Narrative Theory

The narrative is the way in which a story is told. There are two main theorists for narrative and these are Propp and Todorov who are both russian formalists. Propp has six steps for the structure of narrative and these are:

1. Preperation, a community/family is in an orderdered state of being.
   


2. Complication, the villian harms a member of the heros family. The hero plans action agaisnt the villain.



3. Transference, the hero is giving a magical gift, the hero arrives at the place he can fulfil his quest.



4. Struggle, there is a struggle between the hero and the villian.



5. Return, the hero escapes, there is a task set for the hero, the hero accomplishes the task.
   


6. Recognition, the hero is rewarded.
   

There are four steps for todorov's narratives structure and these are:

1. Equilibrium, the starting balance in the story, where normality is held.



2. Disruption, an event that breaks the normaility and causes irregular changes in the enviorment.



3. Resolution, eventually succeed in overcoming the disruption.



4. New equilibrium, new order is restored. Anything affected by disruption is mostly to have changed.
   
   

Propps theory also follows characters types in films, he beleives that every character in a film will follow one of the character types. The character types are:

• Hero, reacts to the donor, marries the princess.



• Villian, struggles against hero.



• Helper, helps the hero in the quest.



• Donor, prepares the hero. or gives the hero a magical object.



• Dispatcher, character that makes the lack known and sends the hero off.



• Her father, gives the task to the hero and detects the false hero.



• Prize, this is who the hero is looking for on his quest and will marry.
  


• False hero, takes the credit for the heros work or trys to my the princess.