Textual Analysis and Textual Theory

1. TextualAnalysis and TextualTheory Session Four Søren Hattesen Balle English Department of Culture and Identity

2. Agenda • Introduction: the summary assignment for today and next time • Introduction: today’s session • Presentation: • story and plot • character and characterization • Classroomdiscussion: • Jack London, ”The Law of Life” (1901, 1902) • the thematicfunctions of plot and characterdescription in London’s story

3. Narrative: introduction • Introduction to narrative and narratology: • 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. scientificlogic: cause/effect (non-fictional?) vs. howthingsmight have comeabout (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)

4. Narrative: story and plot • Story/ fabula/récit/ the level of the told = the chronologicalsequence 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

5. Narrative: story and plot

6. Narrative: story and plot • A famousexample 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’stelling, rendering, and ordering of thatchronologicalsequence of events • The artistic and emotionaleffects of Ceasar’smessage?

7. Narrative: story and plot • Story (past (+ future)): the Battle of Zela • Plot (present): • beginning – middle – end • I came – I saw – I conquered

8. Narrative: story and plot • Fourlevels of design in plot: • 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

9. Narrative: story and plot • Anotherway of discussing plot • Rising action • exposition – an initial situation of stasis in the life of the hero • complication – something unsettling happens in the hero´s life. A conflictbetween the protagonist and antagonist develops. • Climax – the high point of the hero´s fortunes • Falling action • crisis – the turning point of the hero’s fortunes (anagnorisis/peripety) • catastrophe/ denoument/aporia – mysteries, conflicts, misunderstandings are cleared away or maintained.

10. Narrative: character and characterization • Character = a represented person • Protagonist, hero, heroine, antagonist, villain, foil • Twoaspects of character: inner and outer • Characterisation = how a person is represented (flat/round) • Showing (the dramaticmethod) • Telling (the intrusivemethod)

11. Narrative: Story, Plot, Character, Characterisation and Theme • Plot and characterisationareways of designing a theme in order to pursuadeyourreadersabout it. Whatdoes the authorwant to pursuadeusabout? • Why is his plot structured the way it is?

12. Jack London, ”The Law of Life” (1901, 1902) • Map out the events according to the story / plot model • What’s the point in rendering and ordering the events and actions in thismanner?