FICTION

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FICTION

• It is what you read when you dont
• have to that determines what you
• will be when you cant help it.
• Oscar Wilde

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LITERATURE

• FICTION

POETRY
DRAMA
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Escape vs. Imaginative/Interpretive

• Is only for entertainment/diversion
• May have some substance, but lacks the depth of
  imaginative fiction
• Takes us away from reality
• Often contains suspense, love interests, action,
  etc.
• May leave reader with superficial attitudes
  toward life
• May distort readers views of reality and may
  promote false concepts and expectations of real
  life

• Begins with the writers need to convey a
  personal vision
• Takes the reader to a deeper level of
  understanding about self, society, and the human
  condition
• Does more than just communicate the writers
  ideas it uses words that are memorable
• Uses vivid imagery and stretches language to its
  limits
• Urges the reader to see beyond the factual
  details of events
• Illuminates some aspect of human life or human
  behavior
• Provides a portrait of human conditions from
  particular regions, time periods, and eras.
• Suggests more than one possible interpretation

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Elements of Literature
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Theme

• Can be broad or narrow, central or peripheral
• Common themes include
• a. coming of agematuration
• b. loss of innocence
• c. family ties
• d. self-awareness
• Is conveyed through
• a. selection and arrangement of details
• b. emphasis of certain events or images
• c. actions and reactions of characters

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Plot

• The element you will notice first and remember
  the longest
• Its the pattern of actions, events, and
  situations, used expressively by the writer to
  create suspense, sadness, humor, excitement, etc.
• Can be simple or complex
• Emphasizes the relationships between the
  characters, events, and situations.
• Contains the conflict
• Diagram

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Setting

• This is the time and the place in the story, the
  details of which are important to our
  understanding of the entire meaning of the story.
• Look at these contexts when reading
• Historical context
• Geographical context
• Physical context

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Setting

• Historical context This lets the reader know
  what the social, political, economic, and
  cultural environment was surrounding the story
• Geographical context Knowing the location may
  help explain the behavior of the characters. The
  size of the location and the lay of the land
  can provide the reader with clues about the
  storys theme or can act as foreshadowing.
• Physical context Observe elements like the
  weather, the time of day, and whether or not the
  storys setting is indoors or outdoors. The
  outdoors may suggest expansive freedom the
  indoors may suggest isolation or limitations.
  Outdoor settings may free a character from the
  social norms of behavior for a time. Ex. A
  Midsummer Nights Dream. Storms may foreshadow
  imminent danger or other threats. Weather may
  test the characters actions when they have to
  struggle against the environment.

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Style

• Style is the way a writer selects and arranges
  words, sentences, and paragraphs.
• Style encompasses word choice, sentence length
  and structure, and the presence or prominence of
  imagery and figures of speech.
• Hemingway and Faulkner are good examples of
  contrasting styles.

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Tone

• Tone is the attitude of the author toward the
  subject and can be revealed through the
  narrators attitude and actions.
• The tone of the story can be playful, humorous,
  ironic, satirical, serious, somber, bitter,
  condescending, formal or informal, critical or
  supportive, just to list a few.

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Language

• The language that the characters use gives us an
  idea of their location and social class.
• Formal language uses elaborate, complex sentences
  and may include figurative language.
• Informal language is consistent with everyday
  speech. It can sometimes provide clues to the
  characters motivationEx. The slang used by
  The Misfit in A Good Man is Hard to Find.

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Symbol

• Symbol can be a person, object, action, place, or
  event that, in addition to its literal meaning,
  suggests a more complex meaning. Some symbols
  are relatively obvious, like the character of
  Manley Pointer in OConnors Good Country
  People.

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Character(s)

• A character is a fictional representation of a
  person. Usually, but not always, its a
  psychologically realistic depiction.
• Characters are developed in two ways
• 1. We can be told about them by the narrator
  who gives us info about what the characters are
  doing or thinking, what they look like, how
  theyre dressed, what values they hold, etc.
  Sometimes the narrator will make a judgment about
  a characters behavior or provide an analysis of
  it.
• 2. The characters personality traits and/or
  motivation(s) may be revealed through actions,
  dialogue, or thoughts.

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Character(s)Round or Flat

• In his 1927 work, Aspects of the Novel, author
  E.M. Forster coined the terms round and flat
  to describe character development in a literary
  work.
• A round character is well-developed in the
  story and is closely involved in and is
  responsive to the action in the story. This is a
  character that the reader can clearly identify as
  a main character.
• A flat character is one that is barely
  developed or is stereotypical. Its harder for
  the reader to get involved with this character or
  to care what happens to him/her in the course of
  the story. An example might be the stereotypical
  drunk in a Wild West story.

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Character(s)Dynamic or Static

• Characters can be classified as either dynamic
  or static.
• A dynamic character grows and changes in a
  significant way throughout the course of the
  story as he/she reacts to events and other
  characters. The dynamic character may grow and
  change in relation to self-awareness, to
  maturity, to the human condition, or to a number
  of factors. Dynamic characters sometimes
  experience epiphanies.
• A static character, on the other hand, may face
  the exact same challenges as the dynamic
  character, but will remain unchanged by events or
  other characters. If the static character is
  selfish and arrogant at the beginning of the
  story, he/she will be the same way at the end of
  the story.

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Point of View

• Whos telling the story? Do we have a narrator?
  
• Questions to ask yourself about the narrator
• Is he/she reliable or unreliable? If the narrator
  is crazy, jealous, self-serving, mistaken,
  confused, etc., then the reader may questions the
  reliability of the story he/she is telling.
• Is the narrator a participating character, or is
  the narrator telling the story from an omniscient
  point of view?
• Is the narrator naïve? The reader can see that
  the narrators background limits his/her ability
  to understand a situation.
• Can we see into the mind(s) of the character(s)?