1. FICTION vs PROSE Tenor of discourse in both is the same
Both can have imagery, setting and even characters (ie a travel blog) BUT …
Fiction has plot  conflict and is imaginary (not fully real)
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2. FICTION Novella: longer fiction
Short story. Very compressed, minimum characterization, setting, etc.. Sometimes has an intense moment/climax point.
Novella: longer fiction
Novel: full-length narrative usually with multiple chapters.
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3. ORIGINS of FICTION
Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) [precursor to short story]
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722) [first novels in English. Humanism extended from individuals kings to individual commoners]
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4. SOME SUBGENRES of FICTION
Picaresque: episodic in structure; thin on characterization and plot; usually about the adventures of a rogue or commoner
Epistolary novel (written as letters; can show multiple points of view)
Detective novel (the triumph of science and reason—ie Sherlock Holmes)
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5. MORE SUBGENRES of FICTION
Gothic: must have elements of supernaturalism
Bildungsroman: a story of coming of age (James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
Penny Dreadfuls: during the 1830s and based on people on death row
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6. (Some) ELEMENTS of FICTION
Theme (main ideas and argument)
Topic (general subject)
Narrative (narratology)
Imagery
Plot
Setting
Characterization
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7. NARRATORS 1ST 2ND 3RD person (singular plural) Limited – Unlimited
Reliable – Unreliable
Dramatic – Omniscient
Linear, iterative, circular, teleological, retrospective
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8. NARRATIVES Analepsis (flashback) and Prolepsis (flash forward)
Showing vs telling (implying through action rather than telling through words)
Framing or nested narratives (one inside the other)
Diegetic (heard/experienced by the characters)
Non-diegetic (not heard by characters but heard by us)
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9. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
Freytag’s Pyramid: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, conclusion (in the Norton)
Erotetic Narration Noel Carroll. “… scenes, situations and events that appear earlier in the order of the exposition of a story are related to later scenes, situations, and events in the story as questions are related to answers.”
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10. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
For some Sci-Fi fiction: Noel Carroll (Philosophy of Horror) speaks of “The overreacher plot” (120) as a) preparation of the experiment b) the experiment itself c) accumulation of evidence that the experiment boomeranged or spun out of control and d) confrontation with the monster
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11. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
Jung and the Quest motif: Hero is part of a community (sometimes marginalized, but still a part of it), the community is threatened and the hero steps up to champion the community; hero must journey into a wilderness (often alone but sometimes) with a companion; hero is tested without knowing it and more or less passes the test, thereby saving the community; hero returns home a changed person.
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12. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES Jung and some archetypes: The mother or nurturer
The trickster
The child
The Hero
The wise woman
The devil
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13. VLADIMIIR PROPP
A Russian critic who examined hundreds of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures. His book on this ‘Morphology of the Folk Tale’ was first published in 1928
Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.”
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14. PROPP’S 8 CHARACTER ROLES
The 8 character roles are
1. The villain(s) 2. The hero 3. The donor – who provides an object with some magic property. 4. The helper who aids the hero. 5. The princess (the sought for person) – reward for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes. 6. Her father – who rewards the hero. 7. The dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way. 8. The false hero
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15. SETTING, SYMBOL, IMAGERY
A symbol is a single or limited visual metaphor (the lion represents courage, loyalty, nobility).
Imagery is a set or cognate grouping of recurring symbols (natural world imagery would include water, trees, sky, wildlife)
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16. WAYNE BOOTH Talks of “telling” and “showing” narratives
Telling is explicit and uses words: “Person x was sad”
Showing is implicit and uses actions: “A tear trickled down from his eye”
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