Prose fiction

Two main ways of

looking at a novel
• You can look at the ‘content’ of the book
– the world that the novel describes and
creates almost as if it were a real world.
• You may feel you can enterinto this world
and see the characters and events as
real
• You may develop feelings such as liking
or pity or hatred
• From this position you are likely to
discuss the characters as if they were
real people able to choose their actions
and words for themselves
• You can see it as a ‘text’- as a
creation of the author.
• The characters are not real people
but they are creations of the author
• They are designed to perform
specific functions in the text
• The author manipulates them to
create particular effects and they
only exist through the words on the
page
• The first attitude may be how you
approach a novel when reading
purely for pleasure and in the
beginning you may even approach a
novel you are studying with this
attitude.
• You MUST more towards the second
attitude. This requires the much
more detached and analytic
approach that examiners look for at
this level
Aspects of the novel you
MUST know well

• An overview
• You need a clear understanding
of the plot and how it is
structured
Narrative viewpoint
• Who tells the story?
• This then leads to the question,
WHY?
• Why has the writer chosen to use
this viewpoint?
• Is the narrator in the first or third
person?
• What character (including the
narrators) are introduced?
• What do you learn about them?
CHARACTER

• Focus on the ways in which

writers create and present their
characters
• What functions do they perform
in the text?
• Characters are revealed to us in
a number of ways.
• Through the description of them given to us by the
narrator

• Through the dialogue of the novel- in other words

by what they say and what others say about them

• The thoughts and feelings that they have

• How they behave and react to other characters

• Through the writer’s use of imagery and symbols, or to

be associated symbolically with a colour or element- eg
Heathcliffe is often linked with fire and with the colour
black
LANGUAGE AND STYLE

• The distinctive qualities in the

writer’s choice of language
• The ways in which they use it to
create their effects
 SETTING

• What kind of setting the novel

has ?
• The ways in which the writer
uses language to create a sense
of setting and atmosphere
Place
• We may find significance in the
actual location where the
action occurs, but we need to
pay attention to the nonphysical
as well as the physical
environment.

• The physical environment,

including weather conditions,
may be specifically described.
 Place
• The nonphysical environment

• This includes cultural influences

such as education, social standing,
economic class, and religious belief.
• These may be revealed by physical
properties in the scene or through
the characters' dialogue, thoughts,
statements, and behaviors.
Setting and Meaning

• People exist in a particular time

and place. Where we live may
contribute not only to our
personality, but also to our values,
attitudes, and even our problems.
• In literature, setting (time and
place) can also influence
characters and what they do.
LET’S REVIEW
• The physical and social context in which
the action of a story occurs.

• The major elements of setting are the time,

the place, and the social environment that
frames the characters.
• Setting can be used to evoke a mood or
atmosphere that will prepare the reader for
what is to come. Sometimes, writers
choose a particular setting because of
traditional associations with that setting
that are closely related to the action of a
story. For example, stories filled with
adventure or romance often take place in
exotic locales.
 Definition of Setting
• We can define the ‘setting’ of a story as the
geographical location or locations in which the
events of the narrative takes place, as well as
the time in which those events are set.

• Location can refer to wider geographical

entities such as countries or cities as well as to
smaller entities such as households or domestic
interiors.

• Time can refer to a general historical period or

to the chronological boundaries of the story's
events.
•
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.p
hp?id=199038&direct=1
CONTEXT

• Examine the historical context,

the social or political context,
or the personal context of the
writer.
• What ways do these factors
influence the shaping of the
novel
THE AUTHOR

• The kind of novelist you are

studying
• Knowing something about the
writer might help with your
understanding of the text