Lit 2020 Midterm Brenda Peynado Elements of a Short Story 1 Two forms dominate modern literary fiction The novel and the short story 2 Who influenced writers of fiction novels and short stories Literate audiences of the middle class who wanted their lives reflected in faithful mirrors 3 A well written short story has the conciseness of a poem What is a theme What types of themes are there What s the purpose of a theme The theme of a story is a general idea or insight the story reveals Themes can be completely obvious in stories such as fables or morality tales ex Themes in Cinderella good conquers evil good things happen if you believe In literary fiction themes are not as obvious ex Themes in The Nose by Nikolai Gogol can range from obsession with self and vanity to analyzing deeper to find themes about religion and fear of judgment by outsiders To determine the theme of a story you must look for truths or insights and what the writer is trying to reveal and sum in up in a few sentences 4 What is setting and why can it play such a major role in short stories The setting is the time and place the story takes place In short stories setting can spark a plot and cause and explain why characters act think and reveal their true nature in an effective way 5 Why does time year time day play such a major role in short stories The time plays such a major role in that it helps the setting actively operate to influence the characters in the story When reading short stories you must be aware of how setting and characters reveal each other 6 What is the importance of characters in a short story What types of characters are there and what do they symbolize Without characters there would be no stories the true definition of a story is something that happens to someone Characters range from the main character who is the protagonist leading character hero or heroin in a piece of literary work To Minor characters who are meant to demonstrate one or two main traits so they don t take focus away from main character Fictional characters are meant to represent humans never ending struggle to define self 7 What is point of view How do you determine point of view What makes point of view so important Point of view is defined as the person telling the story The point of view is determined by the vocabulary used sentence structure opinions expressed and reliability of the narrator Point of view determines the entire story in that every person tells a story differently ex if someone else tells the story through there eyes it s a completely different product By developing a fuller understanding of point of view the stories you read will have a more complex understanding of short stories 8 What is tone What is tone useful in finding How do you determine the tone of a literary work Tone is how authors use language to communicate Tone can be determined by story s style complexity of sentences and word choice which is reflected by modes of expression and language used Tone is extremely important in grasping a texts meaning and theme 9 What is a symbol Why are symbols so important Symbols and symbolism are aspects in the story that are meant to demonstrate something more that meets the eye ex Muhammad s hair in Rushdie s The Prophets Hair Symbols can have multiple meanings and hint you towards ideas the author is trying to convey 10 What is the plot of a story What sequence does the plot follow What does plot help the author achieve Plot is the arrangement of the events and actions the author creates in order to achieve a narrative Plot follows the arrangement of Exposition Rising action Climax Falling Action Denouement 11 What is the exposition in a plot considered to be The exposition is usually at the beginning of a story where background information is established and we are introduced to main characters and the main conflict 12 What is the rising action considered to be The rising action is the point where a story begins to develop and where events leading up to conflict occur 13 What is Conflict and what is it considered to be The conflict is the problems that will be resolved in a story 14 What is the climax of a story The climax is the high point of a story where main characters come face to face with conflict Climax is the high point of reader interest 15 What is the falling action The result of the conflict and how it is resolved 16 What is the denouement or resolution of a story How the story ends What Makes a good Literature Paper 17 What makes a good thesis statement Your thesis statement must have your perspective of the reading and an statement you found in the reading which is debatable to the reader 18 What is the purpose of a thesis A thesis is meant to provoke your perspective on the reading which is debatable and controversial to another reader DO NOT state the obvious in the thesis 19 How can you use a thesis to write a successful paper To write a successful literature paper your thesis must prove your controversial debatable point using examples from text evidence from scholars and what conclusions can be drawn from your statement Types of Conflict 20 Define the several different types of conflicts seen in literary pieces and what is the usual plot structure that accompanies them Actor vs Actor This type of criticism shows a characters struggle with another character good guy vs bad guy Man vs Man Actor vs Outside Actor vs the outside can be any force crippling the character such as man vs nature character surviving a terrible earthquake Actor vs Self Actor vs self occurs when a struggle takes place within his her own mind This can range from choosing right vs wrong self vs mixed emotions or self vs internal issues such as fear 21 Do stories usually have more then one conflict Yes most stories have several conflicts but ONE will always be considered the central conflict Critical Approaches to Literature 22 Literary criticism is the human response to literature and is nothing more than discourse spoken or written about literature 23 What is the literary theory discuss specific text A criticism that tries to formulate general principles rather than 24 Formalist criticism regards to literature a form of human knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms Formalist critics don t look at a story as a social historical or biographical document but rather examines the words of a text to find literary features The main concern of a formalist critic is the work itself Formalist critics know