Literature Analysis: Fiction, Plot & Techniques PDF

Literature – fiction that consists of words that can stir our imagination Fiction can be: any literary narrative, narratives written in prose, synonym for the novel Protagonist – a central character that piques our interest Antagonist – a character that opposes the protagonist Popular fiction:...

Literature – fiction that consists of words that can stir our imagination Fiction can be: any literary narrative, narratives written in prose, synonym for the novel Protagonist – a central character that piques our interest Antagonist – a character that opposes the protagonist Popular fiction: - Adventure, western, horror, romance, etc. - Traits: happy ending, momentary relief for everyday problems, written to be sold, etc. Romance formula: - Plot- growing love relationship between a hero and a heroine that comes over several complications - Heroine – a woman in her 20s, vulnerable, attractive, etc. - Hero – an older man who is handsome, well off, experienced, etc. - Secondary characters- used to advance the action (the other woman, the other man, etc) - Setting – exciting and contemporary - Love scenes – should appeal to the senses, but can't be graphical - Classic, contemporary, historical, young adult, fantasy Theme: - The central idea of a story - Differs from a story's subject - E.g. Battle Royal by Ralph Ellison Motif: - Recurrent poetic concepts or formulas - E.g. carpe diem in „To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time “ by Robert Herrick Plot: - Author's arrangement of the event in the story - Types: chronological, moving back and forth, beginning at the end, in medias res, flashback - Elements: suspense (a lack of certainty), surprise (something that happened that we didn't see coming), unity of action (ordered structure of actions), foreshadowing (a suggestion of what is yet to come) - Standard plot sequence: exposition (background info), the rising action (a complication that intensifies the situation), conflict (external or internal), climax ( the moment of great emotional tension), resolution (finding a solution to the problem) Point of view: - the way a story gets told - 3rd person pov - the narrator is someone outside the story and refers to every character by their name or pronoun; can be omniscient (narrator knows everything about the story), limited (knows things only about one character) - 1st person pov – limit is only on the narrator and how they perceive things; they can be a witness, central character, or minor participant; epistolary novel – 1st person narrative - 2nd person pov – the narrator addresses the character „you“; you = the reader or the narrator himself Style: - how speakers or writers say whatever it is that they say - E.g. pure, ornate, sober, simple, elaborate, etc. - Classification: 1. high, middle, and low (standard theories) 2. according to a literary period or tradition (the metaphysical style) 3. according to an influential text (the biblical style) 4. according to an institutional use (a scientific style) 5. according to the distinctive practice of an individual author (the Shakespearean style) Tone: - author’s attitude toward people, places and events in the story Irony: - a device that reveals a reality different from what’s true - Types: Verbal irony = a person saying one thing but meaning the opposite, Situational irony = an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens, 3. Sarcasm = the crude use of apparent praise for dispraise, 4. Dramatic irony = a discrepancy between what a character believes and what the reader understands to be true, 5. Cosmic irony = a god, or else fate, is represented as if manipulating events Symbol: - A person, event or object that there is more than a literal meaning - Types: 1. Conventional or public Example: the Cross = Christianity  2. Private or personal Example: the rising sun = birth; the setting sun = death 3. Literary symbols Example: the Ice Palace (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace”) = the North 4. Allegory = when a character, object, or incident indicates a single, fixed meaning Example: the stories and novels of Franz Kafka Formalist reading strategies: - Focus on the formal elements of a literary work – intrinsic matters -8irony, narration, etc) - Extrinsic matters – history, biography - E.g. Chopin, Kate “Story of an Hour” – situational irony Biographical reading strategies: - knowledge of an author’s life allows us to understand his/her work better - Events might follow actual events in an author’s life; characters might be based on people known by the author - Example: E. Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” Psychological reading strategies: - Draw on Freud’s theories of dreams, unconscious desires, sexual repression, and different aspects of the psyche – the id, ego, superego - The Oedipus complex = a boy’s unconscious sexual desire for his mother and hostility and rivalry with his father for his mother’s love - The Electra complex = a girl’s unconscious sexual desire for her father and hostility and rivalry with her mother for her father’s love - Example: Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour” - Example: Shakespeare, William. Hamlet Historical reading strategies: - a document reflecting, producing, or being produced by the social conditions of its time - Types: 1. Literary History Criticism - the historical background to shed light on some aspects of the work itself 2. Marxist Criticism - focuses on the ideological content of a work (culture, class, power, race) 3. New Historicism - emphasizes the interaction between the historical context of a work and a reader’s understanding and interpretation of the work 4. Cultural Criticism - focuses on the historical context of a literary work with particular attention to popular manifestations of social, political, and economic contexts - Example: Ellison, Ralph. “Battle Royal” Gender reading strategies: - ideas about how men and women can be regarded as socially constructed by particular cultures - Types: 1. Feminist Criticism – analyzes literary works to comprehend literary representations of women and the writers and cultures that create them 2. Gay and Lesbian Criticism – explores how homosexuals are represented in literature - Example: Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour” (feminist criticism) - Example: Faulkner, William. ”A Rose For Emily” (Gay and lesbian criticism) Mythological reading strategies: - Deep universal responses in readers; hopes, fears, and expectations of entire cultures - archetypes – the characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences for readers regardless of when or where they live - The most common archetype: 1. The death and rebirth theme 2. Stories of quests, initiations, scapegoats, meditative withdrawals, descents to the underworld, heavenly ascents 3. Characters of wise old men, fatal women, earth mothers; desert places, paradisal gardens - Example: Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour” Reader-response reading strategies: - Description on what goes on in the reader’s mind during the process of reading a text - Example: Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour” Deconstructionist reading strategies: - literary works do not yield fixed, single meanings - Interested in how the use of language – diction, tone, metaphor, symbol, etc. – yields only provisional meanings - Example: Chopin, Kate. “ The Story of an Hour” Works: 1. Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan of the Apes 2. Karen van der Zee – A Secret Sorrow 3. Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" 4. Fitzgerald, "The Ice Palace" 5. Ernest Hemingway – Soldier's Home 6. Mark Twain – The story of the bad little boy 7. Kate Chopin – The story of an hour 8. Flannery O'Connor – Everything that rises must converge 9. Ralph Waldo Ellison – Battle Royal 10. Louise Erdrich – Fleur 11. Gish Jen – Who is Irish?