4 Archetypes of storytelling: the theory
We tried to cover theories of storytelling and familiar techniques here before, like this post on classic theories. In this post, we will lead you to two founders of storytelling theory - it's always good to know your classics. Moreover, we will show you the basics of storytelling according to these wise men.
It was a German philosopher who coined the word 'storytelling' in its modern conception. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) wrote several influential works on the importance of literature, art and history. He was considered to be a marxist,
and died on the run for the nazis.
In 1936 he wrote his essay Der Erzähler (the Storyteller) in which he argued on the importance of storytelling as educational tool for humans to transfer experiences and valuable wisdom from one to another.
He also argued that the art of storytelling was dying out. With it also dies the human capability that is the essence of storytelling: trading experiences (Erfahrungen).
Experience, passing from mouth to mouth, is the source from which all storytellers have created. But storytelling is being replaced, Benjamin states, by new forms of communication like mass media. This new form is information. This is antithetical to the story. Benjamin made a clear statement that storytelling is a superior means of transferring wisdom and cultural heritage among generations.
American historian and professor Hayden White has a less pessimistic view on the future of storytelling.
White, born in 1928 (he is still alive and teaching as emeritus professor!) is best known for his work Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe.
It is a groundbreaking work on the methodology of history as a science (historiography), in which he argues that historical writing mirrors literary writing in many ways, sharing the strong reliance on narrative for meaning, therefore ruling out the possibility for objective or truly scientific history. But he also argues that history is most successful when it embraces this "narrativity", since it is what allows history to be meaningful.
For us, White is important because he determines in his work the true archetypes of stories as used in every storytelling. Even if we are not aware of it, we give to the events in a story a specific sense of "emplotment" (his term), by which he means the encoding of facts into specific plot-structures. These are the four modes of emplotment:
Romance (or adventure) in which the underlying ideology is anarchistic (the hero fights against the establishment and evil powers)
Comedy with the underlying ideology is conservative;
Tragedy with a radical ideology; and
Satire with liberal ideology.
It is easy to arrange stories, from Star Trek to Romeo and Juliet and every modern tale under these archetypes. There is so much more to say about these theories so for better understanding of what really makes storytelling dive into these wise men. And it's good to realize that, due to the digital revolution, storytelling is more alive and kicking than ever.