Fiction An Overview

Fiction Fiction originally meant anything made up or shaped. The essence of fiction is narration, the recounting or telling of a sequence of events or actions. Fiction is rooted in ancient legends and myths. Myths are stories that deal with the relationships of gods to humanity or with battle among heroes in time past. Epics and Fables are a sub-genre of Myths. Modern Fiction: As we know it today began in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries, when the changes of human nature began to develop.

Fiction Fiction is concerned with character, setting, and most importantly the interactions among people. As stated in our literature book, “Indeed, a typical work of fiction includes many forces, both small and large, that influence the ways in which characters meet and deal with their problems.” (Roberts & Zweig 63). Romances, started in the Spain and France in the 16th and 17th centuries. In English the word novel became a way to describe these works, so they could be separate from that of medieval and classical romances.

The Short Story The short story was developed in the early 19th century with American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). A short story is a compact, concentrated work of narrative fiction that may also contain description, dialogue, and commentary. Short stories became very popular because they could be read in one sitting and were usually published in the local papers. Father of the short story

Elements of Fiction: Verisimilitude and Donnee Verisimilitude/realism: a characteristic whereby the setting, circumstances, characters, dialogue, actions, and outcomes in a work are designed to seem true, lifelike, real, plausible, and probable. Donnee: (French for given) the given action or set of assumptions on which a work of literature is based, such as the unpredictability of love, the bleakness and danger of a postwar world, or the inescapability of guilt. Donnee can be seen in the story The Lottery, which looks at a small, ordinary town that holds a lottery every year in which the prize is not good but instead something bad (Roberts & Zweig 65).

Elements of Fiction: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme A character may be defined as a reasonable representation of a human being, with all good and bad traits of a human being. Protagonist: the good guy or central character Antagonist: the bad guy or the character against the central character Plot is the plan of Fiction: The interactions of causes and effects as they develop sequentially or chronologically make up the story’s plot. Organic Unity: all the actions or incidents, speeches, thoughts, and observations are linked together to make-up the entirety. Conflict: the unity is the development and resolution of the conflict.

Elements of Fiction: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme Structure refers to the way a story is put together. The arrangement and placements of materials in a work. Such as the cause and effects in the story. Idea/Theme: Idea often refers to the result of general or abstract thinking. Theme is an exploration of an idea. Specifically an idea in movement that persists throughout the story. Themes can either be direct or indirect.

Points of Views (POV) Point of View – the voice of the story First-person POV : the use of a first-person speaker or narrator who tells about things that he or she has seen, done, spoken, heard, thought, and also learned about in other ways. Second-person POV: a narration in which a second-person listener (“you”) is the protagonist and the speaker is someone with knowledge that the protagonist does not possess or understand about his or her own actions. Third-person POV: a third-person method of narration (i.e. he, she, it, they) in which the speaker or narrator is not a part of the story, unlike in the involvement of the narrator of a first-person POV. Limited: with the focus being on one particular character and what he or she does, says, hears, thinks, and otherwise experiences. Omniscient: with the possibility that the activities and thoughts of all characters are open and fully known by the speaker. Dramatic or objective: in which the story is confined only to the reporting of actions and speeches, but no commentary to thoughts, unless said directly by the character.

Description, Dialogue, Tone, Irony, and Symbolism Description: the words that allow readers to imagine or recreate the scenes or actions of the story. Dialogue: the words spoken by the characters, that allow readers to learn about each character. Tone: the author’s attitude toward readers and also toward the work’s subjects. Irony: refers to language and situations that seems to reverse normal expectations. verbal, situational, and dramatic irony Symbolism: a specific word, idea, or object that may stand for ideas, values, persons, or ways of life. Allegory: a complete narrative that may also correspond to a parallel set of moral, philosophical, political, religious, or social situations.