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2.1 Functional Figures

The Structuralist Approach

As early as 1923, when he systematically examines the Russian fairy tales and identifies the seven functions mentioned, Vladimir Propp comes to the conclusion that the figure has a clearly defined function in the plot. The semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas further developed Propp’s model and reduced it to six functions, which he called “actants” (201):

 subject

 object

 sender

 receiver

 helper

 opponent

These terms result from the relationship to the object of desire. Thus an actant does not necessarily have to be a figure, it can also be an object. But the object of desire can also be a figurative one, for example when Harry Potter is looking for the prisoner of Azkaban or when the plumber Mario wants to free his girlfriend from Donkey Kong’s grasp. Several actants can also be merged into one figure, which Greimas then calls the “arche-actants” (211). Likewise, an actant can be realized in several individuals.

A visual representation of the actantial model, developed in 1966 by semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas. Illustration by Jana Neef.

Due to its high degree of abstraction, the actantial model can be applied to the analysis of a large number of different narratives. In addition to Russian folktales, Greimas also examines the work of the novelist Georges Bernanos and transcripts of a child’s therapy session where the child is telling dreams and self-invented stories. The functions of the characters can also be portrayed in film narratives. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones (subject) is supposed to retrieve the holy Sankara stone (object) for the suffering villagers (sender and receiver = arche-actants), which was stolen and to free the children of the village (object) who were kidnapped. With the help of Willie and Shorty (both helpers), Indiana Jones can defeat the vizier (opponent), save the children, and return the Sankara stone to the villagers.

Greimas’ approach is also important in coaching, as well as in economics and social sciences, for the analysis of narratives. Using the Greimas model, ANNE-MARIE SODERBERG examines a business takeover in Denmark and analyses the stories in which the workforce communicates their experiences with the merger in the form of narrative interviews (3–36). She can show that the six actants can be identified in each of these experiences.

The Cultural Anthropological Approach

Using a different methodological approach, script-writing instructor CHRISTOPHER VOGLER also comes up with a model that describes an ensemble of figures through its functions. Vogler builds primarily on the work of JOSEPH CAMPBELL, whose concept of the hero’s journey (see Chapter 9 Narrative Structure) has a considerable influence on the practice of storytelling. (In this text we will use the term “hero” regardless of the gender or whether the protagonist is human at all, similar to how the the single, gender-neutral word “actor” now can describe all those who act.) The anthropologist Campbell investigated a multitude of fairy tales, myths, religious narratives, and legends from all over the world. He identified recurring structural parameters whose sequence of action he describes as the transculturally and transhistorically effective monomyth: the shared single myth that exists throughout the world and throughout time. Also universally understood are the figures the hero of the monomyth encounters on his journey, who appear transculturally in a multitude of narratives. Campbell names them “archetypes of the collective unconscious” in relation to C.G. JUNG’S psychotherapeutic works. Vogler uses these theories for dramaturgy and also transfers them to film narratives, naming the following archetypal figures in a narrative:

 hero

 mentor

 threshold guardian

 shape-shifter

 shadow

 trickster

The hero is in most cases the main character of the story, like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. The mentor is his advisor or teacher, embodied in this case by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The shadow is the opponent of the hero, here Darth Vader. The threshold guardian watches over a threshold or boundary that the hero must cross throughout the narrative – the Empire’s stormtroopers want to prevent Luke from leaving Tatooine. The herald is to be understood analogously to Greimas’ sender, he confronts the hero with his task, just as R2D2 delivers the cry for help from Princess Leia to Luke. The shape-shifter is characterized by the fact that he can change his function again and again from the perspective of the hero and thus provides a moment of uncertainty or surprising turn, just as Han Solo first appears as a cynical mercenary, only to reappear at the decisive moment as an important friend who saves Luke’s life in the showdown. The trickster is an anarchic, often humorous character who is able to question the assumptions and certainties of both the hero and the audience time and again, as does C-3PO, whose inappropriate, ceremonial behaviour creates comic situations even in moments of extreme danger.

The peasant Joan of Arc (Jeanne D’Arc) led the French army to important victories in the Hundred Years’ War. The only direct portrait of Joan of Arc has not survived; this artist’s interpretation was painted between AD 1450 and 1500. Image in public domain.

It is not only in the labels that it becomes clear that Vogler defines his figures more narrowly than Greimas. At the same time, however, the ensemble’s function is broader than that of Propp or Greimas. For example, the shape-shifter has the ability to change roles several times. Sméagol from The Lord of the Rings, who in Vogler’s terminology would be a shape-shifter, transforms in Greimas’ terminology from a helper to an opponent, and finally again turns into the involuntary helper of the hero, Frodo.

Scientifically and theoretically, Vogler’s dramaturgical application of the archetype concept must be viewed critically. For Jung, who made his model applicable in psychotherapy, archetypes are not necessarily characters, but symbols and mythological allegories, which are important in the personality development of his patients. Nevertheless, Vogler’s model is useful in practice due to its unproblematic applicability to all kinds of narratives and the fact that it can be used in many areas such as marketing, film dramaturgy, or game design. In addition, it shows that the functions of certain figures can be repeatedly identified, transculturally and transhistorically. This applies not only to the archetypes described by Vogler. For example, the figure of the female warrior is present in a multitude of cultures, be it the Amazonian queen Penthesilea in ancient Greece, Mulan in Wei Dynasty China, Jeanne D’Arc in the Middle Ages in France, Snoop in the TV series The Wire, Katniss in The Hunger Games, or Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Likewise, the figure of the just outlaw can be identified in almost every culture, as Robin Hood in the European narrative tradition, as the robbers in the 14th-century Chinese novel Outlaws of the Marsh, or in modernity as the myth of Che Guevara. One could argue that Jeanne D’Arc and Che Guevara are not narrative figures but are anchored in reality. However, this shows only the power of these narrative archetypes and that the factual can be narrated just as much as the fictional, as is seen in the numerous rewrites of Jeanne D’Arc’s myth in successful novels, plays, operas, and films.

Using such transculturally-effective character functions or – in Vogler’s terminology – archetypes, while at the same time creating them in a new and unusual way, is a challenge and an opportunity for every storyteller.