CONTENT PAGE

Title Pages

Content 1

Literary Element / Key Features 2

Literary Devices in Graphic Organizer:

How the Leopard Got Its Spots by Rudyard Kipling 5

My Short Story: A Flood and Its Aftermath 6

Reflection 8

Bibliography 9

Appendices 10

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LITERARY ELEMENTS / KEY FEATURES

THEMES:

A broad idea, message or lesson that is conveyed by a work

It is may be about life, society or human nature

It’s often explore timeless and universal ideas and may be implied rather than

stated explicitly

( Obstfeld, Raymond :2002 )

The central or dominant idea of a work of fiction

( Dr Kristi Siegel, http://www.kristisiegel.com )

Traditionally means a recurrent element of subject matter

Modern insistence on simultaneous references to form and content emphasizes

the formal dimension of the terms

Themes always a subject, but a subject is not always a themes

Peter Childs and Roger Fowler, The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms

PLOT:

The sequence of interrelated events arranged to form a logical and achieve an

intended effect

( Polking, K :1990 )

Exposition - the explanation of the story's premise and background material

necessary for the reader to understand the story

Crisis - the peak in the story's action. The moment of highest dramatic tension

Climax - the scene which presents the story's decisive action

Resolution or denouement - the outcome of the story--the information that ties

up all (or many) of the story's loose ends

2

( Dr Kristi Siegel, http://www.kristisiegel.com )

A term of highly varied status

It can mean just the paraphrasable story of a work

Simple narrative line which we can then flesh out b considering character and

description, tone and texture, pattern and myth

Plot is a compositional whole

Seymour Chatman, Story and Discourse (1978);

Tzvetan Todorov, The Poetics of Prose (1977)

SETTING:

Setting includes the times, location, circumstances, and characters

Everything in which a story takes places , and provided the main backdrop and

mood for a story

Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context

( especially society ) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story

Element of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour

( Rozelle, Ron : 2005 )

The historical, physical, geographical, and psychological location where a

fictional work takes place

( Dr Kristi Siegel, http://www.kristisiegel.com )

The physical backdrop of the tale

The historical background and cultural attitudes of a given places and time, the

mood of a time, and how the story people talk

Jack M. Bickham, The Element Of Fiction Writing

CHARACTER:

3

Representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art

Derived from ancient Greek word kharakter through its Latin transciption

character

A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of

people is known as a type

Braiman J ( 2007 ), http://www.mrbraiman.com

Round characters are usually main characters and are fully developed so that

the reader can understand their personality and motivations. 

Flat characters are usually minor characters who are barely developed or may

be stereotypes

A foil is a character who serves to contrast with another character. A hypocritical

character, for example, may help emphasize the hero/heroine's honesty

( Dr Kristi Siegel, http://www.kristisiegel.com )

The frictional representation of a person, which is likely to change

Ideas of the place of the human in the social order, of human individuality and

self-determination

Characters are not simply represented verbally but inpersonated by actors

A situation often used to explore the paradoxes of being or identity themselves

Leo Lowenthal, Literature and the Image of Man (1957)

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SETTING

High-Velat sandy-coloured rock, and sandy yellowish grasses

Forest Over a long period, day and night

CHARACTER

LEOPARD

Stubborn Immature

ETHIOPIAN

Wiser Experience Calm

A FLOOD AND ITS AFTERMATH

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HOW THE LEOPARD GOT ITS SPOTS

By Rudyard Kipling

THEMES

Camouflage is captivation

CHARACTER

LEOPARD

Stubborn Immature

ETHIOPIAN

Wiser Experience Calm

PLOT

Exposition

In High Veldt, leopard and Ethiopian are capable to survive with enough foods. They always stick together when hunting. Both are able to camouflage themselves in the surroundings of the High Veldt.

Rising Action The animals started to move to the forest to avoid from being hunt by leopard and Ethiopian.

There they changed their appearances over time to better suit their environment. The hunters were beginning to starve from not eating the correct foods. Neither had any idea

where their prey had gone. After being advice by Baviaan, they move to the forest. They could smell and hear their prey but could not see them.

Climax The hunter changed plans to wait until dark to hunt their prey. They caught an animal but could

not see it. So, they wait until daylight and finally they realized they had caught zebra and giraffe. After the prey’s explanation, they finally knew their preys changed their skin to hide from any predator.

Falling Action The Ethiopian also change his skin to a blackish-brownish colour to hide in the dark forest areas. The leopard did not understand the point of changing spots on his skin.

Conceding to the human’s advice, the leopard decided to go with small spots. The human took his fingers and the black he had left from his skin and made many of spots on the leopard’s skin.

Resolution

The two lived happily since they were able to hide in a variety places and hunt a variety of

animals.

I was swinging in the park when my friend told me to go home. He said the

dark clouds that had been gathering all morning is going to give way to thunderous

roars of rain.

We ran back into our houses and waited for the rain to stop. We thought it was

just a thunderstorm that would stop in an hour or so. It was a thunderstorm all right but

we never guessed it would continue way beyond one hour. In fact, it rained and rained

with undiminished intensity all that afternoon. By dusk, we knew that if the rain did not

stop we were going to face the possibility of flood.

Just after dusk, our fears became reality. The swollen river 100 meters from

my house overflowed its banks and the water swept quickly through the neighborhood.

My mother was so nervous because the water came faster than before. Actually my

neighborhood always floods stricken but this time, it is more extreme than usual.

Frantically we worked to put our precious belongings onto higher safer place.

However ten minutes was not exactly enough time to do anything effective. My father

asked me and my brothers to help him to raise the electronics equipment onto the

cupboard. My sisters help my mother packed all the clothes and important documents

into a big bag.

Soon it became obvious that we had to leave the houses. The police arrived

urging everyone to evacuate to higher ground. Reluctantly but quickly my parents,

brothers, sisters, and I waded out of our house empty-handed into some lorries

provided by the police. My neighbors did the same.

As the lorries made their way to a flood-relief center, I glanced back at my

house to see that the flood waters had already risen up to the windows. This was the

most terrible flood I think. My family agreed with me. My father said this was the most

terrible food since he first came here twenty years ago.

We spent the night at the flood-relief center. There were about a hundred of us

gloomy-faced and teary-eyed about what had happened. Fortunately no lives were lost.

The news said the flood was cause by unpredictable rained that afternoon.

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Late night the rain stopped. When morning came we were able to return to our

houses. What awaited us was far worse than the dreadful night at the flood-relief center.

What were once cozy homes were covered with slimy mud. A good half meter of wet

slush was on the floor. The walls, cupboards, beds, furniture – everything was covered

with mud!

The flood has wrecked the gate and some windows. Piles of rubbish were

stuck to the fence. My father’s once shiny red car was now a dirty muddy mess. My

bicycle was half buried in mud. It was mud, mud everywhere! It drove everybody crazy

cleaning up the huge mess the flood had left behind.

We spent a good week cleaning up our house. Our neighbors were all busy

too bringing their houses back to reasonable condition. Things are back to normal now;

well almost normal anyway. Every time it rains, we are reminded of the flood. We pray

silently that it will not happen again. It was a really bad, terrible experience to me.

7

8

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITE AND INTERNET

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/portals:arts/literature_devices

Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297117x.

Polking, K (1990). Writing A to Z. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0898794358

Rozelle, Ron (2005). Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297327x.

http://www.kristisiegel.com

Dr Kristi SiegelProfessor of English, Chair-Language, Literature and Communication Division, Director, English Graduate Program, Acting Chair, world Language, Mount-Mary College

http://www.mrbraiman.com

Braiman J (2007)

BOOKS

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10

Basic Literary Terms

(Adapted from Literature: Reacting, Writing)

The Novel and Short Story - Basic Terminology

Novel 

an extended narrative in prose. Typically the novel relates to a series of

events or follows the history of a character or group of characters

through a period of time.

Short

Story

a fictional narrative generally centering on one climactic event and

usually developing only a single character in depth; its scope is narrower

than that of a novel.

Plot the way in which the narrative events are arranged. Generally, plots

have the same basic elements:

Exposition - the explanation of the story's premise and

background material necessary for the reader to understand the

story;

Crisis - the peak in the story's action--the moment of highest

dramatic tension;

Climax - the scene which presents the story's decisive action;

Resolution or denouement - the outcome of the story--the

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information that ties up all (or many) of the story's loose ends.

Point-of-

View

the angle from which a story is told; i.e., the type of narrator the author

chooses to use 

In first-person narration the narrator uses "I" to tell his or her

story. The first-person narrator may be a major character in the

story or simply an observer. In third-person narration narrators

are not actually characters in the story. 

Omniscient third-person narrators can reveal the thoughts of

all their characters; they are "all-knowing." 

A limited omniscient narrator only reveals the thoughts and

feelings of one (or possibly a limited few) character(s). 

An objective third-person narrator does not reveal anyone's

thoughts and provides the sort of external, objective information

that a camera (or an objective reporter) might record.

Character

a fictional representation of a person (or animal). Characters may be

described as either flat or round. 

Round characters are usually main characters and are fully

developed so that the reader can understand their personality

and motivations. 

Flat characters are usually minor characters who are barely

developed or may be stereotypes. 

A foil is a character who serves to contrast with another

character. A hypocritical character, for example, may help

emphasize the hero/heroine's honesty.

Theme the central or dominant idea of a work of fiction

Setting  the historical, physical, geographical, and psychological location where a

fictional work takes place

Style   the way a writer selects and arranges words to express ideas

Tone the attitude of the speaker or author of a work toward the subject matter

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Symbol  

a person, object, action, place, or event that in addition to its literal or

denotative meanings suggests a more complex meaning or range of

meanings

Allegory  a story with two parallel and consistent levels of meaning, on literal and

one figurative

 

Poetry terms

Drama terms

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Theme:

A broad idea, message, or lesson that is conveyed by a work. The message may be about life, society, or

human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and may be implied rather than

stated explicitly. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the

fundamental components of fiction.( Obstfeld, Raymond (2002))

Plot:

in fiction, the plot is a sequence of interrelated events arranged to form a logical pattern and achieve an

intended effect.[1] Along with character, setting, theme, and style, plot is considered one of the

fundamental components of fiction.[2] Aristotle wrote in Poetics that mythos is the most important

element of storytelling.( Polking, K (1990).)

Character:

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art (such as a

novel, play, or film).[1] Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ) through its

Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the

Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749.[2] From

this, the sense of "a part played by an actor" developed.[3] Character, particularly when enacted

by an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person."[4] Since the

end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an effective

impersonation by an actor.[3] Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practiced by

actors or writers, has been called characterization.[5]

A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of people is known as a

type.[6] Types include both stock characters and those that are more fully individualized.[6] The

characters in Henrik Ibsen's Heyday Gabbler (1891) and August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888),

for example, are representative of specific positions in the social relations of class and gender,

such that the conflicts between the characters reveal ideological conflicts.[7]

The study of a character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the

work.[8] The individual status of a character is defined through the network of oppositions

14

(proairetic, pragmatic, linguistic, proxemic ) that it forms with the other characters.[9] The

relation between characters and the action of the story shifts historically, often miming shifts in

society and its ideas about human individuality, self-determination, and the social order.[10]

Setting :

In fiction, setting includes the time, location, circumstances, and characters, everything in which

a story takes place, and provides the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been

referred to as story world [1] or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the

immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period,

geography, and hour. (Rozelle, Ron (2005)

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Plot (narrative)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In fiction, the plot is a sequence of interrelated events arranged to form a logical pattern and achieve an intended effect.[1] Along with character, setting, theme, and style, plot is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.[2] Aristotle wrote in Poetics that mythos is the most important element of storytelling.

Contents

[hide] [hide]

1 Plot structure o 1.1 Exposition o 1.2 Conflict o 1.3 Rising action o 1.4 Climax o 1.5 Falling action o 1.6 Dénouement (Resolution)

2 Plot devices 3 Plot outlines 4 Notes 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit]Plot structure

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Freytag's pyramid

Plot is often designed with a narrative structure, storyline or story arc, that includes exposition, conflict, rising action and climax, followed by a falling action and a dénouement. The term storyline also refers to the plot or subplot of a story.

[edit]ExpositionMain article: Exposition (literary technique)

Exposition is the beginning of the plot usually concerned with introducing characters and setting.

[edit]ConflictMain article: Conflict (narrative)

Conflict is actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. A conflict may be internal (within oneself) or external (between two or more individuals). It may also be both internal and external.

[edit]Rising actionMain article: Rising action

The rising action in a work of fiction builds suspense and leads to the climax.

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[edit]ClimaxMain article: Climax (narrative)

The high point, a moment most intense, a turning point, a major culmination of events. The climax isn't always the first important scene in a story. In many stories, it is the last sentence.

[edit]Falling actionMain article: Falling action

The falling action is the part of a story following the climax and shows the effects of the climax. It leads up to the dénouement (or catastrophe).[3]

[edit]Dénouement (Resolution)Main article: Dénouement

Etymologically, the French word dénouement is derived from the Old French word denoer, "to untie", and from nodus, Latin for "knot". In fiction, a dénouement consists of a series of events that follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story. Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader. Simply put, dénouement is the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot. Be aware that not all stories have a resolution.

[edit]Plot devices

Main article: Plot device

A plot device is a literary technique used by authors to create a desired effect in storytelling.

[edit]Plot outlines

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A plot outline is a prose telling of a story to be turned into a screenplay. Sometimes called a one page (one page synopsis, about 1 - 3 pages). It is generally longer and more detailed than a standard synopsis (1 - 2 paragraphs), but shorter and less detailed than a treatment or a step outline. There are different ways to do these outlines and they vary in length.

In comics, an outline—often pluralised as outlines--refers to a stage in the development where the story has been broken down very loosely in a style similar to storyboarding in film development.

The pencils will be very loose (i.e., the sketch rough), the main aim being to lay out the flow of panels across a page, ensure the story successfully builds suspense and to work out points of view, camera angles and character positions within panels. This can also be referred to as a plot outline or a layout.

[edit]Notes

1. ̂  Polking, 1990, p.328-9.

2. ̂  Obstfeld, 2002, p.1,65,115,171.

3. ̂  Greenville College (2006). Plot A: The Pattern of the Action

[edit]References

Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297117x.

Polking, K (1990). Writing A to Z. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 0898794358.

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Character (arts)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.

It contains too much jargon and may need simplification or further explanation. Tagged since

August 2009.

Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since August 2009.

Its factual accuracy is disputed. Tagged since August

2009.

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art (such as a novel, play, or film).[1] Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ) through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749.[2] From this, the sense of "a part played by an actor" developed.[3] Character, particularly when enacted by an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person."[4] Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an effective impersonation by an actor.[3] Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practised by actors or writers, has been called characterisation.[5]

A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of people is known as a type.[6] Types include both stock characters and those that are more fully individualised.[6]The characters in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (1891) and August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888), for example, are representative of specific

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positions in the social relations of class andgender, such that the conflicts between the characters reveal ideological conflicts.[7]

The study of a character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the work.[8] The individual status of a character is defined through the network of oppositions (proairetic, pragmatic, linguistic, proxemic ) that it forms with the other characters.[9] The relation between characters and the action of the story shifts historically, often miming shifts in society and its ideas about human individuality, self-determination, and the social order.[10]

Contents

[hide] [hide]

1 Classical analysis of character 2 See also 3 References 4 Sources

[edit]Classical analysis of character

Further information: Poetics (Aristotle)

This section may stray from the topic of the article. Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page.

In the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory, Poetics (c. 335 BCE), the Greek philosopher Aristotle deduces that character (ethos) is one of six qualitative parts of Athenian tragedy and one of the three objects that it represents (1450a12).[11]. Aristotle defines the six qualitative elements of tragedy as ""[12] (1450a10); the three

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objects are plot (mythos), character (ethos), and reasoning (dianoia). He understands character not to denote a fictional person, but the quality of the person acting in the story and reacting to its situations (1450a5);[13] ethos - or, equivalently, its plural ethe - is not a matter of individuality or of intention, but of "generic qualities."[14] He defines character as "Character is that which reveals choice [prohairesis], shows what sort of thing a man chooses or avoids in circumstances where the choice is not obvious, so those speeches convey no character in which there is nothing whatever which the speaker chooses or avoids" (1450b8)/ It is possible, therefore, to have tragedies that do not contain "character" in Aristotle's sense of the word, since character makes the ethical dispositions of those performing the action of the story clear.[15] Aristotle argues for the primacy of plot (mythos) over character (ethos).[16] He writes:

“ The most important of these is the arrangement of the incidents, for tragedy is not a representation of men but of a piece of action, of life, of happiness and unhappiness, which come under the head of action, and the end aimed at is the representation not of qualities of character but of some action; and while character makes men what they are, it's their actions and experiences that make them happy or the opposite. They do not therefore act to represent character, but character-study is included for the sake of the action." [17] ”

In the Tractatus coislinianus (which may or may not be by Aristotle), comedy is defined as involving three types of characters: the buffoon (bômolochus), the ironist (eirôn) and the imposteror boaster (alazôn).[18] All three are central to Aristophanes' "Old comedy."[19]

Character was used to define dramatic genre; this is attested in the works of the Roman playwright Plautus,[20] who was

22

almost certainly working from Greek sources. His Amphitryonbegins with a prologue that discusses the play's genre—since the play contains kings and gods, the speaker Mercury claims, it can't be a comedy and must be a tragicomedy.[21] Like much Roman comedy, it is probably translated from an earlier Greek original, most commonly held to be Philemon's Long Night, or Rhinthon's Amphitryon, both now lost.[22].

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Setting (literature)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  (Redirected from Setting (fiction))

For other meanings, see setting.

In fiction, setting includes the time, location, circumstances, and characters, everything in which a story takes place, and provides the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world [1] or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. Along with plot, character, theme, and style, setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.[2]

Contents

[hide] [hide]

1 Role of setting 2 Types of setting 3 See also 4 Footnotes 5 References

[edit]Role of settingSetting may take a key role in plot, as in man vs. nature or man vs. society stories. In some stories the setting becomes a character itself. [3] In such roles setting may be considered aplot device or literary device.

[edit]Types of settingSettings may take various forms:

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Alternate history Campaign setting Constructed world Dystopia Fantasy world Fictional country Fictional location Fictional universe Future history Imaginary world Mythical place Parallel universe Planets in science fiction Simulated reality Virtual reality Utopia

[edit]See also

Index of fictional places List of fictional universes

[edit]Footnotes

1. ̂  Truby, 2007, p. 145

2. ̂  Obstfeld, 2002, p. 1, 65, 115, 171.

3. ̂  Rozelle, 2005, p. 2.

[edit]References

Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297117x.

Rozelle, Ron (2005). Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297327x.

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Truby, John (2007). Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York, NY: Faber and Faber, Inc. ISBN 9780865479517

Theme (literature)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A broad idea, message, or lesson that is conveyed by a work. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and may be implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.[1]

Contents

[hide] [hide]

1 Classic themes 2 Techniques o 2.1 Leitwortstil o 2.2 Thematic patterning

3 See also 4 External links 5 Footnotes 6 References

[edit]Classic themesThemes differ from culture to culture, but some themes appear in many cultures, sometimes arising from their roots in the oral traditions, including mythology.

[edit]TechniquesVarious techniques may be used to express themes.

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[edit]LeitwortstilLeitwortstil is the purposeful repetition of words in a literary piece that usually expresses a motif or theme important to the story. This device dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights, which connects several tales together in a story cycle. The storytellers of the tales relied on this technique "to shape the constituent members of their story cycles into a coherent whole."[2]

This technique is also used frequently in classical Hebrew narratives.[3]

[edit]Thematic patterningThematic patterning is "the distribution of recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story. Thematic patterning may be arranged so as to emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea which disparate events and disparate frames have in common". This technique also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights.[4]

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