Exposition refers to those passages that present prior story information or

information about past events which is necessary to understand the present

state of affairs. Meir Sternberg, whose work (1978) is one of the most
influential texts on the matter, discusses the function of exposition in great
detail. "It is the function of exposition", he argues, "to introduce the reader into
an unfamiliar world, the fictive, by providing him with the
general and specific antecedents indispensable to the understanding of what
happens in it". The reader should be aware "of time and place of the action; of
the nature of the fictive world peculiar to the work or, in other words, of the
canons of probability operating in it; of the history, appearance, traits and
habitual behaviour of the dramatise personae; and of the relations between
them" (1978: 1). The functions that Sternberg
refers to those passages that present prior story information or
information about past events which is necessary to understand the present
state of affairs. Meir Sternberg, whose work (1978) is one of the most
influential texts, discusses the function of exposition in great
detail. "It is the function of exposition", he argues, "to introduce the reader into
an unfamiliar world, the fictive world of the story, by providing him with the
general and specific antecedents indispensable to the understanding of what
happens in it". The reader should be aware "of time and place of the action; of
the nature of the fictive world peculiar to the work or, in other words, of the
canons of probability operating in it; of the history, appearance, traits and
habitual behaviour of the dramatise personae; and of the relations between
them" (1978: 1). The functions that Sternberg