The Problem of Plot
摘要
Plot, or action, stands as the cornerstone of narrativity, serving as the defining feature that distinguishes a narrative from other forms of discourse. In any theological or philosophical exploration of narrative, plot remains the central concern. Renowned philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle placed equal emphasis on the study of mythos (the narrative plot) alongside logos. Influential works in twentieth-century narratology, including Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, Tomashevsky’s “Thematics”, Greimas’s On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic Theory, Barthes’s S/Z, Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative, and Peter Brooks’s Reading for the Plot all predominantly focus on plot.