Genre Recognition and Narrative Theory

GENRE RECOGNITION:

- Iconography - mise-en-scene (what's in the frame)/props/costumes/scenery

GENRE AND NARRATIVE THEORY:

- Todorov - Todorov saw narratives as sharing a common structure - equilibrium, which was then followed by a disruption, leading to a second but different/altered equilibrium.

- Propp - (Morphology of the Folk Tale 1928)
He argued that it was possible to group characters and actions into eight roles:

1 - The villain
2 - The hero or character who seeks something
3 - The donor who provides an object
4 - The helper who aids the hero
5 - The Princess who is a reward for the hero and the object of the villains schemes
6 - The Father who rewards the hero
7 - The Dispatcher who sends the hero on his way
8 - The false hero

- Levi - Strauss - He argued that an abiding structure of meaning - making was a dependance on binary oppositions or a conflict between two qualities or terms i.e. Good vs Evil, Male vs Female, Individual vs Community etc.