A world of literature

I’ve been continuing to watch recaps of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese stories with similar progression or cultivation themes where the main character is gaining experience and leveling up. It makes me realize how unaware I am of the water where I’m swimming. It’s the same story of a person getting reincarnated after death, but the plots are all so different.

I’ve been reading a lot about narratology, but I must acknowledge what I’m reading is a biased study of Western narrative. The Russian scholar Vladimir Propp wrote a book on the “Historical Roots of the Wondertale” which the publisher changed to the more generic term “fairytale” and this specific analysis of a type of fairytale became the basis for a general study of narrative. The studies are limited and overlook a world of literature.