Theorist and Theories.

The Theory of Propp:

Vladimir Propp was a russian literary critic who analyzed the basic plot of many Russian folk tales to identify their simlpest narrative elements. He noticed that they were about the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He identified a theory about characters and their actions which give them a narrative function.



Propp's Characters that perform a function:

• The Hero - a charater that seeks something
• The Villan - who opposes or activley blocks the hero's quest
• The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties
• The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest
• The False Hero - Who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims
• The Helper - who aids the hero
• The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain's plots
• Her (the princesses) Father - who acts to reward the hero for his effort.

However this theory does NOT apply to all naratives, it only applies to Fairy Stories and other similar narratives based around quests.

Freud and Lancan:

Freud and Lancan's theory of the mirror stage is based upon the idea that we construct our image of our identity by looking at ourselves and at eachother. It states that as children we derive pleasure from looking at other people's bodies, which is summarised by the term scopophilia.
Also that until we fully see ourselves (in a mirror) we do not understand ourselves as people.
Freud and Lancan also highlited the enjoyment humans gain though voyeurism and how cinema allows us to look at other people with out being seen ourselves.

Laura Mulvey (1970's):

Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze implies that films are made with the idea that the audience will find identification with the male lead and that female characters are there as an opposite to the male and serve no key roll. She also states that the male leads actions become a surrogate for our own part in the narrative. However she does state how the male lead desires the female form.

Mulvey stated that there are two roles for women:

• The Madonna - women who are represented as the object of reverence, symbolise purity and genrally wear white.
• The Whore - female characters that are shown as sexual objects to be desired and have a promiscuous attitude.

This theory has been contadicted by many of Ridley Scott's films where the lead role is a female character and she is searching for the adventure and the male characters act as the Madonna and Whore.