Plot structure and literary time
Events of real life span in real time; they make a sequence of the past, the present and the future. Each single event takes the place of the previous one; thus they all can be considered as forming a straight line. Time in a literary work differs from natural historical time. Thus the narrative can start at any moment of the character’s life and it can end at any other moment which is not necessarily the one that follows the former chronologically. The story can end with the event that preceded those represented at the beginning or in the middle of the narrative. The representation of literary (poetic) time is conditioned by the laws of the narrative literature as well as by the work content. The difference between the natural sequence of events and their arrangement in a literary work is meaningful.
According to this there exist the following kinds of narrative:
1) straight line narrative means chronological order of events;
2) complex narrative - the order of events is changed by means of:
- flashbacks (scenes that interrupt the present action to show the events that happened at an earlier time);
- foreshadowings (the use of clues that hint at important plot developments that are to follow);
- retardation (a deliberate delay in the development of action realized through introducing new characters, the author’s reasoning, descriptions, etc.).
3) framing structure means story within a story;
4) circular structure means repetition of some actions or events which is characteristic of the so-called “small genres”, or fairy-tales.
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