Plot

Plot is the system of events of a literary work in their cause-and-effect and temporal unfolding, through which the characters, conflicts, and the author's conception of reality are revealed. Plot organizes the material into a coherent action that has a beginning, a development, and a conclusion. The classic scheme of plot embraces the exposition, the inciting incident (zav'iazka), the rising action, the climax, and the denouement, to which a prologue and epilogue may be added. Plot should be distinguished from the fabula: plot is the artistically organized 'how it is told', whereas the fabula is the event-basis, 'what happened', in chronological sequence. Masterful plot construction marks, for example, Lesia Ukrainka's drama The Forest Song and the novels of Panas Myrny, while sharp plot tension marks the novellas of Vasyl Stefanyk. In the world tradition a model of dynamic plot is found in the tragedies of Sophocles and the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky.