The sunlight in a lemon makes me wince

The words don’t simply stand in for an absent object. There is suddenly a full experience in the words. It feels more human. There is something intellectual (one must convert the sunlight into vitamin C in order to know how the sunlight is involved), there is something sensual (taste, sour), and a bit of emotion (probably based on whether the reader, unlike the speaker in the poem, likes lemons). The instant of time is that of the speaker eating the lemon. The moment is frozen, let us put it this way, and given to the reader every time they read the image.

Image in fiction is a subjective reflection of reality as it is inspired by the writer’s power of imagination. An image is, on the one hand, a generalization of the most typical features. But on the other hand, it is never a complete identity of a person, thing, or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, emphasized or exaggerated. That’s why an image is always concrete with its individual peculiarities.

Image is a unit of imagery.

Imagery is a common term of variable meaning. Imagery is used in literature to refer to descriptive language that evokes sensory experience. It includes the “mental pictures” that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem or a piece of prose, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor. Imagery is not limited to visual imagery; it also includes auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic sensation (movement).

Forms of imagery

Imagery is simply descriptive language that evokes sensory experience, it can appeal to any of the five senses.

Visual imagery is perhaps the most frequently used form.

• My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. (W.Shakespeare)

Auditory imagery represents a sound.

• The bells chimed 2 o'clock.

Olfactory imagery represents a smell.

• His socks, still soaked with sweat from Tuesday's P.E. class, filled the classroom with an aroma akin to that of salty, week-old, rotting fish.

• The mosquito patch, when squeezed, releases a pleasant fragrance that repels mosquitoes and other flying insects for hours and hours.

Gustatory imagery represents a taste.

• The sweet marinara sauce makes up for the bland sea-shell pasta beneath.

• Tumbling through the ocean water after being overtaken by the monstrous wave; I unintentionally took a gulp of the briny, bitter liquid causing me to cough and gag.

Tactile imagery represents touch.

• The spongy soufflé was a pleasure to squeeze.

• The Play-Doh oozed between Jeremy's fingers as he let out a squeal of pure glee.

Imagery can be showcased in many forms, such as metaphors and similes.

As imagery is the category of which all images, as varied and lively as they are, fall into, it is best defined as the total sensory suggestion of fiction.

"Imagery" refers to any sort of image, and there are two basic kinds. One is the images of the physical setting. The other kind is images as figures of speech, such as metaphors. These figures of speech extend the imaginative range, the complexity and comprehensibility of the subject. They can be very brief, a word or two, a glistening fragment of insight, a chance connection sparked into a blaze (warming or destroying) of understanding; or they can be extended analogies.

In a literary work images form a system which comprises a hierarchy of images beginning with micro-images formed by a word/word combination and ending with synthetic images or “extended images” formed by the whole literary work. In literature, great attention is paid to human characters (character-images), but there are also landscape-images (“My Heart’s in the Highlands” by R.Burns), animal images (“The Jungle Book” by R.Kipling).

Character-images are both real and unreal. They are real in the sense that they can be visualized, you can see them act, you can hear them talk. They are unreal in the sense that they are imaginary.

According to the specific way they are presented in a story, characters are divided into major and minor. Let’s start with major characters.

The protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story.

A protagonist (from the Greek πρωταγωνιστής protagonistes, "one who plays the first part, chief actor") is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a literary, theatrical, cinematic narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to share the most empathy.

The terms protagonist, main character and hero are variously defined and, depending on the source, may denote different concepts. In fiction, the story of the protagonist may be told from the perspective of a different character (who may also, but not necessarily, be the narrator).

The protagonist is also characterized by his/her ability to change or evolve. Although a novel may center around the actions of another character, it is the dynamic character that typically allows the novel to progress in a manner that is conductive to the thesis of the work and earns the respect or attention of the audience. In some stories, there can be more than one protagonist; this ‘ensemble’ cast is popular in television stories.

In an ancient Greek drama, the protagonist was the leading actor and as such there could only be one protagonist in a play. However the word has been used in the plural to mean ‘important actors’ or ‘principal characters’ since at least 1671 when John Dryden wrote “Tis charg’d upon me that I make debauch’d persons… my protagonists, or the chief persons of the drama”.

It should be pointed out, the protagonist is not always the hero of the story. Many authors have chosen to unfold a story from the point of view of a character who, while not central to the action of the story, is in a position to comment upon it. However, it is most common for the story to be “about” the protagonist; even if the protagonist’s actions are not heroic, they are nonetheless usually vital to the progress of the story. Neither should the protagonist be confused with the narrator, they may be the same, but even a first-person narrator need not be the protagonist, as they may simply be recalling the event while not living through it as the audience is.

Sometimes, a work will initially highlight a particular character, as though they were the protagonist, and then unexpectedly dispose of that character as a dramatic device. Such character is called a false protagonist.

When the work contains subplots, these may have different protagonists from the main plot. In some novels, the protagonists may be impossible to identify, because multiple plots in the novel do not permit clear identification of one as the main plot, such as in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, depicting a variety of characters imprisoned and living in a gulag camp, or in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, depicting 15 major characters involved or affected by a war.

A foil is a person who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight various features of the main character's personality: to throw the character of the protagonist into sharper focus. A foil usually has some important characteristics in common with the other character, such as, frequently, superficial traits or personal history.

An antagonist (from Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – antagonistes, "opponent, competitor, rival") is a character or group of characters, or, sometimes, an institution of a story who represents the opposition against which the heroes and/or protagonists must contend. Another definition: “Antagonist is the character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story; an opponent of the protagonist”. E.g.: Claudius in Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”.

In the classic style of story wherein the action consists of a hero fighting a villain, the two can be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively. However, authors have often created more complex situations. In some instances, the story is told from the villain’s point of view.

Although the antagonist often acts against the protagonist, he/she does not have to be a villain, he/she can just be the character acting against the protagonist.

More often, stories simply do not have characters that are readily identifiable as most heroic or villainous. Instead, the antagonist becomes that character, group, or sometimes force which provides the chief obstruction to the protagonist or “main character” of the story. Note that the antagonist is not necessarily human; often, the forces of nature or psychological elements provide this element of opposition.

The protagonist-antagonist relationship is also sometimes ambiguous.

An encyclopedic definition of “hero” is as follows (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary): 1. a) a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability; b) an illustrious warrior; c) a man admired for his achievements and qualities; d) one that shows great courage 2. a) the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work; b) the central figure in an event or period.

A hero usually fulfills the definitions of what is considered good and noble in the originating culture. Some scholars place the willingness to sacrifice the self for the greater good as the most important defining characteristic of a hero.

As a term in literature studies it has come to denote the central character (masculine or feminine) in a work. It is mainly the character who is the focus of interest. A hero traditionally has positive qualities such as high ethical standards, commitment to duty, perseverance, and courage. Cf., protagonist is a neutral term denoting simply the main character of a work.

Many writers now consider hero, long restricted to men in the sense “a person noted for courageous action”, to be a gender-neutral term. It is used to refer to admired women as well as men in respected publications. The word heroine is still useful, however, in referring to the principal female character of a fictional work. E.g. Jane Eyre is a well-known literary heroine.

Sometimes a person may achieve a high enough status to become courageous in people’s minds. This often leads to a rapid growth of myths around the person in question often attributing him or her with extraordinary powers.

Some social commentators prescribe the need for heroes in times of social upheaval or national self-doubt, seeing a requirement for virtuous models, especially for the young. Such myth-making may have worked better in the past: current trends may confuse heroes and their hero-worship with the cult or mere celebrity.

Anti-hero is a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero.

In literature and film, an anti-hero has widely come to mean a fictional character who has some characteristics that are antithetical to those of the traditional hero.

The concept of anti-hero has been changing over the time. Nowadays the definition and understanding of this concept is almost completely different from what it used to be some time ago.

By 1992 the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language defined an anti-hero only as “a main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage,” not as a person who nevertheless performs heroic acts. Even the more recent Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11^th edition, of 2004, says: “anti-hero: a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities.” The original meaning, therefore, is that of a protagonist who is ineffectual and hapless, rather than resolute and determined, whether his motives are good or bad.

Thus, anti-heroes can be awkward, bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, antisocial, alienated, cruel, obnoxious, passive, obtuse, merely pathetic or just ordinary. In other words, an anti-hero is a protagonist that lives by the guidance of his/her own moral compass, striving to define and construe his/her own values as opposed to those recognized by the society in which he/she lives. Additionally, the work may depict how his/her character alters over time, either leading to punishment, un-heroic success, or redemption.

Often what anti-heroes learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence devoid of God and absolute values.

A narrator is, within any story (literary work, movie, play, verbal account, etc.), the person who conveys the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind. The others are the author and the reader or audience when referring specifically to cinema or theatre.

The author and the reader both inhabit the real world. It is the author's function to create the universe, people, and events within the story. It is the reader's function to understand and interpret the story. The narrator exists within the world of the story (and only there — although in non-fiction the narrator and the author can share the same persona, since the real world and the world of the story may be the same) and presents it in a way the reader can comprehend.

All the other characters are considered to be minor.

Narration in Fiction

1. Notion of narration.

2. Narrator, author and writer.

3. Point of view.

Narrative text is often a story. Narration is assimilating information and retelling it. In linguistics and text studies it is the way of rendering text information. It comprises different types of text information the manner of presentation being peculiar in every text. We sometimes do not pay much attention to it concentrating on the plot. Thus mainly factual information gets into the focus of our attention. In order to grasp every detail of the text and perceive it as a complex whole Charlotte Mason gives some advice.

Charlotte Mason uses an illustration of a doctor visiting a sick person in the hospital. The patient is in extreme pain and the doctor has written the remedy on a three-by-five card. He tells her (the patient) this will alleviate the pain, however, he’s only going to let her look at the card for a few minutes. Then the card will be destroyed permanently, and he won’t be writing it for her again. Can you imagine the attention you would give to the card? This is the kind of attention I want you to pay to your reading when you are doing some research with the text. It is not a mere act of memory because you let your minds act on the material in your own original way. You will classify and connect information.

Narration is a very powerful learning tool. Perfect attention and absolute recollection is an asset to employer, teacher, and the researcher.

The narrator is the character who is telling the story, or is assumed to be speaking in a poem or novel. It is the voice of the person telling the story, not to be confused with the author’s voice. The narrator is to be distinguished from the author of the work – even if it is assumed to be autobiographical. Thus it is possible for the author to create an ironical distance from the narrator, who may be naïve or fallible.

An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article, or the like, whether short or long, fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, technical or literary. Within copyright law the term “author” is often used for the creator of any work, be it written, painted, sculptured, music, a photograph or a film.

In fiction, the first-person narrator is usually distinct from the author. Understanding the differences, subtle or pronounced, between an author and the narrator he or she creates is essential to understanding a work of fiction.

The term “writer” can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more easily designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. Skilled writers demonstrate skills in using language to portray ideas and images, whether producing fiction or non-fiction.

A writer may compose in many different forms, including (but not limited to) poetry, prose, or music. Accordingly, a writer in specialist mode may rank as a poet, novelist, composer, lyricist, mythographer, journalist, film scriptwriter, etc.

Writer’s output frequently contributes to the cultural content of a society, and that society may value its writerly corpus – or literature – as an art much like the visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography), music, craft and performance art (drama, theatre, opera, musical).

In literature and storytelling, a point of view is the related experience of the narrator – not that of the author. Authors rarely, in fiction, insert or inject their own voice, as this challenges the suspension of disbelief. Texts encourage the reader to identify with the narrator, not with the author.

Literary narration can occur from the first-person, or third-person, rarely – second-person point of view. In a novel, the first person is commonly used: “I saw, We did,” etc. In an encyclopedia or textbook narrators often work in the third person: “that happened, the king died”, etc. For additional vagueness, imprecision, and detachment, some writers employ the passive voice: “it is said that the president was compelled to be heard…”

Most novels are narrated either in the first person, in “third person omniscient”, or in “third person limited”. A third person omniscient narrator can shift focus from character to character with knowledge of everyone’s thoughts and of events of which no single character would be aware. The third person limited point of view picks one character and follows him or her around for the duration of the book. The narrator may be more observant than the character, but is limited to what that one character may theoretically observe. In a minor variant of third person limited, the narrator may “travel” with a single character, but the point-of-view conventions may be extended to allow the narrator access to other characters’ thoughts and motivations. Another common variant is for a novel to have different third person limited point of views in different sections. Thus, Chapter One might follow Jane, while Chapter Two follows Dick, and Chapter Three follows their dog.

Third Person, limited

This style of narrator is similar to the first person narrator, except for the notable use of the third person pronouns (he, she, it). The plot centers on a protagonist and covers only that with which the character is involved. But this character is not the narrator. The narrator is disembodied. It does nothing, casts no judgements, expresses no opinions and has no physical form in or out of the story. This narrator is privy to the thoughts, feelings, and memories of the protagonist, but of no other characters.

A way to think of the third person narrator is as a camera peering over the shoulder of the protagonist, recording what transpires for the reader. This point of view is very similar to the first person point of view, but it allows information in a way not possible in the first person. This narrator can present details encountered, but not noticed by the protagonist. It can make observations that the protagonist would never make about himself, like the colour of his eyes, or his personal failings. Any of such details made by the narrator about himself would be highly dubious, but when given by the third person narrator, should be trusted. The narrator doesn’t make blatant judgements; some subjective observations can seep in, but if the reader ever doubts or disagrees with the judgements of the narrator, she will dismiss the work as a whole. The third person narrator is inherently trustworthy.

Third person, omniscient

The third-person omniscient is a narrative mode in which both the reader and author observe the situation either through the senses and thoughts of more than one character, or through an overarching godlike perspective that sees and knows everything that happens and everything the characters are thinking. Third-person omniscient is virtually always the narrative mode chosen for sprawling, epic stories such as J.R.R.Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, George Eliot's Middlemarch, or the great Russian novels of the nineteenth century.

Third-person omniscient simply means that the narrator can tell the reader things that the main character does not know, or things that none of the characters know, or things that no human being could ever know. While third-person omniscient is associated with sweeping, epic stories, not all third-person omniscient narratives stray beyond the characters' knowledge and experiences. For example, Jane Austen's novels are third-person omniscient in that the narrator describes the thoughts and feelings of more than one character, but Austen's novels typically focus closely on a very small number of characters and their milieu.

Third-person omniscient point of view can change the viewpoint for characters instantly, by contrast with the third-person limited point of view, which limits narration to what can be known, seen, thought, or judged from a single character's perspective.

An omniscient narrator, as in more limited third-person forms, is also disembodied; it takes no actions and has no physical form in or out of the story. But, being omniscient, it witnesses all events, even some that no characters witness. The omniscient narrator is privy to all things past, present and future – as well as the thoughts of all characters. As such, an omniscient narrator offers the reader a birds-eye view about the story. The story can focus on any character at any time and on events where there is no character. The third-person omniscient narrator is usually the most reliable narrator; however, the omniscient narrator may offer judgements and express opinions on the behaviour of the characters. This was common in the 19^th century, as seen in the works of Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy or George Eliot. In some unusual cases, the reliability and impartiality of the narrator may be in question.

Third person, objective

The author doesn’t enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall.

The third-person objective employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead it gives an objective, unbiased point of view. This type of narrative mode, outside of fiction, is often employed by newspaper articles, biographical documents, and scientific journals. It can be described as a "fly on the wall" or "camera lens" approach that can only record the observable actions, but does not interpret these actions or relay what thoughts are going through the minds of the characters. Works of fiction that use this style put a great deal of emphasis on characters acting out their feelings in an observable way. Internal thoughts, if expressed, are given voice through an aside or soliloquy. While this approach does not allow the author to reveal the unexpressed thoughts and feelings of the characters, it does allow the author to reveal information that not all or any of the characters may be aware of.

The third-person objective is preferred in most pieces that are deliberately trying to take a neutral or unbiased view, like in many newspaper articles. It is also called the third-person dramatic, because the narrator (like the audience of a drama) is neutral and ineffective toward the progression of the plot — merely an uninvolved onlooker. It was also used around the mid-twentieth century by French novelists writing in the nouveau roman tradition.

First person

First-person narrative is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by only one character at a time, who explicitly refers to him- or herself using words and phrases involving "I" (referred to as the first-person singular) and/or "we" (the first-person plural). This allows the reader or audience to see the point of view (including opinions, thoughts, and feelings) only of the narrator, and no other characters. In some stories, first-person narrators may refer to information they have heard from the other characters, in order to try to deliver a larger point of view. Other stories may switch from one narrator to another, allowing the reader or audience to experience the thoughts and feelings of more than one character.

First person is used somewhat less frequently. The first-person point of view sacrifices omniscience and omnipresence for a greater intimacy with one character. It allows the reader to see what the focus character is thinking; it also allows that character to be further developed through his or her own style in telling the story. First-person narrations may be told like third person ones; on the other hand, the narrator may be conscious of telling the story to a given audience, perhaps even at a given place and time, for a given reason. In extreme cases, the first-person narration may be told as a story, within a story, with the narrator appearing as a character in the frame story.

In a first person narrative, the narrator is a character in the story. This character takes actions, makes judgements and has opinions and biases. In this case the narrator gives and withholds information based on its own viewing of events. It is an important task for the reader to determine as much as possible about the character of the narrator in order to decide what “really” happens.

The narrator can be the protagonist (e.g., Gulliver in “Gulliver’s Travels”), someone very close to him, who is privy to his thought and actions (Dr. Watson in “Sherlock Holmes”), or an ancillary character who has little to do with the action of the story (Nick Carraway in “The Great Gatsby”). A narrator can even be a character relating the story second-hand.

The first person narrator is the type most obviously distinct from the author. It is a character in the work who must follow all of the rules of being a character, even during its studies as narrator. For it to know anything, it must experience it with its senses, or be told about it. It can interject its own thoughts and opinions, but not those of any other character, unless clearly told about those thoughts.

Since the narrator is within the story, he or she may not have knowledge of all the events. For this reason, first-person narrative is often used for detective fiction, so that the reader and narrator uncover the case together. One traditional approach in this form of fiction is for the main detective's principal assistant, the "Watson", to be the narrator: this derives from the character of Dr Watson in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

In the first-person-plural point of view, narrators tell the story using "we". That is, no individual speaker is identified; the narrator is a member of a group that acts as a unit. The first-person-plural point of view occurs rarely but can be used effectively, sometimes as a means to increase the concentration on the character or characters the story is about.

The first-person narrator may be the principal character or one who closely observes the principal character (see Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights or F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, each narrated by a minor character.). These can be distinguished as "first person major" or "first person minor" points of view.

First-person narrative can tend towards a stream of consciousness, as in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The whole of the narrative can itself be presented as a false document, such as a diary, in which the narrator makes explicit reference to the fact that he is writing or telling a story. This is the case in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In autobiographical fiction, the first person narrator is the character of the author (with varying degrees of accuracy). The narrator is still distinct from the author and must behave like any other character and any other first person narrator. In some cases, the narrator is writing a book (“the book in your hands”), therefore it has most of the powers and knowledge of the author.

The first person narrator may directly address the reader, though it is usually considered bad form unless there is a valid reason and explanation. Usually this is done when the intended audience is also a fictional character within the book. This is the case in novels written in the form of letters, known as epistolary novels (Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”) or as told to another character.

Second person

A small number of novels have been written in the second person, frequently paired with the present tense. It is almost universally agreed that second-person narration is hard to manage, especially in a serious work. This is the rarest point of views because, though theoretically possible, it does not work very well. A reader narrating to himself (herself) would never call himself (herself),”you”, and anything the narrator does is questionable. E.g.: “It’s under your skin, you think, underneath all those arteries and veins that crisscross in a delicate lacework. Thick and gray fur, matted with your own blood, trapped between skin and muscle, desperate for release” (Jonathan Garg, “New Moon”).

When done well, the reader imagines himself within the action. Most stories written in second person are probably closer to first-person with “you” replacing “I”.

An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was term coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually to deceive the reader or audience. Unreliable narrators are usually first-person narrators, but third-person narrators can also be unreliable.

Message and Toning of a Fiction Text

1. Representation of reality in fiction.

2. Theme and message of a text.

3. Symbol.

4. Setting. Chronotope.

5. Tone and atmosphere.

Fiction generally claims to represent “reality” (this is known as representation or mimesis) in some way; however, because any narrative is presented through the symbols and codes of human meaning and communication systems, fiction cannot represent reality directly, and different narratives and forms of narrative represent different aspects of reality, and represent reality in different ways. A narrative may be very concrete and adhere closely to time and place, representing everyday events; on the other hand it may, for instance, represent psychological or moral or spiritual aspects through symbols, characters used representatively or symbolically, improbable events, and other devices. You should remember that all narrative requires selection, and therefore it requires exclusion as well, and it requires devices to put the selected elements of experience in meaningful relation to each other.

Any literary work is an artistic whole which is created by the interaction of all its elements: the characters, setting, plot, stylistic devices, mood, conflicts, symbols, and literary techniques. The writer employs different linguistic means, carefully plans the elements of plot structure to fit one another in order to convey the message of a story and impress the reader.

So, what is the text about? What linguistic tools are used to represent what had been invented by the author? What are the links between the text and the “reality”? How trustworthy and “real” is the text information and what is its impact on the reader?

How does the reader make sense of text?

The dynamic character of the reading process gives the reader a certain degree of freedom, but only a certain, as the text itself has some control over this process – limits of interpretation.

The literary text itself functions as message between author and reader. Of course, the term message must not be taken literally. It would be absurd to imagine that an author two hundred years ago, for example, sent a message to the present-day reader. However, literary texts are usually created for an audience, and by the same token literary texts only come to life when they are actually received by a readership. That author and reader are spatially and temporally deferred from one another in most cases must of course be kept in mind.

The basic problem represented in the story is the theme. Every text has a general meaning which arises after reading it. It centers around the author’s idea preceding its creation. So, theme is a term which stands for what the text is about. It is the represented aspect of life which the story illustrates. As literary works commonly have human characters for their subject of depiction the theme may be understood as an interaction of human characters under certain circumstances (the theme of love or love for one's Motherland; the theme of family relations, war and peace; a clash of cultures; discrimination of any kind, etc.) Within a single narrative the basic theme may alternate with rival themes and their relationship may be complex. All the themes are linked together to represent a unity, the essential characteristic of a literary creation. Thus the theme of the story implies the problem which the writer raises. His view and attitude to this problem is revealed in the way he develops the theme of the story. Synonymic term is topic.

Theme is the general area of interest treated in a story. There are books on the theme of family relations, anti-war theme, love theme. Theme performs a unifying function. Plots of different stories on one and the same theme may be based on an identical type of conflict.

Theme is a distillation of everything that happens in a story’s human drama. Our understanding of the theme grows from our perception and evaluation of the story. Each new subject – love, war, youth, marriage, revenge dictates the correct strategies and approaches. Each aspect of style and plot structure techniques – imagery, characterization, point of view, symbolism, mood, tone, – is a way of getting at the message of the story and shaping its meaning. Some stories handle theme intensively, while others blur theme, create multiple themes, or ignore theme entirely. Stories come in many shapes and sizes. In shaping the material writers of fiction should keep both the tradition behind their craft and the need to “make it new”. Writers, however, do not reduce their stories to single themes.

Message stands very close to theme but there is a sufficient difference between them. Message is the most important idea that the author expresses in the process of developing the theme of the story. It is author’s thoughts about a topic; it’s what an author wishes his or her audience to take as the text’s meanings. That is, it is the author’s view upon the topic and the focus guiding the reader.

The theme (topic) and message of such a highly informative unit as a fiction text can hardly be expressed in a sentence or two. Besides, it may cause different opinions within the readers which may deviate from the author’s original idea. But the text is one and the same. Thr theme is organically connected with the author's message. The message is generally expressed implicitly, i.e. indirectly, and has a complex analytical character, being created by the interaction of numerous implications which the different elements of the literary work have.

As A.Chekhov declared, the artist “must set the question, not solve it.” Modern authors do not ask one question but many questions. In some cases the message of the story will not suggest any solution. On account of all that L.Timofeyev distinguishes the following types of messages:

• messages that suggest definite solutions;

• messages that raise a problem;

• messages in which the solution of the problem is not adequate.

Message is generally expressed implicitly, i.e. inderectly and has a complex analytical character. It is created by the interaction of numerous implications.

Implication is the suggestion that is not expressed directly but understood. It may be conveyed by different techniques: parallelism, contrast, recurrence of events or situations, artistic details, symbols, a special arrangement of elements of plot structure.

Parallelism may be deeply suggestive (e.g. parallel actions of the dream and reality). The events that begin and end the story are parallel. This circling of the action implies that nothing has changed, nothing has improved.

Implication may be conveyed by contrast on different levels: linguistic and extralinguistic. Recurrence is another means of conveying implication. Among the repeated linguistic elements there may be stylistic devices, emotionally coloured words, neutral words, but when repeated in text the latter may acquire special semantic relevance and bacome a key-word important for the understanding of the message of the story.

Among many examples of recurrence with implication one often finds artistic details. When an artistic detail is repeated several times and is associated with a broader concept than the original it develops into a symbol.

Symbol is a word (or an object the word stands for) that represents something concrete and material standing for something immaterial which has a more significant sense. A literary symbol means more than it is. Whereas an image has one meaning, a symbol has many. The symbols a writer uses may mean different things to different people, so the problem of understanding symbols still exists.

To use a symbol in a literary text is to represent an idea by suggestion rather than by direct expression. The symbol is generally recognized only after the story is read. That is the so-called “shock of recognition”.

Best human moral properties, different objects, precious stones, a great variety of animals and plants can be turned into symbols. Symbols in literary text presuppose that the reader should possess a certain amount of encyclopedic and special knowledge, develop skills of careful and close reading. A literary text which has images increased to symbols represents a system open to multiple interpretations. The meaning of a symbol is more ambiguous than that of tropes: if metaphor might be understood, a symbol can be interpreted, and always with a certain degree of variability.

The major symbol of the story can be often found in the title which may also supply the theme.

There are common (traditional) symbols (e.g. a rainbow, a rose, a cross, a daybreak) and personal symbols which are created by a definite writer.

The ability to recognize and interpret symbols requires experience in literary readings, perception, and intuition. It is easy “to run wild” with symbols – to find symbols everywhere. The ability to interpret symbols is essential to full understanding and enjoyment of literature.

Setting – the place and time when a story occurs. It’s the surroundings or background against which the events described in a text take place; the setting or context (in its broad meaning) may be important to the theme or message of the story. Spatio-temporal setting is called chronotope. The term was introduced by M.Bakhtin. The scholar describes it as “the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature”. This is from the Greek “chronos” – time and – “topos” – place, meaning literally a new “reality of timespace”. In Bakhtin’s theory, this term acquires a special meaning, namely, the indivisible unity of time and space. He showed the syncretism of time and space in fiction. Time and space are not separable in fiction. There is no place beyond time, there is no time all by itself, without space. According to Bakhtin, the chronotope constitutes the matrix where the principal temporal and spatial sequences of a work of art meet, where dialogues, encounters, events occur.

The spatio-temporal setting is the compositional frame which provides the preliminary key parameters of the original situation and surroundings depicted by the text.

Atmosphere is the mood or persistent feeling implied by a literary work. An author establishes atmosphere partly through description of setting and partly by the objects chosen to be described.

In some texts the predominant atmosphere (or mood) is an element to be carefully considered. To discover the mood of a passage you may refer to the title, consult your own mind and heart, pay due attention to such contributory elements as

• the presentation of character,

• the setting,

• the art of story telling.

Atmosphere (аlso called mood): the emotional feelings inspired by a work. The term is borrowed from meteorology to describe the dominant mood of a selection as it is created by diction, dialogue, setting, and description. Often the opening scene in a play or novel establishes an atmosphere appropriate to the theme of the entire work. The opening of Shakespeare's Hamlet creates a brooding atmosphere of unease. Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher establishes an atmosphere of gloom and emotional decay.

The descriptions are never arbitrary but in keeping with the characters and ultimately with the effect the writer wants to create. The description of an interior often reveals the personality of a character. Environment is molded by man’s will or taste. If it is an exterior, the description of a landscape, it may be in harmony with the hero’s state of mind or personality (soul).

For example, passionate, romantic heroes (or heroines) are often set (placed) in the middle of a storm. The weather may be an important element in the creation of the atmosphere. When nature is endowed with human feelings, the technique used is called pathetic fallacy.

Colours are often more than descriptive, they are symbolic. Gray and brown may help to emphasize the theme of mediocrity of life in a city. Other colours like red, or blue, or green may suggest passion, happiness or purity and so on.

Tone. It could be said that there is no such thing as a text or verbal utterance without a tone. Tone, taken at its most literal, is a feature of non-verbal communication. It is the physical level at which the sound of the human voice is transmitted.

In a general sense, 'tone' is the attitude of the speaker or writer as revealed in the choice of vocabulary or the intonation of speech.

Tone in literature is the attitude of the writer. The writer can show attitudes by scenery, emotions, sounds, and colors. Without good literature attitudes the story or movie can be a failure.

When a writer works on his story, he sets the tone to the reader. The tone could be humorous, very serious, or mysterious. With the tone, the reader know how the writer is feeling and the emotions of the character.

Tone is the attitude a writer has towards the subject he is writing about. It is evident in his diction, style, and opinion if they express one. This attitude might be immediately apparent – in tone of voice, for instance. It might on the other hand be a complex and subtle manner which takes time to establish – in an extended piece of writing, for instance.

Written or spoken communication might be described as having a tone which is, for instance: ironic, serious, flippant, threatening, light-hearted, pessimistic.

Tone is perhaps applied more widely in an almost metaphoric sense to convey a whole attitude. For instance we might receive a letter from someone expressing the sentiment that they had trusted us, but felt let down by something we had done. The letter might have an ironic tone, or an angry tone, or an indignant tone.

Tone is used to convey an attitude. This may be done consciously or unconsciously. Tone in this sense is conveyed by an amalgam of choice of vocabulary and syntax on the part of the writer. For the reader, this selection creates an imaginary audible impression, as the tone is heard in the mind's ear.

Seminar 1

Plan

1. Text interpretation as a branch of linguistics. The notion of text.

2. Types of text.

3. Cohesion.

4. Coherence.

5. Informativeness. Types of text information.

6. Modality.

7. Plot of a literary work. Elements of plot.

8. Conflict. Types of conflict.

9. Composition of a literary work. Plot vs composition.