Narrative Analysis is not Anachronistic

I have often wondered if narrative analysis is anachronistic. However, it would appear that ancient authors were consciously constructing narrative using similar categories as we do. For instance, Theon outlines that the elements of narration are:

1. The person/s

 2. "[T]he action done by the person"

3. "[T]he place where the action was done"

4. "[T]he time at which it was done"

5. "[T]he manner of the action"

6. "[T]he cause of these things"1

These match up with our categories. Therefore, it is fair to say that our analytical techniques are not overly anachronistic.

1. Kennedy, George, Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), p. 28.