21ST CENTURY LITERATURE HUMSS11 – STUDY NOTES, AUGUST 2021

NARRATIVE CONVENTION
- An author uses narrative conventions in writing fictions. They are the techniques
used by the author in making meaning in the fiction. These may be particular to
characters, development of plot, settings, point-of-view, or style.

With regard to plot convention, it has a number of techniques.

 Backstory - tells the events of the story that happen before the present story.
 Chekhov’s gun - tells of an inherent object inserted in the narrative.
 In medias res - narration that starts at the middle of the story.
 Narrative hook - tells a catchy story opening to hook the attention of the
readers.
 Story within a story or hypo diegesis - tells a story within a story.
 Deus-ex- Machina - tells a good character in a bad situation ensures character
wins with an unexpected or implausible used to resolve the situation.
 Plot twist - tells a surprise ending.
 Poetic justice - tells a reward to the good characters and punishes the bad
characters.
 Cliffhanger - tells and abrupt ending which places the main characters in a
perilous situation with no resolution.
 Flashback - tells an interjected scene of the story that takes it back in time from
the current point in the story and often used to tell the events that happened
before another important event.
 Flash forward - tells a scene that takes the narrative to a future time from the
current point of the story.
 Foreshadowing - indicates or hints something is coming in the latter part of the
story.

I. POINT-OF-VIEW
a narrative convention which tells from whose perspective is the story told.
o Character or first-person point-of view
o Third person narrator - telling the story by an impersonal narrator not
affected by story situations.

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 o Unreliable narrator - telling the story by an insincere narrator, misleading the
readers.
o Stream of consciousness - exposing the character’s mind to the readers
through his monologue.
o Audience surrogate - character who expresses queries or agitations which
are the same questions that readers would ask.

II. STYLE
Use of words in the story. There are also a number of techniques under this
convention.
 Figures of speech like:
- Hyperbole
- Metonymy
- Euphemism
- Oxymoron
- And many more are style techniques.
 Pathos or emotional appeal - another style technique used to inspire or pity
a character.
 Sensory detail - forms mental images of scenes using descriptive words
 Leitwortstil - repeats on purpose the words that usually express a motif or
theme important to the story.
 Dramatic visualization - presents an object or character with much
description or gestures and dialogues making scenes vivid for the audience.

III. THEME
 The underlying message or the central idea
 It is about life that the author is conveying in the story which is universal in
nature.
 It is about human experience.
 Short stories often have one theme.
 The theme is entwined in the story which is reflected in the characters’ words
and actions, events, and other elements.

IV. EMOTIONAL APPEAL

 Moves the emotion of the reader or audience.
 It is a way or method used by the author to create emotional response among
his reader or audience.

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  Persuasive writing is used. The language should sway the emotion to
convince the readers. The author fills more emotional content with descriptive
details to make the readers feel the scene.
 Metaphor or simile is often used to create comparison to feel the connection
in the story.
 Authors show emotional scenes rather than telling, making characters
sympathetic or unsympathetic, using words which can greatly affect reader
emotions, turning the story in an unexpected direction, and using details to
mire readers in the reality of the scene.

V. LITERARY APPROACH

 Feminism
Uplifts women goals by defining and establishing equality in the family, civil, social,
political, and economic arena.
Feminist literature is often associated with literary pieces written by women that deal
with women in the society
It also involves characters or ides which chide the common gender norms dominated
with masculinity.
This approach gives an impact to the voice of women.

 New Historicism
Deals with the cultural context during the writing of the piece of literature.
This approach interprets literature for its meaning or idea in a particular socio-historical
atmosphere.
It needs an understanding of the author’s milieu and the cultural context during its
production.

 Formalism
o Another approach that shapes the mind of literary enthusiasts.
o Also called new criticism.
o This uses close reading of a piece of literature. This means that the
formalists’ interpretation of a work of art is formulated by the information
and details of the piece itself.

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 o Formalists do not interpret a work based on matters that are outside the
confines of the work like history, politics, society, time or even the author.
 They see it autonomously and can be gauged through internal
structure and language.
 Considered are form, structure, technical features as more
important than the content and context.
o Formalist’s focus is on rhetorical and logical connections within the writing.
o Moreover, formalists look into the sound and syntax of poetic language,
rhyme, repetitions and word pictures.
 This criticism favors medium over content.
 Also, this criticism philosophically questions the method of
communicating ideas and value expression.
 It looks into the manipulation of language by the artist to achieve
the aesthetic effect.

VI. SYMBOL
 In literature it is anything that stands for something else. Authors use symbols
to give deeper and significant meaning to their content or story.
 Symbolism makes the author convey ideas to readers/ audience in a poetic
matter instead of its outright expression.
Examples:
▫ Poseidon is a symbol for the sea
▫ Albert Einstein is the symbol of intelligence and scientific genius
▫ The dove is a symbol of peace
▫ A ladder may be a symbol for a connection between heaven and earth