FICTION


 From the Latin ‘fictum’ meaning something
invented

 Non-dramatic, narrative, descriptive, prose

 KINDS OF FICTION
(based on length)

novel aka long narrative
- 50,000 to 100,000 words

novella aka long narrative also

- 20,000 to around 50,000
words

short story aka short narrative

- as few as 2,000 to around
20,000 words
 ELEMENTS OF
FICTION

 Nota bene:
- Basically, all the elements are at play in fiction,
all of them contribute to the wholeness of a narrative.

- In some pieces, however, some elements may

be more played up than others.
 
- For instance, in some postmodern pieces, the plot
may not be presented very ‘neatly’ in terms of
beginnings, middles, endings but as a collage or
pastiche of events and characters.
 1. PLOT

• Causally related sequence of events - following the
law of probability

CONSIDER:

The king died and then the queen died.

The king died and then the queen died of grief.

 PROBABILITY

 the likelihood of something happening

 principle of what may happen given certain time

frames and human realities
 RELEVANT CONCEPTS

 truth of history vs truth of fiction

 story vs plot – consider the process of selecting and

ordering

 willing suspension of disbelief

 PARTS OF PLOT

RISING ACTION

- EXPOSITION
- INCITING MOMENT
- CONFLICT
- COMPLICATION/S
- CRISIS
 
FALLING ACTION

- CLIMAX

- DENOUEMENT- from the

French word, ‘denouer’ (to untie)
 Conflict

Disturbance resulting from a
clash of opposing impulses or
from an inability to reconcile
impulses with realistic or moral
considerations
(dictionary)
 PLOT SEQUENCES

BASICALLY CHRONOLOGICAL
 A to Z
 ABC – MNO – XYZ
 A to T ; U to Z is only hinted at
LOGICAL - ZYX
IN MEDIAS RES – in the midst of things
NOW-AND-THEN
Relevant Concept


Reversal of Intention
TYPES OF PLOT

(based on number of events)

ORGANIC

EPISODIC
 TYPES OF PLOT

(on the basis of beginnings and endings)
 ROMANCE + +

 SATIRE - -

 TRAGEDY + -

 COMEDY - +
 2. CHARACTER

 PERSONALITY - peculiarities; more on the
physical attributes

 MORALITY - state of badness / goodness

- usually defined by choice
MAJOR CHARACTER


SHE/HE who is the most

affected or who undergoes
change
 What’s in a name?


That which we call a rose

by any other name would
smell as sweet.
 But names

May be indicative of
setting/place of origin

Consider:
Juan, John, Jean, Jan, Johannes,
Giovanni, Sean, Hans, Ivan
 
- May heighten irony

Consider :

Tasyong Tangkad
 
May be thematically significant.

Consider:
Eben Flood (Ebb and Flood)
Pina and Sam in “Pina, Pina,
Saan Ka Pupunta?”
 
 May follow certain conventions, practices

Consider:
Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary
Charles Philip Arthur George
William Arthur Philip Louis
George Alexander Louis
Charlotte Elizabeth Diana
 
Consider:
- Don Carlo, Sir William, Lord James, Lady
Carmina
- Ariel, Armand, Arnold
- Rosal, Cattleya, Camia, Tulip
- Bing, Bong, Ding, Dong, Ping, Pong, Ting2
 What about . . .?

• Ruben Bagonggahasa
• Francisco Pecpec
• Renato Caburatan
• Poque, Itoy Bayag
• Thz-z
• Satanas
• Relendaugh
• Outen, Okeke
• Jejomar, Heherson
Consider:

The young girl seemed the perfect type of
upright young woman to whom the wise
young man dreams of entrusting his
future. Her simple beauty had the
charm of an angelic modesty, and the
faint smile which never left her lips
seemed a reflection of her heart.
(Maupassant, “The Jewels”)
 3. SETTING/SCENE

 What surrounds characters when they act or think

 Place, location, environment

 Literal and physically describable location of the

action
Consider:

In the fall the war was always there,
but we did not go to it anymore. It
was cold in the fall in Milan and the
dark came very early. Then the lights
came on, and it was pleasant along the
streets looking in the windows.
(Hemingway, “In Another Country)
 4. POINT OF VIEW

Focus of narration
Who tells the story?
From what vantage point
is the story seen?
 First Person POV

A character tells her own story.

Consider:
They were new patients to me, all I had
was the name, Olson. Please come down
as soon as you can, my daughter is very
sick. (Williams, “The Use of Force”)
 First Person Observer
POV

 A character tells, in the first person, a story he he has
observed.
Consider:
We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she
had to do that. We remembered all the young men
her father had driven away, and we knew that with
nothing left, she would have to cling to that which
had robbed her, as people will. (Faulkner, “A
Rose for Emily”)
 Author-Observer POV

Aka third person objective
The author presents her
characters objectively and
does not intrude.
 Consider:

On a small gray steel trunk Lachmi, Lady Mohan
Lal, sat chewing a betel leaf and fanning
herself with a newspaper. She was short and
fat and in her middle forties. She wore a dirty
white sari with a red border. On one side of
her nose glistened a diamond nose ring, and
she had several gold bangles on her arms.
(Singh, “Karma”)
Omniscient Author POV

The author is a kind of god
who knows what happens
everywhere and what goes on
in the minds of his characters
Consider:

The doctor was working on the kneecap now,
thinking whether it was not too late to call up
the girl at her boarding house. Bianong
dreamed listlessly of crispy pata. Doc washed
up and headed for the phone in the nurses
station outside the operating room where Isko
was rubbing Estela’s clammy hand to dispel
her fear. She smelled good.
(Nieva, “Pasilyo 8”)
 Second Person Point

Consider:

Escape into books. When he asks what you’re

reading, hold it up without comment. The
next day look across to the brown chair and
you will see him reading it too. A copy from
the library that morning.
(Moore, “How”)
 Combination

the POV shifts - from the
objective third person to the
first person
 5. THEME

Some conviction or belief about the
way things are
The focal idea, the “meaning” of the
whole
The central idea underlying the
interaction of the elements
May be a comment on human
values, feelings or attitudes
 THEME
 or
May be explicit implicit

Vis-à-vis moral lesson

 Formalistic Approach

 Examining the interplay of elements in a text
 Reader-Response

 Recognizes the objective base of the text but also
points out the gaps in the story which the reader fills
in.
Question: Did Isko and Estela really have an affair?
Answer: Siguro, kasi, noong hindi umuwi si Estela
isang gabi, baka nag-hotel sila ni Isko . . .
Other approaches
consider:

 Ideology

 Race

 Class

 Gender
 Ideology

 System of beliefs governing thought, feeling,
behavior

 Kaisipan, Kamalayan, Kaalaman, Pananaw,

Kaugalian
 Race

 Population that differs from others

 Any geographical, national, or tribal ethnic grouping

 Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid

 White, Black, Brown, Yellow, Red

 Some “racial”
expressions

 Yan ang Pinoy, hindi sumusuko . . .
 Ang puti, ang ganda . . .
 Ang mga Pampango, masarap magluto . . .
 Lumabas ang pagka – Ilokano . . .
 Ayoko sa mga Tagalog, parang hari ang lalake .
 Ayaw mo ng maanghang? parang hindi ka Bicolano .
..
 Class

 Based on socio-economics
 Haves and the have-nots
 The rich and the poor
> what do the rich think of the masses?
 The culture of poverty
The Socio-Economic
Pyramid

Upper class – upper, middle,
lower
Middle class – upper, middle,
lower
Lower class – upper, middle,
lower
 Some “class”
expressions

 Ang suplada mo, palibhasa, mayaman . . .
 Kasi po, mahirap lang ako . . . (a rape suspect, when
asked why he did it)
 Pahingi naman ng balato, marami naman kinita
mo . . .
 Gender and Sex

 Sex – biological (male, female)
 Gender – social
> male
> female
> homosexual
> bisexual
> transsexual
 Phases of women’s
development

 Feminine phase - traditional
 Feminist phase - rebellious
 Female phase – sober but strong
 Androgyny – consideration of others as partners;
“let them be” attitude
 Hegemony

Manipulation or engineering of the response of the
ruled.

White – Black
Rich – Poor
Man - Woman
 Consider

 “There’s nothing wrong with Estela working,
Pare . . .”
 . . . and to Estela, a big fat wink . . .