英文文章的语篇类型之三 Exposition

Exposition

At the beginning of a narrative, the exposition is the author's providing of some background information to the audience about the plot, characters' histories, setting, and theme. Exposition is considered one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description and narration. Aside from the common usage of exposition in narratives such as novels, films, television shows, and plays, the concept may be used in some non-narrative settings, such as speeches or academic reports.

Classification

Exposition is divided into two methods:

       Analytical Exposition

       Hortatory Exposition

Exposition in fiction

Exposition as a fiction-writing mode

Within the context of fiction, exposition is the fiction-writing mode for conveying information. According to Robert Kernen, "Exposition can be one of the most effective ways of creating and increasing the drama in your story. It can also be the quickest way to kill a plot's momentum and get your story bogged down in detail. Too much exposition, or too much at one time, can seriously derail a story and be frustrating to the reader or viewer eager for a story to either get moving or move on." (Kernen 1999, p. 57)

Exposition in fiction may be delivered through various means. As noted by Ansen Dibell, the simplest way is to just place the information between scenes as the all-seeing, all-knowing (but impersonal and invisible) narrator.(Dibell 1988, p. 51) Jessica Page Morrell has observed that various devices, such as trial transcriptions, newspaper clippings, letters, and diaries may be used to convey information.(Morrell 2006, p. 94) Another means of delivering information is through a character, either as dialogue or through the character's thoughts.(Dibell 1988, pp. 51–52) Exposition is also at the bottom of the story diagram.

Information dump

When the presentation of information in fiction becomes wordy, it is sometimes referred to as an "information dump," "exposition dump," or "plot dump." Information dumps expressed by characters in dialogue or monologue are sometimes referred to as "idiot lectures."

Information dumps are sometimes placed at the beginning of stories as a means of establishing the premise of the plot. In serial television dramas, exposition in individual episodes often appears as a brief montage of scenes from earlier episodes, prefaced with the phrase "Previously on [name of series]." Villain speech is a specific form of exposition in which the villain describes his sinister plans to a helpless hero, often prefacing his exposition with the comment that it can't hurt to divulge the plan, since the hero will be dead soon anyway (or the plan will be impossible to stop in the short time available). The villain's motivation sometimes includes his desire to have his cleverness admired by the character most capable of appreciating it. Examples include Comic book super villains and villains in James Bond movies.

Information dumps can appear in science fiction where the author wants to ensure that the reader is aware of something, and so has one character explain something to another. Why this can be poor writing is that information dump can mean characters explain things to each other that they would already know. For example, if you need to call someone, you don't stop to explain to a colleague that you are now going to use a device controlled with digital circuits to use radio waves to transmit your voice. Why? Because your contemporaries already know how cellular radio telephones work.

In television, information dumps are common in sit-coms with the introduction of non-recurring characters which drive the comedic plot of a particular episode. An example would be the use of the narrator in Arrested Development to sum up the revelations and inner thoughts of characters in order to keep the viewer tuned to the plot.

In television sketch comedy, which borrows from the tradition of vaudeville comedy, exposition in the most exaggerated sense is used for outrageous comedic effect.

Stories which are concerned with the unearthing of a secret past sometimes include lengthy exposition sequences. These may include large quantities of exposition, complete with theorizing about the implications of the information. Examples include:

  Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

  Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

  Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum

  HBO's Rome (TV series)

Incluing

Incluing is a technique of world building, in which the reader is gradually exposed to background information about the world in which a story is set. The idea is to clue the readers into the world the author is building, without them being aware of it.

This in opposition to infodumping, where a concentrated amount of background material is given all at once in the story, often in the form of a conversation between two characters, both of whom should already know the material under discussion.  

Both incluing and infodumping are forms of exposition and are frequently used in science fiction and fantasy, genres where the author has the task to make the reader believe in a world that does not exist. Writers in other genres have less use for these techniques, as they can often depend on the reader's familiarity with the "real world".

Incluing can be done in a number of ways: through conversation between characters, through background details or by establishing scenes where a character is followed through daily life.