Creation Narratives 

Are symbolic narratives of the origin of the world as understood in a particular culture, and 

attempt to examine or answer the indelible questions of human existence: 

          Why are we here?                                 

          What is our purpose? 

Features of the Creation Narrative: 

1. A supreme creator deity (ies). 

2. Describe various stages of creation and development. 

3. Recount the creation and purpose of mankind. 

4. Relate the purpose of and reinforce the structure of the society. 

5. Explain natural phenomenon 

The Politics of the Creation Narrative: 

Just as societies used the creation narrative to explain natural phenomenon, government leaders began to utilize these creation myths to authorize the structure and organization of the culture.  

Ideological State Apparatus is the term used by French, Marxist philosopher Althusser to refer to those agencies of the state which act to communicate to us the dominant ideology and persuade us to internalize it: 

        -The Family         -The Education System 

        -The Church         -The Political System 

        -The media           -The Legal System 

The Enuma Elish, The Babylonian Creation Epic c. 1500 BCE 
“When skies above were not yet named” 

The epic poem was composed c.1500 BCE, the text was recorded on seven tablets during the first millennium BCE. Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ("wedge shaped"). 

Yahweh, 950 BCE 

“In the beginning...”=The first five books of the Old Testament, or what is called the “Pentateuch,” were, according to Jewish and Christian traditions, attributed to Moses until relatively recent times. Today, most Biblical scholars agree that the Pentateuch is composed of at least four separate and distinct narratives written by different persons separated in time by in some cases hundreds of years. The narratives were communicated through oral tradition for generations before being gradually compiled and written down over a long period of time. 

The Four Creations, Hopi c. 1150 CE 

The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation located in northeastern Arizona. The reservation occupies part of Coconino and Navajo counties, encompasses more than 1.5 million acres, and is made up of 12 villages on three mesas. 

READING POETRY 

What is a poem? 

• A poem is a concise verbal snapshot of a poet’s thoughts and /or feelings. Poems work through the images they paint the sounds they create and the ideas they communicate. 

WE READ POETRY LIKE FICTION: 

• Consider the Title 

• What is the Subject of the poem? 

• Determine the Setting 

• Consider the Characters 

• Determine the Point of View 

• Determine the Tone 

• Determine the Images 

• Determine the Symbols 

• Determine the Theme 

THE ELEMENTS OF A POEM 

Poets combine sounds, images, and shapes to make a unique creation in words that communicate with us. 

The Music of Poetry: Its Sounds 

• Poetry needs to be read aloud. As you read, listen for words that rhyme and for a rhythm you can tap your fingers to, like music. Listen for words that imitate sounds you hear around you.  And listen for letter sounds that repeat 

The Images of Poetry: Its Images 

• As you read poetry, let the poet’s words paint pictures in your mind. Poet’s use sensory images to appeal to sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. 

• Poets often use comparisons that give you new ways of looking at familiar things. 

The Structure of Poetry: Its Shape 

• Pay attention to how the poet has placed the words on the page. A new stanza or verse may signal a change of focus or of tone. The poet may repeat lines or words to emphasize important ideas. 

Figures of Speech 

• Similes 

  • Similes use the words “like” or “as” to compare. 

  • For example, “The snowflakes were like lace.” 

• Metaphors 

  • Metaphors state a comparison without using the words “like” or “as”. 

  • For example, “The sun is a flaming torch in the desert sky.” 

• Allusions 

  • Allusion are references to a person or place, or a literary text or character that exists outside the text itself. 

  • For example, “His strengths were herculean.” (a reference to Hercules in Roman mythology ; a man of great strength) 

• Personification 

  • Personification is the description of an object as if it had human qualities or abilities. 

  • For example, “The wind whispered in the trees.” 

Sound Devices 

• Alliteration 

  • Alliteration is the repetition of a sound made by a consonant.  

  • For example, “sweetly singing softly” 

• Onomatopoeia 

  • Onomatopoeia is the use of a word to imitate the sound it names. 

  • For example, “buzz,” “plink,” “sizzle”

     Building Mood 

• Right from the beginning a poet can build mood.  Word choice, placement on the page, and incorporating suspense can all build the mood of a poem. 

 Vivid Language 

• Exciting verbs (action words), descriptive adjectives (words that illustrate nouns), and expressive phrases all contribute to a poet’s vivid use of language. 

SUMMARY 

• Listen for sounds (alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm) 

• Look for images/pictures, and sensory details 

• Examine the structure, shape, and punctuation 

• Search for figures of speech (similes, metaphors, personification) 

• Connect the ideas in the poem to your own personal thoughts and impressions 

 
Plot: The Structure of a Text 

Exposition – the introductory material that creates the tone, gives the setting, introduces the characters, and supplies other facts necessary to understanding the events that follow. 
 
Complication or Conflict – the struggle that grows out of the interplay of opposing forces. It provides interest, suspense, and tension. At least one of the opposing forces is customarily a person. This person, usually the protagonist, may be involved in conflicts in a number of different kinds: 

•  the struggle against nature  

•  the struggle for mastery by two elements within the person  

•  the struggle against another person, usually the antagonist  

•  the struggle against society  

•  the struggle against Fate or Destiny 

Rising Action – that part of the plot in which the entanglement caused by the conflict of opposing forces is developed. It is the tying of the knot to be untied in the resolution. 
 

Climax – the highest point of dramatic action where the reader makes the greatest emotional response. It is the turning point in the action, the crisis at which the rising action reverses and becomes the falling action. 

Denouement or Resolution – literally, “unknotting.” The final unraveling of a plot; the solution or outcome. It is usually an ingenious untying of the knot of an intrigue, involving not only a satisfactory outcome of the main situation but an explanation of all the secrets and misunderstandings connected with the plot’s complication. 

Analyzing Character   

Character—any personage in a literary work who acts, appears or is referred to as playing a part. Characters are often considered the most important element in literature as they drive the plot and allow the author to focus our attention on major subjects in the text. 

Major Characters: 

• Protagonist—Major character at the center of the story. 

• Antihero—a protagonist who works against our expectations of a traditional hero. Examples: Tony Soprano, Eric Cartman, Sawyer 

• Antagonist—A character or force that opposes or conflicts with the protagonist. 

Minor characters: 

Often provide support and illuminates the protagonist, shaping our interpretation of the major characters. Often act as Foils—characters who serve as contrast to another perhaps more primary character, so as to point out specific traits of the primary character. (Foils sometimes highlight traits by comparison). 

• Round character—a character who portrays psychological complexity 

• Flat character—a stock character who is simplistic and lacks complexity 

• Archetypes—characters that recur in myths and literature many ages. Examples: the hero, the outcast, the scapegoat, the crone 

• Static character—characters that recur in myths and literature many ages. Examples: the hero, the outcast, the scapegoat, the crone 

• Dynamic character—A character who changes in some important way.

Characterization—the means by which writers reveal character to the reader.  

• Explicit Judgment—Narrator gives facts and interpretive comments about characters 

• Implied Judgment—Narrator gives description but allows the reader to make judgments 

Oedipus Rex Sophocles, 428 BCE 

Actors on the Greek Stage 

The Chorus offers a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance, comments on main themes, and acts as an ideal audience reflecting the proper reaction to the drama. 

Costumes consisted of masks, robes and props that created character.  All actors were male, there were no women on the Greek stage. 

Aristotle’s Poetics 

Tragedy originally meant “goat-song” reflecting the religious origins of the art form. 

• The imitation of highly serious action 

• The language must be ornate 

• It must be presented in dramatic, not narrative form. 

• The hero must be noble of character who falls from grace through hamartia. 

• Characters will face great suffering and must make decisions of “ultimate” human consequence.  

The Characteristics of the Tragic Hero 

• The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and greatness.  The character must occupy a "high" status but must also embody nobility and virtue as part of his innate character. 

• However, the tragic hero is not perfect.  Otherwise, we would be unable to identify with him.  We should see him as someone who is essentially like us, although elevated to a higher position in society. 

• The hero's downfall, therefore, is partially his own fault, the result of free choice, not of accident or some malignant fate.  In fact, the tragedy is triggered by some error of judgment that contributes to the hero's lack of perfection. This error of judgment or is known as hamartia and is usually translated as "tragic error."  Often the character's hamartia involves hubris, the arrogance of godly pride. 

• The hero's misfortune is not wholly deserved, thus the punishment exceeds the crime. 

• The fall is not pure loss. There is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge, some discovery on the part of the tragic hero. 

• Though it arouses solemn emotion, tragedy does not leave its audience in a state of depression.  Aristotle argues that one function of tragedy is to arouse the "unhealthy" emotions of pity and fear and through a catharsis, which comes from watching the tragic hero's terrible fate, cleanse us of those emotions. 

• Dramatic irony occurs when the audience members know things that the characters do not know. For example: The audience knows that that Oedipus has murdered his father and married his mother—fulfilling the prophecy of the Oracle at Delphi. 

The Purpose of Tragedy 

The purpose of the tragedy is a catharsis –a purgation or cleansing of the tragic emotions of pity and fear. 

Tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in order to purge away their excess, to reduce these passions to a healthy, balanced proportion. Greek drama was not considered pure "entertainment;” it had a communal function--to contribute to the good health of the community. This is why dramatic performances were a part of religious festivals and community celebrations. 

“Know Thyself” 
“Fated to be Free, Free to be Fated” 

• A classic story of the quest for identity, Oedipus also debates fate and freewill. 

• Ancient people may have been impressed, or wanted to be impressed, by the fulfillment of prophecies, as this often alleviated fear and responsibility. 

• Believing in predestination frees people from worry. 

• Our identities often help shape the events of our lives in ways that may appear “predestined.” 

Aristotle’s Politics—the definition of democracy 

• The City is a political partnership that exists in order to allow citizens to live well 

• Correct regimes are those that look to the common good 

• A citizen is one who shares in making decisions and holding office 

• Citizens and leaders must not profit from holding office 

• The virtue of the citizens must preserve the regime 

• Education should be a public service and duty 

The Stoic Philosophy—nature is controlled by reason, which is identified with the gods. Events happen in accordance with divine reason, thus the wise man accepts what is and seeks to live in harmony with nature in universal brotherhood. 

• To attempt to control that which is not ours to control leads to contention with the gods. 

The Coming of Age Genre 

A type of narrative in which the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence. Some of the shifts that take place are: 

• ignorance to knowledge 

• innocence to experience 

• false view of world to correct view 

• idealism to realism 

• immature responses to mature responses 

Bildungsroman: a novel in which an adolescent matures into adulthood 

Impetus for the Genre 

• The Industrial Revolution 

• The Protestant Reformation 

• Democracy 

These three social revolutions lead to a rising middle class, and greater literacy rates, which further increased education and literacy and thus a demand for literature that reflected their values and experiences. 

By the latter half of the 18^th century, religious and political changes impacted the creative arts, and many novelists began to write texts that focused on the best ways for a young man to move from adolescence to adulthood. This form of novel was called the Bildungsroman, which we today call the coming of age story 
  

The Genre Constraints 

The Bildungsroman features a talented young man who: 

• Leaves home to get an education – both intellectual and sexual 

• Rebels against his culture 

• Falls in love and rededicates himself to learning 

• Returns home, marries, and settles into a career.  

Ideological State Apparatuses 

Term used by the French Marxist philosopher Althusser to refer to those agencies of the state which act to communicate to us the dominant ideology and persuade us to internalize it: 

        -The Family         -The Education System 

        -The Church        -The Political System 

        -The media          -The Legal System 

Throughout our lives we are initiated into the cultural ideology by these apparatuses and essentially internalizes these ideals as cultural and individual “truths.”