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 4
... novel Lolita ; a 1960s French film , Truffaut's Jules et Jim ; the Greek myth of Icarus ; and the German legend of ... novels , such as the dreams turned to nightmare of those two unhappy heroines , Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina , both ...
... novel Lolita ; a 1960s French film , Truffaut's Jules et Jim ; the Greek myth of Icarus ; and the German legend of ... novels , such as the dreams turned to nightmare of those two unhappy heroines , Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina , both ...
Seite 5
... novel con- structed in almost exactly the same way as a Middle Eastern folk tale dating from 1200 years before ; or ... novels , from Robinson Crusoe to Brideshead Revisited ; there were sci- ence fiction stories , like H. G. Wells's The ...
... novel con- structed in almost exactly the same way as a Middle Eastern folk tale dating from 1200 years before ; or ... novels , from Robinson Crusoe to Brideshead Revisited ; there were sci- ence fiction stories , like H. G. Wells's The ...
Seite 13
... Novel, cited in the pages which follow. And I cannot conclude this brief summary of writers whose work I found illuminating without referring to an author much less well-known than any of these, John Vyvyan, whose little book The ...
... Novel, cited in the pages which follow. And I cannot conclude this brief summary of writers whose work I found illuminating without referring to an author much less well-known than any of these, John Vyvyan, whose little book The ...
Seite 39
... novels , some of his British contemporaries were producing particularly striking examples of that type of story which ... novel on radio , so vividly presented as a ' live news event ' that it provoked a wave of panic among listeners who ...
... novels , some of his British contemporaries were producing particularly striking examples of that type of story which ... novel on radio , so vividly presented as a ' live news event ' that it provoked a wave of panic among listeners who ...
Seite 45
... novel of the story . Two years after Star Wars , another Hollywood science fiction film Alien ( 1979 ) reflected the rise of late- twentieth - century feminism by providing a rare example of an Overcoming the Monster story in which the ...
... novel of the story . Two years after Star Wars , another Hollywood science fiction film Alien ( 1979 ) reflected the rise of late- twentieth - century feminism by providing a rare example of an Overcoming the Monster story in which the ...
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