Intro to the novel

1. Prose fiction

2. Two main ways of
looking at a novel
• You can look at the ‘content’ of the book
– the world that the novel describes and
creates almost as if it were a real world.
• You may feel you can enterinto this world
and see the characters and events as
real
• You may develop feelings such as liking
or pity or hatred
• From this position you are likely to
discuss the characters as if they were
real people able to choose their actions
and words for themselves

3. • You can see it as a ‘text’- as a
creation of the author.
• The characters are not real people
but they are creations of the author
• They are designed to perform
specific functions in the text
• The author manipulates them to
create particular effects and they
only exist through the words on the
page

4. • The first attitude may be how you
approach a novel when reading
purely for pleasure and in the
beginning you may even approach a
novel you are studying with this
attitude.
• You MUST more towards the second
attitude. This requires the much
more detached and analytic
approach that examiners look for at
this level

5. Aspects of the novel you
MUST know well
• An overview
• You need a clear understanding
of the plot and how it is
structured

6. Narrative viewpoint
• Who tells the story?
• This then leads to the question,
WHY?
• Why has the writer chosen to use
this viewpoint?
• Is the narrator in the first or third
person?
• What character (including the
narrators) are introduced?
• What do you learn about them?

7. CHARACTER
• Focus on the ways in which
writers create and present their
characters
• What functions do they perform
in the text?
• Characters are revealed to us in
a number of ways.

8. • Through the description of them given to us by the
narrator
• Through the dialogue of the novel- in other words
by what they say and what others say about them
• The thoughts and feelings that they have
• How they behave and react to other characters
• Through the writer’s use of imagery and symbols, or
to be associated symbolically with a colour or
element- eg Heathcliffe is often linked with fire and
with the colour black

9. LANGUAGE AND STYLE
• The distinctive qualities in the
writer’s choice of language
• The ways in which they use it to
create their effects

10. SETTING
• What kind of setting the novel
has ?
• The ways in which the writer
uses language to create a sense
of setting and atmosphere

11. Place
• We may find significance in the
actual location where the
action occurs, but we need to
pay attention to the nonphysical
as well as the physical
environment.
• The physical environment,
including weather conditions,
may be specifically described.

12. Place
• The nonphysical environment
• This includes cultural influences
such as education, social
standing, economic class, and
religious belief.
• These may be revealed by
physical properties in the scene
or through the characters'
dialogue, thoughts, statements,
and behaviors.

13. Setting and Meaning
• People exist in a particular time
and place. Where we live may
contribute not only to our
personality, but also to our
values, attitudes, and even our
problems.
• In literature, setting (time and
place) can also influence
characters and what they do.

14. LET’S REVIEW
• The physical and social context in which
the action of a story occurs.
• The major elements of setting are the time,
the place, and the social environment that
frames the characters.
• Setting can be used to evoke a mood or
atmosphere that will prepare the reader for
what is to come. Sometimes, writers
choose a particular setting because of
traditional associations with that setting
that are closely related to the action of a
story. For example, stories filled with
adventure or romance often take place in
exotic locales.

15. Definition of Setting
• We can define the ‘setting’ of a story as the
geographical location or locations in which
the events of the narrative takes place, as
well as the time in which those events are
set.
• Location can refer to wider geographical
entities such as countries or cities as well as
to smaller entities such as households or
domestic interiors.
• Time can refer to a general historical period
or to the chronological boundaries of the
story's events.
•
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/vie
w.php?id=199038&direct=1

16. CONTEXT
• Examine the historical context,
the social or political context,
or the personal context of the
writer.
• What ways do these factors
influence the shaping of the
novel

17. THE AUTHOR
• The kind of novelist you are
studying
• Knowing something about the
writer might help with your
understanding of the text