Literary Text Interpretation

Literary character and its types

Plan

• The System of Images: Methods of Characterization
• APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER
• A HIERARCHY OF IMAGES
• Types of character

The System of Images: Methods of Characterization

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

Character in text interpretation is a subjective reflection of reality (people) as it is inspired by the writer's power of imagination

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER

CHARACTERS
PEOPLE
WORDS
TRAITS

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER

CHARACTERS ARE WORDS

In a literary text characters are nodes in the verbal design, segments of a closed text and in a definite story they are non-verbal abstractions, mental constructions of the reader.

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER

CHARACTERS ARE PEOPLE

As literary text is an imitation of reality characters are equal with people.

• On the one hand, character is a generalization of the most typical features of a person described in a literary text.
• On the other hand, it is never a complete identity of a person, thing or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, emphasized or exaggerated. That's why character is always concrete with its individual peculiarities.

APPROACHES TO THE STATUS OF CHARACTER

According to S. Chatman characters may be defined both: as persons and as parts of textual design:

a paradigm of traits,

a set of features,

which can be seen in a chain of events in the process of plot developing, i.e. as parts of a literary text.

A character trait is a relatively stable or abiding personal quality described in a literary text.

A HIERARCHY OF IMAGES

In a literary text images form a system, which comprises a hierarchy of images beginning with micro-images, formed by a word/word combination, and ending with synthetic images or "extended images", formed by the whole literary work.

According to the specific entity images represent in text interpretation we distinguish:

character-images, i.e. human characters (Sh. Bronte "Jane Eyre", by J. London "Martin Eden ");

Character-images are both real and unreal.

Character-images are both real and unreal.

• They are real in the sense that they can be visualized, you can see them act, you can hear them talk.
• They are unreal in the sense that they are imaginary, even if they are drawn from life, even if they are images of historical people, as they are not identical with them, they are products of the writer's imagination.

A character that dominates the story from the beginning up to the very end is called major main, protagonist, central, or a hero/heroine.

A character that dominates the story from the beginning up to the very end is called major main, protagonist, central, or a hero/heroine.

Protagonist is a character in which positive features predominate.

Protagonist is a character in which positive features predominate.

Antagonist is the personage opposing protagonist, in which negative features prevail.

4. Types of character

Villain is a character with marked

Villain is a character with marked

negative features.

Foil is a character with distinctly opposing features to the protagonist through which the protagonist's positive features are sharply accentuated.

If a character is developed round one or several typical social features he becomes a type characterized by qualities that are typical of a certain social group or class.

If a character is developed round one or several typical social features he becomes a type characterized by qualities that are typical of a certain social group or class.

Caricature is a character with so exaggerated features that he appears ridiculous, yet recognizable.

• Caricature is a character with so exaggerated features that he appears ridiculous, yet recognizable.
• When a character expresses the author's viewpoint directly he is said to be the author's mouthpiece.