Genre

or Which One Is It?

Literature is generally divided into major genres: poetry, drama, fiction, and non-

fiction prose.

Within these major distinctions we find other sub-categories that are also
called genres. The essay and the slave narrative are both forms of non-fiction prose,
but you may seem them referred to as separate genres. Authors may choose to break
some of the conventions of a particular genre intentionally; it's as useful to
understand genre conventions when analyzing those texts as when analyzing texts that
conform to genre conventions.

Although the task of the literary critic is usually the same regardless of genre, because
a good literary analysis focuses on the relationship between form and theme, the
specific tasks vary with genre. For example, texts in all the genres might use
figurative language, such as simile or personification, but non-fiction prose won't
involve rhyme scheme, and poetry doesn't have lighting cues.

Analyzing and Interpreting Stories

 
When you analyze a story, you try to find a meaning for the
story.  You make a claim about the story's meaning, and provide
evidence from the story itself to support your analysis.  You look for
a reasonable way of understanding the story. 
 
Here are some questions to ask yourself about a story when you are
trying to understand it. 
 
1.    On a literal level, what happens in the story?  What is
the plot of the story? How do the events in each stage of the
story relate to each other? Can you write a clear synopsis of
the story?
 
2.    Does the setting create a mood?  Does it affect the characters'
lives?  Does it affect the feelings and final insight? Does the
setting represent an idea or how a character thinks or feels?
 
3.    Are there any images or words which the writer repeats in the
story?  Could those images or words have a special
significance?  Do those images or words affect your response to
the story?  Did you get a certain feeling or impression about the
characters or setting from these images or words? 
 
4.    Does the main character have a conflict in the beginning of
the story?  Is the conflict resolved?  Is there anything significant
about the conflict or its resolution?
 
5.    Does analyzing one or more characters closely help you
understand the story?  Compare what the characters say to
what they really think or feel.  Why do the characters do what
they do in the story?
 
6.    Are there things in the story which might be symbols? A
symbol is something that represents something else. For
instance, a flower bud might represent innocence; or autumn
could represent the last years of a person's life.
 
 
7.    The point of view is the angle from which the story is
told.  Who is the narrator?  Is the story told by a first-person
narrator, a third-person narrator who is a major participant, or
a third-person narrator who is just an observor?  Is the point of
view first-person, limited omniscient, omniscient, or objective? 
 
       When the story is told from a first person point of view, the
narrator is a character which the author has created.  The
author and the narrator are not necessarily the same person.
How does the narrator reveal his/her values and beliefs? Are the
author's beliefs and values the same as the narrator's?  The
narrator is usually an important character in the story when the
story is told from the first person point of view.
 
8.    Is there any irony in the story?  Is there a difference between
what the characters think and what is really going on in the
story? Whenever appearance and reality don't quite match in a
story, there is irony.
 
9.    Does the story illuminate any of the following subjects?
 
    a conflict between appearance and reality
     growing up (a coming of age or a loss of innocence?)
     identity
     triumph over adversity
     the individual vs. society
     struggle against oppression or injustice in society
     conflict between cultures
     a journey or quest
     love or marriage
     family relationships
     human relationship to nature
     dealing with death or one's own mortality
     the ephemeral nature of human existence
 
10.  The theme is the author's main insight about life, society, or
human nature.  The theme is different from the subject of the
story because the theme is a statement.  To state a theme, first
find an important subject in the story and ask yourself, "What
does the author say about this subject?"
 
11.  When you write an analysis, you have to decide what
element of the story you are going to analyze.  The two
main questions to answer for any short story are:
 
a.  How does the story element I want to analyze
contribute to the meaning or effect of the story?
 
b.    Why do I have the response I have to the story--
what did the author do to make me feel the way I did
about the characters or the ending?
 
 You can analyze any element of a short story.  For instance, you might
decide you just want to analyze a single character and how that
character contributes to the meaning of the story to you.  It is possible
to have multiple interpretations as long as you can find evidence for
your interpretation in the text of the story.  You support your analysis
with specific examples and descriptions from the story.
 
12.  When you write an analysis, you are not writing about whether
the story is good or not; you are explaining your interpretation
about what the story shows you or how the author gives you
some insight about a subject such as growing up, human
nature, relationships, and other experiences through the
characters in the story.

The Narrator
or WHO ARE YOU? AND WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS?

A crucial element of any work of fiction is the NARRATOR, the person who is

telling the story (note that this isn't the same as the AUTHOR, the person who
actually wrote the story).

What types of narrators are there? The first major distinction critics make about
narrators is by person:

a FIRST PERSON narrator is an "I" (occasionally a "we") who speaks from her/his

subject position. That narrator is usually a character in the story, who interacts with
other characters; we see those interactions through the narrator's eyes, and we can't
know anything the narrator doesn't know.

a SECOND PERSON narrator speaks in "you." This is an extremely rare case in

American literature, although we will read a few examples.

a THIRD PERSON narrator is not a figure in the story, but an "observer" who is

outside the action being described. A third-person narrator might be omniscient (ie,
able to tell what all the characters are thinking), but that is not always the case. Third-
person narration may also be focalized through a particular character, meaning that
the narrator tells us how that character sees the world, but can't, or at least doesn't,
read the mind of all the characters this way.
There are other things we need to know about the narrator, especially since the
narrator may be very different from the author, and because the more we know about
the narrator the better situated we are to understand and analyze what s/he is telling
us. When a narrator is one of the characters in the story, it's usually fairly easy to pin
down some information about her/him, because you "see" the character. But you can
also get to know third-person narrators.

When you read, think about what clues you're given about the identity of the narrator.
You may be able to pin down specific aspects of the narrator's identity (age, region,
religion, race, gender, etc.) even if they are NOT explicitly stated in the text. For
example, if the narrator says "Ethel put the pop in a sack and handed it to the
customer," that narrator is not from the same region of the country as a person or
character who would say "Ethel put the soda in a bag and handed it to the customer."
If the narrator addresses older characters as Mr. or Mrs. and younger characters by
first name, you may be able to gauge how old the narrator is — who are her/his elders,
contemporaries, etc.? Sometimes you can detect prejudices on the part of the narrator
that will affect how reliable you think that narrator is. If a narrator says, "They passed
a greasy kike on their way out," it's fair to assume the narrator is an anti-Semite, and
that may well shape your reading.

Here is a rather lame way to think about it. After you read a story, try to write a
personal ad for the narrator. What personal characteristics, likes, and dislikes of the
narrator can you glean from the story?

Moving beyond the personal characteristics of the narrator, think about how to gauge
her/his role as the teller of the tale. Is the narrator reliable or unreliable? Is the
narrator telling you everything s/he knows? What limits does the narrator have, in
terms of what s/he can perceive? We'll read some stories with crazy narrators, or
stupid narrators, or narrators who just don't seem to know what they're talking about.

Think about how much AUTHORITY your narrator has to relate the events of the
story, and what it means if that authority seems limited.

Once you've figured out who is telling the story, think about why s/he is telling it. Is
this a confession? An act of bragging? A moralistic lesson? Remember, you're not
focusing here on why the author wrote the story, but why this fictional narrator is
choosing to tell it. It may help to consider the narratee as well.