1.3. Elements of fiction: An overview

Most scholars agree with the claim that there exist certain fundamental elements of the fiction-writing craft, but there appears to be little consensus about their number and composition. Yet in analyzing works of fiction it might be useful to adhere to a certain scheme, like the one given in the box below.

In studying fiction, use the following questions as a guide:

• What are the theme and the message? How does the title relate to them?

• What is the plot structure like? What does the setting contribute to it?

• What central conflict drives the plot? What are other conflicts?

• How is the story told? What does the particular type of narrator contribute?

• Which narrative modes are used? How do they relate to the plot structure elements?

• How does the story reveal its main characters?

• What means of character drawing are used by the author?

• How does the language of the story contribute to the development of the theme and character drawing?

Tasks to Module 1

1. What kinds of writing are there? Give an example of each from an authentic source.

2. How does literature differ from other kinds of writing?

3. How does the world of fiction relate to objective reality? Substantiate your answer with examples from English fiction.

4. Give examples of an epic, a tragedy, a comedy, a novel, a short story. Are they in the genres of prose or poetry?

5. Give definitions for creative non-fiction, satire, allegory and pastoral. Can they be called genres? In what relation do they stand to the genres mentioned in the question above?

6. Give an example of English poetry. Does it belong to the narrative, lyric or dramatic type?

7. Recite a lyric poem in English.

8. What are the fundamental elements of the fiction-writing craft?

Module 2

4. Theme, message and title=

The theme and the message are usually listed among the fundamental elements of fiction. These terms can be used interchangeably, but it is worthwhile to differentiate their content.

The main theme of a work of literature is what the story or novel is about. The theme is usually formulated as a nominative syntactic structure (a noun or a nominal phrase) which names things but does not elaborate them.

There may be not one, but several themes in a work of fiction.

The general idea that the reader draws from the story as a whole is called the message, which is the product of a reader's interpretation. It is a conceptual distillation of the story, the central idea or insight serving as a unifying element, creating cohesion among different parts of the story. In order to formulate the message one has to answer the question “What did you learn from this piece of fiction?” The message is rendered by a predicative syntactic structure (a sentence). In some cases the message is a prominent element of the story and thus unmistakable, in other cases its reconstruction requires some thought.

The title may refer either to the theme or to the message, or to both of them simultaneously.