- Title
- Once upon a lager : transforming a batch process into the 'hero's journey' story structure
- Creator
- Jansen van Vuuren, Anna-Marie, Stamp, Jane D.
- Subject
- Hero's journey, Storytelling, Narrative structure, Beer brewing, Batch process, Chemical engineering
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10210/18348
- Identifier
- uj:15987
- Identifier
- Citation: Jansen van Vuuren, A. & Stamp, J.D. 2015. 'Once upon a lager' : transforming a batch process into the 'hero's journey' story structure. Wirth, R., Serrati, D. & Macedulska, K. (Eds) Storying humanity : narratives of culture and society. Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2015. p. 187-197. ISBN: 9781848884403
- Description
- Abstract: The focus of this paper is to compare the traditional storytelling narrative model of the Hero's Journey, a popular structure in screenwriting, to a chemical engineering methodology. In chemical engineering, cheap raw materials are transformed into a complete product which is more useful and valuable to society. In the same way, in the Hero's Journey story structure, through overcoming various tasks the hero is refined and transformed. Thus the narrative structure with its roots in ancient mythology can be modelled on a multiproduct time dependent batch process that is used in a traditional beer brewing method. When one applies this to the narrative of brewing - the malt will serve as the protagonist, and similar to the protagonist in the Hero's Journey who faces many obstacles on his way of achieving the resurrection, the malt in the batch process has to go through various steps to become the elixir. Both the malt and the main character of a story need to go on a journey of transformation to become the finished product. The beer making procedure follows a recipe and even though the processing stages are essentially the same, similar to the process of change of the protagonist within the Hero's Journey each hero will undergo processing in a slightly different way and come out as a distinct product at the end. When one considers brewing from the point of view of a storyteller, the complexity of the process is made available to a broader audience. In comparing these seemingly unrelated processes the art of brewing is revealed. Often viewed as a scientific process without the nuance of creativity, the comparison with storytelling establishes clearly that it is an art form on it's own.
- Language
- English
- Rights
- ©2015, the authors
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