English Literature
Introduction to key terms of Literature
Introduction to key terms of Literature
Internal rhyme
full rhyme between two or more words within the same line of verse, e.g. "And a clatter and a chatter from within [...]" (Swinburne, Itylus)
Rhyme scheme description
schematic representation of the sequence of end rhymes = rhyme scheme,
rhyming lines are indicated by identical lower case letters, e.g. aabb, abcabc, etc.; lines that don't rhyme are indicated by "x", e.g. axbaxb (two "x" doesn't mean that these lines rhyme!), if a line also has metrum, this is indicated by numbers, e.g.x4a3x4a3
subdivides a poem , end-rhymes link lines in verse, a new rhyme frequently marks the beginning og a new unit of meaning, rhymes also creates link between ryhming words by means of repetition on phonological level ( heighten contrast), =intratextual parallels, rhymes highlight coherence of text
Embracing rhyme
abba/axxa
Alternate rhyme
abab/xaxa
Couplet
two lines aa
Stanza
A stanza is sequence of lines that is visually marked off as a separate unit. A stanza consists of one or more verse sequences, and a poem consists of one or more stanzas
Heroic couplet
a5a5, pentameter (often iambic) line, end rhyme with following pentameter line, e.g. "An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be"
(Hamlet 5.1.291)
Rime royal
a seven-line, iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc
Petrarchan/Italian sonnet
14 lines, 2 quatrains/1 octave (abba abba), 2 tercets/1 sestet (cde cde/cdc cdc). Functions of verse sequences: Presentation of a problem in the octave, the solution in the sestet, first line of sestet (line 9) as turning point
Shakespearean/English sonnet
14 lines, 3 quatrains (abab cdcd efef), 1 couplet (gg). Specific functions of verse sequences: presentation of problem in 3 quatrains, solution in couplet
New Historicist
What new historicists do
> Juxtapose literary and non-literary texts
> Defamiliarise the canonical literary text, see it as new
> Close-reading of the historical text
> Focus on issues of state power, patriarchal structures, colonisation
> Influenced by Derrida (“reality is textualised”)
> Influenced by Foucault (“social structures determined by dominant discursive practices”)
> Stephen Greenblatt Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, 1980.
New Historicism/ Cultural Materialism:
Basic definition
— Attention to cultural history
— “historicity of texts and the textuality of history
”“a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non- literary texts, usually of the same historical period”
- Countermovement to New Criticism
— New Criticism: work = self-contained, “nothing outside the text” - historical texts = co-text rather than con-text
- refuses to privilege the literary text
— not: “historical background” - Literary and non-literary texts inform each other
— “the textuality of history, the historicity of the text” (Louis Montrose)
Historicist rather than historical:
- Interested in history as represented in written documents
- history-as-text
- historical events are lost, all that remains are texts
Marxist Criticis
What Marxist Critics do
> Search for ‘covert’ content and relate it to Marxist themes: — Class struggle, capitalism, economics
> Relate the context of a work to the social class of the author — Assumption: the author is unaware of what he/she says in work
> Relate the work to the social assumptions of the time in which it is ‘consumed’
> Karl Marx (1818-1883)
> Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
> Louis Althusser (and Etienne Balibar). Reading Capital. Trans. 1971
Marxist Criticism
Basic definition
“Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer’s social class, and its prevailing ‘ideology’ (outlook, values, tacit assumptions, half-realised allegiances, etc.) have a major bearing on what is written by a member of that class.”
> Authors are formed by their social context
> “Less historical” than new historicist or cultural materialist criticism (“class struggle” vs. historical documents)
Psychoanalytic Critics
What Psychoanalytic Critics do
> Search for ‘covert’ content (unconscious) and privilege it as being what the work is “really” about.
> Attention to unconscious motives and feelings of both author and characters
> Demonstrate presence of classic psychoanalytic symptoms in a text
> “Psychic” context of literary work rather than social or historical context
> Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
> Jacques Lacan
Feminist psychoanalytic critics:
> Luce Iragaray
> Julia Kristeva
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Basic definition
“Psychoanalytic criticism is a form of literary criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature.”
> the unconscious, repression, sublimation, displacement
— e.g. repressed sexual urgesàsublimated as intense religiouslonging
— e.g. sword as displaced rape (via phallic symbolism)> Psyche as ego (consciousness), super-ego (conscience), id (unconscious)
> Sexuality (e.g. Oedipal complex)
Deconstruction
What Poststructuralist Critics do
> “Read the text against itself” à expose meanings that are contrary to surface meaning
> Look at features of words
— Sound similarities, etymology, dead metaphors> Expose disunity rather than unity of the text
> Deconstruct their own readings by reading a passage over and over
> Look for shifts, breaks, discontinuities
> Roland Barthes. The Death of the Author. 1967. (1915-1980) – structuralismàpost-structuralism(?)
> Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) “there is nothing outside the text”
Deconstruction
Basic definition
Structuralism (“language shapes the world”)
<--
Post-structuralism
(“no fixed landmark beyond linguistic processing”), (“all is constructed, all can be deconstructed”)
--> Deconstruction
Feminist Criticism
What Feminist Critics do
> Rethink the canon, rediscovery of texts written by women
> Revalue women’s experiences
> Examine representations of women in literature
> Challenge representations of women as ‘other’, ‘lack’,
> Examine power relations, patriarchal structures
> Recognise the role of language in construction of gender
> Ask whether there is a ‘female language’
> Ask whether differences are biological (sex) or socially constructed (gender)
> Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949
> Cixous, Hélène
> Luce Irigaray
Feminist Criticism
Basic definition
“The feminist literary criticism of today is the direct product of the ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960. This movement was, in important ways, literary from the start, in the sense that it realised the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature, and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their coherence.”
Defamiliarsation
Taking something familiar out of its context and thus making it unfamiliar. The reader/audience is thereby forced to engage with the otherwise familiar in a new context.
Palimpsests
historically(medieval “palimpsest”): when an earlier text/older lower text (hypotext) on parchment is scraped off and a new text/upper text (hypertext) is written in its place;
Genette: a text that cannot exist without an earlier text because it refers to it directly or indirectly by adapting the story or major themes (--> Homer's Odyssey: Virgil's Aeneid, James Joyce's Ulysses)
Genette’s Palimpsests:core points
> Texts do not exist in isolation
> Instead, they are connected in diverse ways with other texts (context, co-text, intertextuality, metatextuality...)
> Hypertext + hypotext = palimpsestical relation
Conclusion:We need to be aware of the other texts “surrounding” any given text
We need to be aware of the categories by which we connect these texts, text do not exitst in isolation/text are always embedded in other textts / context
Subject of poetics: --> transtextuality(= architextuality + other transtextual relationship)/textual transcendence (=Erhabenheit) of the text(=all tat sets te text in a relationship, (obvious/concealead) with other text)
(-->is not the text to be considered in ist singularity(= critisism)
--> architextuality)
5 types of transtextual relationship:
intertextuality,paratextuality,metatextuality,architextuality,hypertextuality
Hypertextuality
newer(upper text)hypertext and earlier(older,lower) hypotext
relationshipp uniting text B(hypertext) to an earlier text A (hypotext),not commentary
general notion of a text in the second degree : a text derived from anther preexistent text
But here text B is not speaking of text A at all but being unable to to exist without A, from which it originates through process of transformation, which it evokes more or less perceptibly without necessarily speaking of/citing it
hypertext is more considered properly literary work than is the metatext
different type of transformation: simple/direct transformation, complex indirect transformation( f.e imitation
Metatextuality
commentary
unites a given textt to another, of which it speaks without necessaringly citing it, without summoning it,(without naming it)
Intertextuality
how texts relate to each other: reference,
quoting(explicit), plagiarism(undeclared, borrrowing),references to tradition
relationship of copresence between two texts or among several texts, the actual presence of one text within another ( allusion ..
Paratextuality
eveything which surrounder the text ( bookcover, introduction),setting of the text (title, page, layout, etc.) --> how much to take into account? (e.g. are chapter titles part of the story?)
( secondary signals(allographic/autographic):(sub-,inter-)title, pre-/postfaces, notices, forewords,terminal/marginal/infrapaginal notes, epigraphs(engraved inscription),illustrations, blurbs(klappentext),book covers, dust jacket(Buchumschlag)
Architextuality
taxonomic(= classification, systematic) nature, silent /titular features, e.g. genre, self-declaration ("A Poem about Grief") determining the generic status of text is not the business of the text but that of the reader/critic/public
titular( Poems, Essays,The romance of the Rose) ,subtitular(A Novel, A story, Poemes appended to the title)
entire set of general or transcendent categories(types of discourse, modes of enunciation, literary genres) from which emerges each singular text
Lyric (Aristotle,first person speaking)
Poetry (modern), Poems (Jahn)
Epic (Aristotle,narrators and characters speaking)
Narrative (modern), Prose (Jahn)
Drama (Aristotle,characters do all the speaking)
Drama (modern) Plays (Jahn)
Criteria for catergorising
genre (drama,poetry,narrative),language, nation, aesthetic evaluation (high-brow, low-brow,popular, pulp fiction), social (children's,womens'sworking class literature), historical categories (classical,medieval,contemporary, ), time period(OE,ME,EME)media-related ( oral, written, audiovisual),relation to reality(realsitic, mimetic("imitating") vs. fantasty(anti-mimetic) literature), conventionality of mode of representation (traditidional vs innovative/experimental) --> be able to recall three
Literary Genres
Genre as strategy
genre =a set of constitutive conventions and codes, altering from age to age, but shared by a kind of implicit contract between writer and reader. The writer may play with these prevailing generic conventions and decide to deliberately not follow them. Conventions generate (for ther reader )a set of expectations that enable the reader to make the work intelligible(=verständlich), to relate it to the world as defined and ordered by codes in the prevailing culture/naturalize it, by relating it(the work) to the world as defined and ordered by codes in the prevailing culture.
Tragedy
a serious play in which the protagonist dies in the end
Comedy
a humorous play with a happy ending
Comic relief
is the introduction of comic characters,
speeches, or scenes in a serious or tragic work, especially in dramas. Such elements were almost universal in Elizabethan tragedy ( Abrams)
Tragic relief
a tragic (or near-tragic) episode in a comedy. Tragic relief often has the function of allowing the spectators
to empathize with a protagonist or to give them some breathing space between particularly hilarious scenes.”(Jahn)
Critics that claim history is textual/narrated
Louis Montrose, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Hayden White
“The Textuality of History and the Historicity of Texts”
History is a narrative construct
Literature is embedded in the culture of the society that produces it
Old English literature
c. 800 - 1066
Middle English literature
c. 1350 - 1476 (?)
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Cartes-fiches
Freytag's Pyramid (plot structure)
Exposition/Introduction; inciting incident,,complicatopn; exciting force rising action (=complication,Aristotle); climax; tragic force,crisis/rurning poin, fall/reversal; falling action,force of final suspense, resolution; denouement(for comedy/tragedy)/catastrophe(for tragedy)
division of drama into acts
Exposition proper: transmission of information at the beginning of play,primarily informative, referential function BUT if Exposition=transmission of information to do with evebts/situations from the oast that determine the dramatic present, so exposition nit restricted to the introductory phase of text / transmission of information in initial phase is not necessarily confined to serve expository function
Dramatic introduction: aslo phatic function, stimulate audience's attention, attune it to atmosphere of the fictional world of drama
Isolated expostition: all information on events leading up to opening scene is transmitted ( defined block at the beginning)
Integrated exposition: expository information no longer bound up with the introductory phase, is integrated into lot as it develops, (divided smaller units)
Endings: Closure (Jahn)
closed ending (plot-oriented texts), traditional, plot-oriented texts, the main conflict is usually resolved by marriage, death, or some other aesthetically or morally satisfactory outcome producing a state of equilibrium.; lack of closure in modern (sequential) texts
Open ending (Pfister)
structural openness, individual strands that don't necessarily come to a conclusion or converge
Closed (dramatic)ending (Pfister)
resolution of all open questions and conflicts and the abolition of informational discrepancy(/ resolution of all conflicts and ambivalence in the mral values expressed in play
Beginnings: Ab ovo
the text begins with the birth of the protagonist
in medias res
the text begins close to the climax of the action
in ultimas res
the text begins after the climax, near the end
Dramatic Text
the text, script for the performance
Drama (=text) and theatre (=performance) Basic difference: Performance is transient, can never be exactly reproduced (while a text is more stable), dramatic text = script on which a performance is based, a text to be performed, as a literary artefact conceived with a view to its performance
not primarily written to be read, but as as a script for a theatre performance.(dramas= text that are witten to be performed as plays, preparing drama for performace = literary adaptation”>“watching, and not reading, is the most appropriate mode of reception for drama.”➜Effect: a very different communicative situation than, e.g., in narrative!, difference between internal communication situations of dramatic and lyric text ( dialogue = most important medium for transmitting information in drama)
Theatre
performance
use of verbal, non -verbal modes ofr commuication( acoustics, optical dimension), = multimedial form of presentation, communication situation ( when play is performed) enterily different = collective nature of production and reception
Properties/props vs. Set
props: moveable objects, e.g. crown, sword; set: stationary objects and backdrop
actor
a real person that impersonates a character
“real-life person”: author, director, actor, spectator
character
"paper being" (Roland Barthes), exists only within fictional text
Hero
an idealised, (nearly) perfect protagonist (largeness, dignity, power, heroism), e.g Henry V
Antihero
a protagonist whose character is discrepant from what we associate with a traditional hero (can be ignominious, dishonest, passive,ineffectual,petty)) e.g Hamlet
Protagonist
the chief character in a plot, on whom our interest centers
Antagonist
if the plot is such that the protagonist is pitted against an important opponent, that character is called the antagonist , is he evil(able of cruel/criminal actions = villain
figure
≈ character, more specific use ( e.g narrator figure)
dramatis persona:
refer to all of the literary characters who appear in the play
narrator (drama)
representation of level of fictional mediation, narrator figure, chorus
Primary text
representation of charachter'sspeech and thought
Soliloquy, monologue, aside (monological, dialogical, ad spectatores, dialogue (duologue)
—Implied stage directions(e.g. “I will shave my beard”), “Implied stage directions are particularly important in Shakespeare because (a) in Shakespeare’s time there was no precedent for stage directions as we know them today, (b) most people who bought an original copy […] of the text had seen the play and remembered its action, and (c) there was no need to describe scenery etc. because the playhouse of the period (the Globe Theater) provided a standard backdrop.” (JahnD3.4)
secondary text
stage directions: actorly/readerly, speech headings (HAMLET: "To be or not to be…), title, dramatis personae, textual notes
in italics), either (a) describingset, scenery, props, costumes, characters, or (b) recountingevents and the behaviorof the characters (such as their movements). […] In performance, a stage direction can normally be translated into a property or a physical action which is directly perceptible to the audience. (Stage directions that cannot be so translated, or are obviously addressed to the reader only are termed autonomous stage directions”>Readerlystage directions (directed at the reader=dramatic text)>Actorlystage directions (directed at the actor=performance)
stage directions
actorly: designed for the actor (how to move etc.), readerly: designed to be read by reader (language)
Epic drama
—Presence of a narrator group/figure = Chorus —Greek drama (12-50 men) vs. Renaissance drama (1 speaker)
—Example: Henry V
Absolute drama
—“the audience witnesses the action of the play as if it happened “absolutely”
—Example: Hamlet
Parts of play
>Act: major units —classical drama has 5 acts—modern drama has often 2-3 acts (to allow for intermission(s))
>Scene: unit within an act—new stage situation—fresh episode
Realist play
absolute drama: illusion that audience is witnessing real life
Chorus (narrator figure)
a fictional mediator that narrates the events of the drama as the story progresses, e.g. in William Shakespeare's Henry V
Origins and end of medieval drama
Beginnings of Medieval Drama>Monasteries and churches
>“Dramatic” rites =church rites e.g Transubstantiation,Elevation of host
>“Costumes” that visualise claim to immediacy to God
>Rites and “performance” seen only through wood
>Biblical scenes performed on feast-days: depostopm of christ, minimal props/costumes, enacted by monks/nuns, comic potential
moved gradually outside from church to churchyard, marketplace ( transformation of theatre performed by guilds,topics still religious)
The End of medieval drama>Reformation:Protestants very interested in making Bible accessible to wide audience but only as BOOK (translations into vernacular English!)
>Entertaining, often comical aspects of cycle plays condemned, as bibe to take seriously, rather than play with it
>Plays banned in1540ties
>1581: Elizabeth I bans al mystery cycles and all plays based on the Bible,
>instead, the interest turned to dramatic traditions of antiquity
Mystery play
based on Old/New Testamental scenes (pageant wagon)
themes almost exclusivly religious, making fun of biblical accounts/reltaing details that are not in Bible
Mystery cycle
(modern)York, 48 plays with each pageant built and performed by a guild, moving through town
Morality play
dramatisation of moral choices in human life (place and scaffold, one or several stages plus scaffold)
Picture frame stage
as of 17th century, audience sees the stage from only one side (as opposed to three sides in Elizabethan drama, Globe theatre) (similar to modern-day cinema),Realist plays = absolute drama: —illusion that audience is witnessing real life ( aesthetic illusion, box-like structure, lighting, curtains
Fourth wall/Breaking down the fourth wall”
The audience has the illusion of looking through a fourth, invisible wall of a room, separates events on stage from audience,(box-like; “Breaking down the fourth wall”: Subversion of realist illusion, making visible of theatre’s artificiality and artfulness by:
reintroduction of narrator figure>“alienation effect” (Brecht)—actors speaking out of character (ad spectatores)—visibility of scene change (no curtain closing), stage helpers, audience, and characters interacting
Shakespeare(1) and specificities of Elizabethan/Jacobean stage
(1) close contact between actors/audience, audience on various levels around three sides of stage, natural daylight, minimal set ( audience had to use their imagination), no realistic imitation of reality
Globe theatre --> picture frame stage
Specificities of Early Modern drama/theatre
Permanent playhouses(Swan, Rose, Globe, Curtain ,) professional playwrights and actors, no actresses allowed on stage
Discourse-NOW vs. Story-NOW
Discourse-NOW: the point in time from which a story is narrated, the NOW of the narrator; Story-NOW: the point in time in which the story is set, the NOW of the character → retrospective: the story is set in the past of the discourse,past-tense narrative whose events and action units have all happened in the past. concurrent: the discourse and the story happen at the same moment in time,present-tense narrative whose action takes place at the same time as it is recounted (discourse- NOW and story-NOW are identical).
“Normally, a text's use of tenses relates to and depends on the current point in time of the narrator's speech act [discourse- NOW]. Naturally, the tense used in a character's discourse depends on the current point in time in the story's action [story- NOW]”
— Shaking from head to foot, the man [...] at length rises [= narrative present], supports his trembling frame upon his arms, and looks around.
(Dickens, Edwin Drood)
— “James,” said [= narrative past] Aunt Emily harshly, “you must run off to bed . . . . Mother needs perfect quiet.”
(Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer)
Tense shift/switch
“A switch from the current narrative tense to the complementary narrative tense (i.e., narrative past to narrative present and vice versa). A tense switch is normally used to produce an effect of intensification or distancing (moving into/out of focus), change of perspective” (Jahn N5.1.2)
Duration ( in narrative)
How long? Story time (fictional time it takes for the story to develop) vs. Discourse time (actual time it takes to read/watch, measured by number of words/lines/pages of text))
