Fiction midterm Flashcards
Discourse level
The set of narrative strategies by which a story achieves its effect on a
reader; the authorial choices (in language, structure, content, etc.) that
communicate the imagined events of a story to the reader.
Story level
The perceived content or events of story, considered as though they were
“really” happening– for example, Darth Vader was Luke’s father.
Close reading/close textual observation
Interpreting a text by noticing how subtle details of the author’s language
choices contribute to the reader’s overall impression
Conflict
The essence of plot; the opposition between two forces, usually consisting of a person’s desire/ need/ intention and something that is blocking its
fulfillment.
Tension
A reader’s sense of anxious interest in the ongoing events of a story,
produced by a feeling of something amiss that needs to be resolved or some gap that must be filled.
Oxytocin
social bonding to that character
Finding tension
Character, wants/needs, conflict
Tension where in story?
Created early usually in the exposition
Tension is most likely generated by?
Conflict
In medias res
A Latin phrase meaning “in the midst of things”; refers to a narrative device
of omitting the traditional slow exposition and beginning a story right in the middle of the main action already in progress
Exposition
The opening portion of a narrative, where the scene is set, the protagonist
and conflict are introduced, and the author sets out any other background
Donnée
The “givens,” premises, stated or implied “ground rules” for a work; Henry James’s term for indicating that the reader must grant the writer a free
choice of subject and treatment: “We must grant the writer his donnee.”
Rising Action
The part of the play or narrative, including the exposition, in which events start moving toward a climax. Rising action is generally accompanied by a ramping-up of the reader’s sense of narrative tension.
Falling action
The part of a narrative that follow the climax and bring the story to its
denouement
Climax
The moment of greatest tension in a story; the point just before the central
conflict is decided, one way or another
Epiphany
Literally, a “manifestation”; a sudden moment of critical revelation (or, for
Christian thinkers, a particular manifestation of God’s presence in the
created world).
Crisis
A moment where a critical decision must be made by a main character. In
introspective stories, this often serves as the climax of the story; but not all
climaxes will involve a crisis.
Denouement
The resolution of a literary work as plot complications are unraveled after
the climax. In French, Denouement means “untying”
Unrelaiable narrorator
to scan the text for clues about how the storyworld really is, as
opposed to how the narrator says it is.
Nonlinear narrative
A narrative whose telling jumps backward and forward in time, producing a discourse-level sequence of episodes that is different from the order in which events occurred in the story level
Coming of age
Also known as plots of “initiation”: a plot structure centered around process of a young person moving from innocence to experience (or maturity) and recognizing some truth about the world. An initiation story often has a sense
Example of coming of age
Unprotected
Genre
A conventional category of literature, usually linked to a common
combination of literary form and/or subject matter (for example, “cookbook”; “revenge tragedy”; “coming-of-age novel”)
Folktalke
Timeless popular (i.e., of the people) stories, usually part of an oral tradition. May deal with the exploits of heroes, with anthropomorphized animals, or with extraordinary feats of cunning or ingenuity, etc. May contain magical or supernatural elements.
Myths
Traditional tales with metaphysical, explanatory or value-driven content,
commonly telling of the exploits of gods and goddesses, or their relatives
(nymphs, demigods);
Parable
Brief didactic narrative intended to convey a moral in the form of an allegory
Fable
Brief didactic narrative, often humorous or satirical, thatis told to illustrate a moral (often through the actions of anthropomorphic animal characters).
Epic
Long verse narrative that tells of the origins of a people or nation (often with involvement from gods and other mythological entities)
Examples of folktales
Bye bye birdie, lazy jack, pulp of iseradean
Fabliau
In the Middle Ages, a comic tale written and sometimes performed by a travelling bard. Focuses on lower-class characters, often with scatological
and sexual elements.
Third person
A point of view where a narrator is telling a story where they
themselves are not present in the action (generally using the thirdperson pronouns he/she/it/they throughout). Third-person narrators
may still possess a personality and opinions; where they insert these
directly, the POV is described as editorial third-person.
Second person
A point of view where a narrator is telling a story about the implied
listener or reader (often using the second-person pronoun “you”).
First, second, third person
A point of view where a narrator is telling a story about themselves
(often using the first-person pronouns “I” or “we”). First-person
narrators may be protagonists, side-participants, or merely onlookers
to the main action of a story
Limited (POV)
Describes a narrative point of view where the narrator has only partial
access to information about events and characters’ consciousnesses:
for example, the narrator may see only through the eyes of one major
or minor character.
Omniscient (POV)
Describes a narrative point of view where the narrator has the ability
to move freely through the consciousness of any character. The
omniscient narrator also has complete knowledge of all the external
events in a story.
Stream of cosciousness
An extended direct presentation of a character’s thoughts, like
interior monologue, but with special effort to authentically capture
the unstructured, associative and “streamlike” feel of real thoughts.
Stream-of-consciousness writing often deliberately departs from
conventional rules of grammar or logic.
Interior monolouge
An extended direct presentation of a character’s thoughts in a
narrative, as though the character were speaking aloud to himself or
herself
Interior monolouge was displayed in which story thus far?
Just lather, thats all and A&P and unprotected
Editorial POV
A POV in which the narrator directly comments on the events taking
place
Objective POV
A POV in which the narrator describes the events taking place, but
does not comment, evaluate or express an opinion on what’s
happening
Indirect speech/indirect discourse
Speech or thought in a text that is grammatically presented via the
indirect report of a third party, usually by adding a dependent clause
with an explicit or implicit “that”– for example, “Jane said that he was
a filthy creep”
Direct speech/direct discourse
Speech or thought in a text that is grammatically presented as though
the reader were hearing the utterance itself, rather than being
reported/ reframed secondhand. Within the text, direct speech is
generally set off using quotation marks or italics, e.g. Jane yelled,
“Dan is a filthy creep!”; I need to get out of here right away, thought
Mark.
Free indirect discourse (untagged indirect speech)
A technique for subtly “dipiping into” characters’ interior perspective
while maintaining an apparent exterior third-person point of view.
Couched as a report given by a narrator, FID also contains
expressivity markers (for example, dialect representations) that
clearly point to the speech patterns of a particular character
Implied author
The role or persona of the narrator, assumed by the author (may or
may not be the same as the actual author).
Focalization
The mode of perspective-taking in a work of fiction, equivalent to the
placement of the “eye” of a camera in film. In internal focalization,
the narrative “eye” is anchored to a particular character, or drifts back
and forth between characters. In zero focalization, the viewpoint is
not anchored in a localized position.
Author of A&P
John Updike
What’s was the representation in A&P that the protagonist was not fulfilled in life
The box of hoho crackers
Summary A&P
Sammy saw three girls one he really liked who was the “queen” the leader of the pack, a fat one, talk one with black hair with a long chin (the one people think are attractive), the girls were coming off the beach wearing flip flops in the A&P food store, the manager Legel comes in and yelles at the girls for wearing flip flops in the store stating, “it is not a beach.” Legel says he wants the girls decently dressed when they come into the food store. The girls hurry to get out of the store while this happens, Sammy the main character says “I quit.” Sammy said he wanted to quit bc the manager embarrassed the girls but the manager said “it was they who were embrassasing us. Sammy leaves the store, however the girls are gone, only people that were there was a screaming crying baby and and stressed mom. Sammy looks back in the store and his stomach falls realizing how hard his life was going to be from here on out.
What were the girls in A&P shopping for?
Herring snacks king fish 49 cents
Conflict A&P
Sammy wants/needs to grow up and get out of the food store but his conflict is being immature and the annoying costumers
Who wrote unprotected?
Simon Rich
What type of story is unprotected?
Coming of age
Unprotected summary
This story is from the point of view of a condom. So grammar matches the condom. Jordi buys the condom hides in his shirt and puts it in his Velcro Batman wallet. Jordi was in highschool at the beginning of the story we know this because the condom explains what was in the wallet. The condom says he was accompanied by Jamba Juice card, learners permit, picture of a girlfriend, PlayStation card, blockbuster movie card. The condom because overwhelmed when things change too fast. The Velcro Batman became leather. The learners permit became a drivers license, the picture of the girlfriend gets taken out after the argument, added is a college university ID for New York, also added was a metrocard who was sophisticated and mean towards the condom. They also said there was a new creepy lady named visa, and a new film forum. Jordi even changes his name to jordan for a more mature look. Later on there’s is a bunch of twenties in the wallet that is replaced with a receipt to la cucina that’s marked first date with rachel. He tries to use the condom with his new girlfriend but they both laugh because it’s expired. The condom ends up in a box of memories of everything rachel from their date and is comforted by the other materials in the box like the receipt, valentines and birthday cards.
Conflict in unprotected
The condom wants/needs a purpose in life, conflict was constant change
Cortisol
Creates stress and anxiety when reading a story
Will Sammy get the ideal or fall back to the real?
Real-Sammy needs to become an adult in real life
When it comes to conflict what can be parrellel to the condoms conflict?
Jordi
