibrium → Disruption of equilibrium → Recognition → Repair → New equilibrium

• Levi-Strauss : Binary Opposition
• Narrative always has a conflict (Good and Evil) and will usually end with a resolution between the conflict. 

• Roland Barthes 
• Came up with the idea of narrative codes : 
• Hermeneutic code (Enigma codes) : any thing in the narrative that makes the audience ask questions.
• Proairetic code (Action codes) : any action that moves the narrative forward.

• Alan Cameron
• Narratives are becoming more complex and Identified 4 different types of modular narrative. 
• Anachronic : modified flashbacks and flashforwards and no clear dominance between any narrative threads. 
• Forking-Path : alternative versions of a story and outcomes that might result from slight changes. 
• Episodic : collection of stories joined by a common theme. 
• Split-screen :  spatial rather than temporal lines. 

Structuralist Theories 

 - All stories have virtually the same story underpinning and so whatever story is looked at, it is largely structured in the same way. 

Structuralism - Todorov Enigma-Resolution 

• Todorov argued that a narrative can be split into 5 stages 
• Equilibrium : Usually set up the main enigma and created alignment
• Disequilibrium 
• Recognition 
• Attempt to restore order/solve problem
• New equilibrium 
• Todorov believed that this structure was pleasuring for the audiences as the narrative is exciting and at the end when the problem is solved audiences feel content. 

Structuralism : The Hero’s Journey (Campbell) 

• It has been noted that the majority of narratives are structured in the form of a journey. 
• The journey can be literal or metaphorical but nearly always focuses on one person - the hero. The audience is aligned with the hero. 
• This is the “quest motif” 
• This encourages the audience to identify or empathise with the “hero” figure? 
• The journey : 
• The call to adventure - hero obliged to act 
• Refusal of call - hero reluctant to act 
• Magic potion - hero has special gift 
• Crossing the threshold - becoming the hero 
• Road of Trials - tests of endurance
• Return to own world - hero changed 

Structuralism : Propp - Character Functions

• Vladimir Propp developed a character theory which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media : 
• The villain or false hero (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 - object of the quest) 
• Her father (an older powerful, controlling figure) 
• 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
• Ultimately Propp’s theory is about stock characters and archetypes. 

Theories of Ideology 

Political Theory - Karl Marx

• Marx wrote about capitalism and discovered the problems with capitalism 

1. Modern work is alienated

2. Modern work is insecure

3. Workers get paid little while capitalists get rich

4. Capitalism is very unstable

5. Capitalism is bad for capitalists

Hegemony - Gramsci 

• A state held political and military dominance over others
• Gramsci was a key figure in Italian Communism. 
• It is how social classes are able to dominate others in society. 
• Cultural Hegemony is the idea that power can be exercised and reinforced as much through cultural texts and physical force. Most works will revoke some aspects of hegemony. 
• Controlling beliefs allows to control people. 
• Piere Bourdieu - Field Theory 
• Each one of us are constantly navigating through fields. 
• We adopt ideas in the fields. We have an identity. 
• Habitus allows us to identify where we are in the network of culture. 
• Cultural theory itself is an idea that directs your actions. 

Althusser - Interpellation 

• Humans become subjects. 
• Misinterpellation occurs when we don't see ourselves as subjects to how others see us. 

Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory - Paul Gilroy

• The British empire, was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power.  By 1913 the British empire held over 412 million people which was 23% of the world population at the time. By 1920, it covered 13,700,000 sq mi, 24% of the Earth’s total land area. British school children were taught to ‘paint the map red’. It was said that “the sun never set on the British Empire” because it was always daylight somewhere in one of the colonies. The British empire started to fall apart after World War 2 and there was a process of decolonisation between 1945 and 1997.
• The countries controlled were called colonies. 
• Colonialism, the policy of a practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically. 
• Postcolonialism, the political or cultural condition of a former colony. 
• Colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. 
• Civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and sets binary opposition based on notions of otherness. 

Orientalism 

• People have stereotyped and mislead information about people from other countries and cultures. 
• The orient is the state the whole east is confined. 
• Western scholars couldn't understand eastern cultures as it was different and not what they would usually see.