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“Reading the Novel”

“Reading the Novel”. Setting. Time Chronological time [the time from beginning to the end of a story] Novel time [the timeline in which events are presented – may include flash backs or flash forwards] Place Location like woods or at sea as well as city, country Objects

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“Reading the Novel”

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  1. “Reading the Novel”

  2. Setting • Time • Chronological time [the time from beginning to the end of a story] • Novel time [the timeline in which events are presented – may include flash backs or flash forwards] • Place • Location like woods or at sea as well as city, country • Objects • Buildings, vehicles, clothing • Environment • Weather, lighting, temperature • Ambience • How do we feel about the setting?

  3. Who is the narrator? • First person: Narrator as I  • Third Person: He/She • Narrator may be Omniscient [knows everything about everyone inner thoughts as well as exterior actions], limited omniscient [knows everything about some characters], intrusive [talks directly to the reader and breaks flow of text], objective – recorder [acts like a video camera so only records what is external]) • Stream of consciousness • Like a narrators thoughts flowing across a page • Questions to ask yourself: • Who is telling the story? • Is this person in the story or outside of the story? • Does the author ever intrude?

  4. Reliable or unreliable narrators • Should we believe what the narrator tells us? • Sometimes a narrator is a character in the story and may have an agenda or a reason to tell the story in a certain way – for example, to make himself look innocent. • What makes a narrator unreliable? • As readers, we have to decide why the author has a character telling us a story, and we should pay attention to this. • Often is the narrator is outside of the story, the narrator may be more reliable, but that is not always the case.

  5. Plot [order of events] • Exposition (who, what, where, when) • Conflict (problem – there may be more than one) • Climax (pivotal point in action) • Resolution ( How it ends up) Climax Conflict Resolution Expo

  6. Characters in novels have more depth • How do we learn about them? • Dialogue • Physical actions • Thoughts or mental actions • Judgment by others • Narrator judgment • Author’s judgment

  7.    Theme versus Overall Message • Theme: main topics of the book • Ex: Marriage • Overall Message: what we should think about the topic? • Ex: Marriage sometimes makes people unhappy

  8. Symbolism+ Irony • Symbolism • Cultural symbols – commonly recognizable symbols • Red rose = love or gold ring = marriage • Personal symbols – must be figured out by reading the text • Swan = death if in the text when someone dies a character sees or hears a swan • Irony • Dramatic Irony – when someone in the text or the audience knows something another character does not. • For example, in one chapter the murder is illustrated so the reader knows who did it but the other characters in the text don’t. • Circumstantial Irony – when situations occur that cause surprise and chagrin. • For example, you have just bought a bus ticket and someone offers you a free ride.

  9. Narrative Precursors to the Novel  These stories led to the eventual creation of what we call the modern novel. Essentially, smaller stories eventually got linked into a longer whole. • Heroic Epics : Gilgamesh, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,  Mahabharata, Valmiki’s Ramayana, Virgil’s Aeneid, Beowulf, The Song of Roland • Ancient Greek and Roman Romances and Novels: Ovid’s metamorphosis • Oriental Frame Tales :Ramayana, A Thousand and One Nights • Medieval European Romances : Arthurian tales culminating in Malory’s Morte Darthur • Novelle:  Boccaccio’s Decameron, Margurerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

  10. The First Novels • The Tale of Genji ( Japan, 11th c. )by Lady Murasaki Shikibu •   Monkey, Water Margin,  and Romance of Three Kingdoms (China, 16th c.) •   Don Quixote ( Spain, 1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes •   The Princess of Cleves (France, 1678) by Madame de Lafayette •   Love Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (England, 1683) and Oroonoko (1688)by Aphra Behn •   Robinson Crusoe (England, 1719) , Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel DeFoe •   Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (England, 1740-1742) by Samuel Richardson •   Joseph Andrews (England, 1742) and Tom Jones (1746)by Henry Fielding

  11. Journey to the West or Monkey [one of the earliest novels] • Brief Description • supernatural novel with gods and demons • began with a series of oral and written versions • attained its most definitive version written by Wu Ch'eng-en (1500?-1582) • Journey to the West is divided into three parts: • (1) an early history of the Monkey spirit; • (2) pseudo-historical account of Tripitaka's family and life before his trip to fetch the sutras [scriptures] in the Western Heaven; • (3)the main story, consisting of 81 dangers and calamities encountered by Tripitaka and his three animal spirit disciples - Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy.

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