Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF ANTIQUE
(Main Campus)
Sibalom, Antique

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Bachelor in Secondary Education – English

ENGLISH 11 - CONTEMPORARY, POPULAR, AND EMERGENT LITERATURE

A Guide to Reading and Interpreting Short and
Long Fiction

Fiction is narrative. It must have plot (stasis, disruption, stasis), character,

meaning. The roots of the modern novel and short story are long and complex, going
back beyond recorded history. Stories have been told to mark an occasion, set an
example, warn about danger, procure food, or explain what seemed inexplicable. People
tell stories to communicate knowledge and experience in social contexts. As far as we
know, stories are a natural product of the way the human brain works. Long before we
had written text, stories were oral. Members of society memorized them and passed
them down, generation to generation. Early forms of stories include: fairy tales,
exemplums, animal tales, warning narratives, anecdotes, fables, ballads, legends, rumors,
myths, riddles, proverbs, and jokes.
Human Potential

In the event of storytelling, the mind is preoccupied by a concern with an action or

behavior that needs to be verbalized, or calls for verbalization. Stories have always been
compelled to respect the genre’s penetrating gaze into the dark side of human beings
portrayed as animals in a dog-eat-dog world. Fables, inspired by Aesop, employ animal
characters in this respect to pose a question: Can human beings rise above animals?
Modern stories may use humans as the characters, but the question remains central.

Moral Behavior

The world or setting of the fairy tale creates a counter world to the reality of the
storyteller and listeners. Together, storytellers and listeners collaborate through intuition,
as well as conscious conception, to form worlds filled with naive or simple morality.
Fundamental to the feel of a fairy tale is its moral pulse. It tells us what we lack and how
the world has to be organized differently so that we receive what we need. In modern
fiction, that need to outline or reinforce moral concepts is manifested in complex themes.

Individual Expression

A thousand years ago, a Japanese woman, Lady Murasaki, a writer who many believe
wrote the first text most resembling a novel, explained the impulse for telling stories
came from a need for self-expression. From that time forward, written fiction has grown,
expanded and become the central form of social expression, carrying on the tradition of
commenting on and critiquing human behavior.

Stories ought to judge and interpret the world.

- Cynthia Ozick
Consider the following as you read fiction:
1. Every element in a story—character, conflict, plot, theme—is controlled by the way

writers handle the point of view they have chosen (first-person, third person- limited
omniscient).

2. The writer’s style—the conscious choice of words, the phrasing—is determined by

the point of view he or she employs.

3. Beginning with the first crucial paragraph, the writer uses words to create a context,

which evolves from paragraph to paragraph to the crucial final paragraph.

4. The literal statements work within the overall context, and within the immediate

context of any given paragraph, to enable the writer to imply what is not explicitly stated.
5. What is implied (or evoked or conveyed indirectly) in a story usually has a more

powerful effect than what is obviously stated because implication stimulates the reader’s
own emotions, imagination, and intellect.
6. The reason why writers use various technical devices is to create contexts and

implications or to stimulate some specific response from the reader; as the reader
becomes involved, the reader’s experiences become richer and more complex, and the
effects are deeper and more lasting.
7. Contrast and comparison are simple devices that enable the writer to call your

attention to the use of symbols and irony, among other things.

8. To respond to the writer’s use of a symbol, an allusion, or to irony, a reader must be

intimately, intricately, and actively involved in the process of reading and responding; the
result is a much richer experience than if the reader were only passively reacting to literal
statements.
9. With considerations 1 through 8 in mind, a person who is studying the nature and

effect of fiction, as opposed simply to reading it as one usually does, may more fully
respond to all the experiences the writer has imagined for the reader.
10. Is the story written in a specific genre? IF so, does it depart from the limited elements

of that genre? Or does the story draw on aspects of several genres?

Review Questions That Apply to Most Fiction
1. Who is the protagonist?
2. When and where is the setting?

3. What is the story or plot?

4. What is the central conflict?

5. What is the point of view?

6. What are the characteristics of the style that derive from the point of view?

7. What is the external context? What is the general context? What are some of the most

significant immediate contexts?

8. What other techniques or devices does the author use? Comparison and Contrast

Symbolism Allusion Irony

9. To what genre does the story belong (if relevant)?

10. How do the preceding considerations suggest them or meaning?

Types of Fiction

Fiction refers to a story that comes from a writer’s imagination, as opposed to one based strictly on fact
or a true story. In the literary world, a work of fiction can refer to a short story, novella, and novel, which
is the longest form of literary prose. Every work of fiction falls into a sub-genre, each with its own style,
tone, elements, and storytelling devices.
Literary Fiction. Literary fiction novels are considered works with artistic value and literary
merit. They often include political criticism, social commentary, and reflections on
humanity. Literary fiction novels are typically character-driven, as opposed to being plot-
driven, and follow a character’s inner story.

Thriller. Thriller novels are dark, mysterious, and suspenseful plot-driven stories. They very
seldom include comedic elements, but what they lack in humor, they make up for in
suspense. Thrillers keep readers on their toes and use plot twists, red herrings, and
cliffhangers to keep them guessing until the end.

Horror. Horror novels are meant to scare, startle, shock, and even repulse readers.
Generally focusing on themes of death, demons, evil spirits, and the afterlife, they prey on
fears with scary beings like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, and monsters. In horror
fiction, plot and characters are tools used to elicit a terrifying sense of dread

Historical. Historical fiction novels take place in the past. Written with a careful balance of
research and creativity, they transport readers to another time and place—which can be
real, imagined, or a combination of both. Many historical novels tell stories that involve
actual historical figures or historical events within historical settings.

Romance. Romantic fiction centers around love stories between two people. They’re
lighthearted, optimistic, and have an emotionally satisfying ending. Romance novels do
contain conflict, but it doesn’t overshadow the romantic relationship, which always prevails
in the end.

Western. Western novels tell the stories of cowboys, settlers, and outlaws exploring the
western frontier and taming the American Old West. They’re shaped specifically by their
genre-specific elements and rely on them in ways that novels in other fiction genres don’t.
Westerns aren’t as popular as they once were; the golden age of the genre coincided with
the popularity of western films in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.
Speculative Fiction. Speculative fiction is a supergenre that encompasses a number of
different types of fiction, from science fiction to fantasy to dystopian. The stories take place
in a world different from our own. Speculative fiction knows no boundaries; there are no
limits to what exists beyond the real world.

Fantasy. Fantasy novels are speculative fiction stories with imaginary characters set in
imaginary universes. They’re inspired by mythology and folklore and often include
elements of magic. The genre attracts both children and adults; well-known titles include
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and the Harry Potter series by J.K.
Rowling.
Elements of Fiction
Analyzing and writing about fiction is generally focused on the elements of fiction: plot, character, point of view,
setting, theme, symbol, and style.

Plot: Generally the least interesting aspect of a story, in part because most stories are archetypal in nature and fall
into familiar patterns. Critics have identified anywhere from four to seven basic plots that all stories ever told fall
under. So, plot is like the framing of a house. It’s the structure that holds up and showcases all the other elements,
and those story lines tend to be familiar to us all. Students who have little experience analyzing fiction tend to
spend too much time retelling the plot. In general, when writing an analysis of a story, just drop small reminders
of the key points of plot when you analyze.

The exception to this rule are when a plot surprises your expectations by, for instance, rearranging the chronology
of events, or otherwise presents thing sin nonrealistic ways. When this happens in a story, the plot may indeed
prove fertile ground for analysis and may be the basis for an interesting essay.
Characters: The actions, motivations, and development of individual characters are the basis for good discussion
and analysis. How does the author reveal a character to the reader? How does a character grow and develop over
the course of a story? Sometimes, analyzing or writing about the antagonist or a secondary character can be more
interesting than writing about the protagonist.

To analyze or write about a character, you will probably plan to convey three things:
Appearance Personality
Character—the individual’s moral or ethical values

In preparing a character sketch, take these points into consideration:

What the person says (remember that what he or she says need not be taken at face value; the person may be
hypocritical or self-deceived or biased).
What the person does—including, if possible, what the person thinks.
What others (including the narrator of the story) say about the person.
What others do (their actions may help indicate what the person could do but does not do), including what they
think about others.
What the person looks like—face, body, clothes. These details may help convey the personality of the character,
or they may in some measure help to disguise it.

Point of View: The perspective from which a story is told makes a big difference in how the audience perceives it.
Keep in mind that first-person narrators can be unreliable, as they do not have access to all vital information, and
their own agendas can often skew the way they see events.

3rd Person Narrators: In writing about or discussing a 3rd- person narrator, speak of “the
narrator” or “the speaker” not of “the author.”

Omniscient Narrator: knows everything that is going on and can tell us the inner thoughts of all
the characters. The omniscient narrator may editorialize, pass judgments, reassure the reader,
and so forth, in which case he or she may sound like the author.
Selective or Limited Omniscient Narrator: takes up what Henry James called a “center of
consciousness” revealing the thoughts of one of the characters but (for the most part) seeing the
rest of the characters from outside only.
Sometimes, it may seem that the story is being narrated by the selected character, but it’s not,
because we still get information about that character from the outside.

Effaced or Objective Narrator: This narrator does not seem to exist, for he or she does not
comment in his or her own voice and does not enter any minds. The reader hears dialogue and
sees only what a camera would see. Still, the narrator can seem cold or reportorial, which
contributes to the tone of a story.

1st Person Narrators: In writing or discussing a 1st-person narrative, after an introductory

remark to the effect that the character tells the story, use the character’s name or pronoun
in speaking of the narrator.

1st-Person or Participant Narrator: The “I” who narrates the story and may be either the
 major character in it or may be a minor character or witness to the events. If the writer
creates an innocent eye 1st-person narrator, it highlights the discrepancy between the
narrator’s imperfect awareness and the reader’s superior awareness. Such a narrator
becomes an unreliable narrator, due to the fact that the narrator is either naïve, or senile,
or morally blind, or insane, or caught in a rage.

Setting: While settings may merely be a backdrop for a story, more likely they play a meaningful role in the
story. Setting includes time and place, therefore it will include social structures and expectations that
constrain or limit characters’ actions, or play a role in shaping the
characters’ personalities. In stories with conflicts centered on the individual vs. society, or the individual vs.
nature, the setting’s importance is generally significant.

Prepared by
Mr. Alfonso M. Samillano Jr., MAEd