Approaching Fiction Notes

Fiction, Narrative, Stories

• Fiction: Invented stories, common in novels, short stories, and novellas.

• Narrative: A series of events in order (beginning, middle, end) connected in time.

• Stories: Found everywhere and shape our lives.

• Stories are connected to power and authority. Always consider multiple stories.

Narratology

• Narratology/Narrative Theory: Focuses on the structures of narration.

• Provides tools for systematic analysis and interpretation of narrative texts.

Two Levels of Analysis: Story vs. Discourse

• Story: Chronological sequence of narrated events (What happens? Level of content).

• Discourse: Shaping of material by the narrator (How is the story communicated? Level of form).

• The same story can be narrated in different ways depending on events, linguistic form, narrative perspective and narrative techniques.

Elements of "Story"

• Existents: Setting and Characters

• Events: Actions and Happenings

Existents: Setting

• Where and when a story takes place. Includes geographical location, time period, and social conditions.

Existents: Characters

• Personages in a narrative.

  • Protagonist: Main character

  • Antagonist: Opposes the protagonist

• Types of Characters: Flat/simple vs. round/complex, static vs. dynamic.

Story: Events

• Smallest units of action that propel the story forward.

  • Action: Characters do something

  • Happenings: Something happens to the characters

Elements of Discourse

• Plot, Time, Narrative Voice, Focalization, Representation of Consciousness, Narrative Modes of Presentation

Plot

• Events selected and arranged to create interest.

Plot Structure

• Introduction/Exposition, Rising Action, Climax/Crisis/Turning Point, Falling Action, Catastrophe, Dénouement

Plot: Conflict

• Tension between protagonist and antagonist, nature, society, or internal conflict.

Different Types of Plot

• Main plot, subplot, counterplot, episodic, closed, open-ended

Time

• When the narration is set (In medias res, Ab ovo, In ultimas res).

Time: Time Structure

• Anachrony: Discrepancy between event order and presentation order (flashback/analepsis, flashforward/prolepsis).

Time: Story Time vs. Discourse Time

• Story Time: Time that passes in the story.

• Discourse Time: Time needed to tell the story.

Narrative Voice

• Who tells the story (Narrator, not the author).

  • Degree of participation: first-person vs. third-person narrator

  • Degree of explicitness: overt vs. covert narrator

  • (Un)Reliability: reliable vs. unreliable narrator

  • Degree of knowledge: omniscient narrator

Homodiegetic vs. Heterodiegetic Narrator

• Homodiegetic narrator = a character in the story

• Heterodiegetic narrator = not on the same level as the story

Focalization

• Who perceives what is happening.

  • Internal focalization: character perceives

  • External focalization: heterodiegetic narrator = focalizer

Theme

• Abstract idea that emerges from the literary work's treatment of the subject matter.

Representation of Consciousness

• Stream of consciousness: Flow of inner experiences.

Direct Interior Monologue

• First person, present tense, with exclamations and minimal punctuation.

Indirect Interior Monologue / Free Indirect Style

• Third person, past tense, with exclamations but no quotation marks.

Narrative Modes of Presentation

• Showing vs. telling

  • Scene, scenic method (showing)

  • Panoramic method (telling)

Mode of Presentation: Characterization

Direct/Explicit Characterization

• Through speech, thoughts, narrator, other characters, or name (telling).

Indirect/Implicit Characterization

• Through actions, behavior, speech, thoughts of another character, setting, or character constellation (showing).