Literature summary for the module exam PDF

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25.02.2020

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE I 1. LITERATURE A. Definitions of literature 

Broad vs. Narrow  Broad = all written communication (every written and printed work), oral works aren’t included,  Narrow = just poetic and imaginative texts (fictive), deals with literatures relationship to reality, literature doesn’t represent reality or facts

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Normative vs. Descriptive  Normative = distinguishes high-brow and low-brow literature, not objective, avoided because based on value  Descriptive = includes textual and contextual aspects for distinguishing between literature and non-literature

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Criteria 1. Fictionality 2. Ambiguity/polyvalence 3. Particular use of language (defamiliarization/deautomatisation, distinguished by particular linguistic and stylistic devices) 4. Non-pragmatic discourse (does not serve a specific purpose)

B. Major genres 

Drama = scenes, acts, dialog, no narrator, direct speech, script, directions, plays, introduction of characters

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Poetry = rhymes, stanzas, rhetorical figures, incomplete sentences, poetic language, aesthetic, verses,

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Prose = novel, narrator, narrative text, full sentences, detailed information

C. Signals of fictionality 

Textual signals = introduction e.g. ‘once upon a time’ (fairy-tale), allusion to other literary works, monological speech, representation of awareness, legal disclaimers

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Contextual signals = related to publishing process, external presentation of book

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Paratextual signals = title, subtitle, generic terms

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Lat. ‘fingere’ = to form, to invent, to feign

D. Polyvalence

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Literature can have various potential meaning, not explicit and clear, not straightforward, allow interpretation (freedom for forming own meaning)

E. Communication model

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Mostly dominance of poetic function in literature

F. Mimesis vs. Poesis 

Mimesis = gr. ‘imitation’, old view: imitation of real word, modern view: reality and literary text are in dynamic interplay

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Poesis = gr. ‘the making’, literature creates independent models of reality with specifically literary tools,

2. POETRY A. Basic characteristics 

Relative brevity, tendency towards very selective and limited treatment of chosen theme, subjective perspective of speaker (= ‘lyric persona’), rhyme scheme, (almost) regular metre, division into stanzas, lack of any plot, repeated use of exclamation, deviation from everyday language, enhanced level of artistry

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External form = lines, metric and stanzaic structure

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Structural and phonological complexity, morphological and syntactical complexity, increased aesthetic self-referentiality

B. Brevity 

Reduction and compression of the subject-matter, spatial and temporal relations also compressed, place subjectivity of speaker in foreground

C. Subjectivity 

In the attitude and perspective of lyric persona, also in individual mode of linguistic expression and theme of poem (often centred on individual experience),

D. Musicality and lyricism 2

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Connection between music and poetry, musicality remains one of main features

E. Paradigmatic vs. Syntagmatic 

Paradigmatic = relationship between linguistic elements, one can be substituted for another, similarity of equivalence between respective elements

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Syntagmatic = relations of contiguity and possible combinations of elements within a sentence/text

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Roman Jakobson = “the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination”

F. Levels of structural complexity 

Phonological level = rhyme, sound, metre, rhythm, relations between sounds

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Syntactic level = sentences, parallel arrangement of sentences of sentence components

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Semantic level = meaning, form of figurative language

G. Poetry communication model

H. Explicit and implicit subjectivity 

Explicit = manifest/overt/clearly perceptible lyric persona, high degree of selfexpression (thoughts, feelings), refers to him/her in 1st person singular, highly individualised (e.g. dramatic monologue)

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Implicit = hidden/covert speaker, barely appears, not individualised lyric persona,

I.

Content-level vs. Textualization

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(WHAT) Level of content (enounced) = encompasses all entities (people. spaces, objects, moods, thoughts, feelings, experiences)

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(HOW) Textualization (enunciation) = elements related to linguistic and formal composition, infusion of poem with different perspectives

J.

Metre and metrical pattern

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Iamb oó, trochee óo, dactyl óoo, anapaest ooó, spondee óó, amphibrach oóo

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Trimester (3 stressed syllables), tetrameter (4 stressed syllables), pentameter (5 stressed syllables), hexameter (6 stressed syllables)

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Enjambment = extend beyond the end of a line

K. Caesura and alexandrine  3

Caesura = break in metre, divides line of verse into parts

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Alexandrine = iambic hexameter with break after third stress

L. External structure 

Stichic = no stanzaic structure, just lines

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Tercets (stanzas consisting of 3 lines), quatrains (consisting of 4 lines)

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Heroic co uplet

M. Internal structure 

Break marked by shift in communication context or speech situation/ change of theme or of spatial or temporal reference, formal or stylistic variations (vocabulary, sentence structure)

N. Rhyme 

Position = end-rhyme, internal rhyme

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Number of syllables = masculine (monosyllabic), feminine (disyllabic), triple rhyme (trisyllabic)

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Full/perfect/exact/true rhyme Near/imperfect/off/half rhyme = end assonance/vowel rhyme (congruence between vowel sounds only), consonance at the end of two lines (congruence between consonants only), pararhyme ( special case of consonance, initial & final consonants repeated, e.g. mastery/mystery)

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Rich rhyme (homophonic, different meanings), identical rhyme (repetition of same word)

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Rhyme scheme = rhyming couplets (aa bb cc). alternate rhyme (abab cdcd), embracing rhyme (abba cddc), chain rhyme (aba bcb cdc), tail rhyme (aab ccb)

O. Other sound patterns 

Alliteration (succession of words with same initial sound), consonance (repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants), assonance (congruence between vowel sounds only), onomatopoeia (use of words imitate sounds)

P. Morphological and syntactic structures 

Morphological figures = Anaphora (repetition of word/word group at beginning of clauses or verses), Epiphora (repetition of word/word group at end of clauses or verses), Epanalepsis (repetition of words in close succession/immediately), Anadiplosis (repetition of the end of preceding clause/verse in the next next) Polyptoton (repetition of word in different inflected forms), Figura etymologica (repetition of a root in different forms), Synonymy (repetition by replacement of one word with another of same meaning)

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Syntactic figures = Parallelism (succession of clause/sentences of same structure), Chiasmus (reversal of structures in successive clauses)

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Asyndeton (succession of words/phrases without conjoining words = e.g. ‘,’), Polysyndeton (succession of words/phrases linked by conjoining words = e.g. ‘and’) Inversion (reversal of normal word order), Hysteron proteron (reversal of logical succession of events) Ellipsis (omission of sentence components), Aposiopesis (abrupt cessation before end of utterance), Zeugma (application of one verb to more than one object in different senses) Q. Semantic structures 

isotopy = several images from same semantic field (same level)

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Figures of similarity = Simile (one thing likened to another by means of comparative particle), Metaphor (characteristics of particular vehicle are transferred to a tenor without being mediated by comparative particle), Synaesthesia (vehicle and tenor allude to different sensory perceptions), Personification (concrete or abstract element is presented as if it were alive or human)

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Figures of contiguity = Metonymy (replacement of one term with another to which it is ontologically, logically or causally connected), Synecdoche (replacement of a part with a whole or vice versa), Antonomasia (replacement of generic term with a proper name, or of proper name with an epiphet)

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Other tropes Periphrasis/Circumlocution (description of element by making reference to its characteristics), Euphemism (reference to something by means of milder/more positive term), Hyperbole (use of excessive exaggeration), Irony (meaning of opposite what is said), Litotes (reference to an element or quality by negating its opposite)

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Other semantic rhetorical figures Oxymoron (trenchant combination of two apparently contradictory terms), Paradox (apparently contradictory statement, which on closer inspection is found to be true), Anithesis (juxtaposition of two logically opposed elements), Paranomasia/pun (play on words using two identical or similar sounding words)

3. LITERARY HISTORIES A. Middle Ages 

Genres = poetry, drama (cycle plays), tales (Canterbury tales)

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Topics = religious literature (Christian values, consolation in god, piety), love/relationships (love triangle, role of wives), battles, heroism, loneliness, loss

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Authors/works = Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century, Canterbury tales), John Lydgate (15th century, Siege of Thebes), Robert Henryson (late 15 th century, Testament of Cresseid)

B. 16th and 17th Centuries 

Genres = early modern drama, prose fiction, utopia

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Topics = science, religious change, new worlds, religious literature (inseparability of politics and literature, reformation)

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Author/works = William Shakespeare (early modern drama: gender roles, ethnicity, religion, nation), Elizabeth Cary, John Milton, Thomas More (utopia: stoicism, scepticism, epicureanism, Neoplatonism), Francis Bacon (scientific revolution: experimentalism, metaphysical poets)

C. 18th Century 

Genres = novel, satire, poetry

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Topics = enlightenment, neoclassicism, age of sensibility

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Author/works = Daniel Defoe, John Gay, Alexander Pope

D. American Literary History - Early American Literature (1584-1830) 

Genre = poetry, prose, drama, fiction

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Topics = patriotism, colonialism (self description), religious doubts, faith vs. Facts, puritan theology vs. colonial, new world, expansion

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Author/works = John Smith (A true Relation of Virginia), William Hill Brown (The power of sympathy), Susanna Rowson (Charlotte Temple)

E. American Literary History – American Renaissance (1830-1865) 

Genre = romantic poetry, short stories, political satire, novels

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Topics = industrialisation, modernisation, American exceptionalism, role of African Americans and women,

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Author/works = Edgar Allan Poe (satire), Walt Whitman (poet), Herman Melville (novelist), Emily Dickinson (poet)#

F. Romanticism (late 18th – late 19th century, GB) 

Genre = poetry (sonnet), drama, gothic novel

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Topics = retreat to nature, subjective experience, nature and its relation to men, supernatural, naturalization, individuality

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Author/works = Jane Austen (fiction), Horace Walpole (gothic novel), drama (Elizabeth Inchbald), William Wordsworth and William Blake (poetry), John Keats (poetry, sonnet)

G. The Victorian Age (1832-1902) 

1830-1848 early Victorian, 1848-1870 mid Victorian, 1870-1901 late Victorian

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Genre = novels (educational novel, Victorian novel), poetry, drama, magazines

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Topics = social Darwinism (“survival of the fittest”, religious renewal), Victorian gender relations (queen Victoria as role model), industrial revolution (widening gap between rich and poor)

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Author/works = Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, Bildungsroman), Oscar Wilde (The picture of Dorian Gray, The importance of Being Earnest), Bronte Sisters (Jane Eyre)

H. Modernism (1914-1945, UK) 

Genre = novel, poetry, research papers, little magazines

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Topics = WWI, gender, social change, psychoanalysis, futurism

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Author/works = Sigmund Freud (psychoanalysis), James Joyce (Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (To the lighthouse), T.S. Eliot (poetry, the waste land)

I.

American Literary History – Realism and Naturalism (1880-1900) Realism

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Genres = prose (short stories, novel), anecdotes

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Topics = truthful representation of reality (mimesis), social realities, convention of the middle class, social living conditions

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Author/works = Henry James, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells Naturalism

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Genre = essays, prose (novels)

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Topics = divorce, political corruption, violence, poverty, sexuality, struggle for survival

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Author/works = William Dean Howells Henry Adams, Frank Norris, Jack London

J.

American Literary History – Modernism (1890-1930)

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Genre = novella, poems, lyrical prose, experimental poetry

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Topics = experience of modernity, imagination and reality, politics, urbanization

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Author/works = F. Fitzgerald (modernist fiction, the great Gatsby), Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound

K. Postmodernism (mid - late 20th century, UK) 

Genre = poetry, drama, prose

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Topics = self-reflexive acknowledgement of a text’s own status as constructed artefact, implicit (sometimes explicit) critique of realist approaches, tendency to draw reader’s attention to his/her own process of interpretation as he/she reads text

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Author/works = Andrew Motion (poetry), Sarah Kane (drama), Samuel Beckett (drama), John Fowles (prose)

L. American Literary History – Postmodern and Contemporary Literature

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Genre = poetry, drama, prose (contemporary: Hispanic, Asian American, African American, American Indian)

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Topics = gender, sexuality, ethnic diversity, cultural critique, identity,

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Author/works = Toni Morrison (represents African American Literature), Susan Glaspell (drama), Adrienne rich (experimental poetry), Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita, fiction)

M. New Literatures in English (post 1945 – onward) 

3 main types of colonial experience = 1. plantation slavery (16th century, triangular trade: New World, Britain, Africa), 2. European settlement, 3. Colonial conquest

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Diaspora

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Caribbean literature (Trinidad/Tobago) = prose (novels), drama (plays), poetry  Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott

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Indian literature (Bengali renaissance)  Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan

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Canadian literature = two colonial traditions  Susanna Moodie, Tomson Highway

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Nigerian Literature = anticolonial literature, engaging with European depictions of Africa  Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe

4. DRAMA A. Multimedial form of presentation 

Dramatic text exists only in written form

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Theatre performances are multimedial, verbal and non-verbal modes of communication, acoustic (voices, noises, music) and optical dimension (set, presentation of characters, gesture, facial expression)  Verbal and non-verbal signs and codes and communication channels

B. Interaction between drama & theatre 

Dramatic text functions as script on which performance is based, both equal and closely related

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Every performance is independent ‘theatrical work of art’ (individual), capacity for variation (presentation of characters, gesture and setting)

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C. Drama communication model

D. Primary and secondary text 

Primary text = characters’ remarks (level of verbal communication), dialogues, more or less information about how text is performed, usually printed in italics

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Secondary text = stage directions (concerns stage set, characters’ gestures, facial expressions), all constituent parts of dramatic text which aren’t included in dialogue, demarcation of acts and scenes, title of play, dedications, prefaces, dramatis personae

E. Epic elements 

No mediating narrator, sometimes introduction of a narrator (inside/outside the action)

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Verbal forms = stage directions involving commentary, projections, banners

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Non-verbal forms = character stepping out of his/her role

F. Typology of theatre codes

G. Exposition vs. Dramatic introduction

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Exposition = referential function (context), introducing to time and place of function, informing reader/audience about history preceding the action

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Dramatic introduction = serves primarily to establish a communication channel between stage and audience

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H. Dialogue and Monologue (& soliloquy) 

Dialogue = succession of remarks/counter-remarks (utterances) between two or more characters, exchange thoughts & opinions, discuss topic/plot/intrigue  Set action of drama, central to characterization

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Soliloquy = character is alone while speaking, often used for divulgence of innermost feelings, high degree of subjectivity

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Monologue = character speaks alone in explicit presence of others, high degree of subjectivity  function of monological utterances = familiarizing audience with atmosphere of play, providing expository information about preceding events and initial situation, introducing action (characters, spatial and temporal context), commenting on previous events

I.

Aside

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‘monological aside’ = character voices a thought , which isn’t expressed anywhere else in such a way that only audience understands it (usually indicated by the stage direction, ‘aside’)

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‘dialogical aside’ = unnoticed by other characters on the stage, a group of initiated characters conduct a conspiratial conversation in whispers (usually indicated by stage direction, ‘aside to x’)

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‘aside ad spectatores’ = a character addresses a comment directly to the audience (usually indicated by the stage direction, ‘addressing the audience’)

J.

Action

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Implies a change or perpetuation of a ...