Many writers on literary structure and theory present a linear figure to portray the format of a short story, the narrative arc, of a memoir or a novel.
Kal Bashir, however, represents structure in screen plays and in the above mentioned genres as circular. This fits in with the idea of the monostory by Joseph Campbell (“The Hero With A Thousand Faces“) and with Jung’s idea of archetypes. Basic to these ideas is the premise that all stories, even those told by cavemen of long ago, tell of a hero going on a journey, encountering adventures and returning to the starting point, renewed and invigorated in some profound way.
Kal Bashir states on his website: “The most successful movies and bestselling novels definitely, without doubt, indisputably follow the same story arc (there is really only one way to do it) – they all take their archetypes on a journey through a New World or State in a rigid process driven manner, where transformation and capacities result in resolution of the initial imperfection (and the result is not unoriginal).”
Do you agree or disagree with the idea that every successful story fits in with this architecture?
1 comment
Thanks for your very professional post on “The Hero’s Journey”, Adelia. Do you think it applies to all stories, as many believe? It’s more obvious in plot-based stories, such as “Star Wars” and the traditional adventure stories, so beloved of many today.