A General Scheme of Analysis

Optional Information

a) about the author; b) about the book; c) about the historical and cultural context/ literary trend/ etc

1. General Text Interpretation

1. The title (informative, evaluative or constructive)

2. The theme (the “what” of a story/ extract/ etc)

nominating chainsone-theme/ multiple-theme story basic and rival themes (or by-themes)

3. The idea (≠ moral, ≠ common truths, old formulas)  explicit/ implicit (implied) idea

2. Text Analysis as Such: Text Aspects*

*NB! The order of considering the following text aspects is a thing of personal choice, the only but urgent requirement being to preserve the ensuing interdependence of the phenomena described.

Literary Text Aspect

1. Genre [ʒɔŋrə] (psychological, social, historical, adventure, science fiction, detective, Gothic fiction, fantasy, fairy tale, creative nonfiction, etc.)

2. Composition, Narrative Composition Forms:

narration proper (scenic/panoramic)

description (of nature, premises, appearances, characters, etc) dynamic description

dialogue interior monologue

argumentation or digression (critical, philosophical, lyrical, etc.)

3. Point of View (the opposition author – narrator)

оmniscient limited omniscient objective (all of these are 3^rd person)

1^st person (by a major or minor character)

4. Plot, Conflict and Plot Structure

Conflict:  single/ multiple external/ internal

physical/ mental/ emotional/ moral/ etc

man against man/ man against himself/ man against society/ nature/ fate/ etc.

protagonist (sympathetic/ unsympathetic) – antagonist(s): human, natural, internal (traits of his own character)

Plot structure: Exposition (natural or manufactured setting, elements of actualisation)

Story including beginning, development, climax and dénouement

Ending (surprise, happy, undetermined, etc)

Plot Structure Pattern: open/ closed

1. straight line narrative presentation

2. complex narrative presentation (flashbacks and/or flashforwards)

3. circular pattern 4. frame structure (a story in a story)

5. Characters and Character Drawing

Character presentation: direct (author’s presentation or direct self-disclosure)/ indirect (shown in action)

Characters: flat/ round static/ dynamic stock

Linguistic Stylistic Text Aspect

6. General Tone of the Text (emotional, unemotional, calm, satirical, sarcastic, ironic, humorous, matter-of-fact, elevated, pathetic, etc.)  varying with the parts of the text or the same throughout the whole text

7. Syntactical Text Pattern: length and grammatical peculiarities of sentences Syntactical (& Lexico-Syntactical) Stylistic Devices

8. Lexical Text Pattern: the choice of words (neutral, colloquial or bookish vocabulary) Lexical (& Lexico-Syntactical) Stylistic Devices

9. Phono-Graphical Text Pattern: graphical form  the prevailing intonation patterns and their presentation Phonetic, Phono-Graphical & Graphical SDs and Expressive Means