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QLDEnglishQuick questions
Unit 2: Texts and culture
Quick questions on Structural features of narrative (QCE English Unit 2)
10short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is in medias res?Show answer
Latin for "in the middle of things". Story starts mid-action; exposition deferred or revealed via flashback. Homer's "Iliad" begins after nine years of war.
What is framing device?Show answer
A story within a story. Outer frame establishes context for an inner narrative. "Heart of Darkness" (1899) frames Marlow's tale aboard a boat on the Thames.
What is fragmented structure?Show answer
Non-chronological. Reader assembles the story from pieces. Common in modernist fiction (Faulkner, Woolf) and contemporary literary writing.
What is embedded narrative?Show answer
Multiple stories told within or against each other. Atwood's "The Penelopiad" (2005) embeds the maidservants' chorus against Penelope's narrative.
What is circular structure?Show answer
Ends where it began, often with shifted meaning. Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" returns to the Thames.
What is foreshadowing?Show answer
Early hints of later events. Builds inevitability or dread.
What is flashback and flashforward?Show answer
Departures from chronological order.
What is pacing?Show answer
Variation in narrative speed. Summary covers months in a paragraph; scene unfolds minutes across pages.
What is chapter or section breaks?Show answer
Where the writer chooses to pause shapes emphasis.
What is opening and closing?Show answer
First and last sentences carry disproportionate weight. The opening establishes voice and stake; the closing crystallises meaning.