Tzvetan Todorov's Theory

Tzvetan Todorov was a French philosopher who wrote many books and theories on media texts. Here we will be looking his theories in relevance to film.


Todorov simplified narrative theory whilst allowing for more complicated interpretations of films using his theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. His theory states that the fictional environment starts with a state of equilibrium, i.e. everything is as it should be. It then suffers disruption, i.e. disequilibrium. Now a new equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative.


Todorov suggested conventional narratives are constructed using these five stages:
-A state of equilibrium
-A disruption of that order due to an event
-A recognition that the disorder has occured
-An attempt to repair the disruption
-A return or restoration of a new equilibrium

The narrative is built upon attempts to restore balance and equilibrium but the equilibrium attained at the end of the narrative is non-identical the the initial one. Todorov argues that narrative involves transformation - that the situations are transformed through the progress of the distruption. The distruption usually takes place outside the expected social framework, i.e. outside or subverting normal social events. For example, a murder happens and people are terrified. Someone vanishes and the characters have to solve the mystery.

An example of this is one of my personal favourites, Shaun of the Dead.
The film begins by setting the story and showing all the characters performing their typical daily actions. Not long into the film we see the main character, Shaun, reenact exactly the same scene (walking to the local shop to buy food, passive a kid playing football, a homeless man asking him for change, etc) but this time everybody who originally interacted with him is now a zombie. Shaun, the main character, did not even notice the disequilibrium during this scene as he expects everything to have remained normal. Eventually him and his friends team up and fight off the zombies - at the end of the film zombies are either killer or used for various things, and Shaun adopts his flatmate as a household zombie-pet. This is the new equilibrium.

Todorov describes some narratives as linear or chronological, meaning the story is played out in the correct order, event after event. He also describes some narratives as non-linear or non-chronological - whilst these are less common, many films still adopt this style.

Todorov's open and closed narrative theory to come in the next post!