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In
narrative theory A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
, actant is a term from the
actantial model __NOTOC__ In structural semantics, the actantial model, also called the actantial narrative schema, is a tool used to analyze the action that takes place in a story, whether real or fictional.Herbert 2006 ''Tools'', Ch.5, ''Origins and function''Her ...
of
semiotic Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
analysis of
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
s. The term also has uses in
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
,
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
,
computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...
theory, and
astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
.


In narratology

Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for th ...
(1917–1992), professor of
semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, is widely credited with producing the
actantial model __NOTOC__ In structural semantics, the actantial model, also called the actantial narrative schema, is a tool used to analyze the action that takes place in a story, whether real or fictional.Herbert 2006 ''Tools'', Ch.5, ''Origins and function''Her ...
in 1966. This model reveals the structural roles typically performed in story telling; such as "hero, villain (opponent of hero), object (of quest), helper (of hero) and sender (who initiates the quest)." Each of these roles fulfills an integral component of the story, or, narrative. Without the contribution of each actant, the story may be incomplete. Thus, an "actant" is not simply a character in a story, but an integral structural element upon which the narrative revolves. An actant can also be described as a
binary opposition A binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one ...
pairing, such as a hero paired with a villain, a dragon paired with a dragon-slaying sword, a helper paired with an opponent. Actantial relationships are therefore incredibly useful in generating problems within a narrative that have to be overcome, providing contrast, or in defining an antagonistic force within the narrative. However, the same character can simultaneously have a different actant (or way of concern) in regard to a different sequence of action, event, or episode in the story. Therefore, it should be distinguished from a character's consistent role in the story like the
archetype The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...
of a
character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
. The concept of actant is important in
structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
of
narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...
to regard each situation as the minimum independent unit of story.


As defined by Julia Kristeva

In 1969,
Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...
also attempted to understand the dynamic development of the situations in
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
s with
Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for t ...
's actantial model. She thought the subject and the object can exchange positions, and accordingly the supporter and the opponent can exchange positions too. Furthermore, the pair of subject and object sometimes exchanges its position with the pair of supporter and opponent. There are, however, multiple overlapping situations in narrative at a given time. To contend with the overlapping situations present in all narrative structure, she called the potential actant shifts not "change", but "transformation." This should not be confused with Greimas's own transformational model, another narratological framework.


As defined by Vladimir Propp

Independently, researching Russian folklores,
Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irredu ...
also provided the "7 act spheres": #Aggressor #Donor #Auxiliary #Princess and the father #Committer #Hero #Bogus hero However, these are not the types of the person in the story, but rather patterns of behavior: the same person may sometimes act as one "sphere", and at other times as a different "sphere".


In linguistics

Linguist
Lucien Tesnière Lucien Tesnière (; May 13, 1893 – December 6, 1954) was a prominent and influential French linguist. He was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan on May 13, 1893. As a maître de conférences (senior lecturer) in University of Strasbourg (1924), and ...
considered the function of a verb as most important in
dependency grammar Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesni ...
and invented the term "actant", various persons that accompany a verb: #"prime actant", the
nominative case In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
#"second actant", the
accusative case The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
#"third actant", the
dative case In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
This concept of actant is similar to that of
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
.
Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for th ...
redefined actants as the 3 pairs "Modulations": #The Actant-Subject and the Actant-Object of Action. #The Actant-Sender and the Actant-Receiver of Information #The Actant-Supporter and the Actant-Oppositionist of Volition.


In sociology

In
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, the semiotic term "actant" was incorporated into the
actor–network theory Actor–network theory (ANT) is a theoretical and methodological approach to social theory where everything in the social and natural worlds exists in constantly shifting networks of relationships. It posits that nothing exists outside those relat ...
by
Bruno Latour Bruno Latour (; 22 June 1947 – 9 October 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.Wheeler, Will. ''Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations'' Critical Theory for Library and Information Science. Libraries ...
and
Michel Callon Michel Callon (born 1945) is a professor of sociology at the École des mines de Paris and member of the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation. He is an author in the field of Science and Technology Studies and one of the leading proponents of acto ...
, the activity of which is described as "mediation" or "translation".(cf. "On actor-network theory. A few clarifications", ''Soziale Welt'', 47, 1996, p. 369-382)


In astrology

Since ancient times,
astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
considered and analyzed the position of the persons concerning a situation with the symbols of the celestial objects and constellations.
Georges Polti ''The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations'' is a descriptive list which was first proposed by Georges Polti in 1895 to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. Polti analyzed classical Greek texts, plus classical ...
counted up the needed positions in his famous ''
The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations ''The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations'' is a descriptive list which was first proposed by Georges Polti in 1895 to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. Polti analyzed classical ancient Greece, Greek texts, ...
''.
Étienne Souriau Étienne Souriau (; April 26, 1892 – November 19, 1979) was a French philosopher, best known for his work in aesthetics. Biography Son of Paul Souriau, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure and received his '' agrégation of philo ...
reduced them to only 6 positions named "
dramaturgic functions Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The term first appears in the eponymous work ''Hamburg Dramaturgy'' (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Lessing composed thi ...
" with astrological symbols: #"The Leo", the thematic powered. #"The Sun", the valued. #"The Earth", the wished obtainer. #"The Mars", the oppositionist. #"The Libra", the judge of the situation. #"The Moon", Auxiliary.


Notes


References

*
Georges Polti ''The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations'' is a descriptive list which was first proposed by Georges Polti in 1895 to categorize every dramatic situation that might occur in a story or performance. Polti analyzed classical Greek texts, plus classical ...
, Les XXXVI situations dramatiques, in French 1895. *
Étienne Souriau Étienne Souriau (; April 26, 1892 – November 19, 1979) was a French philosopher, best known for his work in aesthetics. Biography Son of Paul Souriau, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure and received his '' agrégation of philo ...
, Les deux cent mille situations dramatiques, in French 1950. *
Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irredu ...
, Morphologie du conte, in French 1928. *
Lucien Tesnière Lucien Tesnière (; May 13, 1893 – December 6, 1954) was a prominent and influential French linguist. He was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan on May 13, 1893. As a maître de conférences (senior lecturer) in University of Strasbourg (1924), and ...
, Éléments de syntaxe structurale, in French 1959, 2nd ed. 1966. *
Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for th ...
, Sémantique structurale, in French 1966. * ---. 1973. "Actants, Actors, and Figures." ''On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic Theory.'' Trans. Paul J. Perron and Frank H, Collins. Theory and History of Literature, 38. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...
, 1987. 106-120. *
Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...
, Le texte du roman, in French 1967. {{Wiktionary Actor-network theory Functional programming Semiotics