One main scope of hylistics is the study of narrative materials, such as myths (→ LINK def myth): Hylistics helps to define, reconstruct, analyse, and compare narrative materials.

At the core of hylistic theory and methodology are the following observations:

• Narrative materials exist in a transmedial way, i.e. it can be used in different media.
• Narrative materials are characterised by sequences of events that imply change.

This presents the following challenges:

• How can narrative materials as transmedial phenomena be analysed, if they are to be reconstructed from their media concretisations?
• How can changes be described scientifically?