1. Textual Analysis and Textual Theory
Session Four
Søren Hattesen Balle
English
Department of Culture and Identity

2. Agenda Introduction: the summary assignment for today and next time
Introduction: today’s session
Presentation:
story and plot
character and characterization
Class room discussion:
Jack London, ”The Law of Life” (1901, 1902)
the thematic functions of plot and character description in London’s story

3. Narrative: introduction
Introduction to narrative and narratology:
the ubiquity of stories, storytelling and narrative: ”the main way we make sense of things” (J. Culler, 83; 94)
the multiple functions of narrative (love, war, history, science, etc.)
narrative logic vs. scientific logic: cause/effect (non-fictional?) vs. how things might have come about (fictional?)
a fundamental form of knowledge vs. a rhetorical structure of illusion-making
the difference between the narrative genre and the poetic genre: a depiction of a temporally ordered series of events vs. an event of speaking in the present
the narrative level (structure) vs. the narratorial level (technique/relation)

4. Narrative: story and plot
Story/ fabula/récit/ the level of the told = the chronological sequence of events and actions
Plot/ sjuzhet/ discours(e)/ the level of the telling = the events and actions as ordered or designed towards acheiving particular artistic and emotional effects

5. Narrative: story and plot

6. Narrative: story and plot
A famous example of plot: Julius Caesar’s message to the Roman senate describing his recent victory in the Battle of Zela (47 BC)
Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)
Story = The Battle of Zela
Plot/ sjuzhet/ discourse/ the level of the telling = Caesar’s telling, rendering, and ordering of that chronological sequence of events
The artistic and emotional effects of Ceasar’s message?

7. Narrative: story and plot
Story (past (+ future)): the Battle of Zela
Plot (present):
beginning – middle – end
I came – I saw – I conquered

8. Narrative: story and plot
Four levels of design in plot:
order: beginning, middle, and end
chronology
anachrony: flashback (analepsis), flash forward (prolepsis), in medias res
ellipsis: gaps, omissions, absences
duration: the time of the telling and the time of the told (progression/digression)
frequency: the number of times an event is told

9. Narrative: story and plot
Another way of discussing plot
Rising action
exposition – an initial situation of stasis in the life of the hero
complication – something unsettling happens in the hero´s life. A conflict between the protagonist and antagonist develops.
Climax – the high point of the hero´s fortunes
Falling action
crisis – the turning point of the hero’s fortunes (anagnorisis/peripety)
catastrophe/ denoument/aporia – mysteries, conflicts, misunderstandings are cleared away or maintained.

10. Narrative: character and characterization
Character = a represented person
Protagonist, hero, heroine, antagonist, villain, foil
Two aspects of character: inner and outer
Characterisation = how a person is represented (flat/round)
Showing (the dramatic method)
Telling (the intrusive method)

11. Narrative: Story, Plot, Character, Characterisation and Theme
Plot and characterisation are ways of designing a theme in order to pursuade your readers about it. What does the author want to pursuade us about?
Why is his plot structured the way it is?

12. Jack London, ”The Law of Life” (1901, 1902)
Map out the events according to the story / plot model
What’s the point in rendering and ordering the events and actions in this manner?