Narrative Theories

LEVI STRAUSS

http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/extras/binaryopposition.htm

• Binary opposition is a theory of how we attribute meaning to things. These theorists came to be called "Structuralists" because they proposed that meaning is developed within mental structures that require "opposites" in order to create meaning.

•  The method offers a way to explain how the many deep-seated beliefs in our society called dominant ideologies exist and continue to exist - and to show how texts work to reinforce and maintain a particular world-view or mind-set, one that can be argued supports and maintains the traditional power structures of society.

• Structuralist thinkers recognised that the meaning we create from the language we use is not at all straightforward and has important implications for society as a whole. The meaning of many words is created by a subconscious awareness of a 'culturally opposing’ idea – a binary opposite. The important aspect of this is that one half of each binary is dominant or favoured.

• The effect of these binary oppositions or pairs can be argued to help create and reinforce the norms of thinking in our society - and language is at the heart of how these ideas are maintained. The ways in which our thought processes rely upon binary opposites helps to explain how difficult it is to shift from, for example, the ‘male is norm’ aspect of modern patriarchal society. Other common binaries are ‘youth’ / ‘age’, ‘health’ / ‘disease’; ‘dirty’ / ‘clean’  - but there are thousands. These cultural ‘norms’ are deep-seated ideas that are more properly called society’s prevailing or dominant ideologies.

ROLAND BARTHES

The hermeneutic code (HER.) refers to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that demand explication.

The proairetic code (ACT.) refers to the other major structuring principle that builds interest or suspense on the part of a reader or viewer. The proairetic code applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent or is wounded himself. Suspense is thus created by action rather than by a reader's or a viewer's wish to have mysteries explained.

The semantic code (SEM.) points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.

The symbolic code (SYM.) can be difficult to distinguish from the semantic code and Barthes is not always clear on the distinction between these two codes; the easiest way to think of the symbolic code is as a "deeper" structural principle that organizes semantic meanings, usually by way of antitheses or by way of mediations (particularly, forbiddend mediations) between antithetical terms.

The cultural code (REF.) designates any element in a narrative that refers "to a science or a body of knowledge". In other words, the cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works, including properties that we can designate as "physical, physiological, medical, psychological, literary, historical, etc.". The "gnomic" code is one of the cultural codes and refers to those cultural codes that are tied to clichés, proverbs, or popular sayings of various sorts.

TZVETAN TODOROV


Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

SEYMOUR CHATMAN