Fiction and

Its Types
Fiction
❖ invented through the imagination of the writer
❖ imaginary in its elements
❖ faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed
by the readers
❖ open to multiple interpretations
Kinds of Fiction
a. Fable d. Myth g. Short Story j. Fantasy
b. Fairy tale e. Novel/Novelette h. Allegory k. Science Fiction
c. Legend f. Parable i. Folklore l. Satire
1. Fable/s. These are fictitious stories that deal with animals and
inanimate things who speak and act like people and their purpose is
to enlighten the minds of children to events that can mold their
ways and attitudes.
Examples: THE MONKEY AND THE TURTLE
THE CROW AND THE HUNGRY DOG

2. Fairy Tale/s. Type of short story that typically features folkloric

fantasy characters, such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants,
gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or
witches, and usually magic or enchantments.
Examples: Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Rapunzel, Cinderella)
3. Myth/s. A story that is usually of unknown origin and at least
partially traditional that extensibly relates historical events usually of
such description as to serve to explain some particular event,
institution, or natural phenomenon.
Examples: GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHS
THE STORY OF BATAHALA

4. Legend/s. These are fictitious narratives, usually about origins.

Examples: THE BIKOL LEGEND by Pio Duran
THE LEGEND OF THE GUAVA
5. Novel. A long narrative divided into chapters and events resembling
true-to-life stories.
Examples: WITHOUT SEEING THE DAWN by Stevan Javellana
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen

6. Novelette. A narrative work of prose fiction shorter than a novel and

longer than a short story.
Example: FINALITIES by Edilberto Tiempo
7. Parable. Succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse that illustrates one
or more instructive lessons or principles.
Examples: Parable of the Prodigal Son
Parable of the Good Samaritan

8. Allegory. Literary devices or as rhetorical devices that convey hidden

meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which
together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author
wishes to convey.
Examples: Faerie Queene by Edmund Spencer
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
9. Folklore. Body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of
people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture,
subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales,
proverbs and jokes.

10. Folktales. Stories passed down through generations, mainly by

telling. They encompass legends, fables, and fairy tales.
11. Fantasy. A fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not
always without any locations, events, or people from the real world.
Most fantasy uses magic or other supernatural elements as a
main plot element, theme, or setting. Magic and magical creatures are
common in many of these imaginary worlds.

12. Science Fiction. A genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with

imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space
travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and
extraterrestrial life.
Example: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
13. Anecdote/s. A brief, revealing account of an individual person or an
incident; often humorous, anecdotes differ from jokes because their
primary purpose is not simply to provoke laughter, but to reveal a truth
more general than the brief tale itself, such as to characterize a person
by delineating a specific quirk or trait, to communicate an abstract idea
about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short
narrative.
Example: THE MOTH AND THE LAMP

14. Short Story/ies. A narrative involving one or more characters, one

plot and one single impression.
Example: May Day Eve by Nick Joaquin
Example: My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken by Alejandro R. Roces
 Elements of
Fiction/Short Story
Short Story
• a more concise narrative work of fiction
• smaller cast of characters
• simpler plot focusing on a single major conflict
• limited depiction of setting
• selected dialog for maximum significance and effect
Short Story
Edgar Allan Poe:
“…work that could be read in one session of
no more than two hours and that was focused
on creating a single effect.”
Short Story
All short stories include such elements as
point of view, characters, plot, theme, and setting
that are found in longer works of fiction.
Short Story Elements

Point of
Character/s Setting Plot Theme/s
View
Character/s A character is a person, or
sometimes even an animal,
who takes part in the action
of a short story.
Types of Character
• Foil character – the personality is used to
supplement the more prominent character
• Flat character – personality traits are lightly sketched
• Round character – appears almost lifelike, the many
dimensions of his personality are shown
• Static character – does not change in the course of
action
• Developing character – undergoes changes upon the
influence of some events
Flat Character Vs. Round Character
• also called two-dimensional • a multifaceted character and
character subject and growth
• is more than a type than an • he/she is also capable of
individual, and stays essentially inconsistencies, and in those
the same throughout the story ways similar to an actual human
being
Characterization
• is the art of representing human attitude or
innate characteristic as projected by the
character.
• means the techniques by which an author of a
work of fiction, drama, or narrative poetry
represents the moral, intellectual, and emotional
natures of the characters.
Characterization

Showing
Telling
Characterization
There are various methods of revealing characterization:
• Direct statement
• Through his speech
• Through his action
• Through his “externals”
• Through what the characters say about him.
Roles in the Plot
Protagonist

Antagonist

Foil
Roles in the Plot
• From the Greek word for
Protagonist “first actor” or “first
contender”
• The main character, the
hero
• The events of the story
center on him or her and
does the reader’s interest
Roles in the Plot
• From the Greek word for “against
the contender”
• A character that opposes the
protagonist’s goals and interests, so
creates the major conflict in the
story
Antagonist • Deemed as the villain for his evil
intentions
• It may not be a character; it may be
some larger force that challenges
the protagonist like fate, types of
conflict.
Roles in the Plot
• What if the protagonist
himself is evil or
antagonist?
• The character is
Antagonist portraying a

sympathetic
character.
Roles in the Plot
• A character who contrasts
the with the protagonist
in ways that bring out
certain of his or her
moral, emotional, or
intellectual qualities
• Some are minor roles
Foil which may be considered
as just flat characters.
Point of View
Point of This refers to the
View perspective from which a
story is told. This can be
identified by the pronoun that
the narrator uses to recount
events.
Types of 1. First-Person
Point of 2. Third-Person Limited
View 3. Third-person Omniscient
4. Second-Person
First-Person Point of View
• The narrator or storyteller is a character in the
story who uses the pronoun “I” or “We”.
• The first-person narrator is sometimes called
the persona, after the Latin word for “mask”, to
signify a distinction between the author (as a
flesh-and-blood individual) and the “mask” that
he or she assumes in a particular story
First-Person Point of View
• brings the readers immediacy and directness,
and first-hand experiences of the character.
• imposes limitations on the teller; that is, the
narrator can only relate what he/she might have
witnessed, and then only with the degree to his
or her circumstances and character.
First-Person Point of View
I knew I shouldn’t have let Pedro walk
home from school alone. He’s too little. He
must be so scared. We’ve walked to and
from school so many times, I thought he
would know his way. Now, he’s lost. I’m his
big sister; I should have been more
responsible!
Third-Person Limited Point of View
• The narrator describes events only from the
perspective and with the understanding of one,
or sometimes, a select few characters.
• S/he does not see everything; hence, s/he only
tells what the character sees, thinks, and feels.
Third-Person Limited Point of View
Stream-of-Consciousness
➢ an extreme form of this POV
➢ is used to replicate the thought processes of a
character with little or no intervention by the narrator
➢ a literary technique used to track the shift of feelings
and thought flowing through the sense of a story
character
➢ hence, these are merely responses of the character’s
subconsciousness
Third-Person Limited Point of View
Mrs. Thompson spotted Maria walking on the
sidewalk calling out Pedro’s name. She knew she
shouldn’t have let Pedro leave the schoolyard alone.
Even though she was just his first grade teacher, Mrs.
Thompson always felt a special bond with Pedro. Her
heart sank. She pulled her car over and told Maria to
get in; they would look for Pedro together. She noticed
tears forming in Maria’s eyes. She reached over and
patted Maria’s knee, “We will find him, Maria.” She
hoped that comforted Maria a little.
Third-Person Omniscient Point of View
• The narrator can enter the consciousness of any
character, evaluate motives, explain feelings,
recount the background, and predict the
outcome of situations.
• S/he is deemed as an all-knowing narrator who
has access to all the thoughts, feelings, and
actions of any and all of the characters.
Third-Person Omniscient Point of View
Mrs. Thompson watched Pedro walk away from the schoolyard alone.
There was a small voice inside her that told her to stop him. “He’s just a
little boy. He’s far too small to walk home alone,” she thought.
Pedro walked by the white picket fence that he walked by every day on
his way to and from school. He stopped at the next street. “Which way
do I turn?” he thought to himself. He stood there and looked up and
down the street trying to remember if he needed to turn left or right.
He turned right and looked desperately for something that looked
familiar to him. Nothing did. He started to panic, “Where am I? Should I
turn around and go back? I wish my sister was with me!”
Maria looked at her watch, again. “Where is he?” she thought, with a
slight sense of panic. She began walking towards the school. “Have you
seen Pedro?” she asked a neighbor as she hurried by.
Second-Person Point of View
• The narrator addresses the audience directly
using the pronoun “you”, and assumes that the
character is experiencing the events along with
the narrator.
• Its use is relatively rare.
Second-Person Point of View
"You have brains in your head. You have feet
in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction
you choose. You're on your own. And you know
what you know. And you are the guy who'll
decide where to go."
Short Story Elements

Point of
Character/s Setting Plot Theme/s
View
Setting The setting of a short story
is the time and place in
which it happens. The
social context is also part
of the setting.
 •What can the time and
place be referred to?

Setting
To provide a strong
sense of setting, authors
often use descriptions place
such as landscape, scenery,
buildings; time may refer to a
historical period, time of a
year, or time of a day or night
seasons or weather.
 •Can the setting be
imaginary?
Setting • Why is the setting
significant in a story or
other works of fiction?
Short Story Elements

Point of
Character/s Setting Plot Theme/s
View
ELEMENTS OF A
What a plot is
• Plot is the order of events that make up a story.
• The plot of a story is a series of interconnected
events in which every occurrence has a specific
purpose.
• A plot is all about establishing connections,
suggesting causes, and showing relationships.
denouement
denouement
denouement
Conflict
• struggle between opposing forces, that is usually resolved
by the end of the story
• the main character is usually on one side of the central
conflict
• on the other side, the main character may struggle against
another important character, against the forces of nature,
against society, or even against something inside himself or
herself (feelings, emotions, illness)
Types of Conflict
Kinds of Conflict
Kinds of Conflict
Kinds of Conflict
Kinds of Conflict
Cliffhanger, Cliffhanger ending, Psychological ending

• a plot device in fiction which features a main

character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or
confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an
episode
• hanging ending, to be continued ending
in Fiction
Theme
• the central idea the literary work conveys, either directly or
implicitly
• broadly, it refers to an abstract concept that recurs in many
works of literature
• narrowed meaning through assertion or implication
• e.g., courtship, horror, war, conflict between family
members
• articulates values and attitudes
Literary Techniques
Used in Fiction
• Monolog/Soliloquy – a character speaks to himself or herself, relating
thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them with the audience,
giving off the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections
• Foreshadowing – presentation of scenes that create a feeling that
something is going to happen
• Suspense – feeling of excitement and curiosity
• Stereotype – standardized, conventional ideas about characters, plot,
and setting
• Slapstick – presents events or dialog to create funny or humorous
situation; a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity
which exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy
• Atmosphere – the over-all mood
• Local Color – focuses more on the characters manners, events,
language, customs and traditions of a particular country or place
• Symbol(ism) – an object or element incorporated into a narrative to
represent another concept or concern
• Flashback – playback of events from the past
• Empathy – identifying one’s self with the character
• Style – the unique approach used by the author when writing a story
(diction, syntax, etc.)
• Tone – the attitude that a literary speaker expresses toward his/her
subject matter and audience
References
• Annotated Wikipedia References
• Arkaina, et al. (2014). Language in literature. Vibal Group, Inc.:
Quezon City
• Hamilton, Sharon. (2007). Essential literary terms: A brief Norton
guide with exercises. W. W. Norton & Company Inc., and Peoples
Education: New York, USA
• Pagliawan, D.L. (2017). Literary criticism: A resource, a guide, a
reader. Text and Visuals: Tacloban City
• Pagliawan, D.L. (2015). Philippine literature: History-anthology. Text
and Visuals: Tacloban City