Narrative Theory: Propp, Todorov and Audience Engagement
Why Narrative Theory Matters
Stories are among the oldest and most powerful tools in any media producer’s toolkit. Whether you are watching a streaming drama, reading a comic strip, playing a video game or watching a music video with a story thread, you are experiencing a narrative. Media Studies asks you to analyse how narratives are constructed, who they centre, and what that construction tells us about the values and assumptions of the producer. Two theorists are central to this analysis at GCSE level: Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov.
Vladimir Propp: Character Functions
The Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp analysed a large collection of folk tales in his 1928 work Morphology of the Folktale and found that, despite the variety of stories, the same types of character appeared repeatedly. Propp identified recurring character functions in Russian folk tales. Not every narrative has every role, and one character can fill more than one role.
The seven character functions Propp identified are: the hero (who undertakes the quest), the villain (who creates the central conflict), the donor (who gives the hero a special gift, skill or object), the helper (who supports the hero), the princess or sought-for person (who is typically the goal or reward of the quest), the dispatcher (who sends the hero on the quest), and the false hero (who appears heroic but is not). At GCSE, you are expected to know and apply these seven types, not Propp’s full list of 31 narrative functions.
Propp’s seven character functions: hero, villain, donor, helper, princess (sought-for person), dispatcher, false hero. One character can fill more than one role. Source: Propp, Morphology of the Folktale (1928).
Propp developed his theory from folk tales, but the functions travel well into modern media. In a typical superhero film, the hero is clearly the protagonist with abilities; the villain creates the central threat; a mentor figure or organisation often acts as both dispatcher and donor (setting the hero on their mission and supplying them with tools or training); a sidekick fills the helper role; and a love interest or protected community represents the princess function. A false hero might be a colleague who seems trustworthy but proves to be compromised.
Propp is also useful for critiquing media products. When a narrative consistently places women only in the princess function (passive, to be rescued) or gives all the active hero and villain roles to men, Propp’s framework gives you precise language to describe this pattern. Conversely, when a media product subverts Propp by making the princess the hero, or by making the donor the villain, you can describe that subversion precisely and explain what meaning it creates. Exam questions sometimes ask you to apply Propp to a media product you have studied, so practise mapping character functions onto at least one television drama and one other narrative media form.
Tzvetan Todorov: Equilibrium and Disruption
The Bulgarian narratologist Tzvetan Todorov argued that most narratives follow a five-stage arc. They begin with an equilibrium — a state of normality or balance at the start of the story. A disruption then breaks that equilibrium, setting the narrative in motion. A period of recognition (the characters acknowledge that something has gone wrong) leads to an attempt to repair the disruption. Finally a new equilibrium is reached — which is not identical to the opening state, because the characters and their world have been changed by events.
This five-stage structure (equilibrium → disruption → recognition → repair → new equilibrium) is sometimes compressed in shorter media forms. A television advertisement for an insurance company might open with a couple contentedly driving (equilibrium), show their car being hit (disruption), and close with them smiling after a smooth insurance claim (new equilibrium). A music video narrative might move through the same arc in three minutes. The structure is useful precisely because it is flexible enough to apply across all narrative media forms.
Todorov’s narrative arc: (1) equilibrium → (2) disruption → (3) recognition → (4) repair → (5) new equilibrium. The new equilibrium is never identical to the opening one — the narrative has changed things.
Enigma and Closure
Both Propp and Todorov help explain the structure of narratives, but neither fully explains why audiences keep watching or reading. Two concepts borrowed from Roland Barthes’s code theory are particularly useful here. The enigma code describes the unresolved questions that a narrative plants early and answers only gradually — the classic “who did it?” of a crime drama, or the ambiguous opening image of a thriller. Audiences engage with narratives partly to resolve enigmas.
Closure is the satisfying resolution of those enigmas — the detective names the murderer, the hero defeats the villain, the couple reunite. Closed narratives (those that resolve all their threads) are associated with mainstream entertainment. Open narratives (those that deliberately leave questions unanswered) are associated with art-house or prestige media. A streaming drama might use a cliff-hanger ending to deny closure deliberately and compel audiences to watch the next episode — a commercial use of the enigma code to drive continued engagement.
Todorov’s arc assumes a linear narrative — one that moves chronologically from beginning to end. Many mainstream media products do follow this structure because it is the most immediately accessible for audiences. However, non-linear narratives deliberately disrupt chronological order, using flashbacks, flash-forwards or multiple perspectives to create different effects: mystery (we see the aftermath before the cause), empathy (a flashback gives us a character’s backstory before a key decision), or complexity (simultaneous storylines that converge).
Non-linear narratives are common in prestige television, literary fiction adaptations and video games, where the audience’s active role in exploring the narrative is part of the experience. For Media Studies analysis, identifying whether a narrative is linear or non-linear is the first step — the more interesting question is always: what effect does that structural choice have on how audiences engage with the product?