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 84
Seite 7
... Complete Happy Ending , looks more generally at what all these main story - types have in common . In particular we find that there are not only basic plots to stories but a cast of basic figures who reappear through stories of all ...
... Complete Happy Ending , looks more generally at what all these main story - types have in common . In particular we find that there are not only basic plots to stories but a cast of basic figures who reappear through stories of all ...
Seite 18
... complete , and not just a fragmentary string of episodes and impressions , must work up to a climax , where conflict and uncertainty are usually at their most extreme . This then leads to a resolution of all that has gone before ...
... complete , and not just a fragmentary string of episodes and impressions , must work up to a climax , where conflict and uncertainty are usually at their most extreme . This then leads to a resolution of all that has gone before ...
Seite 57
... complete despair. He decides to abandon London and all his dreams forever. It is, as we might put it, the worst crisis of Dick's life. But it is at precisely this moment, far away in the dark continent of Africa, that his fortunes are ...
... complete despair. He decides to abandon London and all his dreams forever. It is, as we might put it, the worst crisis of Dick's life. But it is at precisely this moment, far away in the dark continent of Africa, that his fortunes are ...
Seite 66
... complete fulfilment. 3. The central crisis: Everything suddenly goes wrong. The shadows cast by the dark figures return. Hero or heroine are separated from that which has become more important to them than anything in the world, and ...
... complete fulfilment. 3. The central crisis: Everything suddenly goes wrong. The shadows cast by the dark figures return. Hero or heroine are separated from that which has become more important to them than anything in the world, and ...
Seite 67
... complete destruction . Another lesser ' dark ' version of the Rags to Riches plot can be seen in the kind of story where the hero may actually achieve these goals , but only in a way which is hollow and brings frustration , because ...
... complete destruction . Another lesser ' dark ' version of the Rags to Riches plot can be seen in the kind of story where the hero may actually achieve these goals , but only in a way which is hollow and brings frustration , because ...
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 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
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