The stylistic analysis of a text

The stylistic analysis of a text is based on the theoretical knowledge of the available stylistic resources and is aimed at unfolding the author’s message through bringing out the implicit information created by such means as the choice of vocabulary, the use of stylistic devices of different language levels, the peculiarities of the presentation of characters and events.

It must be borne in mind that there are no hard and fast rules about text interpretation but the following recommendations and logical steps can be helpful to the students.

The stylistic analysis consists of two stages: the analysis of a text and the synthesis of the main idea (message) of the text.

The first stage, in its turn is subdivided into several successive procedures.

Firstly, the student is supposed to speak on some aspects of the writer’s creativeactivities, mention his most important books and outline the peculiarities of the writer’s outlook. The necessary information can be obtained from the course of English and American literature. Besides, some relevant facts can be found in the preface to the book or the commentary at the end of it. However, the student should not go into a detailed analysis of the writer’s creative concepts, in order not to make his answer too long, but concentrate more on the linguistic aspects of the text.

After this the textshould be divided (in accordance with its contents) into a few logical parts. The interrelation between different components of a literary text is called composition. The four structural components of the composition are exposition, complication, climax and denouement.

Exposition contains a short presentation of time, place and characters of the story. It is usually to be found at the beginning of the story, but may also be interwoven in the narrative by means of flashbacks, so that the reader gradually comes to know the characters and events leading up to the present situation. The particular time and physical location of the story form the setting. Such details as the time of the year, certain parts of the landscape, the weather, colours, sounds or other seemingly uninteresting details may be of great importance. The setting can have various functions in a given story: 1) it can provide a realistic background, 2) it can evoke the necessary atmosphere, 3) it can help describe the characters indirectly.

Complication is a separate incident helping to unfold the action, and might involve thoughts and feelings as well.

Climax is the decisive moment on which the fate of the characters and the final action depend. It is the point at which the forces in the conflict reach the highest intensity.

Denouement means “the untying of a knot” which is precisely what happens in this phase. Not all stories have a denouement. Some stories end right after the climax, leaving it up to the reader to judge what will be the outcome of the conflict.

Thus, the above mentioned parts are not always found in the text, which can be homogeneous in its structure. If this is the case, the student should mention it.

Sometimes a plot follows the chronological order of events. At other times there are jumps back and forth in time (flashbacks and foreshadowing).

The next step is the analysis of the general character of the text, i.e. the way of presenting characters and events.

The author’s choice of characters, events, situations, details and his choice of words is by no means accidental. Whatever leads us to enter the author’s attitude to his subject matter is called tone. Like the tone of voice the tone of a story may communicate amusement, anger, affection, sorrow, contempt etc.

Type of narrative and narrator: It is important to distinguish between the author, the person who wrote the story, and the narrator, the person or voice telling the story. The author may select a first-personnarrative (subjectivized), when one of the characters belonging to the textual world tells of things that only he or she saw and felt.

In a third-person narrative (objectivized) the omniscient narrator outside the textual world moves in and out of peoples thoughts and comments freely on what the characters think, say and do.

The narrator may be either opposed or not opposed to the author.

Thus, there are four types of narrator in a literary text:

I.1. The narrator is not opposed to the author and does not belong to the story (textual world) – authorial omniscient narrator.

I.2.The narrator is not opposed to the author and is inside the TW, either

a. in the centre – authorial narrator-personage;

b. on the periphery – authorial narrator-witness.

II.1.Thenarrator who is opposed to the author and is outside the story – omniscient narrator opposed to the author (false author);

II.2.Thenarrator is opposed to the author and is a fictitious story-teller, either:

a. in the centre – narrator-personage opposed to the author;

b.on the periphery – narrator-witness opposed to the author.

The choice of the point of view: The way a story is presented is a key element in fictional structure. This involves both the angle of vision, the point from which the peole, events and other details are viewed, and also the words of the story. The view aspect is called the focus or point of view.

* It may be the narrator’s point of view, which is embodied in a narrator-focalizer. It is called external focalization, also known as unlimited (non-concentrated) narrative perspective.

* The character’s point of view takes the form of a character-focalizer (chief character or onlooker). It is called internal focalization (or: limited/ concentrated narrative perspective).

Most often we deal with the combination of the two types (especially in the 3-d person narratives), when the narrator’s external (unlimited) point of view shifts to the internal character-focalizer’s limited positions.

Form of presentation (or the combination of forms). In general any work of fiction consists of relatively independent elements – narration, description, dialogue, interior monologue, digressions, etc.

The plane of the author/ narrator is represented by narration, description, digressions.

Narration is dynamic, it gives a continuous account of events.

Description is static, it is a verbal portraiture of an object, person or scene. It may be detailed and direct or impressionistic, giving few but striking details.

Digression consists of an insertion of material that has no immediate relation to the theme or action. It may be lyrical, philosophical or critical.

 

The character’s plane is represented by different forms of direct speech (inner and outer). Through the dialogue the characters are better portrayed, it also brings the action nearer to the reader, makes it seem more swift and more intense. Interior monologue renders the thoughts and feelings of a character.

Represented (reported, non-personal direct) speech – a contaminated form, combining the features of both direct and indirect speech. It can be outer (pronounced) – actual words uttered by a character and inner (non-uttered) – conveys a character’s thoughts.

 

Characters and type of characterization:

The description of the different aspects (physical, moral, social) of a character is known as characterization. When the author describes the character himself or makes another do it, it is direct characterization. When the author shows the character in action, and lets the reader judge for himself/ herself the author uses the indirect method of characterization.

Characters are called round if they are complex and develop or change in the course of the story. Flat charactersare usually one-sided, constructed round a single trait; if two characters have distinctly opposing features, one serves as a foil to the other, and the contrast between them becomes more apparent.

Round and flat characters have different functions in the conflict of the story. The conflict may be external, i.e. between human beings or between man and the environment (individual against nature, individual against the established order/values in the society). The internal conflict takes place in the mind, here the character is torn between opposing features of his personality.

 

The next step of analysis is the characterization of stylistically coloured elements (EM and SDs) of each compositional part, taking into account the following aspects.

1. Phonetic level. The student is expected to point out such devices as alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and to show what stylistic effects they create, how they help to unfold the author’s message, what additional information they give the reader about the personage’s traits of character and the author’s attitude to them.

2. Phono-graphical level. Attention should be paid here to graphons, changes in the spelling of words, peculiarities of the print, macro- and microsegmentation of the text.

3. Lexical peculiarities. The student should:

– characterize the vocabulary of the extract from the stylistic viewpoint, specify its stylistic colouring (neutral, literary, colloquial);

 

– analyze specific word-groups, if any, and comment on their specific connotative power (terms, archaisms, dialectisms, poetic words) and their importance for the expression of the author’s message and the reader’s understanding of the setting and the character’s background, emotional state, etc.;

 

 

– look for key-words or key-phrases which are recurrent in the text and which help to develop the plot and the theme of the literary work;

 

– observe the character of vocabulary and syntactical constructions used in dialogues and monologues and draw conclusions about the people who speak;

 

– look for groups of words with common connotation (negative, positive, lyrical, ironical) and words which become contextual synonyms or antonyms in the text under analysis.

 

 

4. Syntactic peculiarities. Here attention should be paid to the length and complexity of the sentences, the types of syntactic structures (characteristic of oral and written speech), the use of specific syntactic devices, i.e. repetitions, parallel constructions, inversion, break, etc. Besides, mention should be made of the types of connection between the parts of a complex sentence – asyndetic or syndetic, pointing out the relevant stylistic effects.

5. Semasiological peculiarities. One should comment on the implications of such devices as metaphors, metonymies, puns, irony, hyperboles, oxymorons, understatements, antithesis, climax, litotes, periphrasis.

 

In the process of the text analysis the student should not break the tropes and stylistic devices into the above-mentioned groups, but just comment on the stylistically marked elements as they occur in the text.

E.g. In the first part of the text – the exposition – the author uses a number of SDs to better describe the atmosphere of …: a metaphor (example), which shows the reader that …, a few parallel constructions (examples) which emphasize the fact that …, a number of epithets (examples) which show the author’s attitude to the characters, etc.

 

After that the student should sum up his observations as to the author’s stylistic inventory and highlight the main features which characterize the author’s style.

 

At the end of the analysis (the second stage) the student formulates the unifying general idea about life that the story reveals i.e. the message of the text. The formulation of the message should be based on the above-mentioned linguistic peculiarities of the text. The message depends on the writer’s outlook, and the reader may either share it or not.

While formulating the message, the student should not retell the contents of the extract once more, but concentrate on revealing the moral and philosophical aspect of the text.

E.g.: Keeping in mind the linguistic peculiarities of the text, we can formulate the message of the story. It lies in telling the reader that in our ordered and organized world one sometimes feels the need for a change. And when an opportunity crops up to get away from it, it only for a few days, you shouldn’t hesitate to follow this call. Away from crowds and products of civilization you will find peace and become closer to Nature – after all, we have never stopped being part of it (Eleanor Farjeon “ Anthony in Blue Alsatia ”).

 

Passing from one part of the text to another, the student can make use of the following linking phrases to make their answer logical and coherent:

Speaking about the author we can say that …;

The analyzed extract of the text is from the book entitled …;

It describes/ depicts/ presents…;

I’ve just read an extract from the book by.. entitled…;

The text from the book … which I’ve just read is about..;

The extract under analysis is about..;

The composition of the extract is as follows …;

It has the following composition…;

From the point of view of its composition it falls into the following parts;

As far as the type of narration is concerned…;

As to the expressive peculiarities of the vocabulary we can point out …;

In order to unfold the message, the author uses the following stylistic devices..;

On the whole the author’s style is characterized by …;

From the above-mentioned stylistic peculiarities of the text we can say that the author’s message is as follows….

NARRATOLOGICAL GLOSSARY

 

Absent narrator is an impersonal narrator presenting situations and events with minimum narrational mediation and in no way referring to a narrating self or a narrating activity.

Addressee is one of the fundamental constituents of any act of verbal communication, the receiver of the message from the addresser.

Addresser is one of the fundamental constituents of any act of verbal communication, the sender of the message to the addressee.

Agent is a human or humanized being performing an action or act; a character who acts and influences the course of events.

Antagonist is the major opponent of the protagonist. A narrative articulated in terms of an interpersonal conflict involves two major characters with opposite goals: the protagonist (or the hero) ands the antagonist, or enemy.

Anterior narration is a narration preceding in time the narrated situations and events; a prior narrating. Anterior narration is characteristic of predicative narrative.

Anticlimax is an event or series of events (especially at the end of a narrative or narrative sequence) noticeably and surprisingly less important than the events leading up to it; an effect turning out to be strikingly less significant or intense than expected; a break in the progressive intensification of a series of events or effects.

Antihero is an unheroic hero defined by negative or less than admirable attributes; a protagonist whose characteristics are antithetical to those traditionally associated with a hero.

Author is the maker or composer of a narrative. The real author is not to be confused with the implied author of a narrative or with its narrator and, unlike them, is not immanent to or deducible from the narrative.

Background is the narrative space, setting, or collection of existents and events against which other existents and events emerge and come to the fore.

Camera eye is a technique whereby the situations and events conveyed (presumably) “just happen” before a neutral recorder and transmitted by it.

Characterization is the set of techniques resulting in the constitution of character. It can be more or less direct (a character’s traits are reliably stated by the narrator, the character himself, or another character) or indirect (deducible from the character’s actions, reactions, thoughts, emotions, etc.). Characterization can rely on a set-piece presentation of the character’s (main) attributes (block characterization) or favor their introduction one at a time. It can emphasize their permanence or underline their mutableness. It can privilege typically (making the character conform to a certain type), on the contrary, individualization and so forth.

Chronological order is the arrangement of situations and events in the order of their occurrence.

Code is one of the fundamental constituents of any act of verbal communication. The code is the system of norms, rules, and constraints in terms of which the message signifies. The opposition between code and message is analogous to but more general the famous Saussurean opposition between language (language system) and parole (individual act): just as the language system governs the production (and reception) of the individual utterance, the code governs the production (and reception) of the message.

Commentary is a commentarial excursus by the narrator; an author’s intrusion; a narratorial intervention going beyond the identification or description of existents and the recounting of events. In commentary, the narrator explains the meaning or significance of a narrative element, makes vague judgments, refers to worlds transcending the characters’ world, and/or comments on his or her own narration. Commentary can be simply ornamental; it can fulfill a rhetorical purpose; it can function as an essential part of the dramatic structure of the narrative.

Complication is the part of a narrative following the exposition and leading to the dénouement, the middle of an action, the complicating action, the raveling. Besides, in traditional plot structure it is the rising action – from exposition to climax.

Constitutive factors of communication are the elements entering to any act of (verbal) communication and essential to its operation. Buhler had isolated three such elements: the addresser, the addressee, and the context. Jakobson proposed a six-factor schema including the addresser (the sender or encoder of the message), the message itself, the code (in terms of which the message signifies), the context (or referent to which the message refers), and the contact (the psycophysiological connection between the addresser and the addressee). Some theorists (Hymes, for example) prefer to speak of seven factors and replace context with topic (what is communicated about) and setting (the scene, the situation, etc).

Context is one of the fundamental constituents of any act of verbal communication. The context of the referent is that which the message refers to, that which it is about.

Covert narrator is an effaced narrator, a non-intrusive and undramatized narrator; a narrator presenting situations and events with a minimum amount of narratorial mediation.

Cutback – an analepsis, a flashback, retrospection, switchback.

Defamiliarization (ostraneniye) – making the familiar strange by impending automatic, habitual ways of perceiving.

Denouement is the outcome or untying of the plot, the end, the unraveling of the complication.

Description is the representation of objects, beings, situations, or (non-purposeful, non-volitional) happenings in their special rather than temporal chronological functioning, their simultaneity rather than succession. It is traditionally distinguished from narration and from commentary. Any description can be said to consist of a theme designating the object, being, situation, or happening described (e.g. “ house ”) and a set of subthemes designating its component parts (e.g. “ door ”, “ room ”). The theme or subthemes can be characterized qualitatively (in terms of their qualities: “the door was beautiful”, “the wall was green”) or functionally (in terms of their function or use: “the room was only used for special occasions”. A description can be more or less detailed and precise; objective or subjective; typical and stylized or, on the contrary, individualizing; decorative or explanatory/ functional (establishing the tone or mood of a passage. Conveying plot-relevant information, contributing to characterization, introducing or reinforcing a theme, symbolizing a conflict to come) and so on.

Dialogic narrative is a narrative characterized by the interaction of several voices, consciousnesses, or world views, none of which unifies or is superior to (has more authority) the others; a polyphonic narrative. In dialogic as opposed to monologic narrative, the narrator’s views, judgments, and even knowledge do not constitute the ultimate authority with respect to the world represented but only one contribution among several, a contribution that is in dialogue with and frequently less significant and perceptive than that of (some of) the characters. According to Bakhtin, Dostoevsky’s fiction provides particularly good examples of dialogic narrative.

Dialogue is the representation (dramatic in type) of an oral exchange involving two or more characters. In dialogue, the characters’ speeches are presented as they (supposedly) were uttered and may or may not be accompanied by tag clauses.

Double focalization is the concurrence of two different focalizations in the rendering of a particular situation or event, e.g. the simultaneous reflection of the character’s point of view and the more “objective” point of view.

Double plot is a plot involving two concurrent actions of (more or less) equal importance.

Erzählte Zeit means story time, the time span covered by the situations and events represented (as opposed to Erzählzeit).

Erzählzeit is the discourse time, the time taken by the representation of situations and events.

External action means what charcters day and do as oppsed to what they think or feel (internal action).

External focalization, is a type of focalization or point of view whereby the information conveyed is mostly limited to what the characters do and say and there is never any direct indication of what they feel or think. External focalization is characteristic of the so-called objective or behaviorist narrative (“ Hills Like White Elephants ”), and one of its consequences is that the narrator tells less than one or several characters know. Several narratologists have argued that external focalization is defined in terms of a criterion different from the one characterizing zero focalization or internal focalization (nature of what is perceived, of the information conveyed, as opposed to position of the perceiver). In a discussion of this problem, Genette, who coined the term, specifies that with external; focalization, the focalizer is situated in the diegesis but outside any of the characters, thereby excluding the possibility of information on any thoughts or feelings.

First-person narrative is a narrative the narrator of which is a character in the situations and events recounted (and, in the latter capacity, is designed by an “I”). Satre’s The Words is a first-person narrative, and Robinson Crusoe’s account of his adventures.

Flat character is a character endowed with one or very few traits and highly predictable in behaviour. See Round Character.

Focal character is the character in terms of whose point of view the narrated situations and events are presented; the character as focalizer; the viewpoint character.

Focalization is the perspective in terms of which the narrated situations and events are presented; the perceptual or conceptual position in terms of which they are rendered (Genette). When such a position varies and is sometimes unlocatable (when no systematic conceptual or perceptual constraint governs what may be presented), the narrative is said to have zero focalization or to be nonfocalized: zero focalization is characteristic of “traditional” or “classical” narrative (Vanity Fair, Adam Bade) and associated with so-called omniscient narrators. When such a position is locatable (in one character or another) and entails conceptual or perceptual restrictions (with what is presented being governed by one character’s or another’s perspective), the narrative is said to have internal focalization (The Ambassadors, The Age of Reason, The Ring and the Book). Internal focalization can be fixed (when one and only one perspective is adopted: The Ambassadors, What Maisie Knew), variable (when different perspectives are adopted in turn to present different situations and events: The Age or Reason, The Golden Bowl), or multiple (when the same situations and events are presented more than once, each time in terms of a different perspective: The Ring and the Book, The Moonstone, Rashomon). Should what is presented be limited to the characters’ external behavior (words and actions but not thoughts or feelings), their appearance, and the setting against which they come to the fore, external focalization is said to obtain (“The Killers”). Several narratologists have argued that external (focalization is characterized not so much by the perspective adopted as by the information provided. Indeed, if a given character’s perspective is adopted (internal focalization), it may well happen that only words and actions but not thoughts or feelings are presented (external focalization). In a discussion of this problem, Genette specifies that in the case of external focalization, the focalizer is situated in the diegesis but outside any of characters.Focalization—“who sees” or, more generally “who perceives (and conceives)” should be distinguished from voice (“who speaks,” “who tells,” who narrates”).

Focalizer is the subject of focalization; the holder of point of view; the focal point governing the focalization. In “ Jane saw Peter leaning against the chair. He looked strange to her, ” Jane is the focalizer.

Foreground – that which is focused on, underlined, emphasized; that which comes to the fore against a background.

Foreshadowing is the technique or device whereby some situation or event is hinted at in advance. For example, should a character manifest extreme sensitivity to color as a child and then become a famous painter, the first event is said to foreshadow the second.

Frame is aset of related mental data representing various aspects of reality and enabling human perception and comprehension of these aspects (Minsky). A “restaurant” frame, for example, is a network of data pertaining to the parts, function, etc. that restaurants typically have. More generally, narrative can be considered a frame allowing for certain kinds of organization and understandings of reality. Frames are often taken to be equivalent to schemata, plans, and scripts, but certain suggestive distinctions have been proposed: a serially ordered, temporally bound frame is a schema; a goal-directed schema is a plan; and a stereotypical plan is a script.

Frame narrative is a narrative in which another narrative is embedded; a narrative functioning as a frame for another narrative by providing a setting for it. In Manon Lescaut, M. de Renoncourt’s narrative is a frame narrative.

“I” as protagonist is one of eight possible points of view according to Friedman’s classification. When it is adopted (Great Expectations, The Catcher in the Rye), the information provided is limited to the perceptions, feelings, and thoughts of a narrator who is a protagonist in the situations and events recounted. The latter are then viewed from a fixed center rather than from the periphery.

“I” as witness is one of eight possible points of view according to Friedman’s classification. When it is adopted (Lord Jim, The Great Gatsby), the information provided is limited to the perceptions, feelings, and thoughts of a narrator who is a secondary character in the situations and events recounted. Because the narrator as witness is not a protagonist, the action is viewed from the periphery rather than from the center.

Implied narrator is a maximally covert narrator, a narrator with no individuating property other than the fact that he or she is narrating.

Implied author is the “author’s second self mask”, or persona as reconstructed from the text; the implicit image of an author in the text, taken to be standing behind the scenes and to be responsible for its design and for the values and cultural norms it adheres to (Booth). The implied author of a text must be distinguished from its real author. In the first place, the same real author (Fielding, Sartre) can write two or more texts, each conveying a different picture of an implied author. In the second place, one text (having, like all texts, one implied author) can have two or more real authors. The implied author of a narrative text must also be distinguished from the narrator: the former does not recount situations and events (but is taken to be accountable for their selection, distribution, and combination); furthermore, he or she is inferred from the entire text rather than described in it as a teller. Though the distinction can be problematic (e.g. in the case of an absent or maximally covert narrator: The Killers, Hills Like White Elephants), it is sometimes very clear (e.g. in the case of many homodiegetic narratives: Great Expectations, Haircut).

Implied reader is the audience presupposed by a text; a real reader’s second self (shaped in accordance with the implied author’s values and cultural norms). The implied reader of a text must be distinguished from its real reader. In the first place, the same real reader can read texts presupposing different audiences (and let himself or herself be shaped in accordance with different implied authors’ values and norms). In the second place, one text (having, like all texts, one implied reader) can have two or more real readers. The implied reader of a narrative text must also be distinguished from the narratee: the former is the audience of the implied author and is inferable from the entire text, whereas the latter is the audience of the narrator and is described as such in the text. Though the distinction can be problematic (e.g. in the case of a maximally covert narratee:, Hills Like White Elephants), it is sometimes very clear (e.g. in the case of a narrative where the narratee is also a character: Isa in Viper’s Tangle).

Internal focalization is a type of focalization whereby information is conveyed in terms of a character’s (conceptual or perceptual) point of view or perspective. Internal focalization can be fixed (when one and only one perspective is adopted: The Lady in the Lake by Robert Montgomery), variable (when different perspectives are adopted in turn to present different situations and events: The Age of Reason, The Golden Bowl), or multiple (when the same situations and events are presented more than once, each time in terms of a different perspective: The Ring and the Book, The Moonstone, Rashomon.

Limited point of view – a focalization or point of view that is subject to conceptual or perceptual constraints (as opposed to “omniscient point of view”).

Message isone of the fundamental constituents of any act of (verbal) communication. The message is the text sent by the addresser to the addressee.

Motif – a minimal thematic unit. When a motif recurs frequently in a given text, it is called a “leitmotif”.

Multiple internal focalization – a type of internal focalization or point of view whereby the same situation and events are presented more than once, each time in terms of different focalizer.

Narrative – the recounting (as product and process, object and act) of one or more real or fictitious events communicated by one, two or several narrators to one, two or several narratees. Texts that do not represent any event do not constitute narratives (E.g. All men are mortal. Sugar is sweet. Violets are blue.). On the other hand the texts like “The man opened the door.” Or “The glass fell on the floor” are narratives according to this definition.

The narrative media of representation are diverse (oral, written and sign language, for example, still or moving pictures, gestures, music). So are the forms narrative can take (in verbal narrative we find novels and romances, short stories, history, biography and autobiography, epics, folktales, news reports, spontaneous accounts in ordinary conversation, and so on.). Of many functions that narrative can have there are some that it is unique in fulfilling. By definition, narrative always recounts one or more events; but it also represents a particular mode of knowledge. It does not simply mirror what happens; it explores and devises what can happen. It does not merely recount changes of state; it constitutes and interprets them. Narrative can thus shed light on individual fate of group destiny, the unity of a self or the nature of a collectivity.

Narratology studies the nature, form, and functioning of narrative (regardless of medium of representation). It examines what all and only narratives have in common (at the level of story, narrating and their relations) as well as what enables them to be different from one another.

Perceptual point of view – the physical perception through which a situation or event is apprehended.

Perspective – focalization, point of view.

Plot – 1) the main incidents of narrative; the outline of situation and events involved in them; 2) a narrative of events with an emphasis on causality, as opposed to the story, which is the narrative of events with an emphasis on chronology. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story; whereas “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot (Aristotle).

Protagonist (antagonist) – a verbatim quotation of a character’s mental language, in the context of third-person narration; an interior monologue; a reported discourse representing a character’s thoughts (as opposed to utterances).

Round character – a complex, multidimensional, unpredictable character, who is capable of convincingly surprising behaviour (opposed to plat character – a character endowed with one or very few traits and highly predictable in behaviour.

Retrospection – an analepsis, a flashback, a cutback, a switchback.

Sjuzet – in Russian formalist terminology, the set of narrated situations and events in the order of their presentation to the receiver (as opposed to fabula); the arrangement of incidents; plot.

Story – 1) the content plan of narrative as opposed to its expression plane or discourse; the “what” of narrative as opposed to its “how”; 2) the fabula as opposed to the sjuzet or plot.

Story-line – the set of events in a story that involve the same individuals.

Tempo – is a rate of narrative speed. ellipsis, summary, scene, stretch, and pause are the five major tempos in narrative.

Theme – is a semantic macro-structural category or frame extractable from (or allowing for the unification of) distinct (and discontinuous) textual elements which (are taken to) illustrate it and expressing the more general and abstract entitles (Ideas, thoughts, etc.) that a text or part thereof is (or may be considered to be) about. A theme should be distinguished from other kinds of macro-structural categories or frames that also connect or allow for the connecting of textual elements and express what a text or segment thereof is (partly) about: it is an “idea” frame rather than, for example, an action frame (plot) or an existent frame (character, setting). Moreover, a theme should be distinguished from a motif, which is a more concrete and specific unit manifesting it, and from a topos, which is constituted (rather than illustrated) by a specific complex of motifs. Finally, the theme of a work could be distinguished from its thesis (the doctrine it supports). Unlike the latter, the former does not promote an answer but helps to raise questions: it is contemplative rather than assertive.

Third-person narrative – is a narrative whose narrator is not a character in the situations and events recounted; a heterodieqetic narrative; a narrative that “is about” third persons (“he,” “she,” “they”). “He was happy; then he lost his job, and he became unhappy” is a third-person narrative, and so are Sons and Lovers, The Trial, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Tone – the narrator’s attitude towards the narratee and/ or the situations and events presented, as implicitly or explicitly conveyed by his/her narration.

Variable internal focalization is a type of internal focalization or point of view where different focalizers are used in turn to present different situation and events.

Zero focalization – a type of focalization or point of view whereby the narrated is presented in terms of indeterminate perceptual or conceptual position. It is characteristic of “traditional” or “classical” narrative and associated with omniscient narrators.

From: Dictionary of Narratology (G.A.Prince)