Elements Of Literature

Elements of Narrative Literature

Also known as Fiction Literature, Narrative Literature usually refers to stories which come from the writer’s mind, or from real events, or from the mixture of both. According to extension, the shortest form of Narrative Literature is the short story (with the fable being in turn its shortest form),
while the novel is the longest.
Some of the followingElements of Literature are applicable to non-fiction as well.

1. Context: Story’s background and its setting (place and time).

a. Author’s context: Biographical information on the author’s life and background for the creation of the literary work (history, economy, society, politics, religion, etc). *Author: The person who wrote the text or story originally.
b. Novel’s context: Setting [place(s)and time(s) in which the story occurs]. Are places and times real? Fictitious? Both?

2. Genre: The type of literature the story or text belongs in (horror, romance, comedy, historical, adventure, science fiction, fantasy, short story, fable, poem, novella, novel , etc.) One text may combine different genres, if the writer wishes to.

3. Plot: The sequence of events in the story, frombeginning to end. It is divided into five stages:

a. Exposition, Presentation or Introduction (Conflict)
b. Rising Action(s): Complications that lead to the story’s climax. (Usually the longest part of the narration).
c. Climax: Moment of highest and most decisive tension or emotion in the plot. How the story ends depends on what the outcome of the climax is.
d. Falling Action(s): Events after theclimax, which lead to the story’s end.
e. Resolution, Conclusion or End

4. Characters: The people (or entities) who intervene or participate in the story’s plot.

According to their importance in the story:
a. Main character (s)
b. Secondary characters
c. Minor Characters Go on to the next page
According to their role andintentions in the story:
a. Protagonist or hero*
b. Antagonist or villain*

*The protagonist is not always the hero: in some stories, “Dracula” for instance, the protagonist is also the villain, while the antagonists are those who try to destroy the vampire.

5. Narrator: The person who narrates or tells the story to the readers or the audience. *Audience: The people for whom the story is intendedto be read.
A writer may choose to let several narrators tell the story, from different points of view.

There are two (2) main types of narrator:

a. First Person Narrator: Uses the forms I, me, mine, my, we, our, ours. Usually one of the characters may narrate the events from his own point of view. First person narrators are not always trustworthy; it is up to you to determine what is thetruth and what is not.

b. Third Person Narrator: Uses the forms he, she, his, her, hers, it, its, they, their, theirs. Here the narrator does not usually participate in the action of the story as one of the characters. It is divided into two (2) subcategories:

b.1 Witness Narrator: Sees what characters do but ignores why they do it or how they feel. Cannot enter characters’ minds or hearts.Merely an observer.
b.2 Omniscient Narrator: Sees what characters do and knows why they do it and how they feel. Enters characters’ minds or hearts.

*Do not confuse narrator with dialogues, which are the words of the characters, said by them, usually with quotations (“…..”) or dashes(-…..-), in order to differentiate them from the narration (see numeral 9*).

6. Theme: The core topic ortopics the story approaches or revolves around. Usually universal concepts or notions, for instance “survival instinct”, “racism”, “poverty”, “social relationships”, “school education”, “parenthood”, etc. (Commonly expressed as nouns, not as sentences). Different from main ideas, usually expressed as sentences. (See numeral 10*)

7. Location: The position of a piece of information, a fragment or a...