Archetypometrics, a Pragmateia: Empirical Determination of the Fundamental Archetypes of Fictional Characters
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Note: The paper must be downloaded and viewed within a good quality PDF viewer on a laptop or desktop. Logline: 1. Character-centric storytelling is an essential part of how cultures store and share knowledge. 2. By analyzing stories across film, television, and literature, we uncover 6 primary and 6 secondary base archetypes for fictional characters, which we extend to a framework of single, dual, and triple archetypes. 3. These archetypes encompass real personality traits, and the six major archetypes align with the three dimensions of essential meaning—power, danger, and structure. 4. Our archetype framework has broad implications for the analysis and creation of stories.
Authors: Dodds, Peter Sheridan, Zimmerman, Julia Witte, Beauregard, Calla G., Fehr, Ashley M. A., Fudolig, Mikaela Irene, Tangherlini, Timothy R., Danforth, Christopher M.
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7081669689
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