Lit class notes - Ash

Fiction (lesson 2)

Primary source (artistic object) and secondary source (critical text)

Literature is a body of written works, especially those of outstanding artists/aesthetic merit

Novel is the most important form of fiction (emerged in 18th century), epics are what novels used to be before

  • Epics - focus on the hero fulfilling a task in national or cosmic significance. Connects to history, religion and myth. Reflects on self-contained world view of their nationalities/periods

  • Modern times - what happened? Epics got replaced by novels. Traditional epics are written in verses, poetry which is difficult. Broad scope. Protagonist: heroics ideals, no individual traits

Fiction: Romance

  • Appeared even in classical times like Apuleius The Golden Ass 2nd century CE

  • From Middle Ages

  • Scope of a romance: action/plot focuses on goal

  • More detailed protagonist with individual traits and point of view

  • Linear plot structure (climax, no national/cosmic problems)

Fiction: Novel

  • Established in Spain 17th century

  • And England in 18th century

Elements of the romance but also rooted epic

Some early English Novels are:

  • Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Clarissa, Tom Jones…

Novel portrays individualism and realism. Settings are historical and geographical reality. But the protagonist: epic hero with individual/realistic traits. A real person instead of a hero who kills dragons. Reflects the social tendencies of the 18th century, problems of those times.

Literary criticism;

  • Literary history vs poetics

Reason for the rise of the literature;

  • Realistic

  • Personal

  • Mass production (available and cheaper books for the broad public)

  • Rise of the educated middle class

  • Economic basis - writing as a profession, new careers

Types of novels;

Picaresque novel - hero vs norm of the society

Bildungsroman - development from a child to adult

Epistolary novel - letters for first-person narration

Historical novel - realistic historical context

Satirical Novel

Utopian Novel

Gothic Novel - aesthetic of fear and haunting

Detective Novel

Short story (concise form of prose fiction. Less attention from scholars. Roots/forerunners) also 18th century

Tales, oral stories, narrative cycles for middle ages

George Eliot - she used a male name to sell her books. She was a novelist and a poet, also doing translations

Short stories - in medias res (jump right in without any specific beginning), one point of view, plot is highly selective, less details, written in one sitting

Novella/Novelette - not really a novel but neither a short story. Too short for a novel but too long for a short story

Important terms in prose fiction

  • Plot

Formalist focuses on plot and narrative

Logical interaction of thematic elements

Leads to change of original situation

Four (up to six) levels - linear plot line

Examples (The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Red Dragon, Pride and Prejudice, Hunger Games)

Flashbacks and foreshadowing (past and future) like Secret History

The Drama of the Absurd/Experimental novel

Non linear narrative (Little Women, Secret History)

  • Time

  • Character

Psychological approach focuses on the characters (flat character or individualized/round character)

Characters are usually mixed up as both flat and round due to narrative’s filter

Dramatic characterization

Unreliable narrator

  • Setting

Identifies the location, historical period, social surroundings, time and place to support the action, the characters and the perspective

  • Narrative Perspective

Point of view

Events, settings and characters

Three basic form point of view (first person, third person)

First person focuses on the protagonist or minor character, told through their eyes, what is going on around them

“Call me Ishmael”

Omniscient point of view (third person):

Unspecified narrator

All knowing God-like protagonist

Stream of consciousness technique (what the narrator feels, inner dialogue - to show the inner world of the character)

(Post)Modernist novels mixes all those techniques

  • Style

Poetry

One of the oldest genres; Ancient Greek literature

  • Poetry related to the term lyric (connects to lyra), connected to music. Lyra used to be played to recite poetry

  • “Poeio” means to make in greek

  • Verse is first line

Traditional poetry;

  • Verse

  • Rhyme

  • Metre

Sub categories of poetry;

- Narrative poetry (tells a story)

- Lyric poetry (conveys emotions)

The precursors of ancient poetry can be found in riddles and charms (cultic spells). ALSO music as medium (medieval english songs; Sumer Is Icumen In)

  • Onomatopoeia - word formed to mimic a sound

Bob Dylan is considered “the poet” because his songs can be compared to poems. Won a nobel prize in literature

Classical forms of poetry:

- Sonnet

- Ode (to celebrate a person, place or am event)

- Elegy (ancient form of poetry used in the old english period, talking about death of a dear person)

Image(ry) “imago” is latin for picture. Refers to visual components of the poem.

  • Lexical-thematic dimension

- The issues of a narrator expect its voice or speaker. Author himself plays the big part in poems

- Structure difference, poetic form of language (rhyme rhymes) – Poetic language

- Concrete nouns/scenes/images

- Images can function as symbols

Conventional Symbol - a symbol that is commonly known

Private Symbol - when a poet or an author creates a symbol on their own

-Simile (a figure of speech comparison of two different things using like, as) and metaphors (equation is one thing with another without the actual comparison)

Tenor(object) and Vehicle (image) “my love is like a red rose”, tenor is love and vehicle is rose

20th century started - movement of imagism

“Condensation” (reducing poetry to powerful images)

Haiku

  • Visual dimension

- Poem’s shape and visual appearance

- Chiasmus comes from the Greek letter chi which is X ex; "Those that mind don't matter, those that matter don't mind”.

  • Rhythmic-acoustic dimension

- Elements that have their own meaning

- Poet can produce a sound or tone directly related to content of his statement

- Sounds

  • Meter and rhyme

  • Syllables

To analyze a poem:

  • Divide the line into syllables

  • Identify stressed and unstressed

  • Divide the line into feet (try find the pattern; like unstressed and stressed/unstressed stressed always connected with each other)

Iambus

Anapest

Trochee

Dactyl

Meter; Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter and so on…

Internal rhymes;

  • Alliteration

repetition of the same sound at the start of a series of words in succession whose purpose is to provide an audible pulse that gives a piece of writing a lulling, lyrical, and/or emotive effect.

  • Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together in a sentence or verse

End rhymes

Eye rhyme

Analyze a poem;

Divide the first line into syllables

Identify stressed and unstressed

Find pattern (unstressed and stressed and etc)

Find the number of feet in in the first line (to find the meter)

Drama

Originates from Ancient Greece.

Drama (dramatic or performing arts is another name)

William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe (revived and developed classical forms)

Types; tragedy, Comedy and History

Three interdependent levels of play;

  • Text

  • Transformation

  • Performance

Aside (when the character breaks away from the events of the play to talk to himself or the audience, unheard by the other characters)

Three unities connected to plot; Action, Place, Time (when, where, what)

Acts and Scenes help for a play to have linear and logical plot

Original dramas had five acts, then four and now we usually have three

The Theatre of Absurd forsakens all of that!

The director’s job is to make sure the target audience is satisfied

Different types of stages; classical Greek amphitheater, Elizabethan theater (Shakespeare performed there, the scenery was left for people’s imagination), Modern Theatre (props and scenery, took a shape of a box you look into)

Methodological training is a new modern thing, with training, methods and etc.

Two basic theoretical approaches (External method - showing but not actually feeling and internal - when the actor identifies and actually feels the emotions)

Chorus - centerpiece of classical drama (medea)

Choir - Elizabethan theater (filling time gasps and informing the audience)

Women used to not be allowed in theater

Film

Drama and film and both are “performing arts” since they both use actors.

Movie is a number of individual images played one after the other. Always 24 pictures.

Most essential elements; Space, Sound and Time

Framing (close up, medium, long shot (western)) distance between camera and object, arrangement of visual elements

Camera angle - makes a character appear in a certain way (high angle)

Spatial dimensions

Montage - effects similar to metaphor/simile in lit

Temporal Dimension; Slow motion, Fast motion, Passing of time, Temporal Dimension, Parallel, Actual length of movie, Dragging out