Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms used throughout the reference. Follow a link for examples, context and limits.
A
Anagnorisis
Recognition: a movement from ignorance toward knowledge that changes the meaning of action or relationships. It can coincide with reversal. Read more.
Anima/animus
In Jung’s historical theory, the anima personifies the feminine within a man’s unconscious; the animus personifies the masculine within a woman’s. These binary categories are part of his model, not established facts about every person. Historical account. Read more.
Apotheosis
An elevation associated with divinity or transformed awareness. Campbell uses the term within Initiation; it is not merely another name for a difficult victory. Read more.
Archetype
In Jung, a proposed underlying psychic pattern; in Vogler, a flexible dramatic function. Identify which meaning is intended before treating a character as an example. Read more.
Atonement
Reconciliation or a changed relation to authority in Campbell’s father-centered motif. A particular application should explain the conflict rather than treating every family disagreement as the same symbolic event. Read more.
B
Beat
A meaningful unit or turn in dramatic development. The scale varies by craft tradition: a change within a scene and a broad structural beat are not necessarily the same unit. Read more.
Boon
A valuable gain associated with the adventure in Campbell’s vocabulary. Its significance can concern renewal or sharing rather than possession alone. Read more.
C
Catharsis
A contested term in Aristotle’s account of tragedy’s effect through pity and fear. Interpretations vary; “emotional release” is a common shorthand, not an uncontested full definition. Read more.
Character arc
The pattern of change, tested stability or deterioration in a character across a work. An arc should be supported by actions and consequences rather than a closing claim of growth. Read more.
Chekhov’s gun
A familiar shorthand for the expectation created by a conspicuously introduced detail. It prompts attention to relevance and payoff, not a rule that every background object must later be used. Read more.
Collective unconscious
Jung’s proposed level of inherited psychic structures beyond personal experience. The universality and explanatory status of the theory remain contested. Read more.
D
Dark night of the soul
A period of emotional reckoning associated with crisis in some craft vocabulary, including Snyder’s beat sheet. It is not a required clinical state or an obligatory scene in every story. Read more.
Dramatic question
A consequential uncertainty that encourages the audience to continue: whether a goal will be achieved, a relationship repaired or a truth discovered. A work can sustain several questions at different scales. Read more.
Dramatis personae
The persons of a drama; in discussion of Propp, figures grouped by spheres of action. A functional grouping does not require one distinct person for every category. Read more.
E
Elixir
The benefit or changed capacity brought back from a journey. It can be knowledge, reconciliation or an object; the ending should show what it makes possible. Read more.
F
Foreshadowing
An earlier detail that prepares a later development through suggestion, pattern or expectation. It can make a revelation feel earned without revealing exactly what will happen. Read more.
H
Herald
A person, message or event that brings change into view. The bearer of a call and the structural call itself are related but distinct descriptions. Read more.
I
Inciting incident
A disruption that sets a central action moving or changes the protagonist’s options. Craft traditions differ about exactly which event receives the name. Read more.
Individuation
In Jungian thought, a process of developing a more integrated relation between conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche. It is not a promise of perfection or a twelve-step plot. Read more.
K
Kishōtenketsu
A four-part arrangement often described as introduction, development, turn and conclusion. The turn can reframe earlier material; the form is not a rule that all East Asian stories avoid conflict. Read more.
L
Ludonarrative
Concerning the relation between play and narrative in a game. It invites attention to mechanics, player choices and authored events together. Read more.
Ludonarrative dissonance
A conflict between a game’s narrative implications and the actions or incentives of play, associated with Clint Hocking’s 2007 BioShock essay. It is more specific than any gap between realism and mechanics. Read more.
M
MacGuffin
An object or objective that motivates pursuit while its precise nature may matter less to the audience than the relationships and danger it produces. Not every important prop functions this way. Read more.
Midpoint
A central turn that changes pressure, understanding or the meaning of a goal in some craft models. It describes more than an event occurring halfway through the running time. Read more.
Mimesis
Representation or imitation in ancient aesthetic discussion. In the Poetics, the concept concerns the representation of action, not merely copying the visible surface of everyday life. Read more.
Monomyth
A broad recurring pattern of departure, initiation and return proposed by Campbell in his comparative mythology. Its interpretive usefulness is distinct from the contested claim that it is universal. Read more.
Mythos
In Aristotle’s dramatic vocabulary, plot as the arrangement of incidents. It should not be confused with the everyday modern use of “myth” as a false belief. Read more.
O
Ordeal
In Vogler’s model, a central crisis that changes the protagonist’s relation to the problem. It may precede the final test and need not involve literal death. Read more.
P
Peripeteia
A reversal in the direction of action. Its force can come from an event producing the opposite of its intended result. Read more.
Persona
The social face or role through which a person meets the world in Jungian vocabulary. It can enable social life without exhausting the person’s identity. Read more.
Personal unconscious
In Jung’s account, material connected with an individual’s history that is not currently conscious. It is distinguished from his proposed collective unconscious. Read more.
Planting and payoff
A relationship in which earlier information, action or an object becomes consequential later. The payoff can fulfill or revise the expectation established by the plant. Read more.
Plot point
A turn that redirects the action or changes the central problem in craft accounts such as Field’s. Its function matters more than landing on a prescribed page. Read more.
S
Self
In Jungian theory, a conception of psychic wholeness broader than the conscious ego. It differs from everyday uses of “self” to mean an individual or personal identity. Read more.
Shadow
In Jung, unrecognized or rejected aspects of personality; in dramatic use, opposition or a threatening possibility. It is not simply a synonym for an evil character. Read more.
Shapeshifter
A function that makes identity or allegiance uncertain. The person may change, or the protagonist may discover that their earlier reading was mistaken. Read more.
Stakes
What can be gained, lost or changed by an outcome. Stakes become meaningful through a particular person’s circumstances, not simply through the size of a threat. Read more.
Stereotype
A simplified expectation about a category of person. It can make recognition quick while flattening individuality and reproducing social prejudice. Read more.
T
Three-act structure
A broad arrangement of setup, confrontation and resolution. Its practical forms vary, and the acts are not necessarily equal in length. Read more.
Threshold
A boundary after which the conditions of action change. It can be spatial, social or ethical, and need not involve a literal doorway. Read more.
Trickster
A dramatic function that unsettles rules or hierarchies through mischief, deception or comic disruption. The effect can be liberating, harmful or both. Read more.
W
Want vs need
A distinction between a character’s explicit goal and a deeper change or recognition the story suggests matters. The inferred need remains an interpretation, not a fact known better than the character by every analyst. Read more.
Sources & further reading
Source notes identify the model or work discussed. Story mappings and diagnostic questions are this site’s interpretations.
- Christopher Vogler — The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 25th Anniversary Edition, Michael Wiese Productions, 2020. Author’s account of the memo, book and flexible use of the model; stage and archetype discussions refer to the book.
- Joseph Campbell — The Hero with a Thousand Faces. First published 1949; New World Library, third edition, 2008. Foundation commentary distinguishes the three essential movements from optional variations.
- C. G. Jung — The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Collected Works 9, part 1; second edition, translated by R. F. C. Hull, 1969. A historical psychological theory, distinguished here from dramatic roles.
- Aristotle — Poetics. Fourth century BCE; S. H. Butcher translation. Sections 6–8 and 10–14 on plot, unity, reversal and recognition.
- Vladimir Propp — Morphology of the Folktale. Russian 1928; English 1958; second English edition 1968, translated by Laurence Scott. Chapters III and VI distinguish functions and spheres of action.
- Clint Hocking — Ludonarrative Dissonance in BioShock. Click Nothing, 7 October 2007. A designer’s analysis of the conflict between a game’s narrative and incentives.