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
“Glad to be in a show box I have made it, I am happy. I am warm. I am safe.”
Condom is happy feels like a special token to jordi-found its purpose
What’s the condom
Purpose?
Be a special token in Jordis life
POV unprotected
1st person
Consciousnes unrpotected
interior monolouge
Characters in unprotected
Condom=dynamic, round
Jordi=dynamic, round
Metrocard-flat stock, blunt atitutde
Rachel
Themes unprotected
Belonging and stability
Both jordi and condom are intially lost and want a stable home/purpose
Jordi finds this with rachel
Condom finds it with the shoe box
A&P POV
1st person unreliable narrotor
A&P Consciousness
Interior monolouge
A&P characters
Sammy=round dynamic
Stokesie=flat
Lengel=flat, static
Queenie=static, stock character
Sammy watches legel in the store act like an?
Sheep
Sammy craves queenies indivualism but is blinded by?
Lust
A&P theme-conformity vs individualism
“Sheep” in the store vs 3 girls who defy social norms
A&P theme-apperance vs inner lives
Sammy judges everyone in the store but doesnt actually understand their motivation (or why he quit)
A&P theme is also an?
Coming of age story
Lengel is a symbol of?
Sammys dreaded future
Consending has a ?
self righoutes tone
Godfather death author
jakob and wihelm Grimm
Godfather death POV
3rd person
Godfather death consciousness
Physchonarration
Characters God father death
Poor man-caring
Son/doctor-greedy
Godfather death is fair and just
God father death plot
Poor man wants proper godfather for his son
Thinks God gives to the rich only
The Devil tricks men
Death treats poor & rich equally
-The son is gifted to heal anyone Death allows & becomes a famous dr.
Cheats Death for the king & is warned
- Cheats Death for the princess & is shown his flickering candle
- Wishes to live; dies
Theme godfather death
Greed blind you
literary elements godfather death
Cosmic Irony (son dies even though he had been given the best godfather)
Miss Brill author
Katherine Mansfield
Miss Brill POV
3rd person objective/limited
Miss Brill Consciousness
Untagged indirect speech
Miss Brill characters
Miss Brill
Unmarried “spinster” in this time period
Lacks human connection in both roles as teacher & newspaper reader
Old people at bench
Young couple
Miss Brill plot
Miss Brill spends her afternoons living vicariously through other people’s conversations, and reading the newspaper to an old man. She sees herself as an actress who is part of an elaborate stage production–allows her to feel like a central “main character” when truly, life is playing out regardless of her presence.
Young couple’s comments force her to reassess her place in the world and she returns home with
renewed loneliness and alienation (textual evidence: doesn’t buy honey cake, places fur in box)
Miss Brill themes Isolation/loneliness
Mrs. Brill desires companionship and entertainment in her isolated, lonely life
Eavesdropping and talking to her fur coat are her pastimes
Miss Brill themes nostalgia for lost youth
Discourse level: KM chooses to have a young couple insult Mrs. Brill to portray her nostalgia for her lost youth. She is marginalized and ignored by society, to the point where observing and eavesdropping is the only thing that brings her joy.
Charles author
Shirley jackson
Charles POV
1st person; potential unreliable narrator
Charlies Consciousness
Pyscchonarrtion
Charles characters
Laurie Hymen aka Charles
Mother
Gullible
Father
Kindergarten teacher
Charles Plot
Laurie goes to kindergarten and comes back acting horrible due to the influence of “Charles”. Every afternoon, Laurie recounts tales of Charles (Charles slaps the teacher, yells, etc), mentioning several times that the whole class had to stay late with him as punishment.
1st PTA passes but mom can’t go; Charles kicks the exercise trainer. Charles becomes an institution in the family (ex baby was a Charles when he cried)
3rd & 4th weeks are “reformative”: Charles is good for a while but then regresses.
PTA meeting: she looks for Charles’ mother and expects a haggard figure; realizes Laurie is Charles
Charles theme
Identity
Conflict between Laurie’s identity, the identity he wants (thinks is “cool”), and the identity his parents perceive him to have
Laurie seeks attention (perhaps his parents don’t give him enough if they don’t even know their son well, or bc of new baby)
Fluctuation between Charles’ good & bad behavior suggests confusion in his identity
Charlies literay elements
Dramatic Irony
Audience can guess Laurie is Charles, but parents don’t have a clue
Diadactic fiction
The fiction meant to teach a lesson
Resolution relates to?
denoument
Freytags pyramid
begins with expostion, goes to rising action, climax, falling action, then finally resolution
Dan harmons story circle
- you
- need
- go
- search
- find
- take
- return
- change
Romance
A narrative mode that employs a sense of fairytale adventure and centers
around idealized and “pure” emotions, motivations and moral values: heroes
are good, villains are bad, etc. In Northrop Frye’s terms, this genre is located
in Summe
comedy
A narrative mode that deals with a sympathetic protagonist’s restoration to
happiness, often exiting into a “green world” of restored community, family
or stable self-understanding. In Northrop Frye’s four-season framework,
comedies are aligned with spring; they often start in a winter storyworld of
disillusionment and disappointment, then move toward a summer
storyworld of fairytale happily-ever-after
Tradgey
A narrative mode that deals with the downfall of a sympathetic protagonist,
often through a central flaw in their character. In Northrop Frye’s four-
season model, tragedies are linked to autumn; the plot classically starts in a
summer/romance world (clear morals, pure emotions) and moves forward
toward a winter world of shock, horror and disillusionment
Irony
A stylized gap, opposition or discrepancy between two or more levels of
information present in a narrative– for example, between the literal
meaning of a statement and the implied meaning, or between what an
audience knows and what a character knows
Interiority
The representation of a character’s interior experience or “headspace”
Pyschonarration
Representing a character’s consciousness by directly telling the reader
about their feelings and attitudes (“Sam felt terrible about what he’d
just done”
Espistolary fiction
Fiction structured and presented as a series of letters
Style
The sum total of discourse-level effects of the author’s structural language
choices, including diction (word choice), syntax, use of dialect, register, etc.
Verisimilitude
Discourse-level choices to make a narrative appear “factual” or similar to
everyday lif
What folkatales focus on the them of fools and foolishness ?
Nasr-ed din hodja in the puplit
lazy jack
bye bye
What folktales theme is on death and catatrophe?
Godfather death
The end of the world
What folktales theme is the nature of wisdom?
Truth and flasehood
getting common sense
Rich man, poor man
Just lather thats all author
Hernando Tellez
Just lather thats all POV
first person
Just lather thats all cousciousness
interior monoluge
Just lather thats all characters
Captian torres= flat static
Barber=round dynamic
Just lather thats all plot
At the beginning of the story, the barber—who narrates the tale—is trembling as he recognizes the man who walks into his shop. Captain Torres is a dangerous, violent man who is the embodiment of everything the narrator is against; as a matter of fact, the narrator is working with rebels who are seeking to depose Captain Torres. The captain asks for a shave, and the narrator prepares to give him one.
Much of the story focuses on the barber’s internal struggle. He could easily cut Captain Torres’s throat: there is no one else in the shop, and the captain is defenseless with his neck exposed. He is an evil man who has done a great deal of harm, so killing him might be the greater good. However, doing so would also make the barber a murderer. He doesn’t believe that he is a murderer, and he doesn’t want blood on his hand
As Captain Torres leaves, he tells the barber that his men told him the barber would murder him; he came to get a shave to find out whether that was true. He tells the barber that killing isn’t easy before he exits the shop.
Just lather thats all theme
duty, violence, honor, loyalty and conflict.
What is the literary elements used in just lather thats all?
Irony
How is just lather thats all use irony?
It is ironic that a barber is taking pains not to spill a drop of blood from a man who is an executioner.
Where did bye bye take place ?
Haiti
Plot Bye Bye
Pigeon felt sorry for the turtle because he did not have wings to fly to New York, so he said I will take you with me if you hold on to this stick by your mouth, you can’t let go you will fall into the water. The turtle was pleased everyone saw him going to New York so he opened his mouth and sai bye bye, however opening his mouth made him fall into the sea, the pigeons went to new york but the turtle remained in Haiti
How does Bye Bye fit the theme of fools?
The turtle was a fool for letting go and dropping into the water making him unable to go to new york
Prehistory to present era:
folktales and myths
Classical era
myths, parables, fables and epics
Middle era
Romances, epics, fabilaux, fictionalized,, biopgraphies
Reinessance big change in ficiton because of the creation of the ?
Printing press in 1436
Renaissance
Romances, epics, true relations
20th century
literary short stories, novels
True relations
Cheaply-printed popular stories about wondrous and
shocking happenings, often purporting to be factual.
May contain elements of the marvelous (think National
Enquirer), but generally stay “realistic” rather than
fantastic.
Who is the author of the journal of plague year ?
Daniel defoe
Lazy jack plot
Jack’s mother, tired of his laziness, sends him out to work. On the first day he is given a penny but loses it on the way home. His mother tells him he should have put it in his pocket. On the next day he is paid in milk which he puts in his pocket. Each day he follows his mother’s advice with disastrous results until the day he is carrying a donkey home on his shoulders, the sight of which causes the deaf and dumb daughter of a rich man to laugh and thus recover her lost speech and hearing. Jack is rewarded.
Theme of lazy jack
sometimes we have to struggle very much for something we want.
Why was lazy jack a fool?
He was a fool because he could never do anything right
Characters in bye bye
turtles and pigeons
Characters in lazy jack
Step mom, jack, and the princess he meets at the end
Author of lazy jack
James Halliwell Orchard Phillips.
Lazy jack was a ?
English folktale
Truthhood and falsehood was located in
Greece
Truthhood and falsehood POV?
3rd person
Truthhood and falsehood plot
Truthhood and falsehood met at the crossroads, false asked truth how the world went and truth answered it gets worse each year. Flasehood said he could notice the piglet truth was in. Truth said he is surrounded by trouble and false told him that can change if he goes with him. Falsehood raged when he didnt get his way at dinner with truthhood. Truth said he would rather starve for days then act the way falsehood did, so they parted forever.
Truthhood and falsehood is an example of an?
allegory
Getting common sense was a folktale from?
Jamaica
Getting common sense POV
3rd person
Getting common sense cummary
Anansi collected all the common sense in the world into his calabash, once he had it all, he wanted to put it on a really tall tree. He was climbing up to the top of the tree but struggled because the bad was in his way. This is when a little boy screamed out common sense would be to put the bag behind you to make it easier to climb. Anasi then dumbed the bag of commen sense to spread it across the world, not all to one person.
Rich man poor man took place in?
Africa
