Analyzing fictional texts

• Quotes
• Cause and effect

Important aspects

• Structure of the text
  • Train of thought
  • Order of plot
  • Flashbacks, flashforwards
  • Cliffhangers
• Plot: what happens, theme
• Setting: time, place, atmosphere
• Style
• Effect created by the relationship between style and content
• Language (adjectives, sentences (paratactic / hypotactic), punctuation)
• Stylistic devices
• Narrative perspectives
• Tenses

Tension

• Surprise – short term
• Suspense – long term, outcome unclear
• Mystery – conundrum the reader tries to solve
• Risks and dangers
• Time pressure
• Emotions
• Fictional rooms
• Light
• Sound and noises
• “connecting the dots”

Narrative perspectives

• Third-person omniscient narrator
• Third person limited narrator
• First-person narrator

Narrative situation

• The story is told in
  • Dialogues
  • Comments
  • Descriptions
  • Stream of consciousness
• Vorwissen miteinbeziehen, eventuell bei Figuren an das Big-Five-Modell denken

Aufbau einer Analyse - allgemein

1. Einleitung
   1. wichtige Informationen zum Text (Titel, Autor, Textsorte, Erscheinungsjahr ...)
   2. Thema
   3. Deutungshypothese
2. Hauptteil
   1. Text im Hinblick auf die Deutungshypothese untersuchen
3. Schluss
   1. Fazit / Ausblick / Meinung