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A story structure, narrative structure, or dramatic structure (also known as a dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of narrative structures worldwide, which have been hypothesized by critics, writers, and scholars over time.
Story structure or narrative structure is the recognizable or comprehensible way in which a narrative's different elements are unified, including in a particularly chosen order and sometimes specifically referring to the ordering of the plot: the narrative series of events, though this can vary based on culture.
For example, novelist and literary critic Adam Mars-Jones wrote, "[Booker] sets up criteria for art, and ends up condemning Rigoletto, The Cherry Orchard, Wagner, Proust, Joyce, Kafka and Lawrence—the list goes on—while praising Crocodile Dundee, E.T. and Terminator 2". [7]
The three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts , often called the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. It has been described in different ways by Aelius Donatus in the fourth century A.D. and by Syd Field in his 1979 book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting .
Philosophers/critics who have discussed story structure include Aristotle, Horace, Aelius Donatus, Gustav Freytag, Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, Lajos Egri, Syd Field, and others. Some story structures are so old that the originator cannot be found, such as Ta'zieh. Often in order to sell a script, the plot structure is made into what is called a treatment.
Novella – a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Parable – a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. Play – a story that is told mostly through dialogue and is meant to be performed on stage.
The frame story leads readers from a first story into one or more other stories within it. The frame story may also be used to inform readers about aspects of the secondary narrative(s) that may otherwise be hard to understand. This should not be confused with narrative structure. [1] [2] [3] Notable examples are the 1001 Nights and The Decameron.
Cognitive narratologists focus on how people experience something as narrative rather than on the structure of the text itself. The six-word story "For sale: baby shoes, never worn", is often given as an example that would not qualify as a narrative in the strictly structural approach, but that evokes a sense of narrative.