Extra-plot Elements

Extra-plot elements are components of a work's composition that do not enter directly into the development of the plot action and do not move the events, but are important for revealing the ideational-artistic content, the characters, the background, and the authorial position. To them belong descriptions (landscape, portrait, interior), authorial (lyrical) digressions, inset episodes and novellas, prefaces, afterwords, epigraphs, and dedications. Extra-plot elements slow the action (performing the function of retardation), broaden the fictional space of the work, deepen psychologism, create mood, and heighten the authorial voice. For example, the extended landscape descriptions of Carpathian nature in Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors do not move the plot but create a mythopoetic atmosphere and reveal the inseparable connection of the human being and nature. The skillful combination of plot and extra-plot elements ensures the fullness, depth, and artistic accomplishment of the composition of a literary work.