Literary Text Interpretation The System of Images

Literary Text Interpretation

The System of Images: Methods of Characterization APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS Character in text interpretation is a subjective reflection of reality (people) as it is inspired by the writer's power of imagination

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER WORDS PEOPLE TRAITS CHAR ACTE RS

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTERS ARE WORDS In a literary text characters are nodes in the verbal design, segments of a closed text and in a definite story they are non-verbal abstractions, mental constructions of the reader.

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTERS ARE PEOPLE As literary text is an imitation of reality characters are equal with people. v On the one hand, character is a generalization of the most typical features of a person described in a literary text. v On the other hand, it is never a complete identity of a person, thing or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, emphasized or exaggerated. That's why character is always concrete with its individual peculiarities.

generalization individualization

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER According to S. Chatman characters may be defined both: as persons and as parts of textual design: a paradigm of traits, a set of features, which can be seen in a chain of events in the process of plot developing, i. e. as parts of a literary text. A character trait is a relatively stable or abiding personal quality described in a literary text.

A HIERARCHY OF IMAGES In a literary text images form a system, which comprises a hierarchy of images beginning with micro-images, formed by a word/word combination, and ending with synthetic images or "extended images", formed by the whole literary work.

According to the specific entity images represent in text interpretation we distinguish: character-images, i. e. human characters (Sh. Bronte "Jane Eyre", by J. London "Martin Eden ");

landscape-images ("My Heart's in the Highlands " by R. Burns);

animal-images ("The Jungle Book" by R. Kipling, " The North Stories " by J. London)

Character-images are both real and unreal. v They are real in the sense that they can be visualized, you can see them act, you can hear them talk. v They are unreal in the sense that they are imaginary, even if they are drawn from life, even if they are images of historical people, as they are not identical with them, they are products of the writer's imagination.

A character that dominates the story from the beginning up to the very end is called major main, protagonist, central, or a hero/heroine.

Protagonist is a character in which positive features predominate. Antagonist is the personage opposing protagonist, in which negative features prevail.

Villain is a character with marked negative features. Foil is a character with distinctly opposing features to the protagonist through which the protagonist's positive features are sharply accentuated.

If a character is developed round one or several typical social features he becomes a type characterized by qualities that are typical of a certain social group or class.

v Caricature is a character with so exaggerated features that he appears ridiculous, yet recognizable. v When a character expresses the author's viewpoint directly he is said to be the author's mouthpiece.

CLASSIFICATION OF CHARACTERS According to their importance in a literary text characters can be divided into: simple/complex static/dynamic flat/round A static character, who does not change in the course of a narrative is simple, flat, while dynamic character who does change is complex, well-rounded (e. g. Hamlet is a complex character).

CLASSIFICATION OF CHARACTERS simple complex static dynamic flat round

The terms "flat" and "round" were proposed by E. M. Forster (1927): "The test of round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. If it does not convince, it is flat pretending to be round".

FLAT CHARACTERS VS ROUND Ø one trait Ø Numerous traits Ø Characteristics can be sum up in a sentence Ø Characteristics need elaborate description Ø Stable/ not developing Ø changeable/ developing Ø Distant from actual human beings Ø Close to actual human beings Ø Their actions are determinate, logical, not surprising Ø Their actions are difficult to determine, not always logical, surprising

METHODS OF CHRACTERIZATION The characters may be described from different aspects: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual, social.

Characterization is the creation, presentation and development of a character in fiction There are two basic types of characterization: direct definition indirect presentation

DIRECT DEFINITION Using direct definition the author names the trait by: a) an adjective {e. g. he was good-hearted); b)an abstract noun (e. g. his goodness knew no bounds); c) possibly some other kind of noun (e. g. she was a real bitch); d) part of speech (e. g. he loves only himself)

Direct definition leads to generalization. Its dominance in a given text produces a rational and static impression.

static rational traditional

INDIRECT PRESENTATION A presentation is indirect when the author does not mention a trait but displays and exemplifies it in various ways, leaving to the reader the task of inferring the quality he implies

dynamic motivated modern

Presentation through action Actions include small gestures, a thought, a word, a decision, an impulse or a whole event. A trait may be implied both by one-time actions, and by habitual ones. One-time actions tend to evoke the dynamic aspect of the character, often playing a part in a turning point in the story. Habitual actions tend to reveal the character's unchanging or static aspect, often having a comic or ironic effect.

ACTION TYPOLOGY crucial one-time unexpected actions habitual constant

Both one-time and habitual actions can belong to one of the following categories: act of commission (i. e. something performed by the character) act of omission (something which the character should, but does not do) contemplated act (an unrealized plan or intention of the character)

SPEECH CHARACTERISTICS Analyzing speech characteristic one should be alert for: a) style markers (markers of official style; markers of informal conversational style; initiating signals; hesitation pauses; false starts) b) markers of the emotional state of the character (emphatic inversion; emotionally coloured words, breaks-in-the-narrative; the use of the tailing off into silence which reflect deep emotions or doubt) c) attitudinal markers (words denoting attitudes, intensifiers)

d) markers of the character's educational level: bookish words, rough words, slang, deviations from the standard e) markers of regional and dialectal speech, which define the speaker as to his origin, nationality, social standing f) markers of the character's occupation g) markers of the speaker's idiolect (his individual speech peculiarities)

Action and speech convey character-traits through a cause and effect relation which can be direct/ indirect. The direct presentation is rather simple (he killed a dragon, therefore he is brave; he uses many foreign words, therefore he is a snob). Indirect presentation may also rely on a relation of spatial contiguity ( e. g. a character's shabby dress or dirty room not only connote his state of depression but also result from it)

THE PORTRAYAL OF A CHARACTER The relationship between a character and his appearance, or external appear ancewas used to imply character-traits under the influence of a theory of physiognomy (a direct connection between facial features and personality traits). We distinguish between those external features which are grasped as: beyond the character's control (height, colour of eyes, length of nose) partly depend on him (hair-style and clothes)

PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAYAL Psychological portrayal is the analysis of character's motives by penetration into the mind of the character, description of his mental processes and some psychological changes that motivate his actions.

THE NAMING OF CHARACTERS The name may be deliberately chosen to fit a certain character (Mrs. Murdstone = murder+stone) Shark Dodson, a shark= a person clever at getting money from others in dishonest or merciless ways. Such names are suggestive, as they bring into play the associations which the words they are composed of have.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD OF THINGS Domestic interiors of the setting are sometimes treated a metonymic/metaphoric expressions of the character. A character's physical surrounding (room, house, street, town) and human environment (family, social class) are also often used as trait-connoting metonymies.

THE AIM OF CHARACTERIZATION All the means of characterization the writer resorts to, enable the reader to visualize and understand the characters, to think, feel and worry with them, to trace the changes and growth in their personalities.

KEY FEATURES OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS v. CONSISTENT ─ they should not change easily; v. MOTIVATED ─ there must be reasons for their actions; v. PLAUSIBLE ─ they should be lifelike, not too virtuous, nor monstrously evil.