Starter Tuesday 23rd of March

Narrative theory:

Claude-Levi Strauss (1958)

Strauss suggests that binary opposition and the idea that things/objects/qualities that are directly parallel and opposite help to understand and fuel each other. 

Narrative is understood through two opposites

Pam Cook (1985)

Pam Cook argues that traditional narratives “have a linearity of cause and effect, with an overall trajectory of enigma situation”.

Tzvetan Todorov (1977) Conventional structure/Unconventional narratives

Star Wars as the protagonist want peace but the dark side keep disrupting the hero.

Non linear narratives and circular narratives have a structure that is not so straightforward.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes came up with denotation and connotation said that narratives can be understood through code.

Representation theory:

Laura Mulvey (1975) Male Gaze

Women are objectified and represented from a masculine, heterosexual perspective.  For e.g. black widow

Manuel Alvarado (1987) Racial representation

Representation of ethnic minorities 

Stuart Hall (1997)

Institutions thorough ideology or by stereotyping.

David Newman (2006)

When the media represents the working class as a problem e.g. welfare cheats, drug addicts or criminals