With all credit going to Gerard Genette, Vladimir Nabokov, and Terry Eagleton. Only the mistakes have been mine.
RHETORIC
What is the meaning, conscious or subconscious, the author wishes us to extract from this book, and how does that meaning relate to plot and theme?
STRUCTURE
How does the author introduce, develop, and conclude the main plot and the subplots? Introduce and develop the characters through to the conclusion of their arc? Introduce and develop the themes of the novel?
How do the plots, characters, and themes interact with each other?
How does structural development and interaction add to or create rhetorical meaning?
STYLE
What are the author’s mannerisms in grammar and vocabulary? How does the author write dialogue and description? What are their preferred uses of imagery, comparison, and literary device? How does style add to meaning?
NARRATIVE
What is the order of the narrated events? Are the events narrated chronologically (analepsis), simultaneously, in anticipation (prolepsis), or anachronistically?
What is the frequency of the narrated event? Once (singular, “Today I went to the shop.”), n with one narration (iterative, “I used to go to the shop.”), once with n narration (repetitive, “Today I went to the shop, he went to the shop, etc.”), or nce with n narration (multiple “I used to go the shop, he used to go the shop, I went to the shop yesterday, etc.”)?
What is the duration both of the narrative time and the narrated time? What is summarized, elided, or expanded? When does the author choose to stop time? (“Five years passed” takes a second to read. Ulysses occurs over 24 hours, but it takes longer than that to read.)
In terms of mood, first, what is the narrative distance? Is the speech narrated, transposed, or reported? Is it a diagetic recounting or a mimetic interpretation? Is the speech direct, indirect, or free-associative?
Second, what is the narrative perspective or focalization? Does the narrator know more than, less than, or the same amount as the characters? Is the narrator omniscient (non-focalized), a character or characters recounting the events from their own possibly moving position (internally focalized), or someone knowing less than anyone else (externally focalized)?
What is the narrative voice? Is it intradiegetic (inside the text) or extradiegetic (outside the text)? Is it heterodiegetic (narrator absent) or homodiegetic (narrator present)? If the last, is the narrator also autodiegetic (the principal character)? For all cases, are the events being narrated before, after, or while (as in the epistolary letter) they happen?
Finally, what is the difference between narration and narrative? Between what someone is telling and what is being told? And how do all of the above incorporate into the structure and style to create a rhetorical meaning?
What is the meaning, conscious or subconscious, the author wishes us to extract from this book, and how does that meaning relate to plot and theme?
STRUCTURE
How does the author introduce, develop, and conclude the main plot and the subplots? Introduce and develop the characters through to the conclusion of their arc? Introduce and develop the themes of the novel?
How do the plots, characters, and themes interact with each other?
How does structural development and interaction add to or create rhetorical meaning?
STYLE
What are the author’s mannerisms in grammar and vocabulary? How does the author write dialogue and description? What are their preferred uses of imagery, comparison, and literary device? How does style add to meaning?
NARRATIVE
What is the order of the narrated events? Are the events narrated chronologically (analepsis), simultaneously, in anticipation (prolepsis), or anachronistically?
What is the frequency of the narrated event? Once (singular, “Today I went to the shop.”), n with one narration (iterative, “I used to go to the shop.”), once with n narration (repetitive, “Today I went to the shop, he went to the shop, etc.”), or nce with n narration (multiple “I used to go the shop, he used to go the shop, I went to the shop yesterday, etc.”)?
What is the duration both of the narrative time and the narrated time? What is summarized, elided, or expanded? When does the author choose to stop time? (“Five years passed” takes a second to read. Ulysses occurs over 24 hours, but it takes longer than that to read.)
In terms of mood, first, what is the narrative distance? Is the speech narrated, transposed, or reported? Is it a diagetic recounting or a mimetic interpretation? Is the speech direct, indirect, or free-associative?
Second, what is the narrative perspective or focalization? Does the narrator know more than, less than, or the same amount as the characters? Is the narrator omniscient (non-focalized), a character or characters recounting the events from their own possibly moving position (internally focalized), or someone knowing less than anyone else (externally focalized)?
What is the narrative voice? Is it intradiegetic (inside the text) or extradiegetic (outside the text)? Is it heterodiegetic (narrator absent) or homodiegetic (narrator present)? If the last, is the narrator also autodiegetic (the principal character)? For all cases, are the events being narrated before, after, or while (as in the epistolary letter) they happen?
Finally, what is the difference between narration and narrative? Between what someone is telling and what is being told? And how do all of the above incorporate into the structure and style to create a rhetorical meaning?
Yes. Yes to all.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, I was obsessive about point of view analysis, which falls in your NARRATIVE category. When I became aware that person and time were only part of POV, I was hooked. I couldn't get enough of questions like, "At what distance?" and "To whom is the story told?"
I maintain that fiction has layers like no other genre. And that's why we can't get enough it.