The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell StoriesBloomsbury Publishing, 11.11.2005 - 736 Seiten This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose. Booker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years. This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 73
Seite 5
... called ' Voyage and Return ' ) . And at this point I found myself brought up against the possibility which is the basis of this book . Although I had long been familiar with that old teasing notion that there are only a handful of basic ...
... called ' Voyage and Return ' ) . And at this point I found myself brought up against the possibility which is the basis of this book . Although I had long been familiar with that old teasing notion that there are only a handful of basic ...
Seite 7
... called its ' dark ' and ' senti- mental ' versions , we see how a particular element of disintegration has crept into modern storytelling which distinguishes it from anything seen in history before . But this in turn merely reveals one ...
... called its ' dark ' and ' senti- mental ' versions , we see how a particular element of disintegration has crept into modern storytelling which distinguishes it from anything seen in history before . But this in turn merely reveals one ...
Seite 11
... called elementargedenken or 'elemental ideas', which somehow derive from the very nature of the human psyche, and which therefore all human beings have in common. It was some years later that Sigmund Freud, in the 1890s, began to ...
... called elementargedenken or 'elemental ideas', which somehow derive from the very nature of the human psyche, and which therefore all human beings have in common. It was some years later that Sigmund Freud, in the 1890s, began to ...
Seite 12
... called 'archetypes': 'the ancient river beds along which our psychic current naturally flows'; and it is only on this level of the arche- typal structures that the basic meaning and purpose of the patterns underlying storytelling can be ...
... called 'archetypes': 'the ancient river beds along which our psychic current naturally flows'; and it is only on this level of the arche- typal structures that the basic meaning and purpose of the patterns underlying storytelling can be ...
Seite 13
... called 'the monomyth', a kind of universal story of which indvidual myths and tales merely present different aspects. Other authors have extended this kind of general approach to take in some of the better-known literary works of our ...
... called 'the monomyth', a kind of universal story of which indvidual myths and tales merely present different aspects. Other authors have extended this kind of general approach to take in some of the better-known literary works of our ...
Inhalt
1 | |
15 | |
THE COMPLETE HAPPY ENDING | 237 |
MISSING THE MARK | 345 |
WHY WE TELL STORIES | 541 |
The Light and the Shadows on the Wall | 699 |
Authors Personal Note | 703 |
Glossary of Terms | 707 |
Bibliography | 711 |
Index of Stories Cited | 715 |
General Index | 720 |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Aladdin Amleth anima Anna Karenina archetypal arrives beautiful become begins central figure centre century characters Comedy comes complete consciousness Creon Dark Father dark feminine dark figure dark masculine dark power Dark Rival death developed Don Giovanni Dream Stage egocentric egotism emerge eventually everything familiar fantasy film finally girl goal Hamlet happens happy ending heart hero and heroine hero or heroine human imagination inner James Bond Jane Eyre journey killed king kingdom liberated light lives look Macbeth married Moby Dick mother murder mysterious nature Nightmare Stage novel obsession Odysseus Oedipus ordeals Overcoming the Monster pattern play plot Princess Quest Rags to Riches realise recognise represents role seems seen sense shadow storytelling symbolic symbolised Teiresias tells Theseus thing Tragedy transformation true turn type of story ultimately uncon unconscious values Voyage and Return whole wife Wise Old woman young