Todorovs Narrative Theory

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov was a bulgarian literary theorist who came up with the theory that narratives start off with a state of equilibrium this is where life is normal and the protagonist is happy, they have no troubles. However next this equilibrium is disrupted usually by the antagonist which means a struggle has to be carried out in order to return everything back to a state of equilibrium. From this we can apply this to a wide range of TV shows and films. To explain this we can use Salad Fingers to demonstrate:

1. Salad Fingers is happy with his rusty spoon
2. Salad fingers wants a new rusty spoon
3. Salad Fingers goes on a quest to find the rusty spoon
4. Salad fingers doesnt find a rusty spoon
5. He finds a rusty kettle which he is happy with