Lit 13 Midterm Reviewer
Ways of Reading Literature
 What does the text give us? (close reading)
 What do we imagine based on the textual details? (inference interpretation and analysis)
 What led me to imagine what the textual details suggest? (text and context: reader response)
“In an infinite universe, there is no fiction.” –Kyle Cramer, PhD
Context – what we readers have that shapes the way we read fiction
Why Read Literature? (by Elliot Esner, 1990)
 Imagine new worlds.
 To envision new possibilities
 To create new visions
 Become seers.
 To look into what we have never seen
 To penetrate beyond what language
tells
 To flash into another domain
 To unveil the unfamiliar
 “Call our attention to that which we
are neglected” (Coleridge)
 Stabilize the evanescent
 To solidify the internal
 To grasp the fleeting
 To fasten slippery thought
 Exchange our world with others
 To glimpse into another’s world and
acknowledge the reality
 To catch who we are and who have been
 To enlarge our receptive sensibility
 Rely on judgment without established
criteria or standards
 To judge without received rules or
predetermined interpretations
 See the universal in the particular
 To see the significance in the slight
 To see metaphor’s power
 Learn to play
 To prompt the spirit of playfulness,
nimbleness, and gamesmanship
 To refute the observation
 “There is no poetry for the practical
man.”
Big Questions! (for the Synthesis paper, Lit Analysis Paper, Midterm Exam, and Final Exam)
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What is my view of the world?
What view of the world does each story present?
How does this view fit into my understanding of the world?
How is it relevant to me and the world I live in?
The Process of Critical Reading and Analysis
There is a conversation between the reader and the story.
 What does it show me on the literal level?
 What can it mean on the figurative level?
 How do the elements work together to shape meaning about the world?
Understanding the Unity of Elements
 How does the setting shape the character?
 How are the character revealed through POV?
 How does the plot develop our understanding of the character? What is the conflict?
Elements of Fiction
 Setting
 Where stories happen
 Actions take place in time and space
 Lends verisimilitude (the appearance of being true/real) to fiction
 Happens in a concrete, recognizable environment, thus can easily relate to what happens in
the story
 Not limited to the physical environment but can include the general context of the story
 Social customs, for example, can be as much part of the setting as a house, and may in fact be
of more import than the concrete place where an incident occurs.
 During the Master’s Lecture:
Setting…
 sets the stage
 can reveal something about the narrator
 can compare/contrast with the character
 can lead to insight/foreshadow
 can be a symbol
 Irony
 Essentially a disparity, which can occur between:
1. what a character says and means (verbal irony)
2. what a character or the reader expects and what actually happens (situational irony)
3. what a character knows and what the reader knows (dramatic irony)
 The first and third involves speech, while the second involves actions and intentions
 Point of View
 The Point of View delimits the scope of our vision
 It concerns relationship on character, readers, and writer
 First-Person Point of View
 necessarily limited
 what the “I” is thinking or feeling and only his/her view of the events
 immediacy is the obvious advantage of this point of view
what the narrator
knows
what the reader
knows/narrator reveals
 Second-Person Point of View
 in very rare instances
 in a story where the reader is involved in a role-playing
 most difficult to answer and is unnatural
 “remains an idiosyncratic and experimental form” (Burroway)
 Third-Person Omniscient (Editorial Omniscient)
 “all knowing” – what to think
 which comes from having a sense of authority, for we seem to know as much as the
narrator, who in this case is almost identical with the author
 Editorial (also called intrusive) or Reportorial (also called impersonal or objective),
depending on whether not the author/narrator injects his/her own comments and
judgments
 Third-Person Limited Omniscient
 omniscience which is limited to one character
 we feel the pleasure of voyeur – the reader as an invisible viewer
 central consciousness – peering over the shoulder of the character, seeing what he/she
sees and entering his/her mind
 Third Person Objective
 report’s dialogue without comment
 the tone, gesture, and feeling is left to the reader
 allows us to watch the events unfold, usually through the eyes of one character, but not to
enter into any character’s thoughts/motivations
 merely inferring these things from what they say and do
 “How Fiction Works” (Wood) – inhabiting omniscience and partiality at once
 Free-Indirect Style – the third person narrative veers closely to the first person, in which the
narrator inhabits the consciousness of a character
 Character
 Agents in the short story
 Major characters are the protagonists while the minor characters are the observers
 Complex characters have many, sometimes contradictory traits (also called round or threedimensional characters) while simple characters have only one or two traits (also called flat
or two-dimensional characters)
 Stereotypes are figures we find so recurrently in literature and in other arts that we recognize
them instantly; stocks are social stereotypical characters
 Foil characters are other characters that highlight aspects of the protagonist
 Dynamic characters undergo a transformation as the story progresses while static characters
remain essentially the same
*Motivation - the reason/s for a character’s behaviour
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 Dialogue – spoken exchange between characters to reveal the character
Tone
 Narrator’s attitude towards the character
Atmosphere
 Refers to the general psychological and emotional impression that hangs about a story
Symbol
 Any object, person, or event that stands for more than what it is, usually an abstraction, while
simultaneously functioning as what it literally is in the story
Theme
 It may be defined loosely as the story’s central idea but more specifically as the overall
observation about life that the story makes
Plot
 A sequence of causally related events in a story
 Events are ordered and shaped for a purpose
 A connection of events that contain parallels, repetitions, patterns, and contrasts
I. An initial state of things
- conflict introduced
- “A conflict naturally leads to the complication… Rising action… Ripple effect”
II. Rising action
- complication is apparent
III. Climax is
- the highest point of emotion
IV. Falling Action
V. Resolution
 Conflict – initial state of things
 Complication – leads to complication from conflict, clash of forces
 Climax – the moment of highest emotional interest
 Change – an initial equilibrium which is upset by some force and either is restored or replaced
by another state of affairs
 Sketch – a mere description of a condition or a character
 Rising Action – the ripple effect of the initial confrontation between protagonist and
antagonist
 Crisis – it is at this point when the protagonist faces his/her “moment of truth”
 Turning Point – the moment when the protagonist’s fortune turns and heads to an inevitable
conclusion
 Dénoument – French meaning “unravelling” or “untangling” where loose ends are tied up and
plot complications are smoothened
 Deus ex machina – Latin meaning “god from the machine” is used by the writer when we are
not sufficiently prepared for such a surprise
 Exposition – unnecessary background information
 Flashback – narrating past events within the frame of a current action
 In medias res – Latin “in the midst of things”
 Foreshadowing – dropping hints about what will happen in the story
The Analysis Paper
Iona
Potapov
Example: “Misery” by Anton
Chekhov
1. Give a condensed summary
of the story.
2. Identify the central element
that will unify the other
elements. 
3. Setting Synthesis Questions:
 How does the physical
setting contribute to
our understanding of
the character/s?
The world is
deaf to our
individual
pain
The misery
that is winter
in St.
Petersburg,
Russia
Limited
Omniscient
POV
The
death of
his son
 What do we know of the setting based on the story?
 What do we know of the setting based in our context?
4. Write an analysis of the setting. Tone/Atmosphere(mood)?
Tone and atmosphere are unified in creating a depth of misery from which the
character cannot escape.
5. Identify the agents of the story.
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major/minor
round/flat
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dynamic/static
foil
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stock/stereotype
Major – Potapov, minor – passengers
Round – none, flat – Potapov
Dynamic – none, static – Potapov
No foil
Stock Stereotypes - officers
6. Character analysis:
 Direct quotations (Par. 13, 16, 33, 40, 52, 56, and 58 are enough to show Potapov’s misery)
 Cite details to fit the literary elements
7. Write an analysis of the point of view.
We begin to know and understand Potapov through the limited omniscient narrator.
8. Writing a plot analysis.
 Give the repetitions, patterns, and contrasts
9. Synthesis Questions to synthesize the elements:
 How does the setting and plot aid our understanding of the characters in the story?
 What evaluations can we make about the character based on our contexts today?
 What commentary does the story make about people in ____? (In the case of “Misery”, what
commentary does the story make about people in grief?)
“The dreary winter setting in Russia unifies with the sympathetic point of view and the
crushing conflict in creating a depth of misery from which Iona Potapov cannot escape. His
conflict is found in his utter sense of desperation for a listening ear; this is magnified in the
dull gray season of winter. The cold intensifies the detachment of the people around him.
The darkness of the night finds him alone in a yard of sleeping drivers. He is isolated in the
depths of the loss and despair. Only a mare can provide little comfort.”
Sources
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Chua’s Elements of Fiction
Lit 13 Notes
Notes during the Master’s Lecture
“Misery” by Anton Chekhov