How to Appreciate a Literary Text, Part-III

Hello Friends...

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn...

Let's learn to think first...

Understanding a Literary Text

Here we meet again to continue discussing a very basic query, - how to appreciate a literary text, be it for some academic reason, or for some non-academic pursuit like leisure-reading and all. This is the third part of the series of discussion, and here we will be discussing how the structure of a text helps towards the process of dissemination of meaning. If you intend to look for a discussion only on the structure of a text, you are already in the right place. However, if you feel interested to participate in the parts dealing with setting, or characters as well, you may check them out.

In order to get a good grasp over the entire process, here we would try to continue to discuss and comprehend how meaning is communicated through any literary text. After all, all texts get composed to share some meaning. Appreciation of any text, therefore, demands a thorough dissemination of all the possible meanings conveyed through the text,- direct or indirect, intentional or even unintentional.

So, as we have intended, this discussion is going to help young learners to pick up the necessary skills to appreciate any literary text. Besides, it's also going to help aspiring young authors to learn how to edit and compose their write-ups in a more enticing way,- for once we learn how a literary text conveys meaning, we are free to use our skill the way we want to, - be it like a reader, or as an author.

The Literal Meaning And the Underlying Meaning beneath the Literal/Surface Meaning

Whenever we go through a text, we come across the literal meaning immediately. Who might have faced a challenge to make out the meaning of a menu card at some restaurant, right? But in a literary text, we might actually have a wide range of meanings underneath the literal, or the surface meaning of the text. The main challenge of a reader is to decode these underlying meanings underneath the literal meaning of a text. These underlying layers of meanings are mostly hinted through various elements of a literary composition indirectly, for it has now long been the solemn tradition of an author not to tell directly but to hint at the intended meanings subtly.

The Responsibility of the Readers

So, it has now been the responsibility of reader to search for the underlying meanings in a text. And in the quest, a reader might very well discover not only the meanings intended by the author, but also some hidden nuances about the author her/himself which s/he never intended to share but leaked. It might be something that even the author her/himself was unaware of.

Different Elements of a Literary Text

Now it's time to check the different elements of a literary text out in order to understand how these might give us some insight into decoding the meaning conveyed. In the first part of the series, we have begun with the characters, in the second, we have dealt with the setting, and now we are going to continue our discussion with our focus upon the structure...

Structure

A thorough understanding of the structure of a literary composition without a doubt helps in the process of dissemination of its meaning. The way a story is narrated through a series of events including episodes, encounters and scenes, thus introducing and developing the plot, that defines the structure of a narrative, is quite important for us to grasp.

Episodes

If the episodes, the isolated events in a text, are not well integrated into the main course of the action of the text, the plot turns loose, and we might lose interest. But a well-integrated episode is more likely to get us more interested about the next course of action in a text, thus turning the plot more engaging. If you have read Three Men in a Boat by J. K. Jerome, you must remember the butter episode which gives us quite an insight into the characters (particularly J), as they pack for their intended river trip. This episode is remarkable because it has got the quality to stand out for itself as a brief independent text, but at the same time is quite integral to the novel as well. Without this episode, the readers might find it difficult to find the next string of events plausible. It's only because of this episode at the very beginning, we don't find the rest of the apparently absurd episodes unreal. But episodes that are not well integrated might get perceived by the readers as something not really required. If you feel that the episode has got no real value in developing the plot, you might even find it to be disrupting the pace of the text. There is an easy way to check this out. If you feel an episode not well integrated into the text, just think about the entire text without the episode. If you find the action and the meaning getting compromised or changed, then the episode is essential for the text and is quite integral to it. But if we see the text to stay intact in terms of meaning without the episode, then the episode turns out to be redundant. Episodic texts or serials that get published at regular intervals might end up with superfluous episodes if the authors are not particularly careful. Do you recall any such loose episode in any tv-serial or web-series that you watch or have watched recently?

Encounters

Encounters are equally important in getting the readers engaged into the development of the plot. Macbeth and Banquo encountering the Witches in Act I, Scene III of Macbeth by Shakespeare reveals the wishes and ambitions of the characters, and makes us ready for the next course of action. Without the encounter, the readers/audience might have felt it difficult to ready themselves for the 'bloody' course of episodes that follow soon. And, when it comes to a chance encounter, it is quite a useful technique to add to the dramatic effect intended. The chance encounter of Elizabeth and Darcy at Pemberley in Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice is not only dramatic, but also facilitates Darcy to get revealed as a completely different character. If Elizabeth had not discovered Darcy at Pemberley as she had, do you think the plot could have rolled forward as it has rolled in the text?

Scenes

The function of scenes in a plot are quite technical in the sense that each scene in a text refers to a particular time. A change of scene is therefore a marker indicating a shift in the timeline. How do we tell a tale of three generations living through a century? We move on fast, zooming only upon significant times, right? And in each scene, we deal with a particular significant time when something really important happens, important enough to cause an impact or to bring in a change, sew it to the previous and the next course of events, and thus complete the link of causality. Absence of causality, among different scenes might also be an attempt to indicate uncertainty as the intended meaning in post modern and contemporary texts where uncertainty is quite a recurrent theme. Have you noticed that we have no scenes demarked in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket, though we do have two acts (Acts are structural designs that refer to a change of place in plays. It is more common to have one act plays with multiple scenes, but it is really rare to have dramas with multiple acts without multiple scenes)? It has been so to indicate that the same time is getting stretched throughout without any shift as nothing significant happens throughout the course of action. And that makes the entire time period so uncertain, for time which is naturally expected to be in flux. gets actually frozen here.

Plot

The plot of a text orders the events or the happenings in terms of episodes, encounters, and scenes in the narrative influencing the readers' response. Ordinarily, the events can get arranged following the chronology of the events, that is to say that whatever happens first gets narrated first and then the next follows.

Sequencing the Events

But events can certainly be sequenced in other ways avoiding the usual time oriented linear sequence like causality-based sequence, flashback, foreshadowing, in medias res or something more complex, combining multiple approaches to build up apprehension, anticipation, suspense or tension. It is to be kept in mind that neither chronology based linear sequence does necessarily reflect causality, nor causality based sequence necessarily follow the chronological order of events. We may very well refer to Riders to the Sea by J. M. Synge again to get this clear. The events of Bartley leaving for the fair riding his horse, and he getting drowned, are chronologically arranged in the drama but are not causality linked. If causality based sequence had been adopted, we would have been informed about the horse accidentally pushing Bartley into the surfing sea before we were told that he got drowned. But, in the drama, we come to know this reason of Bartley getting drowned much later at the end part of the play. The causality link between Bartley getting drowned and his horse pushing him into the sea is revealed much later defying the order of chronology in the text just to heighten the drama enticing the readers/audience to accept Maurya's omens (as well as their own) to have come true.

Flashback is a quite popular technique adopted to arrange different events in a text to intensify the dramatic effect by enhancing the mood for nostalgia. It enables us to whoop through time in a moment and know something from the past significant enough to stir a motion at present. Often in mainstream movies moments where you find characters recalling their happy conjugal moments through flashback during their break-ups actually are kinds of ploy by the directors to intensify the current pain of the characters and the associated emotional drama. Flashbacks are also used to handle suspense. Often in detective stories, readers are not allowed to know as much of information as the detective character in real time to sustain the suspense and drama. And then, during the revelation, the detectives share the additional information that they knew more than the readers with them through flashback.

Foreshadowing is quite the opposite approach in handling time and arranging the events in a a plot. Here, we are provided with a hint for the future instead of a memory from the past. Remember Maurya crying out that she's left without any son from that very moment when Bartley left for the fair in Riders to the Sea? That is foreshadowing. Did not you feel the premonition of Bartley also dying at sea following his other brothers while listening to Maurya crying that bitterly? The effect is quite the same as flashback,- to enhance the suspense and dramatic effect of the narrative.

In media res is the technique of choosing to begin a narrative in the middle of some action. The aim is again to enhance the suspense and drama to catch the attention of the readers and the audience real quick. Remember the iconic beginnings of the James Bond movies? We are there always thrusted into some action packed situations where the legendary spy usually raise a ruckus well before even the title songs announce the movie beginning. But we are already glued upon our seats by then, thanks to the technique in media res.

Pacing

Pacing is the way time is treated in a text. It's not that we pay equal attention to every bit of the time period that gets covered in a text, but only to the significant moments when something important happens or occurs. Pacing manipulates time in a narrative including arrangement of details, frequency and speed of events and the narrative, syntax, and thus, results in a shift in tension and chronology. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin might serve as an excellent text to understand pacing of time. As the title indicates, it just refers to the happening of a single hour. During the hour, Josephine and Richard are busy to inform Mrs. Mallard about the accident ensuring that they hurt her minimally in the process, being utmost sympathetic and caring towards her, and Mrs. Mallard is busy settling her turbulent emotions by going through a careful assessment of her entire life. But we find the former one quite less detailed and focused upon, whereas the later one is much more detailed and frequently attended making us feel that it is Mrs. Mallard who fulfills the entire hour and tend to ignore her sister and brother-in-law staying busy trying to take good care of her at the same time. The time remains technically the same sixty minutes for both the parties, but it is the way the time gets differently treated in these cases that makes us feel differently. And the syntax of the narrative can play an influential role in determining the pace, of course:

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Have you finished going through the passage from the story once again? Could you find out the reasons why you took a bit longer to read this than you take to read other passages of the same length? Note the punctuation, and how it makes you pause almost every now and then, slowing pulling you into the psychological depth of Mrs. Mallard, and getting you engaged into the stream of action. Do you get it now?

Organising the Plot

What is then the basic guideline to arrange the events and incidents to organise a whole plot? Let's get it straight first. The characters of a text interact among themselves and that decides the action of the text. So, let's start with introducing the characters through exposition. Unless and until you get the characters exposed to the readers or the audience, how could they be expected to interact rolling the ball of action? Now, as they start to interact, things soon start to get complicated. The part of the text that deals with this is the complication. Soon complexities of events lead to crisis as some an event turns crucial through its relation to the narrative, conflict and the characters, a point wherefrom it seems impossible to move forward without addressing the crisis to a settlement. So we have the revelation, or the denouement, where the crisis gets solved and the action gets concluded, at least for the time being. Once we get to identify these functions throughout the entire course of the action, we may arrange and organise the events in ways we would like to, as authors, or might appreciate the ways the authors have chosen to do it as readers. The expository, complicating, critical and revealing events now might get arranged in a linear fashion, or may get jumbled up together for more complex patterns, or might even overlap for intricate effects.

Why don't you go ahead and see if you can analyse the organisation of any text of your own choice now that you have already gone through the discussion so far? I will be more than happy to be your partner in your analysis if you share your findings down in the comment box below...

Arrangement of Structural Elements Guided by Intention

Functions of structural elements like the arrangement of the parts and the sections of the text, the relationship of the parts to each other, the sequence of revealing information through various sections for the readers etc. are to facilitate the perception of the meaning intended. When we go through Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red, we come across a series of brief narratives contributing to the entire narrative of the novel. Each of the brief narratives that constitute a set referring to the same event actually brings into the readers' mind a different perspective revealing the relationships of the characters in terms of similarities and differences. The author has chosen such a structure for his novel primarily to establish the role of plurality in interpretation. That is to say, whenever we attempt to analyse the structure of a text, we actually get the semantic intention of the author behind.

It is always important to study any particular event or happening in relation to some other- involving the fall and rise of different characters with respect to time for it reveals the intended meaning. Do you feel that it might be a justified approach to study Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf without comparing the growth of Mrs. Dalloway and Peter to get the intended meaning by the author?

Function of conflict is no less important in delivering meaning. How the plot puts different characters into conflict, both internal and external is often revealed through contrasts. Introduction of contrast that is so crucial in conveying meaning can be achieved through focus, tone, point of view, perspective, situation, setting or imageries resulting in a shift, juxtaposition/antithesis, or both, and is often signalled by punctuation, expressions, structural conventions like situational or verbal irony, or paradox, or a combination of these. it might also be manifested in the elements like line break, paragraph/stanza break contributing to the development and relationships of ideas throughout the text. You might study the brief poem The Sick Rose by William Blake to understand how conflict is presented through contrast on your own, or may check out a discussion on the same poem here to get some guidance.

Closed and Open Poems

When it comes to poems in particular, we need to discuss a little bit more for they constitute a different form altogether. Closed form of poems includes predictable patterns in the structure of lines, stanzas, metres and rhymes developing relationships between the ideas being dealt with. The open forms of poem may not include predictable patterns, but still develop relationships between ideas. Metrical patterns regulate the auditory perception primarily, whereas the line-lengths and stanzaic patterns contribute to the visual perception mostly.

When it comes to poems, both the visual as well as the auditory perception of the structure are important. Don't you think that the visual of folded palms as in prayer add to the meaning of the text in the poem Vision And Prayer by Dylan Thomas? Likewise, I am sure you won't disagree that the consonant rhyme in Owen's Strange Meeting adds to the foreboding mood of war through its typical harsh and unpleasant auditory perception.

P. B. Shelley wrote the Ode to the West Wind when he was going through a very crucial phase in his life. He lost his first wife Harriet back then whom he had left earlier. He must have been going through some remorse and excruciable pain therefore back then. Now note, how the pattern of terza rima in five sections (cantos) of this closed poem helps us to predict the rhyme iambic pentameter through the repetitive four tercets and the final couplet in each canto that not only refers to the activity of the powerful West Wind on the earth, in the air, and at the ocean, but also to the vulnerability of the poet who desperately confesses and seeks help from the mighty 'destroyer' and 'preserver' of Nature. The way the poet describes his own situation in the fourth canto certainly takes us back again to the earlier ones in association, and then takes us to the final canto to achieve the ultimate note of optimism that he has been desperately trying to achieve throughout the entire length of the poem. It is therefore to be remembered that patterns get predictable through repetitions in closed poems, and thus allow the readers to get ready to apprehend and deduce the meaning easily.

On the other hand, open poems do not come up with repeatable structural patterns, but still infuse meaning. A Leaf Falls (Loneliness) by E. E. Cummings is so unpredictable when it comes to the conventional structures of poems, but surely we can not but appreciate how it relates the sense of loneliness through the image of a withered leaf getting dropped from the a tree only to rot and decompose away from the place it grew and lived.

A Brief Note before Calling It a Day

Adding Our Own Point of View into the Process

Hope this discussion has helped you to grasp the very basic concept of structure to make you feel more confident to deal with a text. The more we continue to read and deal with texts getting engaged in analysing the structures, the better would be our skills to appreciate the meaning of the texts. And, at the same time, it would be very much like an experienced reader if we manage to compare the structure of the text, the intent of the author, and our own point of view. That way, the dissemination of meaning would be the most dynamic one, I can assure you. That's how we define the readers' response to a text. The very moment we bring in our own point of view into the reading of the text, we start interacting with the text and create our own.

The entire series (of which this is the third part) is certainly going to be a very basic guideline series to read and appreciate a literary text. And you may find a lot of questions flocking into your mind that are not answered here. Please feel free to ask me about your doubts and confusions. Guided by your questions, with time, it will be updated and edited to make it more useful for you.