Narrative Analysis of AI-Generated Storytelling: Exploring Narrative Structure, Characterization, Themes, and Storytelling Strategies
Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, AI Storytelling, Narrative Analysis, Generative AI, Digital LiteratureAbstract
The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed creative content production, including the generation of stories and fictional narratives. As AI increasingly participates in storytelling, examining the narrative structures and thematic patterns of AI-generated content becomes important for understanding machine-generated creativity. However, the narrative characteristics of AI storytelling remain insufficiently explored from a qualitative literary perspective. This study aims to analyze the narrative structure, characterization, themes, narrative voice, and storytelling strategies found in AI-generated storytelling content. A qualitative narrative analysis was conducted on 30 short stories generated using ChatGPT through standardized prompts. The data were analyzed using a structural narrative framework focusing on plot, characterization, setting, conflict, point of view, theme, and resolution, combined with thematic analysis. The findings indicate that AI-generated stories predominantly employ linear and conventional plot structures, recognizable character archetypes, explicit emotional descriptions, and recurring themes such as love, friendship, family, morality, resilience, loneliness, and hope. Third-person and first-person perspectives are commonly used, while descriptive language, conventional metaphors, dialogue, repetition, and formulaic transitions contribute to narrative coherence. Overall, the stories demonstrate strong structural coherence and emotional accessibility but tend to favor predictable patterns, moral resolutions, and conventional endings over narrative ambiguity and experimentation. The study concludes that AI-generated storytelling effectively reproduces established narrative conventions while revealing distinctive characteristics of machine-generated creative production.
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