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Emese Boda

(1)Literature and literary study

Literature: a vague term, definition is problematic:- 1. Everything written/ in print?(L.: littera-letter) disregards oral traditions, includes all kinds

of writing.

- 2. Great books involves value judgement ( often includes works of historians, philosophers,politicians, scientists, etc.)

- 3. Best: Imaginative literature

Literature: is an art, a creative activity. Its medium is language, in a different (from everyday)

use expressive (tone and attitude); sound symbolism (meter, sound patterns). It has differentreferentiality (to a world of fiction). organization, personal expression, exploitation of medium,

lack of practical purpose, fictionality.

Literary study: study of literature, literary texts: if not precisely a science, a species of knowledge, or of

learning (Wellek-Warren, Theory of Literature). ~ is a controversial term, field of study the nature of its

subject is artistic so the nature of criticism is something of an art, too it cannot be an exact scienceitself (there are no natural or universal laws in this field). ideas arising about the critic as a parasite.

- Arguments against criticism: - the critic is a second-rate artist- criticism is a parasitic activity

- criticism is artificial public taste is natural

- art is a mystery cannot be interpreted- Arguments for criticism: - a critic is a useful person, who makes pieces of art more consumable- ~ translates the experience of literature intellectual terms, assimilates it into a coherent scheme

- ~ has its own valid methods, which do not necessarily meet scientific requirements (posed by

scientists) but is able to convey valid knowledge.- Three main fields of ~-s : - Literary theory

- Literary criticism- Literary history

a; Literary theory: studies the principles, categories, criteria of Literature. Provides the

universal terms, the basis of L. criticism and L. history.

b; Literary criticism: interpretation of concrete works of Literature.c; Literary history: interpretation of works of literature in a chronological framework.

- Literary criticism and literary history are closely interrelated, and interdependent

(2)Elements of literature: rhythm and metre

Although Literature is divided into genres and categories, there are some common elements. Rhythm

is present in most types of writings, but most easily observable in poetry. Rhythm : regular pattern of change; an arranged order of stressed aand unstressed syllables. Rhythm

has a power of its own (e.g. lullabies, charms, etc.) and can contribute to the meaning besidesunderlying the musicality of the text. (Blake: Tyger (the tense rhythm suggests the beats of

hammering) Differences in the units of rhythm in verse / in prose- Verse rhythm: Unit of rhythm is the line; and is created by the use of meters./- Prose rhythm: Unit of rhythm is the sentence, may or may not be regular.

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Metre : the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that creates rhythm in verse . 3 types: 1.

syllabic, 2. quantitative, 3. accentual- Verse systems /versification: - there are different verse systems/types of versification in poetry:

Syllabic: metres are based on the number of syllables per line (not natural in Germanic lang.)

Quantitative: metres are based on the duration of syllables (short and long) possible, not

common

Accentual: (temhangslyos) based on stress, the alteration of stressed (heavy) and

unstressed (light) syllables the most common in English poetry since Renaissance- Base: regular rhythmic pattern, independent of words, an abstract pattern, the base must be

dominant esp. towards the end of the line (The last foot is the base)- Modulation: departure from the base, the abstract pattern;. Line: consists of metrical feet.- Foot: A group of syllables forming a metrical unit; a unit of rhythm. A line consists of metrical

feet.- - Base feet :- Rising feet: iamb (x / ), anapaest (x x /)- Falling feet (ereszked): trochee (/ x), dactyl ( / x x)

Feet used only in modulation:

Spondee: //, Pyrrhic (or dibrach): x x, Choriambus:/ x x /

hexameter: dactyl + spondee: / x x / / (t ti ti t t)

Stress patterns : 3 major factors define the stress:

- Accent - the pattern of polysyllabic words (e.g. descending x / x)- Rhetorical accent: in monosyllabic words: its grammatical function (major word classes: nouns,

verbs, adjectives, adverbs have stronger stress than minor word classes: articles, prepositions, etc.)

- metrical accent the stress pattern of the line

Strong stress metres : only the strong stress counts; the number of unstressed syllables may vary

Lines : Classified according to the number of feet contained.

- Monometer: a line consisting of one metrical foot; Dimeter (2), Trimeter 3)Tetrameter(4)

- Pentameter (5), Hexameter(6), Heptameter(7), Octameter(8) feet

The most common in English poetry is the iambic pentameter.

- End-stopped line: concludes with a distinct syntactical pause.- Run-on line (enjambment): sense carried over into the next line without a syntactic pause.- Caesura: a marked (||) pause within the line (dictated by the natural rhythm of the language

and/or enforced by punctuation)

Stanza : a strophe, a group of lines of verse / grouping of a prescribed number of lines, usually with a

particular rhyme scheme, repeated as a unit of structure.

Most common stanza types: Couplet (a stanza consisting of2 lines), triplet/tercet, (3 lines)

quatrain (4 lines) /heroic abab, ballad abxb/, sestet (6 lines), octave (8 limes)

Blank verse: poetry that has a fixed rhythm but does not rhyme (~ unrhymed iambic pentameter)

Free verse: no regular meter, no rhyme (~ no regular metre)

Paragraph: grouping of lines, varying length of units, no fixed number of lines

(3). Elements in literature: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

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Figurative language: departure from the standard meaning of words (tvitt rtelem) or from the standard

order of words. (Language which uses figures of speech; must be distinguished from literal language.)

Includes:- Figures of thoughtor tropes (szkp): change in meaning (figurative as opposed to literal

meaning, e.g. irony)- Figures of speech or rhetorical figures (PL. szrendcsere): change in the order or position of

words; it does not alter the meanings of words.Types of literary images: (about 250 figures)

Allegory : Abstract quality personified

Two meanings: Image = (abstract quality personified); Narrative = (a story in verse or prose with a double

meaning: a primary or surface meaning; and a secondary or undersurface meaning, correspondence betweenthem in terms of character, action and place,) e.g. J. Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress (17th century; Christian

s pilgrimage to the Celestial /~ gi, mennyei/ city)

Anaphora: repetition of a word or groups of words at the beginning of successive clauses

Epiphora: repetition of a word or groups of words at the end of successive clauses

Anticlimax: a deliberate destroying of high respectation

Apostrophe: addressing someone or something not directly present or listening

Metaphor : one thing is expressed in terms of another; a comparison is usually implicit, whereas insimile it is explicit (~ compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as.")(~ Language

that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject

as beingorequal to a second object in some way.)Explicit ~: tenor and vehicle (All the worlds a stage)

Tenor = general idea

Vehicle = pictorial image

Implicit ~: vehicle only (golden daffodils)

Dead ~: became so commom that it is no longer considered a metaphor (arm of a chair)

+ mixed (leaps from one identification to an other identification which is inconsistent with the first)&

extended metaphors (the principle subjects of the metaphor are extended, the metaphor is carried on)

Metonymy : the name (e.g. xerox) or an attribute of a thing stands for the thing itself/ in which a word orphrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated with (such as crown for royalty,Washington for the government of the US

Palindrome: A word or sentence (occasionally a verse) which reads the same both ways.

(civic, level, rotor etc.)

Onomatopoeia: vocal imitation of sound

Prosopopoeia /~personification/: human qualities are attributed to nonhuman agents

Simile: explicit comparison with as or like

Synecdoche : the part stands for the whole or the whole stands for the part, and thus something

else is understood within the thing mentioned (e.g. Give us this day our daily breadwhere

bread stands for the meals taken each day. Tautology: redundant words or ideas

Kenning: a descriptive phrase standing for the ordinary name for a thing; e.g.whale-road& sail-roadin Beowulf both stand for the sea.

Invocation: addressing a god or a muse to assist the poet in his work

Rhetorical question: a q. asked to achieve a stronger emphasis than a direct statement would

give

Literary images : are not simply used for ornamentation, but also when language is felt to beinsufficient to express what is meant. Basis of imagery: sensation. Signifier & Signified .

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Analogue & Subject ./ Vehicle (pictorial image & Tenor (general idea) .

Classification of literary images: Basis of imagery:

1.a Relationship between analogue and subject: (vehicle tenor): similarity: Images of similarity: simile,metaphor, allegory, prosopopoeia

b. Relationship between analogue and subject: (vehicle tenor) : contiguity, Images of contiguity /~

egymsmellettisg/: synecdoche, metonymy

2. Sensory field: visual (majority) auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory

Analogue: A word or thing similar or parallel to another. As a literary term it denotes a story forwhich one can find parallel examples in other languages and literature. (~ A work which resembles

another in terms of one or more motifs, characters, scenes, phrases or events. ORAn individual

motif, character, scene, event or phrase which resembles one found in another work.)

Subject:?

Symbol : not an image in the narrow sense of the word only vehicle /pictorial image/ apparent,tenor /general idea/: rather a broad field of associations.

In contrast with other images or metaphors a symbol is rather repetitive and constant in nature. A metaphor

can become a symbol by constant repetition of both the vehicle and the tenor.A word or a phrase that signifies an object or event which in turn signifies something, or has a range or

reference, beyond itself. An object that refers to another object but demands attention also in its own right, as

a presentation.- Conventional/public symbols the Cross ;- private symbols inpoetry

Myth: an anonymously composed story of origins and destinies. The supernatural - the natural; thedivine - the human; a record of fundamental human experience. Use of myth in Modernist literature

(Joyce: Ulysses). Myth criticism viewing all works of literature as recurrences of archetypes and mythic

formulas.

(4)Elements of Literature: sound patterns

Literary language utilises sound symbolism by using the potential musicality of language.

Devices of verbal music are:

Alliteration: close repetition of identical speech sounds (mainly consonants) at the beginning

of words. The principal organising device in Anglo-Saxon poetry, later used only for special

stylistic effects.

Assonance: close repetition of identical vowels between different consonants. (child of silence)

Consonance: close repetition of identical consonants with different vowels. More frequent

type: similar vowels followed by identical consonants = slant rhyme /flower fever, hell heel

/similarity instead of identity

Rhyme: the identity of the last stressed vowel and of all the speech sounds following it. (face place)

The most common sound pattern. Aesthetic satisfaction (echoing sounds) and structural importance

(intensifying meaning, binding the verse together).

Types of rhyme:

Masculine: single stressed syllable; face - place

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Feminine: stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable; daughters - waters

Single, double, triple,

internal (~ within a line),

end, perfect (~ is the identity of the last stressed vowel and all following sounds of two or more words or

phrases (fish/dish, smiling/filing), eye /prove- love/ (~homographic endings),

slant (flower fever) /approximate/suspended /:similarity rather than identity~either the vowel

segments are different while the consonants are identical, or vice versa /

Rhyme scheme: the sequence of rhymes represented by the letters of the alphabet (abab, cdcd, etc.)

(5)Theory of genres

Aristotle: Art is the imitation of nature (mimesis), the arts differ from each other in 3 respects:

- medium

- object (subject)

- manner and mode / of imitation

Medium: the material vehicle of art, which determines its possibilities and limitations accounts fordifferences between arts : written and plastic / visual arts; temporal (moving in time) and spatial (moving

in space).

Genre: type of species of literature; theory of genres: classifying literature by specifically literary types

of organization and structure. Numerous categories- Earliest (and still prevailing) theory: Aristotle: epic (narrative), lyric, drama.Differentiation according to manner and mode (when the medium and the object is the same) The

poet can may imitate by narration (epic), can speak in his own person (lyric) or may present the

characters as living persons moving before us (drama).

Northrop Frye (made 42 categories) used the Aristotelian basic categories + added fiction that supposes a

reader drama, epos, fiction, lyric differentiation based on the supposed presence or absence of an

audience: drama spectators present, the concealment of the writer from the audience; epos recited infront of an audience; fiction written for readers; lyric the audience is concealed from the poet. Epos

and novel (when reading out) are interrelated.

Other ideas: defining the categories in grammatical terms (R. Jakobson): lyric: first person singular, presenttense; epic: third person singular, past tense.

- More general view: 3 overall classes in literature: poetry, fiction, drama- Most common genres: epic, tragedy, comedy, satire, lyric, biography, essay, novel. From Renaissance to

18th century neoclassicism categories should be kept pure, no mixing; hierarchy between categories: with

tragedy and epic on the top. From Romanticism onwards categories more flexible, no hierarchy.

(6)Poetry: Narrative and Lyric

Poetry: comprehensive term for metrical composition.

Types of poetry:

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- 1. epic /narrative (poetry)

- 2. lyric (poetry)

- 3. dramatic (poetry)

- 4. satirical (poetry)

Generally: narrative and non-narrative poetry (Aristotles epic and lyric)

1. Narrative (epic) poetry: the narrative poem tells a story. European literature begins with this:

Homer non-literate societies oral tradition.

types of ~

- Epic

- Ballad (folk and literary ballads)

- Metrical romance (The Canterbury tales)

2. Lyric poetry : essentially non-narrative poetry. Deals with feelings, emotions, thought, moods. There

might be a narrative base (a story), but the focus is not this. (Wordsworth: I wandered lonely

- Elements of lyric poetry:

- Theme

- Tone (The poets/authors attitude towards his theme or audience)

- Voice(What we hear in the poem.) T.S. Eliot: There are 3 kinds of voices: 1. The poet talking to

himself or nobody; 2. The poet addressing an audience; 3. The poet creates a dramatic character

speaking in verse. (That conveys the poems tone)

- Speaker

- Persona (the invented speaker /A character invented for a particular purpose, not equivalent with

the author

Emotion: central concern in lyric poetry; the way emotion is expressed. Relationship between

thought and emotion Schiller: originally they were not separated (Golden Age)

3. Dramatic poetry : the third voice (Eliot) (an invented character speaks in an invented situation.

- 2 major genres: - Dramatic monologue (an imaginary character addresses an imaginary

audience, revealing his character.)

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- Dramatic lyric (the speakers thoughts reveled, not his character)

4. Satiric poetry : satire in verse popular in the late 17th century (Pope)

Poetic diction the language of poetry. The characteristic language use, choice of words, phrases ofa poet; Also may refer to the general poetic language of a period:

- Neo classicism, 18th century decorum (diction suited to the genre, frequent use of archaism,

invocation, personification Pope

(7)Drama I. Tragedy

Drama: literary work in prose or verse (written in dialogues) meant to be performed on a stage by

actors (by contrast, closet drama is for reading not for presenting on the stage). It has two maintypes: tragedy and comedy. Later categories are tragicomedy, mystery, miracle, morality, chronicle

play, romance. Origins: Greece 6th century BC; festivals for Dionysus.

Tragedy, comedy: The genre oftragedy is Aristotles main concern in his Poetics.. Briefly a noble

action of noble characters. A dramatic presentation (imitation) of serious actions that turns out

disastrously for the protagonist. Tragedy arouses pity and fear in the spectator and after the climax

there comes a sense of release from tension, which he called catharsis (purgation). Aristotle defined 6

element s for tragedy: External elements: 1.spectacle (spectacular presentment, scenery, costumes,

etc.), 2.lyrical song, 3. diction, and Internal elements: 4. plot, 5. character, 6. thought (the main

idea).

Comedy: Aristotle distinguishes it from tragedy by saying that it deals in an amusing way with

ordinary people in rather everyday situations. It has a happy ending for the main characters.

Renaissance theory of comedy: it teachesgood behavior by negative examples. There is a later

distinction between high comedy (that evokes intellectual laughter) and low comedy (simply

physical actions produce comic effects: farce, commedia dellarte).

Tragedy Comedy

- noble action - everyday situations

- noble characters (represents people as - ordinary people (represents people as

better than than they are) worse than they are)

- tragic ending - happy ending

- serious representation - amusing representation

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Diction: One of the 6 elements of tragedy (Aristotle) referring to the way the language of the play is

delivered by the actors.

Plot:simple or complex: Plot the most important of the 6 elements. It is the representation of

human actions. Plots can be simple or complex, but a successful tragedy should have a complex plot.

The plot must be unified, clearly displaying a beginning, a middle and an end. It must be long enough

to fully represent the course of actions but not so long that the audience loses interest. Simple plot:

Simple plots have only a change of fortune (catastroph). The change of fortune in the

protagonists life takes place without reversal of the situation and without recognition. Complex

plot: The change is accompanied by reversal and/or recognition.

Reversal, recognition: Reversal of fortune (Peripeteia-Gr.sudden change), a fall. (In the plot) a

sudden, unexpected change of fortune usually from prosperity to ruin. This change is not a result of

vice, but of some great error or frailty of the protagonist. Ignorant does not know enough (hamartia

or hubris). Recognition (Anagnorisis): gaining of the essential knowledge that was previously

lacking, a change from ignorance to knowledge.

Hamartia, hubris: Hamartia some great error of judgement that results in Reversal. Hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence) shortcoming in the heros character that leads him to ignore

the warnings of Gods.

Catharsis: (purgation) discharge of bad emotions (pity and fear). Relief from tension and anxiety

at the end of tragedy (Whether it refers to the character or the audience is dubious).

The unity of the plot /according to Aristotle: The plot must be unified (complete) clearly

displaying a beginning, middle and an end. It shouldnt contain negligible details of the heros life.

Misunderstanding Aristotles suggestions on the preferable brevity of time of the action French and

Italian neo-classicists created a strict canon of the three unities: The unified action must take place in

a single day and in a single place.

Characters /dramatis personae/: protagonist, antagonist: One of the 6 required elements of

tragedy (Aristotle). Protagonist is the first, principal character in a play. The antagonist creates

obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. In ancient tragedy the chorus had a role, as well.

Setting: The where and when of a story or a play. In drama the term may refer to the scenery or the

props.

Comic relief: Comic elements or interludes to relieve the tension or heighten the tragic element by

contrast. (cf. Hamlet, the gravediggers conversation in Act V) In ancient tragedy there were nocomic elements.

Senecan tragedy, Revenge tragedy, tragedy of blood, heroic tragedy, bourgeois tragedy or

domestic tragedy: - These are types of tragedies.

- Senecan tragedy the closet dramas of the Roman Seneca (1st cent.AD) had a great influence on

the Elizabethan tragedians, who accepted them as stage plays.

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- Revenge tragedy A Renaissance genre of drama. In the centre of the plot is the heros attempt

to avenge some previous wrong by killing the wrongdoer. Involves a great deal of bloodshed.

(Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy);

- Tragedy of blood - an intensified form of the Revenge Tragedy popular on the Elizabethan stage.

- Heroic tragedy most popular during the English Restoration aand is about the torment of a

noble heroic protagonist who has to choose between love and patriotic duties.

- Bourgeois or domestic tragedy a play typically about middle class or lower middle

class life, the private, intimate matters within the family. Popular in the Tudor and Jacobian era.

(Shakespeare: Othello) Bourgeois tragedies developed in the 18th century with the emergence of

the bourgeous class- its protagonists are ordinary citizens.

(8)Drama II. Comedy and other forms

Comedy: farce, comedy of manners, comedy of humours, comedy of ideas, comedy of intrigue,

comedy of menace, comedy of morals, satirical comedy:

- Farce:a form of low comedy, whose intention is simply to provoke roars of laughter (not smile),

using exaggerated phisical actons, characters, absurd situations.

- Comedy of manners: - or Restoration comedy is preoccupied with the behavioral codes of the

middle and upper classes and is often marked by elegance, wit and sophistication. (Oscar Wilde:

The Importance of Being Earnest)

- Comedy of humours: - (late 16th early 17th cen.) presented humorous characters whose actions

were ruled by a particular passion oe trait or humour. (Ben Jonson)

- Comedy of ideas: - Plays that tend to debate ideas and theories in a witty and humorous manner.

(G.B. Shaw: Man and Superman)

- Comedy of intrigue: - A form of comedy which depends on an intricate plot full of surprises nad

tends to subordinate character to plot. (Beaumarchais)

-Comedy of menace: - A kind of play in which the characters feel that they are (or they actuallyare) frightened by some obscure force or power. The fear and menace becomes the source of (sort

of black) comedy. (Pinter: The Birthday Party)

- Comedy of morals: - Satyrical comedy designed to ridicule and correct vices like hypocricy,

pride, greed, social pretensions, simony (egyhzi javakkal val zrkeds), and nepotism.

(Molire)

- Satirical comedy: - A form of comedy whose purpose expose, criticize and ridicule the follies,

vices and shortcomings of society, and of people who represent that society. (Jonson: Volpone)

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Tragi-comedy ordark/black comedy: - It mingles the subject matter and the forms of comedy and

tragedy. Characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Characters are of both high and low

degree, typically, the final tragedy is prevented by an abrupt reversal of circumstance.

Mystery play, miracle play, morality, interlude: - Genres of Medieval drama which developed

independently from antique drama. Originates in Christian tradition parts of the liturgy were

elaborated as chanting between priest and choir, later this developed into performance. Moving

gradually out of the church into the marketplace led to secularization.

- Mistery plays: - based on the stories of the Bible, mainly concerned with the Creation, the Fall

and Redemption.

- Miracle plays: - later developed from Mystery plays, dramatizing saints lives and divine

miracles, or miraculous interventions by the Virgin.

- Morality plays: - did not deal with Biblical stories, but presented personified abstractions of

virtues and vices struggling for mans soul.

- Interlude: - a type of morality play, but more secular. General moral problems are treated in anallegorical way with more realistic and comic element. Interludes marked the transition from

medieval religious drama to Renaissance drama. Renaissance rediscovered classical antique

drama, influencing the native tradition.

The theatre of the absurd a term applied to many of the works of a group of dramatists who were

active in the 1950s: Adamow, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Pinter, etc. These works rejected all basic

traditional elements, concepts of conventional plays, such as plot, (round) characters, well-grounded

motivations, different language, conflict, logical dialogues and a causative plotline developing from

A to B (In Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot, for example, famously, nothing happens).

They emphasize the absurdity of human existence, the impossibility of human actions fulfilling a

purpose,(life with no purpose) the struggle of human beings in a hostile and irrational universe; life

with no apparent purpose, basically: meaningless life in a meaningless universe (Ideas of Albert

Camus, who wrote the Myth of Sisyphus, 1942) Roots in expressionism and surrealism. Godot:

theres no change change is only an illusion; cyclical pattern

(Act, scene, dialogue, monologue soliloquy)

- act is a unit of drama. The number of acts can range from 1 to 5. Until the 18th century, most

plays were divided into 5 acts. Between acts the scenery, the setting may change.

- scene Each act is subdivided into scenes.

- dialogue a conversation in a play (short story, novel)

- monologue - a speech by a single character without another characters the response soliloquy-

a speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the

stage.

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(9)Fiction

Fiction is a vague and general term for an imaginary work, usually in prose. Common meaning

fiction = an invented story = not fact (euhemerism, by contrast, treats myths as based on actual reality. Greekmythographer Euhemerus thought that Greek Gods had formerly been great kings or heroes who were later deified by

admirers, and mythological accounts are reflections of historical events.) In the most general sense, fiction refers

to any kind of prose narrative: short story, novel, romance, novella/novelette.

Elements of fiction: story, plot, character, experience, time, point of view

Short story, novella/novelette, novel, romance are kinds of fiction.

- short story is problematic to define (how short it should be?) Poes solution: that can be read

between hour and 2 hours. Less complex than a novel, with usually one line of action, few

characters (of whom only one or two are well-drawn). Minimizing the exposition and the details

of setting, focusing on the selected central incident that reveals a great deal of the totality of the

life and the character of the protagonist. Each detail is of great significance.

- novella/novelette Originally a novella was a kind of short story developed by Boccaccio.

Decameron was a collection of such short stories. In general, a fictional tale in prose,

intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel. novelette a work of

prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Often used derogatorily of

cheap fiction, sentimental romances and thrillers of little literary merit.

- novel an extended work of prose fiction with a more complicated plot (or plots), greater variety

of characters, subtle exploration of character, motive and circumstance. A relatively new genre.

- romance originally all romances were written in verse, then, gradually in prose. Basically a

form of entertainment. It is usually about improbable events involving characters who live in a

courtly world somewhat remote from everyday. (Typical theme: a knight on a quest, etc.)

Relatively recent genre in its present form. Antique (Roman) precedents. (Petronius, Apuleius).

In the Middle Ages: versed romances. Modern European novel: 16th, 17th century (Rabelais,

Cervantes; England: early 18th

century Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson.

Story: - mere sequence of events

Plot; exposition, body, conclusion: - a compositional whole, an artistic arrangement of events

casual link between the events that make up the story. The elements of the plot-structure: exposition,

body, conclusion.

- exposition: - or beginning - setting up the story (setting, introduction of characters)

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- body or middle the major action containing conflict and complication.

- conclusion - the outcome of the story, the end.

Suspense, surprise, dnouement Suspense is created when action (what is going to happen next)

is in doubt. Surprise what happens violates our expectation. Dnouement a series of events that

follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story.

Organic plot , inorganic plotorganic plot - events are related by cause and effect, develop

organically towards resolution of conflict, favorable to main characters. Inorganic plot perception

of life as endless series of crises, no conclusion, no resolution, a coherent story/plot would be

distortion of life. (no apparent faith in divine dispensation.);

Flat and round characters: types of character

Flat characters are built around a single idea or quality. They do not change in the course of a story or

play (static), and can be described in one single sentence.

Round characters are more complex, show development (dynamic), and capable of surprising thereader in a convincing way.

Caricature, type, stereoty

- caricature a portrait which ridicules a character by exaggerating and distorting his most

prominent features and characteristics.

- type A literary character with traits that are commonly associated with a particular class of

people, thus not a real individual.- a flat character.

- stereotype - an oversimplified (flat) character representing a type, a gender, a class, an

occupation, etc., based on prior assumptions. (e.g. the dumb blonde)

Experience: external and internal: - external experience: adventure, internal experience takes place

in the characters psych. Modernism has made a shift from the external to the internal.

External/objective and internal/subjective time: - External time is that of the clock. The time of

external experience, dominant in older type of fiction. Internal time is that of the mind. Subjective

and objective time may be represented simultaneously (Joyce: Ulysses)

Time-shift: - a broken chronology, moving back and forth in the objective time.

Point of view: The narrative technique that the writer uses to tell the story. In other words, who is

telling the story.

- 1st and 3rd person narratives1st person narrative the narrator is one of the characters (a

minor or a major character), the most limited; 3rd person narrative the author is the narrator

(doesnt appear in the story as a character), either omniscient or limited.

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Types of narrators:

- omniscient narrator or: all-knowing 3rd person narrator sees into the mind of all characters,

having access to their thoughts, feeling and motives

- limited narrator sees the events of the story through the eyes of a single character.

- self-conscious narrator: - reveals to the reader that the narration is a work of fiction.

- unreliable narrator the perceptions and interpretations of the narrator do not coincide with the

implicit opinions and norms of the author.

Stream of consciousness: - a narrative technique where the narrator represents the continuous flow

of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, associations or memories, in a word: the mental processes of the

character. Typical technique of Joyce, V. Woolf, Faulkner.

Setting: - the where and when of the story.

Local colour: - the use of details characteristic of a specific (real or fictive) region, to specify the

background, the social milieu the character comes from.

Consistency (and credibility) approaching the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.

Types of novel:

- Picaresque: - (picaro Spanish thief)- humorous novel about the misadventures of a knave, told

in a loose, episodic structure of comic, satiric scenes. (Fielding: Jonathan Wild)

- Gothic novel: - tales of mystery and horror, designed to thrill readers. Popular in late 18 th and

early 19th century. Stock elements (desolate landscapes, ancient buildings, torture chambers,

secret doors, young, handsome heroes, fainting heroines, etc. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein.

- Historical novel: - where fictional characters take part in real historical events, interact with

historical figures of the past. Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe.

- Bildungsroman: - education novel, the development of the protagonist from childhood to

maturity. Dickens: David Copperfield.

- Knstlerroman: - the development of an artist from childhood to maturity. Joyce: A Portrait of an

Artist as a Young Man.

- Documentary: - a novel based on documentary evidence. Dreiser: An American Tragedy

- Psychological novel: - focusing on the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters.

- Epistolary novel: written in the forms of letters. Richardson: Pamela

- Key novel: - actual persons presented under fictive names. Huxley: Point Counter Point

- Anti-novel: - a form of experimental fiction, (term of J-P Sartre). Breaks with conventional story-

telling methods; little attempt to create and illusion of realism. Works of Nabokov.

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An outline of British literature

Beginnings:

Anglo-Saxonperiod (ca. 449-1066)

- alliterative meter, heroic poetry, religious poetry, prose (chronicles, etc.)

Middle Englishperiod (1066 end of 15th cent) aristocracy French-speaking Normans; revival

of interest in English: 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer. Romances, dream allegories, medieval

drama

Renaissance (16th early 17th century) Humanism. Drama: tragedy, comedy, chronicle plays. Poetry:

sonnets (Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser. Metaphysical poets: John Donne(early 17th cent), Ben Jonson, John Milton.

Restoration 1660. John Dryden. Restoration drama another flourishing period of drama. 18th

century Neo-classicism strict principles of form and decorum. Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson.

Beginnings of the English novel (Richardson, Fielding). Enlightenment Age of Reason

Romantic period (ca. 1798 1832) begins with W. Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. Revival of

lyric. W. Blake, John Keats, B. Shelley, Lord Byron

Victorian era from1830s on - the flourishing of novel: Dickens, George Eliot, Bronte sisters,

Thomas Hardy. Darwin.

First part of 20th cent breakdown of Victorian values; Modernism. Novel: Henry James, Joseph

Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf. Poetry: W. B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot

The theatre of the absurd a term applied to many of the works of a group of dramatists who were

active in the 1950s: Adamow, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Pinter, etc. These works rejected all basic

traditional elements of conventional plays, such as round characters Round characters are more

complex, show development (dynamic), and capable of surprising the reader in a convincing way]

(Gogo and Didi), well-grounded motivations, logical dialogues and a causative plotline developing

from A to B (In Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot, for example, famously, nothing happens).

They emphasize the absurdity of human existence, the impossibility of human actions fulfilling a

purpose, the struggle of human beings in a hostile and irrational universe; life with no apparent

purpose, basically: meaningless life in a meaningless universe (Ideas of Albert Camus, who wrote the

Myth of Sisyphus, 1942)

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In the first edition ofThe Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin saw the work of these playwrights as giving

artistic articulation to Albert Camus' philosophy that life is inherently without meaning as

illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus.

- an experimental form of theatre

John Beckett: Waiting for Godot

One of the most prominent works of the Theatre of the Absurd. (Subtitled, only in English,

tragicomedy in two acts.

the only thing they are pretty sure about is that they are to meet at a tree: theres one nearby

they discuss what they should do while waiting, like hanging themselves, but finally they decide to

do nothing: Its safer.

They mistake first Pozzo for Godot

basically they are living the same day over and over

Act II. Estragon can hardly remember the previous day. / Pozzo again arrives, now blind and Luck is

dumb

there are no physical descriptions of either of the two characters

Estragon is inert and Vladimir is restless. Vladimir is sort of philosophical and Estragon belongs to

the stone. Es. is direct, intuitive. He continually forgets, Vladimir continually reminds him.

bevez irod kollokvium

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