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From teacher's notes & slides. I will revise them later
Structure (n.) Structures (v.)
The author’s basic organization of character, theme, plot, and narrative arc within a story or drama. Structure is “how” the content of the story comes together.
We can look at structure in a variety of ways. Stories are structured by their plots, but also by the style and point of view from which they are narrated. Sometimes genre will have a large say in the structure of a work; epics and high fantasy are almost always told chronologically. We can also examine structure on different levels of the work. For example, the smallest possible unit of structure in prose is sentence construction. The largest possible unit is events in the plot. Poetry can take specific forms, or be written in free verse. Poetry structures include rhyme schemes, meter, lines, and stanzas.
Theme (n.), Thematic (adj.)
An author’s underlying idea and insight about the human condition revealed through a literary text.
Theme expresses a general or universal idea that could extend beyond the work. It begins as specific to the story, but could be applied to human life in general.
For example, in The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is trapped in a room by her husband and doctor as treatment for “hysteria.” She begins to hallucinate that there is a woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper in her room. The message which is specific to the story is that the unnamed woman is driven crazy by her seclusion. Themes we can derive from this story include:
Sometimes the “cure” is worse than the sickness.
People are driven to madness when they are not listened to.
Setting (n.), Sets (v.)
The time and place during which a story takes place, which includes historical, social, and cultural context.
Characters (n.) / Characterization (n.) Characterize (v.)
Character: A personal, group, or force that acts and speaks in a narrative; a character may also represent ideas, values, assumptions, and cultural norms.
An author’s use of speech, action, narrative, and description to establish a character’s values, beliefs, and identity.
Example: Holden Caulfield is the narrator of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger characterizes Holden as a young, cynical character by developing a very distinct narrative voice:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all–I'm not saying that–but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.
Narration
The writer’s way of telling a story to convey a message.
Point of View (n.)
The way the events of a story are conveyed to the reader, it is the “vantage point” from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader.
In the omniscient point of view, the person telling the story, or narrator, knows everything that’s going on in the story.
In the first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story. Using the pronoun “I,” the narrator tells us his or her own experiences but cannot reveal with certainty any other character’s private thoughts.
In the limited third-person point of view, the narrator is outside the story—like an omniscient narrator—but tells the story from the vantage point of one or more characters.
In second-person point of view, the author uses “you” and the reader becomes part of the story.
Point of view is the window through which readers are able to experience the story. Understanding point of view is important to understanding what information we might be missing, as well as the attitude and tone of the text.
Diction (n.)
The vocabulary and specific word choices of an author or poet. Not to be confused with syntax, which is how the author decides to arrange those words.
Diction is as important to literature as color is to a painting. The words an author uses are the smallest parts which become the whole–every word choice is intentional. The following terms in this section will provide more specific ways of thinking about word choice.
Syntax (n.)
The arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. Not to be confused with diction, which are the specific words that are chosen by the author.
Syntax is how the text comes together, how the pieces become a cohesive whole. After diction, syntax is the most impactful choice that an author makes when writing.
Connotation (n.)
An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word. Connotations are developed over many years of language use and can be culturally or historically specific.
Connotations are where authors play with hidden meanings or the subtext of words. Using words by connotation also makes the text feel more “alive,” because using words by connotation is how most human beings actually speak.
Denotation (n.)
The literal meaning of a word, as you would read it in the dictionary.
Additional meaning can be gathered from the tension or gaps between a word’s connotation and its denotation. Authors who are using more scholarly or academic language might be relying on denotation. As words get older, (100+, 200+, 300+ years), it is more likely that their connotations have changed from original use. Therefore, it is important to consider denotation when reading older works.
Tone (n.)
The writer’s attitude toward his reader and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.
Tone is the emotional register at which the author is speaking. Tone can help shape the mood of the text, especially when tone does not match the mood.
Mood (n.)
The emotions experienced by the reader while reading the story. Often but not always matching the tone.
Mood is the response that the reader has to a text. Thinking about what kind of mood is elicited by the text can help you determine an author’s message or purpose.
Plot (n.)
The series of events in a narrative revolving around a conflict. Plot tells the story of a conflict: how the conflict begins, how characters struggle with it, and how it is resolved.
Plot is the structure of the text on its largest scale; it is how the events of the narrative are told to readers. The decisions an author makes surrounding plot will control the pace and essential ideas within the text.
Conflict (n.)
Conflict is a source of tension and the driver of plot. Conflict occurs when a need is not being met, or different needs cannot be met at the same time. Conflicts are often both specific and thematic. For example, a conflict between two individual characters could also represent a conflict of love or hate.
Plot needs some sort of conflict to exist. Understanding conflict is central to understanding the themes of the text. How conflict appears, intensifies, and resolves itself can reveal the values or priorities of characters and the overall message of the work.
We can divide conflict into different categories:
External:
Person vs. Person (individual)
Person vs. Society (groups or social norms)
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Technology
Person vs. Unknown
Internal:
Person vs. Self
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