The Fichtean Curve, also known as the narrative arc or the dramatic arc, is a storytelling model that describes the structure of a story or narrative. While the term “Fichtean curve” is named after Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a German philosopher who was influential in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it is not clear if Fichte himself originated the idea of the narrative arc (Writing Manuals for the Masses: The Rise of the Literary Advice Industry from Quill to Keyboard, ).
The Fichtean curve is often attributed to the German poet and playwright Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, who was a contemporary of Fichte and a close friend. Schiller was interested in the structure of drama and wrote extensively on the subject, and it is likely that he was the one who popularized the narrative arc as a storytelling model.
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