Narrative Theories

Definition of horror

• Order to disorder to restoration of order


• social order is disrupted by a non/inhuman monster who kills.


• the monster is eventually confronted and killed (not always!)
  

Todorov Identified three horror forms :

1. The Uncanny - psychological and supernatural which can be explained (eg-psycho)


2. The Marvellous - otherworldly, requires you to suspend your judgement (eg-zombies)


3. The Fantastic - open ended - is it uncanny or marvellous? (eg- the shining- was he mad or possessed?)

Narrative Theories

• the opening to give us information about who, what and where


• there to be characters who interact with each toher


• to see a series of incidents, which are connected with each other


• problems and/or conflicts


• the ending to resolve the action or cast a new light on what has happened
  

Todorov

Todorv suggested that stories begin with an equillibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This equillibrium is then disrupted by a series of events and the objective of the story is to resolve the disruption so that a new equillibrium can be restored.

Propp

Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles are

1. the villian
2. the hero
3. the donor
4. the helper
5. the princess
6. her father
7. the dispatcher
8. the false hero

Levi-Strauss/Roland Barthes

Levi-Strauss and Barthes looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values that are juxstaposed. For example in a horror film you would have binary oppositions such as:

• Good vs Evil
• Light vs Dark
• living vs Dead

Bordwell and Thompson

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occuring in time and space". For them, a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Space and time - it defines where things take place, when they take place, how quickly they take place. Narrative uses technical techiniques to manipulate our awareness of time and place; eg: flashbacks, replays of action, slow motion, speeding up, jumping between places and times. If we are shown a house, and then a kitchen we automatically presume that the kitchen is inside the house, this is our way of interacting with the film.