introduction to literary studies

Define literature in its broadest sense and explain why not all written works are considered literature.

Literature is considered to be a written body of work that gained literary merit over time - an acclaim, some measure of success, a lasting sense of artistic value, or expressing ideas of permanent value

How does the concept of reception theory affect the interpretation of literary texts?

the reception theory suggests that each individual receives the body of work differently based on many factors - their experiences in life, their approach to the text, their stage in life, each individual has their own meaning in the text.

Discuss the different sources of inspiration for literature, as identified in the lecture.

there is a source from the outside (such as the Divine, or a muse), and a source from the inside (an individual genius) (external and internal)

What are the primary functions of literature? Provide examples of each.

cognitive (to broaden our understanding of the world)

educational (to learn new things)

recreational (to relax, for escapism)

aesthetic (books and literary texts have always been linked to knowledge - being seen reading is considered to show our intelligence)

Explain why reception of literature changes over time and varies among readers.

Because with time, social issues change and different generations put different emphasis on issues and movements. We are influenced by our eras and every generation usually responds the opposite way to the previous one, trying to “fix its problems” and therefore putting priority into different things.

How does the Story of an Hour challenge traditional views of marriage?

The ending of the Story of an Hour depicts a married woman losing her husband and finding liberty in that, realizing she can be her own person without a husband now.

What is meant by the term “literary merit”?

It is a permanent artistic value gained by a literary work over time.

What is the difference between langue and parole?

Langue is the entire system of language used by human beings, including grammar and other linguistic rules, whereas parole is the use of language by people according to their circumstance, like utterances and speech overall.

How do detonation and connotation differ?

Denotation is the precise meaning of a word, whereas connotation is a meaning created with association to that definition, usually with positive or negative implications, like the word “mob” literally meaning a crowd of people but gaining a negative connotation and meaning a raging crowd during concerts.

What distinguishes a metaphor from a simile?

a metaphor is when two unlike things are compared, but simile is used to enhance a word (usually with words like “as” or “like”)

What is metonymy? Give an example.

a name is substituted with a similarly-related thing (like “the press”, the “White House” etc) to make it easier to communicate

What is literary style?

it is the typical choice of use of the language associated with a certain person - a set of stylistic decisions a person makes when they write a literary text

some of its features are tone, diction, particular grammar, narrator, sentence structure

categories of style are: historical, author, cultural, genre and functional

What is the difference between a motif and a theme?

a theme is reoccuring throughout the work, it is central to the story and it is abstract; motifs are “smaller” than themes , specific, and show up usually represented in a character, a setting, they usually help to build the theme

How is a symbol different from a motif?

symbol are singular and individual, they usually represent other things that relate to the motifs or even the themes of the story, they are images, ideas, sounds, or words that represent something else

What is the difference between a story and plot according to E. M. Forster?

He places emphasis on causality, saying that plot is a chronological story of events with depicted cause that links the events together. (“The king died and the queen died.” vs “The king died and the queen died of grief.” THAT is a plot.)

What is the difference between fabula and syuzhet in Russian formalism?

fabula is a “telling”, that has chronological order of everything that might be relevant to the story

syuzhet is the actual plot, where the author uses their abilities and patterns to create dramatic effects and through the strategies of storytelling

What are the key characteristics of the protagonist?

the protagonist is the center of the story, the main character that we usually follow the point of view of, we know the most of their characteristics as a reader, we are usually made to root for them unless it follows a morally-grey character, who questions our morals as a reader.

What is a foil character?

It is the opposite of the protagonist.

Describe different kinds of narrators.

an unreliable narrator - someone whose telling of events might not be reliable/true, someone who might be emotionally invested and therefore only telling a part of the story (x reliable obvi)

omniscient - a narrator that “knows everything” (x nonomniscient)

first person, third person, second person (you)

What gothic elements are present in Poe’s stories?

He depicts settings that are usually dark and mysterious, psychologically troubled protagonists that are sometimes morally grey, he often evokes fear and suspense in the reader by vivid imagery of disturbing scenes

What does “Nevermore” repetition mean in The Raven?

It symbolizes despair, fear and hopelessness of the character.

Describe what a short story is. What is the primary requirement of a short story? According to who?

It is brief prose that is shorter than a novel, can usually be read in one sitting (Edgar Allan Poe), and normally revolves around one setting, usually starts in the middle of action and is much simpler than a full-blown novel. There is a single plotline and it has to evoke tension.

1000 - 20 000 words, like 10-25 pages, there is no concensus about the length though

What is the difference between a short story and a novel?

short story is much shorter, simpler than a novel, characters are not as fleshed-out, the setting isn’t often described into heavy detail, there is no backstory or explanation of the context in which we are thrown into

Explain the concept of “in medias res” and how it applies to short stories.

It means that you jump into the story in the mids of action - short stories often (mostly) start like that, removing the need to set the scene and create an in-depth character.

What is the role of conflict in short stories?

It is at the center of tension in the story.

Name two ancient literary forms that influenced the short story.

Ancient myths, fairy tales, folk stories, legends, parables, anecdotes and ballads, from the ancient Greeks, Biblical stories, Norse myths

How did modernist short stories differ from earlier forms?

With time modernist short stories focuse more on individual experiences instead of objective reality - character psychology and perception, they also play more with narratives, style and plot techniques. Over time they kind of “relax” and do not follow a strict set of rules, rather just let it play out. (inner monologues, stream of conciousness) It shied away from myth aspects and focused more on realistic depictions.

Describe the styles of short stories.

dark romanticism/gothic - dark side of the self, unconscious self (Poe, Irving, Hawthorne)

minimalism - simple language, plot without complications

magical realism - realism mixed in with magical elements

impressionist - not the objective reality, rather a look through a character’s lens

realism - regionalism/local colour

modernism - stream of conciousness, narrative styles, experimenting (Woolf, Fitzgerald, Faulkner)

post-modernism - paradox, fragmentation

Give one example of a short story.

Penelope Lively - Next Term, We’ll Mash You

Describe what classifies as a novel.

it is a work of prose fiction talking about the human experience for a considerable amount of time - the importance is in fictionality, plot, individualism, length (usually 60k-200k words) and prose

Where did the novel originally come from? Where does it appear? Give examples.

its origins depend on the definition - Ancient Roman, medieval romances, Tales of Genji by a japanese author, Don Quixote

Describe the “rise of the novel”.

It happened in the 18th century, the novel became increasingly popular as a literary form, because it rejected what was traditionally considered a literary work, it did not rely on historical sources, myths, previous works, importance of depicting a character in detail

the importance of time and space:

time: character development, more cohesive than before, time flowed more naturally

space: better and more detailed descriptions of settings/places, more natural and ordinary, less inspiration from the mythological

Name subgenres of novels.

detective novels, gothic novels, allegory novels, dystopian novels, utopian novels, bildungsroman (whatever that is), picaresque novels (whatever those are), historical novels, fantasy, romances, thrillers

What are the main trends of the novel since the 18th century?

romanticism - gothic novel

19th century: realism, naturalism (the age of the novel)

20th century: modernism → 1930s-50s reaction on it, dystopian, allegorical → 1950s postmodernism, multicultural, postcolonial

What do you know about Jane Austen and her writing?

she is one of the biggest novelist writers of her era, she wrote novels of manners, she pictures domestic life in country villages

Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion

What defines lyric poetry? What are the features of it?

They are generally short, personal, one person narrative, emotional and follow a set structure (even tho later on they don’t)

Where and when did lyric poetry first appear? In what form? Name some of the first lyric poets.

First appeared in Ancient Greek in the form of odes to Gods, dance songs, hymns and funeral songs, usually sung in a religious setting, (Sapho, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus) these got translated into Latin by Ancient Romans but their meter and structure remained, making them recited and not sung, therefore poetry (Ovid, Virgil), more subjective in this form

Describe the lyric poetry during the middle ages.

most of the medieval lyric poetry were Church hymns, but there was a big range of topics depicted in the poems, earliest Anglo-Saxon lyric poetry was surrounding the topic of religion, most famous Caedmon, Cynewulf, many of the late medieval poems survived

When and where was the renaissance of lyric poetry? Who are some of the most important poets from that era?

Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spencer, William Shakespeare

happened in Italy and England primarily, it was called the great age of the lyric

Who made sonnets popular?

Milton during the 18th century

When was a major revival of lyric poetry and who was part of it?

end of 18th century

Wordsworth, Blake, Byron, Shelley, Keats

Name three lyric poets each from the 19th and 20th century.

19th century: Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

20th century: Robert Forst, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden - but against them were modernist poets like T.S. Eliot who questioned the use of traditional lyric form

What is a sonnet? Where did it originate?

A sonnet is a set of 14 lines in a poem with a complex rhyme scheme, most popular form of Western poetry

originated in Italy, brought to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard in the 16th century

reflects on one sentiment (love, loss, grief, lust, beauty, death, nature, religion)

What is a meter?

a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of a poem

you divide the line into feet and then the feet into stressed and unstressed syllables

metrical foot - a group of syllables forming a unit of rhythm (1-7 mono/di/tri/tetra/penta/hexa/hepta+meter)

kinds of meter:

• iambic (- —)

• trochaic (— -)

• pyrrhic (- -)

• anapestic (- - —)

• dactylic (— — -)

• spondaic (— —)

How can you break down a line of a poem?

yea, uh, once again, into feet, and then those into stressed and unstressed syllables (meters)

What is a rhyme? What are the two main kinds?

it is a occurence where you have words at the end of the verse of the poem and they phonically sound similar because of their ending syllables, creating a musical sound

a perfect rhyme (the stressed vowel sounds are the same) or a general one (imperfect)

Explain the four kinds of rhyme schemes.

Spenserian (Edmund Spenser, english) ABAB BCBC CDCD

Petrarchan (Petrarcha, Italian) - octave ABBA ABBA sestet CDE CDE

Shakespearian (Shakespeare, English) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Miltonic (John Milton, English) - ABBA ABBA

What are other types of lyric poetry? Describe them.

elegy - a poem of mourning of an individual, expresses grief, loss, tragic themes

ode - pays homage to a thing or a person, expresses praise

haiku - a japanese verse, 17 syllables in 3 lines, 5+7+5 syllables

Name some poetic devices.

anaphora - you repeat a word? i guess?

personification

synecdoche

enjambment - the sentence continues without a pause

What defines narrative poetry?

narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story, it focuses on the plot mainly

What are the three main kinds of narrative poetry?

epic poetry

ballads

metric romance - just a verse version of romance

Describe features of epics.

brave hero who overcomes their struggles on their journey

many settings and places the hero goes through

omniscient narrator, third person narration

formal style

set in the past

begins in medias res (in the middle of things)

invocation (of a Muse to guide the poet)

epithet (wine-dark sea, using object to depict the character of things)

What are the origins of epic poetry?

Virgil’s Aeneid (30-19 BC)

Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey (800 BC) - one depicts the Trojan War (Greeks x Trojans) and the other Odysseus’ return to Ithaca

The Epic of Gilgamesh (3000 BC) - the first oral tradition of an epic that we know of

What is the oldest surviving Germanic epic and the longest Old English poem? What is it about? Who is the author? How does it end?

Beowulf

the author is not known to us (probably a single Christian poet)

written between 700-900

more than 3000 lines long, it depicts the events of the 6th century

did not go to print until 1815

Beowulf is a warrior prince from Sweden (Geatland) and he goes to Denmark to kill a monster, then also fights its vengeful mother, returns to Geatland and become the King of Geats, then there is a 50 year time skip and hes fighting AGAIN this time a dragon terrorizing his land, side by side with Wiglaf, they kill the dragon, Beowulf gets hurt, names Wiglaf his successor, the poem ends with Beowulf’s burial and the premonition that the kingdom will be overthrown (mega typical muž story)

When does the literary epic become the main form?

early 13th century

Describe the later epic poetry from the 13th to the 20th century.

14th century

• Dante - Divine Comedy

• Petrarcha - Africa

16th century

• Edmund Spenser - allegorical Faerie Queenie

17th century

• John Milton - Paradise Lost (1667) (Adam and Eve’s fall from grace, considered the last major epic poem)

18th century

• a wave of “mock-epic”

19th century

• Byron - Don Juan

epics grew less popular with time (some claim it is because the civilization is less harmonious than it used to be and is more fragmented now)

What is an example of epic poetry?

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

What is a ballad? What are its common features? What are the two basic kinds? Give an example.

a ballad was originally a song that accompanied a dance, and flourished in the Middle Ages

it is a song that tells a story

features: abrupt beginning, simple storyline, said through dialogue and action, often a tragic theme, often a refrain

the folk/traditional ballad and the literary ballad

Define comedies - where they come from, how did the definition change over time?

Comedies are defined to amuse by telling stories of ordinary people, with a happy ending/resolution, depicts “common errors of life”, later it meant any performance that made people laugh

in the Middle Ages it included narrative poems with happy endings

Describe the state of ancient comedy.

It divided into Greek and Roman - the Greek one divided into the old comedy, which was satirical and followed a structure (5th century BC, Aristophanes) and later on new comedy, which lost the satirical aspect, had happy endings (4-3th century BC, Menander)

the Roman one was hugely influenced by Menander and lost the religious elements

the Roman influence on the comedy created interludes - plays with political messages (sometimes), usually performed at colleges, private mansions, the Royal Palace (John Heywood first playwright of these), Vice shows up as an important character

What are the three main time periods of the English Renaissance Drama and Theatre?

Elizabethan theatre (1558)

Jacobean theatre (1603) (James I.)

Caroline theatre (1625) until 1642 - closure of theatres (Charles I.)

Explain the timeline of Shakespearean comedies

1592—1601 - early period - romantic comedies and classic comedies - Much Ado about Nothing, The Comedy of Errors

1601—1607 - the middle period - the “problematic one” - All’s Well That Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida

1608 and later - the late period - romance comedies - The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest

There were several kinds of renaissance comedy. Which ones?

pastoral comedy - Robert Greene, shepherds, rural folk, focuses on nature and forest, ending in happy marriages

city comedy - satirical portrayal of the city, Thomas Middleton

tragicomedy - a combination of elements from both tragedies and comedies, popular during the Jacobean era

Ben Jonson - comedy of humour - based on the medical theory that human body hold a balance by the four fluids/humours, a comedy following a humorous person that is driven by their one passion/trait

When did the theatres close and reopen again?

During the English Civil War - 1642—47 theatres closed, during the Oliver Cromwell era, then reopened once the Monarch was reestablished in 1660 by Charles II.

Describe the restoration comedy era.

It is the era after the threatre reopened in 1660, there were a few different kinds of comedic plays:

comedies of humours, that drew inspiration from Jonson, main playwright Shadwell

comedies of manner - depict the nasty troubles of upper-class, love is a theme but not a positive one, more talks about sexual conflict, the chase, very critical of puritanical morals, Dryden, Etherege, Wycherley

comedies of intrigue - tends to focus more on plot than the characters, usually full of surprises and plotwists, Aphra Behn

Describe the comedy during the 18th and 19th century.

18th century: sentimental and satirical comedy

19th century: melodrama (sensational scenes, stock characters), well-made plays

Bernard Shaw - Pleasant (Pygmalion) and Unpleasant plays

Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

theatre of the absurd - completely shattering the structure, blurring the time, space, setting, absurd, horrific, comic, Samuel Beckett, Pinter

Define a tragedy.

A tragedy usually depicts a sorrowful and serious story with a tragic/unhappy ending for the protagonist.

Explain the origins of tragedy.

The word tragedy comes from a greek word tragoidia, “goat-song”, which was linked to a communal sacrifice made for Dionysus

it originated with the poet Thespis, he worte hundreds of plays but only 32 survived

there are three “big” Greek dramatists:

• Aeschylus (introduced second actor and complex plot)

• Sophocles (third actor, refined dramatic structure)

• Euripides (focused on strong female characters and psychological realism)

there was a structure to tragedies:

• the prologue (the introduction to the theme)

• parados (the entrance of the chorus)

• episodes (main actions of the play)

• the exodus (messenger’s speech, deus ex machina)

What does Aristotle say about tragedy?

Aristotle defines tragedy as imitation of a serious action/event, evoking pity and fear to achieve catharsis (emotional relief), where a tragic hero suffers because of his error in judgement (hamartia). It follows the unity of action, time, and less strictly, place.

He defines six elements:

• plot (most important, because it structures the actions of the characters)

• character (flawed, relatable)

• thought

• diction

• melody

• spectacle

What is the difference between the Greek tragedy and the Renaissance tragedy?

the Greek one follows all the unities and rules of structure, whereas the Renaissance one (such as Shakespeare’s) often broke these rules and focused more on individual psychology, political intrigue and complex stories.

What are some Shakespearean characteristics of tragedy?

themes of fate, madness, ambition

complex characters, internal struggles

mix of high and low language

tragic downfall

How has the concept of tragedy evolved in modern drama?

It has shifted from noble heroes to ordinary people’s struggles, speaks on social issues and psychological struggles.

Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman)

Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar named Desire)

What is the difference between literary criticism and literary theory?

literary criticism is a form of consideration of a specific literary work to expand our understanding of it, compared to literary theory which is more abstract and is a way to think about art and culture in general

(there is also a literature review which decides if the work is good or bad, literary criticism is usually used to back up our arguments by evidence)

How does formalism approach the study of literature?

it was one of the first way to study and anaylze literature (1910s) by Russian formalists, and it claimed that you should look at a work of literature purely without being affected by anything other than the text, it is the only thing that matters in the analysis, it went against the historical-biographical approach which looked at texts through the historical context of when the author lived

it later on evolved into new-criticism, which claimed to mainly study the text itself and to ignore the emotional or moral context, the author or the context is irrelevant

What is the main focus of structuralism and semiotics in literary criticism?

it claims that practically everything we do as humans can be expressed in language, and looks for patterns across works to find similarities that would explain the human condition, looks for basic structural elements like characters, events, settings and themes

semiotics looks for symbols and signs shown in the works to analyze the text

How does psychoanalytic and mythological criticism interpret characters in literature?

It questions how could the psychological state of the author influence their writing and/or the psychological state of the characters themselves - often exploring subconscious and how can the character's behaviour be explained using the psychoanalytic terms (id, ego, superego)

mythological focuses primarily on the mythological and archaic beings and themes in the work

What are the key concerns of Marxist (sociological) literary criticism?

It mainly focuses on how is the work relevant in the context of society - it asks questions surrounding social class, political and economical status of either the author or the characters themselves and questions the interactions posed in the work and how they’re influences by societal constructs

How does reader-response (reception) theory view the role of the reader in interpreting a text?

the role of the reader is essential in the experience of reading a work - it cannot be removed from constructing the meaning, the reader is the one who actively creates meaning of the text they’re consuming (“how does the text make you feel?”)

What does deconstruction argue about the meaning of texts?

Became a big theoretical trend of literary criticism in the 1970s - it focuses primarily on what the text doesn’t have, what it omits, what perspectives it is not telling, how the story would change if the perspective was changed, it “deconstructs” what you can see and understand in the story and tries to analyze how the text can “betray itself” (evolved from post-structuralism, which argued that nothing can se said for certain and that nothing can be sure)

How does new historicism differ from traditional historical approaches to literature?

Michel Foucalt: “discourse shapes the way we behave, speak, and think about the text, the text reflects the power dynamic of the time”

it evolved from deconstruction and post-structuralism and added a historical aspect to it - traditional historical approach would question what happended and when it happened, but new historicism questions the way the historical aspect was already interpreted

cultural studies are also related to this, even though they are a separate movement - analyses not only literature but also TV, music, fashion, pop culture ; it analyses how the social groups and identities are represented in the media

What is the main goal of feminist literary criticism?

Its main goal is to revisit and think about the way traditionally feminine a masculine roles are portrayed in the literary world - how women are treated and depicted in the works and how it should change. Most of the depictions of women especially in older works are traditionally from a male perspective and often treat women as the lesser gender. It looks at how people are treated when having traditionally opposite-sex traits and how that influences other people’s behaviour towards them.

Gender studies and queer theory are concepts that come from a feminist notion, (used to be called women’s studies til the 80s) and focus on feminine a masculine traits, what is considered normal and not normal in the context of gender and that categories of gender are not fixed or natural, it questions the stable gender identity

How does post-colonial criticism analyze literature?

it challenges the way colonizers portrayed the other cultures which they colonized as inferior and how that affects the way we read literature, they want to reclaim the identity of those oppressed communities and break the stereotypes made about them