Fictional Worlds I: The Symbolic Journey & The Genre System (Storytelling on Screen Book 1) by L.A. Alexander

Author:L.A. Alexander [Alexander, L.A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2014-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Masterplot, or a Ten-Phase Formula for the Hero’s Journey

Having examined a spectrum of approaches toward the subject, this author proposes the Masterplot (poetic algorithm, or narrative paradigm) of the Hero’s Journey, a ten-phase formula:

1.Beginning and Breach

2.Departure

3.Outerspace or the Forest

4.Secret Society

5.Taboo and Violation

6.Punishment/Abyss: Death and the Dragon

7.Otherstate/Dream

8.Donation or Sacred Instruction

9.Reward and Return

10.Incorporation and Bliss.

The sections below explore the consequential logic of each of the phases as the building blocks of the transformative journey. Campbell, in his Introduction, summed up the journey as: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

The theorists mentioned above proposed as many as eighteen phases (Propp), or as few as three (Van Gennep). The latter, followed by Turner, broke the ritual process down to an essential triad: separation, transformation and aggregation; also adopted by Campbell as a tripartite division “departure, initiation, return” of his “monomyth.” Propp exhaustively detailed the small micro-units of the Journey structure. I synthesized the ideas of these varied thinkers in the doctoral dissertation (1998), proposing the sequence of ten phases, which while overlapping with the schemas of Van Gennep-Turner, Propp, and Campbell, integrates alternative formulas and additional information. The following discussion exemplifies why these phases, universally found in myths and folktales around the world, best define the journey process. The discussions of phases differ in length: more space is given to those poorly studied. We will proceed now to investigate the logical sequence of actions and events in the Masterplot. Let the journey begin.

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