小说的文学术语

The Elements of a Story: （文学术语）1.Plot:The plot is the series of events as the author presents and connects them in thetext. The author can narrate these in chronological order from beginning tomiddle to end in which case we say that the story is told in a linear way. But events can also be narrated in a non-linear way, using flashbacks, anticipations and digressions, depending on the effect the writer is trying tocreate in the reader’s mind.2.Narrator:3.CharactersBy characters we mean the fictitious people involved in the narration. In a novel or short story, characters can be presented either directly by the narrator, who may give us details about their physical appearance, social status,personality and so on, or indirectly, through descriptions of their behavior and through their dialogue.4.SettingBy setting we mean the place(s) and time period(s) in which the story takes place. The choice and description of the setting can contribute greatly to thestory’s meaning.5.ThemeBy themes we generally mean the abstract ideas that the story tries to explore. Novels usually have more than one theme and it often happens thatnew themes emerge in subsequent interpretations. The themes discovered in anovel, in fact, reflect the implicit message that the author wished to convey.6.StyleThis refers to many things: the type of language used to tell the story(mater-of-fact, sophisticated, ornate, technical), the rhythm of the sentences, the tone of voice of the narrator (detached, lyrical, ironic etc). All of thesecontribute to both the meaning of the story and to the emotional effect it hason us.7.EffectThe way the story is written plays a large part in the final effect it has on thereader. The writer may wish to surprise the reader, which he can do bykeeping back vital information until the end or by introducing a bizarre turn of events. On the other hand, he may wish to amuse the reader with a playfulor ironic style.Another effect common in many modern short stories isone of leaving readers with a sense of perplexity or anxiety as if the real meaning of the story cannot be found.II.The narrator:The narrator in a novel or short story is the person, or voice, who tells thestory and provides the perspective or point of view from which the story is told. The narrator may be a character in the story, or else may be a voice fromoutside the story, like that of a traditional storyteller or a simple observer.A story is normally narrated in either the first or third person.1. The first-person narrator is a character internal to the story. S/he relates the events that s/he has experienced from his/her point of view. His/her perspective is generally limited.The use of the first-person narrator means that we normally see the story subjectively, that is from the point of view of the person speaking and this may give us the feeling that we are reading something autobiographical. It also means that we generally only get one particular view of the story.When a story is recounted in the first person it is usually the protagonist who speaks, telling his or her own story，and sometimes he or she may only be a secondary character, a witness to events involving other people, or a listener, who listens to somebody else’s story.The narrator as a protagonist:The first-person narrator is typically used to give a definitely fictional protagonist a degree of psychological realism and let the reader into their emotional and psychological inner world.( e.g. David Copperfield)The narrator as witness:The narrator may be a secondary person who witness and recounts a story involving other people. The narrator as a witness is extremely common in the American novel. Owing to the external point of view, witness narrators can see elements of the protagonists，but they fail to see themselves. (e.g. The Great Gatsby)The narrator as a listener:The narrator as a listener is typically someone who tells the reader about an occasion when he heard a story told by someone else. (e.g. Wuthering Heights)2. Third-person narrators remain external to the story. They are principally observes of the events. Third-person narrators may be omniscient and non-omniscient.The omniscient narrator, the most common type of narrator in the English novel, is like a god who sees all (having the knowledge of all things). S/he knows the hearts and minds of all his/her characters better than they know themselves, although s/he may privilege certain characters over others to limit our knowledge, and to influence us in certain ways. We can therefore say that the omniscient narrator can, if s/he chooses, make us familiar with the characters. But s/he can also keep us in the dark. The narrator knows everything whereas we only know what s/he chooses to tell us.A non-omniscient narrator implies that the story is experienced from the point of view of a single character who can only form an impression of the feelings, motives and personalities of the other characters, or that the narrative shifts between different points of view, or that the story is told from a neutral point of view where all the characters are equally opaque. Non-omniscient narrative gives the reader more freedom to form their own ideas and judgments of characters.。