Review the Poetic Triad in Fable: Recognition, Reversal, Suffering.
Discuss the narratives read: Robin Hood, The Cyclops.
Introduce the additional elements of narrative:
Elements
| Recognition | Anagnorisis |
| Reversal | Peripeteia |
| Suffering | Pathos |
| Agent | “Who” |
| Action | “What” |
| Time | “When” |
| Place | “Where” |
| Cause | “Why” |
| Manner | “How” |
We used the story of Robin Hood to examine each of the 9 elements of narrative.
We discussed how the elements change from scene to scene, act to act, or chapter to chapter.
We described three other key elements of narrative:
Clarity
- a clear sequence of events
- no ambiguity of pronouns
- identifiable speakers in dialogue
Brevity
- no unnecessary fluff
- avoidance of filler words that add little or nothing
- concise prose that gets to the point
- Consider “Strunk & White” (more below)
Plausibility
- “Why” causes like human motivation are believable; agents act according to human nature
- “What” happens is believable; even in myth, fable, or fairy tales, the action must be internally consistent
- “Why” must follow a causal chain. Things don’t happen just because of convenience to the storyteller, but because earlier elements of the narrative caused them.
Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style” was introduced. An emphasis was placed on its contribution to the narrative virtue of brevity:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
We discussed E.B.White’s directives on brevity:
- Do not overwrite: Avoid qualifying words or piling on adverbs/adjectives to force emphasis.
- Do not overstate: Exaggeration dilutes force and forces extra words to defend an inflated claim.
- Avoid qualifiers: Words like rather, very, little, pretty are described as “leeches that suck the meaning out of words.”
Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. Macmillan, 1959.
We discussed the homework assignment which is detailed in writing here.