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Television in the Global Age

Narrative structure and ideology in television crime drama

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Enigma in narrative terms, difference between a series and a serial and narrative closure.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Summarise Todorov's account of narrative structure.

Key term

Why does Todorov argue that the way a narrative is resolved carries ideological significance?

Key term

Apply Lévi-Strauss's idea of binary opposition to the crime drama.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Summarise Todorov's account of narrative structure.

    Model answer

    Todorov argues that a narrative moves from an initial state of equilibrium, through a disruption that produces disequilibrium, to a new equilibrium which is not identical to the first.

  2. 2

    How does a murder function within Todorov's model?

    Model answer

    The murder is the disruption that breaks the ordinary order of a community, and the investigation is the period of disequilibrium that the narrative works to resolve.

  3. 3

    Why does Todorov argue that the way a narrative is resolved carries ideological significance?

    Model answer

    The ending defines what counts as order restored, so a drama that closes with the guilty punished endorses the institutions that punished them, while an unresolved ending calls those institutions into question.

  4. 4

    What is an enigma in narrative terms?

    Model answer

    An enigma is a question the text raises but withholds the answer to, such as the identity of a killer, which keeps the audience watching in order to have it resolved.

  5. 5

    Explain the difference between a series and a serial.

    Model answer

    In a series each episode tells a self-contained story with the same regular characters, whereas a serial carries one continuing story across episodes and depends on the viewer following them in order.

  6. 6

    Why do long-form crime dramas run several storylines at once?

    Model answer

    It sustains interest across many hours, lets the investigation and the private lives comment on each other, and gives the series somewhere to go between revelations.

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