The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell StoriesThis 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. |
From inside the book
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Page 4
Why We Tell Stories Christopher Booker. While writing a book on a quite different ... story is one of anticipation , as the hero seems to be standing on the edge ... type of story , with an ' unhappy ending ? What about all those stories ...
Why We Tell Stories Christopher Booker. While writing a book on a quite different ... story is one of anticipation , as the hero seems to be standing on the edge ... type of story , with an ' unhappy ending ? What about all those stories ...
Page 5
Why We Tell Stories Christopher Booker. As soon as I began to look at stories in ... story revealing remarkable hidden parallels with the structure of an epic ... type of plot and another . Indeed , there are many stories which are shaped ...
Why We Tell Stories Christopher Booker. As soon as I began to look at stories in ... story revealing remarkable hidden parallels with the structure of an epic ... type of plot and another . Indeed , there are many stories which are shaped ...
Page 6
... stories that it is virtually impossible for any story- teller ever entirely to break away from them. The second was that, the more familiar we become with the nature of these shaping forms and forces lying beneath the surface of stories ...
... stories that it is virtually impossible for any story- teller ever entirely to break away from them. The second was that, the more familiar we become with the nature of these shaping forms and forces lying beneath the surface of stories ...
Page 10
... story-forms. Since Victorian times, the accumulation of parallels and links between the folk tales of hundreds of ... Type 500 – The Name of the Helper'; or 'A New Classification of the Fundamental Version of the Tar Baby Story on the ...
... story-forms. Since Victorian times, the accumulation of parallels and links between the folk tales of hundreds of ... Type 500 – The Name of the Helper'; or 'A New Classification of the Fundamental Version of the Tar Baby Story on the ...
Page
... story-forms. Since Victorian times, the accumulation of parallels and links between the folk tales of hundreds of different cultures has turned into a major academic industry. Well over 1000 versions have been collected of the ...
... story-forms. Since Victorian times, the accumulation of parallels and links between the folk tales of hundreds of different cultures has turned into a major academic industry. Well over 1000 versions have been collected of the ...
Contents
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 |
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Common terms and phrases
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