Université de Strasbourg

U.F.R. Langues Vivantes

Département d’études anglophones

Vocabulary for

Literary Analysis
 I. Rhythm and sound-patterns
1. Stress patterns

Let us scan the most common metrical or stress patterns:

Binary rhythms (based on two-syllable feet)

* iambic rhythm: an iamb or iambic foot consists of an
unstressed syllable (marked ) followed by a stressed syllable (marked
—). This is a very smooth and even rhythm, often expressive of order
and harmony, as in the following example.
ex  — /–– / ––/ ––
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
 –– / –– /  –– /  ––
A stately pleasure-dome decree (S. T. Coleridge)
The iambic pentameter, the basic English verse pattern, is a line
containing 5 iambic feet. Our example consists of iambic tetrameters
(lines containing 4 iambic feet).

* trochaic rhythm: a trochee or trochaic foot consists of a

stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable [— ]. Trochaic
rhythm is more striking and forceful than iambic rhythm.
ex. –– / ––  / ––  / ––
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
––  / ––  / ––  / ––
In the forest of the night (William Blake)
Both lines begin and end on a stressed syllable, perhaps to convey the
ruthless power and energy of the tiger.

Ternary rhythms (based on three-syllable feet),

* Dactylic rhythm: a dactyl consists of a stressed syllable
followed by two unstressed syllables [—  ], creating an alert or
jaunty rhythm.
ex. ––   / ––   / ––
Hickory Dickory Dock (first line of a nursery rhyme)

* The anapest: a three-syllable foot made up of two unstressed

syllables followed by a stressed syllable [  —]. It is the contrary of
2
the dactyl, a regular yet dynamic rhythm, which has often been
compared to  a  horse’s  canter.
ex.   –– /   –– /   –– /   ––
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the
tomb
(William Wordsworth)
We should also note the internal rhyme.

2. Rhyme patterns

Rhyme: a phonetic parallel or echo between   two   syllables   (“good”   and  

“wood”,  “pain”  and  “rain”)

Alliteration: the initial consonant of two or more words are the same.
ex. When weeds in wheels shoot long and lovely and lush (G. M.
Hopkins)

Consonance: the final consonants are the same

ex. odds and ends

Assonance: the vowel sounds in two or more words are identical.

ex. I will complain, yet praise (George Herbert)

You may wish to comment upon the expressive qualities of consonants,

which can be harsh or soft, explosive (p, b), sibilant (s) or fricative (f, v),
liquid (l) or nasal (m, n).

The rhyme is usually found at the end of the line (end-rhyme) but it can
occur within the line too, as shown before, and is then called an internal or
leonine rhyme.

An eye-rhyme occurs when two words are spelled the same way, though
they are pronounced   differently   (e.g.   “die”   may   be   made   to   rhyme   with  
“eternities”,  “love”  with  “move”).

Blank verse does not resort to rhymes of any kind: it is unrhymed iambic
pentameter, used especially in the Elizabethan theatre (Marlowe,
Shakespeare).

3
Free verse, on the contrary, may make use of rhymes but does not
conform to any regular pattern of rhythm.
Ex. Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky,
Like a patient etherised on a table.
(T.S. Eliot)

!!! Do not confuse the verse (the whole poetical production or group of
lines)
and the line (the basic unit of verse, which corresponds to the French
“vers”).   Better   avoid   altogether   using   the   word   "verse" in your
commentary.

The main rhyme schemes or rhyme patterns are:

* Couplet rhymes: aa bb cc, etc.

* Alternate rhymes: abab, cdcd, etc.
* Enclosing rhymes: abba, cddc, etc.
* Terza rima: aba, bcb, cdc, etc.

The main function of rimes are

* chiming (with or without euphony)
* pointing (highlights rhyming words)
* binding (associates or opposes rhyming words)

4
 II. Word patterns

1. Content and meaning

A   word’s   meaning is what the word signifies or refers to. The

referent is the thing or idea represented in/by the word. Some words have
no referent, for instance grammatical words such as articles or
conjunctions.

Abstract words (e.g. intelligence, illusion) can be contrasted to

concrete words (e.g. house, book).

Denotation: the literal meaning of a word, which does not take into
account its emotional or cultural associations.

Connotation: the subjective, emotional, or cultural implication(s) a

word may have in a given context.
e.g. when Wilkie Collins chose to entitle one of his novels The
Woman in White,   he   knew   that   “white”   denoted a colour, but that it also
connoted virtue,  virginity  and  pureness  of  soul  in  his  readers’  minds.  And  
yet, while that colour suggests positive values in Western societies, it
connotes death and mourning in many Eastern countries.

Polysemous words are words with more than one meaning. Polysemy
or multiple meaning can be found in all languages.
e.g.  “  to  lie”  in  English  

Synonyms are words with the same meaning and can more or less be
interchanged  (e.g.  “assist”  is synonymous with “help”).  

Homonyms are words with identical spelling and/or pronounciation,

but  whose  meanings  are  different.  (e.g.  “lead”  can  refer to a metal or to the
action of showing the way). Writers like Shakespeare may use homonyms
to create comical quiproquos or double meanings. In Romeo and Juliet, the
"silver sound of music" refers to musical harmony, but also to the money
earned through playing.

Antonyms are  words  with  opposite  meanings  (e.g.  “high”  and  “low”).

5
 2. Playing on/with words

Pun, double meaning, wordplay: a figure of speech relying on the

similarity of sound. Wordplay often relies on homonyms or polysemous
words.
e.g.  “That  lie  shall  lie  heavy  on  my  sword”  (Shakespeare)
In  his  sonnet  73,  Shakespeare  also  made  a  pun  on  the  “yellow  leaves”  
which refer both to the ancient pages he is writing on and to the autumn
leaves on the trees.
e.g.   In   Agatha   Christie’s   novel And Then There Were None, the
murderer  calls  himself  U.  N.  Owen  (“unknown”).

Anagram: a word that is created by rearranging the letters of another

word. Anagrams often conceal meanings or proper names.
e.g.   the   title   of   Samuel   Butler’s   novel   Erewhon is an anagram of
“Nowhere”.  Erewhon  is  an  imaginary  perfect  country  or  utopia  which  can  
be found nowhere on earth.

Palindrome: a form of anagram in which a word or a whole sentence

can be read forwards or backwards while retaining its meaning.
e.g.   the   hero’s   Christian   and   family   names,   Pip   Pirrip,   in   Dickens’s  
Great Expectations (1860). They may express this   character’s   patent  
incapacity of progressing in life.
Palindromes   may   take   the   form   of   a   whole   sentence,   e.g.   “Madam,  
I’m  Adam”

Archaism: obsolete words, which some writers use intentionally, in

order to create an atmosphere of the past.
e.g.   the   Romantic   writers’   renewed   interest in the Middle Ages
prompted them to introduce archaisms in their writings. Cf. Keats's refrain,
"The Belle Dame Sans Merci/Thee hath in thrall".

Neologism: a newly-created word. Some integrate everyday language,

others remain mere inventions.
e.g. Lewis   Carroll   invented   nonsensical   words   like   “chortle”   or  
“gallumph”  which  became  so  famous  that  they  now  belong  to  the  English  
language.
Many neologisms were portmanteau words or blendings, that is two
words telescoped into one (e.g. Oxbridge = Oxford + Cambridge). James
Joyce and Lewis Carroll are famous for their portmanteau words (e.g.
“gallumph”  =  to  gallop  in  triumph).

6
 III. Structural patterns in sentences

1. Repetitions and parallelisms:

Anaphora: the repetition of the same word or expression at the

beginning of several lines (in poetry) or clauses (in prose).
Doubt thou the stars are fire
Doubt that the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt that I love
(Shakespeare,   Hamlet’s   declaration   to   Ophelia,   Hamlet,
II,2)

Epiphora: the repetition of the same word or expression at the end of

several lines, clauses, or sentences.

Anadiplosis: the word or expression concluding one clause begins the

next.
[…]  for  your  brother  and  my  sister  no  sooner  met  but  they  
looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but
they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the
reason, no sooner knew the reason but they sought the
remedy.
(Shakespeare, As You Like It, V, 2)

Chiasmus: the words are set in a mirroring, inverted pattern.

’tis  true  ’tis  pity;;  and ’tis  pity  ’tis  true.  
(Shakespeare)
N.B.:  ’tis  =  elliptical  form  of  “it  is”.

Antimetabole: a form of chiasmus in which words are repeated in

inverse grammatical order:
Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down
(Coleridge)

Zeugma: two nouns are governed by the same verb though they have
different meanings and should logically be used in distinct clauses:
They pursued it with hope and railway shares
(Lewis Carroll)

7
 2. Contrasts and discrepancies

Antithesis: a general word referring to contrast in words, clauses or

ideas, which are balanced against each other in parallel structures.
I give him curses; yet he gives me love
(Shakespeare)

Paradox: a statement which appears contradictory or absurd yet

contains an underlying truth.
The child is father to the man (Wordsworth)
I can resist everything but temptation (Oscar Wilde)

Oxymoron: the juxtaposition of two contradictory terms

e.g. pale darkness, sorrowful joy...

Stichomythia: a sharp dialogue between two characters whose

answers display both parallelism and opposition. It came from ancient
Greek tragedy and was often used in Elizabethan drama.

2. Building a sentence

Simple sentences consist  of  one  main  clause  (e.g.  “He  went  to  bed”).

Compound sentences are made up of several co-ordinated main

clauses   linked   by   “and”,   “or”,   “but”   (e.g.   “He   went   to   bed   but   could   not  
sleep”).

Complex sentences are made up of one main clause and one or

several   subordinate   or   dependent   clauses   (e.g.   “as   he   is   eighteen,   he   can  
drive”)

Existential sentences:   “there   is”   +   subject   (e.g.   “there   she   was”,  

“there  was  a  house  where  none  had  been”,  etc.)

Parataxis: paratactic sentences are linked by juxtaposition or mere

coordination instead of subordination. The reader must sometimes supply
the missing link between the sentences:
I watched a good-looking girl walk past the table and watched her
go up the street and lost sight of her, and watched another, and
then saw the first one coming back again. She went by once more
8
 and I caught her eye, and she came over and sat down at the table.
(E. Hemingway)

Hypotaxis: hypotactical sentences, on the contrary, resort —

sometimes heavily — to subordination and coordination:
He   didn’t   care   what   awful   crash   might   overtake   him,   with   what  
ignominy or what monstrosity he might yet be associated — since
he  wasn’t,  after  all,  too  utterly  old  to  suffer  — if it would only be
decently proportionate to the posture he had kept all his life.
(Henry James)

Ellipsis: the omission of one or more words in a sentence.

And he to England shall (= shall go) along of you (Shakespeare)

Apostrophe: direct address to a person or idea.

Milton! Thou shouldst be living in this hour... (Wordsworth)

9
 IV. Varieties of language

1. Tone

Humour and wit, humorous and witty:

Humour provides a perception of the comical and absurd in people
and situations. It is opposed to wit in that humour is kind and sympathetic,
wit often more scathing and satiric. Humour privileges a private, discrete
form of communication, wit is public and brilliant. The witty speaker tries
to shock or impress his listener, while humour can go unnoticed at first
reading. Here is an example of humour:
I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
(Jerome K. Jerome)
And here is an example of wit, the intellectual capacity to pass a
judgement on people or situations in an unexpected and brilliant way. It
often takes the form of puns, paradox or striking comparisons.
her hair has turned quite gold from grief.
(Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, I, 1)

Satire, satiric(al) : satire makes use of humour, wit, sarcasm or irony

to criticize moral and social behaviour. Direct satire may take the form of
Juvenalian satire, in which the speaker attacks evil and wrongdoing in a
direct and indignant way, or Horatian satire, which is more humorous and
gentle. (Horace and Juvenal were both classical Latin authors.) Indirect
satire expresses criticisms by staging characters who speak or behave in an
absurd way, though the narrator does not denounce them explicitly.

Irony, ironical: irony consists in using words or phrases that express

the opposite of what is meant. It can be intentional or unintentional, as
when   Othello   calls   the   traitor   Iago   “honest   Iago”.   Besides   verbal irony,
there can also be situational irony, in which the discrepancy between
appearances and reality is emphasized:
Dramatic irony describes a situation in which the audience know
more than some of the characters (e.g. the audience know that Julius
Caesar, who speaks of his trust in Brutus, will be murdered by the same
Brutus).
Tragic irony shows the characters using words without realizing how
ominous they are (e.g. the young Duke of York asks his uncle Richard to

10
give him his dagger, and the audience know that Richard is plotting the
child’s  murder).

Pathos, pathetic: a writer uses pathos when stressing the sad or

affecting aspect of a situation (e.g. the painful separation between two
lovers)

Bathos, bathetic: a text achieves bathos when attempting to reach a

sublime or noble tone and leading to a commonplace or ridiculous remark.
The effect can be satiric or humorous.
Ye Gods! Annihilate both space and time
And make two lovers happy.
(Alexander Pope)

Parody, parodical: parody is the imitation of a given work or of the

style of an author for humorous or satirical purposes. Like caricature, it
sometimes uses distortion to ridicule vices and follies.
e.g.   Fielding   parodied   Richardson’s   Pamela, a novel in which a
virtuous   housemaid   resists   her   employer’s   attempt   to   seduce   her,   by  
inventing her brother Joseph, a lackey, who virtuously resists his lady
mistress’s  attempt  to  seduce  him!

Pastiche is sometimes used as a synonym of parody, but can also refer

to sheer literary imitation of a style, devoid of any caricatural or ridiculous
aspect.

The writer's tone may also be comic or tragic, dramatic, cynical or

moving, light or serious, poetic or realistic, sympathetic or scathing, etc.
Sometimes it shifts from one mode to another.

2. Style

Rhetoric:  the  art  of  argument,  of  “persuading”  the  reader/audience of

the  author’s  point  of  view  through  his  discourse.  It  is  often  contrasted with
pathos, which does not try to build up a demonstration, but simply
displays moving images or scenes.

Levels of style

11
 The high or noble style is quite rhetorical and ornamented. It was
seen   as   best   suited   for   “noble”   genres   such   as   the   epic   (l’épopée)   or   the  
tragedy. When exaggerated, it could become precious or affected.
The middle style uses some rhetorical figures but remains restrained.
The low style, natural and simple, refers to concrete situations,
sometimes in vulgar terms. It suited satires and comedies.
The mock-heroic style exploits the high style to describe common
situations,   where   the   low   style   would   have   been   expected   (e.g.   Pope’s  
Rape of the Lock describes  a  lover  stealing  a  lady’s  lock  of  hair,  using  the  
vocabulary of the epic).
The burlesque style, on the contrary, uses the low style to describe
noble   or   classical   episodes   (e.g.   Voltaire’s   La Pucelle is a burlesque
rewriting  of  Joan  of  Arc’s  exploits.)

3. Linguistic registers
Slang: very informal or colloquial language, which is therefore
spoken and understood by a limited number of people (e.g. juvenile slang,
in which money is referred to as dough, brass, lolly, champagne coupons,
etc.)

Jargon: like slang, it is used by a restricted social group. But it mainly

refers to the technical vocabulary used in certain professions, sometimes to
prevent   outsiders   from   understanding   it,   or   because   of   the   speaker’s  
inclination to overprecision and/or snobbery  (e.g.  the  “politically   correct”  
jargon  in  which  a  woman  becomes  an  “other-gendered  person”).

Dialect or vernacular: a variety of language, often spoken by people

in a specific region, and characterized by phonological, lexical, or
syntactical features that differentiate it from the main language.

12
 V. Imagery and figurative language

An image is the representation of an object or of a sensory experience,

the  mental  picture  it  creates  in  the  reader’s  mind.
An obsessive image will recur all through an author’s   work,   and  
become a meaningful symbol in it.
Some images are archetypes insofar as they are often to be found in
the cultural heritage or folklore of one or several countries. These are
primordial images shaped by the experience of their people, and their
symbolism is generally admitted.
e.g. the cycle of seasons as an image of death and rebirth

A symbol combines a literal sense and an abstract or suggestive

meaning. A symbol thus works on two levels of meaning.
Some symbols are universally recognized (e.g. the moon as a symbol
of femininity, wings as a symbol of the imagination and spirituality);
others become symbolic in the context of a specific work (e.g. trees may
symbolize masculinity for one writer and graceful femininity for another!)

A simile or analogy is a directly expressed comparison between two

objects.  It  is  therefore  introduced  by  “as”  or  “like”.  
e.g.  “The  lady  is  as  fresh  as  a  lemon  on  a  dinner-table”  (Dickens)
The tenor of a simile is the subject, the thing which is characterized
(the lady). The vehicle is the object which allows the writer to draw a
comparison (the lemon).

A metaphor is an implied analogy between two objects or ideas.

Contrary to the simile, it does not state any explicit term of comparison
(like, as...) but substitutes the vehicle for the tenor so that the two are
identified rather than compared.
e.g. the coral of her lips

A conceit is a far-fetched metaphor or comparison made between

two very different things, whose similarity is not at first visible. It relies on
wit.
e.g.   Donne’s   comparison   of   the   beloved   to   America,   the   “new-
found  land”.
A dead metaphor is a metaphor which, through repeated use, has lost
its metaphorical significance and therefore its originality and strength.
Many have become clichés and we do not reflect on their symbolism
anymore when using them.
13
 e.g. daybreak, tableleg, highway...

An extended metaphor generates and links together a whole series of

images.
It was her deep distrust of her husband - this was what had
darkened the world. [...] It had come gradually; then the
shadows had begun to gather; it was as if Osmond deliberately,
almost malignantly, had put the lights out one by one. The dusk
at first was vague and thin but it steadily deepened and [...] there
were certain corners of her prospect that were now impenetrably
dark. (Henry James, Portrait of a Lady)

The allegory is a specific form of extended metaphor in which the

characters and actions of a text have further meanings outside the text. The
narrative can be read on two levels: as a surface story (e.g. the hero picks
up a flower) and as a hidden message which may be political, social,
religious,   etc   (e.g.   the   lover   succeeds   in   gaining   the   lady’s   love   and/or  
virginity).

The same symbolic code is at work in the fable or the parable.

The fable is a short story illustrating a moral thesis. Many fables often
stage  animals  (cf.  La  Fontaine,  but  also  George  Orwell’s  Animal Farm, an
allegory on communism) and are therefore called beast fables.
e.g.   William   Golding’s   Lord of the Flies, which shows children
shipwrecked on a desert island and fighting one another to death, is a fable
on  man’s  loss  of  innocence  and  natural  capacity  for  evil.
The parable is a short narrative in which there is a detailed analogy
between the story and the lesson or moral thesis it carries. The best-known
parables are those of Christ in the Bible.
e.g.   the   prodigal   son,   who   throws   away   his   father’s   money   before  
coming home and being reconciled to him (he symbolizes the Christian
who first sins, then is reconciled to God)

A metonymy uses, instead of a word, a term closely associated to it.

e.g.  an  attribute  for  a  person:  “the  crown”  or  “the  throne”  instead  
of  “the  king”  or  “the  royal  authority”
e.g.  a  place  for  its  inhabitants  or  its  function:  “the  White  House”  
for  “the  US  presidency”
A synecdoche is a type of metonymy in which a part stands for the
whole
e.g.  “a  hand”  for  a  worker,  “a  sail”  for  a  ship

14
 A hyperbole is a figure of speech which draws upon exaggeration
and overstatement for rhetorical effect.
I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum. What wilst thou do for her?
Wouldst drink up eisel (vinegar), eat a crocodile?
I’ll  do  it.   (Shakespeare, Hamlet )

A euphemism is a figure of speech in which a weak, pleasant or

vague expression is used instead of a harsher, more direct one. Most people
resort to euphemisms in order to avoid giving offence, or to avoid a taboo
subject.
e.g. to go west = to die, to pass away

Personification endows an object or concept with human

characteristics.
e.g.  Autumn  is  personified  as  a  “close  bosom-friend”  in  Keats’s   Ode
to Autumn.
// Anthropomorphism describes animals or objects as if they were
human beings, with emotions and human forms. Most ancient gods are
described in an anthropomorphic way. Pathetic fallacy is used when
natural   elements   are   represented   as   ‘feeling’   as   humans   would,   often  
expressing  the  mood  of  the  poet  or  narrator:  clouds  may  be  said  to  “weep”.
Synesthesia occurs when a sensation is described in terms of another
sensation.
e.g.   Keats’s   “silver  trumpets”,  in   which   the   sound   of   the   instruments  
evokes a visual impression. Remember   Baudelaire:   “il   est   des   parfums  
frais  comme  des  chairs  d’enfants...”

15
 VI. Narrative Theory
Sources
GRELLET, Françoise. A Handbook of Literary Terms. Hachette, 1996.
LODGE, David. The Art of Fiction. Penguin, 1992.
PRINCE, Gerald. A Dictionary of Narratology. University of Nebraska
Press, 1987.

A  narrative  can  be  said  to  consist  in  a  “content”  and  a  “form”,  a  “what”  
and  a  “how”.  The  content  of  a  narrative  is  usually  called  the  “story”,  and  
its  form  the  “discourse”.
Story: a sequence of actions, causally and chronologically arranged. The
word  “plot”  is  more  or  less  synonymous  with  “story”  (see  below).
Discourse: the unfolding of the story, the linear sequence of the words
and sentences of the narrative; the way the story is presented to the reader.

1. The narrator
Narrator / author
The narrator of a given narrative must not be confused with its author:
the author is a real person, who can be identified by his/her name (or
pseudonym = pen-name) on the cover of the book. The narrator is a fictive
person, he belongs to the text (or discourse) only.
e.g. the author of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) is
Daniel Defoe, whereas its narrator is the eponymous character (the
character who gives his name to the novel), Robinson Crusoe.

First and third-person narrations

A crucial distinction between narrators lies in their position towards the
story they narrate.

 If the narrator   is   a   character   in   the   story,   we   speak   of   “first-person

narration”   or   “homodiegetic narration”: Robinson Crusoe is the
first-person   narrator   of   Defoe’s novel.
A first-person narrator often tells his/her own story, and his/her name
appears in the title   of   the   work.   This   is   called   “autodiegetic
narration”.  But  he/she  can also  tell  someone  else’s  story:  Fitzgerald’s  
The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a secondary character
in the story. The author is Fitzgerald, the narrator Nick, the hero (or
protagonist) Jay Gatsby.

16
 When the narrator is not a character in the situations and events of the
story,   we   have   a   “third-person narrative”,   or   “heterodiegetic
narrative”.   This   narrator   can   still   express   his   opinions   or   make  
comments using the first-person   pronouns   “I”   or   “we”,   but   he   always  
uses the third-person pronouns to speak about the characters in the story.
In realistic narration, the third-person narrator tends to make himself as
unobtrusive as possible.

Usually, the very first sentences of a short story or a novel (the incipit)
indicate the mode of narration chosen by the author.
Examples:
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On
this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was
between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the
station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain,
made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into
the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat
at a table in the shade, outside the building.
(Ernest  Hemingway:  “Hills  Like  White  Elephants”,  
1927)
The author is a famous American novelist and short-story writer. The
narrator is anonymous, he is not one of the two characters (a man and a
woman), who are anonymous too. We are reading an heterodiegetic
narrative.

You  don’t  know  about  me,  without  you  have  read  a  book  by  the  
name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,  but  that  ain’t  no  matter.  
That book was made by Mr Mark Twain, and he told the truth,
mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told
the truth.
(Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
1884)
The author is Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pseudonym Mark
Twain. The narrator is Huckleberry Finn, who tells his own adventures.
This is an autodiegetic narrative.

Reliability
When we read first-person narratives, we must ask ourselves questions
about   the   narrator’s   reliability: since the narrator is a character in the
story, he necessarily has a partial and subjective view of the events he tells.
He can be said to be reliable when   he  tells   “the   whole   truth   and   nothing  
but  the  truth”  about  the  events  as  far  as  his  knowledge  goes,  and  when  he  
17
expresses   values   which   are   in   accordance   with   the   author’s.   He   is  
unreliable when he deliberately deceives the reader or has a behavior and
norms   which   disagree   with   the   author’s.  In  the   excerpt   from   Huckleberry
Finn above, the first-person narrator asserts his own reliability by accusing
the author of not being very reliable himself!

Point of view - focalisation

In the case of third-person narrators, we can wonder about the perspective
or point of view from which the story is narrated: the narrator can tell his
story from no particular point of view, or he can adopt one of the
characters’   perspectives,   in   which case the narrative mode is internal
focalization.

When the narrator knows more than the characters in the story (he knows
what each of the characters thinks, can tell about their past, etc.), when in
short he knows everything about the universe of the fiction, he is said to be
omniscient.

Narrator and narratee

A narrative is a form of communication involving an author and a reader,
who are real persons. In the discourse of the narrative, the places of each of
these participants are taken by the narrator, who tells the story, and the
narratee, to whom the story is told. The narratee can be said to be a
representation of the reader in the text, with whom the reader can often
(but not necessarily) identify. The narratee can sometimes be represented
in the story, as one of the characters, but he is mostly present through the
use  of  the  pronoun  “you”  in  the  text.  (cf.  incipit  of  Huckleberry Finn).

2. The story (or plot)

As seen above, it can be defined as the sequence of the main incidents

in the narrative, arranged chronologically. The notion of plot emphasizes
the causal links between the various incidents making up the story.

Plots can be classified according to the structure of the main events:

Euphoric plots tell stories in which things change for the better, whereas
in dysphoric plots things change for the worse.

Plots of action involve   a   change   in   the   main   character’s   situation;;   they  

often follow the pattern of a quest and are frequent in popular literature
18
(e.g. Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson); plots of character involve a
change  in  the  protagonist’s  moral  character;;  the  Bildungsroman (a German
word   meaning   “novel   of   formation”)   tells   about   the   formative   years   and  
spiritual education of its hero (e.g. Great Expectations by Charles
Dickens).

The structure of a plot can be episodic if there is no strong causal

continuity between one episode and the next, if the plot is loosely woven.
A picaresque novel, which deals with the adventures of a picaro or rogue,
is  typically  episodic  (e.g.  Kipling’s Kim).
Conversely, when the events are tightly woven and lead towards a
denouement, the plot can be said to be dramatic: it imitates the
development of a tragedy, which according to the German critic Freytag,
can be represented as a pyramid. From an inciting moment, the action rises
through exposition and complication to a climax, and then falls through
reversal and catastrophe to the moment of last suspense. Although
originally meant to describe the plot of classical tragedies, this pattern is
also useful to describe many fictional plots.

3. Time

A) Order

If the story of the narrative is always a chronological sequence of events,

the discourse we read does not necessarily follow the same order: the
narrative  can  start  at  the  beginning,  with  the  hero’s  birth for instance, as in
Defoe’s  Robinson Crusoe:
I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good
Family,   tho’   not   of   that   Country,   my   Father   being   a   Foreigner  
from Bremen, who settled first at Hull.
But it can also begin in medias res (in the middle of the action), in order
to  create  suspense,  to  arouse  the  reader’s  interest:  
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level,
and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them.
(Stephen   Crane:   “The   Open   Boat”,  
1898)

Anachronies
There are two sorts of anachronies (= discordance between the order in
which events are supposed to take place and the order in which they are
narrated):
19
  When  events  are  told  which  occurred  before  the  “present”  time  of  the  
narrative (i.e. the main time of the story), we have an analepsis or
flashback. They can give the reader information about a new
character’s   past,   for   instance.   Analepses   are   characterized   by   their  
extent (i.e. the amount of story time they cover) and their reach (their
temporal distance from the main time of the narrative). Both can vary
from one minute to several years.
We got up at four in the morning, that first day in the East. On the
evening before, we had climbed off a freight train at the edge of
town and with the true instinct of Kentucky boys had found our
ways across town and to the race track and the stables at once.
Then we knew we were all right.
(Sherwood   Anderson:   “I   Want   to   Know   Why”,  
1921)
The story begins in medias res. The second sentence is a flashback with a
reach of approximately 10 hours and an extent of probably an hour or two.

 Prolepses or flashforwards occur when an event is narrated before it

should be in the chronological order; they are incursions into the
future of the narrative. They are less frequent than analepses, and can
also be described by their extent and reach.

N.B.: prolepses and analepses concern the discourse of the narrative.

They should not be confused with other ways to refer to the past or the
future. For instance, an event, a word, a description can foreshadow a
subsequent action, or echo a past one, but they are not anachronies because
they do not disrupt the sequence of the action. In the same way, a character
can think or tell about past events, but his memories do not affect the order
of the narrative.

B) Speed

The speed of a narrative is the relationship between the duration of the

story (measured in years, months, days, etc.) and the length of the
discourse (measured in lines, paragraphs, pages, etc.). This relationship can
vary greatly. Five main tempos express this relation:

 Ellipsis: an element in the story is not mentioned in the discourse.

Since you cannot tell everything, narrating is necessarily the result of a
choice, and ellipses are in a way natural. An ellipsis is only remarkable
20
 when it concerns an important event in the story, and it can be omitted
from the discourse for a variety of reasons, which are interesting to
analyze. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, the
narrator, who is also the murderer, does not narrate the murder itself,
thus maintaining the suspense. In many Victorian novels, certain
events (kisses, for instance) are omitted from the discourse for reasons
of decency and/or censorship.

 Summary: discourse time is smaller than story time. This is also a

natural mode of narration, for the same reason as above. A 500-page
novel telling the whole life of one character, or even of several
generations of characters, can be read in two or three days.

 Scene: discourse time equals story time. A scene is often a dialogue,

but it can also be a detailed narration of action, which is supposed to
cover about the same time as the action itself.

 Stretch: discourse time is greater than story time. It is the narrative

equivalent of cinematic slow-motion. In   Paul   Auster’s   Moon Palace,
the account of the accident in which Effing became paralyzed covers
one whole page, whereas the accident itself only lasted a few seconds.

 Pause: when a portion of discourse corresponds to no action in the

story, we have a pause. Pauses can be occasioned by descriptions or by
narratorial commentaries.

The rhythm of a narrative is a recurrent pattern of narrative tempos. The

most common rhythm of classical narrative results from the regular
alternation of summaries and scenes.

A note on description and setting

Descriptions are pauses in the narrative, and are often felt indeed to stop
the action. Yet they play a crucial part in the creation of a fictional
universe: actions take place not only in time, but also in space, and
descriptions of the setting are thus necessary. In fact, in naturalistic
fiction, which often presents characters who are the victims of their
environment, the description of that environment becomes a part of the
plot.

The physical setting of the action sometimes takes on a metaphorical or

symbolic dimension:  it  can  reflect  the  characters’  mood  or  personality.  In  

21
Edgar   Allan   Poe’s   tale   “The   Fall   of   the   House   of   Usher”,   the   fate   of   the  
characters is closely linked to that of the house they inhabit.

Descriptions   which   are   made   from   a   character’s   point of view

function as a means of characterization (see below).

4. Characterization

Characters are essential to fiction, since action cannot be conceived

without acting subjects. Henry James defined the novel as “character   in  
action”.  In  fiction,  characters  are  sometimes  the  instruments  of  action,  and  
sometimes the action is subordinated to the creation of characters,
depending on whether the novel is a novel of action (adventures) or a
psychological novel.

A) Classifications

Characters are fictional people, not real people. They can be more or less
realistically drawn.

Humours
In the 16th and 17th centuries, characters were classified according to the
theory of humours: “humours”  (body  fluids)  were  thought  to  influence a
man’s   temperament.   Since   there   were   4   humours,   there   were   4   main  
temperaments: blood corresponded to the sanguine temperament, phlegm
to the phlegmatic, yellow bile to the choleric, and black bile to the
melancholy. In this theory, characters are considered   as   “types”   of  
personalities. They are reduced to one characteristic, one main humour.

Flat and round characters

In the early 20th century, E.M. Forster established a distinction between
flat and round characters, in his essay Aspects of the Novel:
“Flat   characters   were   called   ‘humours’   in   the   seventeenth  
century, and are sometimes called types, and sometimes
caricatures. In their purest form, they are constructed round a
single idea or quality. The really flat character can be expressed
in one sentence.”

22
The advantage of flat characters is that they are easy to recognize and to
remember. Some famous flat characters have become common nouns:
Molière’s  Harpagon,  Dickens’s  Scrooge in A Christmas Carol have come
to embody their dominant quality, miserliness. A Don Quixote (from the
eponymous novel) is a naively idealistic, romantic character. These
examples show that flat characters can be artistically interesting.

Round characters, on the other hand, can develop in the course of the
action, and are able to surprise the reader, to act in an unexpected way.
“The   test   of   a   round   character   is   whether   it   is   capable   of   surprising   in   a  
convincing   way.”   (Forster).   They   are   more   typical   of   the   realistic   novel,  
which strives for verisimilitude (i.e. the appearance of being true or real;
likeness to truth, reality or fact).

B) Means of characterization

As the suffix -ize indicates, characterization means the creation of

character. Here are some of the ways in which a writer can create
characters.

a) Onomastics

Onomastics is the study of proper names and their origins. A character is

first created through his name. Flat characters (but also sometimes round
ones) often have names which express their main characteristics.
Examples:
Mr. Cashmore (a flat character)  in  James’s  The Awkward Age is
a wealthy character who always wants to enlarge his wealth.
Christopher Newman (a round character) in The American (also
by Henry James) represents the New man of the New World (as
opposed to the Old World in which he evolves). His first name
evokes the discoverer of the New World.

The relation between a character and his name can also be ironical: the
name means the reverse of what the character really is. Merriman, the
servant in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, is always
very serious, and not merry at all.

b) Direct description by the omniscient narrator

(telling)

23
 Omniscient narrators often introduce their characters by physical and
psychological descriptions. The characters are defined by those
descriptions. Example:

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a

comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some
of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-
one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. […]
The  real  evils  of  Emma’s  situation  were  the  power  of  having  
rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little
too well of herself.
(Jane Austen: Emma, 1815)

The omniscient narrator gives us a very scant physical and psychological

portrait of the eponymous character, which we have to fill in for ourselves:
we  have  to  accept  the  fact  that  Emma  is  “handsome”  without  being  able  to  
visualize her features. In fact, we project our own conception of
“handsomeness”  upon  the  character.

c) Dramatic presentation  (showing)  :  character’s  

words and actions

In some cases, the narrator lets the reader form his own opinion of the
character by simply presenting the character in action and making him
speak. Example:

“Not   so   fast!   You’re   driving   too   fast!”   said   Mrs.   Mitty.   “What  
are  you  driving  so  fast  for?”
“Hmm?”   said   Walter   Mitty.   He   looked   at   his   wife,   in   the   seat  
beside him, with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly
unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a
crowd.  “You  were  up  to  fifty-five,”  she  said.  “You  know  I  don’t  
like to go more than forty. You were up to fifty-five.”   Walter  
Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence, the roaring of the
SN202 through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying
fading in the remote, intimate airways   of   his   mind.   “You’re  
tensed  up  again,”  said  Mrs.  Mitty.  “It’s  one  of  your  days.  I  wish  
you’d  let  Dr.  Renshaw  look  you  over.”
(James  Thurber:  “The  Secret  Life  of  Walter  Mitty”,  
1942)

24
In this story, the two characters are presented through their words and
actions. We are never told by  the  narrator  “Walter  Mitty  was  a  hen-pecked
husband”,   but   this   is   shown by the respective attitudes of Mr and Mrs.
Mitty, and also by the daydreams of the husband, who escapes from his
dreary life with a bossy wife through his imagination.

This is the preferred mode of characterization of realistic fiction, since it

gives the reader the impression (the illusion) that he makes his own
opinion   of   the   character   without   a   narrator’s   interference.   The   narrator  
tends to disappear.

d) Narration or internal focalization (showing)

In first-person narration, the way a narrator tells his story is a very

important  means  of  characterization,  since  a  character’s  view  of  the  world,  
his prejudices, his ignorance, are reflected in his narration.
In third-person narration with internal focalization (i.e. when the point of
view is restricted to that of one character), the action and setting are seen
through  that  character’s  perspective,  and  this  mode  of  narration  gives  us  an  
indication of his/her perceptions and personality.

e) Metaphorical or symbolic associations

Characters are sometimes associated with objects or settings, which,

through repetition, acquire a symbolic dimension in their characterization.
Example:

Towards noon, Hepzibah saw an elderly gentleman, large and

portly, and of remarkably dignified demeanor, passing slowly
along  […]  No  better  model  need  be  thought,  nor  could  have  been  
found, of a very high order of respectability, which by some
indescribable magic, not merely expressed in his looks and
gestures, but even governed the fashion of his garments, and
rendered them all proper and essential to the man. Without
appearing   to   differ,   in   any   tangible   way,   from   other   people’s  
clothes, there was yet a wide and rich gravity about them, that
must have been a characteristic of the wearer, since it could not
be defined as pertaining either to the cut or material. His gold-
headed cane, too—a serviceable staff, of dark, polished wood—
had similar traits, and, had it chosen to walk by itself, would have
been recognized anywhere as a tolerably adequate representative
of its master.
25
 (Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of the Seven
Gables, 1851)

The character thus described is associated metonymically with his clothes

and his gold-headed cane,   which   is   said   to   represent   him.   The   “dark,  
polished   wood”   of   the   cane   hints   at   other   characteristics   than   those  
displayed by his clothes.

5. Speech and thought representation

Speaking and thinking are actions like eating and fighting, but they have
to do with the use of language, which is the medium of literature, hence the
specific problem of representing speech acts in fiction. A narrator can use
several methods, from direct speech (or discourse) to narratized speech, to
represent the speech and/or the thoughts of the characters.
N.B.: the word speech refers to words actually uttered (spoken) by the
characters. Discourse is a more general term, which can refer to spoken
words or unspoken thoughts. As we saw, the word also refers to the
expression plane of narrative, as opposed to its content plane, the story.

a) Direct (or reported) discourse

It   is   a   type   of   discourse   in   which   a   character’s   words   are   quoted   in   the  

way the character supposedly formulated them. In tagged direct discourse,
these formulations are accompagnied by tag clauses, characterizing some
of their qualities, identifying the speaker (or thinker), etc. Sometimes the
formulations are not accompanied by a tag clause, but narratorial
mediation is indicated by such signs as quotations marks, dashes, etc.

In free direct discourse, no tag clause is used and neither are other signs
of narratorial mediation.
Example:
Resuming work at the chest she set about making up a number of
parcels in a rapid, fumbling-decisive way. These, with her
shopping parcels, would be too much to carry; these meant a
taxi—at the thought of the taxi her heart went up and her normal
breathing resumed. I will ring up the taxi now; the taxi cannot
come too soon: I shall hear the taxi out there running its engine,
till I walk   calmly   down   to   it   through   the   hall.   I’ll   ring   up—But
26
 no: the telephone is cut off.... She tugged at a knot she had tied
wrong.
(Elizabeth   Bowen:   “The   Demon   Lover”,  
1946)

Direct discourse can be used to make the reader acquainted with the
situation, the action,   as   in   Hemingway’s   story   “Hills   like   White  
Elephants”.  In  the  novels  of  William  Gaddis,  there  is  virtually  no  narration  
to represent the action, so the reader has to infer the action from the
dialogue, as in the following example:
— Hello? she said, — who…?  Oh  yes  no,  no  he’s  not  here  he’s…  
No   I’m   not,  no.  No,  I’m…   Well   I’m   not   his   wife  no,  I   just   told  
you.   My   name   is   Booth,   I   don’t   even   know   him.   We’ve   just…  
Well  if  you’ll  just  let  me  finish!  We’ve  just  rented  his  house  here,  
I   don’t   know   where   Mister   McCandless   is   I’ve   never   even   met  
him.
(William Gaddis: Carpenter’s   Gothic,
1985)

Direct speech makes for realism, since the narrator is very unobtrusive,
and makes himself forgotten. It is a mode of dramatic representation.

b) Indirect discourse (or transposed discourse)

In   indirect   discourse,   a   character’s   utterances   or   thoughts  are  integrated  

into another utterance or thought through a back-shift of tenses and a shift
from first-person to third-person pronouns. The speech of the character is
reported with less literal fidelity than in direct discourse. Tagged indirect
discourse involves a tag clause introducing and qualifying the represented
utterances and thoughts.

Free indirect discourse is not tagged, and manifests at least some of the
features   of   the   character’s   enunciation.   It   is   a   mixture   of   two   discourses  
(the  narrator’s  and  a  character’s),  two  styles,  two  languages,  two  voices.  It  
is not definable in strictly grammatical terms, and depends heavily on
context: it usually appears in the vicinity of verbs of speech and thought, in
the neighborhood of a foregrounded character. It often, but not always,
co-occurs with internal focalization.

27
 Free indirect discourse (and internal focalization in general) is an
interesting means of characterization: because of the mixture of the two
voices,   it   enables   the   narrator   to   give   shape   to   the   character’s   thoughts,  
without interfering too much and interpreting them.
Fred went home in a seethe of shame. How could his parents
share their house with an old tart (whore, prostitute—but these
were the only words he knew), how could they treat her like an
ordinary decent person, even better (he understood, listening to
them  in  his  mind’s  ear,  that  their  voices  to  her  held  something  not  
far from respect), how could they put up with it? Justice insisted
that  they  had  not  chosen  her  as  a  tenant,  she  was  the  company’s  
tenant, but at least they should have told Sanko and Duke so that
she could be evicted and . . .
(Doris   Lessing:   “Mrs   Fortescue”,  
1963)

c) Narratized discourse

It is a  type  of  discourse  in  which  a  character’s  words  or  verbal  thoughts  
are  represented,  in  the  narrator’s  own  terms,  as  acts  among  other  acts.
Examples:
Toward the end, he spoke movingly about his friendship with
Pavel  Shum,  […]  and  launched into several lengthy harangues on
his theories of the universe: the electricity of thoughts, the
connectedness of matter, the transmigration of souls.
(Paul Auster: Moon Palace, 1989)

Miranda was smitten at the sight of the ring and wished to have it.
Paul seemed more impressed by the dove. They made a trade,
with some little bickering. After he had got the dove in his hand,
Paul  said,  “Don’t  you  know  what  this  is?  This  is  a  screw  head  for  
a coffin!  …  I’ll  bet  nobody  else  in  the  world  has  one  like  this!”  
(Katherine  Anne  Porter:  “The  Grave”,  1944)

In the last example, the shift from narratized discourse to direct discourse
emphasizes  the  importance  of  Paul’s  discovery,  and  his  enthusiasm  about  
it.

Narratized discourse is used when the form of the character’s  utterance  

is not considered as important, direct discourse when it is.
28
 d) Stream of consciousness and interior monologue

The  expression  “stream of consciousness”  was  coined  by  William  James  

(the brother of the famous American writer Henry James):
Consciousness…  does  not  appear  to  itself  chopped  up  in  bits...  A  
‘river’   or   a   ‘stream’   are   the   metaphors   by   which   it   is   most  
naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the
stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.
Principles of Psychology (1890)

In  literary  analysis,  it  refers  to  a  writer’s  attempt  to  represent  thought  in  
its nascent stage, before it becomes articulate and logical. It is thus
specific to the representation of thought, not speech, which demands a
minimum of articulateness. In this technique, the free flow of words with
no apparent logic and syntax is meant to represent the working of the
character’s  mind,  according  to  the  principle  of  free association:

And so if Cash nails the box up, she is not a rabbit. And so if she
is  not  a  rabbit  I  couldn’t  breathe  in  the  crib  and  Cash  is  going  to  
nail it up. And so if she lets him it is not her. I know. I was there.
I saw when it did not be her. I saw. They think it is and Cash is
going to nail it up.
It was not her because it was laying right yonder in the dirt. And
now  it’s  all  chopped  up.  I  chopped  it  up.  It’s  laying  in  the  kitchen  
in  the  bleeding  pan,  waiting  to  be  cooked  and  et.  Then  it  wasn’t  
and  she  was,  and  now  it  is  and  she  wasn’t.  
(William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, 1930).

Interior monologue also   represents   a   character’s   thoughts   in   a   sort   of  

free direct speech, but it is generally more grammatically correct than
stream of consciousness, although the two terms are sometimes considered
as interchangeable.

29
 VII. Drama

Source
GRELLET, Françoise. A Handbook of Literary Terms. Hachette, 1996.

The theatre, the stage, the performance:

There are different types of theatres: the most important for English drama
are
the Elizabethan theatre
Shakespeare 's Globe
the Italian theatre
The present-day Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, sketched when it was new, in 1813

A character can be on stage or off stage.

When an actor plays, he leaves the wings, and stands upstage (at the back
of the stage) or on the contrary downstage (closer to the audience). Behind
him, the backcloth is a painting representing the setting and hiding the
space called backstage.
In case the actor forgets his cue or his lines, there is often a prompter.
Before the play starts, the curtain rises.
The props (stage properties) are the objects used by the actors. With the
scenery or setting, they contribute to the creation of a specific atmosphere.

30
The manager of a play is the person responsible for the production of a
play from all points of views except directing the actors.
The producer or director is responsible for directing the actors and
deciding on interpretation.
The dramatist or playwright is the author of the play.

The actors who appear on stage constitute the cast of the play. They
prepare the performance during practice sessions called rehearsals.
A cue is an action, sound or line which serves a signal that it is time for an
actor to do or say something. Some cues determine the entrances and
exits. Stage directions are often included in the text of the play.
Actors can overplay (play in an exaggerated way) or underplay (play with
too much restraint).

Dramatic conventions and structure:

Most plays are divided into acts, themselves divided into scenes, which
correspond to a logical unit of action, the entrances and exits of certain
characters, a unit of action with no break of place or time.
An expository scene presents the situation at the beginning of a play.
A climactic scene is crucial to the development of the action.
An inset play or a play-within-a-play is a short play performed during the
action of the main play and usually reflecting ironically on it.

When left alone on stage, the characters can voice their thoughts in a
monologue or soliloquy. When other characters are present, the expression
of  the  character’s  thoughts  to  the  audience  only  is  called  an  aside or stage
whisper.

Dramatic irony is present when the audience is aware of something which

one or several characters are not aware of, so that the situation or the words
spoken mean one thing for the character and something different for the
audience.
Comic relief is the use of humorous characters or scenes to alleviate the
tension in a tragedy.

There are many different dramatic genres:

The theatre of the absurd reflects the existential view according to which
life is meaningless.
The comedy is a light form of drama which intends to amuse and entertain.
It usually has a happy ending but also often a serious purpose, attempting
to teach and reform through wit and humour.

31
The comedy of manners deals with the manners and way of life of an
artificial, refined and fashionable society.
Commedia  dell’arte is a 16th century form of Italian comedy in which the
actors improvised their parts, while playing the conventional roles of stock
characters.
A farce is a low comedy in which the laughter arises from absurd or
improbable situations and exaggerated character-types.
The word melodrama applies to a play that strongly appeals to the
emotions and is based on a romantic and thrilling plot.
A tragedy is a serious play relating the events of a person’s life and
leading to a catastrophe.

32
 VIII. Punctuation

. period (Am.), full stop (Br.) ( parenthesis (pl. parentheses)

, comma [ square bracket
: colon “ quotation marks (Am.), inverted commas (Br
; semi-colon — dash
... points of ellipsis - hyphen
! exclamation mark (point) CAPITAL LETTERS, small letters
? question mark Italics bold

IX. Useful vocabulary

1. Referring to a text:

This passage appears/is situated at the beginning/in the middle/at the end of the
story
This excerpt constitutes the climax of the story

This extract is composed of a  dialogue  between…

The passage can be divided into three parts
This text consists of passages of narration and description
The first paragraph contains/includes several indications about/several images
of…

The passage is about/concerns/deals with the experiences of a jungle explorer

This text concentrates on/focuses on the main character’s  thoughts
The passage refers to several  events  involving  the  protagonist’s  dog
The story is structured around/ based on/revolves around the conflict
between…  

This passage describes/portrays/depicts/illustrates the relations between a

husband and a wife
The passage portrays/represents/describes/depicts the main character as a
weak person
The text makes  clear  that…
The passage conveys/expresses  the  idea  that…
The narrator suggests that/implies that Mrs Nelly is not all that she seems
The use of this word implies  that/seems  to  indicate  that…

The narrator emphasizes/places emphasis on/insists on the insincerity of Mrs

Jones
33
The narrator emphasizes that he cannot be sure that what he is saying is true
The passage draws attention to/points out the analogies between English
customs  and…
This passage foregrounds (met  à  l’avant-plan)/highlights the discrepancy
between…

This sentence echoes a passage which appeared earlier in the text

This passage anticipates/foreshadows the last paragraph of the story, in
which…

2. Defining an approach to a passage:

What is important about/central to this  passage  is…    

What is at stake in  this  excerpt  is…
This passage plays an essential role in  the  novel  because…
In a first part, I/we will look at/focus on the various forms of discourse in this
passage
In a second part/Then I/we will go on to  study  the  characterization  of…
Finally, I/we will show how the  text  treats  the  characters’  situation  ironically

3. Organizing ideas (link words):

Sequence
First  (of  all),  …      In  the  first  place,  …
Secondly,  …      In  the  second  place,  …      Thirdly,
To  begin  with,  I  would  like  to  point  out  that…
Finally,
Lastly,

Addition
Furthermore,
Moreover,
In addition,
Besides,
What is more,
At the same time,

Opposition
On  the  one  hand,  …  on  the  other  hand,
At  first,  one  has  the  impression  that…    but  then,  one  realizes  that…
At the same time,
On the contrary,
But
However, In spite of this, Even so,
34
 Consequence
As a result,
It  follows  that…
Consequently,
Thus,  …        Therefore,  …
So

Opinion
In my opinion,
It  seems  to  me  that…  

Conclusion
To summarize,
To conclude,
In conclusion,

Further reading:
GRELLET, Françoise. A Handbook of Literary Terms. Hachette, 1996.

35
 Contents

I. Rhythm and sound-patterns 2

II. Word patterns 6
III. Structural patterns in sentences 7
IV. Varieties of language 10
V. Imagery and figurative language 13
VI. Narrative theory 16
1. The narrator 16
2. The story (or plot) 18
3. Time 19
4. Characterization 22
5. Speech and thought representation 26
VII. Drama 30
VIII. Punctuation marks 33
IX. Useful expressions 33

36