Lecture Notes on Genre, Symbolism, and Narrative Structure

Genre and Mediums

  • Genres can apply to any category, not just books: examples include music genres and other media.
  • Difficulty finding well-written comedy in literature and film:
    • Comedy is subjective; drama tends to have more perceived universality.
    • Laughter is often shallower than drama or tragedy; genuinely good comedies are rare and noteworthy.
  • The human condition: drama and tragedy have a broader emotional resonance (crying, heartbreak) than easy laughs.
  • Practical implication: when studying genres, consider how humor functions differently across media and cultures.

Humor vs. Drama: Why laughter is hard to generate

  • Laughing to the point of tears (belly laughs) is less frequent than eliciting sadness or empathy.
  • In-person humor often benefits from immediacy and social context; anticipation and social cues drive effectiveness.
  • Historical/literary prevalence: more tragedies than comedies survive in canon; laughter is harder to sustain across long works.

Science Fiction and Futurism

  • Inquiry: what draws people to science fiction?
    • Escapism and exploration of possibilities beyond the present.
  • Realism critique: some sci-fi feels unreal because it’s not here now; some expect holograms as “unrealistic” examples.
  • Futurism as predictive: sci-fi can be ten steps ahead of current technology; it often speculates about what’s next.
  • Michio Kaku (physicist) argues science-fiction concepts can become real; close to plausible trajectories rather than pure fantasy.
  • The genre’s relationship with fear/fantasy: AI fears (e.g., from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451) reflect concerns about mindlessness or dehumanization.
  • Dystopia vs. utopia in sci-fi:
    • Early sci-fi tended toward hopeful futures; later works often depict dystopian outcomes.
    • Some sci-fi blends with horror, especially when it imagines collapse or loss of control.

Zombies, Horror, and Society

  • Zombie narratives commonly blend science fiction with horror and dystopian themes.
  • Literature/film can use zombies as a social mirror, inviting readers/viewers to read societal anxieties into the apocalypse.
  • Symbolic readings: characters, names, locations, seasons can symbolize deeper truths about culture and power.

Symbolism: Names, Places, and Seasons

  • Everything can be symbolic: names (e.g., Montressor in Poe’s tale), places, and times.
  • Location and setting matter: geography and environment cue reader expectations and social norms.
  • Thematic devices: time of day, season, and place shape mood and meaning.

Nature vs. City; Festivals as Narrative Backdrop

  • Nature can be portrayed as a counterpoint to the city’s order or as a setting that exposes human behavior.
  • Festivals can loosen social constraints, making unusual behavior more permissible (e.g., Shakespeare’s use of festival settings).
  • Mardi Gras/Las Vegas-style crowd behavior illustrate mob mentality: spaces and rituals (alcohol, costumes) encourage actions people wouldn’t perform in ordinary settings.
  • The crowd can unify or corrupt; individuals may act differently when part of a group.
  • Shakespeare examples:
    • Midsummer Night’s Dream emphasizes nature and festival motifs.
    • Twelfth Night blends festival atmosphere with social manipulation.
  • Montressor in The Cask of Amontillado (Casa Montiolato in transcript): a masterclass in manipulation within a controlled setting (a house) that mirrors social order and revenge.

Mob Mentality and Historical Lessons

  • Crowd behavior can lead to both solidarity and atrocity (e.g., complicity in collective crimes during regimes).
  • The necessity of individual accountability: not everyone in a crowd supports harmful acts, but the group dynamic can suppress dissent.
  • Everyday settings (sports arenas, concerts) illustrate how audiences shape experience and behavior when collective cues dominate.

Thematic Tools: Nature, Festivals, and Symbols

  • Nature vs. city; festival-based settings provide a framework for exploring human nature and social norms.
  • Symbols: names, events, and time markers (season, festival) offer interpretive shortcuts to deeper themes.
  • Cross-cutting motifs: seasons as mood indicators; day cycles as life-cycle metaphors.

Oedipus Rex and the Oedipal Concept

  • Oedipus Rex (by Sophocles) is a foundational example used to discuss fate vs. free will.
  • Oedipus and fate:
    • The oracle prophesies that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother.
    • Attempts to escape fate only guide him toward it; the core message is the inescapability of destiny.
  • Key plot points (brief):
    • Oedipus leaves Corinth to avoid the prophecy, travels, and encounters his father at a crossroads, where he unknowingly kills him.
    • He arrives in Thebes, solves the riddle of the Sphinx, becomes king, and marries Jocasta (his mother).
    • A famine and murder inquiry reveal the prophecy’s truth; tragedy unfolds as fate is fulfilled.
  • Symbolic motif: the crossroads as a literal and metaphorical turning point.
  • The Sphinx riddle (a common teaching device):
    • Riddle: \text{What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?}
    • Answer: \text{Man (a human who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and uses a cane in old age).}
  • The life-cycle mapping (as discussed):
    • \text{Morning} \rightarrow \text{Birth}
    • \text{Noon} \rightarrow \text{Midlife}
    • \text{Evening / Twilight} \rightarrow \text{Aging}
  • Thematic takeaway: you cannot escape fate; fate is a central driver of action in Greek tragedy.

Day Cycle and Life Cycle in Narrative Time

  • The instructor’s mapping of day segments to life stages:
    • Morning = birth/early life
    • Noon = youth and midlife
    • Afternoon / Evening / Twilight = aging and maturity
    • Midnight = death or culmination of a life process
  • This mapping helps interpret scenes and motifs (birth pains, midlife challenges, aging wisdom, and the climactic encounter with mortality).
  • Dylan Thomas reference: "Do not go gentle into that good night" ties to death and late-life urgency.

Seasonal Motifs in Literature

  • Seasons mirror mood, tone, and thematic direction:
    • Spring often signals hope or new beginnings, but not universally positive (Daisy Miller); spring can precede tragedy.
    • Summer can reflect fullness or heat of passion and conflict.
    • Autumn/Fall can symbolize decline, decay, or transition.
    • Winter often foreshadows death or moral bleakness (e.g., Game of Thrones’ perpetual winter; Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening as death foreshadowing).
  • Use of seasons to foreshadow or reinforce narrative arc.
  • Example: Daisy Miller uses spring imagery to set up expectations that are not fulfilled; the season contrasts with the tragedy.
  • Les Misérables example (catacombs) shows how seasonal or environmental imagery can deepen exposition and setting.

Thematic Devices: Narrative Time and Structure

  • Five-act structure and Freytag’s Pyramid (discussed on page 49 in the textbook):
    • Exposition: setting, characters, backstory; not always at the very beginning, can be dispersed to avoid predictability.
    • Inciting incident: the trigger that starts the main action.
    • Rising action: a series of events that intensify the conflict; often jagged, with intentional pauses or breather moments.
    • Climax: the highest point of tension or a decisive turning point; in five-act plays, often located in the middle. Examples: Hamlet’s play-within-a-play that shifts the protagonist toward action.
    • Falling action: consequences and aftermath leading toward resolution.
    • Resolution: final outcome, tying up of plots and character fates; some works leave threads unresolved.
  • Exposition challenges:
    • Traditional exposition can be dull; modern storytelling hooks readers early and distributes exposition across scenes to maintain attention.
  • Examples and illustrations used in class:
    • Night Mother (Marsha Norman) demonstrates rising tension with a single escalating scenario (a mother-daughter conversation about suicide) and minimal intermission; the director’s pacing keeps audience engaged in a tightly wound, emotionally intense journey.
    • The Cask of Amontillado (Casa Montiolato/Montressor) shows manipulation and control within a confined space (the catacombs and the house rules).
    • Les Misérables: long opening exposition about setting and historical context (catacombs) that rewards persistence with a rich reward for readers who persevere.
  • Practical note for writing: authors use hooks, pacing, and structure to maintain suspense and emotional engagement; exposition is often woven throughout rather than dumped at once.

Textbook and Course Guidance

  • Sample writings (starting page 37) include reading notes, response papers, and full essays; these are not mandatory but are useful templates.
  • Freytag’s pyramid visualization on page 49 (the class will reference and adapt it).
  • Discussion of additional readings and authors (Poe, Faulkner) as future material; Casa Montresor and Poe’s works will be revisited.
  • Reading assignments: complete the specified readings, then engage with the provided questions; the instructor will guide how to build analyses around those texts.
  • Final note: the day’s discussion connects to larger themes: narrative time, symbolism, culture, and the ethics of crowd behavior; students should consider both textual details and broader societal implications.

Quick Reference: Key Terms and Symbols from Today

  • Inciting incident: the event that sparks the main action.
  • Rising action: sequence of events building toward the climax.
  • Climax: peak of emotional intensity or a pivotal shift in mindset; often central in five-act structure.
  • Falling action and resolution: consequences leading to closure or open endings.
  • Freytag’s Pyramid: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
  • Sphinx riddle: a classical metaphor for human life stages; the answer is a human.
  • Day cycle as life cycle: morning (birth), noon (midlife), evening/twilight (aging), midnight (death).
  • Seasonal motifs: spring (hope/new beginnings or deceptive optimism), winter (death/doom), etc.
  • Mob mentality: crowd influence on individual behavior, with examples from sports, concerts, and historical events.
  • Symbolism: names, locations, and times as symbolic devices to convey deeper meaning.
  • Notable works referenced: Oedipus Rex (fate vs. free will), Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Cask of Amontillado (Casa Montiolato), Night Mother, Les Misérables, Game of Thrones, Daisy Miller, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Frost).

Note: The teacher emphasized reading and analyzing these ideas across texts, and to be prepared to discuss how the described structures and symbols appear in both classic and contemporary works.