Introduction to literature

Theory

 Is interdisciplinary discourse (debate) with effects outside an original discipline

 Is an analytical and speculative

 Is a critique of common sense, of concepts taken as natural

Literature

 Elusive term (always changing)

 Modern sense of literature is 200 years old

 Prior to 1800 literature was “memorized”, not interpreted

 In fiction, the relation of what speakers say to wat authors think is always a matter of interpretation

1. A body of writings in prose or verse
2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value
3. The art of occupation of literary writer
4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers

Literariness of non-literary phenomena

 Qualities often thought to be literary turn out to be crucial to non-literary discourse and practise as

well (history or historical narrative, everyday language???

Literature = Imaginative writing

 The term literature seems best if we limit it to the art of literature, that is to imaginative literature

 Non-imaginative writing employs logical abstraction

Imaginative writing employs artistic images

Criteria for literature

 Content

 Considering aesthetic principles and semantic characteristics of language

Literature as the foregrounding of language

 Literature is a speech act or textual event that elicits certain kinds of attention (rhyme, onomatopoeia

sound, words we don’t use in normal conversation, …)

Functions:

 Mimetic

 Aesthetic

 Didactic

 Entertaining

 Social

 Ideological

Genre

 Usually refers to one of the three classical literature forms of

o Fiction/prose/prose fiction/epic
o Poetry
o Drama

Text type

 Refers to highly conventional written document such as instruction manuals, sermons, obituaries,

advertising text, catalogues and scientific or scholarly writing, …

Discourse

 Usually learned discussion, spoken or written, on a philosophical, political, literary or religious topic.

It´s closely related to a treatise and a dissertation

 Is the broadest term, referring to a variety of written and oral manifestations which share common

thematic or structural features. The boundaries of these terms are not fixed and vary depending on???

Literary scholarship
DEVELOPMENT = literary history follows the historical development of literature from the earliest times to

present

INTERPRETATION = literary criticism analyses the content and form of creative literature, making use of

the knowledge of literary theory and history. It addresses both, readers and writers. It employs
aesthetic and formal criteria in the evaluation of literary works

METHODS = literary theory studies the forms, categories, criteria, techniques, literary types, genre,

language, composition, style and other relevant???

4 Major approaches to text

 TEXT – philology, rhetoric, formalism and structuralism, new criticism, semiotics and

deconstruction

 AUTHOR – biographical criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, phenomenology

 READER – reception theory, reception history, reader-response criticism

 CONTEXT – literary history, Marxist literary theory, feminist literary history, new historicism and

cultural studies

Literary canon

 Term originally used for holy texts. Now it refers to the entirety of those literary texts which are

considered to be the most important in literary history

Intertextuality

 Literary text is not an isolated phenomenon, but is made up of a mosaic of quotations and that any

text is???

Connotation

 The suggesting a meaning by word apart from the thing is explicitly names or describes (implied,

associated meaning)

Denotation

 A direct specific meaning as distinct from an implied or associated idea

Style

 Refers to the language conventions used to construct the story

 A fiction writer can manipulate diction (choice of words), sentence structure, phrasing, and other

aspects of language to create style

 Might be formal, informal, minimalistic, richly detailed, descriptive, …

 The communicative effect create by the author´s style can be referred as the story´s voice

Tone

 Refers to the attitude that the story creates toward its subject matter (dramatic, humorous,

imperative…)

Image

 Is a sensory impression used to create meaning in a story

 VISUAL IMAGERY = imagery of sight

 AURAL IMAGERY = imagery of sound

 OLFACTORY IMAGERY = imagery of smell

 TACTILE IMAGERY = imagery of touch

 GUSTATODY IMAGERY = imagery of taste

Symbolism

 If an image in a story is used repeatedly and begins to carry multiple layers of meaning

 Symbol indicates rather than explicates, it is indirect suggestion

 Symbol is a term for “objects” in a literary text which transcend their material meaning

 Symbol is one of the most characteristic means of artistic expression and is material for the

construction of a myth. Symbol can be universal or culturally based

 Symbol is a word (or a group of words) which stands for a meaning other than the literal or purely

denotative

 From Greek SYMBALLEIN = “to compare by throwing together”

 Generally understood symbols are conventional/arbitrary/traditional

Allegory

 A story, play or poem in which events and characters are used as symbols in order to express a moral,

religious or political idea

 Is a work of fiction in which the symbols, characters, and events come to represent, in a somewhat

point-by-point fashion, a different metaphysical, political, or social situation

 From Greek ALLÉGOREIN = “to talk differently, in images”

Fiction

 Term to differentiate the literary prose genres of short story, novella, and novel from drama and

poetry

 In older secondary sources it is often used synonymously with “epic”

Fiction genres (development)

 EPIC – 7th century BC (Homer: Iliad, Odyssey)

 ROMANCE – 14th century (Sir Gawain and the Green knight)

 NOVEL – 17th century (Don Quixote)

- 18th century (Robinson Crusoe)

Novel

 Picaresque, bildungsroman, epistolary, historical, satirical, utopian, gothic, detective, …

Intermediate fiction

 Fablian (predecessor or a short story)

 Narrative in verse

o Often comic
o Implies criticism of the manners and morals
o Based on folklore

Short story

 Simple plot, short time span, setting and numbers of characters are limited

Intermediate fiction

 Exemplum (moral anecdote)

 Idyll (epic poem with a pastoral theme – about nature)

 Legend (medieval epic genre with religious theme, in verse or prose, contains motifs of fantasy and

miracle)

Minor fiction

 Fable (short story typically with animals as characters, with moral lesson)

 Parable (a simple story with a moral or religious purpose, especially one told by Jesus Christ)

 Bestiary (compendium of animals)

 Fairy tale (set in imaginary world, supernatural elements, fictional nature, stereotyped characters,

with moral lesson)

 Anecdote (short narrative depicting a real or imaginary event, humorous, witty, brief narration)

Between fiction and fact

 ESSAY

o Emphasis on the individuality
o Subjective tone
o Highly individualized statements
o Primary concern is to report a fact however it employs devices of fiction, poetry or drama

PLOT = linear storytelling

1. Exposition (introduction to the story, background of the story)
2. Rising action/Complication
3. Climax/Turning point
4. Falling action
5. Resolution/Denouement

Narrative voice/Point of view

 1st person point of view

o Singular (I)
o Plural (We)

 3rd person point of view

o Omniscient (present everywhere)
o Limited (without access to everywhere)

Plot

 Is the logical interaction of the various thematic element of a text which lead to a change of the

original situation as presented at the outset of the narrative

 Logical combination of different elements of the action in a literary text

 LINEAR – plot follows a chronological order of the events

 UNLINEAR – plot follows a non-chronological order of events (drama of the absurd, experimental

novel, modernist literature generally)

 FLASHBACK – device in the structuring of plot which introduces events from the past in an

otherwise linear narrative

 FORESHADOWING - device in the structuring of plot which bring information from the future into

the current action

Modest of presentation

 Concerns the presentation of characters and events in a literary work

 Explanatory characterization based on narrative (telling)

 Dramatic characterization based on monologue or dialogue (showing)

Characters

 Figure presented in a literary text, including main or protagonist/antagonist and minor characters

 Flat characters show only one dominant feature

 Round characters are more complex, well-developed

 Stock characters are recurring characters

Point of view (Narrative voice/Perspective)

 the way in which characters, events and setting in a text are presented

 1st person point of view

 OMNISCENT – point of view describes the action from omniscient, god-like perspective by

referring to the protagonist in the 3rd person

 FIGURAL NARRATIVE SITUATION – point of view in which narrator moves into the

background suggesting that the plot is revealed solely through the action of the characters

Stream of consciousness and interior monologue

 C. – is a narrative technique which is used to present the subconscious association of a fictitious

person

 I.M. – is a narrative technique in which a figure is exclusively characterized by his/her thoughts

without any other comments

Setting

 Dimension of literary texts including the time and place of the action. It´s usually carefully chosen by

the author in order to support directly plot, characters and point of view

 Denotes the location, historical period, and social surroundings in which the action of a text develops

Periods of English literature

 Old English (Anglo-Saxon period) – 5th -11th century

 Middle English period – 12th – 15th century

 Renaissance – 16th – 17th century

 Neoclassical, Golden or Augustan age – 18th century

 Romantic period – 1st half of the 19th century

 Victorian age -2nd half of the 19th century

 Modernism – WWI - WWII

 Postmodernism – 1960´s -1970´s

Periods of English literature

 Colonial or Puritan age – 17th – 18th century

 Romantic period and transcendentalism – 1st half of the 19th century

 Realism and naturalism -2nd half of the 19th century

 Modernism – WWI - WWII

 Postmodernism – 1960´s -1970´s

Specification of poetry

 The oldest genre in literary history

 Origins in music (lyre/harp)

 From Greek Poieo (to make, to produce)

 Traditional attempts to define poetry juxtapose poetry with prose (limited)

 Verse, rhyme, meter

 Modern poetry / experimental poetry / free poetry / prose poems

Major categories

 Narrative poetry

 Lyric poetry

Poetic language

 Lexical-thematic dimension = DICTION, RHETORICAL FIGURES, THEME

 Visual dimension = FORM, STANZAS

 Rhythmic-acoustic dimension = RHYME, METER, ONOMATOPEIA

Traditional classification

LYRIC POETRY
o Plotlessness, subjectivity, reflexive,

meditative

o Ode (a song)

Ballad (a tragedy narrated in form of song)
Elegy (a funeral song)
Epitaph (life of a dead person)
Pastoral poem (bucolics)
Psalm
Romance (similar to ballad, love story)

EPIC POETRY

o Composition of story in verse

o Epic (long narrative poem)

Chronicle (historical event in verse)
Historical song
Ballad (both lyric and epic)

Meter

 Is the rhythm established by a poem, and it´s usually dependent not only on the number of syllables

in a line, but also on the way those syllables are accented

 This rhythm is often described as a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

 The rhythmic unit is often describe as a foot; patterns of feet can be identified and labelled

 A foot may be iambic, which follows a pattern of unstressed-stressed syllables

 Stressed syllables are conventionally labelled with a “/“ mark

Unstressed syllables are conventionally labelled with a “U“mark

 5 iambs or feet are called iambic pentameter

Basic feet (x stands for “/”)

 UX iamb (iambic)

 XU trochee (trochaic)

 XX spondee (spondaic)

 UU pyrrhic

 UUX anapaest (anapaestic)

 XUU dactyl (dactylic)

Line-Lengths

 Monometer (1 foot per line)

 Dimeter (2 feet per line)

 Trimeter (3 feet per line)

 Tetrameter (4 feet per line)

 Pentameter (5 feet per line)

 Hexameter (6 feet per line)

 Heptameter (7 feet per line)

 Octameter (8 feet per line)

Rhyme

 The basic definition of rhyme is two words that sound alike

 The most recognizable convention of poetry

 Helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links one concept to another, thus helping to

determine the structure of a poem

 When 2 subsequent lines rhyme it is likely that they are thematically linked, or that the next set of

rhymed lines signifies a slight departure

 Rhyme works closely with meter in this regard

 Especially in modern poetry, for which conventions aren’t as rigidly determined as they were

during the English Renaissance or in the 18th century, rhyme can indicate a poetic theme or the
willingness to structure a subject that seems otherwise chaotic

Varieties of rhyme

 INTERNAL RHYME – functions within a line of poetry (like assonance or alliteration)

 END RHYME – occurs at the end of the line and at the end of some other line, usually within the

same stanza if not in subsequent lines

 EYE RHYME

Rhyme

I.

how rigid it is

II.

how closely it conforms to a predetermined rhyme scheme

III.

what function it serves

Basic elements of poetry

1) What is the subject of the poem, what is it apparently about?
2) What is the poem´s THEME, what is it about at a deeper level, important ideas?
3) What mood do you think the poet was in when he wrote it?
4) How is the poem STRUCTURED?
5) Look at the examples of IMAGERY
6) Is there anything else that strikes you about the poem?

METAPHOR

 Rhetorical figure which “equates” one thing with another without actually “comparing” the two

 It is an implied comparison of 2 things

ALLITERATION

 Words starting with the same sound

ASSONANCE

 Repeated vowel sound

ONOMATOPEIA

 Words that sound like what they mean

SYNECDOCHE

 (substitution) is the rhetorical or metaphorical substitution of a part for whole, or vice versa

METONYMY

 (association) the rhetorical or metaphorical substitution of a one thing for another based on their

association or proximity

OXYMORON

 The juxtaposition of 2 contradictory ideas us oxymoron in order to create striking effects

PERSONIFICATION

 When something other than human being (often an abstract quality) is treated as a human being

 It is said to be personified

 A type of metaphor, comparing something to human being

SIMILI / SIMILE

 An explicit comparison of 2 things, usually with the word “like”, “than” or “as”

 Rhetorical figure which “compares” 2 different things by connecting them with like, than or as

BLANK VERSE

 Is the technical name for unrhymed iambic pentameter, i.e., verse of 5 feet per line, with the stress on

the 2nd beat of each foot

 One of the most common in English

FREE VERSE

 Most common in the 20th century, but by no means unique to it = has no fixed metrical foot, and

often no fixed number of feet per verse. It is sometimes called by its French name Verse libre

ENJAMBMENT

 When the units of sense in a passage of poetry don’t coincide with verses, and the sense runs on from

the verse to another

 The lines are said to be enjambed

SONNET

 A lyric poem of 14 lines. There are 2 common species of sonnet distinguished by their rhyme

scheme:

o The Italian (Petrarchan) = sonnet can be broken into 2 parts, the octave (8 lines) and the sestet

(6 lines)

o The Shakespearean (English) = sonnet consists of 3 quatrains and 1 couplet

IRONY

 VERBAL IRONY (sometimes called rhetorical irony), probably the most straightforward kind of

irony, the speaker says something different from what he/she really believes

 In its crudes form it´s called SARCASM, where the speaker intentionally says the opposite of what

he/she really believes

 UNDERSTATEMENT – figure of speech employed by writers/speakers to intentionally make a

situation seem less important than it really is

 HYPERBOLE (exaggeration)

 EUPHEMISM is used to express a mild, indirect, or vague term to substitute for a harsh, blunt, or

offensive term

SATIRE

 Is the ridicule of some vice or imperfection - an attack on someone or something by making it look

ridiculous or worthy of scorn

PARODY

 (not to be confused with satire) is the imitation of either formal or thematic elements of one work in

another for humorous purposes

Critical approaches

 Reveal HOW and WHY a particular work is constructed and what its social and cultural implications

are

 To see and appreciate a literary work as a multi-layered construct of meaning

 Reread, rethink and respond

 Recent theory can be seen as an attempt to sort out the paradoxes that often inform the treatment of

identity in literature

Meaning of theory

 Theory offers not a set of solutions but the prospect of further thought

 Theory is a DISCURSIVE practise

 Linked with education and institutions

Russian formalism

 Focus on FORM and TECHNIQUE

 The Russian Formalists of the early years of the 20th century stressed the critics should concerns

themselves with the literariness of literature: the verbal strategies that make it literary

New Criticism

 30s, 40s in the United States

 The unity or integration of literary works

 Shift from understanding literature as a historical document towards aesthetic perception (from

memorizing to interpretation)

 How each element in literature contributes to meaning

Feminist Literary Theory

 Simone de Beauvior, Second sex (1949)

 Emerged in the 70s

 Identity of woman

 Position of women in the society

 Opposition between man and woman

 Discussion of the patriarchal perception of history/literature

Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism

 Based on Freud´s psychoanalysis

 Explores the nature of the unconscious mind

 Analysis literary work through symbolism, myth, taboo, association, sexual relations

 Looks at the unconscious meaning of work

Marxist Literary Theory

 Based on German philosopher Karl Marx

 The role of class, ideology, social order

 Literature as a means of manipulation

 Literary works are seen as products of work (reflection of economy)

 New perception of the canon (middle class?)

Postcolonial Criticism

 Based on Edward Said´s work Orientalism (1978)

 Involves the analysis of literary texts produces in countries and cultures that have come under the

control of European colonial powers at some point in their history

 Reevalution of the stereotypes, myths associated with marginalized groups

Reader-Response Criticism

 The reader is active

 “reading is … something you do”

 The intended reader vs. implied reader

 For the reader, the work is what is given to consciousness; the work is not something objective,

existing independently of any experience of it, but is the experience of the reader

 Form of a description of the reader´s progressive movement through a text, analysing how readers

produce meaning by making connections

DRAMA
 Draó (Greek) – to act, to perform

 Drama as a genre: all works written for the theatre

 A single play

 A serious play

 Any event charged with conflict and tension

 A drama or play is a form of storytelling in which actors make the characters come alive through

speech (dialogue) and action (stage directions)

DRAMA COMBINES ASPECTS OF ALL 3 LITERARY GENRES

 Fictional or factual

 Common literary elements like plot, setting, characterization, and dialog

 FICTION

 POETRY

o Many plays are written in verse (for example Othello or Oeidipus Rex)

 DRAMA

o Its unique characteristic is that it is written to be performed

PLAY IS TO BE PERFORMED IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE

 Playwright

 Script

 Dialogue

 Staging: stage directions (Acts, Scenes, Set, Props)

GREEK THEATRE

 Ancient Greek theatre developed as part of the religious festivals

 A “choric hymn” called the dithyramb was composed in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and

fertility

 The hymn was sung by a chorus of 50 men

THESPIS

 Added the first actor to interact with the dithyramb chorus

 Called the actor the “protagonist”

 Is said to have performed in Athens in 534 B.C.

 The term “thespian” (having to do with drama or theatre) comes from his name

 When the Dionysian festivals changed to drama competitions, Thespis was the first winner

ARISTOTLE´S RULES FOR ANCIENT DRAMA

 Classical unities

o Unity of time (action must occur within 24 hours)
o Unity of place (action takes place in one location)
o Unity of action (single plot)

 Catharsis

o Socially acceptable purging of emotions such as anger, fear, or grief

DRAMATIC STRUCTURE

 Plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement

 Character:

o Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage
o Monologue: long speech given by one character to others
o Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself/herself or to the audience
o Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character, the other characters onstage do not

hear on aside

 Setting (realistic and detailed?) or (abstract and minimal?)

COMEDY

 Comedy of manners

 Satiric comedy (employs hyperbole and burlesque)

 Romantic comedy

 Picaresque comedy

 Comedy of situation (situational humour and comicality)

 Masque (allegoric play based on mythology)

DRAMA

 Serious but not necessarily tragic

 Genre between tragedy and comedy

 Lyric drama (reflexive mood, widely employed metaphors, psychological motivation)

 Realistic drama (serious moral and social issues)

 Drama of the absurd (anxiety, breaks the established requirements imposed on play, violates

principles of communication disturbs the unified model of the world)

 Melodrama (sentimental, pathetic, emotional)

 Monodrama (one character play)

 Burlesque (high mixed with low)

 Farce (exaggeration and caricature of situation)

 Grotesque (hyperbolization of reality, fantastic elements are used, presence of disharmony)

 Variety show (purely in order to amuse)

 Cabaret (satirical performance accompanied by music)

 Vaudeville (theatrical genre of variety entertainment)

MUSICAL GENRES

 Opera

 Operetta

 Musical