【正文】 o sati sf y people‘s desir e for st or ies about bot h pr esent and past, and even about f ut ur e. In f act, many newapapermen have been di sat isf ied wit h thei r j ob of repor ting and e into the fi el d of novel wr it ing. Defoe, Dickens, Joyce, Hemi ngway and Camus wer e among the most famous and the most succesful convert s. Even historians may f el obli ged to do more than mer e st or ies or facts. Edwar d Gi bbor n‘ s Decli ne and Fal of t he Roman Empir e is praised not onl y for its mult itudinous facts and r at ionali sti c analysi s, but more for it s beauty of nar at ive st yl e. In teli ng stories, the novelist ai ms at somethi ng higher or he intends to add something t o the mere “fact s. ” As i ndi cated in t he defi ni ti on of the novel , what makes a novel is t he noveli st ?s st yle (personali zed presentati on of the st ory) and int erpretati on of the st ory. Chapt er One Pl ot I. What is Plot? 1. According to Ar istotle what are t he six elements of the str uct ur e of tr agedy? Tragedy as a whol e has just si x const ituent elements… and they are plot , characters, verbal expresion, t hought , vi sual adornment , and song—posit ion. For t he element s by which they i mitate are t wo (ver bal expres ion and song—posit ion) , the manner in which they i mit at e is one (vi sual adornment ), the things t hey imi tate are three (plot , characters , t hought) , and ther e is not hi ng more beyond these. 2. What i s Pl ot under t he pens of moder n novelists and storytel er s? And how t o under st and ―Pl ot ‖ in a st or y? ( ―‖ ppt : ? The queen died, no one knew why, unt il it was discover ed t hat it was thr ough gr ief at the deat h of the ki ng.‘… P. 6 I t suspends the timesequence, it moves as f ar away f rom t he story as its l imit at ions wi l al low.) The story and t he char acter alone can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, a pl ot is prerequi si te. A l ook at he example suggested by E. M. Forster wil hel p to distingui sh betwen the story and t he plot. ―The king di ed and then t he queen di ed ‖ is not a plot, but ast or y. If we make i t ―The king died and then the queen died of gri ef ,‘ we have a plot. This causal phrase ―of gri ef ‖ indicates our interpr et ati on and thus ar angement of the happenings. I n the wor ld of r eali ty events take pl ace one af ter another in t he natural t emporal or der, but in t he worl d of f iction it is t he noveli st‘ s desi gn t hat one par ti cular event occur after another par ti cular event. The very word ―plot‖ impli es t he novelist‘ s rebel ion agai nst the natural law and his endeavor t o make meanings out of the happenings t hat may otherwise be meani ngles. ―The happeni ngs‖ may or may not be real happeni ngs. (So what plot is ) A pl ot is a par ti cular ar rangement of happenings i n a novel that i s ai med at reveal ing thei r causal r el at ionships or at conveying the novelist‘ s i deas. A plot i s somet imes cal l ed a story l ine. The m ost i mpor tant of t he t radi ti onal plot is that i t should be a plete or unifi ed action, t hat is, something wit h a beginni ng, a middl e, and an end. 3. The dramatic situation in a story. 4. The t hr e parts of a pl ot : a begi nning ( exposit on) , a mi ddle ( suspense or a ser ies of suspense … . foreshadowing… cri si –a moment of high tension), and an end(a cl imax, t he moment of greatest tension… the concl usion—fal ing acti on, resoluti on or denouement) . Pl ot a beginning a mi ddle an end exposit on some other events cl imax (the moment (suspense, a series of suspense, of great est tens ion, f or eshadowi ng, cr isis) the conclusionf al ling act ion, resol ut ion or denouement ) II. Read t he stories of ?Ri p Van Winkle‘ (Washi ngton Ir ving) and ?David Swan‘ ( Nat haniel Hawthorne) II. Quest ions: (Finish reading the two stori es and point out t he plot s of the two stories, t he descripti ve details, the exposit on, charact er s) Rip Van Winkl e 1. Descri pt ive detail s: the pl ot of the stor y? 2. What part of the story seems li ke t he exposi ti on? 3. Wher e does the dr amati c confli ct ? 4. What is the climax of t he story? Davi d Swan 5. t he plot of the story? 6. How fully does t he aut hor draw the charact er s in the st or y? ( Char acter t rait s are t he qual it es of a char acter ‘s personali ty. They are r eveal ed thr ough a char acter‘ s acti ons and words and through descri pt ion) . 7. More works to do: something about t he wr iters of the two st or ies. Chapt er Two Character In t he int roduction we have said t hat ficti on i s an i mage of people in action, moving towar ds an undeclar ed end. Thus charact er is always i nvolved i n ficti on, even in the st or y of t he simplest act ion. Someti mes char acter i s at the center of our int er est because in char acter we may se many f acets of t he people we meet in our daily l if e and even of our selves. Fict ional charact er is always char acter in acti on and the charact er get s i nt o acti on because it is caught i n a sit uati on of confl ict and he/she i s always pr ovided with moti vati on: he/she has suff icient reasons t o act or behave as he / she does. The character i s doing something and the r eader whi le readi ng f icti on want s to know t he ―why‖ as wel as the ―what ‖ of the af ai rs. ( Sometimes acharact er ‘s motive for an act i on is not explained on aceptable grounds, for exampl e, the vil ai n in Adgar Alan Poe‘story ―The Tel Tale Heart, ‖ and thus t he r eader f els cheat ed. In thi s case, t he wr iter of detecti ve f icti on who makes the cr iminal a mere l unatic has cheated the reader by avoiding the probl em of moti ve.) And gener al ly, t he act ion itself is humanly si gni ficant and i t ends usual ly i n a shift i n or clarif ic