|
|
Fictional Narrative Basics - Plot
Unit Completion Date: End of Week 5
|
| [ Previous ][ 7 ][ Next ] |
For purposes of this class, we are going to focus on one type of fictional plot structure, a profluent plot. This is the plot structure we've used as a starting point thus far: A series of dramatic events that causes and heightens a conflict of forces, bringing them eventually to a climax and resolution. The conflict can be external (between the main character and some external force or forces) or internal (conflict between two or more desires held by the main character).
We are looking at this plot structure because it is the dominant plot structure in narrative fiction, but it is certainly not the only plot structure available. In "The Art of Fiction," John Gardner provides an excellent discussion of different varieties of plot structures, including stories that are plotted with argumentative structures, comprised of scenes dramatizing some point the author is trying to make. Allegory, picaresque narrative, and symbolic juxtaposition are some other techniques Gardner discusses.
Examples of non-profluent plots are plentiful. Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," for instance, is structured as much like the dreaded five-paragraph expository essay as a traditional profluent plot. It has its introductory "paragraph"--Marley's ghost--its three support paragraphs--Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future--and its conclusion--the Cratchits get the goose. It has a clear thesis--miserliness is bad and we should be generous and kind the year 'round--and clear examples of why this is so.
Of course you can apply the elements of traditional profluent plot as well, and discuss conflict, antagonist, protagonist, etc. as well. Beyond the abstract scholarly discussion of which is more prevalent in a work, the value of one model over the another--especially for a writer--lies in its usefulness. Plot structures provide us with tools for understanding how a story is constructed, and if the use of two different structures in understanding a story provides a new or useful perspective, then there is no compelling reason to think of a story as exclusively one or the other.
|
| [ Previous ][ 7 ][ Next ] |
|
