ENE 13.05i Section - Team Assignment 2: Story and Discourse

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ENE 13.05i Section ___

Team Assignment 2: Story and Discourse
Team Name & Group Members:________________________________________________________
Choice of Cli-Fi [Title]: ____________________________________ Date: ______________________
A. Spheres of Action. Introduce the main characters of the text, following Vladimir Propp’s ideas about
the “dramatis personae” or “spheres of action:”
Spheres of Name of Character Brief Explanation Why You Think So
Action What are the roles that they play in the text?
The hero
The villain
The princess
The dispatcher
The donor
The helper
The false hero
B. Story. List down the major events of the text, in their chronological order, in terms of Tzvetan
Todorov’s “Basic Stages Of Narrative,” and then describe where and when the events take place in the
Storyworld (the place and time of the setting):
Five Basic Stages Description of Situations and Storyworld
(where & when does the story take you?
Events in the Text Describe the environment, the particular room place,
area, season, weather, noteworthy props or items,
and the given or approximate time, date, year, etc.)
1. A state of equilibrium at
the outset [what is the
situation when the story
opens?]
2. A disruption of the
equilibrium by some
action/series of actions
[What events happen that,
slowly or quickly, ruin the
state of equilibrium in the
Storyworld?]
3. A recognition that there

has been a disruption
[Who, what, where, when,
and/or how is this
disruption or
disequilibrium discovered?]
4. An attempt to repair the

disruption/
A number of attempts to
repair the disruption [What
attempts are made to
restore the equilibrium?]
[If things get even worse,

how? What attempts are
made after things get
worse?]
[And finally, how does it all

become better?]
5. A reinstatement of the
initial equilibrium/
Restoration of order [How
different is this from the
original/initial
equilibrium?] Let’s call this
[New] Equilibrium
C. Discourse. In bullet points, jot down your most important/key observations:
Decisions Made for the Text Describe corresponding situations

Structural and Representational Levels and events in the Text
1. Order/Sequencing of Events
[At which points in the story does the text not
follow the story’s chronology? How does the
text deal with time? Are there techniques
used such as flashbacks or flashforwards?]
2. Duration
[What scenes are dwelt on, or lengthened, as
opposed to events that happen off-stage or
are mentioned in passing? Are there
techniques used like slow motion or fast
motion?]
3. Frequency
[What words in dialogue or what scenes of
description and action are repeated like a
refrain in the text? Are scenes only presented
once and never recalled again? Are there
parallel scenes?]
4. Style
[What stylistic decisions did the creator
(author) make for the text that affected how it
was told? What tone or atmosphere was
created?]
5. Representation
[How is the story represented? In relation to
style, how does the text present itself as: does
it, for example, have elements or
characteristics of a fairy tale, a cautionary
tale, a horror story, or a fantasy?]
6. Binaries
[Based on the hero and villain, do some
binaries—like good vs evil, light vs dark, life vs
death—surface in the text?]
D. Then, answer these questions briefly (in around 5-10 sentences):
1. Given all of the above observations, what may be the reasons of such choices? What would, in The
Media Insider’s words, be the author’s ideology?
a. What is the world like in the equilibrium? How can it be a commentary on the real world?
b. Is there something about the character/s which suggest ideal values?
c. Who or what has caused the disruption? What needs to be fixed in the real world?
2. How successful was the story you picked in matching or complying to the purpose of the anthology
as stated in the Introduction of the book?
THANK YOU for taking the time to discuss and fill out this sheet! I hope it was a fruitful exercise.
Please save your document as a PDF with Filename: TA2_Team Name.pdf

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1

ENE 13.05i Section ___

Team Name & Group Members:________________________________________________________

Choice of Cli-Fi [Title]: ______________ Date:

3. A recognition that there

4. An attempt to repair the

[If things get even worse,

[And finally, how does it all

C. Discourse. In bullet points, jot down your most important/key observations:

Decisions Made for the Text Describe corresponding situations

D. Then, answer these questions briefly (in around 5-10 sentences):

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