British Literature: Homework Assignment

30.11.2020 Why do we need to know about older literature? Intertextuality-author is influenced by older texts and then again by older texts -> still influence. Looking in the past is a key element of all disciplines in the arts and humanities (history, Geisteswissenschaften). 2000 years ago British isles inhabited by Celtic tribes. 43AD: Roman conquest Departure of the Romans (410) -> power at this time -> From the second half of the 5th century: -> immigration/invasion of Germanic tribes: Angles, Saxons and Jutes -> speakers of a Germanic language -> Celtic fringe -> Anglo-Saxon Germanic language a few characters taken from the runic alphabet vocabulary looks strange at first glance but is closely related to German Roman Jakobson's model of the six functions of language: referential emotive poetic conative phatic metalingual Basic Metrical Units (Feet) examples “-” denotes a stressed syllable, "v" an unstressed syllable lamb, Trochee, Dactyl, Anapaest Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter Rhyme, enjambment, end-stopped lines eye-rhyme, identical rhymes, half-rhymes, internal rhyme, end rhyme: couples, alternating rhyme, envelope pattern, tail rhyme Enjambments, End-stopped lines Poems play with things you can see and hear pattern poetry, concrete poetry (figure, alphabet) 14.12.2020 The Sonnet Poetic form established in Italy/Sicily in 13th century Invented by lauro -> (experts, high quality) Most influential author: Francesco Petrarca (1304-74) -> Petrarch Particular way of talking about love. Love is a paradox, disease, as an irritation. Popularized in England in the 16th century Popular form in most European literature. Frequently used and is almost all about since the Renaissance Always 14 lines Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdc cdc/cdc dcd or cde dce are also possible: or abab cded ef gg Usually 10 syllables per line, jambic pentameter 4+4+3+3 (two quatrains and two tercets): Italian/Petrarchan sonnet 4+4+4+2 (three quatrains and a couplet): Elizabethan/English/Shakespearean sonnet Awareness of cultural/historical contexts Techniques for working with a text Basic questions: Who is talking to who? Where are we? (Setting: place, time) Who is there? (Characters) What is happening? (Story, Plot) Special effects?: Language, structure etc. Drama Comedy Tragedy from Greek (dran) to do/to act Overlap between the genres From text to performance (reading and experience) -> not every play was written to be performed (closet drama - meant to be read rather than act) Performance written for a certain stage/audience/cast script for actors to say text - read by people play - performed Written to be a collaboration between author, director, set designer, costume designer, actors, light designer... The play text is a blueprint for a performance. Drama vs Narrative This diagram illustrates the difference between drama and narrative at the communication level. Drama Intratextual Level of Communication: The communication happens directly between Character I and Character II. Real Author to Real Reader: The communication flows directly from the author to the reader, bypassing a narrator. Narrative Intratextual Level of Communication I: The communication takes place between Character I and Character II. Intratextual Level of Communication II: The communication happens between the Narrator and the Narratee. Real Author to Real Reader: The communication flows through the narrator, from the real author to the real reader. Verbal Communication on Stage Monologue/Dialogue/Polylogue Soliloquy: one person on stage. Aside: (interest vs. external communication) Stichomythia Aristotle and the theory of tragedy Aristotle, The Poetics (4th century B.C.) Greek tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides Three unities: Time, Place, Action Exposition - Complication - Climax - Reversal - Catastrophe Catastrophe: turn, solution, end, death, disaster, doom Hamartia: tragic flaw Catharsis: "terror and pity" Illusionism: "verbal scenery" 11.01.2021 How we need to know on stage (W.L. Guire - famous) Author-centred: biographical criticism, psychoanalytical Context-centred: Marxist, New Historicist, Feminist, Cultural Studies Reader-centred: Reader-response criticism, Reception theory Text-centred:** Russian formalist, structuralist, New Criticism, Post-structuralist Picture frame stage: "illusion of the fourth wall" Proscenium Theatre * Thrust stage * Arena stage (audience on all 4 walls) * Flexible stage William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Textual criticism Shakespeare's drama: from original text to modern edition no original manuscript has survived Shakespeare wasn't interested in having his plays printed were prepared by others Early editions published Shakespeare's lifetime: Quartos ("Q") Based on reconstructions of the plays, often from memory. Unreliable After his death: First edition of his collected works The First Folio ("F") Every printed version of his play is a reconstruction Usually several versions of each play exist -F,Q, perhaps Q2 critical edition provides: a reconstruction of the text extensive annotations, including explanations why the text has been reconstructed in a particular way, background information about obsolete words, cultural and historical contexts etc. variant readings Basic questions: who is talking to whom? (Scene, place, time) When reading a play: who is there? (Character) Special effects? Language, structure etc. The ways of beginning a story: in medias res (in the middle of things, like Homer's Iliad) ab ovo (from the beginning, like Genesis) Speaking names: e.g. Aslan-lion anogram: Caliban/cannibal Post-colonial studies: Asimov, Kipling, Triffic, The Empire Strikes Back New perspectives on an old text colour-blind casting (gender-blind casting) The meaning of a literary text A.K.A. "Was will uns der Autor damit sagen?" Wolfgang Iser (1926-2007): Reader reception theory (Rezeptionsästhetik) Die Appellstruktur d. Texte: Unterbestimmtheit als Wirkungsbedingung (literarischer Prosa (1970)) Der Akt des Lesens: Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung (1976) Gaps and blanks: (Leer- und Unbestimmtheitstellen) What is a literary text? Literature is influenced by the ideas of its time. Shakespeare's time: General ideas: The world makes sense. There is a causality and an order. Background: Grand narratives, The Bible Beckett's time: Modernity Erosion of the belief that the idea that the world makes sense. Background: Erosion of old grand narratives HISTORICAL EVENTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON LITERATURE Darwin: (belief came into being through a process of random selection, not divine intervention) Freud: (No longer faith in full control of our thoughts and decisions) influence of the unconscious and the subconscious De Saussure: (notion that language is self-referential) World War I and II (the idea that the past is broken, we can't rely on old ideas and beliefs, disillusion) -> MODERNISM, MODERNISM IN LITERATURE 25.01.2021 Narrative texts (Prose) Etymology: Prose: prosa oratio Verse: vertere Overlap between the genres: Poems can be narrative, plays tell a story. Narrative prose and plays use language that is poetic, i.e., highly structured. Drama vs. Narrative This section features a diagram and text comparing the communication structure of drama and narrative. The diagram shows the communication flow. Drama has a direct line from Real Author to Real Reader, with communication on the intratextual level occurring between Character I and Character II. Narrative has a communication flow from Real Author to Real Reader that is mediated by a Narrator who communicates with a Narratee. It has two levels of intratextual communication: between Narrator and Narratee, and between Character I and II. Functions of Narrative Narrative as a fundamental human activity in various fields of life: medicine, jurisdiction (case studies!), history, everyday life... Narrative as a form of understanding and explaining the world (myths, religions, tales...) It is through narrative that we give shape to our experience, we tell stories to understand and make sense of our lives. (P. Ricœur) Narrative as a way of constructing an identity. "To answer the question 'who' is to tell a story." (P. Ricœur) "To be human-to tell stories. Human beings are the only animals that tell stories." Key terms of the discussion of narrative How to begin a story: in medias res, ab ovo (Both have [dis-]advantages) How to create suspense Story (what happens?) Plot (the logically connected sequence of events) "The king died and then the queen died." vs. "The king died and then the queen died of grief." Key constituents of a Story I. Setting: place and time. Symbolic settings? (location, weather...) Tense: past (historical novel), future? Constellations of settings II. Characters: From Greeks (heroes) to scratch Flat characters (type, one-dimensional) vs. Round (complex) characters Static or dynamic characters Constellations of characters III. Events Ending I. Open versus closed ending II. Poetic justice Basic narrative situations (Franz K. Stanzel) I. First-person narrator (Ich-Erzähler) Important distinctions: "I" as "protagonist" vs. narrator as "controll character" "I" as "protagonist" narrator as marginal figure Narrating "I" (erzählendes Ich) vs. Experiencing "I" (erlebendes Ich) II. Authorial narrator (Auktorialer Erzähler) Narrator outside the events Ability to look into characters' thoughts Knowledge of past, present and future. III. Figural narrative situation (personale Erzählsituation) No visible or identifiable narrator Grammatically, third person ("she thought... he saw... she felt...") but thoughts and perceptions of one character, the "reflector" figure Stanzel's "Erzählsituation" First-person narrator/authorial narrator/authorialle Erzählsituation: figural narrative situation (personale Erzählsituation), advantages and disadvantages Figural narrative situation tries to depict what goes on in a character's mind heavily influenced by psychoanalysis - only came into being in the late 19th century. Stanzel vs. Genette: Genette and Genette's critique of Stanzel. Stanzel: who is speaking? ("Erzählperspektive") Genette: who is perceiving? ("focalisation") Genette's term "focalisation" is very similar to Stanzel's "personale Erzählsituation" 8.2.21 Gothic novel (Schauerroman) (e.g. Harry Potter) Origin of the genre: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764) -> first one Characteristic setting (in terms of buildings as well as nature). The sublime. The sublime, the past and the supernatural (in Dracula: the past vs modern world) e.g. vampires