LO3 Narrative Theory

What is the difference between story and narrative?

A story is a sequence of events whereas the concept of narrative deals more with how the events are told. Narrative is the ordering of events into a consumable format.

Story = Plot
Narrative = Structure

The story of Django unchained

Two years before the Civil War, Django a slave, finds himself accompanying an unorthodox German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz on a mission to capture the vicious Brittle brothers. Their mission successful, Schultz frees Django, and together they hunt the South's most-wanted criminals. Their travels take them to the infamous plantation of shady Calvin Candie, where Django's long-lost wife is still a slave.


Key Theory 1: Tim O'Sullivan et al. (1998)

All media texts tell us some kind of story. Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves (as a culture) - these are ideologies. 

In Django unchained the two bounty hunters travel through southern USA killing criminals; this shows that justice is always important no matter how difficult it may be to seek it. 

Key Theory 2: Pam Cook (1985)

The standard Hollywood narrative structure should have: Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution, a high degree of narrative closure and a fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence. 

The enigma in Django unchained is Django being separated from his wife and her being kept as a house slave at a plantation. This is resolved at the end of the film when Django and Dr. Schultz travel to the plantation on pretend to buy a mandingo (fighting slave) in order to add Django's wife to the deal. However the deal turns sour when Calvin Candie (the plantation owner) realises what the pair are up to and makes them pay an extortionate amount of money for her release. Dr. Schultz ends up being shot and Django has to fight his way out in order to rescue his wife. 

Key Theory 3: Tvzetan Todorov (1977)

Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium.

Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, creating a state of disequilibrium.

Stage 3: Action directed against the disruption.

Stage 4: Restoration of a state of new equilibrium.

Django unchained does not follow this theory because it starts with Django being a slave, he then gets freed and becomes a bounty hunter, and finally he finds his wife. Unlike the theory where a film is said to go from equilibrium to disequilibrium to equilibrium again; Django unchained starts off with disequilibrium and progressively changes into equilibrium.

Key Theory 4: Claude Lévi-Strauss (1958)

Binary opposites: good vs evil etc.


Binary opposite in Django Unchained:

Good vs Evil (Django & Dr. Schultz vs Calvin Candie)
White vs Black (Django vs Calvin Candie)
The Law vs Outlaws (Django & Dr. Schultz vs the Brittle brothers)

Key Theory 5: Vladimir Propp (1928)

All narratives feature stock characters and that audiences understood stories because of such features. Villain/antagonist, hero/protagonist, helper/supporter, Princess (the prize for the hero - not necessarily a person) one that is rescued/saved/helped.

Protagonist: Django
Antagonist: Calvin Candie
Supporter: Dr Schultz
"Princess" (prize for the protagonist): Broomhilda (his wife)

Fluid character roles - characters that change roles throughout the film

Key Theory 6: Roland Barthes (1997)

Narrative codes: Enigma codes work to keep setting up problems or puzzles for the audience; action codes work to inform the audience in terms of what is happening in the next shot/scene.  


Action Code: 0:15 seconds - Dr. Schultz pulls a gun out of his sleeve so the aduience knows that someone will get shot in the next scene