Here is a four step scheme of a story:

„ create a character;

„ give this character a problem to deal with;

„ imagine at least three different ways this character might possibly deal with this particular problem;

„ pick one of the suggested ways and imagine at least three different ways it a/ wouldn't work; b/ would make the character's situation worse (it's the shortest way to kill the character).

Any shift in the organization of the plot structure affects the total response of the reader. Any rearrangement of the components of the plot structure is meaningful, (e.g. the denouement placed at the beginning of the story creates a certain mysterious atmosphere, increases suspense, sharpens the reader's interest). It also affects the general atmosphere of the story and introduces the necessary mood, increases the tension and the reader's suspense. We may generalize the abovementioned by saying that there is a variety of plot structure techniques. Stories may have different plot structure:

The distribution of plot elements, or the narrative structure, can be simple (straight-line), i.e. corresponding to the linear sequencing of events. It can be also inverted, with the conclusion at the beginning of a story or with the exposition missing, or with any other deviations from the usual compositional order.

The narrative structure may have a circular pattern, whereby the closing event brings the reader back to the beginning of the narrative. A plot containing a subplot has a frame narrative structure. A complex plot includes a number of digressions, among them retardations (a slow-down of the narrative in the form of descriptions or reflections), flashbacks and flash-forwards (foreshadowings).

The backbone of a plot, or its presentational sequencing (фабула) is the sum of the main events which can be reproduced in a certain logical and chronological order by the reader of the text.

Presentational sequencing does not always coincide with the underlying compositional structure (сюжет), in which the arrangement of the plot events often violates temporal coherence and spatial relationships.

One can distinguish the following devices of presentational sequencing:

„ retardation – a deliberate withholding information until the appropriate time.

„ flashback is a scene from the past inserted into a story.

„ foreshadowing is a look towards the future, a remark or hint that prepares the reader for what is to be followed.

„ subplots (double plots and multiple plots) as additional plots are connected with the main plot through the relationships between the characters or by mirroring some lines of the main plot.

LECTURE 3.THE SYSTEM OF IMAGES: TYPES OF CHARACTERIZATION

1. The notion of image/ character in text interpretation.

2. Ahierarchy of images.

3. Different classifications of characters.

4. Flat characters as opposed to round characters.

5. The notion of a character trait and types of characterization: direct definition and indirect presentation.

6. Ways of direct definition.

7. Ways of indirect presentation.

 

Image/ character in text interpretation is a subjective reflection of reality (people) as it is inspired by the writer's power of imagination.

v It is, on the one hand, generalization of the most typical features of a person described in a literary text.

v On the other hand, it is never a complete identity of a person, thing or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, emphasized or exaggerated. That's why image is always concrete with its individua l peculiarities.

AHIERARCHY OF IMAGES

In a literary text images form a system, which comprises a hierarchy of images beginning with micro-images, formed by a word/word combination, and ending with synthetic images or "extended images", formed by the whole literary work.

According to the specific entity images represent we distinguish:

character-images, i.e.human characters (Sh. Bronte "Jane Eyre", by J. London "Martin Eden ");

landscape-images ("My Heart's in the Highlands " by R. Burns);

animal-images ("The Jungle Book" by R.Kipling, " The North Stories " by J. London)

Character-images are both real and unreal. They are real in the sense that they can be visualized, you can see them act, you can hear them talk. They are unreal in the sense that they are imaginary, even if they are drawn from life, even if they are images of historical people, as they are not identical with them, they are products of the writer's imagination.