Literary Terms #6

Plot Terms & Narrative Terms

AP English Literature and CompositionHilltop High School

Mrs. Demangos

Effect of physical environment Also called Mood The emotional feelings inspired by a work. The

term is borrowed from meteorology to describe the dominant mood of a selection as it is created by:• diction, • dialogue, • setting, • description

Atmosphere

Mood

Often the opening scene in

a play or novel establishes an atmosphere appropriate to the theme of the entire work.

The opening of Shakespeare's Hamlet creates a brooding atmosphere of unease.

Atmosphere

Mood

Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher

establishes an atmosphere of gloom and emotional decay.

Atmosphere

Mood

The author’s or speaker’s attitude The author’s implicit attitude toward the

reader or the people, places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the author’s style.

Tone may be characterized as serious or ironic, sad or happy, private or public, angry or affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or any other attitudes and feelings that human beings experience.

Tone

speaker’s attitude

By looking carefully at the choices an

author makes (in characters, incidents, setting; in the work's stylistic choices and diction, etc.), careful readers often can isolate the tone of a work and sometimes infer from it the underlying attitudes that control and color the story or poem as a whole.

Tone

…serious or ironic, sad or happy, private or public, angry or affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or…

To illustrate the difference, two different

novelists might write stories about capitalism.

Tone

Author #1 creates a tale in which an impoverished but hard-working young lad pulls himself out of the slums when he applies himself to his education, and he becomes a wealthy, contented middle-class citizen who leaves his past behind him, never looking back at that awful human cesspool from which he rose.

Author #2 creates a tale in which a dirty street-rat skulks his way out of the slums by abandoning his family and going off to college, and he greedily hoards his money in a gated community and ignores the suffering of his former "equals," whom he leaves behind in his selfish desire to get ahead.Author #1 Author #2

To illustrate the difference, two different

novelists might write stories about capitalism.

Tone

Author #1 and author #2 basically present the same plotline. While the first author's writing creates a tale of optimism and hope, the second author shapes the same tale into a story of bitterness and cynicism.

Author #1 Author #2

To illustrate the difference, two different

novelists might write stories about capitalism.

Tone

The difference is in their respective tones--the way they convey their attitudes about particular characters and subject-matter. • Note that in poetry, tone is often called voice.

Author #1 Author #2

Interplay of opposing forces The opposition between:

1. two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist),

2. between two large groups of people, 3. between the protagonist and a larger

problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on.

Conflict is the engine that drives a plot.

Conflict

Conflict may also be completely internal,

such as the protagonist struggling with his psychological tendencies (drug addiction, self-destructive behavior, and so on).

Internal Conflict

William Faulkner famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of "the human heart in conflict with itself."

Narratives driven by internal struggles

include:

Internal Conflict

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," in which the protagonist ends up struggling with his own guilt after committing a murder.

and…

Internal Conflict

Daniel Scott Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon," in which the hero struggles with the loss of his own intelligence to congenital mental retardation.

Examples of narratives driven mainly by conflicts

between the protagonist and nature include:

External Conflict

Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" (in which shipwrecked men in a lifeboat struggle to stay alive and get to shore).

Jack London's "To Build a Fire“(in which the Californian struggles to save himself from freezing to death in Alaska)

Examples of narratives driven by conflicts

between a protagonist and an antagonist include Mallory's Le Morte D'arthur, in which King Arthur faces off against his evil son Mordred, each representing civilization and barbarism respectively.

External Conflict

In complex works of literature, multiple conflicts may occur at once. For instance, in Shakespeare's Othello, one level of conflict is the unseen struggle between Othello and the machinations of Iago, who seeks to destroy him. Another level of conflict is Othello's struggle with his own jealous insecurities and his suspicions that Desdemona is cheating on him.

Conflict

Lightens narrative A humorous scene or incident

that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work.

In many instances these moments enhance the thematic significance of the story in addition to providing laughter.

Comic Relief

When Hamlet jokes with

the gravediggers we laugh, but something hauntingly serious about the humor also intensifies our more serious emotions.

Comic Relief

Plot reversals An intensification of the conflict in a

story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates, and develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

Complication

Contrived ending from Greek theos apo mechanes: An unrealistic

or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the story's conflict. The term means "The god out of the machine," and it refers to stage machinery.

A classical Greek actor, portraying one of the Greek gods in a play, might be lowered out of the sky onto the stage and then use his divine powers to solve all the mortals' problems. The term is a negative one, and it often implies a lack of skill on the part of the writer.

Deus Ex Machina

In a modern example of deus ex machina, a writer might reach a climactic moment in which a band of pioneers were attacked by bandits. A cavalry brigade's unexpected arrival to drive away the marauding bandits at the conclusion, with no previous hint of the cavalry's existence, would be a deus ex machina conclusion.

Deus Ex Machina

…to the rescue!

Such endings mean that heroes are unable to solve

their own problems in a pleasing manner, and they must be "rescued" by the writer himself through improbable means.

In some genres, the deus ex machina ending is actually a positive and expected trait. In various vitae, or Saint's Lives, divine intervention is one of the normal climactic moments of the narrative to bring about the rescue of a saint or to cause a mass conversion among conventional pagan characters. See vita.

Deus Ex Machina

Sudden awareness Christian thinkers used this term to signify

a manifestation of God's presence in the world. It has since become in modern fiction and poetry the standard term for the sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene.

In particular, the epiphany is a revelation of such power and insight that it alters the entire world-view of the thinker who experiences it.

Epiphany

Ah ha!

(In this sense, it is similar to what a scientist might call a "paradigm shift.")

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes place on the Feast of the Epiphany, and the theme of revelation is prevalent in the work.

Epiphany

Paradigm shift…

Device to supply background A method of narration in which present

action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events--usually in the form of a character's memories, dreams, narration, or even authorial commentary (such as saying, "But back when King Arthur had been a child. . . ."). Flashback allows an author to fill in the reader about a place or a character, or it can be used to delay important details until just before a dramatic moment.

Flashback

Hints at coming events Suggesting, hinting,

indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative.

Foreshadowing often provides hints about what will happen next.

Foreshadowing

What do you think is going to happen next?

For instance, a movie director might

show a clip in which two parents discuss their son's leukemia. The camera briefly changes shots to do an extended close-up of a dying plant in the garden outside, or one of the parents might mention that another relative died on the same date. The perceptive audience sees the dying plant, or hears the reference to the date of death, and realizes this detail foreshadows the child's death later in the movie.

Foreshadowing

Often this foreshadowing

takes the form of a noteworthy coincidence or appears in a verbal echo of dialogue.

Other examples of foreshadowing include the conversation and action of the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Foreshadowing

Thoughts and feelings recorded as they occur Writing in which a character's

perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax.

Often such writing makes no distinction between various levels of reality--such as dreams, memories, imaginative thoughts or real sensory perception.

Stream of Consciousness

William James coined the phrase "stream of consciousness" in his Principles of Psychology (1890). The technique has been used by several authors and poets: Katherine Anne Porter, Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, and William Faulkner.

Central idea The central meaning or dominant idea in a

literary work. A theme provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of view, symbols, and other elements of a work are organized.

Theme

Central Idea

It is important not to mistake the theme

for the actual subject of the work; the theme refers to the abstract concept that is made concrete through the images, characterization, and action of the text.

A theme is the author's way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with readers, and it may be directly stated in the book, or it may only be implied.

Theme

Often-repeated idea or theme A conspicuous recurring element, such as

a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature.

Motif

Exposition, rising action, climax,

falling action The structure and relationship of actions

and events in a work of fiction. In order for a plot to begin, some sort of catalyst is necessary. While the temporal order of events in the work constitutes the "story," we are speaking of plot rather than story as soon as we look at how these events relate to one another and how they are rendered and organized so as to achieve their particular effects.

Plot

PLOT DIAGRAMClimax

Falling Action

Resolution

Exposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

Introduction of characters,

setting, background information;

opening scene

Ask:What information does the writer give the reader at the beginning of the story?

Cinderella lives with her evil stepmother and stepsisters and is treated poorly.

PLOT DIAGRAMClimax

Falling Action

Resolution

Exposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

The Narrative Hook is the point of

conflict. It is the struggle between

opposing forces that drives the story.

Ask:What event drew you most as a reader?

The prince will be choosing a bride at the upcoming ball. However, Cinderella has nothing to wear to the ball and she is not allowed to attend the ball.

PLOT DIAGRAM Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Exposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

Ask:What types of conflict are present in the story? External? Internal?

The main character faces a series of conflicts.

Characters are developed and complications

increase. As the step-family prepares for the ball, Cinderella wishes she could go. Her fairy godmother comes to her aid and makes it possible for her to attend, but she must leave at midnight. She dances with the prince and it’s a magic moment.

PLOT DIAGRAM Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Exposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

The climax is most often considered the most exciting or suspenseful part of the story.

The conflict or

problem is at its

worst and the

characters begin

to solve the

problem

At midnight Cinderella must leave the ball so she flees from the palace and loses her glass slipper on the steps. The prince is distraught at losing his love and is determined to find her.

PLOT DIAGRAM Climax

Falling Action

ResolutionExposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

The falling action deals with events which occur

right after the climax when the character begins to

solve the problem. These events are usually the

after-effects of the climax.The prince uses the slipper to find Cinderella. He goes from house to house trying the slipper on every female in the land, searching for the slipper’s perfect fit. The slipper does not fit the stepmother or the stepsisters.

The conflict decreases.Often the time of greatest overall tension.

PLOT DIAGRAM Climax

Falling Action

ResolutionExposition

Rising Action

Narrative Hook

Cinderella tries the slipper and it fits. Cinderella and the Prince are reunited, marry, and live happily ever after.

The conflict comes to an end, or the problem and/or

mystery is solved. In this stage all

patterns of events accomplish artistic or

emotional effect.

There is usually a release of dramatic tension and anxiety (also known as catharsis).

Note that, while it is most common for events to unfold chronologically or ab ovo (in which the first event happens first, the second event happens second, and so on), many stories structure the plot in such a way that the reader encounters happenings out of order. A common technique along this line is to "begin" the story in the middle of the action, a technique called beginning in medias res (Latin for "in the middle[s] of things"). Some narratives involve several short episodic plots occurring one after the other (like chivalric romances), or they may involve multiple subplots taking place simultaneously with the main plot (as in many of Shakespeare's plays).

Resolution, outcome replicating thought A French word meaning "unknotting" or

"unwinding," denouement refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot. It is the unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel or other work of literature.

Denouement

This resolution usually takes place in the

final chapter or scene, after the climax is over. Usually the denouement ends as quickly as the writer can arrange it--for it occurs only after all the conflicts have been resolved.

Denouement

http://

www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/fiction/fiction_terms.html

George Hartley’s Glossary of Fiction Terms

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_A.htmlLiterary Terms and Definitions, Dr. L. Kip Wheeler

Sources