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Part 1

LITERARY TEXT AS POETIC STRUCTURE

VERBAL AND SUPRAVERBAL LAYERS OF THE LITERARY TEXT
While reading a literary text one gradually moves from the first word of it on to the
last. The words one reads combine into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into
paragraphs, paragraphs making up larger passages: chapters, sections, and parts. All these
represent the verbal layer of the literary text.
At the same time when one reads a text of imaginative literature one cannot but see
another layer gradually emerging out of these verbal sequences. One sees that word
sequences represent a series of events, conflicts and circumstances in which characters of
the literary work happen to find themselves.
One sees that all these word-sequences make a type of narration (composition), a
plot, a genre, and a style, that they all go to create an image of reality and that through this
image the author conveys his message, his vision of the world.
Plot, theme, type of narration (composition), genre, style, image and the like make the
supraverbal (poetic) layer which is, nevertheless, entirely revealed in verbal sequences.
The supraverbal and the verbal layers of the text are thus inseparable from each other.
The cohesion (‘сцепление’) of the two layers, i.e. of the strictly verbal and the
supraverbal constitutes what is known as the poetic structure of the literary text. There is
nothing in the literary work that is not expressed in its poetic structure. It is the whole of
the poetic structure that conveys the author's message. All the components of the poetic
structure compose a hierarchy, an organization of interdependent layers. The basic unit of
the poetic structure is the word. All the various layers of the structure, i. e. the syntactic, the
semantic, the rhythmical, the compositional, the stylistic are expressed in words.
Representation of the literary work in terms of a structure or a hierarchy of layers
presupposes the concept of macro- and micro-elements (components) and bears upon
“form – content” relationship.
Macro- and micro-elements is a functional, not an absolute category. Within a literary
work a simile, for instance, is a micro-element in relation to a macro-element which may be
the image of a character, and the latter, in its turn, is a micro-element in relation to the
macro-element which is the literary work itself, understood as an image of reality.
The fact that macro-elements of a literary work are made out of micro-elements
means in the final analysis that micro-elements are form in relation to macro-elements
which are content.
PRINCIPLES OF POETIC STRUCTURE COHESION
Each literary work is a unique instance of imaginative representation of reality.
Imaginative representation, however, has its own principles (known as aesthetic
principles) which cohere all elements of the literary text and render it possible for the
latter to constitute a world complete in itself. These principles are common to all literary
works.
We now proceed to discuss some of these principles.
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Principle of Incomplete Representation

All images in a literary text, those of people, events, situations, landscapes and the like
are incompletely represented. At least two factors seem to condition this. The first is the
linguistic factor. Verbal representation of the whole image is a venture which cannot or
should hardly ever be endeavoured. This would take up innumerable pages of writing in
which the image itself would invariably be dissolved, for there is a considerable dispropor-
tion between linguistic means of representation and the reality which is to be represented.
The second, and the main, is the aesthetic factor. Literature, as we know, transmits
aesthetic information. To achieve this aim literature must first of all stir up the reader's
interest. One way to do this is to make the reader strain his perceptive abilities and fill in
for himself those fragments of the whole which have been gapped or, as we have termed it,
incompletely represented, that is, represented through a part. The part selected to fulfil
such a representative function must, indeed, have the power of stirring up the reader's
imagination so as to make him visualize the whole. The trick of conveying much through
little is one of the greatest secrets of imaginative literature. An achieved harmony of the
whole and the part is a sign of a truly talented work.
The degree of incompleteness of representation depends upon the genre, of the
literary work as well as upon the individual manner of the writer. The degree of incom-
pleteness is greater in lyrical poems and smaller in epic works. But even in large works of
narrative prose the degree of incompleteness (or gapping) is considerable.
Since complete descriptions of absolutely all the actions, thoughts, feelings of the
characters in fiction are impossible and unnecessary, the writer selects only those that
have special meaning in relation to the message of the story. Moreover, a full and
photographic description is often substituted by a detail. Depending on the value which
details have in fiction, one should distinguish between the so-called artistic (poetic) details
and particularities.
The artistic (poetic) detail is the manifestation of the principle of incomplete
representation. It is always suggestive and therefore has a larger meaning than its surface
meaning, as it implies a great deal more than is directly expressed by it. An artistic detail
acquires expressive force and has both, direct and indirect meaning. It is a poetic
representation of a whole scene. An artistic detail, just as any micro-image, stimulates the
imagination.
There are details of landscapes, of events, etc. The central image of any literary work,
that of a character, is manifold, so are the details that represent it. These may be the details
of action, speech, physical portrait, ethical, political views, etc.
A few artistic details may suggest a whole life-story. Thus, the “swollen" face, feet and
hands with "fingers worked to the bone" which Priestley mentions about Mrs. Cross (in
“Angel Pavement”) tell us just as much of her hard life as a whole page of her life-story
would. The sharpness of those artistic details stimulates the reader's imagination and
creates the image of a woman exhausted by a life full of hardships.
At the same time an artistic detail contributes to individualization and verisimilitude.
It creates the sense of reality, the sense of getting to know a concrete real individuality with
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its specific characteristics. An artistic detail is therefore both implicative and

individualizing.
A poetic detail may be some directly observed and directly expressed feature of an
image. Thus, the image of cold autumn ("In Another Country" by E. Hemingway) is
conveyed in such details of simple and direct perceptions which may be described as
verbal photography: "... small birds blew in the wind and the wind turned their feathers". ...
"On one of them (bridges) a woman sold roasted chestnuts. It was warm, standing in front of
her charcoal fire, and the chestnuts were warm afterward in your pocket".
A detail of the depicted image, on the other hand, may be represented in an
association with some other phenomenon. In such a case it usually takes the form of a
trope as in the following detail of the winter-in-Salinas-valley description from
J. Steinbeck's story "The Chrysanthemums": "(the fog) sat like a lid on the mountains and
made of a great valley a closed pot".
The nature of a truly artistic detail is such that it both typifies and individualizes the
image.
In fiction not all details are connected with incomplete representation. There often
occur details that cannot be treated as poetic expression of the whole (such as the colour of
the eyes of a character, the time at which he left his home, etc). They serve to add
something new about a character, or place, or event. Such details are called particularities.
They are not absolutely irrelevant. They contribute to verisimilitude, as they help to create
a realistic picture of a person or event. Particularities are used for representing reality in a
concrete form.
Thus, an artistic detail is significant beyond its literal meaning and has expressive
force, whereas a particularity signifies only what is directly expressed by it and has no
implication. However, both artistic details, and particularities contribute to verisimilitude
and credibility of the story, as they individualize, particularize and specify the characters,
objects and events, thus representing actual life in all its diversity. They encourage
acceptance on the part of the reader and increase convincingness of what is described.
Incomplete representation is also revealed in presupposition which is a means of
conveying special implication. For example, it is a characteristic feature of modern fiction
to begin a story at a point where certain things are already taken for granted. Thus the
story “Arrangement in Black and White” by Dorothy Parker opens as follows: "The woman
with the pink velvet poppies ... traversed the crowded room ... and clutched the lean arm of her
host". The definite articles are indications of previous knowledge about the identity of the
referents, although the reader can work them out only by reading on. The writer does not
introduce the woman and the place she comes to. Each of the definite articles carries a
presupposition that the reader already shares the author's knowledge about them. By this
device the author sets up the world of the story with its implications of the past right from
the start, though the reader has to construct this world himself while reading on.
Presupposition creates implication and at the same time arouses the reader's interest.
Cf. the beginning of the novel “Theatre” by W. S. Maugham: “The door opened and
Michael Gosselyn looked up. Julia came in”.
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Principle of Analogy and Contrast

Analogy and contrast are known to be universal principles of cognition. It is by
analogy that the essence of a phenomenon is revealed, the similar and the contrastive in
different phenomena discovered.
In the arts and especially in literature analogy/contrast is a way of imaginative
cognition. The author contra- and juxtaposes images of real life and in that way reveals the
good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, the just and the unjust in life.
Analogy and contrast are the organizing axis of poetic structure. They permeate the
whole text, all its components, both macro- and micro-: the character and the event
representation, the imagery, etc. G. Greene's novel "The Quiet American" may very well
serve as an illustration. The author's ethical message, that of the man's responsibility in the
modern world, is conveyed by a contrast of the two main characters: Fowler and Pyle. The
author depicts them as antipodes in everything: in their physical appearances, in their
spiritual and mental make-up, in the stand they take on all essential issues of life. Pyle is
young and quiet. With his "unused face, with his gangly legs and his crew-cut, his wide
campus gaze" he seemed, at first sight, "incapable of harm". He came to the East full of York
Harding's ideas about the Third Force, eager to help them materialize.
Fowler, on the contrary, is an aging man, cynical and sophisticated. He prides himself
on detachment, on being uninvolved, on not belonging to this war. Step by step showing
Pyle's activity in Viet Nam the author makes the reader see that in the tragic world of that
country it is the quiet, earnest Pyle that turns out to be cold, cruel and menace-carrying. He
is impregnably armoured by York Harding's teaching and his own ignorance. His
innocence, the author says, is a kind of insanity.
The cynical Fowler, the man who had prided himself on not being involved, on the
contrary, comes to realize that he is responsible for the war "as though those wounds had
been inflicted by him". Pyle did not abandon his stand, York Harding and his teaching.
Civilians killed in the street are just mere war casualties for him. To Fowler their deaths
cannot be "justified by any amount of killed soldiers". Thus, it is through the antithesis of
Pyle – Fowler and the spiritual and ethical worlds they represent that the author conveys
his idea of what man's true responsibility is, of what man should do in the world torn by
enmity and conflict.
Contrast (or analogy) can also find its expression at the level of the sentence-long
context: “Notwithstanding her cropped peroxide hair and her heavily-painted lips she had the
neutral look that marks the perfect secretary” (W. S. Maugham “Theatre”).
The principle of analogy and contrast may not be so explicit in some works as it is in
the work mentioned above, but it infallibly finds a manifestation in any literary work.
Contrast may convey implication on different levels: linguistic and extralinguistic. In
the story “Arrangement in Black and White” by Dorothy Parker, which is an attack on racial
prejudices and hypocrisy among the middle classes in the USA, the implication is mainly
conveyed by the contrast between the impression that the protagonist tries to produce and
the impression she actually produces. The contrast is reinforced by the antithetical
thematic planes of the vocabulary: the coloured people, nigger versus the white people;
broad-minded versus narrow-minded; awfully fond of, love, crazy about some of them versus
wouldn't sit at the table with one for a million dollars, keep their place. Moreover, this
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implication is also suggested by the antithesis in the title “Arrangement in Black and
White”.
Analogy (parallelism) may also be deeply suggestive. For example, in “The Roads We
Take” by O'Henry there is deep implication in the parallel actions of the dream and reality
(in the dream Shark Dodson murders his companion with cold ferocity to get the booty; in
the event that presents reality Dodson, the businessman, ruins his friend with cold ferocity
again in order to increase his profits). Parallelism here invites the reader to compare these
actions. It is suggestive not only of the ugly nature of the protagonist, but also of the
immoral means he uses to make money.
Events which begin and end a story are sometimes parallel (similar). This circling of
the action back to its beginning implies that nothing has changed and this may be the whole
point. The story of the firm Twigg and Dersingham in Priestley's “Angel Pavement” begins
with Dersingham's talk with Smeeth about the sad affairs of the firm and the necessity to
dismiss one of the clerks. At the end of the novel Dersingham has a similar talk, with
Smeeth again, about the bankruptcy of the firm. It returns the reader to the opening scene.
This circling of actions suggests and emphasizes that nothing has improved, none of the
characters have managed to avoid ruin and poverty.
Analogy and contrast underlie quite a number of such elements of poetic structure as
tropes and figures of speech (simile, metaphor, personification, antithesis, pun, etc).
Principle of Recurrence
Poetic structure of the literary text is so modelled that certain of its elements which
have already occurred in the text recur again at definite intervals.
Recurrence (or repetition) is one of the means conveying implication. Recurrent may
be a poetic detail, an image, a phrase, a word (both emotionally coloured and neutral), a
stylistic device. There often occurs semantic repetition, when one and the same idea is
repeated, though every time it is formulated differently. When repeated all of them are felt
to be especially significant for the understanding of the literary work and acquire special
relevance in its context.
The recurrent element may have several functions, i.e. be meaningful in a variety of
ways. One of these functions is that of the key-words organizing the subject matter,
giving it a dynamic flow. Consider, for instance, the following expository passage from
E. Hemingway's "Old Man at the Bridge" and see how the recurrent phrase old man
organizes and frames it up. "An old man with steel-rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes
sat by the side of the road. There was a pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and
men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the steep
bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks
ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep
dust. But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther".
Recurrence may be traced in the plot of any story. Though the events in the plot
generally vary among themselves, they have a similarity in function – each of them recalls
the reader to the central problem. For instance, no matter how different the events in the
story “The Lady's Maid” by K. Mansfield may seem to be, each of them returns the reader to
the main problem – the inequality between the rich and those who serve them. In this
sense writers fulfil contradictory demands: the demand for variation and the demand for
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recurrence. If a writer fails to fulfil the former, his story will be monotonous and
uninteresting. If he fails to fulfil the latter, it will seem aimless and not directed at any
definite message.
The repeated words (or phrases), even if they are neutral ones, may acquire
emotional charge and become key-words important for understanding of the message
of the story. Such units create a certain leitmotif of the literary work expressing the
author's message. For instance, "The Basement Room" by G. Greene tells about a seven-
year-old boy whose parents have gone on a fortnight's vacation leaving him in charge of the
butler, Baines, and his wife, Mrs. Baines. The boy descends into the basement room, the
dwelling-place of the Baines' and ... finds himself involved in their life, with its conflicts, its
secrets and its bitterness. Each of them, in turn, entrusts his/her secret to the boy and
expects him to keep it. The boy is entirely on the side of the butler, he hates and abhors the
butler's wife. But when it happens that the butler unintentionally causes the death of his
wife, the boy betrays him to the police, for he feels it unbearable to keep the secret, to have
the responsibility Baines has laid upon him.
The following two sets of phrases run parallel to each other at certain intervals
through the whole of the story. The first set is: Philip began to live; this is life, this was life; it
was life he was in the middle of; Philip extracted himself from life; a retreat from life. And the
second set: And suddenly he felt responsible for Baines; Again Philip felt responsibility; He
would have nothing to do with their secrets, the responsibilities they were determined to lay
on him; he surrendered responsibility once and for all. These two recurrent sets of phrases
run as the leitmotif of the story: living means having responsibilities, asserts the author;
when one surrenders responsibilities one retreats from life.
When an artistic detail is repeated several times and is associated with a broader
concept than the original, it develops into a symbol.
A symbol is a word (or an object the word stands for), which represents a concept
broader than the literal sense of the word. It is therefore something concrete and material
standing for something else that is immaterial and has a more significant sense. A symbol is
a metaphoric expression of the concept it stands for. Like the metaphor, it is based on the
use of a word in its transferred meaning and suggests some likeness between two different
objects or concepts.
Symbols may be traditional or personal. An example of a traditional symbol is a rose.
The rose is a traditional symbol of beauty.
A writer establishes personal symbols by means of repetition and repeated
association with a broader concept. For example, in “Rain” by S. Maugham the rain is a
symbol of the primitive powers of nature before which man is powerless and all his efforts
are useless and hopeless. The association of rain with this broad concept is established in
the following passage: "...it (rain) was unmerciless and somehow terrible; you felt in it the
malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did not pour, it flowed. ...it seemed to have a
fury of its own. And sometimes you felt that you must scream if it did not stop, and then
suddenly you felt powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft: and you were
miserable and hopeless". Rain, therefore, symbolizes the powers of nature which proved
irresistible for Mr. Davidson.
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To use a symbol is to represent an idea by suggestion rather than by direct

expression. The symbol is generally recognized only after the story is read.
It may be mentioned here in passing that it is upon the recurrent elements (phonetic,
syntactic, lexical, etc.) and their peculiar distribution within the poetic structure that the
rhythm of the text largely depends, for rhythm is repetition with variation.
Quite a number of figures of speech are based upon the principle of recurrence
(parallel constructions, various types of repetition, polysyndeton, gradation, alliteration,
etc).

COMPONENTS OF POETIC STRUCTURE

MACRO-COMPONENTS OF POETIC STRUCTURE
Poetic structure of the literary work involves such entities as genre, plot, tone, type of
narration (composition), theme and message, and literary image. As components of poetic
structure they are essentially inseparable from each other, but as basic categories of the
theory of literature they may be treated in isolation.
Genre
The word "genre" which comes from French, where its primary meaning is "a kind",
denotes in the theory of literature a historically formed type of literary work.
As with all other art categories it is the content that imposes upon the genre its
peculiar limitations.
Who represents the aesthetic reality; what particular aspect of reality is represented;
how is the time of represented events related to the time of speech – these and other
factors are relevant to genre.
If it is outside events that are objectively narrated by an author, the genre is epic with
narrative prose as its main variety.
If the author speaks about an aspect of reality reflected in his own inner world, if his
emotions and meditations are represented without a clearly delimited thematic or
temporal setting, the genre is lyric with lyric poetry as its main variety.
If it is present day conflicting events that are represented in the speech and actions of
characters in their interrelation with each other, the genre is dramatic, with different
types of plays as its main manifestations.
Another factor that delimits the genre of writing is the nature of the represented
conflict (fatal for the main character, the hero, or, on the contrary, easily overcome by him)
as well as the moral stand taken by the author and expressed in a peculiar emotive quality
of writing (elevated, humorous, ironic, sarcastic). In accordance with this factor literary
works are divided into tragedy, comedy and drama.
The volume of the represented subject matter is yet another factor which is relevant
to genre. In narrative prose, for instance, the volume delimits such two main subdivisions
within the genre as novel and short story. A short story is usually centred on one main
character (protagonist), one conflict, one theme, while in a novel alongside the main theme
there are several other, rival themes; several minor conflicts alongside the main conflict,
rival characters alongside the main character.
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An unalloyed manifestation of each of the above-mentioned factors makes what is

known as "pure genre", the type of writing characteristic of ancient Greek and Roman
literature as well as that of the Renaissance and Classicism periods. Shakespeare's great
tragedies, for instance, be it "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", "Hamlet", "Julius Caesar" or
"Macbeth" represent each a fatal conflict for the main heroes. The action in each of these
plays climbs to its culmination and ends in a catastrophe.
In modern literature (since the 18th century) mixed genres are prevalent. Thus, for
instance, the elevated tragedy of Shakespearean days gave way to a mixture of tragedy and
comedy or tragedy and drama, etc.
The genre of a literary work materializes in a set of formal features imposed upon by
the content. These formal features are: plot structure, type of narration (composition),
imagery, rhythm, etc. Each genre as an invariant is manifested in different variants. Due to
this fact we can apply the term "short story", for instance, to literary works written in
different epochs and varying greatly in their content representation. Short works of
W. Irving, Sh. Anderson, G. Greene, W. Faulkner and others are all known as short stories.
For the same reason the work of H. Fielding "Tom Johnes, the Foundling", Th. Dreiser's
"The Titan" and W. Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" are known as novels.
It should be said in conclusion, that genre changes with the passage of time. A writer
in representing his subject matter exercises all the potentialities of the respective genre. In
doing this he adds new features to the genre he resorts to, thus bringing about gradual
changes in the genre. This holds true to the activities of many outstanding writers. Classics
of the 19th century such as A. Pushkin, L. Tolstoi, F. Dostoyevsky, A. Chekhov, American
authors E. Hemingway, Sh. Anderson and others have brought many new features into the
novel and short story genres.
Plot and Plot Structure
The impact of a literary work, as it has already been stated, depends on all its
elements. Among them plot and plot structure play an important role.
The plot is a series of interlinked events in which the characters of the story
participate. The events are arranged in a definite sequence to catch and hold the reader's
interest.
Most stories and novels have plots. But there are some which have no plots. To these
belong stories and poems describing nature. It is difficult to trace the plots in the so-called
"novels of ideas" and stories presenting the stream of consciousness, since the thoughts of
the character are set down as they occur regardless of their logic.
Every plot is a series of meaningful events. They are meaningful in the sense that the
writer does not follow all the events in which the characters of his story would participate
in real life. He selects the events which are meaningful to the message contained in the
story, and to characterization, i. e. he chooses those that serve to reveal certain features of
the characters, their motives and morals. Therefore, each event in the story is always
logically related to the message, the theme, the conflict, and is psychologically related to the
development of the characters within the story. Sometimes the logical, and sometimes the
psychological aspect may be the more obvious.
Since the writer selects events that have special meaning in relation to the message of
the story, every event in the plot is always suggestive. And this is what the reader should
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keep in mind. He should discover the role the events of the story play in characterization
and in conveying the message.
Any plot is comprised of a variety of events, each of which recalls the reader, directly
or indirectly, to the central problem. No matter how casual each event might seem to be at
first glance, it generally returns the reader to the main problem of the story.
The plot of any story always involves character and conflict. They imply each other.
Conflict in fiction is the opposition (or struggle) between forces or characters. Conflicts are
classified into external and internal conflicts.
Different types of external conflicts are usually termed in the following way:
1. Man against man, when the plot is based on the opposition between two or more
people, as in “The Outstation” by S. Maugham or “The Roads We Take” by 0'Henry.
2. Man against nature (the sea, the desert, the frozen North or wild beasts). The
conflict in “The Old Man and the Sea” by E. Hemingway, “The Hunter” by J. Aldridge, or the
scientist's effort to discover the secrets of nature involve a conflict between man and
nature.
3. Man against society or man against the established order in the society, when the
individual fights his social environment openly, or when there is a conflict between the
individual and the established order: a conflict with poverty, racial hostility, injustice,
exploitation, inequality.
4. The conflict between one set of values against another set of values. These sets of
values may be supported by two groups or two worlds in opposition. For example, the
conflict in “The Moon and Sixpence” by S. Maugham is between the values of material world
where everything is thought of in terms of money, on the one hand, and the values of art
craving for beauty, on the other.
Internal conflicts, often termed as "man against himself', take place within one
character. The internal conflict is localized, as it were, in the inner world of the character
and is rendered through his thoughts, feelings, intellectual processes. The character is torn
between opposing features of his personality. For example, the tragedy of Soames Forsyte
in “The Man of Property” is his conflict with himself: the sense of property, on the one hand,
and a keen sense of beauty, on the other. The internal conflict within an individual often
involves a struggle of his sense of duty against self-interest.
The plot of a story may be based on several conflicts of different types, it may involve
both an internal and an external conflict.
The events of the plot are generally localized, i. e. they are set in a particular place and
time. The place and time of the actions of a story or novel form the setting. For the setting
the writer selects the relevant details which would suggest the whole scene. Such details as
the time of the year, certain parts of the landscape, the weather, colours, sounds or other
seemingly uninteresting details may be of great importance. The functions of the setting
may vary.
1. The setting, especially description of nature, helps to evoke the necessary
atmosphere (or mood), appropriate to the general intention of the story. It may be an
atmosphere of gloom and foreboding as in “Rain” by S. Maugham, or a mysterious
atmosphere as in “The Oval portrait” by E. A. Poe.
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2. The setting may reinforce characterization by either paralleling or contrasting the

actions. Thus in S. Maugham's story “Rain” the description of the unceasing rain parallels
the actions of Mr. Davidson, the setting here suggests similarity between his actions and
the merciless rain.
3. The setting may be a reflection of the inner state of a character, as in “Jane Eyre” by
Ch. Bronte. The setting reflects remarkably well the feelings that Jane experiences. The
function of the setting in “King Lear” by W. Shakespeare is identical. The raging storm
reflects King Lear's emotional state.
4. The setting may place the character in a recognizable realistic environment. Such a
setting may include geographical names and allusions to historical events. A setting, which
is realistic and which is rendered vividly, tends to increase the credibility of the whole plot.
It means that if the reader accepts the setting as real, he tends to accept the inhabitants of
the setting (i. e. the characters) and their actions more readily.
5. In fiction the setting, especially domestic interiors, may serve to reveal certain
features of the character. This function of the setting may be illustrated by the role Mr.
Bounderby's house plays in “Hard Times” by Ch. Dickens.
6. When the theme and the main problem involves the conflict between man and
nature, the setting becomes in effect the chief antagonist whom the hero must overcome, as
in “The Old Man and the Sea” by E. Hemingway.
The setting in a story may perform either one or several functions simultaneously. It
should be also noted that characters, actions, conflict and setting work together to
accomplish the author's purpose.
The Plot Structure. Each and every event that represents a conflict has a beginning, a
development and an end. The plot, accordingly, has a certain structure which consists of
exposition, story, climax and denouement.
In the exposition the writer introduces the theme, the characters and establishes the
setting. The exposition, therefore, contains the necessary preliminaries to the events of the
plot, casts light on the circumstances influencing the development of characters and
supplies some information on either all or some of the following questions: Who? What?
Where? When? Here is the exposition from L. Hughes's story "Cora Unashamed" that may
well illustrate the pattern. "Melton was one of those miserable in-between little places, not
large enough to be a town, nor small enough to be a village – that is, a village in the rural,
charming sense of the word. Melton had no charm about it. It was merely a non-descript
collection of houses and buildings in a region of farms – one of those sad American places
with sidewalks, but no paved streets; electric-lights, but no sewage; a station but no trains...
Cora Jenkins was one of the least of the citizens of Melton. She was what the people referred
to when they wanted to be polite, as a Negress, and when they wanted to be rude, as a nigger
– sometimes adding the word "wench" for no good reason, for Cora was usually an inoffensive
soul, except that she sometimes cussed".
Story (complication) is that part of the plot which generally involve actions, though
it might involve thoughts and feelings as well. As a rule, this structural component consists
of several events. They become tenser as the plot moves toward its climax. In L. Hughes's
"Cora Unashamed" (Part I) the story includes the arrival at Melton of a white boy, Joe,
Cora's short love, and the birth of her baby.
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Climax is the highest point of the action, the key event, the crucial moment of the
story. In "Cora Unashamed" it is the death and burial of Cora's baby.
Denouement is the unwinding of the actions; it includes the event, or events, in the
story immediately following the climax and bringing the actions to an end. It is the point at
which the fate of the main character is clarified. The denouement suggests to the reader
certain crucial conclusions. The story referred to (Part I) ends with Cora returning after the
burial of her baby to work for the family of white folks: to nurse their baby.
A story may have no denouement. By leaving it out the author achieves a certain
effect – he invites the reader to reflect on all the circumstances that accompanied the
character of the story and to imagine the outcome of all the events himself. Such is the case
in “The Cop and the Anthem” by O'Henry.
Novels may have two more components of plot structure: the prologue and the
epilogue (see, for example, “Angel Pavement” by J. Priestley). The prologue contains facts
from beyond the past of the story, the epilogue contains additional facts about the future of
the characters if it is not made clear enough in the denouement.
A work of narrative prose that has all the elements mentioned above: exposition,
story, climax, denouement as clearly discernable parts, is said to have a closed plot
structure. This type of writing was most consistently cultivated by such American short
story writers as W. Irving, E. Poe, N. Hawthorn, Bret Hart, H. James, O'Henry and others.
A literary work in which the action is represented without an obvious culmination,
which does not contain all the above mentioned elements understood in their conventional
sense, is said to have an open plot structure.
The usual order in which the components of plot structure occur is as follows:
exposition, story, climax and denouement. Sometimes the author rearranges the
components of plot structure. There is a variety of plot structure techniques. A story may
have:
 a straight line narrative presentation, when the events are arranged as they occur,
in chronological order;
 a complex narrative structure, when the events are not arranged in chronological
order and when there are flashbacks to past events;
 a circular pattern, when the closing event in the story returns the reader to the
introductory part;
 a frame structure, when there is a story within a story. The two stories contrast or
parallel.
It should also be added that the plot structure is interlinked with the order in which
the writer presents the information included into the story. Sometimes plots follow a
chronological order of events, sometimes the author resorts to the following techniques.
Suspense (retardation) is the withholding of information until the appropriate time,
denying the reader immediate access to information which is essential to the full
understanding of the story. The clearest example of this can be found in detective stories
where the author does not reveal the identity of the murderer until the very last moment.
Suspense is often created through the careful ordering of events in the story.
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Digression is an insertion of the author’s commentaries, generalizations, thoughts

and feelings that have no immediate relation to the theme or action. Digressions may be
critical, philosophical, lyrical, etc. They range from sentence-long to chapter-long.
A flashback is a scene of the past inserted into the narrative. For example, the
narrative in “The Lady's Maid” by K. Mansfield contains flashbacks to Ellen's childhood and
youth.
Foreshadowing is a look towards the future, a remark or hint that prepares the reader
for what is to follow. This device heightens suspense. The title in “Mistaken Identity” by M.
Twain is a case of foreshadowing. It hints at the outcome of the event without revealing its
cause and in this way intensifies suspense.