The document discusses several influential narrative theorists and their contributions:
1) Vladimir Propp analyzed Russian fairytales and identified character archetypes like the hero, villain, donor.
2) Tzvetan Todorov proposed most narratives have an initial state of equilibrium, a disruption, then resolution to a new equilibrium.
3) Roland Barthes identified five codes that structure narratives: action, enigma, symbolic, semic, cultural.
4) Claude Levi-Strauss studied how myths unconsciously reflect a culture's beliefs through binary oppositions like civilized/savage.
