This weekend, between attending my cousin's wedding, driving to and from Kerrville, and eating too much, I took some time to read one of my favorite film blogs Film School Rejects. One "project" on the site is a film retrospective based upon a nineteenth century work by Georges Polti called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. In this work, Polti asserts that dramatic works can be assigned to one of thirty six plot categories. Each posting of this project takes one of Polti's categories and examines a film that they believe epitomizes that category.
I thought that was a brilliant idea, so I am incorporating it into this week's blog posting assignment.
The assignment is to take ONE category, choose ONE dramatic work (literature, cinema, or theater) and tell me how that work fits that category.
I've taken the list from the Wikipedia site so there are links to some of the concepts.
So, for your education, here they are...
The 36 Dramatic Situations
(Polti, Georges (1921) [1916]. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Franklin, Ohio: James Knapp Reeve.)
1. Supplication
A Persecutor; a Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful.
2. Deliverance
An Unfortunate; a threatener; a Rescuer
A Criminal; an Avenger
4. Vengeance taken for kin upon kin
Guilty Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a relative of both
5. Pursuit
6. Disaster
A Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger
7. Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune
An Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune
8. Revolt
A Tyrant; a Conspirator
9. Daring enterprise
10. Abduction
An Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian
11. The enigma
A Problem; an Interrogator; a Seeker
12. Obtaining
(A Solicitor & an Adversary who is refusing) or (an Arbitrator & Opposing Parties)
13. Enmity of kin
A Malevolent Kinsman; a Hated or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman
14. Rivalry of kin
The Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry
15. Murderous adultery
Two Adulterers; a Betrayed Spouse
16. Madness
A Madman; a Victim
17. Fatal imprudence
The Imprudent; a Victim or an Object Lost
18. Involuntary crimes of love
A Lover; a Beloved; a Revealer
19. Slaying of kin unrecognized
The Slayer; an Unrecognized Victim
20. Self-sacrifice for an ideal
21. Self-sacrifice for kin
A Hero; a Kinsman; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed
22. All sacrificed for passion
A Lover; an Object of fatal Passion; the Person/Thing sacrificed
23. Necessity of sacrificing loved ones
A Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice
24. Rivalry of superior vs. inferior
A Superior Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry
25. Adultery
Two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse
26. Crimes of love
A Lover; the Beloved
27. Discovery of the dishonor of a loved one
A Discoverer; the Guilty One
28. Obstacles to love
Two Lovers; an Obstacle
29. An enemy loved
A Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the Hater
30. Ambition
An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary
A Mortal; an Immortal
32. Mistaken jealousy
A Jealous One; an Object of whose Possession He is Jealous; a Supposed Accomplice; a Cause or an Author of the Mistake
33. Erroneous judgment
A Mistaken One; a Victim of the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the Mistake; the Guilty One
34. Remorse
A Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an Interrogator
35. Recovery of a lost one
A Seeker; the One Found
36. Loss of loved ones
A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner
