Narrative Theory

Narrative is the story that is being told. Narrative explores the conventions of; genre, character, form and time. There are four types of structures theorists use, the most common structure being used is linear structure this when there is a beginning, middle and end. Open structure are left to wonder what happens next and make sense of it (e.g Inception). Closed structure is a definite ending, it has a clear conclusion for the audience. Lastly, a circular structure is when the narrative begins at the end event (often with the climax), the audience are taking on a journey back where they started (e.g pulp fiction).
There are different theorists who use theory to explain narrative structure:
Barthes is one of the theorists, he describes narrative as a series of code that are read and interpreted by the audience. There are three different codes he uses. Firstly, the action code, this is where the audience knows and doesn't need explaining. Secondly, the enigma code, this is when there is something hidden from the audience. Lastly, the semic code where the audience recognise through connotation.
Another theorist is Levi-Strauss, he describes narrative as created by contrast conflict of binary opposites, examples of binary opposites would be love and hate, wealth and poverty- they work together to create the narrative.