【正文】 s do not. Usual ly the reader is al lowed acces t o the inner lif e of t he r ound char acter and per mit ted t o lear n about many si des of t he round charact er. The fl at charact er is a ―cl osed‖ character t o whose i nner thought s t he reader is deni ed aces. Usual y one side of the fl at charact er i s hown i n the novel . Most heroes are round charact ers who grow emotional ly or spiri tual ly. Chapter Thre Theme Ar istotl e i n Poeti cs li st s six basi c el ement s of tr agedy. Mel ody (song) and diction (l anguage) f al i n the general categor y of style, and spectacle is r el evant to set ting in our di scussi on of fi ct ion. The other t hr ee aspect s ar e myt hos or plot, ethos or char acter, and dianoi a, which we general y tr ansl at e into ―thought ‖ in Engli sh. Acor ding to Ari st ot le, plot is the ―soul ‖ or shapi ng pr inci pl e or fi ct ion, and char acters exi st pri mar ily as funct ions of the pl ot . I n most of the stories, plot pl ays the role of pr inci pal str uct ur e of the story. But, as Nort hr op Fr ye points out , besides the i nter nal fi ct ion of t he character and hi s/ her soci et y, there is an external f icti on consisting of a r el at ion between t he wr it er and t he wr iter‘ s soci et y. We indeed have li ter ary works by t he l ikes of Shakespear e and Homer in which ar ti str y is pletely absorbed in their internal characters and we can har dly per ceive the existence of t he author . However, as soon as t he aut hor ‘ s per sonal i t y appear s on t he hor i zon, a r el at i on wi t h t he r eader i s est abl i shed, and som et i m es t her e seem s no st or y at al l apar t f r om what t he aut hor i s conveyi ng t o hi s/ her r eader . I n t hi s case, t he pr i m ar y i nt er est i n di anoi a, t he i dea or t hought t hat r eader get s f r om t he I nt r oduction I. Why do we have such course? English li terature is one of the pulsor y and most impor tant cour ses. However , t he English li ter ature courses off er ed are merely t aught at he l evel of lear ni ng general informati on and developing li teral understanding. Admit tedl y, such courses hel p them/ you a lot in t heir /your acqui si tion of t he English language. But the functi on of Engli sh l iterature r eaches far beyond that . I n reading Engl ish lit er at ur e, a st udent should have the power to discern how human beings translate t heir experience i nt o ar tisti c expresion and represent at ion。 how wri ters, t hr ough thei r creative impulses, convey to us t heir i nsights into human desti ny and human lif e。 style 3. What is Fict ion? Fi ct ion, the gener al t er m for invented st or ies, now usual y applied to novels, shor t stori es, novel la, r omances, fables, and other nar rati ve works in prose, even though most pl ays and nar rative poems ar e al so f ictional . ( P. 83. Concise Dictionar y of Lit er ar y Ter ms) 4. The St or y and t he Novel To r ead novels for st or y is not hi ng wr ong, but nothing profesional ei ther . ―One mar k of a secondr at e mi nd is to be al ways teli ng stor ies.‖ The remar k by t he Fr ench wr it er jean de La Bruyer e ( 1645~1696) is also t rue of t he r eader. I f t he purpose of t he novel is onl y to tel st ories, it c ould as wel l remai n unbor n, for newspaper s and hi st or y books are suf fi ci ent to sati sf y peopl e‘ s desi re f or st ories about bot h pr esent and past, and even about f uture. I n fact , many newapaper men have been disatisfi ed wi th their job of r eporti ng and e into t he f ield of novel wri ting. Defoe, Di ckens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus were among the most famous and t he most successf ul conver ts. Even histori ans may f eel obl iged t o do more t han mere st or ies or f acts. Edwar d Gibbor n‘ s Decline and Fal of the Roman Empir e is pr ai sed not onl y f or i t s m ul ti udinous f acts and r at ionali st ic analysi s, but more for it s beauty of nar rative st yl e. In teli ng st ories, the noveli st ai ms at som et hi ng hi gher or he intends t o add somethi ng t o the mere “fact s. ” As i ndi cated in t he defi ni ti on of the novel, what makes a novel i s t he novel ist ?s style (personali zed presentati on of the story) and i nt erpretati on of the story. Chapt er One Pl ot I. What is Plot? 1. Accordi ng t o Ar istotl e what are t he six elements of the st ruct ur e of t ragedy? Tragedy as a whol e has just six const it uent elements… and they are pl ot , charact ers, verbal expressi on, thought, vi sual adornment , and song—posit ion. For the el ment s by which they i mit at e ar e t wo (verbal expresion and song—posi tion), the manner in which they imit at e is one ( vi sual ador nment ), the things they i mitate are t hr e ( pl ot , char acters , t hought) , and ther e is not hi ng mor e beyond these. 2. What i s Pl ot under the pens of modern novelists and storytel er s? And how t o under st and ―Pl ot ‖ in a story? (―‖ppt: ?The queen died, no one knew why, unt il it was discover ed t hat it was t hr ough gr ief at the death of t he king.‘… P. 6 I t suspends t he t imesequence, it moves as f ar away f rom the st or y as i ts li mit at ions wil l al ow. ) The st or y and the character alone can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, a pl ot is prerequi sit e. A l ook at he example suggested by . Forster wi l help t o dist ingui sh bet wen the st or y and the plot. ―The ki ng di ed and t hen the queen di ed‖ is not a plot, but a stor y. If we make i t ―The king died and then t he queen died of gri ef ,‘ we have a plot. Thi s causal phrase ―of gri ef ‖ indi cates our interpretati on and thus ar angement of the happeni ngs. In t he worl d of r eali ty events take place one af ter anot her in t he nat ur al t emporal order, but in the world of fi ct ion it is the novelist‘ s desi gn t hat one par ticular event occur af ter another par tic