In this video, we're going to be investigating and learning about the Claude Levi Strauss binary opposition theory and its role in narrative.

So Claude Levi Strauss was a French French anthropologist who lived in the early 19 hundreds, he proposed a theory of binary opposition.

Now, before we delve into the meaning, let's first look at the meaning of the word binary.

Binary basically means containing two parts.

So think of a bicycle.

So now we know the meaning of binary.

Let's think about opposition.

Opposition essentially means opposite.

Therefore, binary opposition means too opposing or contrast contrast in elements putting this into context for Claude Levi Strauss theory.

His theory suggests that narratives and other media texts, for example, advertising newspapers, magazines, et cetera makes use of opposites or opposing characters.

This can be in the context of good versus evil, old verse, young white versus black, et cetera.

As you can see, we have two parts and they are both opposites.

Strauss theory suggests that narrative uses this model to build interesting stories.

So let's look at some examples.

Firstly, we'll look at a little advert.

So you can see the use of binary opposition outside of narrative.

Um In this advert, we have two very similar products being advertised, cheddar cheese.

We have Cathedral City a large but fairly costly brand and we have Valley Spire, a cheaper alternative supplied by little.

This advert shows a binary opposition between the two products.

Valley Spire portrayed as a cheaper and therefore better alternative to the bigger brand Cathedral City.

Even in the sizing of the two images, you can see how Valley Spire is made to look more dominant in the frame.

Next, we have a newspaper cover from the daily Star.

We have two large political figures from the 2017 election in the UK which was heavily orientated around Brexit.

We have two figures on opposite sides of the page from opposite parties.

This again shows binary oppositions as they're against each other and stand for different policies.

It could be argued that this cover is in favor of Theresa may due to a more comical image of Jeremy Corbyn being used, which could be used to make him look more foolish and less professional.

Finally, let's look at a film example.

We'll start with Harry Potter.

The obvious binary oppositions here being Harry Potter and Voldemort.

Harry Potter is fighting for peace in the wizarding world.

Whereas Voldemort is fighting for power and causing disruption in the visiting world, two different characters with completely opposite ideologies, um Both characters fighting for opposite things.

So this is the stereotypical hero versus villain.

Binary opposition.

The good versus evil operation is shown strongly in this poster with both characters standing opposite each other and Voldemort looking a lot more evil and unnerving through his appearance.

Finally, we'll look at an example from Snow White.

Another good verse evil binary opposition.

Here we have the picture perfect Snow White.

Happy go lucky princess, young woman in touch with nature and animals and we then have her wicked stepmother queen full of jealousy who poisons the princess posing as an old woman, a strong good verse evil binary opposition here, different characters with completely different ideologies.

So hopefully this video has helped simplify Claude Levi Strauss binary opposition theory.

If you plan on short film or narrative piece, you can make use of this theory by figuring out what characters are going to be in binary opposition with each other.

Hopefully you'll be able to analyze media text and then highlight binary oppositions from there.

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