This bugged me for the past few days because the “Good Guy vs. Bad Guy” or even just “Good vs. Evil” plotline is arguably the most common in all literature and drama…

Is this concept not the heart of tragedy? This word though is too broad and “tragedy” is too often used to describe only the stories that end in misfortune or at least a gross miscarriage of justice, so it feels insufficient. Plus speaking in Aristotelian terms, in a tragedy the protagonist must have a “tragic flaw” which certainly makes all heroes more interesting, but is not absolutely imperative in every good guy narrative

As a one time theater major, the best word that I can come up with is melodrama. I say this because that particular genre relies less on detailed characterization than on familiar/allegorical themes and archetypal characters to entertain and propel the story forward.

This still feels wanting, because melodrama is another loaded word that brings with it images of histrionics, Jacobean sex romps, and bad soap operas… It’s difficult to call a folk tale or proverb a melodrama though it does fit into the template.

Outside Existentialist literature and the avant-garde “automatic writing” sort of prose, do we have stories that don’t deal with the struggle of good versus evil? Is this not the root of conflict? Now that this thought has entered my brain I’m having trouble coming up with examples of stories that don’t deal with good guys and bad guys on some level. Maybe Camus or Sartre…

Anybody else like melodrama?