Transcript How to Analyze Fiction by I. Schirova

HOW TO ANALYZE
FICTION
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
by I.A. Schirova
Our acknowledgment and gratitude to the authors of the slideshow “Venice Carnival” used in this presentation
PLOT
Plot (Fr. complot, conspiracy) is what happens in
the narrative. It is narrative structure, the
arrangement of the action in such a way as to
induce curiosity and suspense – a state of
uncertainty, anticipation and doubt about the
outcome of a literary work.
CONFLICT
Conflict (Latin conflictus, from conflīgĕre, to
strike together) is a struggle between opposing
forces. A usual pattern of causally related
events starts with an unstable situation that
describes conflict.
CONFLICT
The author usually explains the nature of the conflict in the exposition
(Lat. expositiōn- (em), a showing forth) which introduces the situation,
describes the characters and provides the setting.
Whatever the causal relationship among the events in the story, each
event intensifies (complicates) the conflict. The author next introduces
a series of events, all related by cause. The action rises, the situation
becomes more and more complicated, and the crisis is reached. The
turning point and the most intense event in the literary work is called
climax (Gr. khlimax, a ladder; khlinen, to slope, slant).
The rest of the story – the falling action (denouement – Fr. Literally
untying) – leads toward diminishing tensions, the resolution of the
conflict and a stable action at the end.
SUBJECT
AND THEME
Subject is what the work is about; theme is what
the work says about the subject.
Subject is usually stated in a word or a phrase, the
statement of the work’s theme requires a sentence
or sometimes several sentences.
SUBJECT
AND THEME
Theme is the central idea of a work. It is the
comment the work makes on the human
condition. Theme is an abstraction drawn from
details, – to state it the reader should move from
the situation and the characters of the work and
generalize about people outside it.
CHARACTERS
The protagonist (Greek protagonistes, first
actor in drama) is the leading (chief,
central) character who engages the
reader’s interest and empathy.
CHARACTERS
The antagonist (Greek antagonistes, a rival; anti,
against, a contest) is the protagonist’s opponent,
the character, force or collection of forces (death,
the devil, an illness) that stands directly opposed
to the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of
the story. The antagonist may be an aspect of the
protagonist – his or her tendency toward evil and
self-destruction.
CHARACTERS
Major characters are those we see more
or over a longer period of time.
Minor characters are less important and
we learn less about them than about major
characters.
CHARACTERS
Flat characters
embody one or two
qualities, ideas or personality traits. They
are not psychologically complex characters
and therefore are readily accessible to
readers. Some flat characters are recognized
as stock characters; they embody
stereotypes, such as ‘the lazy husband’.
CHARACTERS
Round characters are more complex than
flat or stock characters and often display the
inconsistencies and internal conflicts found
in real people. They are fully developed,
have multiple personality traits and
therefore are harder to summarize.
CHARACTERS
Dynamic characters, especially main characters,
typically grow in understanding. The climax of this
growth is epiphany, a term that James Joyce used
to describe a sudden revelation of truth
experienced
by a character. The term comes
from the Bible and describes the Wise Men’s first
perception of Christ’s divinity.
CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization is the author’s
presentation and development of fictional
personages (characters).
WAYS OF
CHARACTERIZATION
The simplest form of characterization is naming.
The so called speaking (telling) names (Lady
Teazle in School for Scandal by Sheridan) are often
found in literature. Speaking names are cases of
antonomasia.
WAYS OF
CHARACTERIZATION
In the direct method of revealing the characters, the author simply tells
the reader what the character is like.
For example:
Now, Miss Amelia Sedley was a young lady of this singular species;
and deserved not only all that Miss Pinkerton said in her praise, but
had many charming qualities which that pompous old Minerva of a
woman could not see, from the differences of rank and age between
her pupil and herself. For she could not only sing like a lark, or a Mrs.
Billington, and dance like Hillisberg or Parisot; and embroider
beautifully; and spell as well as a Dixionary itself; but she had such a
kindly, smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own, as won the
love of everybody who came near her, from Minerva herself down to
the poor girl in the scullery (W. Thackeray: Vanity Fair)
WAYS OF
CHARACTERIZATION
In the indirect method of revealing characters, the author shows us
what the characters are like through what they say about one another,
through external poetic details (dress, movements, speech and deeds).
The following expressive graphons in Penny’s speech make us
doubt the sincerity of her feelings towards the narrator:
Spreading her arms wide, she shakes her head in disbelief and for one
horrible moment it looks as if I am to walk into them. I dither stupidly
and I am about to take a step forward when she suddenly contracts in
delight.
You are adoooooorable!” she coos, turning to the others for
affirmation.
“Isn’t she just adoooooooooooorable?” (K. Tessaro: Elegance)
POINT OF VIEW
Point of view (perspective, vision) is the
author’s relationship to his fictional world,
especially to the minds of the characters, the
position from which the story is told.
Point of view is an indication of the way the
author sees things.
TONE
Tone always implies the writer’s prevailing spirit,
mental attitude and moral outlook. It may suggest
sympathy for the characters and be judgmental. In
other stories it is neutral, but, on the whole, it
provides a great variety of attitudes: playful,
friendly, detached, pompous, officious, intimate,
bantering, optimistic, pessimistic etc.
IRONY
Irony (Gr. eirōneia, dissimulation or simulated
ignorance) is based on the opposition of what is
said to what is implied.
Most forms of irony involve the perception of a
discrepancy or incongruity between words and
their meaning, between actions and their results
or between appearance and reality. In all these
cases there may be an element of the absurd and
of the paradoxical.
IMAGE
AND IMAGERY
The term image refers not only to the whole of the
literary work but to any of its meaningful units such as
detail, phrase etc. All these images constitute a hierarchical
interrelation.
The top if this hierarchy is the macro-image, the literary
work itself. It is an image of life, visioned and depicted by
the author.
Within the literary work there is the intermediate layer
which contains character-images, event-images, landscapeimages etc.
At the bottom of the hierarchy there are micro-images
(word-images): similes, epithets, metaphors etc.
IMAGES
AND IMAGERY
A possible division of images is into descriptive
(sensuous) images and figurative images (tropes). It is
often the case that an image is not exclusively one
thing or another. The borderlines between the two
types are relative and they may combine and overlap.
As a result, tropes may create in the reader's mind a
vivid description appealing to the reader's senses, or,
on the opposite, though full of descriptive images, a
work may sound metaphoric.
IMAGES
AND IMAGERY
A descriptive image may be visual (pertaining to
the eye), olfactory (smell), tactile (touch),
auditory (hearing), gustatory (taste), abstract
(in which case it may appeal to intellect).
SETTING
Setting is the total environment for the action of a fictional
work.
It includes place (physical, sensuous world), time in which
the action takes place – "the where and when of the story",
social environment (moral values that govern the
characters’ society, manners, customs etc.) and
atmosphere.
ATMOSPHERE
Atmosphere refers to the emotional reaction that the reader
and the characters have to the setting of a work and is largely
but not entirely an effect of setting. It is the mood and the
feeling, the intangible quality which appeals to extra-sensory
and sensory perception, evoked by a literary work.
References:
I.A.Schirova “How to Analyze Fiction”. Учебное
пособие. Изд. 2-е. - СПб, Борей Арт, 2008.
Venice Carnival //
http://www.slideshare.net/chulee/venice-carnival-3-1108916
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