Петрозаводский государственный университет

Кафедра иностранных языков гуманитарных факультетов

Учебно-методическое пособие по аналитическому чтению на английском языке

для студентов II курса исторического факультета

Автор - составитель: Шерехова О. М.

Настоящее пособие предназначено для исполь­зования как на аудиторных занятиях по аналитическому чтению, так и при самостоятельной работе студентов над анализом текста. Рекомендации содержат примерную схему анализа, выражения и речевые клише, исполь­зуемые при анализе, необходимый литературоведческий и стилистический минимум, аутентичные тексты, вопросы и задания к ним.

Введение

Данное учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов 2 – 3 курсов гуманитарных факультетов. Пособие знакомит студентов с основами теории анализа художественного произведения, способствует формированию представлений об основных литературоведческих терминах и стилистических приемах, а также дает возможность применить эти знания на практике в процессе непосредственного анализа художественных произведений англоязычных авторов.

Данные материалы включают аутентичные тексты, систему аналитических заданий, методические рекомендации по их выполнению, примерный план анализа произведения, глоссарий стилистических терминов, а также список словосочетаний и предложений необходимых для анализа текста.

Пособие состоит из двух частей. Первая часть посвящена теоретическим вопросам анализа текста. Во второй части представлены пять текстов англоязычных авторов и задания для работы с ними.

Данное пособие может использоваться в качестве основы организации работы над анализом текста с привлечением дополнительных материалов.

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction to analysis

A literary work is an artistic whole which is created by the interaction of all its elements, the characters, setting, plot, plot structure, language, literary techniques, etc. The writer employs all the different linguistic and extra linguistic elements in order to accomplish his purpose – to convey the message and impress the reader.

Contents. There are different kinds of contents in a literary work - surface and hidden. The surface contents embrace the plot, plot structure, events, and actions, the setting, characters, their development, both physical and/or psychological. The hidden contents are the theme, the message, the implications encoded in the work. To understand the message the reader tries to discover what lies beyond the surface contents, what the author's motives were for writing the work. The plot with its characters, actions and setting forms the so called “surface contents” of a literary work. The surface contents may entertain and keep a reader curious. Some read only to learn what happens next. But a skilled reader discovers what lies beyond the surface contents. He looks for the theme and the message.

The theme of a story is the main area of interest treated in the story. There are stories on the theme of love. There are books on the theme of family relations, or on the anti-war theme. The theme of the story implies the problem which the literary work raises. Within a single work the basic theme may alternate with rival themes and their relationship may be very complex. The most important idea (problem) that the author expresses in the process of developing the theme is the message of the work.

The message doesn't lie on the surface; it is expressed implicitly, i.e. indirectly, often through implications. Implication is the suggestion that is not expressed directly but understood or implied. Implication may be conveyed by different techniques and means such as contrast (verbal and non-verbal), parallelism, recurrent of events or situations, symbols, arrangement of plot structure, etc.

The author's message is closely connected with the author's attitude, even if the writer assumes an impartial and detached tone, he can't present his characters without suggesting a definite attitude in the reader's mind. It is mainly through the characters, their actions, deeds, that the message is revealed. The protagonist is often considered to be the message itself. Besides that, the message cannot be revealed without taking into account the theme of the story and the title.

The title is the first element to catch the eye of the reader but its function may be revealed only retrospectively (after reading the whole story). It acquires its precise meaning when related to the whole story. It may acquire a symbolic meaning. Sometimes it may acquire a totally different meaning contrary to the first understanding.

On revealing the author's message the reader generally analyses his rational and emotional attitude to the work and draws his own conclusion which is the objective message. It may be broader than the author's, because it's based on more profound historical experience.

The effectiveness of the writer's presentation of the massage depends on how credible and exciting the plot is, how lifelike and convening the characters are, how expressive the language is and how well the literary techniques are used.

The plot of a story is a series (sequence) of events or incidents of which the story is composed and in which the characters are involved. The writer arranges the events ordering them as he sees fit. The events in a plot need not always involve physical movement; the movement may be psychological, revealing the changes in the psychological state of a character. Thus it may include what a character says or thinks as well as what he does. But it leaves out description and analysis and concentrates on major happenings.

The plot may be rich or scarce (poor) in events (plotless). Yet each event is related to the theme, the message, the conflict, the development of the characters. The plot always involves character conflict.

Conflict in fiction is a clash of actions, ideals, desires or wills; it is the opposition between forces or characters. There are two types of conflicts – external and internal.

External conflicts:

(1) Man against man; the main character is pitted against (opposed to) some other person or group of people.

(2) Man against nature (or environment). When man is in conflict with some external force (physical nature).

(3) Man against society or the established order in the society (poverty, inequality, injustice), for example, the conflict between one set of values against another set of values.

Internal conflict is the conflict of man against himself, against his own nature, which takes place within one character.

The conflict may be physical (fist or gun fight), mental, emotional or moral. The central character in the conflict, whether one sympathizes with him or he is an unsympathetic person, is referred to as the protagonist. The forces arranged against him are the antagonist (persons, things, conventions of society, states of his own character).

In some stories the conflict is single, clear-cut and identified, in others it is multiple, various and subtle. A person may be in conflict with other persons, with society or nature and with himself, all at the same time and sometimes he may be involved in conflict without being aware of it.

Suspense is the quality in a story that impels the reader to read on to answer his questions and satisfy his curiosity. An accomplished writer keeps the reader in suspense (achieves suspense) by different stylistic devices. In cheap escape fiction suspense is artificially created and gratifies the readers' crude curiosity while in more sophisticated pans of fiction suspense leads the readers from curiosity to anxiety about the fate of the characters. Suspense may be heightened by retardation, the withholding of information until the appropriate time.

Plot structure is the arrangement of events, incidents, actions. The main components of plot structure (structural composition) form exposition. In the exposition, an introductory part of the story, the author introduces the theme, the characters and establishes the setting. It may be compressed into one sentence, embrace an opening paragraph or be extended into several paragraphs.

The second structural component is complications or the development of rising action as well as thoughts and feelings.

The events become tenser as they move towards the crucial moment in the story, the key events, the moment of the highest intensity of the conflict - the climax.

The events immediately following the climax and bringing the actions to an end make up denouement. It is the unwinding of the action.

The components usually occur in the following order: exposition, complications, climax, denouement; but the author may rearrange the components which create a certain effect - it may introduce a necessary mood, create and increase suspense and tension, and affect the reader's emotional response to the story.

The events of the plot are generally localized, i. e. they are set in a particular place and time.

Setting. For the setting the writer chooses (selects) most relevant details which would suggest the whole scene. In some stories the setting is scarcely noticeable, in others it plays a very important role.

The functions of the setting may vary.

It helps to evoke the necessary atmosphere or mood (esp. descriptions of nature).

It may reinforce characterization by either paralleling or contrasting the actions (suggest similarity or contrast).

It may reflect the inner state of a character.

A realistic environment (including geographical names, historical dates and names, allusions to historical events) tends to increase the credibility of the whole plot - the reader accepts the characters and their actions more readily.

A surprise ending is an element of plot, like suspense or climax. The escape story supplies a surprise ending more frequently than does the interpretive. It may be a cheap trick or it may carry significance (a) when the author withholds the information that the reader ought to have been given earlier, or the surprise is brought about as the result of an improbable coincidence, or unlikely series of small coincidence (b) when the ending that comes at first as a surprise seems perfectly logical and natural as we look back over the story. Its justification comes when it serves to open up or to reinforce the meaning of the story.

Author. The narrative method involves such aspects as: a) who narrates the story and b) the way the narrator stands in relation to the events and to the other characters. The story may be told by:

the omniscient author (the third person narrator);

the observer author (the third person narrator);

the first person narrator.

In the 3d person narration the author tells the story from the omniscient point of view. He tells the story anonymously and interpreting the characters actions, motives end feeling; he reproduces the characters' thoughts and comments on their actions. His knowledge is unlimited. He is free to go wherever he wishes, to peer inside the minds, and hearts of his characters at will. He knows all and can tell us as much or as little as he pleases.

The omniscient point of view is the most flexible and permits the widest scope. The omniscient author may wander away from the subject of the narration to state his personal view or to make a general statement - which is known as the author's digression. The omniscient author may reveal his attitude to the characters, his view point on their actions, etc; or he may assume a detached attitude, telling the readers all about his characters, concealing his own point, without giving his own analysis of their actions, behavior, etc.

The observant author tells the story in such a way that we are given the impression of witnessing the events as they happen, we see the actions, and hear the conversations but we don't really enter into the minds of the characters. The author is not there to explain and we can only infer what the characters feel or what they are like. The observer author stimulates the reader to form his own impression and make his own judgments. This form of narration is called the objective point of view.

In the limited omniscient point of view the author tells the story in the third person but he tells it from the view point of one of the characters he looks at the events through his eyes and through his mind, he may interpret his thoughts and behavior. The chosen character may be a major or a minor character, a protagonist or an observer.

The 1^st person narration is a very effective means of revealing the character who narrates. The author disappears in one of the characters who tells the story. The character may be protagonist, observer, a major or a minor character. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels and the 1^st hand testimony increases the immediacy und freshness of the impression and the credibility of the story which tends to be more convincing. The narrator often assumes the informal note, addresses the reader directly and establishes a personal relationship with him (we, you). The reader is treated trustfully as one to whom the narrator confides his personal thoughts. On account of all that it is the inner world of the character narrator that is generally in the focus of interest.

It makes a difference if the story is told by a major or a minor character. In the first case the narrator represents internal analysis of events in the second - outside observation of events. The limitation of this method is that the reader gets a biased understanding of the events and other characters; he sees them through the perception of the narrator.

The narrative method conditions the language of the story. The language of the omniscient author is always literary. When the story is told by the character, the language becomes a means of characterization. The social standing of the character is marked by the use of either standard or nonstandard lexical units and syntactical structures. The narrator's language reflects his outlook (limited, naive, objective, primitive), his pattern of cognition, his psychology. That is why most of the stories told by the main character are deeply psychological.

The narrative method may affect presentational sequence of events. A story may have

(a) a straight line narrative presentation, when the events are arranged as they occur, in chronological order;

(b) a complex narrative structure, when the events are not arranged in chronological order and when there are flashbacks to past events;

(c) a circular pattern, when the closing event in the story returns the reader to the introductory part;

(d) a frame structure, when there is a story within a story. The two stories contrast or parallel.

(Докучаева И. В. Аналитическое чтение художественной литературы на английском языке)