Analytical Reading PDF

Analytical reading is a branch of language study, which aims at teaching the theory and practice of verbal art. It promotes a further development of the readers’ ability to use their skills for the purpose of practical communication; it widens their general outlook, enriches their background knowled...

Analytical reading is a branch of language study, which aims at teaching the theory and practice of verbal art. It promotes a further development of the readers’ ability to use their skills for the purpose of practical communication; it widens their general outlook, enriches their background knowledge. It gives them an ability to read fiction critically, which enables them to derive greater aesthetic pleasure out of reading imaginative literature, i.e. analytical reading teaches to make a linguistic analysis of the literary work. The aims of linguistic analysis are to make the reader understand: the literary work; the author’s intentions, views, and attitude towards the reality; the author’s attitude to the events and characters described; how different linguistic means (of graphical, phonetic, lexical and grammatical layers) used by the author to render his purpose; the educational and aesthetic values of the literary work. 1.2. Literary Work A literary work is a fragment of objective reality arranged in accordance with the author’s vision [5, p. 6]. The literary work aims at cognizing and interpreting the world we live in. The means of cognition in literature is a re-creation of objective reality in the form of images drawn from reality itself. In other words, the relation between reality and literature is that of an object and its image. In terms of an object-image relationship, the literary work always means a representation of a life situation, whose image it is [5, p. 6]. What appears as a result of such a representation is an imagined world, based on what the author has perceived and absorbed from objective reality. The literary work, like any other kind of communication, involves not only the addresser (the author) but also the addressee (the reader) [5, p. 8]. When an author begins to write, he is urged on by a desire to impart his vision of the world and his attitude towards it to someone, i.e. to an addressee (a reader). His attitude may be expressed in different ways, so the reading of the work does not necessarily result in the reader’s direct perception of what the author has conveyed. Thus, every literary work (or work of fiction) is a unity of two planes: 1. The plane of meaning (the obvious) is the plot of the work, a portrayal of the fact of the objective reality (events, actions, time, place, etc.). 2. The plane of sense (the implied) is the author’s message, his attitude to the events and characters described. Interpreting a literary work and getting at the message of the text require additional mental, analytical work on the part of the reader: contrasting different facts, their generalization, thinking over the actions of the characters, analyzing what they say and how they do it. It makes the reader’s perception a creative effort [5, p.8] and helps to share the author’s aesthetic world. A truly talented work of imaginative literature always affects the reader, reaching both his intellect and emotions. Here lies the social importance and educational value of the literary work. 2. LANGUAGE AS THE MEDIUM OF LITERATURE 2.1. Meanings of Linguistic Units Connotation in the Word’s Dictionary Meaning An act of verbal communication is possible primarily because units of communication (i.e. words) can be referred to extralinguistic situations and things meant. The word denotes a concrete thing as well as a concept of a thing, i.e. it has denotative meaning [5, p. 10]. Thus, the word “table” denotes any object that is a table. An isolated word “table” denotes the concept of the thing that is a table. The word “table” within a certain context denotes a definite thing. Apart from denoting a concrete thing, action or concept, the word may also carry connotation (*feelings and ideas that are suggested by the word, rather than the actual meaning) [5, p. 11]. It may express the speaker’s attitude to the thing spoken about – emotive component of meaning, or indicate the social sphere in which the conversation takes place – stylistic reference. Both components may either be part of the word’s dictionary meaning or part of the word’s contextual meaning. An emotive component of meaning may be expressed with the help of: suffixes (e.g. the suffix ie/y in such words as “birdie” or “Freddy” serves to express the diminutive or the hypocoristic.) the concept the given word denotes (e.g. in the word “horrid”, “terrifying”, “lovely”, etc.) However, there are words of purely emotive meaning. These are interjections which differ from the words with denotative meanings (i.e. notional words) by their peculiar sound pattern: oh, ouch, wow, hmm, etc. They also differ by their syntactic role in an utterance, because they are not components but equivalents of sentences [5, p. 12]. Stylistic reference. Each spheres of human activity has a peculiar mode of linguistic expression, which is generally known as functional style. Words that are preferably used in one functional style are said to have a stylistic reference conditioned by the respective sphere. The overtone of stylistic reference is always present in the world along with its denotative meaning. E.g. dismiss – discharge – sack; follow – pursue – go after. Each of these groups represents a different stylistic layer: stylistically neutral – literary-bookish – colloquial. Thus one should distinguish between stylistically neutral and stylistically marked words [5, p. 12]. There are numerous subdivisions within the class of stylistically marked words. The main opposition lies between words of literary stylistic layer (words of Standard English) and those of non-literary stylistic layer (words of Sub-Standard English). Words of literary stylistic layer in their turn are divided into literary-colloquial and literary-bookish. Literary-bookish words include [5, p. 13]: a) Terms, subdivided into: 1) popular terms of some special sphere of human knowledge known to the public at large (e.g. “pneumonia”); 2) terms used exclusively within a profession (e.g. “phoneme”, “micro-linguistics”) b) Poeticisms – words used exclusively in poetry; many of them are obsolete (e.g. “whilom” – sometimes; “Childe” – nobleman’s son) c) Foreign words and barbarisms (e.g. négligé, au revoir, Bundeswher) Barbarisms are considered part of the vocabulary of the given language making its peripheral layer, they are usually registered in dictionaries (e.g. vis-à-vis), while foreign words are not found there.(e.g. croissants – breakfast/bread). Words of non-literary stylistic layer are divided into [5, p. 14]: a) Colloquialisms – words that occupy an intermediate position between literary and non-literary stylistic layers and are used in conversational type of everyday speech (e.g. “awfully sorry”, “a pretty little thing”, etc). b) Slang words – those that have originated in everyday speech and exist on the periphery of the lexical system of the given language (e.g. “go crackers” = “be off the rockers” – to go mad) c) Professionalisms – words characteristic of the conversational variant of professional speech. Contrary to terms, professionalisms are the result of metonymic or metaphoric transference of some everyday words (e.g. “bull” – one who buys shares at the stock-exchange; “bear” – one who sells shares). d) Vulgarisms – rude words or expressions used mostly in speech of the uncultured and uneducated (e.g. “missus” – wife, “son of a bitch” – a bad person) e) Jargonisms – words used within certain social and professional groups f) Regional dialectisms – words and expressions used by peasants and others in certain regions of the country (e.g. “baccy” – tobacco, “winder” – window) It’s often hard to draw the border-line between colloquial, slang and vulgar words, because there are no proper linguistic criteria of discrimination. Stylistic reference and emotive component are inherent connotative features of lexical units. They should not be confused with those connotative effects, which practically any words may acquire in speech (text) [5, p. 14]. 2.2. Denotation and Connotation in Imaginative Literature Linguistic elements in an act of speech constitute an interrelation of their denotative and connotative meanings. The prevalence of one or the other depends on the sphere of human activity in which communication takes place. Each sphere has its own mode of expression, though the linguistic element in all of them may be more or less the same. What is different is the selection and the combination of linguistic elements. Selection and combination of linguistic elements are conditioned mainly by the aim and content of communication [5, p. 15]. A linguistic element within the text of imaginative literature is ambiguous (i.e. has more than one meaning, so that it’s not clear what is intended), because it occurs in two types of contexts at once: in a linguistic context (i.e. in a certain sequence of words which condition the realization of its denotative meaning) and in an aesthetic context (i.e. in the context of the given literary work, which conditions the realization of its connotative meaning) [5, p.16]. Generally speaking, the obvious plane of the literary work (its theme and its plot) is usually expressed in word denotations, while the implied plane (the author’s attitude and his message) is found in word connotations. 3. LITERARY TEXT AS POETIC STRUCTURE 3.1. Verbal and Supraverbal Layers of the Literary Text Every literary text consists of words, which are combined into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into paragraphs; paragraphs make up larger passages: chapters, sections, and parts. All these represent the verbal layer of the literary text. At the same time a text of imaginative literature has another layer, which gradually emerges out of these verbal sequences. These word sequences represent a series of events, conflicts and circumstances in which characters of the literary work happen to find themselves; i.e. they make a composition, a plot, a genre, and a style that create an image of reality, through which the author conveys his message, his vision of the world. Plot, theme, composition, genre, style, image and the like make the supraverbal (poetic) layer which is, nevertheless, entirely revealed in verbal sequences [5, p. 25]. Thus the supraverbal and verbal layers of the text are inseparable from each other. The cohesion of the two layers constitutes the poetic structure of the literary text. There is nothing in the literary work that is not expressed in its poetic structure. It is the whole of the poetic structure that conveys the author’s message. One element (component) of the poetic structure is as important as any other is. All the components of the poetic structure compose a hierarchy, an organization of interdependent layers. The basic unit of the poetic structure is the word (because all the layers of the structure, i.e. the syntactic, the semantic, the rhythmical, the compositional, the stylistic are expressed in words) [5, p. 26]. 3.2. Principles of Poetic Structure Cohesion Each literary work is a unique instance of imaginative representation of reality. However, imaginative representation has its own principles (known as aesthetic principles) which connect all elements of the literary text and help to constitute a world complete in itself [5, p.27]. Principle of Incomplete Representation. In re-creating an object or phenomenon of reality the author selects only the most characteristic features, i.e. a literary image represents features that are most characteristic of an object. Thus, in depicting an image the author makes a selection: he picks out a part (or parts) which can stand for the whole. All images in a literary text, those of people, events, situations, landscapes, etc. are incompletely represented. This is conditioned at least by two factors: 1. The linguistic factor. Verbal representation of the whole image would demand innumerable pages of writing in which the image itself might inevitably dissolve; 2. The aesthetic factor. As literature transmits aesthetic information, to achieve this aim it must first of all stir up the reader’s interest. One way of doing it is to make the reader use his perceptive abilities and fill in for himself the incompletely represented fragments of the whole [5, p.28]. The degree of incompleteness depends on the genre of the literary work as well as on the individual manner of the writer. It is greater in lyrical poems and smaller in epic works. The part selected to represent the whole is a poetic detail. Its function is either to typify or to individualize the image [5, p.29]. For instance, in A Painful Case by J. Joyce the author, while portraying Mrs. Sinico, gives prominence to her eyes. He does not only speak about their colour but carefully depicts the way they gazed, the work of the pupils and the impression they produced: “Their gaze began with a defiant note, but was confused by what seemed a deliberate swoon of the pupil into the iris, revealing for an instant a temperament of great sensibility. The pupil reasserted itself quickly, this half disclosed fell again under the reign of prudence, and her astrakhan jacket, … struck the note of defiance more definitely.” [1, p. 36] This poetic detail makes the image of Mrs. Sinico peculiar, and as it is supposed that the person’s eyes reveal his nature, we may suggest that J. Joyce aimed at disclosing Mrs. Sinico’s nature through this description. Principle of Analogy and Contrast. Analogy and contrast are known as universal principles of cognition. Analogy reveals the essence of a phenomenon, discovers the similar and contrastive in different phenomena. In literature analogy/contrast is a way of imaginative cognition. The author contra- and juxtaposes images of real life and that way reveals the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, justice and injustice of life [5, p. 31]. Thus in A Painful Case J. Joyce depicts his main characters in contrast; though both of them were lonely, Mrs. Sinico was desperate to rid of it, while Mr. Duffy carefully guarded it [1, p. 34-42]. Principle of Recurrence. Poetic structure of the text is so modeled that its certain elements, which have already occurred in the text, appear again at definite intervals. These recurrent elements may be a poetic detail, an image, a phrase, or a word. Its function is to give the text a dynamic flow, or to represent the leitmotif of the literary work, expressing the author’s message [5, p. 33]. For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire by T. Williams to show the sudden change in Blanche’s emotional state the author recurrently mentions that the woman hears polka music, which for her is associated with her husband’s suicide. The more Blanche’s mental state changes to disorder the louder and more frequent the music becomes. 4. COMPONENTS OF POETIC STRUCTURE: Macro-Components of Poetic Structure  Poetic structure of the literary work involves such entities as image, theme, idea, composition, plot, genre and style [5, p. 34]. As components of poetic structure they are inseparable from each other, but as basic categories of the theory of literature they may be treated in isolation. 4.1. Literary Image The world of a literary work is the world of its characters, situations, events, etc. similar to those of real life. Literature cognizes and interprets life by re-creating life in the form of images inspired by life and in accordance with the author’s vision [5, p. 35]. It means that, for instance, Louis Creed from Stephen King’s Pet Sematary is not just a college doctor, but a literary character created by King in precisely the way his talent, his vision and his understanding of an ambitious young doctor’s family life have urged him to create. In giving the image the author transmits to the reader his own philosophy of life, his ethic and moral code. Literary image is thus the “language” of literature, the form of its existence. The term image refers not only to the whole of the literary work or to characters as its main elements, but also to any of its meaningful units such as details, phrase, etc. [5, p. 35] All images in the literary work constitute a hierarchical interrelation. The top of this hierarchy is the macro-image, i.e. the literary work itself, which includes the image of life, the image of characters and the image of the author. At the bottom of the hierarchy there is the word-image or the micro-image (tropes and figures of speech), which builds up character-images, event-images, landscape-images, etc. Each micro-image, when in isolation, is just a stylistic device, but within the poetic structure it is an element, which equally with others, helps to reveal the content [5, p. 36]. In literature attention is usually centered on human character and human behaviour, though the images of things, animals, landscape, time, etc. may also be important. In most literary works one character is clearly dominant from the beginning up to the end. Such a character us generally called the main, central or major character, or the protagonist. The main character may also be called hero or heroine, if he or she deserves to be called so. The antagonist is the personage opposing the protagonist or hero. The villain is the character with marked negative features [3, p. 29]. Since images in art reflect the writer’s subjective attitude to them, they are always emotive and appeal to the reader through all the senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste. In the reader’s mind images call up not only visual pictures and other sense impressions, they also arouse feelings, such as warmth, compassion, affection, delight or dislike, disgust, resentment. Our emotional responses are directed by the words with which the author creates his images [3, p. 27]. Accordingly, characters may be simple (flat), which are constructed round a single trait, and complex (rounded), which undergo change and growth, revealing various sides of their personalities [3, p. 30]. Characters may also be shown statically (when the character does not undergo any changes throughout the story) and dynamically (when the character is depicted in his/her development) The characters can be portrayed from different aspects: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual, social. The description of those aspects is known as characterization [3, p. 31]. There are two main types of characterization: direct (when the author rates the character himself) and indirect (when the author shows the character in action and lets us watch and evaluate him for ourselves). L.V. Borisova distinguishes the following means of characterization: 1. presentation of the character through action (which shows his behaviour and deeds); 2. speech characteristics (which reveal the character’s social and intellectual standing, his age, education, occupation, his state of mind and feelings, etc); 3. psychological portrayal and analysis of motives (by way of inner and represented speech); 4. Description of the character’s appearance; 5. Description of the world of things that surround the character; 6. The use of a foil 4.2. Theme and Idea The theme of a literary work is the represented aspect of life. L.V. Borisova believes that the theme of a story is the main area of interest treated in it [3, p. 80]. As literary works commonly have human characters for the subject of depiction, V.B. Sosnovskaya states that the theme of a literary work may be understood as an interaction of human characters under certain circumstances, such as some social or psychological conflict [5, p. 37]. A writer may depict the same theme from different angles. The same theme may also be differently developed and integrated with other themes in different works. Within a single work the basic theme may interlace with rival themes and their relationship may be very complex. The theme of a literary work can be easily understood from the plot (the surface layer) of the work [5, p. 37]. Even a well-written paragraph has the theme or topic. The topic of the passage is usually stated in the first sentence, although other positions are also possible. Read the following paragraph: The family heard the siren warning them that the tornado was coming. They hurried to the cellar. The roar of the tornado was deafening, and the children started crying. Suddenly it was silent. They waited awhile before they went outside to survey the damage. In the preceding paragraph, the topic – tornado – is stated in the first sentence. In the following paragraph, the main topic is stated in the last sentence: The family hurried to the cellar and waited. First, they heard the pounding of the hailstones. The wind became deafening, and the children started crying. Suddenly it was silent. They waited awhile before they ventured outside to see the damage the tornado had done. Sometimes the topic is not stated in the passage at all but is implied, as in the following passage: The sky became dark and threatening. A funnel of dust began forming in the air and soon reached down to touch the ground. Debris was seen swirling around as everything was swallowed up, twisted, and then dropped. Although “tornado” is not mentioned in the passage, it has been implied by the description (“a funnel of dust… in the air,” “debris… swirling,” “twisted”). According to the number of topics or themes presented in emotive prose, literary works are divided into: short stories (which have one theme and one main character) and novels (which have a leading theme and rival sub-theme, as well as many characters).  In the process of developing the theme the author expresses the idea of a literary work. It is the underlying thought of deductive character and emotional attitude transmitted to the reader by the whole poetic structure of the literary text [5, p. 37]. The most important idea is the message of the literary work [3, p. 61]. It is generally expressed implicitly, i.e. indirectly, and can be conveyed by different techniques, such as: parallelism (e.g. parallel actions of the dream and reality, or parallel events which begin and end a story); contrast (between the protagonist characters, the impression they try to produce and the impression they actually produce, etc.); recurrence (or repetition) of events or situation; poetic detail; symbols; arrangements of plot structure, etc. [3, p. 81]. When a poetic detail is repeated several times and is associated with a broader concept than the original, it develops into a symbol, which is a metaphoric expression of the concept it stands for [3, p. 83]. 4.3. Plot Plot is a sequence of interlinked events in which the characters are involved, the theme and the idea revealed [3, p. 10; 5, p. 39]. The plot of any story involves character and conflict, which imply each other. Conflict in fiction is the opposition (or struggle) between forces or characters [3, p. 11]. L.V. Borisova classified conflicts into external and internal. Different types of external conflicts are usually termed in the following way: 1. Man against man (when the plot is based on the opposition between two or more people); 2. Man against nature (the sea, the desert, the frozen North or wild beasts); 3. Man against society or man against the Establishment; 4. The conflict between two different sets of values Internal conflicts, often termed “man against himself”, take place within one character. They are localized in the character’s inner world and are rendered through his thoughts, feelings, intellectual process, etc. The plot of a literary work may be based on several conflicts of different types, and may involve both an external and an internal conflict [3, p. 11]. Accordingly short stories are subdivided into: a plot (or action) short story and a psychological (or character) short story (i.e. the conflict of the inner world). The events of the plot are usually set in particular place and time, which are called the setting. In some stories (novels) the setting is scarcely noticeable, in others it plays a very important role. L.V. Borisova determines the following functions of the setting [3, p. 12]: 1. helping to evoke the necessary atmosphere (or mood), appropriate to the general intentions of the story; 2. reinforcing characterization by either paralleling or contrasting the actions; 3. reflecting the inner state of a character; 4. placing the character in a recognizable realistic environment (by including geographical names and allusions to historical events); 5. revealing certain features of the character (especially when his domestic interior is described); 6. becoming the chief antagonist whom the character must overcome. The setting may perform one or several functions simultaneously. Characters, actions, conflict and setting work together to accomplish the author’s purpose [3, p. 13]. Each and every event that represents the gist of the plot has a beginning, a development and an end. The plot, accordingly, consists of exposition, story, climax and denouement [5, p. 39]. The exposition or introduction [завязка] contains the necessary preliminaries to the action, such as the setting and the subject of the action; it also may point out the circumstances that will influence the development of the action. The story [5, p. 39] or complications [3, p.13] [развитие] is that part of the plot which represents the beginning of the collision and the collision itself, i.e. the development of events. The climax [кульминация] is the highest point of the action. The denouement [развязка] is the event or events that bring the action to an end, when everything is explained. Novels may have two more components of plot structure: the prologue (facts from beyond the past of the story) and the epilogue (additional facts about the future of the characters if it is not made clear enough in the denouement) [3, p. 14]. The sequence of the plot elements may be different. Thus a literary work may begin straight with the action (the conflict) without any exposition, or a story may have no denouement, which invites the reader to reflect the circumstances and imagine the outcome of all the events himself [3, p. 14]. Accordingly, there are two types of plot structure [3, p. 40]: 1. A work of narrative prose that has all the elements mentioned above has a closed plot structure 2. A literary work in which the action is represented without any obvious culmination, which does not contain all the above mentioned elements has an open plot structure. 4.4. Composition The arrangement of plot structure components may be represented in a variety of ways. Thus, composition is the way, in which the literary work is arranged [5, p. 45]. Accordingly, composition may be [3, p. 15]:  Level (or straight line)– all the element of the plot structure are presented in their logical or chronological sequence (e.g. Checkmate by Jeffrey Archer ); Retrospective or rocky – the exposition may be placed inside the story so that the reader is at once plunged into the event development; or there are flashbacks to the past events (e.g. Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon ); Circular – the closing event in the story returns the reader to the introductory part e.g. A Stranger in the Mirror by Sidney Sheldon ); Frame – there is a story within a story; the two stories may be contrastive or parallel (The Notebook by Nicholas Spark ) L.V. Borisova also speaks of three kinds of techniques for plot structure arrangement or kinds of presentational sequencing (i.e. the order in which the writer presents the information included into the story), which may affect the intensity of the reader’s impression: 1. retardation – suspense which constantly mounts in the course of the story; 2. flashback – a scene of the past inserted into the narrative; 3. foreshadowing – a look towards the future, a remark or hint that prepares the reader for what is to follow The composition of a literary work may be represented through different types of narration [3, p. 47-48; 5, p.45]: the first person narration (the narrator being his own protagonist) E.g. “Once I had so much. I had everything a woman could possibly ant. And I lost it all. For the past five years since that fateful winter of 1988, I have lived with pain and heartache and grief. I have lived with a sorrow that has been, and still is, unbearable. And yet I have endured. I have gone on.” /B.T. Bradford Everything to Gain/ the third person narration (the narrator focuses on some other character or characters) E.g. The defendant had left his client a few minutes after six. He understood she had intended to change before going out to dinner with her sister in Fulham. He had arranged to see her the following Wednesday at his office for the purpose of drawing up the completed policy. /Jeffrey Archer The Perfect Murder from A Twist in the Tale/ anonymous (the narrator has no direct relation to the persons he speaks about, or he may not be present at all) E.g. Downstairs the rooms opened off the long gallery, upstairs from a central landing. Because its core was very old it had a genuine quietness to it, with floors that dipped, ceilings that sloped, beams that were lopsided. Some of the windows had panes made of antique blown glass dating back to the previous century. /B.T. Bradford Everything to Gain/ Any type of narration (first-person, third-person or anonymous) is based on the following narrative forms: 1. Interior monologue (the narrator or the character he narrates about speaks to himself) E.g. For her part Rosie was lost in her thoughts, which were centred on Nell and Kevin. Naturally she was consumed with curiosity about them until they were back at the hotel to ask Nell about this new development in their lives. If it was new. Perhaps the two of them had been involved for a long time, and is this was so why hadn’t either of them mentioned it to her?” /B.T. Bradford Angel/ 2. Dramatic monologue (the narrator or the character speaks alone but there are those he addresses himself to) E.g. “You were wrong to think I’d come crawling back. Why on earth would I? What do you have to give me that I can’t get elsewhere? You’ve never been much of a giver anyway, Michael. You only give when you’re sure of getting back twice as much. You’re basically a taker.” /Dean Koontz The Eyes of Darkness/ 3. Dialogue (the speech of two or more characters addressed to each other). (the term is too obvious for illustration) 4. Narration (the presentation of events in their development) E.g. “At three o’clock Sunday afternoon, Tony Rizzoli walked out of his hotel and strolled towards the Platia Omonia. Two detectives were trailing him. At Metaxa Street, Rizzoli hailed a taxi. The detective spoke in his walkie-talkie. ‘The subject is getting into a taxi heading west.’ An unmarked grey sedan pulled in behind the taxi, keeping a discreet distance.” /Sidney Sheldon Memories of Midnight/ 5. Description (the presentation of the atmosphere, the scenery and the like of the literary work) E.g. “On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose coloured hotel. Deferential palms cool its flushed façade, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach. […]The hotel and its bright prayer rug of a beach were one. In the early morning the distant image of Cannes, the pink and cream of old fortification, the purple alp that bounded Italy, were cast across the water and lay quavering in the ripple and rings sent up by sea-plants through the clear shallows.” /F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night/ 6. Exposition (explanation of some phenomena, argument, comparison, analysis, etc) Composition is the arrangement and disposition of all the forms of the subject matter representation. 4.5. Genre Genre is a historically formed type of a literary work. The following genres may be mentioned [5, p. 47]: Epic (with the narrative prose) – its main variety, events, are objectively narrated Lyric (with poetry) – reality is reflected in the author’s inner world Dramatic (tragedy, comedy, drama) – present day conflicting events are represented through the characters’ speech and actions.