Approaching Fiction Nicke Yunita Moecharam From last week... Why we read fiction? What do we hope to gain from reading stories about imagined events that happen to imaginary people? ? We read stories for pleasure; they entertain us. And we read them for profit; they enlighten us. Stories draw us into their imaginative worlds and engage us with the power of their invention. They provide us with more than the immediate interest of narrative – of something happening – and more than the pleasures of imagination: they enlarge our understanding of ourselves and deepen our appreciation of life. (p. 27) Robert DiYanni Did your own answers to the question of why we read touch on any of the reasons DiYanni gives? ? Why Read Fiction? I think, true for all of us that there is an element of sheer escapism in our desire to read stories… Why Read Fiction? …to imaginatively engage with the incidents and events that befall the characters we read about… Why Read Fiction? … to identify with these fictional characters, and think perhaps about how we would react and respond to the situations they find themselves in… Why Read Fiction? We can immerse ourselves in a fictional world in this way without necessarily applying a great deal of critical or intellectual effort, of course But, DiYanni also said… • to ‘enlarge our understanding of ourselves and deepen our appreciation of life’ • to ‘read them in a more objective way’ • to ‘subject them to a more critical scrutiny to see if they reinforce or challenge our existing ideas about the world around us’ • “Close attention to the texts we read can only enhance our understanding, and this in turn can increase our pleasure in reading” Reflect on this (Check your Padlet page) Novels, then, are exciting machines (verbal machines) which transport their readers in space and time. They challenge us to meet the unfamiliar. They offer us a share in the pleasure of making because the designs they consist of are not simply there to be seen; they have to be understood, constructed, recreated by the reader out of the materials and according to the patterns which the fabric of their language contains – or conceals. When we become expert readers, we may begin to see some flaws in the workmanship or in the coherence of the design itself. But as beginning students our first task is to become aware of the pattern of meanings which can be discerned in the novel we are studying. It is only with practice and experience that we shall begin to see that the flood of books we call novels have features in common which allow us to group them together. Each novel has its own pattern, but as our experience widens we may begin to identify patterns running through the history of the form as a whole. These patterns cannot be assembled into a grand design, but the forms of fiction, the ways in which stories have been told, have their own history. An understanding of that historical pattern, haphazard and fragmentary as it may be, does give us some insight into the forms of life which literate societies have evolved in history, some awareness of their predominant interests, and of the myths and guiding principles which have sustained them. (Milligan, 1983, pp. 7–8) How does the quotation relate to your objectives/goal for this course/the whole reading fiction thing? ? The Act of “Reading” Three interrelated Process in Reading Fiction (DiYanni, 1997) Experience Interpretation Evaluation Reading = Experiencing Readers respond to the development of the narrative and the characters presented to them. Interpreting = Engaging/Getting involved into If readers are engaged by the story on any level, they will have feelings one way or the other about the outcome; they will respond in different ways. Evaluating = Reviewing responses The response is shaped by the readers reaction to the interplay of various narrative elements Modelling “Reading” (Approaching) Fiction Source from pages 83 - 93 What to do in Pre-Writing Preparation Annotating the text Brainstorming ideas for Writing Arguing a Thesis Focused freewriting Listing and Clustering Annotating a Text • When you read anything, mark your readings ➔ keeping track of what you read • One kind of annotation is a question mark in the margin, jotted down in order to indicate your uncertainty about the meaning of a word. It’s a good idea to keep a dictionary nearby while you are reading. • Ask questions to the texts by marking them with questions marks. Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing • Brainstorming is the free jotting down of ideas—asks that you jot down at length whatever comes to mind, without inhibition. • In brainstorming, don’t worry about spelling, about writing complete sentences, or about unifying your thoughts; just let one thought lead to another. Later you can review your jottings, deleting some, connecting with arrows others that are related, expanding still others, but for now you want to get going, and so there is no reason to look back. • Question the title of a text Focused Free Writing • Focused, or directed, free writing is a method related to brainstorming that some writers use to uncover ideas they may want to write about. • Concentrating on one issue—for instance, a question that strikes them as worth puzzling over (What kind of person is Mrs. Mallard?)—they write at length, nonstop, for perhaps 5 or 10 minutes. • They do not stop at this stage to evaluate the results, and they do not worry about niceties of sentence structure or of spelling. They just pour out their ideas in a steady stream of writing, drawing on whatever associations come to mind. If they pause in their writing, it is only to refer to the text, to search for more detail. Arguing a Thesis • Some of the jottings will be dead ends, but some will lead to further ideas that can be arranged in lists. • What the thesis of the essay will be—the idea that will be asserted and supported—is still in doubt, but there is no doubt about one thing: A good essay will have a thesis, a point, an argument. • You ought to be able to state your point in a thesis sentence. How and why reading for an author’s biography help the analysis of fiction? • Provides a background study • Lifetime achievements • Historical context of which the work was written If you have demotivation in reading fiction, FIND A SUMMARY of if. It would provide a foreshadowing of the story Character Study • Information on how the character(s) are put in the story • How they work each other in the narrative This part is taken from Burnet, Burto & Cain (2008, p. 87) – Check Edmodo link Here are a few questions that you can ask of almost any story. After scanning the questions, you will want to reread the story, pen in hand, and then jot down your responses on a sheet of paper. As you write, doubtless you will go back and reread the story or at least parts of it. 1. What happens? In two or three sentences—say, 25–50 words— summarize the gist of what happens in the story. 2. What sorts of people are the chief characters? In “Cat in the Rain” the chief characters are George, George’s wife, and the innkeeper (the padrone). Jot down the traits that each seems to possess, and next to each trait briefly give some supporting evidence. 3. What especially pleased or displeased you in the story? Devote at least a sentence or two to the end of the story. Do you find the end satisfying? Why or why not? What evidence can you offer to support an argument with someone whose response differs from yours? 4. Have you any thoughts about the title? If so, what are they? If the story did not have a title, what would you call it?
