Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
tic work such as a
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...
,
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* Pla ...
, or
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and scholars alike over time. This article covers the range of dramatic structures from around the world. How the acts are structured, what the center of the story is supposed to be about widely varies by region and time period.
Africa and African diaspora
Karibbean
Kwik Kwak
The structure is:
#Tell riddles to test the audience.
#Audience becomes a chorus and comments on the story.
Usually there is a ritual ending.
West Africa
Griot
A story structure commonly found in West Africa told by Griot storytellers, who tell their stories orally. Famous stories from this tradition include
Anansi
Anansi ( ; literally translates to ''spider'') is an Akan folktale character and the Akan God of Stories, Wisdom, Knowledge, and possibly creation. The form of a spider is the most common depiction of Anansi. He is also, sometimes considered to ...
folktales. This storytelling type had influence on later African American, Creole, and Caribbean African diaspora stories.
The story structure is as follows:
# Opening formula-includes jokes and riddles to engage audience participation. Then a solemn beginning.
# The body/expository section - narration of the tale, setting up the characters and the events, defining the conflict, with storyteller singing, dancing, shouting and inviting the audience to join. The storyteller uses a language full of images and symbolism.
# The conclusive formula - closure of the story and the moral.
The central driver of the story is memory.
Indigenous peoples of North America and Latin America
Central America
Robleto
Robleto is a story form that originates from Nicaragua. It’s named after Robert Robleto, though the structure is much older than him and discovered by Cheryl Diermyer, an outsider, in 2010
It is made of:
#Line of Repetition
#Introduction
#Climax
#Journeys
#Close
South America
Harawi
Harawi is an ancient traditional genre of Andean music and also indigenous lyric poetry. Harawi was widespread in the Inca Empire and now is especially common in countries that were part of it, mainly: Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia. Typically, harawi is a moody, soulful slow and melodic song or tune played on the quena (flute). The words of harawi speak of love (often unrequited), plight of ordinary peasant, privations of orphans, etc. Melodies are mainly in minor pentatonic scale.
Asia
East Asia
Dream record
This is a story type that starts with a dream. It was invented in the Ming Dynasty and exported to Korea. The structure deals mainly with a character either reflecting on their life or telling another dead character about their life. It often reflects regret from the characters about their life choices and helps them to either move on or accept their reality. It was never imported into Japan because Japan had an anti-Chinese sentiment in the Tokugawa era starting in the 1600s and the collapse of the Ming empire was in 1618.
Dream record (Japan)
Dream record or Dream diaries (夢記 ゆめのき) is separate from the Dream record above and was started by Buddhist monks in 13th-century Japan, who recorded their dreams in diaries. These dreams were often recorded, shared and viewed.
East Asian 4-act
This dramatic structure started out as a Chinese poetry style called qǐ chéng zhuǎn hé (起承转合) and then was exported to Korea as gi seung jeon gyeol (Hangul: 기승전결; Hanja: 起承轉結) and Japan as
kishōtenketsu
describes the structure and development of classic Chinese, Korean and Japanese narratives. The structure originated in China and was called ''qǐ chéng zhuǎn hé'' () and used in Chinese poetry as a four-line composition, such as Qijue. From ...
(起承転結). Each country has adapted their own take on the original structure.
Eight-legged essay
The eight-legged essay ()
[
] was a style of
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
in
imperial examination
The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
s during the
Ming
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
and
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
dynasties in China.
[ The eight-legged essay was needed for those test takers in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, often focusing on ]Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
thought and knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are C ...
, in relation to governmental ideals.[ Test takers could not write in innovative or creative ways, but needed to conform to the standards of the eight-legged essay.][ Various skills were examined, including the ability to write coherently and to display basic logic. In certain times, the candidates were expected to spontaneously compose poetry upon a set theme, whose value was also sometimes questioned, or eliminated as part of the test material. This was a major argument in favor of the eight-legged essay, arguing that it were better to eliminate creative art in favor of prosaic literacy. In the history of Chinese literature, the eight-legged essay is often said to have caused China's "cultural stagnation and economic backwardness" in the 19th century.]
Jo-ha-kyū
is a concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts. Roughly translated to "beginning, break, rapid", it essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly. This concept is applied to elements of the Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or ) is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . While in the West it is known as "tea ceremony", it is se ...
, to kendō
is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spread t ...
and other martial arts, to dramatic structure in the traditional theatre, and to the traditional collaborative linked verse forms renga
''Renga'' (, ''linked verse'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. ...
and renku
, or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns provi ...
(haikai no renga).
The concept originated in ''gagaku
is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances. was developed as court music of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its near-current form was established in the Heian period (794-1185) around t ...
'' court music, specifically in the ways in which elements of the music could be distinguished and described. Though eventually incorporated into a number of disciplines, it was most famously adapted, and thoroughly analysed and discussed by the great Noh
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
playwright Zeami
(c. 1363 – c. 1443), also called , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor, and playwright.
His father, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan'ami was also skill ...
, who viewed it as a universal concept applying to the patterns of movement of all things.
West Asia
Chiastic structure
A kind of structure found in the Torah, Bible and Quran using a form of repetition.
Hakawati
A Palestinian form of literature which includes 1001 Arabian Nights. This structure also includes are many religious works, including the Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
, Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, and Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
.
Karagöz
Karagöz (literally ''Blackeye'' in Turkish) and Hacivat (shortened in time from "Hacı İvaz" meaning "İvaz the Pilgrim", and also sometimes written as Hacivad) are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
shadow play
Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-ou ...
, popularized during the Ottoman period and then spread to most nation states of the Ottoman Empire. It is most prominent in Turkey, Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
and Adjara
Adjara ( ka, აჭარა ''Ach’ara'' ) or Achara, officially known as the Autonomous Republic of Adjara ( ka, აჭარის ავტონომიური რესპუბლიკა ''Ach’aris Avt’onomiuri Resp’ublik’a'' ...
(autonomous republic of Georgia). In Greece, Karagöz is known by his local name Karagiozis
Karagiozis or Karaghiozis ( ell, Καραγκιόζης , tr, Karagöz ) is a shadow puppet and fictional character of Greek folklore, originating in the Turkish shadow play Karagöz and Hacivat. He is the main character of the tales narrated i ...
; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he is known by his local name Karađoz.
Karagöz plays are structured in four parts:
* ''Mukaddime'': Introduction. Hacivat sings a ''semai'' (different at each performance), recites a prayer, and indicates that he is looking for his friend Karagöz, whom he beckons to the scene with a speech that always ends ''"Yar bana bir eğlence"'' ("Oh, for some amusement"). Karagöz enters from the opposite side.
* ''Muhavere:'' dialogue between Karagöz and Hacivat
* ''Fasil:'' main plot
* ''Bitiş:'' Conclusion, always a short argument between Karagöz and Hacivat, always ending with Hacivat yelling at Karagöz that he has "ruined" whatever matter was at hand and has "brought the curtain down," and Karagöz replying "May my transgressions be forgiven."
Sources:[Ersin Alok, "Karagöz-Hacivat: The Turkish Shadow Play", ''Skylife - Şubat'' (]Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines ( Turkish: ''Türk Hava Yolları'') is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey. , it operates scheduled services to 340 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, making it the largest mainline carrier in the w ...
inflight magazine), February 1996, pp. 66–69.
Ta'zieh
Ta'zieh or Ta'zïye or Ta'zīya or Tazīa or Ta'ziyeh ( ar, تعزية, fa, تعزیه, ur, ) means comfort, condolence or expression of grief. It comes from roots ''aza'' (عزو and عزى) which means mourning.
Depending on the region, time, occasion, religion, etc. the word can signify different cultural meanings and practices:
*In Persian cultural reference it is categorized as Condolence Theatre or Passion Play inspired by a historical and religious event, the tragic death of Hussein, symbolizing epic spirit and resistance.
*In South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
and in the Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
it refers specifically to the Miniature Mausoleums (imitations of the mausolems of Karbala, generally made of coloured paper and bamboo) used in ritual processions held in the month of Muharram.
Ta'zieh, primarily known from the Persian tradition, is a shi'ite Muslim ritual that reenacts the death of Hussein (the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandson) and his male children and companions in a brutal massacre on the plains of Karbala, Iraq in the year 680 AD. His death was the result of a power struggle in the decision of control of the Muslim community (called the caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
) after the death of Muhammad.
Europe and the European diaspora
Aristotle's analysis
Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
in his ''Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
'' (c. 335 BCE).
In his ''Poetics'', a theory about tragedies, the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
philosopher Aristotle put forth the idea the play should imitate a single whole action and does not skip around (Such as flashbacks and the like). "A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end. A beginning is that which is not a necessary consequent of anything else but after which something else exists or happens as a natural result. An end on the contrary is that which is inevitably or, as a rule, the natural result of something else but from which nothing else follows; a middle follows something else and something follows from it. Well constructed plots must not therefore begin and end at random, but must embody the formulae we have stated." (1450b27).[Perseus Digital Library (2006)]
Aristotle, ''Poetics''
/ref> He split the play into two acts: δέσις (desis) and λύσις (lysis) which roughly translates to binding and unbinding, though contemporary translation is "complication" and "dénouement". He mainly used Sophocles to make his argument about the proper dramatic structure of a play.
He argues that for a proper tragedy the plot should be simple: a man moving from prosperity to tragedy and not the reverse. It should excite pity or fear, to shock the viewer. He also states that the man needs to be well-known to the audience. The tragedy should come about because of a flaw in the character.
He ranked the order of importance of the play to be: Chorus, Events, Diction, Character, Spectacle. And that all plays should be able to be performed from memory, long and easy to understand. He was against character-centric plots stating “The Unity of a Plot does not consist, as some suppose, in its having one man as its subject.” He was against episodic plots. He held that discovery should be the high point of the play and that the action should teach a moral that is reinforced by pity, fear and suffering. The spectacle, not the characters themselves would give rise to the emotions. The stage should also be split into “Prologue, Episode, Exode, and a choral portion, distinguished into Parode and Stasimon...“
Unlike later, he held that the morality was the center of the play and what made it great. Unlike popular belief, he did not come up with the three act structure popularly known.
One-Act Play
Said to be innovated by Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
for his play Cyclops
In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...
, it wasn't wildly popular until the late 19th century with the rise of film. Alice Guy-Blaché
Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché (née Guy; ; 1 July 1873 – 24 March 1968) was a French pioneer filmmaker. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, s ...
made a comment about it in the documentary '' Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché'', where she commented that many of the films of the time required a quick punchline at the end.
It is still used today, but fell out of popular favor for films around the late 1930s to 1940s, when the runtime for an average film became longer. (See Kenneth Rowe and Lajos Egri
Lajos N. Egri (June 4, 1888 – February 7, 1967) was a Hungarian-American playwright and teacher of creative writing. He is the author of ''The Art of Dramatic Writing'', which is widely regarded as one of the best works on the subject of playw ...
.)
Horace's analysis
The Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
drama critic Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
advocated a 5-act structure in his ''Ars Poetica'': "Neue minor neu sit quinto productior actu fabula" (lines 189–190) ("A play should not be shorter or longer than five acts"). He also argued for a Chorus, "The Chorus should play an actor’s part, energetically," and the center of the play should be morality as Aristotle did.
"It should favour the good, and give friendly advice,
Guide those who are angered, encourage those fearful
Of sinning: praise the humble table's food, sound laws
And justice, and peace with her wide-open gates:
It should hide secrets, and pray and entreat the gods
That the proud lose their luck, and the wretched regain it."
He did not specify the contents of the acts.
Aelius Donatus
The fourth-century Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus
Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.
Works
He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant:
*Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar.
* Ars minor – ...
in his criticism of Terence
Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...
's plays Adelphoe
''Adelphoe'' (also ''Adelphoi'' and ''Adelphi''; from Greek ᾰ̓δελφοί, ''Brothers'') is a play by Roman playwright Terence, adapted partly from plays by Menander and Diphilus. It was first performed in 160 BC at the funeral games of Ae ...
and Hecyra
''Hecyra'' (''The Mother-in-Law'') is a comedic Latin play by the early Roman playwright Terence. The story concerns a young man, Pamphilus, who has a girlfriend, the courtesan Bacchis, but is forced by his father to marry a neighbour's daughter ...
in the book Aeli Donati qvod fertvr Commentvm Terenti: Accendvnt Evgravphi Volume 2 and in his review of Terence's Play Andria
Andria (; Barese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in Apulia ( southern Italy). It is an agricultural and service center, producing wine, olives and almonds. It is the fourth-largest municipality in the Apulia region (behind Bari, Taranto, and Fogg ...
in P. Terentii Afri comoediae sex used the terms prologue
A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
(prologus), protasis
In drama, a protasis is the introductory part of a play, usually its first act. The term was coined by the fourth-century Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus. He defined a play as being made up of three separate parts, the other two being epitasis and ...
, epitasis
In classical drama, the epitasis ( grc, ἐπίτασις) is the main action of a play, in which the trials and tribulations of the main character increase and build toward a climax and dénouement. It is the third and central part when a play is ...
and catastropha. He often uses the original Greek letters, but does not define these as specific acts, but as parts of the play as having different emotional qualities.
For example for Terence's play Adelphoe he comments, "in hac prologus aliquanto lenior inducitur; magis etiam in se purgando quam in aduersariis laedendis est occupatus. πρότασις turbulenta est, ἐπίτασις clamosa, καταστροφή lenior. quarum partium rationem diligentius in principio proposuimus, cum de comoedia quaedam diceremus." which roughly translates to, "In this the prologue
A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
is somewhat milder; he is more engaged in clearing himself than in injuring his opponents. Protasis is turbulent. The epitasis is loud and gentler catastropha."
He further adds that Hecyra, "in hac prologus est et multiplex et rhectoricus nimis, propterea quod saepe exclusa haec comoedia diligentissima defensione indigebat. atque in hac πρότασις turbulenta est, ἐπίτασις mollior, lenis καταστροφή." which roughly translate to, "In this the prologue is both multiple and overly rhetorical, because oftentimes this comedy is excluded because it needs a very careful defense. And in this the protasis is turbulent, the milder the epithasis, the softer the catastropha."
However, he also argues that Latins have a five act chorus, which distinguishes Latins from Greeks, "hoc etiam ut cetera huiusmodi poemata quinque actus habaeat necesse est choris diusos a Graecis poetis." which roughly translates to, "In order to have other poems of this kind, it is necessary to have five acts of choruses, distinguished from the Greek poets." making it fairly clear that though he used the Greek for these divisions of play, he did not think of them as part of the overall act structure.
No definitive translation of this work has been made into English.
Picaresque novel
First developed in Spain in 1554, the term was not coined until 1810. A picaresque novel is written in first person, with a character who is of low social status, and there is little to no plot or character development, but told with realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
. Satire is often deployed. A famous example is Miguel de Cervantes' ''Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
''.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare did not invent the five-act structure. The five-act structure was made by Freytag, in which he used Shakespeare as an example. There are no writings from Shakespeare on how he intended his plays to be. There is some thought that people imposed the act structure after his death. During his lifetime, the four-act structure was also popular and used in plays such as Fortunae Ludibrium sive Bellisarius. Freytag made claims in his book that Shakespeare should have used his 5 act structure, but it did not exist at the time period of Shakespeare.
Bildungsroman
The term was coined in the 1819 by Karl Morgenstern
Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern ( – ) was a Germans, German philologist in Governorate of Livonia, Livonia, the first director of the library of the Imperial University of Dorpat. He coined the term ''Bildungsroman''.
Biography
Morgenstern was b ...
, but the birth of the Bildungsroman is normally dated to the publication of ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' ( ger, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre) is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795–96.
Plot
The eponymous hero undergoes a journey of self-realization. The story centers upon Wilhelm's ...
'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
in 1795–96, or, sometimes, to Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland (; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was a German poet and writer. He is best-remembered for having written the first ''Bildungsroman'' (''Geschichte des Agathon''), as well as the epic ''Oberon'', which formed the ba ...
's ''Geschichte des Agathon'' of 1767.[Swales, Martin. ''The German Bildungsroman from Wieland to Hesse''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978. 38.]
The plot requires a young or innocent protagonist who goes on to learn about the world, and learns how to enter it. The central goal is maturity of the protagonist which may be done through discovery, conflict or other means.
Freytag's pyramid
The German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
playwright and novelist Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag (; 13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright.
Life
Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the school at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of ...
wrote ''Die Technik des Dramas'', a definitive study of the five-act dramatic structure, in which he laid out what has come to be known as Freytag's pyramid.[University of South Carolina (2006)]
The Big Picture
Under Freytag's pyramid, the plot of a story consists of five parts:[University of Illinois: Department of English (2006)]
# Exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
*Expository writing
**Exposition (narrative)
*Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
* ''Exposition'' (album), the debut album by the band Wax on Radio
*Exposi ...
(originally called introduction)
# Rise
# Climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
# Return or Fall
# Catastrophe
Catastrophe or catastrophic comes from the Greek κατά (''kata'') = down; στροφή (''strophē'') = turning ( el, καταστροφή). It may refer to:
A general or specific event
* Disaster, a devastating event
* The Asia Minor Catastro ...
, dénouement, resolution, or revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities.
Background
Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
or "rising and sinking". Freytag is indifferent as to which of the contending parties justice favors; in both groups, good and evil, power and weakness, are mingled.
A drama is then divided into five parts, or acts, which some refer to as a : introduction, rise, climax, return or fall, and catastrophe
Catastrophe or catastrophic comes from the Greek κατά (''kata'') = down; στροφή (''strophē'') = turning ( el, καταστροφή). It may refer to:
A general or specific event
* Disaster, a devastating event
* The Asia Minor Catastro ...
. Freytag extends the five parts with three moments or crises: the exciting force, the tragic force, and the force of the final suspense. The exciting force leads to the rise, the tragic force leads to the return or fall, and the force of the final suspense leads to the catastrophe. Freytag considers the exciting force to be necessary but the tragic force and the force of the final suspense are optional. Together, they make the eight component parts of the drama.
In making his argument, he attempts to retcon much of the Greeks and Shakespeare by making opinions of what they meant, but didn't actually say.
He argued for tension created through contrasting emotions, but didn't actively argue for conflict. He argued that character comes first in plays. He also sets up the groundwork for what would later in history be called the inciting incident.
Overall, Freytag argued the center of a play is emotionality and the best way to get that emotionality is to put contrasting emotions back to back. He laid some of the foundations for centering the hero, unlike Aristotle. He is popularly attributed to have stated conflict at the center of his plays, but he argues actively against continuing conflict.
Introduction
The setting is fixed in a particular place and time, the mood is set, and characters are introduced. A backstory may be alluded to. Introduction can be conveyed through dialogues, flashbacks, characters' asides, background details, in-universe media, or the narrator telling a back-story.
Rise
An exciting force begins immediately after the exposition (introduction), building the rise in one or several stages toward the point of greatest interest. These events are generally the most important parts of the story since the entire plot depends on them to set up the climax and ultimately the satisfactory resolution of the story itself.
Climax
The climax is the turning point, which changes the protagonist's fate. If things were going well for the protagonist, the plot will turn against them, often revealing the protagonist's hidden weaknesses. If the story is a comedy, the opposite state of affairs will ensue, with things going from bad to good for the protagonist, often requiring the protagonist to draw on hidden inner strengths.
Return or Fall
During the Return, the hostility of the counter-party beats upon the soul of the hero. Freytag lays out two rules for this stage: the number of characters be limited as much as possible, and the number of scenes through which the hero falls should be fewer than in the rise. The return or fall may contain a moment of final suspense: Although the catastrophe must be foreshadowed so as not to appear as a non sequitur, there could be for the doomed hero a prospect of relief, where the final outcome is in doubt.
Catastrophe
The catastrophe (''Katastrophe'' in the original), is when the hero meets his logical destruction. Freytag warns the writer not to spare the life of the hero. Despite dénouement being attested as first appearing in 1752, it was not used to refer to dramatic structure until the 19th century and not specifically used by Freytag for this section of the act structure.
Selden Lincoln Whitcomb
In 1905, Selden Lincoln Whitcomb published ''The Study of a Novel'', and suggested that graphical representation of a novel was possible. "The general epistolary structure may be partially represented by a graphic design." For which he posts a proposed design for Miss. Burney Evelina on page 21.
He expounds this idea on Page 39 with "The Line of Emotion" where he proposes how one feels about emotion can be drawn graphically. However, he makes a careful distinction between author, character and reader. "The fact that the author presents a character moved by fear does not necessarily mean that the author or the reader experiences that emotion. Nor does a mere discussion of emotion, whether by the author or a character such as one should notice in the study of subject-matter, belong to the line of emotion." He argued that this line of emotion should be calculated for the reader. He draws a diagram for Silas Marner Chapter XIII to illustrate his point.
He does not prescribe a certain formula for the structure, but instead introduces various kinds of vocabulary for various points along the emotional line.
His work was then used in Joseph Berg Esenwein to describe short stories for the line of emotion, though his name is misspelled in Esenwein's work. His diagram specifically for Silas Marner
''Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe'' is the third novel by George Eliot. It was published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a linen weaver, the novel is notable for its strong realism and its sophisticated treatment of a variety of issues ...
was plagiarized later by Kenneth Rowe, though he drew other diagrams for other novels and forms, such as Pride and Prejudice on page 58, the Epistolary Form p 21, Simple narratives p 56, and so on.
Joseph Berg Esenwein
Joseph Berg Esenwein
Joseph Berg Esenwein (May 16, 1867 – November 1, 1946) was an American editor, lecturer and writer. He was noted for contributions to the ''Library of the World's Best Literature''.
Biography
Esenwein was born in Philadelphia to parents Augustu ...
in 1909 published, "Writing the short-story; a practical handbook on the rise, structure, writing, and sale of the modern short-story." In it he outlines the following plot elements and ties it to a drawing, following Whitcomb's prescriptions: Incident, emotion, crisis, suspense, climax, dénouement, conclusion. He does not make an accompanying diagram with any of these elements, but does argue that the line of emotion is important to stories on page 198. He also lists types of plots on page 76 as: Surprise, Problem, Mystery, Mood or Emotion or Sentiment, Contrast and Symbolism. He does not argue one to be superior to the other. He cautions multiple times in his text that his prescriptions are only for short stories such as pages 30–32.
Chapter X, Part 5. Climax he defines here as, "the apex of interest and emotion; it is the point of the story." when quoting "Short Story Writing 1898, Charles Raymond Barrett, p 171" but further expounds here as, "rise of interest and in power to its highest point." He argues the highest point is always along emotional lines on page 187 stating, "The big thing--at once the basic and the climacteric thing--in the short story is human interest, and there can be no sustained human interest without emotion. The whole creation is a field for its display, and since fiction assumes to be a microcosm, fiction, short and long must deal intimately with emotion, from its gentler to its extreme manifestations."[
The definitions he used would later influence the vocabulary for the Hollywood Formula. Early Hollywood films were short. For example '' In Old California'' published in 1910 is 17 minutes long.
]
Clayton Hamilton
Clayton Hamilton, in ''A Manual of The Art of Fiction'' (1918), stated that a proper plot outline is, "A plot, therefore, in its general aspects, may be figured as a complication followed by an explication, a tying followed by an untying, or (to say the same thing in French words which are perhaps more connotative) a nouement followed by a dénouement."
He does not state the center of stories is conflict, but rather on page 3 that, "The purpose of fiction is to embody certain truths of human life in a series of imagined facts." and centers on the debate of the time between romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
and realism.
The complication is what Lajos Egri later called the premise and it was later pushed to be part of the inciting incident. The explication was put first and then explained to be the introduction in the contemporary vocabulary. The dénouement would be split later into falling action and conclusion.
Confessional writing
Sprung originally from Christianity, it is often an account of a person's life that was first secularized by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
and then popularized in 1919 with the magazine '' True Story''. The confessions don't really have to be valid, though an account of someone's life needs to be included. Such confessions magazines were chiefly aimed at an audience of working-class women. Their formula has been characterized as "sin-suffer-repent": The heroine violates standards of behavior, suffers as a consequence, learns her lesson, and resolves to live in light of it, not embittered by her pain.
Percy Lubbock
Percy Lubbock
Percy Lubbock, CBE (4 June 1879 – 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. His controversial book ''The Craft of Fiction'' gained influence in the 1920s.
Life
Percy Lubbock was the son of the ...
wrote ''The Craft of Fiction'', which was published in 1921.
The aim of Lubbock is to give a shape or a formula to books, because he states: "We hear the phrase on all sides, an unending argument is waged over it. One critic condemns a novel as 'shapeless,' meaning that its shape is objectionable; another retorts that if the novel has other fine qualities, its shape is unimportant; and the two will continue their controversy till an onlooker, pardonably bewildered, may begin to suppose that "form" in fiction is something to be put in or left out of a novel according to the taste of the author. But though the discussion is indeed confusingly worded at times, it is clear that there is agreement on this article at least—that a book is a thing to which a shape is ascribable, good or bad."
He also argued for "Death of the Author
"The Death of the Author" ( French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the inten ...
" somewhat in his work, "The reader of a novel—by which I mean the critical reader—is himself a novelist; he is the maker of a book which may or may not please his taste when it is finished, but of a book for which he must take his own share of the responsibility. The author does his part, but he cannot transfer his book like a bubble into the brain of the critic; he cannot make sure that the critic will possess his work. The reader must therefore become, for his part, a novelist, never permitting himself to suppose that the creation of the book is solely the affair of the author."
He is the first to make a concentrated effort at looking at conflict as the center of "drama" and therefore stories, "What is the story? There is first of all a succession of phases in the lives of certain generations; youth that passes out into maturity, fortunes that meet and clash and re-form, hopes that flourish and wane and reappear in other lives, age that sinks and hands on the torch to youth again—such is the substance of the drama. The book, I take it, begins to grow out of the thought of the processional march of the generations, always changing, always renewed; its figures are sought and chosen for the clarity with which the drama is embodied in them." He directly mentions conflict when referring to the plot of ''War and Peace'' with analyzing ''Madame Bovary'' and so on.
The book was wildly, popular, but Virginia Woolf privately wrote of the work that, "This is my prime discovery so far; & the fact that I've been so long finding it, proves, I think, how false Percy Lubbock's doctrine is--that you can do this sort of thing consciously." in November 1923. She went back and forth on the work throughout her life.
Kenneth Thorpe Rowe
In 1939, Kenneth Thorpe Rowe
Kenneth Thorpe Rowe (September 19, 1900 – October 27, 1988) was an influential professor of drama and playwriting. For decades, Rowe taught playwriting, Shakespeare and modern drama at the University of Michigan. There he had an enormous impac ...
published ''Write That Play'' in which he outlined what he thought of his ideal play structure. He did not cite any sources, though there looks to be some influence from Freytag's Pyramid.
The parts are: introduction, attack, rising action, crisis, falling action, resolution, conclusion. The attack would be relabeled the "inciting incident
In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the sequence of events in which each event affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as a series of events linked by th ...
" later and the crisis would be relabeled "climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
" and the conclusion as the "dénouement" by Syd Field
Sydney Alvin Field (December 19, 1935November 17, 2013) was an American author and speaker who wrote several books on screenwriting, the first being '' Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting'' (Dell Publishing, 1979). He led workshops and s ...
. The resolution as a turning point was also taken out. The center of the play should be, according to him, conflict as this will excite the most emotion.
He acknowledges other people have used climax, but does not cite who, but objects to the term "climax" because, "Climax is misleading because it might with equal fitness be applied to the resolution. Climax applied to the turning point suggests increasing tension up to that point, and relaxation following it. What actually happens is that the tension continues to increase in a well con-structured play from the turning point to the resolution, but is given a new direction and impetus at the turning point."
Despite this being his ideal shape for a play, he suggests that this can be modified to include more complications on the Rising action or the Falling action. He further suggests that the play structure doesn't need a conclusion. However, if there is a conclusion, he suggests making it shorter than the Introduction and it can either be flat or acute in angle.
This story structure, as suggested, had a strong influence on Arthur Miller (''All My Sons'', ''Death of a Salesman'').
Lajos Egri
In his book ''The Art of Dramatic Writing'', published 1946, Lajos Egri
Lajos N. Egri (June 4, 1888 – February 7, 1967) was a Hungarian-American playwright and teacher of creative writing. He is the author of ''The Art of Dramatic Writing'', which is widely regarded as one of the best works on the subject of playw ...
argued for more look inside of character's minds and that character generates conflict, which generates events. He cites Moses Louis Malevinsky
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
's ''The Science of Playwriting'' and ''The Theory of Theater'' by Clayton Hamilton. Unlike previous works he cites from, he emphasized the importance of premise to a play.
He is also far more interested in looking at character creating conflict and events, than events shaping characters. He states this by arguing for different kinds of conflict: Static, jump and rise. These in turn can also be an attack or counterattack. He argues that Rising conflict is the best at revealing character.
He also examines character through the lens of physiology, sociology and psychology.
His work influenced Syd Field, who went on to make the 3-act Hollywood formula.
Syd Field
Syd Field
Sydney Alvin Field (December 19, 1935November 17, 2013) was an American author and speaker who wrote several books on screenwriting, the first being '' Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting'' (Dell Publishing, 1979). He led workshops and s ...
in 1979 published Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. He outlined that the structure of the play should be:
Act I contains the setup. It is approximately the first quarter of a screenplay, and reveals the main character, premise, and situation of the story.
Act II contains the confrontation. It lasts for the next two quarters of the screenplay, and clearly defines the main goal of the protagonist.
Act III contains the resolution. This is the final quarter of the screenplay. This answers the question as to whether or not the main character succeeded in his or her goal.
He outlined in the 2005 edition of his book Foundations of a Screenplay, that he wanted to give a more set structure to the work that Lajos Egri had laid out.
He was the first to really coin the Three Act model as a formal model for screenplays.
Theatre of the Absurd
Critic Martin Esslin
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Budapest, Austria-Hungary
, death_date =
, death_place = London, England, UK
, education = University of ViennaMax Reinhardt Seminar, ...
coined the term in his 1960 essay "The Theatre of the Absurd", which begins by focusing on the playwrights Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
, Arthur Adamov
Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd.
Early life
Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire to a wealthy A ...
, and Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...
. Esslin says that their plays have a common denominator — the "absurd", a word that Esslin defines with a quotation from Ionesco: "absurd is that which has not purpose, or goal, or objective." The French philosopher Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
, in his 1942 essay " Myth of Sisyphus", describes the human situation as meaningless and absurd.
Plot-wise it often undercuts the conflict in the story and mocks the human condition. It often lacks any formal plot structure. Often nothing really gets resolved.
Television Story Arcs
Television multiple-episode story arcs were not popular in the U.S. until 1981, with the introduction of Hill Street Blues
''Hill Street Blues'' is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes. The show chronicles the lives of the staff of a single police station loca ...
. Prior to that, episodes could be shifted in order without audience confusion. Multiple-episode story arcs took off in the 1990s, with many of the popular television shows employing them. Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' is an American television series filmed in New Zealand, based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles (Hercules was his Roman analogue). Starring Kevin Sorbo as Hercules and Michael Hurst as ...
, Boy Meets World
''Boy Meets World'' is an American coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September1993 and May2000. The series centers on Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friends and famil ...
, and Batman: The Animated Series all had story arcs.
Northrop Frye's dramatic structure
The Canadian literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...
analyzes the narratives of the Bible in terms of two dramatic structures: (1) a U-shaped pattern, which is the shape of a comedy, and (2) an inverted U-shaped pattern, which is the shape of a tragedy.
A U-shaped pattern
"This U-shaped pattern . . . recurs in literature as the standard shape of comedy, where a series of misfortunes and misunderstandings brings the action to a threateningly low point, after which some fortunate twist in the plot sends the conclusion up to a happy ending." A U-shaped plot begins at the top of the U with a state of equilibrium, a state of prosperity or happiness, which is disrupted by disequilibrium or disaster. At the bottom of the U, the direction is reversed by a fortunate twist, divine deliverance, an awakening of the protagonist to his or her tragic circumstances, or some other action or event that results in an upward turn of the plot. Aristotle referred to the reversal of direction as peripeteia
Peripeteia ( el, περιπέτεια) is a reversal of circumstances, or turning point. The term is primarily used with reference to works of literature; its anglicized form is peripety.
Aristotle's view
Aristotle, in his ''Poetics'', defines ...
or peripety, which depends frequently on a recognition or discovery by the protagonist. Aristotle called this discovery an anagnorisis
Anagnorisis (; grc, ἀναγνώρισις) is a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood ...
—a change from "ignorance to knowledge" involving "matters which bear on prosperity or adversity". The protagonist recognizes something of great importance that was previously hidden or unrecognized. The reversal occurs at the bottom of the U and moves the plot upward to a new stable condition marked by prosperity, success, or happiness. At the top of the U, equilibrium is restored.
A classic example of a U-shaped plot in the Bible is the Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable with ...
in Luke 15:11–24. The parable opens at the top of the U with a stable condition but turns downward after the son asks the father for his inheritance and sets out for a "distant country" (Luke 15:13). Disaster strikes: the son squanders his inheritance and famine in the land increases his dissolution (Luke 15:13–16). This is the bottom of the U. A recognition scene (Luke 15:17) and a peripety move the plot upward to its dénouement, a new stable condition at the top of the U.
An inverted U-shaped structure
The inverted U begins with the protagonist's rise to a position of prominence and well-being. At the top of the inverted U, the character enjoys good fortune and well-being. But a crisis or a turning point occurs, which marks the reversal of the protagonist's fortunes and begins the descent to disaster. Sometimes a recognition scene occurs where the protagonist sees something of great importance that was previously unrecognized. The final state is disaster and adversity, the bottom of the inverted U.
Contemporary
Contemporary dramas increasingly use the fall to increase the relative height of the climax and dramatic impact (melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
). The protagonist reaches up but falls and succumbs to doubts, fears, and limitations. The negative climax occurs when the protagonist has an epiphany and encounters the greatest fear possible or loses something important, giving the protagonist the courage to take on another obstacle. This confrontation becomes the classic climax.[Teruaki Georges Sumioka: ''The Grammar of Entertainment Film'', 2005, ]
lectures at Johannes-Gutenberg-University in German
/ref>
In her 2019 book ''Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative'' novelist and writing teacher Jane Alison criticized the conflict-climax-resolution structure of narrative as "masculo-sexual," and instead argues that narratives should form around various types patterns, for example found in nature.
See also
* Frame story
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
* Narrative structure
Narrative structure is a literary element generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. The narrative text structures are the plot and the ...
* Narrative transportation
* Scene and sequel
Scene and sequel are two types of written passages used by authors to advance the plot of a story. ''Scenes'' propel a story forward as the character attempts to achieve a goal.Swain, p. 84-85. ''Sequels'' provide an opportunity for the character ...
Notes
References
*
External links
Another view on dramatic structure
by Yves Lavandier
Yves Lavandier (born April 2, 1959) is a French film writer and director.
Biography
Yves Lavandier was born on April 2, 1959. After receiving a degree in civil engineering, he studied film at Columbia University, New York, between 1983 and 1985 ...
, author of '' Writing Drama''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dramatic Structure
Fiction
Plot (narrative)
Narratology