Topic 2 of 6 · Form 5
The novel at A Level
Direct and indirect characterisation, character development, foils and doubles, symbolic characters.
Notes for this topic 1 file, in order
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Narrative technique
- Narrative voice: first person (unreliable or limited narrators), third person omniscient or limited, multiple narrators.
- Structure: chronological, non-linear (flashback, prolepsis), frame narratives, episodic structure.
- Focalisation: whose perspective shapes what the reader sees.
- Time and pace: summary, scene, ellipsis.
Characterisation
Direct and indirect characterisation, character development, foils and doubles, symbolic characters.
Themes and context
Common concerns in African and Zimbabwean fiction: colonialism and its aftermath, the land, education and identity, gender and patriarchy, liberation war memory, post-independence disillusionment, migration and the diaspora, urban life and poverty.
Language and style
Imagery, symbolism, motifs, irony, dialogue, code-switching and the use of proverbs and oral tradition.
Studying your set novel
Make detailed notes on structure, key passages, characters and themes; collect short quotations; read critical commentary; and relate the novel to its contexts.
Check yourself
- What is an unreliable narrator?
- What does "focalisation" mean?
- Give two themes common in post-independence African novels.
Show answers
- A narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted because of bias, limited knowledge or deception.
- The perspective through which events are presented in a narrative.
- Any two: disillusionment, corruption, identity, land, gender, migration, memory of war.
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