author
Georges Polti
1867–1946
Best known for trying to map all storytelling into just thirty-six core situations, this French writer still pops up whenever people talk about plot. His work sits at the crossroads of drama, criticism, and the enduring human love of patterns in stories.
1 Audiobook
Les trente-six situations dramatiques
by Georges Polti
About the author
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 15, 1867, Georges Polti became a French writer and literary thinker whose name is most closely tied to dramatic theory. He died in Paris in June 1946.
Polti is remembered above all for Les trente-six situations dramatiques (1895), a book that argued that the full range of dramatic conflict could be grouped into thirty-six basic situations. The idea gave writers and critics a compact way to think about plot, and it has kept his work in circulation long after many similar theories faded.
He also wrote about character creation, showing a lasting interest in how stories are built from both action and personality. Even today, his books are often mentioned by playwrights, novelists, and screenwriters looking for a simple framework to spark ideas or study classic narrative patterns.