A narrative arc is about the plot skeleton of a work, more applied to the drama genre than to the comic. An example would be "a man with problems makes a promise-problems arise-keeps his promise but dies", a thread that goes beyond the well-known approach-knot-denouement.
An aspect that, although it may not attract attention at first, has been recently studied by the Computational Story Lab, of the University of Vermont, from 1.700 books of the Gutenberg Project in order to further segment the patterns and engines search for readers on the Internet.
The result has been the confirmation of these 6 narrative arcs of western literature.
The allure of the predictable
According to the French writer George Polti, in the West there are more than 36 types of dramatic stories, although others have claimed amounts ranging from 7 narrative arcs to 20 in total.
However, a recent study carried out by the University of Vermont, and in which 1.700 books have been studied - more classic than contemporary, by the way - has confirmed that, indeed, Western literature is divided into six narrative arcs recurring. These following skeletons or plots would be the following:
- From rags to riches (the story moves towards a happy ending). Example: Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
- Man in a hole (good luck runs out, but the protagonist is reborn from his ashes). Example: The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.
- Cinderella (starts with a happy situation, followed by a setback, but with a happy ending). Example: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.
- Tragedy or From riches to rags (things only get worse). Example: Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.
- Oedipus (bad luck, followed by a promise, ending with a final fall). For example: The Rome Express, by Arthur Griffiths.
- Icarus (It starts with a happy or promising situation, but eventually everything gets worse). For example: The Bible.
To better check the graphics here You can see the different narrative examples turned into diagram meat.
Among some of the books that have produced much less predictable schemes during the study we would have the saga A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, since it encompasses segmented stories derived from the same plot. Another example would be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is one of those works whose plot offers higher ups and downs compared to other titles in the saga.
According to the research, the objective would be to include future statistics with books from other cultures such as Hindu, Chinese or African.
Do you dare to copy and paste and enunciate a work for each of these 6 narrative arcs?
Are you more Cinderella or Icarus?