Plot-structure
The exposition: the writer introduces the characters, the theme, establishes the setting (time and place). The exposition contains the necessary preliminaries to the events of the plot and supplies the information on some of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When? The exposition can be one sentence or several paragraphs.
The story: it represents the beginning of the collision (конфликт) i.e. the knitting. As a rule the story consists of several moments of complications.
The climax is the key event of the story. It is the moment when the relationships among the events become clear.
The denouement is the unwinding of the actions. It brings the actions to an end. A story may have no denouement. By leaving it out the author achieves a certain effect. He invites the reader to reflect on all the circumstances that accompanied the outcome of the events.
Conflict is the opposition (or struggle) detween forces or characters. Conflicts are classified into external and internal.
External: 1) man against man
2) man against nature
3) man against society
Internal:often takes place within one character. The internal cpnflict is located in the inner world of the character and is revealed through his thoughts, feelings, intellectual processes. ("Crime and Punishment”)
Narrative Methods
The author may select either of the following 4 types of narrators:
- the main character
- a minor character
- the omniscient author
- the observer-author
Inner-Represented Speech
IRS expresses feelings and thoughts of the character which were not materialized in spoken or written language by the character. That is why it abounds in exclamatory words and phrases, eliptical constructions, breaks and other means of conveying feelings and psychological states.
IRS is an excellent device to depict a character. It gives the writer an opportunity to show the inner springs (пружины) which guide his character’s actions. IRS is usually introduced by verbs of mental perception (think, feel, occur, wonder, ask, tell, understand). Very frequently, however, IRS thrusts itself (внезапно появляется) into the narrative of the author without any introductory words, and the shift from the author’s speech to IRS is more or less imperceptible. Sometimes the one glides into the other, sometimes there is a sudden change in the mode of expression.
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