Editing Story structure (section)

== History ==
This covers a loose worldwide history of story structure.

===European and European Diaspora===
The first known treatise on story structure comes from [[Aristotle]]'s [[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]. He advocated for a continuous two-act plot: δέσις (desis) and λύσις (lysis) which roughly translates to binding and unbinding,<ref>{{Cite book
|editor1=Liddell |editor2= Scott |editor3= Jones | title=Perseus Greek–English Lexicon|edition= 9th  |date=1940
|chapter-url=https://lexicon.katabiblon.com/index.php?lemma=%CE%BB%E1%BD%BB%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%82|via=Kata Biblon Wiki Lexicon | chapter= λύσις - release (n.)|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=2 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602080213/https://lexicon.katabiblon.com/index.php?lemma=%CE%BB%E1%BD%BB%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%82|url-status=live}}</ref> that was not centered on "one individual",<ref>{{Cite book| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 8 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-9.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127045045/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-9.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but where the characters learn a lesson through negative reinforcement. He believed the Chorus was the most important part of the story.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book
| title=The Poetics | title-link= Poetics (Aristotle)|author= Aristotle | translator= Ingram Bywater
|chapter= 18 (Aristotle on the Art of Poetry)|chapter-url=http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-19.html|access-date=2023-01-25|via=www.authorama.com|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724033835/http://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-19.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Later scholars such as Horace in ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'' and [[Aelius Donatus]] in ''Aeli Donati qvod fertvr Commentvm Terenti: Accendvnt Evgravphi Volume 2'' argued for a five act chorus. Neither specify that five acts should be for the story itself, but for the chorus.{{Clarify|date=December 2024|reason=Do they not specify both, or do they only specify the latter?}}

Most extant theories of story structure took off in the 19th-20th centuries, the first notable work being [[Gustav Freytag]]'s ''Die Technik des Dramas'' which was published in 1863. He outlined the basics for what would later become the foundation for the three– and five–act story structures. He outlined the sections of the story as Introduction, Rise, Climax, Return or Fall, and Catastrophe.

[[Georges Polti]] in ''[[The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations]]'' (1895) proposed multiple plot forms in lieu of Freytag's single structure, also making a point of discussing material from cultures that Freytag disparaged. 

This continued into the 19th century when [[Selden Lincoln Whitcomb]] wrote ''A Study of a Novel'' which examines the basis for [[Silas Marner|Silas Marner's]] plot structure, where he argues for the Line of Emotion on Page 39. He argues that "The general epistolary structure may be partially represented by a graphic design."<ref name="SeldenWhitcomb">{{cite book |last1=Whitcomb |first1=Selden L. |title=The Study of a Novel |date=1905 |publisher=University of Kansas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU5LAAAAIAAJ |access-date=22 December 2021}}</ref> For this, he posts a proposed design for Miss. Burney Evelina on page 21.

He presupposes that stories might have different shapes for those emotions. This leads to diagraming, later described by [[Joseph Esenwein]], who directly cited him, but argued that the diagram was supposed to be used only for short stories.<ref name="JosephEsenwein">{{cite book |last1=Esenwein |first1=Joseph Berg |title=Writing the short-story; a practical handbook on the rise, structure, writing, and sale of the modern short-story |date=1909 |publisher=Hinds, Noble & Eldredge |url=https://archive.org/details/writingshortstor00esen/}}</ref> He follows Selden Lincoln Whitcomb's recommendations and says that the parts are incident, emotion, crisis, suspense, climax, dénouement, conclusion.

This diagram was copied and explained one for one by [[Kenneth Thorpe Rowe|Kenneth Rowe]] almost verbatim, in Kenneth Rowe's ''Write That Play'', though no credit was given to Joseph Esenwein. The plot structure was then used by Death of a Salesman author Arthur Miller.

However, the coining for "Exposition" as the first part goes to earlier author, Rev. J.K. Brennan, who wrote his essay "The General Design of Plays for the book 'The Delphian Course'" (1912) for the [[Delphian Society]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://scalar.usc.edu/works/episcopal-diocese-of-northern-indiana-archives/rev-jesse-ketchum-brennan | title=Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives: Rev. Jesse Ketchum Brennan | access-date=2 February 2023 | archive-date=2 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202195129/https://scalar.usc.edu/works/episcopal-diocese-of-northern-indiana-archives/rev-jesse-ketchum-brennan | url-status=live }}</ref> Exposition, not Introduction nor "Incident" are used as the first part.

This leads to [[Percy Lubbock]] who wrote ''The Craft of Fiction'' in 1921. He argued that there were too many story structures in the time period which made it harder to study academically, and thus proposed that conflict should be at the center of all stories, using such works as ''War and Peace'' by [[Leo Tolstoy]]. He also advocated for [[Death of the Author]] in his work.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lubbock |first1=Percy |title=The Craft of Fiction |date=1921 |location=London |page=18 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18961/18961-h/18961-h.htm |access-date=30 December 2021 |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230074857/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18961/18961-h/18961-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He made a concentrated effort to look at conflict at the center of stories.

Writers such as [[E. M. Forster]] and [[Virginia Woolf]] diasgreed with him, the latter of which wrote in November 1923: "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."<ref name="WoolfDiary272">{{cite book |last1=Woolf |first1=Virginia |title=he Diary of Virginia Woolf Volume Two. |date=1980 |publisher=Harcourt Brace |page=272 |edition=First}}</ref> She went back and forth on the work throughout her life.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bronstein |first1=Michaela |title=The Craft of Fiction |url=https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/the-craft-of-fiction/ |publisher=Yale |access-date=30 December 2021 |archive-date=30 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230073201/https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/the-craft-of-fiction/ |url-status=live }}</ref> She thus wrote some bits on their own treaties.

[[Gertrude Stein]] also later contributed to the general feel of stories by promoting [[stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream-of-consciousness]] and supported much of [[Literary Modernism]] and looking at writing as a look into psychology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Batoréo |first=Hanna |date=2010 |title=Was the birth of modern art psycholinguistically minded? |url=https://repositorioaberto.uab.pt/bitstream/10400.2/9328/1/HBatoreo%20%282010%29%20Was%20the%20Birth%20of%20Modern%20Art%20Psycholinguistically%20Minded.pdf |journal=Studies in the Psychology of Language and Communication |publisher=matrix |pages=149–164 |isbn=978-83-932212-0-2}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=December 2024|reason=What is meant by "contributed to the general feel of stories"?}}

This was furthered by [[Lajos Egri]] who advocated for using psychology to build characters in The Art of Dramatic Writing, published 1946. He also examines character through the lens of physiology, sociology and psychology.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Egri |first1=Lajos |title=The Art of Dramatic Writing |date=1946 |publisher=Touchstone |pages=35–37}}</ref>

However, there was a rise in structuralism in the mid-to-late 20th century with such thinkers as
[[Roland Barthes]], [[Vladimir Propp]], [[Joseph Campbell]], and [[Northrop Frye]], who often tried to find a unifying idea for story structure and how to academically study it. For example, Joseph Campbell tried to find one unifying story structure for myth, Roland Barthes further argued for the Death of the Author theory and Propp tried to find a story structure for Russian folktales.{{Citation needed|reason=Some statements are elaborated upon later in the article, but the ones about Barthes and Propp go wholly unsourced|date=December 2024}}

In Northrop Frye's ''[[Anatomy of Criticism]]'', he deals extensively with what he calls myths of spring, summer, fall, and winter:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Waugh |first=Patricia |title=Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-925836-9 |location=Oxford |pages=125 |language=en}}</ref>

* Spring myths are [[comedy|comedies]], that is, stories that lead from bad situations to happy endings. [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' is such a story.
* Summer myths are similarly [[utopia]]n [[fantasy|fantasies]] such as [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Paradiso (Dante)|Paradiso]]''.
* Fall myths are [[tragedies]] that lead from ideal situations to disaster. Compare ''[[Hamlet]], [[Othello]]'', and ''[[King Lear]]'' and the movie ''[[Legends of the Fall]]''.
* Winter myths are [[dystopia]]s; for example, [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'', [[Aldous Huxley]]'s ''[[Brave New World]]'', and [[Ayn Rand]]'s novella ''[[Anthem (novella)|Anthem]]''.

In Frye's ''Great Code'', he offers two narrative structures for plots:<ref>Northrop Frye, The Great Code (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982, 1981).</ref>
* A U-shaped structure, that is, a story that begins with a state of equilibrium that descends to disaster and then upward to a new stable condition. This is the shape of a comedy.
* An inverted U-shape structure, that is, a story in which the protagonist rises to prominence and descends to disaster. This is the shape of tragedy.

Lajos Egri is then credited in Syd Field's last edition of ''The Foundations of a Screenwriting'' published in 1979. The book argued for three acts, not five, and had no peak in the final diagram.

This idea of a universal story structure fell out of favor with [[poststructuralism]]. Theorists such as [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Derrida]] asserted that such universally shared, deep structures were logically impossible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grey |first=Christopher Berry |title=The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8153-1344-1 |location=New York |pages=669 |language=en}}</ref>

At the same time that Literary [[Structuralists]] rose with story structure, there were also [[Postmodernism]] and [[Post-postmodernism]], which often argued about the nature of stories and what, if existing, story structures could be.{{Clarify|date=December 2024|reason=What is meant by "Literary Structuralists rose with story structure"?}} Some authors, such as [[John Gardner (American writer)|John Gardner]], advocated for the use of both, such as in ''The Art of Fiction'' (1983).

Ideas of this got shared over the next few decades, which lead to writers such as [[Blake Snyder]], who in [[Save the Cat]] contributed language such as "Story Beats".

However, other story structures became more widely known in the 2010s-2020s, when European and European diaspora writers became aware of story structures such as kishotenketsu, which was said to be used in films such as [[Everything Everywhere All at Once]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}