Editing Plot (narrative) (section)

== Definition ==
Early 20th-century English novelist [[E. M. Forster]] described plot as the cause-and-effect relationship between events in a story. According to Forster, "''The king died, and then the queen died,'' is a story, while ''The king died, and then the queen died of grief,'' is a plot."<ref name="prince">{{cite book|last=Prince|first=Gerald|title=A Dictionary of Narratology|publisher=University of Nebraska Press.|edition=Revised|date=2003-12-01|page=73|isbn=978-0-8032-8776-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wales|first=Katie|title=A Dictionary of Stylistics|series=Longman Linguistics|publisher=Routledge|edition=3|date=2011-05-19|page=320|isbn=978-1-4082-3115-9}}</ref><ref>Forster, E.M. Aspects of the Novel. Mariner Books. (1956) {{ISBN|978-0156091800}}</ref>

Teri Shaffer Yamada, Ph.D., of [[CSULB]], agrees that a plot does not include memorable [[Scene (drama)|scenes]] within a story that do not relate directly to other events but only "major events that move the action in a narrative."<ref>{{cite web|author=Teri Shaffer Yamada, Ph.D.|title=ELEMENTS OF FICTION|publisher=[[California State University, Long Beach]]|url=http://www.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.html|access-date=2014-12-20|archive-date=2014-12-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220115428/http://www.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.html}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=July 2024}} For example, in the 1997 film ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'', when Rose climbs on the railing at the front of the ship and spreads her hands as if she's flying, this scene is memorable but does not directly influence other events, so it may not be considered as part of the plot. Another example of a memorable scene that is not part of the plot occurs in the 1980 film ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', when [[Han Solo]] is frozen in carbonite.<ref name="dibell" />

=== Fabula and syuzhet ===
{{Main|Fabula and syuzhet}}

The literary theory of [[Russian Formalism]] in the early 20th century divided a narrative into two elements: the ''fabula'' (фа́була) and the ''syuzhet'' (сюже́т). A fabula is the [[Time#Sequence of events|chronology]] of the fictional world, whereas a syuzhet is a perspective or [[plot thread]] of those events. Formalist followers eventually translated the fabula/syuzhet to the concept of story/plot. This definition is usually used in [[narratology]], in parallel with Forster's definition. The ''fabula'' (story) is what happened in chronological order. In contrast, the ''syuzhet'' (plot) means a unique sequence of discourse that was sorted out by the (implied) author. That is, the syuzhet can consist of picking up the fabula events in non-chronological order; for example, fabula is {{angbr|a<sub>1</sub>, a<sub>2</sub>, a<sub>3</sub>, a<sub>4</sub>, a<sub>5</sub>, ..., a<sub>n</sub>}}, syuzhet is {{angbr|a<sub>5</sub>, a<sub>1</sub>, a<sub>3</sub>}}.

The [[Russian formalism|Russian formalist]], [[Viktor Shklovsky]], viewed the syuzhet as the fabula defamiliarized. [[Defamiliarization]] or "making strange," a term Shklovsky coined and popularized, upends familiar ways of presenting a story, slows down the reader's perception, and makes the story appear unfamiliar.<ref>Victor Shklovsky, "Art as Technique,"  in ''Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays'', 2nd ed., trans. Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), 3-24.</ref> Shklovsky cites Lawrence Sterne's [[Tristram Shandy]] as an example of a fabula that has been defamiliarized.<ref>Shklovsky, "Sterne's Tristram Shandy: Stylistic Commentary" in ''Russian Formalist Criticism'', 25-57.</ref> Sterne uses temporal displacements, digressions, and causal disruptions (for example, placing the effects before their causes) to slow down the reader's ability to reassemble the (familiar) story. As a result, the syuzhet "makes strange" the fabula.