Narrative theory

After exploring the ideas of four narrative theorists; Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Boardwell and Thompson, as a class, we then applied these theories to the 1980's horror - The Shining.

Propp worked on Russian folk tales and created an idea of a set character and narrative functions. He identified eight character functions, these being;
1. The villain
2. The hero
3. The donor (who provides an object with some magic property)
4. The helper (who aids the hero)
5. The princess (the sought for person; reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes)
6. The father (who rewards the hero)
7. The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way)
8. The false hero

His suggestion is that all narratives, no matter how much their surface details may vay (characterisation, settings, plot) share certain important structural features. The most basic being the list of set charactes and actions. When applied to The Shining, not only is it not immediately obvious which character fits into which set character, but due to the small cast, often the same character fits more than one role. For excamples, the princess is Wendy, but she is also the hero at one point. It alternates. Whilst it's clear that Propps theory at first glance is merely partial when applied to The Shining, Propp argues that his claim is perhaps better defined as 'all narratives will at least be composed from the function list, and only from that list.'
It's apparent then, that the set characters are to be looked at as functions and only functions, as opposed to actual characters.

Tzvetans Todorovs theory is easier to apply any narrative to, as it's a description of the standard pattern of a narrative. Here is a graph to exemplify it;