On stories and storytelling

Here are a few pieces that look directly at patterns in stories or storytelling.

Consider some of your own storybook heroes/heroines - how well do their story lines fit the mold? Which perspectives of the world are offered and which are missing?  How do you feel about your favourite story fitting into what is essentially a skeleton pattern of stories? Are they each still unique? Are they original?


  • If the perspectives are correct, and all stories carry the same patterns, what does that suggest about the ways in which we use stories to understand the world around us? 
  • What do these specific patterns suggest about our needs as knowers? 
  • What is it about these patterns that make so much sense to us that we keep telling them over and over again? 


BBC Culture - The 100 stories that shaped the world

BBC Culture - Every story in the world has one of these six basic plots

TEDEd - What makes a hero? (Matthew Winkler)

Author Kurt Vonnegut on the shapes of stories: 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The danger of a single story:


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