1 / 24

Narrative Techniques

Narrative Techniques. Analyzing Prose the AP Way. Plot terms. Dramatic situation: Exposition: Unstable situation: Complications: Crisis: Climax: Falling action: Denouement:. Analytical questions involving plot:.

jaron
Download Presentation

Narrative Techniques

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Narrative Techniques Analyzing Prose the AP Way

  2. Plot terms • Dramatic situation: • Exposition: • Unstable situation: • Complications: • Crisis: • Climax: • Falling action: • Denouement:

  3. Analytical questions involving plot: • Looking closely at conflict reveals the values the author associates with each side of the conflict. • Noting this can lead to an understanding of the author’s intent in regard to theme and to character.

  4. Characterization terms • Simple (flat) • Stock character • Complex (round) • Static • Dynamic • Related term: epiphany

  5. Techniques for revealing character: • Directly—telling • Indirectly—showing readers what a character is like by… • What • What others • What they • What they • Providing Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights

  6. Analytical Questions • What is the character like? What are his/her traits? • How did the author create character—what techniques were used? • If the character changes, how so? • What causes the change? • What does character learn? • How real is the character?

  7. Setting…it’s more than meets the eye! • It can make things happen, prompt characters to act, bring them to realizations, or cause them to reveal their inner natures.

  8. Time, Place and Weather…it all can make a difference! The historical time period may be crucial…

  9. Setting and social environment • Social environment = • Can greatly impact the story as well!

  10. Atmosphere: emotional reaction to the setting for reader and character • The importance of atmosphere:

  11. Setting: Analytical questions • What relationship does setting have to characters and theme? • How long does it take for the action to occur? • How is the passage of time perceived by the characters? • What does the author seem to think about the social conventions of the time period? How do these affect character?

  12. Point of View Important in 2 ways • When point of view emphasizes one character’s perceptions… • When we suspect the trustworthiness of the narrator…

  13. Type of p.o.v: narrator as participant (first person) Major character (protagonist) Minor character Epistolary narrative

  14. Narrator as nonparticipant—3rd person • Omniscient = • Editorial omniscient =

  15. Point of view… • Presents thoughts and actions of characters without judgment = • Describes events from the outside—the fly on the wall = • Narrator sees events through eyes of a single character =

  16. Other narrators of interest • Innocent or naïve narrator = • Unreliable narrator = • Stream of consciousness = • Interior monologue =

  17. P.O.V. analytical questions • Why has the author chosen this point of view? • What effects does this have on other elements—characterization, theme, setting, language? • How does the p.o.v. effect the reader’s perceptions? • If the point of view is first person, can we trust the speaker? Is the narrator telling the story to someone?

  18. Tone…an introduction • Definition: • We can infer this attitude by close attention to the author’s choice of details, images, diction, and syntax. • Like a tone of voice, the tone of a story can communicate amusement, anger, affection, sorrow, contempt…the options are nearly endless. • Shifts in tone throughout a story help to create its structure.

  19. Different authors, different tones Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” “Don’t you want me to help?” he whispered. His father did not answer and now he heard again that stiff foot striking the hollow portico with that wooden and clocklike deliberation, that outrageous overstatement of weight it carried.” “The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter inside the café and marched out to the old man’s table.”

  20. Irony makes clear a contrast between appearance and reality An incongruity between what is and what seems to be:

  21. An incongruity between what is and what ought to be

  22. An incongruity between what is and what one expects…

  23. Ironic point of view • When we note a sharp distinction between the narrator’s attitude and the author’s, irony is the result. • For example: In “Gimpel the Fool”, Gimpel insists on trusting people, but the author, makes it clear that the people Gimpel trusts are always tricking him.

  24. Irony analytical questions • What are the ironies in the work? • How are they important in creating meaning? • If characters use verbal irony, why? • Are character’s aware of the situational ironies? • Are we supposed to admire characters who misconstrue the world, or are we to blame them for being naïve and deluded? • What effect does dramatic irony have on the plot and on our perceptions of character?

More Related