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Prose *What is Prose?*

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*Prose is non-metrical, 'ordinary' language.

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Prose *Discourse*: (as per Gérard Genette and structuralist terminology)

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Discourse is the structure of the narrative transmission: discourse refers to the 'how' of a text: how is a story communicated narratively? Strictly speaking, it is only discourse that is directly accessible to us, since we only learn about the story via discourse. *Elements of discourse* thus determine our perception of the story (what 'actually' happened).

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Prose *Story*

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In structuralist narratology, the *story* level of narrative is the totality of elements that constitute the diegetic level of fictional action. Story refers to the ‚what„ of a text: what is narrated?

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Prose *Narrative*

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In informal usage, *narrative* is a synonym for story. More technically, it is a representation of a structured time-course of particularized events that introduces conflict (disruption and disequilibrium) into a *storyworld* conveying what it is like to live through that disruption, that is, *qualia* (or felt, subjective awareness) of real or imagined consciousnesses undergoing the disruptive experience.

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Prose *Storyworld*

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The world evoked by a *narrative* text or *discourse*; a mental representation of who did what to and with whom, when, where, why and in what fashion in the world for whose reconstruction a narrative artifact (text, film, etc.) provides a blueprint.

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Prose *events* *Story Level*

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Events are the things that happen as analysed from the story level. Events can be further broken down. *Actions:* an event brought about actively (one character kills another one) *Happenings:* events that just happen (someone dies of a heart-attack).

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Prose *Story Level* *Existents*

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*Existents* is a term comprising characters and setting. *Character existents* refer to characters that make things happen or have things happen to them *Setting* refers to the place/space where things happen.

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting*

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On the level of story the category of *space or setting* forms an important component in the creation and communication of meaning. In narrative, unlike in drama, film or picture stories, space has to be presented verbally. It thus exists, ultimately, only in the reader's imagination. Readers create their notions of fictional space from their own experience in the real world. In conjunction with this, accurate and convincing descriptions of spatial dimensions in a narrative serve to increase the narrative's authenticity

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting*

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Space is not merely illustrated to provide characters in a narrative with real-estate to move around in, it usually contributes additional meaning to a narrative by providing either *correspondences* or *contrasts* to the plot or the characters. These aspects are of particular note: • atmosphere • space and character • space and plot • symbolic space

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting* *Atmosphere*

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*Atmosphere* Darkness and narrow spaces, for instance, are commonly associated with threatening or restrictive atmospheres. Wide open or sunlit spaces create an atmosphere of freedom. Such atmospheres can then be used to provide a characteristic background for a character.

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting* *Space & Character*

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The environment in which a character moves can function as a means of characterisation. Sometimes space leaves its mark on character if an author uses milieu to mirror or enhance the characters personal attributes thus lending to our his/her personality.

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting* *Space & the Contouring of Plot-lines*

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Setting can also help to define *plot-lines*. Especially in narratives with several subplots, a characteristic setting for each subplot can serve as a means of orientation for the reader.

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Prose *Story Level* *Space or Setting* *Space & Symbol*

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Space can also serve as a *symbol*. The poor streets of London, as described in Dickens' 'Bleak House', are a symbolic space indicating a lower social status.

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Prose *Symbol*

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In text analysis one looks for *symbols* in an effort to reveal those objects and events that are symbolic for a concept immediately relevant to the development of plot or character.

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Prose *Public Symbols*

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Symbols known to everyone within a certain cultural community are considered public symbols. The cross for instance, which represents the Christian religion, is such a public symbol. The colour white, representing purity and innocence, can also be considered a public symbol.

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Prose *Private Symbols*

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Symbols that are not generally known and that can only be decoded from their usage in a specific text. In Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House for instance, Mr John Jarndyce uses the expression 'There is an east wind' to indicate that he is distressed about tensions or unhappiness among people around him. The expression, which is normally merely about the weather, is thus used as a private symbol.

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Prose *Character*

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Characters are representations of people in narratives, constructed by an author to fulfil a certain function in a certain context, that do not exist independently of their narrative context.

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Prose *Character* The main questions for an analysis of character:

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1. Techniques of characterisation: HOW does the text inform us about character? 2. Character functions: WHAT FUNCTION do characters have in the narrative?

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Prose *Character* Techniques of characterisation:

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Techniques of characterisation are used in texts to enable readers to form a mental construct of a character. There are six main aspects to be considered 1. How is the character described? 2. By whom is the character described? 3.. How is the characterisation distributed throughout the text? 4. How reliable is the source of information? 5. What do we learn about a character's inner life? 6. In which arrangements of contrasts and correspondences is the character depicted?

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Prose *Character* *Explicit Characterisation*

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The most obvious technique of characterisation is when someone (i.e. the narrator) tells us directly or *explicitly* what a character is like. A character is sometimes also characterised explicitly through a telling name, as for instance Squire Allworthy, who is a worthy gentleman in all respects, in Fielding's Tom Jones.

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Prose *Character* *Implicit Characterisation*

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We can also deduce character-traits that are provided or revealed implicitly through the character's actions or through other character's attitudes to him or her, etc.

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Prose *Character*

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When characters are described, implicitly or explicitly by the characters themselves this is called: figural characterisation.

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Prose *Character* *Self-characterisation*

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When characters are described, implicitly or explicitly by the characters themselves this is called: self-characterisation.

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Prose *Character* *Block Characterisation*

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We can be given crucial information all at once about a character in a *block characterisation*.

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Prose *Plot*

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*Plot*: the structure of the action, i.e. the causal and logical sequence of the events that occur in the narrated world. Plot can be considered as part of discourse. "Plotting is a pattern of actions, events, and situations. Some patterns are simple, but others are complex. The plot is also an expressive device. In a well-written work of fiction, this narrative pattern has been carefully organized by the author to create a certain effect or set of effects on the reader - suspense, humor, sadness, excitement, terror."

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Prose *Story vs. Plot:*

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The distinction between story and plot is still widely (though not always consistently) used to differentiate degrees of connectivity between events in a narrative.

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Prose *Plot-lines*

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A narrative can have one or more *plot-lines*, that is, events can centre around one or more groups of characters.

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Prose *Single vs. Multiple Plots*

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Single plot novels are comparatively rare. Most novels develop *multiple plots*. These multiple plot lines are not necessarily all of the same importance, there can be a *main plot-line* and one or more *subplot lines*. Such subplots can serve as a contrast to the main plot when, for instance, there is the same constellation of events in a higher and a lower social sphere.

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Prose *Tightly plotted narratives*

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In a tightly plotted narrative, everything happens for a reason or a purpose and one event is the consequence of another. A tight plot also contributes to increased suspense. Quest-stories or fairy tales are usually tightly plotted. Conversely, lack of suspense or tension in a narrative can in part be explained by the absence of a tight plot as in for instance, Virginia Woolf's short-story Kew Gardens, mostly because practically nothing happens.

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Prose Plot Line *Closed structure*

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When each *plot-line* is brought to a satisfactory ending one also talks of a *closed structure* (for example the death or marriage of the protagonist or the final defeat of an evil force). This is often the case in Victorian novels where there is frequently an entire chapter at the end, tying up all the loose ends of the plot and giving a short glimpse of the characters' future (see for example George Eliot, Middlemarch or Charles Dickens, Hard Times).

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Prose *Loose or episodic plot*

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*Loosely plotted or episodic* narratives place less emphasis on the causal connection between events, though they still contain plenty of events and actions. Episodes might be linked, instead, by a common character, such as Moll Flanders in Daniel Defoe's novel Moll Flanders.

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Prose *Open-ended plots*

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Plots that are not brought to a final or preliminary conclusion are called *open-ended*.

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Prose/Poetry Questions to ask when doing literary analysis:

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1. What is the narrative situation? 2. Whose point of view is presented? 3. Which narrative modes are employed? 4. How are the thoughts of characters transmitted? 5. How is the chronology of events dealt with? 6: How is style used? 7. How is the reader 'manipulated' into forming certain views about the story.

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Prose *heterodiegetic narrator*

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(third-person) • located outside the narrated world

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Prose *homodiegetic narrator*

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(first-person) • appears as character within his/her own story • ex. an observer, a minor character or • the main protagonist (= autodiegetic narrator)

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Prose *Focalization*

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Focalization refers to the representation of the perception of the fictional world. It encompasses all perceptive, cognitive and emotional elements within the consciousness of the narrator or the characters and therefore includes processes such as thinking, feeling, remembering in addition to sensory perception

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Prose *Internal focaliser:*

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• focalizing subject located on same level as characters • focalizer part of story -a "character-focalizer"

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Prose *External Focalizer*

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The focalizing subject is located on the level of narrative transmission - a "narrator-focalizer"

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Prose *multiple/variable focalization*

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• occurs when several characters in succession function as reflectors

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Prose *fixed focalization*

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• the fictional events are consistently perceived from one specific perspective

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Prose Order Representing time and temporal structures - Gérard Genette: The *chronological* order of arranging the events:

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The 'natural' temporal sequence. Events are told in the order that they occurred.

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Prose Order Gérard Genette uses the term 'anachrony' in his narratological typology to designate non-chronological order or Anachronic temporal structures: '*analepsis'*

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A *flashback* takes the narrative back in time, revealing information about events that occurred at a point or points prior to the current narrative activity depicted in the story Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory

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Prose Order *'Prolepsis'*

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A flashforward reveals information about events that occur at a later - future point - in the chronological sequence. Prolepses can arouse the reader's curiosity by partially revealing facts that will surface later.

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Prose Frequency *singulative narration:*

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Events are depicted once. Narrating once what happened once.

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Prose FREQUENCY *repeating narration:*

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Events are depicted several times. Recounting more than once what happened once.

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Prose FREQUENCY *iterative narration:*

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Events occurring regularly are narrated only once

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Prose DURATION: *discourse time:*

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Time required to read a text or to watch a film

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Prose DURATION: *story time:*

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temporal duration of the action described within the narrated world

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Prose DURATION: *summary/speed-up:*

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Some part of the event-story is summarized in the narrative, creating an acceleration. Summaries can be of variable length. Discourse time is shorter than story time

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Prose DURATION: *scene:*

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scenic presentation; discourse and story time are equal (e.g. in a dialogue scene) Narrative time corresponds to the story's time. Dialogue is a good example of this.

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Prose DURATION: *stretch/slow-down:*

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discourse time is streched

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Prose DURATION: *pause:*

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Story time stands still (e.g. when the narrator interrupts the progression of the story)

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Prose DURATION: *ellipsis/omission:*

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Story time is left out between events. The narrative says absolutely nothing about some part of the event-story.

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Representing consciousness in fiction (following D. Cohn) *Psycho-narration*

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1. psycho-narration (Gedankenbericht) •high degree of compression and narrator participation •use of third-person singular and past tense •the narrator uses his/her own language rather than the language of the character

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Representing consciousness in fiction (following D. Cohn) *Free indirect discourse/narrated monologue*

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2. free indirect discourse/narrated monologue (erlebte Rede) •attempts to convey the illusion of offering immediate insight into the inner processes of a character •uses loose syntax, questions, exclamations, and other signals of subjectivity •a character‟s thoughts are reported in his or her own language

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Representing consciousness in fiction (following D. Cohn) *Interior monologue/quoted monologue*

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3. interior monologue/quoted monologue (innerer Monolog) •highly mimetic form of presenting consciousness •thoughts and feelings of a character are quoted without any discernable mediating instance •‚stream of consciousness technique„, ‚mind style„

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Characterization: Character constellations and conceptions, techniques of characterization:

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•self-characterization •commentary by other characters •characterization by the narrator •explicit vs. implicit characterization

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Techniques of characterization: *self-characterization*

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Characters can be described, implicitly (through their actions and deeds) as well as explicitly, by themselves (self-characterisation).

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Techniques of characterization: *commentary by other characters*

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Characters can be described, implicitly as well as explicitly, by another character in the narrative (also called figural characterisation) or even by the characters themselves (self-characterisation).

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Techniques of characterization: *characterization by the narrator*

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Characters can be described, implicitly as well as explicitly, either by the narrator (sometimes, somewhat misleadingly, called authorial characterisation)

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Techniques of characterization: *explicit characterization*

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The most obvious technique of characterisation is when someone (in the following excerpt: the narrator) tells us *explicitly*, (i.e. directly) what a character is like. A character is sometimes also characterised explicitly through a *telling name*, as for instance Squire Allworthy, who is a worthy gentleman in all respects, in Fielding's Tom Jones.

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Techniques of characterization: *implicit characterization*

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Character-traits that are deduced from information that is given *implicitly*, (i.e. indirectly) through the character's actions and/or other character's attitudes to him or her, etc.

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The identity and appearance of fictional characters 1. What is the given individual like: which properties does the individual possess?

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• physical; behavioral: action-related • communicative • mental: perceptual, emotive, volitional, cognitive • static vs. dynamic characters, enduring vs. time-bound properties • a possible prototype: human-like exterior and internal mental states defined by current cultural concepts

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The identity and appearance of fictional characters 2. What distinguishes the individual from all other coexisting individuals?

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• what makes the individual unique and different?

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The identity and appearance of fictional characters 3. What kind of an individual is it?

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• to which type or category does the individual belong? • species categories • biological (gender, age), cultural (ethnic), social (class), actional, psychological categories

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*stock characters*

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•stereotypes: require little detailed portraiture, we already know them well •known by outstanding traits (mad scientist, reckless police detective)

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*flat characters*

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•distinguished by single odd feature or mannerism •static: tend to stay the same •flat characters need not be stock characters/stereotypes

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*round characters*

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•presented with more facets, greater depth/detail •dynamic: tend to change •three-dimensional

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*character's names*

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•can indicate natures •can make an allusion: to other persons, stories, places, things

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*Image: denotative meaning* (Roland Barthes)

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An image can denote certain apparent truths, providing documentary evidence of objective circumstances. The denotative meaning of the image refers to its literal, descriptive meaning.

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*Image: connotative meaning* (Roland Barthes)

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The same image (a photograph) connotes more culturally specific meanings. Connotative meanings rely on the cultural and historical context of the image and its viewers' lived, felt knowledge of those circumstances - all that the image means to them personally and socially.

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Myth (Roland Barthes)

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The cultural values and beliefs that are expressed at this level of connotation (see above). For Barthes, myth is the hidden set of rules and conventions through which meanings, which are in reality specific to certain groups, are made to seem universal and given for a whole society.

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The Sign (Roland Barthes)

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Composed of the signifier (sound/word/image) and the signified (meaning)

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The Signifier (Roland Barthes)

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The signifier is a written word, sound or image.

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The Signified (Roland Barthes)

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The concept evoked by a sound/word/image - (i.e. signifier).

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Literature/Texts Theory, Analysis, History

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• Fictional Texts Poetry, Prose, Drama • Factual Texts Autobiogr., Speeches, Sermons Theater/Performance • Stage, Performance Spaces • Text-Image-Combinations Graphic Novels, Comics, Ads •Mass Media/Popular Culture Film, TV, Radio, Music, Digital Media • Nonliterary Discourses Religion, Law, Medicine,

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Media/Visual Culture Theory, Analysis, History

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• Text-Image-Combinations Graphic Novels, Comics, Ads • Mass Media/Popular Culture Film, TV, Radio, Music, Digital Media • Visual Culture Painting, Photography, Illustrations • Technology and Culture Architecture, Design, Space

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Questions of Theory Philosophy, Cultural Theory, Intellectual and Cultural History

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• Factual Texts Autobiogr., Speeches, Sermons • Mass Media/Popular Culture Film, TV, Radio, Music, Digital Media • Technology and Culture Architecture, Design, Space • Nonliterary Discourses Religion, Law, Medicine, Science, Journalism

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Communication model and functions of language

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*Subject* referential *addresser*••••••••••••*message*••••••••••••*addressee* emotive expressive poetic conative *medium of contact* phatic *code* metalingual

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What makes us or some other society treat something as *literature*? What is involved in treating things as literature in our culture? *How do we recognize literature?*

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• sometimes the object has features that make it literary but sometimes it is the context that makes us treat it as literature • literature: language with particular properties • literature: a product of conventions and a certain kind of attention

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Properties of literature

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• literature as the foregrounding of language • literature as the integration of language • literature as fiction • literature as aesthetic object • literature as intertextual or self-reflexive construct

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Contexts of literature

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• ways of framing literature/language • literature as an institution and social practice • what are the functions of literature?

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Structure and elements of the plot •dramatic situation: a person is involved in some conflict (clash of wills, desires, powers) *1. beginning*

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•exposition: the opening portion that sets the scene, introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened

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Structure and elements of the plot *2. middle*

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•middle section: introduces a new conflict (a complication) •suspense: the pleasurable anxiety that heightens our attention to the story, inheres in our wondering how it will all turn out •foreshadowing: indication of events to come •crisis: moment of high tension •greater crisis: turning point in the action •climax: moment of greatest tension

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Structure and elements of the plot *3. end*

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•conclusion, resolution, dénoument ('untying of the knot') •open vs. closed ending, expected vs. unexpected ending

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*THEME:*

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THEME: whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals • theme is the center, the moving force, the principle of unity, the larger realization that the story leaves us with • a theme need not be a moral or a message; it may be what the happenings add up to, what the story is about (the story's main idea) • try to define a story's principal meaning; sum it up in a few sentences 1. Look at the title of the story: what does it indicate? 2. How does the main character change, does the character arrive at any realization or understanding? 3. Does the narrator make any general observations about life or human nature? 4. Does the story contain any elements (e.g. objects, symbols) that hint toward larger meanings? 5. Have you cast your statement into general language, not just given a plot summary? 6. Does your statement hold true for the story as a whole, not just part of it?

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Discourse-oriented narratology *1. traditional terms*

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*point-of-view, narrative situations (F. Stanzel)* •first-person narrative situation: first-person narrator •authorial narrative situation: all-knowing/omniscient narrator •figural narrative situation: third-person narrator

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Discourse-oriented narratology *2. new terms*

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*narrator/voice and focalization (G. Genette)* *a.* Who speaks, who narrates? •the narrator gives an account of a fictional world *b.* Who sees? •from whose perspective is the fictional world presented? •to ‚see„ includes all sensory processes, processes of thinking, feeling, remembering •the focalizer: a psychological center of orientation; a perceiving and experiencing filter

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*The Phatic function*

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The Phatic function shares a great deal with the Metalingual function. The former "checks whether the channel works"; the latter is used by Addresser and Addressee "to check up whether they use the same code."

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Speech *Direct Speech*

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Direct speech is the most mimetic narrative mode, since it gives an almost complete illusion of direct, i.e. unmediated, representation. Direct speech is nowadays usually indicated by quotation marks or other forms of punctuation. Sometimes it is introduced by a reporting phrase, so-called inquit formulas ('She said', 'The hoarse voice answered', etc.).

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Speech *Indirect Speech*

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The element of mediation is more noticeable when speech or thought is rendered indirectly in indirect (or reported) speech. Original utterance: She said: "I am tired, I am going to bed." Indirect speech: She said she was tired and was going to bed. Indirect speech also uses inquit formulas but no quotation marks. The tense of the original utterance is changed from present into past, from past into past perfect and references to the first person are rendered in the third person.

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Representation of Consciousness *Soliloquy*

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The advantage that narrative prose has over drama, for instance, is that it can tell the reader about a character's mental processes and emotions without having that character burst into speech (as in a *soliloquy* in drama for instance).

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Representation of Consciousness *Interior monologue*

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Interior monologue involves the direct presentation of thought as in direct speech, imitating as much as possible the way this character might 'actually' have thought his thoughts. . This narrative technique - necessarily limited to verbal representation - tries to reproduce non-orderly and associative patterns of thought. One does not speak of a monologue unless the utterance has a certain length. Interior monologue is thus a longish passage of uninterrupted thought.

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Representation of Consciousness *Psychonarration*

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In *psychonarration* the *heterodiegetic narrator* remains in the foreground throughout, and can add some general observations not originating in the character ("as others [...] had done before him"). While we certainly learn about the whale's thoughts and feelings, we hear it entirely in the narrator's voice, syntax and vocabulary. We do not hear the voice of the whale as in the rendering above in interior monologue (compare previous quotation). The difference in effect is quite marked, the reader remains much more distant from the character's consciousness and the level of mediation remains noticeable in the foreground.

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Representation of Consciousness *Narrated Monologue*

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A third technique for the representation of consciousness is called *narrated monologue* or free indirect discourse. This represents, in a way, a mixture between psychonarration and interior monologue. In a narrated monologue the narrator often sets the scene but the character's thoughts are reproduced 'directly' and in a way that one would imagine the character to think, though the narrator continues to talk of the character in the third person. The syntax becomes less formal (incomplete sentences, exclamations, etc.) and the character's mind style is reproduced more closely. We hear a 'dual voice', the voices of the narrator and the characters are momentarily merged. This can create an impression of immediacy but it can also be used to introduce an element of irony, when the reader realises that a character is misguided without actually being told so by the narrator.

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Covert narrator

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Concealed narrative voice

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Overt narrator

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Visible, readily identifiable narrator

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