This article deals with the concept of “meaning” developed by Juan José García- Noblejas in 1982, which is presented as an enlightening and useful tool for the screenwriting and film reception process. The essay explores the concepts of “theme” (Flinn, 1999:167-168); “dramatic question” (Selbo, 2007: 201-209); and “meaning” (Russin, 2012: 38-42) as they appear in screenwriting manuals from an academic point of view. Considering the perspectives of narratology, semiotics and Aristotelic Poetics the article relates the concept of “meaning” with the unifying principle of the story and the aspects of the human experience the story shows.

This article deals with the concept of “meaning” developed by Juan José García- Noblejas in 1982, which is presented as an enlightening and useful tool for the screenwriting and film reception process. The essay explores the concepts of “theme” (Flinn, 1999:167-168); “dramatic question” (Selbo, 2007: 201-209); and “meaning” (Russin, 2012: 38-42) as they appear in screenwriting manuals from an academic point of view. Considering the perspectives of narratology, semiotics and Aristotelic Poetics the article relates the concept of “meaning” with the unifying principle of the story and the aspects of the human experience the story shows.

This article reflects on the notion of good and bad characters in a fictional world. The study is done from a humanistic perspective and considers the poetic proposal of Juan José García-Noblejas (1982) and Paul Ricoeur (1987). The paper suggests that a character is good as long as it serves the world of fiction in which it is, whereas the world of fiction is good - in the sense of complete - insofar as it is able to "do justice" to the part of human life it represents.