WRITTEN

NARRATION
EVALUATING A STORY
WEEK 2
LITERARY DEVICES
To be able to do it;

a student should be aware of the literary devices writers use to

enrich their language and create complexity within a story.

The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed

in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes.
 The way a story is presented
- the angle of vision, the point from which people, events, and
other details are viewed, and the words of the story.

- The view aspect is called the focus or point of view, and

the verbal aspect the voice.

- It is important to distinguish between the author, the person

who wrote the story, and the narrator, the person or voice
telling the story.

- The author may select a first-person narrative, when one

character tells of things that only he or she saw and felt.

- In a third-person narrative the omniscient author moves in

and out of people's thoughts and comments freely on what
the characters think, say and do.
The author's choice of characters, events, situations,
details and his/her choice of words is by no means
accidental.

Whatever leads us to infer the author's attitude to his

subject matter is called tone. Like the tone of voice, the
tone of a story may communicate amusement, anger,
affection, sorrow, and contempt.

One of the clearest indications of the tone of a story

is the style in which it is written.
The notion of style means the language a writer uses
and includes such traits as the length and complexity of
sentences, the choice of words (abstract or concrete, or
colloquial) and the use of such stylistic devices as simile,
metaphor, synecdoche, etc.

One of the chief devices is the symbol. It may be a

person, an object or an action that represents something
else because of its association with it.

It is frequently a visible sign of something invisible.

Every plot is an arrangement of
meaningful events. No matter
how insignificant or deceptively
casual, the events of the story
are meant to suggest the
character's morals and motives.
 Texts can have widely differing degrees of plot connectivity: some
are tightly plotted or have 'linear plots‘ where everything ties in with
everything else (the characters want to fulfil dreams, go on a quest,
realize plans, inhibit the plans of others, overcome problems, pass
tests etc.);

others have mosaic plots, i.e., are loosely plotted, episodic, accident-
driven, and possibly avoid causal plotting altogether.

(To illustrate, fairy tales are usually tightly plotted following the
pattern A does X because B has done (or is) Y. ,

The Queen is jealous because Snow-white has become more

beautiful than she is. So she orders a huntsman to kill her.
Nevertheless, the huntsman does not do it because he takes pity on
Snow-White (because she's so beautiful).
Sometimes a plot follows the chronological order of events.

At other times there are jumps back and forth in time (flashbacks and
foreshadowing).
 The four structural components of the plot

Exposition Complication Climax Denoument

 Exposition

a short presentation of time, place, characters and

background of the story. Exposition analysis deals with
the questions of how, when, and to what extent the
recipient is informed about the story’s background and
its existents.

'isolated exposition in the initial position

'integrated exposition', distributed in "a number of
smaller units" across the whole text, successively and
cumulatively informs the recipient about the play's
background (time, setting, etc.).
Complication

a separate incident helping to unfold the

action, and might involve thoughts and
feelings as well.
Climax

Climax is a decisive moment on which the fate

of the characters and the final action depend.
Denoument

means 'the untying of a knit' which is precisely

what happens in this phase. It is the final
resolution of the plot(s), leading to the play's
'closure'. Not all stories have a denouement,
some stories end right after the climax.
 Closure
Type of conclusion that ends a text.

Tightly plotted texts often have a 'recognition

scene' (in which the protagonist finally recognizes
the true state of affairs), and in the course of the
dénouement the conflict is usually resolved by
marriage, death, or some other aesthetically or
morally satisfactory outcome.

Many modern stories and plays lack closure,

however, are open-ended, simply stop, or conclude
enigmatically and ambiguously
 'Freytag's pyramid'
a well-known time-line model which attempts to capture the general structure of a classical
five-act tragedy (as established by Horace 50 BC).
 Example
Shakespeare's Hamlet as an example: "the rising action (or what
Aristotle called the complication) begins with the ghost telling Hamlet
of his murder, and continues with the conflict between Hamlet and
Claudius, in which Hamlet, despite setbacks, succeeds in controlling
the course of events. The highest point of the rising action, the climax,
comes with the proof to Hamlet of the king's guilt by the device of the
play within the play, Act II, scene II.
The falling action begins with the 'turning point,‘ or Hamlets failure to
kill the king while he is at prayer. From now on the antagonist,
Claudius, for the most part controls the action until the tragic
catastrophe, at which point occurs the death of the hero" [2, p. 72].
Holman [9, p. 174] adds: "The latter part of the falling action is
sometimes marked by an event which delays the catastrophe and
seems to offer a way of escape for the hero (the apparent
reconciliation of Hamlet and Laertes). This is called the 'moment of
final suspense' and aids in maintaining interest."
 Elements of a work of fiction

Narration is dynamic, it gives a continuous account of events, while description is static,

and it is a verbal portrait of an object, person or scene.

It may be detailed and direct or impressionistic, giving few but striking details.

Through the dialogue the characters are better portrayed, it also brings the action
nearer to the reader, makes it seem swifter and more intense.

Interior monologue renders the thoughts and feelings of a character.

The interrelation between different components of a literary text is called composition.
A SHORT STORY
 Setting

A short story is more than just a

sequence of happenings. Its setting may
be no less important than the events
themselves.
The setting can have various
The term setting is generally taken to functions in a given story: 1) it
include not only the geographical place, can provide a realistic
in which the events in a story happen,
but also a historical era, the daily lives background, 2) it can evoke
and customs of the characters. the necessary atmosphere, 3)
it can help describe the
Such details as the time of the year, characters indirectly
certain parts of the landscape, the
weather, colours, sounds or other
seemingly trivial details may be of great
importance.
 Characters and characterization

Characterization analysis investigates the ways and means of creating the personality
traits of fictional characters.

The basic analytical question is, Who (subject) characterizes whom (object) as being what
(as having which traits or properties).
 explicit
characterization
implicit
characterization
usually based on a descriptive statement
(particularly, a sentence using be or have as its main
verb) that identifies, categorizes, individualizes, and
evaluates a person.

Characterizing judgments can refer to external, internal,

or habitual traits ("John has blue eyes, is a good-
hearted fellow, and smokes a pipe").

Note that an explicit characterization is mainly defined

as being one that is meant and understood to be a
verbal characterization -- however, the characterizing
statement itself can clearly be quite vague, allusive, or
elliptical (as in "he is not a person you'd want to
associate with").
is an autocharacterization (usually unintentional) in which
somebody's physical appearance or behaviour is indicative
of a characteristic trait.

X characterizes him- or herself by behaving or speaking in a

certain manner.
Nonverbal behaviour (what a character does) may
characterize a person as, for instance, a homosexual, a fine
football player, or a coward.

Characters are also implicitly characterized by their dress,

their physical appearance (e.g., a hunchback) and their
chosen environment (e.g., their rooms, their pet dogs, their
cars).

Verbal behaviour (the way a character speaks, or what a

character says in a certain situation) may characterize a
person as, for instance, having a certain educational
background (jargon, slang, dialect), as belonging to a
certain class or group of people (sociolect), or as being
truthful, evasive, ill-mannered.
Most writers of the short story attempt to create
characters that strike us, not as stereotypes, but as
unique individuals .

Characters are called round if they are complex and

develop or change in the course of the story.

Flat characters are one-sided, constructed round a

single trait.

If two characters have distinctly opposing features,

one serves as a foil to the other, and the contrast
between them becomes more apparent.

Round characters have different functions in the

conflict of the story.
The conflict may be external, i.e. between human
beings or between man and the environment
(individual against nature, individual against the
established order (values in the society).

The internal conflict takes place in the mind, here the

character is torn between opposing features of his/her
personality.

The two parties in the conflict are called the

protagonist and the antagonist.
When the author himself/herself describes the
character, or makes another do it, it is direct
characterization.

When the author shows the character in action, and

lets the reader judge, it is indirect characterization.
The theme of a story is whatever general idea or
insight the entire story reveals.

In some stories the theme is unmistakable, in others,

it is not so obvious.

That is, it need not be a moral or a message; it may be

what the happenings add up to, what the story is
about.

Frequently writers are interested in suggesting rather

than explaining the theme of a story, leaving it to the
reader to infer, or deduce, the hidden meaning.
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