Strauss Binary Opposites Theory

1. Strauss Binary Opposites

2. How the theory developed… Strauss was a French anthropologist who lived in the early 1900's. He believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposites'.

3. Examples… Our understanding of the word "villain" depends on the difference between that word and the opposing word "hero". Within the media field, binary oppositions are used very frequently in films, especially in the horror genre. Many horror films include sets of binary oppositions in their plots. Particularly good and evil, sane and insane, rational and irrational and human and supernatural.

4. Producing binary opposites in your own work… Make sure you include binary opposites in your work relating to the genre. These can be multiple opposites within two characters, for example good VS bad but also young VS old.

5. History of binary opposites… Binary opposites used to be very simple and easy to spot in films, such as good VS bad in traditional fighting films. However in recent years they have become more complex and unusual. For example, the recent twilight films have had a complicated plot in slowly revealing vampires VS werewolves, and this binary opposite is difficult to spot in the first film.

6. Another example… Harry is constantly seen as the ‘good’ guy in the films Harry Potter and he has always been wanted dead by Voldemort who is seen as the ‘evil’ guy throughout the film. The image to the right is very effective as it expresses the binary opposite clearly to the audience. Voldemort also looks very scary which helps disguise that he is the bad guy. This split image is also effective in the Twilight picture on the recent slide. It could also be innocence VS corrupted and young VS old.

7. By Nikki and Lauren…