1. AS Literature
Lesson 3
LO: To understand the significance of structure and to be able to develop structural reading as a close reading technique.

2. Do
What are all the component parts of a book? How can an author create structure.

3. Beginnings
Prologue: a separate introductory section of a literary, dramatic, or musical work.
Preface: an introduction to a book, typically stating its subject, scope, or aims.
Foreword: a short introduction to a book, typically by a person other than the author.

4. Discuss
What can we learn about a book from its title, preface, introduction and table of contents?
What do you understand by the term plot?
What is ‘structure‘ in prose fiction, and how is it different from plot?

5. The elements of fiction
All novels contain elements that can determine structure:
Milieu/physical or social setting (the world - the planet, the society, the weather, the family, that is at the centre of the novel)
Plot (what happens and when)
Point of view/narrative (how the story is told)
Theme/ Idea (the questions raised and answered by the story)
Character (Who the story is about.)
Event (the fabric of the universe is disrupted, The event story ends at the point when a new order is established or, more rarely, when the old order is restored or, rarest of all, when the world descends into chaos as the forces of order are destroyed.

6. Discuss
While each is present in most stories, there is generally one that dominates the others. Can you think of novels you have read that are dominated by one structural element?
EG: Milieu: Gulliver’s Travels, Lord of The Flies, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

7. Plot Think carefully about a novel or short story that you know well.
Make a list or a plan of the key events of the plot and how they link together and are ordered by the writer. You should think about such elements as:
the time scheme the writer uses
the order in which events are revealed (e.g. whether the plot is developed in chronological order; whether flashbacks are used, or some other kind of non- chronological structure)
the relationship between the structure and the narrative voice.

8. Can you think of an example?
Meta-plot
The meta-plot (overarching story) which binds events together.
begins with the anticipation stage, in which the hero is called to the adventure to come,
This is followed by a dream stage, in which the adventure begins, the hero has some success, and has an illusion of invincibility.
However, this is then followed by a frustration stage, in which the hero has his first confrontation with the enemy, and the illusion of invincibility is lost.
This worsens in the nightmare stage, which is the climax of the plot, where hope is apparently lost.
Finally, in the resolution, the hero overcomes his burden against the odds.

9. Food for thought All literature can be boiled down to 7 basic plots
Overcoming the monster
rags to riches;
the quest;
voyage and return;
comedy;
tragedy;
rebirth.
Write a short description of each e.g. Overcoming the monster: The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force (often evil) which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland.
Extra challenge: think of an example