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A Greimas Semiotic Analysis of Heroic Narrative Structure in

Chang Eun jin

BK21 Plus ICT based Cultural Contents Enterprise Agency, Dongseo University Busan, Republic of Korea [email protected]

Abstract this foundation laid by Hjelmslev by focusing on text, a domain of meaning which he emphasized, moving away from With its wide public appeal, the animation industry has a tendency to focus on words, as in Saussure’s symbol presented itself to a rich tradition of semiotic research for its concept, to treat text itself as a symbol. mythological imagination and symbolic system in storytelling. Of many cinematic genres, animation is Ⅱ Animation Text Analysis and Heroic Narrative particularly noted for richness in signs, symbols and 1.: Finding Identity Amid Mixed Cultures metaphors which help to deliver convincing story system and structure. Most animation stories follow mythological heroic The Korean American director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who had narrative, from fairy tales to heroic growth narrative, good participated in the making of only at the and evil, reward and punishment; throughout the ages and all scenario development stage, took to directing sequels; a over the world, universal emotions have conveyed life values director with Asian DNA was a way of achieving cultural which effect empathy in truly human values accompanied synthesis. Although the film was critiqued for being an with inner transformation. oriental fantasy animation made from the Western This paper addresses, among many theories of semiotics, the perspective, Dreamworks’ cultural synthesis narrative, which cultural semiotics of A. J. Greimas who focused on the addresses a mix of Eastern and Western subjects through an generation and application of meaning through various Asian director, has already proved commercially successful in relationships among characters in films; animation text will ; is in continuation of that be analyzed through his theoretical perspective and enterprise. understand the symbols and roles and functions in the frame Cultural hybridism is also manifest in the works of Quentin of cinematic narrative, as well as their signification. The Tarantino such as and . In similar subject of the study, addresses themes of vein, 21st-century sociologists like Michel Maffesoli and Kung Fu, meditation, mind training, energy (chi), and Taoist Thomas Jamet have argued for the return to a society of world view; the oriental values, as well as Chinese traditions barbarism and emotions; Gilbert Durand spoke of ‘transition and values, are explored through the heroic growth narrative to nocturnal regime of images’ in contemporary society which of panda, a quintessentially Chinese animal. The fantasy will free humanity of past history, one of oppression by narrative text, with wide appeal to global audience, therefore reason, to expose brutishness. Such trend of hybridism is merits a semiotic analysis. thought to grow in cultural phenomena.

The characteristics of hybrid culture in can Keywords-component; Kung Fu Panda 3, Greimas semiotic analysis, actantial model, signification be found in the fusion of Chinese martial arts and American model slapstick comedy; this further lowered the barrier of accessibility which had existed when films like and , starring the likes of Bruce I Introduction Lee, Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow, were being introduced to the West. Also, through the animation genre which has A. J. Greimas had taken a great interest in the meaning of relatively lower cultural discount, Chinese Kung Fu, mind langue who emphasized the production of meaning through training, values of Confucianism and Taoism have been language. The meaning of language produces relations in delivered to the West. With such public appeal, the enterprise has produced three films. It has remained model. Greimas, represented by Parisian school, was heavily No. 2 on animation box office chart records in Korea with influenced by the linguist Louis Hjelmslev who identified 5.06 million viewers, second only to Walt Disney’s various hierarchies in linguistic structure. Greimas built upon with 10.3 million ticket sales. Crossing Fights Tai Shifu’s 5 Real Tao the Threshold Lung training

Cumulative Viewer Number for Kung Fu Panda 1, 2, 3 MeiMie, Pandas Tests, Allies, Furious Five, Soothsayer, in Korea 6 in Panda Enemies Tai Lung Lord Shen Year Viewer Number Village, Kai Approach Revelation Kung Fu 2008 4.06 million Answer Greatness of 7 To Inmost under a Peach Panda 1 ‘who I am’ being together Kung Fu 2011 5.06 million Cave Tree Temporary Panda 2 Warrior Creationof 8 Ordeal death, entry Kung Fu 2015 3.89 million Training Superpower Panda 3 to underworld Accepted as a Source: KOFIC Regaining leader of New leader of 9 Reward memory of Furious Five, panda village The story of was criticized for slow the past makes friends story development and continued dichotomy between good Returns to and evil; and yet the dramatic space was expanded to panda Ping’s Return in Return to the 10 The Road Back village, where Po’s real family is, and the story focused on noodle inner mind world finding Po’s identity. While the first and second films were restaurant about a warrior’s journey in search of inner peace, the third Becomes a Having two 11 Resurrection Real power film was about finding an answer in the identity of a panda local hero families Honor of Family warrior; a world view of maintaining peace and defending Return with Affection 12 dragon restored and good, not as an individual but as a community. This final film Elixir with Ping warrior new love in the series attracted 3.89 million viewers in Korea, which was somewhat lower than previous films, but the entire series Ⅲ recorded an average of 4 million viewers, marking it one of Greimas semiotic analysis of the most successful animations. Kung Fu Panda combines Dreamworks’ characteristic anti-hero narrative with Walt Disney’s stereotypical hero 2. Analysis through Christopher Vogler’s Heroic Journey narrative. Panda being a symbolic animal of China with Christopher Vogler, a former Hollywood scenario writer, important signifier and signified, it is thought that has a significance that far transcends mere animated a Thousand Faces and his theories to identify 12 stages of entertainment; the film reflects the diaspora of the scenario which ultimately derive from three stages of multicultural age through the Asian cultural motif. separation, initiation and return; he argues that all Hollywood There were animations with Asian themes before , with being a prime example. theory stipulates that Hollywood heroic narrative structure However, the visual depiction of Asians in Mulan followed a and all other interesting tales in the world follow the same stereotype; narrow eyes, dark hair and large cheekbones. In a steps in the hero’ journey. His theory has been used in many way, represented the Western preconception of fields, from contemporary cinema to drama and scenario Asia. 17 years later, tried to break free analysis. Vogler’s 12-stage heroic journey can be found in from such prejudices by having a director with Asian roots; Kung Fu Panda series as follow. the film itself also addresses mind training, a significant part of Chinese culture, Taoism, beauty of empty space, ki and < Table 2> Christopher Vogler’s <12 Stages of the Hero’s energy in some depth. In fact, for concept drawing and Journey> for Kung Fu Panda Series rendering for , crew members learned Kung Kung Fu Panda Kung Fu Panda Kung Fu Panda 1 Ordinary World Fu for a long time and researched movements and action. 1 2 3 This shows well just how important it is to fundamentally Participate Agony over his Meets his real understand a culture to produce cultural products based on in selection Callto identity father at a 2 for the proper understanding. Adventure noodle Dragon Thus < Kung Fu Panda> represents symbolic significances restaurant Warrior intended from the its very conception; its scenes and texts are Worries about also symbolically poignant. The present study offers a Denies being Need for Mind duck father 3 Refusal a Dragon semiotic analysis. Training being left Warrior alone 1. Greimas’s Standard Narrative Structure Meeting with 4 Oogway, Shifu Oogway Oogway Greimas emphasized the production of meaning through the Mentor language. Lévi-Strauss’s pragmatic model and Propp’s syntagmatic model in his analysis. Greimas constructed a would be about Po’s finding his own identity. As expected, narrative diagram by developing Propp’s 21 functional Kung Fu Panda 3 shows Po’s biological father Lu coming to categories to distinguish the actions of agents as being either the peaceful noodle shop to find his son who looks just like contract or retribution. Here, adding the agent’s competence him. From that moment, Li acts as a sender who motivates Po and performance stages are added to form 4 stages of contract to find his own identity. Panda therefore embarks upon a – performance – sanction in his narrative schema. journey to panda village to find his roots which he long denied. Tigress, Mantis, Monkey, Viper and Crane, as with

Narrative Schema Applied to previous films, help Po to defeat Kai, a villain who has Contract Competence Performance Sanction returned from the underworld. Narrative Kai, who has resurrected as a mighty evil spirit, captures Subject Positive/negative Build competence program in the spirits of all masters, including those of Master Shifu and identified assessment action Oogway, into jade. Po learns that neither Kung Fu nor With biological With biological Makes friends and dumpling fists, but rather the ‘power of Panda’s working Encounter father, acquires father Li, family in panda together’ ; he then begins to teach Kung Fu to pandas before with the group defeat Kai from village, learns he confronts Kai. Po, not an active agent of action, leads his biological competence of underworld and the true meaning colleagues who are passive objects. Sender, who first planned father pandas in panda gains victory of togetherness village it all and led Po to panda village, is Po’s biological father Li; As shown in Table 3, competence stage shows, unlike in this relationship, the receiver of all desires is ultimately Po Disney-type heroic narrative, an ordinary, timid anti-hero in himself. thus shows a relationship of Po; this wins the viewer’s empathy. And it is not by mutual trust and coexistence, one of partnership. Here, the coincidence but rather through endless inner training that Po sender and receiver go beyond merely conveying desires and become a hero. This reflects an Asian thought that the process winning power; their fate is determined by answering the call matters more than the outcome. from sender, leading to a fundamentally different life. The significance of actantial model is thus understood in terms of 2. Actantial Model Analysis mutual communication. Greimas; actantial model represents an agent or an object which completes actions or has experiences independently of 3. Signification Model Analysis other attribute modifiers. Going beyond words or sentences, In sum, Greimas semiotics is a theory of how meaning is he sought to identify relations between agents who play their produced and organized in a text. Greimas sought to identify functions in a discourse with basic meaning; Greimas universal elements required for text development. He attempted to analyse real or virtual human action within constructs three stages of transformation, surface structure discourse. The actantial model classifies 6 actants from and deep structure, which from a process of signification. human action through 3 elements of desire, communication Signification model proceeds in three stages; 1) surface and power. structure; 2) narrative structure; 3) deep structure. Here, first surface structure refers to visual images in films, where < Table 4>Actantial model of Kung Fu Panda 3 cultural symbols and signs and interact to produce meaning in Destinateur, sender )→ Object → Destinateure, textual context. Second, narrative structure addresses stories Receiver created by characters. Finally, deep structure addresses ↑ themes, ideologies and values and worldview of the author adjuvant, helper → Agent ← Opponent which are conveyed in the contents of the film. This deep Sender : Biological Father Li → Object : Panda village structure is what forms the basis of surface structure and colleagues → narrative structure. Thus this signification model is an Receiver : Po important device which shows the process of deriving key ↑ cultural codes of deep structure from specific visual signs to Helper : Furious Five, Ping → Agent: Po ← Opponent : Kai aid both the viewers of animation and animation researches. It from the Underworld is also the ultimate reason for Greimas’ analysis of cultural codes. As the table shows, actantial model analyzes texts by identifying relations among key characters and their influences on each other. Po, living an ordinary life with the honor of Dragon Warrior, realizes that that unfulfilled feeling of emptiness is rooted in his longing for his biological father and family. As he begins to remember facts around his birth in Kung Fu Panda 2, it had been foretold that the next sequel 1. Po meets his biological father at noodle shop conflict – tension resolved – good/evil confrontation for 2. Po leaves with Li to find family in panda resolution – punishment on evil – happy ending. village Greimas semiotic analysis is thus presented as a useful methodology for animation researchers in terms of identifying 3. Ping does not want to lose his adoptive son meanings and understanding emotional and cultural codes in popular culture. While the present study applied most of the

Kung Fu Panda 3 through Greimas Signification Model theoretical frameworks of Greimas semiotics, future Surface Structure = Visual Image researches could add depth by drawing on semiotic square Stage 1 Po meets his biological father Li who came to his and signification model analysis. adoptive father’s noodle shop ↓ Narrative Structure = Storytelling - Li hears of the existence of his adoptive son and comes to the noodle shop to find him References Stage 2 - Po is excited to see someone who looks just like him [1] Kim, Sung-do,『From Structure to Emotions – A Study of - Po leaves for panda village in pursuit of Greimas Semiotics and the General Theory of Meaning 』,Korea training and justice University Press, 2002. ↓ [2] Park, Kisu,『Cultural Contents: Storytelling and Strategy』, Deep Structure = Key Code Nonhyung, 2015. Stage 3 Encounter → Tension → Reconciliation → Trust → [3] Paik, Sun-ki,『Film, Pleasure of Semiotic Analysis 』, Another Farewell Communication Books , 2007. [4] Lee, Hyun-seok, 「A Study of Methods in Hollywood Animation which re-create Chinese Cultural Forms」,『Digital Culture 』, Space G, 2015. Ⅳ Conclusion [5] Durand, Gilbert , translated by Jin Hyung-joon 『Anthropological Structures of Image』, Munhakdongne, 2007. This study used Greimas semiotics to analyze the hero [6] Vogler, Chrstopher, translated by Ham Choon-sun, narrative of Draemworks’ animation . 『Mythology, Heroes and Scenario Development 』, Moowoosoo, Greimas’ standard narrative schema, actantial model and 2005. signification model have been used to examine the subject of Academic Paper [7] Kim, Byungwook, 「Digital Media and Mythological study. Imagination – A Study on Post-Modern Imaginaries 」」,『French First, the narrative flow of trilogy has Culture and Arts Study 』,Vol. 46,2013. been analyzed through the standard narrative schema of [8] Lee, Yoon-jin, Kwon, Jae-woong, 「Semiotic Analysis of Shrek contract – competence – performance – retribution. It was Trilogy」,『Cartoon & Animation Studies 』, Korea Korean revealed that, in the competence development stage, all three Society for Cartoon & Animation Studies, 2009. Kung Fu films, unlike Disney-type hero narrative, present Po [9] Lim, Yoon-suh, 「Comparison of Youth Growth Narrative Analysis through and examined the relationships between the agent of desire, sender and receiver. Here, as Po’s biological father Li appears in Kung Fu Panda 3, a new world is opened to Po who had so far been in a world of adoptive father Ping-P-Furious Five- Shifu. This is a new challenge for Po, through which he is represented as a sender of the strongest desires in search of family and friendship. Such analysis examines the relationships between key characters and the signification structure of fraternity-confrontation; it also paves way to signification model, highlighting the importance of actantial model in semiotic analysis. Finally, signification model was used to examine key events and situations in ; common with other two works in the trilogy, the film followed protagonist’s inner

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