Narrative theories

Vladimir Propp
He was a Russian critic and literary theorist who analysed over a hundred Russian fairytales in the 1920s. He gave the Theory of Character Roles, and proposed that it was possible to classify characters and their actions into clearly defined roles. According to him, the following characters build up a narrative:

1. The Hero- He seeks something
2. The Villain- Opposes the hero
3. The Donor- Helps the hero by providing a magic object
4. The Dispatcher- Sends the hero on his way
5. The False Hero- Falsely assumes the role of the hero 
6. The Helper- Gives support to the hero 
7. The Princess- Is the hero's reward, but also needs protection from the villain 

Claude Levi-Strauss

He was a French Anthropologist who studied myths of tribal cultures. He examined how narratives subconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. He came to the conclusion that humans make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using Binary Opposites. He found out that narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites. For example, these include the conflicts between the Good and Evil, Men and Women, War and Peace, Humanity and Technology, etc.

Tzvetan Todorov

is a Bulgarian literary theorist. He suggest most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is 'normal' and the protagonist is happy but the state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against to return to a state of new equilibrium.