Narrative structures of Thrillers

Narrative structures of Thrillers 

Binary Opposition

   Claude Levi-Strauss, took the theory of Propp one stage further by suggesting in order to move from one place to the next you need to use the repeated establishing of actual or potential conflict. we obtain the meaning of a film by the way in which the elements clash. For example in Jurassic park we can see the following: Movement/stillness, light/dark, control/panic, machines/human beings.

These opposites are what allows the story to develop as it creates conflict between them as a result. the way that the characters try to solve this problem is the narrative.

This method can be achieved by following these steps:

• Find the binary oppositions
• revise or undo the invidious structure
• reconstruct a new meaning

Propp

Vladamir Propp was born in 1895 and died in the year 1970. Propp was a soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of different Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. He broke up fairy tales into sections, he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within the Russian fairytale. 

After the initial situation is depicted the tale takes a sequence of 31 functions, for example;

1. Absentation: A member of family leaving the security of the home environment. This maybe the hero that later needs to save someone, or the person that the hero needs to eventually save.

2. Interdiction:  An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').

3.  Violation of Interdiction: The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.

  

This relates too the way that character types are shown in thriller films as in thrillers, their is always a character that has a different trope to them. For example the hero, the stupid one, the crazy one etc etc.