The hero's journey in narrative media: the female model

This thesis has two parts: a treatise proposing a narrative model for the Female Hero's Journey; and an original film script written in accordance with this new narrative structure. The exegesis elucidates how this new narrative model, devised through my research, was overlaid upon my original feature-length screenplay, 'Little Bit Long Way', to tell the story of an authentic Female Hero's Journey. This methodological approach to research-enabled screenwriting practice produces two outcomes. First, it builds a new narrative structure that can be applied to feature-length narrative screenplays. Second, it creates a feature-length screenplay that demonstrates the new narrative model while showcasing a Female Hero as protagonist. There is ample evidence that numerous blockbuster films have made use of Joseph Campbell's mythological Hero's Journey narrative model. My research is significant in that it illuminates previously-obscured mythological elements of the new Female Hero's Journey. It also demonstrates, through its original creative component, a fresh narrative structure that, following Campbell's model, has the potential to support the box office success of female-protagonist-led films. My doctoral research fills a gap in the existing literature relating to the Female Hero's Journey narrative model. It contributes to the field of creative practice screenwriting research, within the research field of narrative structure in fictional media narrative. It does so by creating a socially constructive, culturally resonant narrative model for the contemporary, mythologically-based Female Hero's Journey in screen narrative. As has been demonstrated through my original creative artefact/screenplay, this innovative narrative model for the Female Hero's Journey can be directly applied to narrative screen texts, not just in feature film, but in a variety of genres and screen formats, including long-form series storytelling, transmedia and television narrative, and game design -- summary.