Non Three-Act Story Structure

What POD's are needed for story structure to evolve towards a non-three-act structure? This sort of literature question is way out of my area so it will be interesting to learn something completely knew, possibly.
 
Uh, what do you even mean? A lot of Shakespeare Plays are 4/5 Acts, so it's not like it was ever homogonized. I don't think Greek or Roman theatre even had the concept of acts.
 
Three-act theater is actually not that dominant historically, with the five-act structure being as present, if not much.

But basically, you have to deal with Renaissance italian theater (and the huge influence it had on European theater) and use of Aristotle (more systematized than actually present) on its regulation (not only three-act, but as well unity rules).

Would these being less present, an European theater more close to a mix of late medieval theater, Elizabethan theater or Corneille's plays may appear : as in existence of rules but not systematical ones and less coercive in order to paint something less about emotional plausibility than emotional sublimation.

Uh, what do you even mean? A lot of Shakespeare Plays are 4/5 Acts, so it's not like it was ever homogonized. I don't think Greek or Roman theatre even had the concept of acts.
Elizabethan theater is a bit of an exception in the XVI/XVIIth centuries : everywhere in the continent classical theater used more coercitive and homogenized rules (look at classical theater unities).
As for Greeks/Romans, Aristotle already theorized an approach on acts (prologue, parados, episode, stasimon, exodos), while Horatius is probably more systematizing about how many acts there should be in a play (Five, for him).
 
Ah jeez, shoulda paid more attention to reading that Aristotle section in Drama.

But yeah isn't the idea of three-act structure more of a 20th Century shorthand for how narratives work?
 
Ah jeez, shoulda paid more attention to reading that Aristotle section in Drama.
Arguably, Aristotle's division is still far from our conception of an act. It just that this division was used more or less out of context.

But yeah isn't the idea of three-act structure more of a 20th Century shorthand for how narratives work?
Maybe : it never really dominated the five-act-structures in theater; but I think it could have fit the XIXth popular theater (and then movies) for its relative simplicity to unveil a story in a relatively short time, and getting more or less systematized at this point. But I don't know enough about the period there, to be certain...
 
Most movies will be written to a three act structure, even if they are not obviously delineated as such. Once you're aware of the basics of screenwriting, you'll be amazed at how many follow this pattern. We become so subconsciously used to it that "the pacing feels off" when a movie deviates.
 
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