Key Idea: This topic is how to study your literary works: read them actively, find the themes and characters, and notice who tells the story and how. It all prepares you for the oral.
Words for the oral
- {{le roman, la pièce de théâtre, la nouvelle|the novel, the play, the short story}}
- {{le personnage principal, l'antagoniste|protagonist, antagonist}}
- {{l'intrigue, le thème, l'atmosphère|plot, theme, atmosphere}}
Reading a literary work
- Read on four levels from page one: plot, themes, characters, style.
- Mark themes, characters and key quotations as you read.
- For an extract: detail → quotation → effect.
- Keep one page in French per work: themes, how characters change, quotations, turning point, narrative voice.
Themes and characters
- A theme is a claim the work makes, written as a sentence, not just a noun.
- To find it, ask: «qu'est-ce qui se répète ?», «qu'est-ce qui change à la fin ?»
- Analyse a character: motive, relationships, development. Trait → quotation → meaning.
- Link the character to the theme.
Narrative voice and style
- Two questions: «Qui raconte ?» and «Comment est-ce écrit ?»
- Pronouns show first or third person. An omniscient narrator knows hidden thoughts.
- Five devices: métaphore, comparaison (with «comme»), image, symbole, personnification.
- For the oral: perspective → tone → one device with a quotation → effect.
Analyse, don't summarise, and never mix up the narrator and the author.
«L'amour»: is that a theme? Not yet. It is a topic. A theme says something about love, as a sentence.
«Il court comme le vent.» Metaphor or simile? A simile (comparaison), because it uses «comme».
A narrator knows what every character thinks. What kind is it? Omniscient.
The same object appears again and again. What should you ask? What it repeats for: it may point to a theme.