HENG 51116

ENGLISH: INTRODUCTION TO
READING LITERATURE

FELIX AWUNG
E-mail: felix.awung@spu.ac.za

SIZAKELE MOKHELE
E-mail: sizakele.mokhele@spu.ac.za
LEARNING UNIT 2: THE SHORT
STORY
 ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY

▪ Brevity; limited to a single event

▪ Limited number of characters; only protagonists named
▪ Usually aims to create a mood
• An introduction (setting, characters & situation)
• A climax or crisis
• A resolution, or open end
Introduction

• Setting
• Characters
• Situation
 Setting
• The where and when in a story
• Can be physical, or ideological (social milieu)
• Is more than just a “backdrop”. It shapes the story’s main events
and motivates the characters to act as they do.
• Setting the scene allows the reader to know what type of literary
world she/he is entering
The role of setting in literature?

Reflects/ Gives physical form

emphasises to a theme that runs
certain character throughout the
traits belonging to narrative
people who
inhabit certain
setting

Indicates social and Creates pressure that

economic statuses causes characters to
Character
• A person, animal, being, creature or thing
participating in a story.
• Protagonist and antagonist are used to describe
characters.
• Protagonist – main character in the story, one with
whom the reader identifies.
• Antagonist – the force in opposition to the
protagonist
Situation
Part of the story where the main character
is met with a challenging problem or goal
Plot includes
• Situation
• Climax/ crisis
• Resolution
 Climax / Crisis
• The most intense/turning point in a story.
• Answers many questions that arose during the plot - the series of events in a
story.
• Leads to the resolution of the story
Resolution
Can you untie one of these?

If you can then you have

unfolded or found a solution
of a complicated issue in the
story.
 Mood
• The feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for
the reader. Connotative words, sensory images, and
figurative language contribute to the mood, as do the
sound and rhythm of the language
• The emotional tone which shapes the reader’s
expectations of the course of events, whether happy, sad,
terrifying….
 Mood in photograph
• DISCUSS the MOOD/FEELING (atmosphere/emotional tone etc.) in one of these
photographs?

• HOW does the photographer create MOOD/FEELING?

 READ BEFORE NEXT CLASS “DIE BUSHIE IS
DOOD”
ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
▪ Brevity; limited to a single event
▪ Limited number of characters; only protagonists named
▪ Usually aims to create a mood
• An introduction (setting, characters & situation)
• A climax or crisis
• A resolution, or open end

WRITE/MAKE NOTES ABOUT THESE ELEMENTS in “DIE