Rowland Barthes
Semiotics
- Hermeneutic Code- structuring the plot sequence around a series of questions that maintain the audience’s interest & fascination in the text.
- Proairetic (action) - where a series of actions facilitates a viewer to follow the details of a plot sequence, enabling the viewer to become absorbed in the narrative.
- Semantic Code - The way in which objects, characters & settings take on particular, often additional meanings by way of connotation
- Symbolic Code - This code will often focus on themes & binary opposites
- Referential - all the culturally specific knowledge used to make meanings in a text.
Todorov
Narratology
Narrative theory steps:
Equilibrium: The first part of the story will display a happy start, where the majority of characters are content and everything is as it should be. So in the Simpsons Movie, in the first part, everything is normal and Homer is just doing chores.
Disruption: The second part of the story will feature a problem or something will disrupt the happiness. In the Simpsons, it begins when Homer saves a pig
Realisation: This part of the plot is when everyone realises the problem and it is chaos. So, the Simpsons are kicked out of Springfield and forced to move to Alaska.
Restored order: This part of the plot is when the characters attempt to repair the damage and restore the problem. So, the Simpsons go back and save Springfield
2nd Equilibrium: This is the final part of the plot where the problem is resolved and normality can resume again. So, the dome is blown up and everyone is free
Steve Neale
Genre Theory
- Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change
- Genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from and overlap with one another
- Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial
Levi Straus
Structuralism
- The idea that texts can be best understood through an examination of their underlying structure
- Meaning is dependent upon (and produced through) pairs of oppositions
- The way that these binary oppositions are resolved can have particular ideological significance
Jean Baudrillard
Postmodernism
- We live in a media saturated world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify what is reality.
- The media represent a distorted view of reality, usually making it fun & aspirational.
- The lines between real & simulated experiences become blurred & audiences live in a state of hyperreality.
- Some audience members may be unable to tell the difference between real & simulated experiences (implosion).
- For others what is unreal becomes most important (simulation).
