THF MIDTERM

Action

An event caused by or performed by an agent/character. A synonym for act. Also sometimes called incident.

Action

The sequence of events in a story or narrative discourse.

Action

In David Ball: An action occurs when something happens that causes or permits something else to happen. Action is composed of two events.

Aesthetics

Concerned with beauty or art or the appreciation thereof.

Agency

The capacity of an entity/existent to cause events, specifically to perform acts/actions. Agency is the capacity to act with intent.

Antagonist

The character who opposes the protagonist. Sometimes called the villain.

Archetype

A character that recurs in stories and myths drawn from repeated human experiences of the same type across thousands of years of history.

Causation

The action of causing; to bring about an effect or result. Causation designates the relationship of cause and effect.

Character

An entity or existent that exhibits agency and performs actions. Synonym for agent and actor/actant.

Climax

The crisis point in a narrative at which the conflict reaches maximum tension.

Closure

Typically comes at the end of a narrative, but it should not be confused with the denouement.

Closure

Closure is achieved when a narrative satisfies the expectations and answers the questions it has raised.

Conflict

A process whereby an initial state of equilibrium in a storyworld is upset by a disruptive event or series of events.

Conflict

A clash between the beliefs, desires, or intentions of two or more characters in a narrative or between dissonant aspects of a single character.

Conflict

Conflict occurs when characters confront people, objects, events, or forces that oppose or resist them.

Constituent Events/Kernels

Events that are essential to the forward movement of the story.

Constitutive

Having the power to establish or create something else.

Constitutive

Of a constituent. Being a component element that makes a thing what it is.

Denouement

The ending of a narrative, following the climax and falling action, during which conflicts are resolved, questions answered, and plot threads tied up.

Denouement

Equilibrium is attained and some (possibly new) state of normality is reached.

Embedded narrative

A story-within-a-story; a narrative nestled in a framing narrative.

Essentially contested concept

A concept or term whose definition, meaning, or proper use inevitably involves endless disputes. Essentially contested concepts admit no singular, authoritative definition.

Event

The fundamental unit of action in a story. A change of state that creates an alteration in the world of the story.

Existent

Objects contained in the world of a story. Synonym for entity. An existent can be either an agent or a setting.

Exposition

The presentation of the circumstances, characters, events, and other information that is necessary for understanding the action of the narrative.

Fabula

The set of events tied together which are communicated to us in the course of the narrative discourse.

Falling action

The series of events that follow from the changes created by the climax.

Framing narrative

A narrative that contains another narrative.

Fuzzy Set

A set whose elements have degrees of membership.

Happening

A type of event that is not caused by an agent. Example: a rainstorm.

Hero's Journey

A narrative structure described by Joseph Campbell drawn from myths, folktales, and other narratives across history and cultures.

Inciting incident

The event that introduces the main conflict or problem.

In medias res

Latin (literally "into the middle of things"). Of a narrative that begins in the middle or midst of the story.

Intrusion

The event that breaks the opening stasis and disrupts the equilibrium. Similar to inciting incident.

Manifestation

In Chatman: The material substance through which the story is expressed. Synonym for media or medium. Examples include drawing, painting, written or spoken language, theatre, film, etc.

Masterplot

A category of recurring skeletal stories belonging to cultures and individuals that play a powerful role in questions of identity and values.

Medium

(plural: media) The means by which something is communicated or expressed. Synonym for Chatman's manifestation.

Monomyth

According to Joseph Campbell: a common structure shared by stories of heroes in all cultures across human history.

Morphology

The study of the form and structure of things. (e.g. animals, plants, words, language, etc.)

Narrative

The representation of an event or series of events.

Narrative (rhetorical approach)

Narrative is a purposive communicative act. Somebody telling somebody else on some occasion and for some purpose that something happened.

Narrative discourse

The means by which a story is communicated; the story as represented.

Narrativity

The quality or characteristics of a narrative.

Narrator

The narrator is the person who relates the narrative. The narrator is not the same as the author.

Normalization

The act of making something normal or causing it to be considered normal.

Necessary Condition

An attribute that must be present for something to belong in a certain set.

Para-aesthetic

Concerning elements and conditions outside an aesthetic object or event (the artwork, the film, the performance, etc.) that frame it and serve to shape and influence the audience's response.

Plot

The term plot is used in several distinct ways.

Narrative Discourse

The combination and sequencing of events in a narrative, often emphasizing the way in which the discourse departs from the chronological order of events.

Story Framework

A type of story framework that can be repeated and retold in seemingly endless variety (revenge plot, marriage plot, etc.).

Point of Attack

The point in the story at which the narrative discourse begins.

Polar Conditions

The conditions or state of the characters and/or storyworld at the beginning and end of a narrative sequence.

Protagonist

The principal character in a narrative, sometimes called the hero.

Representation

Something (especially signs—e.g. written or spoken language, images, etc.) that stands in for or takes the place of something else.

Rhetoric

The art of using language or other modes of communication and representation to persuade or influence others.

Rising Action

Refers to the series of events that increase the intensity of the conflict leading to the climax, where the protagonist(s) attempts to realize their main goal(s) in the face of increasingly difficult complications and obstacles.

Setting

An existent in the story that does not possess agency or perform actions, including all elements contained in the world of the story that are not agents.

Sjuzet

How the reader becomes aware of what has happened, or the order of the appearance of the events in the work itself; similar to plot.

Social Reality

The reality established and maintained by the consensus of a group, distinct from material reality that is independent of institutions, perception, language, culture, history, etc.

Stasis

A condition of balance among the various forces in the narrative resulting in no movement, where life is stable and unchanging for the main character(s).

Stereotype

A type character created with little to no imagination that adheres too closely to an abstract type and thus seems lifeless and formulaic.

Oversimplified Idea

An often prejudiced idea of the characteristics that typify a person, group of people, or thing.

Story

A chronological sequence of events involving entities.

Structure of Narrative Transmission

The elements used to communicate the story and the structure in which those elements are arranged, excluding the manifestation or medium of expression.

Sufficient Condition

An attribute whose presence automatically places something into a certain set, e.g., 'All humans are mammals.'

Supplementary Events/Satellites

Events that are not necessary for moving the story forward.

Transcultural

Transcending cultural boundaries; true, existing, or present in all cultures.

Transhistorical

Transcending historical boundaries; always true, existing, or present in all points in history.

Trigger & Heap

Action is composed of two events: the 'trigger' which causes or permits a second event to happen, and the 'heap' which is caused or permitted by the first event.

Type

A kind of skeletal character that recurs across a range of narratives, such as the tragic hero or the Chosen One.

Ubiquitous

Present, appearing, or found everywhere; omnipresent.

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator who cannot be taken at their word, compelling the reader to read between the lines to discern the truth about events, characters, and/or the world of the story.