Editing Plot (narrative) (section)

=== 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.