Session Four
Søren Hattesen Balle
English
Department of Culture and Identity
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Introduction: the summary assignment
for today and next time
Introduction: today’s session
Presentation:
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story and plot
character and characterization
Class room discussion:
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Jack London, ”The Law of Life” (1901, 1902)
the thematic functions of plot and character
description in London’s story
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Introduction to narrative and narratology:
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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 (nonfictional?) 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)
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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
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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?
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Story (past (+ future)): the Battle of Zela
Plot (present):
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beginning – middle – end
I came – I saw – I conquered
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Four levels of design in plot:
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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
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Another way of discussing plot
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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
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 crisis – the turning point of the hero’s fortunes
(anagnorisis/peripety)
 catastrophe/ denoument/aporia – mysteries, conflicts,
misunderstandings are cleared away or maintained.
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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)
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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?
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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?