Narrative Techniques

• Plot twist and turns 
• Multiple lines of action 
• Flash backs 
• Narrative retardation - the narrative is deliberately mixed up, the story is not easy to follow.
• Red herrings 
• Chase/pursuits 
• Misdirection 
• Deadlines 
• Principle of concealment 
• Mysterious characters 
• Morally complex characters 
• Making the audience work 

Narrative Theory 

Narrative is the way in which a story is told, whether fictional or non fictional media texts. 

Vladimir Propp is a known Russian critic and literary theorist, meaning he was a person who expresses an unfavorable opinion on something. A lot of Russian fairy tales were analysed by Propp in the 1920s, whiles analysing the fairy tales he proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into roles and functions that are clearly defined.
Propp's Character Roles :

• The Villain - opposes the hero and usually struggles against the hero.
• The Hero - seeks something and usually plays part in helping in helping someone in distress.
• The False Hero - takes credit of what the hero does. They falsely assuming the role of a hero.
• The Helper - gives support to the hero.
• The Donor - helps the hero magically, by providing a magic object.
• The Princess Or Prize - the hero deserves her or the prize throughout the whole story but is unable to because of villains.
• The Father- notice who the true hero is and gives the hero a task. Propp noted that the princess and the father can not be properly defined.

Claude Levi Strauss is a social anthropologist. He is not the man that discovered 'Levi Jeans', although the name can easily confuse you as it is the same. C.L. Strauss studied and dealt with other cultures and human societies, what interested Strauss was that the our world is described in terms of opposites. For example a conflict between Christian and Pagan.
He says washing powder adverts use the 'before and after' contrast to make the target audience want to buy the product.

Roland Barthes, a French man who studied signs and symbols, suggested that narratives work because of five different codes. The codes work together to activate the reader's mind to make sense of the narrative.
The codes used by Barthes :

• Action - a narrative device 
• Enigma - keeps the audience puzzled and confused 
• Symbolic - connotations 
• Semantic - denotations
• Cultural - points out to the audience the way our world works

Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian literary theorist believed that most narratives if not all narratives can be put in to a simple formula.

 Equilibrium     Disequilibrium    New Equilibrium 

Todorov suggested that the narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which is seen to be normal. The state of normality (Equilibrium) is the disrupted by an outside force (Disequilibrium), which then has to be fought against so that it then returns to state of equilibrium (New Equilibrium).