1. Lesson 1

2. Representation
• If you think the correct answer is
blue, stay sat in your chair.
• If you think the correct answer is red,
stand up.
• If you think the correct answer is
green, stand on your chair.

3. Which phrase best describes
‘Representation’
• Media represents a form of
reality.
• Media represents people in a
realistic way.
• People are represented in the
media by a number of signs
and symbols.

4. Which is not an argument against
the ‘Male Gaze’ Mulvey 1975
• ‘looking relations’
Jane Gaines 1988 – race and class
• ‘inspecting gaze’
Michel Foucault 1977 – knowledge and
power
• ‘homosexual aspect’
‘Queer viewing’ Evans & Gammon
1995

5. Narrative
• A film opening or trailer will be ideal for
this, as they both depend upon ideas
about narrative in order to function.
• Your music videos captures some
narrative for analyses. They are also
performance based, but interspersed with
some fragments of narrative. There is
enough about narrative in the product to
make it worth analysis.

6. So what do you do in the
exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it.
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the
question, making reference to relevant theory throughout.
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project.

7. The difference between Story &
Narrative:
• "Story is the irreducible substance of a
story (A meets B, something happens,
order returns), while narrative is the way
the story is related (Once upon a time
there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in
Communication - Fiske et al (1983))

8. • Successful stories require actions which change
the lives of the characters in the story. They also
contain some sort of resolution, where that
change is registered, and which creates a new
equilibrium for the characters involved.
• Remember that narratives are not just those
we encounter in fiction. Even news stories,
advertisements and documentaries also have
a constructed narrative which must be
interpreted.

9. Barthes´ Codes
Roland Barthes describes a
text as:
"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure
of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is
reversible; we gain access to it by
several entrances, none of which can be
authoritatively declared to be the main
one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far
as the eye can read, they are
indeterminable...the systems of meaning
can take over this absolutely plural text,
but their number is never closed, based
as it is on the infinity of language..." (S/Z
- 1974 translation)

10. BARTHES CODES
Action Code: (proairetic code)
something the audience knows and doesn't need explaining e.g. someone
being wheeled out on a stretcher tells us they are going to hospital
Enigma Code: (hermeneutic code)
something hidden from the audience (creates intrigue)
Semic Code:
something that the audience recognize through connotations
Symbolic Code:
Something that symbolizes a more abstract concept e.g. a darker than usual
room of a murder scene could symbolize the depth of darkness and depravity
Cultural Code: (referential code)
Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness (e.g.
youth culture use certain words that are understood by that culture)

11. texts may be ´open´ (ie
unravelled in a lot of different
ways) or ´closed´ (there is only
one obvious thread to pull on).

12. Propp's Analysis of Folk Tales
• Vladimir Propp analysed a whole series of
Russian folk tales in the 1920s and
decided that the same events kept being
repeated in each of the stories, creating a
consistent framework.
• He broke down the tales into the smallest
possible units, which he called
narratemes, or narrative functions,
necessary for the narrative to exist.

13. Propp's Narrative Functions
(in brief as there are 31!)
Although the plot is driven by the actions and choices of the
hero (the protagonist), these narrative functions are spread
between the main characters:
– the villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the
antagonist)
– the donor,
– the helper,
– the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a
goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain
– the dispatcher,
– the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor
and weds
– the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often
seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)
Not all of these functions appear in every story, but they
always appear in this order.

14. Can you apply Propp’s theory
to your own production?

15. Beyond Propp
• Propp's lists are easy to learn - but are they so easily
applied to every narrative you come across? We live in a
world of very sophisticated narratives - many of them
non-linear - which deliberately defy the conventions of
traditional folk tales. Can you apply Propp consistently if
the hero is female? Can you substitute "science" for
"magic"? Are all narratives about struggles between
heroes and villains - or do we oversimplify them if we try
to claim that they are? Propp's theories rely on 'good'
and 'bad' characters. Have we moved beyond fairy tale
thinking into a era of moral relativism — many interesting
narratives spring from a conflict between two characters
who are not easily identified as a protagonist and an
antagonist.

16. Theorists to consider
• Tvzetan Todorov - suggests narrative is simply
equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium
• Vladimir Propp - characters and actions (31 functions of
character types)
• Claude Levi-Strauss - constant creation of
conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only
end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual
(light/darkness, movement/stillness) or conceptual (love/
hate, control/panic), and to do with soundtrack. Binary
oppositions.
• Also, Roland Barthes & Joseph Campbell

17. What is Narrative?
Tzvetan Todorov:
Equilibrium – Disequilibrium - New
Equilibrium
Claude Levi-Strauss:
Binary Oppositions
Vladimir Propp:
Characters and ‘narratemes’

18. Lesson 2

19. What’s a ball of string got to do with
narrative?
“the systems of meaning can
take over this absolutely plural
text, but their number is never
closed” Barthes 1974
A series of 5 codes (threads
that you can pull on) that are
read and understood by the
audience.
– Action Code
– Enigma Code
– Semic Code
– Symbolic Code
– Cultural Code

20. BARTHES CODES
Action Code: (proairetic code)
something the audience knows and doesn't need explaining e.g. someone
being wheeled out on a stretcher tells us they are going to hospital
Enigma Code: (hermeneutic code)
something hidden from the audience (creates intrigue)
Semic Code:
something that the audience recognize through connotations
Symbolic Code:
Something that symbolizes a more abstract concept e.g. a darker than usual
room of a murder scene could symbolize the depth of darkness and depravity
Cultural Code: (referential code)
Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness (e.g.
youth culture use certain words that are understood by that culture)

21. Last we thought about Propp’s characters and
narratemes and whether this research done on
Russian folk tales was still relevant today.
This week we are going to focus on,
– Todorov
– Levis Strauss
– Propp (briefly for those who couldn’t be bothered last
we)
to analyse some texts

22. TODOROV
Todorov describes narrative as going from
equilibrium to disequilibrium back to an altered
equilibrium

23. TODOROV
Equilibrium: (sets the scene)
Everyday Life
Disruption: (complication)
Something happens to alter the equilibrium
Conflict: (climax)
Trying to solve the problem (seek resolution)
Resolution:
Problem is sorted
New Equilibrium: (satisfactory end)
Back to normal (but never the same)- a new normal

24. Claude Levi-Strauss
Binary Oppositions
• Constant creation of conflict/opposition
propels narrative.
• Narrative can only end on a resolution of
conflict.
• Opposition can be visual (light/darkness,
movement/stillness) or conceptual
(love/hate, control/panic), and to do with
soundtrack.

25. Levi- Strauss- Binary
Oppositions
• One side is represented as the ‘right’ side
who the audience can identify with and
support.
i.e. Good & Evil

26. LEVI-STRAUSS
Levi-Strauss describes narrative as created
by constant conflict of binary opposites
Love – Hate Black – White Man – Nature
Light – Darkness Peace – War Protagonist –Antagonist
Movement – Stillness Civilized – Savage Young – Old
Control – Panic Strong – Weak Man – Woman
Wealth – Poverty Mankind – Aliens Humans – Technology
Ignorance - Wisdom “Sat Wars” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” “Avatar” “District 9”
“The Searchers” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Can you match them?

27. Propp - characters
Hero: Seeks something
Villain: Obstructs the hero
Princess: Hero’s reward
Father: Give of rewards
Donor: Provides information and help
Helper: Helps the hero
Dispatcher: Sends the hero on a quest
False hero: Claims to be the hero
• In Propp’s theory, these character types are
established to increase understanding from
the point of view of the audience

28. Activity 1
• In your pair select one of the film below
and apply these three narrative theories:
• Spiderman
• The Dark Knight
• Star Wars
• Titanic
• Toy Story 3
• Shrek

29. Activity 2
• How far can you apply these traditional
narrative theories to a music video?
• Let’s explore some video examples

30. Narrative in Music Videos
• Narratives are rarely complete often
fragmentary
• Tend to suggest storylines
• Non-linear order (not cause and effect)
• Desire to see them again
• Narrative often divided between
performance and conceptual clips

31. Key Task
• Analyse one of your texts
• Explore the extent to which you can apply
the traditional narrative theories to the text
• Write a 500 word account with specific
examples from the text.
DEADLINE: Next Friday