Analysing setting and plot structure of the text

Summarizing and Analysing Fiction

It is impossible to cover all the existing modes of analysing a literary text in such a short and practically oriented manual. Text Analysis may be regarded as a separate linguistic discipline possessing its own rather an extensive inventory of methods and techniques as well as theoretical categories and concepts. This rather brief and schematic manual deals only with the main modules (stages) of linguo-stylistic and general philological text analysis, which are regarded to be most crucial for practical aims that a student of English faces in the process of professional training.

In our opinion, these modules (sections) can be presented in the following form and sequence.

1. General information about the text.

2. Setting and plot structure of the text.

3. Outline of the characters.

4. Message of the text.

5. Concluding remarks.

It can be by no means stated that such a pattern is the most successful of all existing nowadays. But at the same time one cannot question the fact that this scheme has a number of merits such as brevity, clearly marked structure and logical, deducible transitory zones joining its component parts together.

The author used in the given work the internationally acclaimed linguistic tactics of analysing fiction created by Ilya Romanovich Galperin, Irina Vladimirovna Arnold, Valeriya Andreyevna Kuharenko, and some other scholars of the Russian and American schools of decoding belles-lettres style texts.

The manual in question does not touch upon any serious theoretical problems of the contemporary text linguistics. Its ultimate goal is to help its user in forming some basic skills of decoding texts belonging to different fiction genres. The work may be used either as an element in the set of teaching materials for classroom work or for self-study.

SCHEME OF TEXT ANALYSIS

To prepare a good analysis of the text one ought to follow the certain order, read commentaries and answer the following questions as fully as possible.

Presenting general information about the text

Broadly defined, the word fiction refers to any narrative, in prose or in verse, that is wholly or in part the product of imagination. As such, plays and narrative poems (poems that tell a story) can be classified as fiction, as can folktales, parables, fables, legends, allegories, satires and romances – all of which contain certain imaginative elements. Thus, imaginative literature is a way of treating subject matter, establishing the relationship between real life and the virtual life depicted in a work of fiction.

From the stylistic point of view, imaginative literature (belles-lettres style) is split into three groups (or substyles):

· Poetry (verse).

· Emotive prose.

· Drama.

Questions to answer:

1. 1. What is the title of (the book, novel, short story, poem, fairy tale, fantasy story, folk tale, lore, etc.)_?

Useful language: Today I am going to speak about ____ entitled _____. I’d like to tell you a couple of words about _____. I want to speak about ____. The title of ___ is ___. The ___ is entitled___...

1. 2. Who is the author of ____? (Who wrote __? Whom was ___ written by?) What is the author famous for?

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Variants of the answer: The author of ___ is ___. ___ was written by ___. ______ is primarily known for his / her psychological novels presenting the profound observation of human nature…

1. 3. What substyle and genre does the text belong to?

Variants of the answer: This text presents a brilliant example of the emotive prose substyle (poetry, drama). The genre of the work may be defined as a love (heroic, romantic, epic, detective, psychological, philosophic, science fiction, historical, humorous, etc.) novel (short story, ballad, parable, myth, legend, sonnet, etc). This fact becomes clearly outlined due to the techniques peculiar to this genre…

Analysing setting and plot structure of the text

When one speaks about the plot of imaginative literature, then, one is referring to the deliberately arranged sequence of interrelated events that constitute the basic narrative structure of a work of fiction.

Questions to answer:

2. 1. What is (the book, novel, short story) devoted to? What is the plot of ___ focused on? What does __ describe? What does the ___ of the text deal with? What is ___ centered around? What problems does ___ touch upon? What does ___ tell us about?

Useful language: The (novel, story, book, poem) presents a typical example of _ (name of the writer) works (Explain why!). ___ is a good sample of ___ individual style of writing. It is a very remarkable work from the viewpoint of the problems raised in it (What, to be particular?). The ___ presents a quintessence of ____ creativity. It deals mainly with two (three) interdependent problems, which are___. The ___ tells us about an interesting episode from the life of ___. It presents a description of ___. It reflects an important event in the life of__…

2. 2. Where does the action of ___ take place? Where is the scene laid? Where is the plot of the text set? What is the plot focused on?

2. 3. When does the action of ___ take place? (in the middle / at the beginning / at the end of the __th century).

Useful language: The setting of this romantic novel is very typical to such kind of fiction (is rather specific, unusual, agitating, etc.). It is set in Southern France at the beginning of its “Golden Age” (It is set in the virtual reality of the narrator’s mind tortured by enumerable temptations within an hour of human life, etc).

2. 4. How many parts can this text be divided / split into? (How many parts does it consist of?)

Note: from the point of view presented in the classical theory of literature, most of fiction pieces (short stories, novels, etc.) fall into 5 stages of plot development:

1 ) exposition (introduction of characters and setting (time and space of the work));

2 ) development of the plot;

3 ) crisis (climax, culminating point) (the main event in the plot;

4) falling action;

5 ) resolution (dénouement) (presenting some general remarks on the observation, sometimes rather abstracted from the general line of the plot). This may also be illustrated graphically:

3. Crisis

2. Development 4. Falling action

of the plot

1. Exposition 5. Resolution (dēnoument)

BeginningMiddleEnd

Diagram 1 – Stages of plot development.

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In your analysis you may use this division (giving each part your own contextual name, of course) or invent your own one if the discourse (context) allows.

2. 5. Are the parts of the narration strictly organized in one time and space sequence? Is the plot presentation loose (episodic, sporadic, not linear)? Does the plot presentation present a sample of the “stream of consciousness”?

2. 6. What does the first / introductory / opening part tell us about? What is the second / following part devoted to? What does the third / fourth part of __ describe? What does the last / final part of __ deal with?

2. 7. How are some supra-linear (supra-segmental) relations between different parts realized?

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