Práctica - Poema \"12 o\'clock news\", Elizabeth Bishop. PDF

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PEC corregida, texto de "12 O'Clock News", Elizabeth Bishop....

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PART A: choose the correct answer in each case. Make sure you tick only one box. This is a hurdle part of the exam. You must have 7 correct answers out of 12 in order to pass and have PART B marked as well by your Tutor. COMENTARIO DE TEXTOS LITERARIOS EN LENGUA INGLESA (CTLLI) 2014-2015 PRUEBA DE EVALUACIÓN CONTÍNUA (PEC) – UNITS 1 to 3 (corrected Word 97-2003 version) NAME AND SURNAME(S): DNI/NIE/PASSPORT: CENTRO ASOCIADO: Make sure you save your answers with the following format: Surnames-Name-C.A.-2014-2015

1. A structuralist approach to the commentary of literary texts focuses on a. autobiographical elements. b. textual disunity. c. textual coherence. d. the historical context. 2. The figurative element used in poetic language that associates one tenor and a vehicle based on proximity in order to create an image is called a a. metaphor

b. simile

c. synecdoche

d. metonymy

3. Dylan Thomas’ poem “A Refusal to Mourn the Death of a Child by Fire in London” a. does what it says it will not do. b. is a conventional elegy. c. was inspired by the outbreak of World War I. d. is made up of five-line stanzas. 4. Dylan Thomas’s phrase “tells with silence” is an example of a. alliteration. b. aporia. c. synaesthesia. d. paradox. 5. The tenets of New Historicist interpretative method include: a. drawing theoretical views from historical texts to be applied to literary texts. b. the reading of literature within an ahistorical context. c. the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts. d. the interpretation of literary characters as historical characters. 6. Which of the following is not a binary opposition? a. Light-darkness. b. Language-literature. c. Life-death. d. Absence-presence. 7. What is the title of the important critical work in feminist literature from which the fragment by Gilbert and Gubar is extracted in Unit 3? a. Witches in the World b. Literary Women

c. Sexual Politics in Literature d. The Madwoman in the Attic 8. What do feminist critics characteristically do? a. Show disunity in literary texts. b. Endorse neutral interpretations of literary texts. c. Consider literary texts as historical documents. d. Reassess the literary canon. 9. “Panoptic” surveillance is a concept connected to the understanding of state power in New Historicism firstly coined by a. b. c. d.

Antonio Gramsci Louis Althusser Michel Foucault John Smith

10. One symbolic element used reiteratively in “Roosters” is a. colour

b. the weather

c. the natural world

d. fire

11. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar react against the notion of a. “deconstruction”. b. “anxiety of influence”. c. “écriture feminine”. d. “compulsory heterosexuality”. 12. “There is nothing outside of the text […]. [T]here has never been anything but writing.” The author of this famous assertion is a. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar b. Roland Barthes c. Jacques Derrida d. Dylan Thomas

Part B: this part of the exam must be written in full paragraphs in correct English. Make sure that you discuss all the aspects indicated. Don’t exceed the allotted space in the answer boxes. TEXT FRAGMENT FOR THE COMMENTARY

gooseneck lamp

As you all know, tonight is the night of the full moon, half the world over. But here the moon seems to hang motionless in the sky. It gives very little light; it could be dead. Visibility is poor. Nevertheless, we shall try to give you some idea of the lay of the land and the present situation.

The escarpment that rises abruptly from the central plain is in heavy shadow, but the elaborate terracing of its southern glacis gleams faintly in the dim Typewriter light, like fish scales. What endless labor those small, peculiarly shaped terraces represent! And yet, on them the welfare of this tiny principality depends. I) CONTEXT (max. 100 words). Indicate the author of the text, the title of the text, explain its historical context and the literary and cultural context of the text and its author. (Up to 0.5 point). The fragment is part of a poem in prose titled “12 O’Clock News” by Elizabeth Bishop, considered one of the most distinguished American poets of the twentieth century. The poem was included in the 1976 collection Geography III. It was written and published during the Vietnam War, at a time when the US had a strong conservative government and mass media heavily affected public opinion. Opposition to the war grew in strength in its later years. Bishop's life spanned both the Postmodern and Contemporary literary periods, as well as the Confessional poetry movement, although her writings can't be easily categorized. II) FORM and CONTENT (max. 200 words). Explain the following aspects of the text: its genre, poetic voice or speaker, visual and aural elements in the poem, syntax and poetic devices, theme and how its form interrelates with its content. (Up to 1.5 points). Though at first glance the fragment may not seem to be a poem, as it is not written in verse, we can deduce its true nature by the presence of poetic devices and the figurative intent of the text. The way it is written in conjunction with the title is designed to emulate a news broadcast, or more specifically, a war dispatch. It is visually structured into two columns: a list of common items related to writing on the left and their highly figurative descriptions on the right. The descriptions make use of metaphors and personification to depict the objects on the left (typewriter – “abrupt escarpment”, “elaborate terracing”). Alliteration is exemplified by the repetition of |l|, |g|, | p|, |r| and |n| sounds in the typewriter paragraph and serves to provide musicality and rhythm to the text. The poetic voice is that of a first person narrator, a reporter perhaps, who describes what they are seeing. The author does not identify with the ideas expressed, but rather creates a ventriloquised voice to establish distance between the reader and the ideology present in the poem. The way reality can be distorted by language is an important theme in the text.

III) THEORY & CRITICISM (max. 250 words). Write an interpretation of the fragment above from the point of view of New Historicism. (Up to 2 points). While “12 O'Clock News” does not specifically state a time and place, if we take into account the period in which it was written and published, we can infer that it is linked to the Vietnam War. The official ideology and prevailing rhetorical strategy in the United States during the war was of pro-war propaganda, made possible through the appearance of mass media and their support of the picture that was to be painted for the general public. Bishop's poem reacts to this prevalent discourse by describing, in an ironic manner, another side of the war that was rarely shown to Americans at the time. The title, along with the poem, implies that the reality of the war was mediated through the news. Families sat down to watch the “12 O'Clock News” and accepted that the information they were being given was true, when the war was actually very different to what was being broadcast on televisions and radios. For example, citizens were never informed that a small American plane bombed a lone Vietnamese cyclist with enough explosives to level a whole platoon. Using defamiliarisation (by describing the familiar objects in the left column of the poem in an unfamiliar way), Bishop urges the reader to reflect upon the language used and become wary of the ways words can distort reality.

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Questions

1 2 3 4 5

student’s answer c d a d C

6 B 7 D 8 D 9 C 10 A 11 B 12 C Total points (0,5 each; up to 6)

PART A correct answer c. textual coherence d. metonymy a. does what it says it will not do d. paradox c. the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts b. language-literature d. The Madwoman in the Attic d. Reassess the literary canon c. Michel Foucault a. colour b. “anxiety of influence” c. Jacques Derrida

PART B Question (i) Context

Parts Author Title

Notes

points 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,5 6

Historical context Literary and cultural context

Just a commentary, Contemporary literary period is not a literary movement, we consider contemporary literature everything written between the early 20th century and now.

Use of English Total points (up to 0,5)

0.4

Genre Poetic voice/speaker Visual and aural elements Syntax and poetic devices Theme Form Use of English Total points (up to 1,5)

1.5

(ii) Form and Content

(iii) Theory and Criticism

New Historicism

Use of English Total points (up to 2) TOTAL POINTS

Your analysis is very good, although it would improve if you mentioned a co-text (for example McCarthy’s text which can be found in the course material) and if you offered a parallel reading of both documents as New Historicists propose. 1.6 9.5...