Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology.
Binary Oppositions :
– texts can be seen to either support the dominant ideologies of a society, which would make it a reactionary text ,or to challenge, question or undermines the dominant ideologies of society, in which case it could be seen as a radical text.
Binary means 2 different things completely that can be used for comparison. This theory suggests that narratives (=myths) are structured around binary options
eg: good v evil; human v alien; young v old, poor and rich.
As such, it encourages students to understand narrative as a structure of key (oppositional) themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand.
CONCEPT
STRONGLY AGREE
AGREE
NEUTRAL
AGREE
STRONGLY AGREE
OPPOSITE CONCEPT
SANE
X
INSANE
FEMALE
X
MALE
ORDER
X
DESTRUCTION
WHITE
X
BLACK
SAD
X
HAPPY
POOR
X
RICH
FUNCTION OF OPPOSITIONS IN MEDIA PRODUCTS
to clearly explain ideas, to create compelling genre, to create
he wrote ‘there aint no black in union jack’. there are anxiety’s regarding immigrant behaviour. Gilroy argues, marginalised the immigrant black community from the outset. constructing them as racial ‘other’ in the predominantly white world. This also shows that the specials were a more challenging political group as they challenged society’s norms.
A subliminal set of structural rules inform myth production.
All stories told across the globe and throughout history employ a remarkably simple but stable formula.
Character oppositions: audience expect villains to battle heroes. Might centre on secondary characters, such as youth or maturity, strength or intelligence, masculinity or femininity. Can be found in real life too such as on newspapers to deploy stories in which criminals exploit victims.
Narrative oppositions: Transforming failure into success.
Stylist oppositions: They use juxtaposed stylist presentations.
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology.
Binary Oppositions :
– texts can be seen to either support the dominant ideologies of a society, which would make it a reactionary text ,or to challenge, question or undermines the dominant ideologies of society, in which case it could be seen as a radical text.
–individual texts as a set of binary opposites.
CONCEPT
strongly agree
agree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
OPPOSITE CONCEPT
male
✔
female
white
✔
black
poor
✔
rich
straight
✔
gay
urban
✔
rural
mature
✔
childish
critical of government
✔
supporting of government.
educated
✔
stupid
youths
✔
old people
Seymour chatman;
kernels: key moments in the plot/narritive struchtue
This theory allows students to break down a narrative into 2 distinct elements. Those elements which are absolutely essential to the story / plot / narrative development, which are known as KERNELS and those moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed, known as SATELLITES. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL
Roland Bathes:
Proairetic code: action, movement, causation
Hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development
Enigma code: the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised – which encourage an audience to want more information.
moving image products are either based around ‘doing’ / ‘action’ or ‘talking’ / ‘reflection’.
Binary means 2 different things completely that can be used for comparison. This theory suggests that narratives (=myths) are structured around binary options eg: good v evil; human v alien; young v old etc etc. As such, it encourages students to understand narrative as a structure of key (oppositional) themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand.
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology.
This theory suggests that NARRATIVES (=myths) are STRUCTURED around BINARY OPPOSITIONS eg: good v evil; human v alien; young v old etc etc. As such, it encourages students to understand narrative as a structure of key (oppositional) themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand.
