Narrative

In media terms, narrative is the organisation given to a series of events. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. In everything we wacth, there is a beginning, a middle and an end.

When looking closer at a narrative we can identify the codes and conventions required; these are the characters, genre, and the mise-en-scene we can use the knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text.

It is only because we are used to reading narratives from a very early age, and are able to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow.

There are many ways of breaking down narrative structure. You may hear a movie described as a 'classic 21st centuray movie' meaning it has three acts. News stories have their own structure. A lot of work has been done by literary theorists to develop ways of deconstructing a narrative.

Tvzetan Todorov - suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

 

• A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)

 

• A disruption of that order by an event

 

• A recognition that the disorder has occurred

 

• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

 

• A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium