Todorov's Narrative Theory

Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian-French literary theorist and historian, born in 1939. He was particularly interested in literary criticism and studied classic fairy tales and stories. He also wrote books and essays on many different subjects. 

Thorough his study of classic fairy tales, he discovered that the narratives moved in a chronological order - with one action following another. He found that the stories has a clear beginning, middle and end and theorised that all stories/plots could follow this structure.

He suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:

1. an EXPOSITION stage, also known as the equilibrium stage
• This stage is where the audience are shown the normal lives of the characters and everything is as it should be. 
2. a DEVELOPMENT stage, also known as the disruption stage 
• This stage is where a problem occurs and something will disrupt the normality.
3. a COMPLICATION stage, also known as the recognition stage
• This stage is where the characters realise the disruption has occurred and can see the chaos that has arisen.
4. a CLIMAX, also known as an attempt to repair
• This stage is where the characters try to repair the damage - possibly creating a climatic face-off.
5. a RESOLUTION stage, also known as a new equilibrium stage
• This stage is where the equilibrium is restored after the problem has been solved.