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In simplest terms, plot structure refers to the framework that organizes the events of a story. The key word here is organizes. Having a plot structure helps characters (and readers) get from point A to point B in a story, working through conflicts and points of tension along the way. However, the events alone are not the plot.
While plots can be extremely creative and unique from one another, Christopher Booker, an English journalist and author, identified seven basic types of plotlines that most literature seems to fall under. 4. Comedy. The main character has flaws, but they are not deeply rooted and are mostly lighthearted and humorous.
Plot structure refers to the organized sequence of events in a story, typically following a framework that includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. This structure helps guide the reader through the story's beginning, development, peak, and conclusion, ensuring cohesion and providing emotional and narrative depth.
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Many poems have a similar first and last stanza. John Keats’ ballad “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” begins and ends with a question and answer that use nearly the same language. The circular structure here is temporal, beginning in the narrative present with a speaker asking a knight what happened to him, moving into the past with the knight’s recollect...
Novels are particularly fond of circular narratives. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” opens with Alice playing outside on a riverbank. When she falls down a rabbit hole, she embarks on a fantastic journey through Wonderland before her sister awakens her, recalling her to the riverbank. Books in C. S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series employ...
Films frequently employ cyclical narrative structures as well. The movie “Looper,” for example, centers on characters who travel back in time to be killed by their past selves. Circularity can also occur in genres with multiple episodes. At the beginning of the television series “Lost,” for example, the shot centers on the closed eye of Jack, one o...
Circular narrative is common in lyrics from every age, and particularly in children’s songs. The terror of parents everywhere, “The Song That Never Ends” makes good on its title: The last phrase of one verse becomes the first phrase of the next verse so the song can be infinitely repeated. More somberly, Elvis’ ballad “In the Ghetto” chronicles the...
- Elissa Hansen
Nov 23, 2023 · More on Theoretical Terms below: Circular structure, as a theoretical term in literature, refers to a narrative or compositional technique where the story concludes by returning to its initial point, creating a closed and self-referential loop. This device challenges conventional linear storytelling, emphasizing thematic or symbolic ...
Jan 25, 2014 · 3 (1) Plot as a fixed, global structure. The configuration of the arrangement of all story events, from beginning, middle to end, is considered. 4 (2a) Plot as progressive structuration. The connections between story events, motivations and consequences as readers perceive them are considered. 5 (2b) Plot as part of the authorial design.
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Cyclical plot structure refers to narratives that repeat certain patterns or themes throughout the story. It often starts and ends in similar ways, suggesting an ongoing cycle or repetition of events. congrats on reading the definition of Cyclical Plot Structure. now let's actually learn it. A type of storytelling where the ending connects back ...
