The Summary of The Introduction of Literature Lecture

The Summary of The Introduction of Literature Lecture

By :     MERY ARIANSYAH

Fourth Semester of English Department

Introduction of Literature

What is literature?

Literature is written artistic works that consist of a high and lasting artistic value, which is made by human. They can express everything in their mind in order to create a good and interesting literary works, such as real human life, creating fiction story to entertain the reader, etc. In creating a literary work the author or the writer should know about how to create a good literary work. They should know about how to develop a theme into a good arrangement of story. It was supported by the intrinsic elements of literature. Moreover, intrinsic element of literature can help the reader in understanding more about the literature itself. When they read one of literary work, automatically they will try to gained what  going to say by the author is.

Intrinsic Elements of Literature

1.      Character

Character is the certain combination of qualities in a person or place that makes them different from others. The meaning of character in a story is a person represented in a film, play, or story. Character development is the change that a character undergoes from the beginning of a story to the end.

Character can be main , secondary or third. In a literary work a character is developed by action, speech, appearance, other character’s comment, author’s comment, and unity of character and action. Chraterization is the choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as appearance, actions, dialogue, and motivations.

Therea three types of characters:

1)      Protagonist

2)      Antagonist

3)      Minor character

Characters are described as being round character or flat character.

The character change:

1)      Dynamic character are rounded characters that change

2)      Static (stock) characters are round or flat characters that do not change during the story.

2.      Plot

Plot is the order in which things move and happen in a story. Te plot is  the arrangement of ideas andor incidents that make up a story. The story have goo chronological order only if the story relates events in the order in which they happened.

The pattern of action are:

1)      Fore shadowing is when the writer clues the reader in to something that will eventually occur in the story. It may be explicit or implied.

2)      Suspense is the tension that the writer uses to create a feeling of discomfort about the unknown.

3)      Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces.

4)      Exposition is the backgroud information regarding the setting, characters, plot.

5)      Rising action is the process of the story follows as it builds to its main conflict.

6)      Crisis is a significant turning point in the story that determines how it must end.

7)      Denouement is the way the story turns out.

The types of plots:

1)      Progressive plots: have a central climax followed by denouement

2)      Episodical plots: have one incident or short episode linked to another by a common character or unifying theme.

3.      Setting

Setting is the time and the place in which the action of a book, film, play, etc happen. The setting provides the historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the emotional state of characters. There are six kinds of setting:

1)      Backdrop setting is when the setting is unimportant for the story and the story could take place in any setting.

2)      Integral setting is when the action, character, or theme are influenced by the time and place.

3)      Functions of setting

4)      Setting as antagonist, the characters must resolve conflict created by setting.

5)      Setting that iluminates character, it can help the characters find themselves and grow as individuals.

6)      Setting as symbolism, a symbol is a person, place, object,  situation, or action which operates on two levels of meaning, the literal, and the figurative, or suggestive.

4.      Theme

Theme is the main point of the story. It can be said that theme is all of the thing that dealt with the story from the beginning to end. The theme is an idea, that convey what will happen in that literary works, who is an actor, how is the condition of that actor, waht will be a problems in that literary works, how to solved it, etc. The idea itself usually came from human real life or fiction. There are three kinds of theme:

1)      Explicit theme is when the writer states the theme openly and clearly. Primary explicit themes are common in children’s literature, as the author wants to be sure the reader finds it.

2)      Implicit theme is implied theme.

3)      Multiple and secondary theme. Since a story speaks to us on our own ondividual level of varying experiences, many individual themes will be obtained from a good piece of literature.

5.      Point of view

Point of view is determined by the author’s description of characters, setting, and events told to the reader throughout the story. They are:

1)      Narrator, the person telling the story who may or may not be a character in the story.

2)      First person, narrator participates in action but sometimes has limited knowledge/vision.

3)      Second person, narrator adresses the reader directly as though she is part of the story. (For example, “You write the short letter. And you are looking for someone around you.....”)

4)      Third person (objective), narrator is unidentified. Does not assume character’s perspective andis not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning.

5)      Omniscient, all knowing narrator ( mulitiple perspectives). The narrator knows waht each character is thingking and feeling, not just waht they are doing throughout the story.

6.      Style

Style is how the author says something, the choice of words and the use of language, sentence costruction, imagery not what the author says. The choice of words and the use of language could be seen from the dialogue between characters. Moreover, vocabulary words that used in literary works are connotation and denotation. Connotation is the associative or emotional meaning of a word. Denotation is the dictionary meaning of word.

Some terms of sentence structure that used in literary works:

1)      Figurative language (to express meaning beyond the literal meaning ot the word itself)

It could be: metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification.

2)      Figure of speech is an expression used in a non literal context to add intensity of meaning.

3)      Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.

4)      Allusion is a figure of speech that refers to something in our common understanding, our past or our literature.

5)      Symbol is a symbol is a person, place, object,  situation, or action which operates on two levels of meaning, the literal, and the figurative, or suggestive.

6)      Puns or word play

Often used to add emphasis and break upmonotonous rhythm.

(Blood boil, mind melt, well loved)

7)      Devices of sounds

Devices of sounds consist of  (onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhythm). Rhythm often thought of as a poem’s timing. It is the juxtaposition of stressed and unstressedbeats in a poem.

Meter, measure of rhythm in a poem

Speaker, the person delivering the poem

Structure (poetry), the patern organization of a poem.

Symbolism, when an object is meant to be representative of something.

Tone, the implied attitude towards the subject of the poem.