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 69
Seite 11
... emerge more than a century ago when the German ethnologist Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) first put forward the theory that the human mind seems to be so constituted that it naturally works in certain forms or grooves, and round certain ...
... emerge more than a century ago when the German ethnologist Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) first put forward the theory that the human mind seems to be so constituted that it naturally works in certain forms or grooves, and round certain ...
Seite 37
... emerge from their hiding places to cluster round their saviours . The loving couple can at last ride happily off together to start their new life . Beneath its comparatively modern trappings ( guns , the train ) there is nothing about ...
... emerge from their hiding places to cluster round their saviours . The loving couple can at last ride happily off together to start their new life . Beneath its comparatively modern trappings ( guns , the train ) there is nothing about ...
Seite 54
... emerge to stand between the hero or heroine and their ultimate goal: as we see in David Copperfield's rival for the hand of Agnes, the treacherous Uriah Heep; or in Jane Eyre's egregious suitor St John Rivers. But these characters are ...
... emerge to stand between the hero or heroine and their ultimate goal: as we see in David Copperfield's rival for the hand of Agnes, the treacherous Uriah Heep; or in Jane Eyre's egregious suitor St John Rivers. But these characters are ...
Seite 55
... emerge from these shadows towards the the light, that the hero or heroine are not marked by these same hard,self-centred characteristics.We always see them as a positive against the overshadowing negative; and in this sense, as the ...
... emerge from these shadows towards the the light, that the hero or heroine are not marked by these same hard,self-centred characteristics.We always see them as a positive against the overshadowing negative; and in this sense, as the ...
Seite 66
... emerge from the crisis, we grad- ually come to see the hero or heroine in a new light.Although still unfulfilled, they are discovering in themselves a new independent strength. As this develops, it must at last be put to a final test ...
... emerge from the crisis, we grad- ually come to see the hero or heroine in a new light.Although still unfulfilled, they are discovering in themselves a new independent strength. As this develops, it must at last be put to a final test ...
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