Államvizsga

what is the story of Beowulf?

1. Pagan epic about archatypal heroes and monsters

2. Christian gnomic poem about pride, excess/virtue/faith

3. Meta-elegy about the end of heroic civilasiation

4. A mirror for princes, a poem about what it means to be a good king

the structure of Beowulf

burrial of a king - hero - burrial of a king (circle) -Beowulf dies and his sould goes to God

symmetry:

- the opening/closing funeral

-Grendel and the dragon introduced by the same formula (they were living happily “until one began…“)

-three monsters, increasingly difficult fights

-digressions and anticipations

-number 12 (circle, like the 12 apostoles, hours on a clock, 12 months)

-thes start singins a poem at Beowulf’s funeral - THIS is the poem itself

-circilar tomb

-wheel of fortune (young replaces old)

Beowulf vs Grendel

Beowulf: (the bear)

• the might of 30 men

• good king in a christian and pagan way too

• becomes a “frod cynning“ old king, wisdom but no protection

• solar hero (archetype)-shines the light of relief, opposes the darkness of Grendel

• by killing Grendel he saves other’s bodies along with their minds (they started to worship the devil, he changed it back to God)

Grendel: (the grinder, grinds humans with his teeth)

• strenght of 30 men

• shadow walker, comes from underground

• comes from the king of murderes: Cain who killed his brother Abel, first murderer

• enemy from hell, unholly, damned creature, ghost in a way

• represents the biggest ancestoral fear: darkness and being eaten alive

Pagan vs. Christian (Beowulf)

-neither pagan nor christian, but he awaits salvation

-mentions God in a good way, and “wyrd“ in a bad way

Dragon

-archetypical “hellish beast”

-in German mythology it protects treasure

-combines four elements: represents chaos

• flies in air

• spits fire

• lives under earth or by water

• it originates from water

“Hwaet! We…” “verfirendunming”

Hwaet! We…-creating connection, “listen!“

verfirendunming -estrangement: sets it in a far away land and makes it about us with “we” but still sets time/place far away

Scyld Scefing

means: sheild of weed

-protector and provider

• conquered everybody-great military leader

• he is a giver of treasure and food

-first to be called “cog cynning“ in Beowulf

monster

from “monstrate“ -latin to show, demonstrate: they all represent some sort of sin, try to teach us a lesson

Romeo and Juliet

-starts with a sonnet

-ends with an incomplete sonnet

-old and new generation - past is killing the future

-life and love united in an oximoron -they are bound to kill themselves

Romeo

-pilgrim name
-what he says at his first appearance (act 1, scene 1) are full of oximorons (like the words of a sonneter)

-in the beginning he is in love with another woman (Rosalin-untouchable, maybe fiction)

Juliet

-embodiment of a sonnet

-her age: 13 (14 days of turning 14 on the 14th of July)

-they refer to her as Jul (July and Jewl)

lying and dying

“death lies with her“ -lies about being dead / actually laying there, death is personified

“eye“

-love at first sight

-saying yes, maybe too soon

Oroonoko: or, The Royal Slave

-fictional autobiography

-blends heroic romance narratives and plain journalism

-formal realism (focus on social issues)

shows that nobility and herosim are universal qualities, no matter the race

-paradox in title: royal-slave

-influenced the development of the novel (had most of it’s traits: individualism, tradition-free, unity of style, credibility, conscious of innovation and novelty)

-tension between the frames of romance and realism (description of fauna)

Oroonoko narrator

-1st person narrator- could be unreliable, but shows how there is no universal truth, only individual perception

-objective, but filtered through the narrator’s view

-Aphra Behn travelled to the colonies, she becomes the character herself

-builds up narrative empathy

-strategy of self-representation as a woman, beside the representation of race (woman and Ooronoko-both oppressed)

-wants others to look at the text as a documentary narrative

idealisation of the African protagonist

-physical beauty

-natural nobility (courage, honor, intelligence)

-stoicism in suffering (even in brutality-sense of dignity and composure)

importance of beauty in Oroonoko

-beauty is the biggest signifier of royalty/purity

-Behn writes characters’ moralities through outward appearance

-she describes Oroonoko’s beauty compared to european standards, saying that he is a romanised beauty, but with this degrades other african people’s appearance

-”beautiful Black Venus to our young Mars”: mythological description

Robinson Crusoe

-Father of the English novel

-travel narrative tied to a spiritual autobiography
-captures the spirit of adventure and discovery

-adresses the challanges/ethnical questions associated with colonization

-more factual narrative focused on actions and events

-feelings only described when they are overwhelming

-rejection of traditional plots (mythology, legend, past literature)

credibility in Robinson Crusoe

-he writes like a historian, doesn’t want his work to be seen as fantasy

-”written by himself” leads the reader to think that the writer is actually Crusoe

-Defoe’s name does not appear on the cover

-first word is “I“

Robinson Crusoe realism

-biographical information (place, names of species)

-recent history in the bakcground

-narrative focused on the individual consciousness

Formal realism:

neither a novel or a romance

plot:

• new and original, no mythological appearances

• individual experience is always original: haven’t been used before

presentation of space:

• spaces that actually exist, provides a map

• we know exatly where he goes-provides realism

the journal in RC

-retelling narrative, metanarrative

-organization of thoughts

-writes one in the narrative itself, is incomplete

-keeps his sanity

-comfort or routine, stability

-he could control this unlike everything else

memoir vs journal RC

-lot of overlaps and incosistencies between the two

memoir:

• less reliable, since it’s written looking back on the actions

• includes more detailed descriptions like: family, history of things

journal:

• written in the heat of the moment

language in RC

-strictly utilitarian

-uses dialogue as a way to externalize inner conflicts

-simplistic in its lack of ornamentation: simple occupations important and regular objects beautiful

-naming things on the island like Adam does in paradise

Crusoe

-presents liberalism: he moves from his family

-his life is threatened by nature: earthquake and hurricane

-shows the literary conflicts: man vs. God, man vs. man

-feels guilty because he rebelled against his family, but his parents die so he can’t appologise

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

-epistollar novel (told primarly through letters+her journal) (subgenre of consciousness novel)

-sentimental novel (inner thoughts and emotional states of the individual, attention to outer life and inner consciousness)

-novel of consciousness (conveys consciousness, psycho-emotional insight, social commentary)

-letters show a deeper meaning: smaller distance between writer and reader

-critique of rationalism

-connection between realism and fiction

• scandal narrative and cautionary tale (warnings of marital disobedience)

• plots of family intrigue, domescti fiction (stories of rape, seduction, courtship)

• female sensitivity pitted against male libertinage and economic power

Pamela Andrews

-she is 15, we see the teenager to adult elevation

-unfailingly kind/generous to everyone

-she wants to see herself as this heroic character who has to go through the struggles

-hyperhamy: when someone marries above their social class

-social mobility/fluidity, being able to get higher in rank

Pamela as “nobody’s story“

-18th century readers related to the character’s fictionality because they were nobodies

-nobody: open invitation to imagination in detail, someon else’s feelings become your own

paradoxes in Pamela

-paradox of resistance/cooperation:

• she doesn’t leave, maybe because of trauma

• if she left, she would feel like a dissapointment, even when her parents tell her that she could come back, she is their only income

-conflicted self: she wants to find the difference between good/evil

the language of Pamela

-Biblical references: accessible to everyone

-simbolical, allegorical

-syntax full of pathos (exclamations, punctuations)

-symmetry, metaphorical questions

-interrupting the text, visual attention to the emotions: reader can relate

-more expressive display of sentiment: comes from people writing about how to feel compassionate towards others