English Literature

Analysing your text

When you are reading and analysing short stories, novels, plays and poems (fiction), it can be helpful to have some tools and terms to help you.

1. Setting

The setting is the world, created by the author, in which the characters of the book live. It does not only include the physical world, but also the historical, religious or psychological scenes.

Example: Harry Potter is set in England, contemporary time, in both a fictional wizard world and the world as we know it.

Analytical questions to ask:

When and where does the action take place?

What is the environment?

How important is the setting for the story?

The Plot

2. The plot is when you sum up what happens in the text: What happens in the story, when and why it happens.

Questions to ask:

What, briefly, is the main plot (intrig)?

Are there more than one plot? So called subsidiary plots (underordnade intriger).

Did you notice any coincidences or surprising events?

How important is the plot for the story?

The Mood

3. The mood of the text creates the atmosphere for the story.

Questions to ask:

What atmosphere is the writer trying to create?

How important is the mood for the story? For an example, take Emily Brontë’s book Wuthering Heights. The dark and sometimes creepy mood creates the perfect background to the story.

Main Characters

4.

Questions to ask:

Who are the main characters, who play the leading roles?

Who play the most interesting subsidiary characters?

Can you describe them?

Are there a protagonist (huvudperson) and an antagonist (motståndare) in the story? Think Batman (protagonist) and the Joker (antagonist).

Are the characters developing?

Themes

5. The theme is the central thought or message of the text.

Which is the main theme of the text? (Love, brotherhood etc.)

Is there more than one theme?

Structure

6. The structure of the story includes the form and narrative technique.

Questions to ask:

Who is the narrator?

What point of view is used? -First-person view (I), Third person (he/she), Omniscient (allvetande)

• Is it hronologically structured? Or in retrospective? Or is it a dialogue?

What style and forms are used?

• 7. There can be different style and forms

• Questions to ask:

• What style is it written in? Poetry, Letters, Natural description, Personal description

What symbols are used?

What types of language and vocabulary are used?

What genre?