Narrative Deconstruction and Redemption of the Antihero in Complex Television: A Longitudinal Analysis of Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Complex television; Comic antihero; Actantial analysis; Masculinities; Sitcom; Narrative redemption

Abstract

This study examines Barney Stinson’s narrative arc and redemption in How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014), analyzing his deconstruction as a comic antihero across all 208 episodes through a qualitative, longitudinal triangulation of Bal’s narratology, Greimas’s actantial scheme, Galán Fajardo’s characterization model, and García-Muñoz & Fedele’s conflict matrix. Three evolutionary phases are identified —Establishment of the Mask, Deconstruction and Breakdown, and Resolution and Ethical Maturity— documenting a shift from performative hedonism toward moral growth, evidenced by the “self-acceptance” conflict moving from 70% to 60% internally resolved by the finale. Stinson’s redemption is a deliberate structural construction in which selfless fatherhood operates as the ultimate transformative force, reflecting the evolution of masculinities in contemporary fiction.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ariam Jesús Napurí Acevedo
AU  - Victor Omar Vite León
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
TI  - Narrative Deconstruction and Redemption of the Antihero in Complex Television: A Longitudinal Analysis of Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother
BT  - Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2026 (ICOMTA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 220
EP  - 230
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_21
ID  - Acevedo2026
ER  -