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Felicia Rinca PDF

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Madalina Ioana Popescu
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FELICIA RINCA A PRACTICAL COURSE FOR ENGLISH EXAMS wibe » CAA AL, ROVIMED SN PUBLISHERS Referent stiintific: Prof. gradul I Cristina Vasile Tehnoredactare: Felicia Rine’ Coperta: Toni Bezariu Prepress: Rovimed Publishers Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Nationale a Romaniei RINCA, FELICIA ‘A Practical Course for English Exams. Methodological Guide to prepare for the Tenure and Qualified Teacher Exams in the Primary and Secondary Education / Felicia Rinca ret. st. : Prof. gradul I Cristina Vasile. - Bacdu : Rovimed Publishers, 2017 Bibilogr. ISBN 978-606-583-680-8 1. Vasile, Cristina ([Link].) 37 CopyrightORINCA FELICIA 2017© Rovimed Publishers pentru prezenta edifie ROVIMED PUBLISHERS Razboieni Nr.8/B/17/600031, Backu, Romania Tel.: (+4234) $37 441 Fax.: (+4234) 515 300 e-mail: editura@[Link] [Link] re ef. CONTENTS FIRST PART: LITERATURE Foreword .... 5 Introduction ... 2 Point of view 10 Literary devices it Figures of speech 19 LITERARY MOVEMENTS (LIST) .. 24 1, RENAISSANCE William Shakespeare ..... 25 2, ENLIGHTNEMENT. Daniel Defoe .... Johnathan Swift... 3. ROMANTICISM Samuel Taylor Coleridge .... 5 38 John Keats........... _ a) Jane Austen .. 42 Edgar Allan Poe .... 44 4. TRANSCENDENTALISM Nathaniel Hawthorne . a7 Herman Melville . Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman 5. REALISM. Charles Dickens....... Lewis Carroll... Henry James .. Mark Twain.. 6. NATURALISM Thomas Hardy George Bernard Shaw 31 7. MODERNISM Joseph Conrad svw.. 1 oe A 60 James JOyCe ecerenntntesie i i aa 7 73 Virginia Woolf ec a cI T.S. Eliot : ee et eeececeeeetten ee E. M. Forster BL F, Scott Fitzgerald 83 William Faulkner ........ 85 Ernest Hemingway Soc eae ea 88 8. EXPRESSIONISM. Eugene O'Neill .. i. 9, POSTMODERNISM Willa GOIN sscascscrerencramananeun 96 Kurt Vonnegut 98 John Fowles .. 100 SECOND PART: METHODOLOGY Introduction .... 107 DEVISING ACTIVITIES 1, Pre — reading activity. Prediction......... ™ 213 2, Pre ~ reading activity. introducing new vocabulary in context... 115 3. While — reading activity. Gap filling. 119 4. While ~ reading activity. Character description. 122 5. While - reading activity. Narrative writing... 125 6. Post — reading activity. Identifying point OF VIeW...1cuccscecssesessnesneeseeenel 2B 7. Listening activity. Listening for specific and detailed information 132 8. Writing activity. Writing an informal letter. = 135 9. Speaking activity. Simutation and role - play .... 138 DEVISING A TEST 140 DEVISING A LESSON PLAN .. 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY 163 al FOREWORD This book is designed in the form of a guide to help you, University graduates and future English teachers, pass your exams successfully. Not only does it contain the necessary information presented in a concise manner, but it also explains how to approach the subjects of the exams you are about to take. The book is written from the perspective of a current English teacher who gathered the essential information from books and web sites alike. The book is divided into two sections, each with its own subchapters. The first one focuses on the literature subject and contains a brief theoretical presentation of the main aspects of essay writing, providing the necessary tools to elaborate a coherent and well- structured essay. The second part deals with applied methodology. The exam usually consists of three parts - Literature - Grammar - Methodology. Due to the fact that there are a lot of grammar books with theory and exercises alike, this guide focuses primarily on literature and methodology. All in all, A Practical Course for English Exams has been mainly conceived as an instrument for individual study meant to guide teachers in the English testing acquisition process, but it may prove equally useful for class activities. Our thanks and special credit go to the Romanian language teacher, Professor Cristina Vasile, first degree awarded, for her useful pieces of advice and steady support. st FIRST PART : LITERATURE INTRODUCTION The first part of the exam consists of a text, not more than a page long, followed by a few requirements: a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. v v ¥ ¥ Here, you should mention: the approximate date when the story \ navel \ novella \ poem \ play was published. the historical events that took place at around the time when the book was published and that may have influenced the piece of work people's lifestyle and cultural level at the time. the literary movement the book falls into. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. A literary canon refers to a classification of literature. It is a term used widely to refer to a group of literary works that are considered the most important of a particular time period or place. At this point, you should specify and briefly describe v RAS AN SR ASA S 9I the features of the literary movement that the book \ excerpt falls into the main characters (protagonist; antagonist) the conflict in the book the setting the themes the motifs the symbols (with examples from the fragment given) the tone the narrator and the point of view the figures of speech (with examples from the excerpt given) the literary devices ’ se ALTE POINT OF VIEW The narrator is the person who tells \ narrates the story. The point of view is the perspective from which the narrator sees the action and the characters. It also refers to the angle from which the story is told, the point from which the narrative is passed from author to the reader. The point of view can be * first person * second person * third person omniscient \ limited omniscient; objective \ subjective 1. A first person narrator uses the pronouns |, We, and is usually a character in the story, being able to interact with the characters, He is usually subjective and unreliable. Sometimes, it can develop into stream of consciousness, a narrative technique that records the various thoughts and feelings which pass through a character's mind without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence. Stream of consciousness is characterised by lack of punctuation. 2. In the second person point of view the narrator uses the pronoun you to address the reader, but it is less common in literature. 3. In the third person point of view, the narrator uses pronouns such as he \ she \ it \ they. The narrator is not a character in the story. From the omniscient point of view, the narrator hears, sees and knows everything, describing the characters’ thoughts, feelings and intentions. He follows all the characters. In contrast, in the third person limited omniscient point of view, the narrator describes only the thoughts, feelings, intentions of one character, who is usually the main character of the story. He deliberately keeps certain characters from being explained or explored. In the third person subjective point of view, the narrator may be sympathetic to some of the characters, making favourable comments or remarks. On the other hand, in the third person objective point of view, the narrator describes only what he sees \ hears and doesn’t reveal anything from the characters’ thoughts, feelings, intentions, motivations. The facts and action of the story are reported by a neutral, impersonai observer who is a mere spectator of events. In a multiple perspective narration, the various narrators present multiple perspectives of the story, which can deepen conflict. Sometimes, different chapters are narrated by different characters. 10] ithe sto rom ress re\ ew, hits, son ngs, ely to Lin ars. ons, rai ale are LITERARY DEVICES Allegory. A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. In written narrative, the allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story, so that its characters and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale. Lord of the flies is an allegorical novel Allusion. An indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place or artistic work. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the two knitting women whom Marlow sees alludes to Moirae or Fates, as visualized in Greek Mythology. Ambiguity. A statement which contains two or more meanings. Hamlet, from the play with the same title, is a morally ambiguous character. He is hurt by the death of Ophelia, which is his personal loss, but he does not appreciate the effect of his actions on other characters. The audience or the readers don’t know for sure if he is truly insane or if he is just pretending; they also don’t know whether he really sees his father’s ghost or not, Analogy. A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. As the definition of analogy includes all types of comparisons, the following list of literary devices all qualify as analogies: metaphor, simile, allegory, parable. Anecdote. A very short tale told by a character in a literary work. In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Miller's Tale and The Carpenter's Tale are such examples. Antagonist. The character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to the conflict of the story. Jack in the Lord of the flies is such an example. Anti - hero. A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He is the protagonist of the narrative, yet a foil to the traditional hero archetype. In literature, Hamlet is an anti—hero. Archetype. A term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes Unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, it refers to characters, images and ay themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences. Dilsey, from Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury embodies the Mother Figure. Climax. The decisive moment in a drama, the climax is the turning point of the play to which the rising action feads. This is the crucial part of the drama, the part which determines the outcome of the conflict. In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the story reaches its climax in Act 3, when Romeo challenges Tybalt to a duel after killing Mercutio. Colloquialism. Spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech. Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses Black American vernacular to realistically show the negroes talking. Comedy. A literary work which is amusing and ends happily. Modern comedies tend to be funny while Shakespearean comedies simply end well. A Midsummer's night dream is a comedy. Connotation. The emotional implications and associations that words may carry as distinguished from their denotative meanings. In literature, connotation paves way for creativity by using figures of speech like metaphor, simile, symbolism, personification. Denotation. The basic dictionary meaning of a word as opposed to its connotative meaning. Deus Ex Machina. An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the conflict. The term means God out of the machine. The end of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens includes an example of Deus ex Machina when it turns out that Oliver's fellow orphan Rose is actually his aunt. This plot twist allows for several happy things to occur, including Oliver’s adoption. Diction. An author's choice of words. Since words have specific meanings and since one's choice of words can affect feelings, a writer's choice of words can have great impact in a literary work. Keats in Ode on a Grecian Urn uses formal diction to achieve a certain effect. In his poem, one can notice the use of formal ye instead of informal you. Shakespeare also uses in his work the formal words thou and thy as well as archaic syntax. Ellipsis is the omission of a word or series of words. Among the most famous examples of ellipsis in literature, the best would be Virginia Woolf's novel, To the Lighthouse. The book 21 ses, xy to aich alle, ling ito mis as for itive sts wist ws to ne's la ect. we of rok involves two parts, one before the World War | was fought and won and the later one accounts for the events accurring afterwards. All the events that occurred in between have not been mentioned in the book. Rather, it has been left to the readers to deduce the events from the notable changes that have occurred in the characters’ lives. Epigraph. A brief quotation which appears at the beginning of a literary work. T. S Eliot writes at the beginning of The Waste Land an epigraph and also a dedication for Ezra Pound; As an epigraph to The Sun also rises, Ernest Hemingway famously quotes Gertude Stein - You are all a lost generation. classic Latin Epigram. A pithy, sometimes satiric couplet or quatrain which was popula literature and in European and English literature of the Renaissance and the neo-Classical era. The next four lines of sonnet 76 by Shakespeare are a good example of an epigram. The poet refers to ideas and items simultaneously as both new and old. He tries to say that he has spent something, which he has already done. He is doing this to express perplexity with a lover, and also to show his feelings of the desire of sexuality. So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent: For as the sun is daily new and old, $0 is my love still telling what is told. Flashbacks are interruptions that writers do to insert past events in order to provide background or context to the current events of a narrative. By using flashbacks, writers allow their readers to gain insight into a character's motivation and provide background information to a current conflict. Dream sequences and memories are methods used to present flashbacks. In The Great Gatsby, Nick learns the history of Daisy's acquaintance with Gatsby and of her marriage to Tom through a flashback narrated by Jordan Baker: One October day in nineteen-seventeen - (said Jordan Baker that ofternoon, sitting up very straight on a straight chair in the tea-garden at the Plaza Hotel) - | was walking... Flashforward. It is a literary device in which the plot goes ahead of time, that is, a scene which interrupts and takes the narrative forward in time from the current time in a story. In Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol, the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge is shown the future following his death. The subsequent events of the story imply that this future will be averted by this foreknowledge. BI Foil. A character who shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character, usually the protagonist. Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby provides a foil to Jay Gatsby. Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet is another example of foil. Romeo is a romantic. person while Mercutio, on the other hand, is witty and not at all romantic. Framing Device. A story in which one or more other stories are told, also called story within ~a ~ story. Examples include Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Genre. A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work employing such common conventions that will prevent readers or audiences from mistaking it with another kind. The classic major genres of literature are: Fiction, Non- fiction, poetry, prose and drama. Genres are often divided into subgenres such as: Comedy, Tragedy, Horror, Romance, Satire, Tragicomedy, Fantasy, Gothic. Gothic. Literature characterized by gloom, mystery and the grotesque. Allan Poe’s stories are good examples of Gothic Literature. Idiom. A specialized vocabulary used by a group of people; a style or manner of expression peculiar to a given category of people. Shakespeare is credited with coining more than 2000 words, infusing thousands more existing ones with electrifying new meanings and forging idioms that would last for centuries. ‘A fool's paradise,’ ‘at one fell swoop,” ‘heart's content,’ ‘in a pickle,’ ‘send him packing,’ ‘too much of a good thing," ‘the game is up,’ ‘good riddance,’ ‘love is blind,’ and ‘a sorry sight,’ to name a few. Imagery. The collection of images within a literary work. Used to evoke atmosphere, mood, tension. Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” or in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In medias res. A narrative work beginning in medias res opens in the midst of action. Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, either through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events. For example, Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet's father. Characters make reference to King Hamlet's death without the plot's first establishment of said fact. Since the play focuses on Hamlet and the revenge itself more so than the motivation, Shakespeare utilizes in medias res to bypass superfluous exposition Intertextuality. It is a way of accounting for the role of literary and extra-literary materials without recourse to traditional notions of authorship. In this case, a literary work is not 1a] other dil to antic story vork from Von- nas: ories r of ining new efell ‘the ere, are’s ion, acks et's first ~ore ous simply the product of a single author but of its relationship to other texts and to the structures of language itself. Starting with its title (the Latin name of Odysseus), Ulysses, an example of modernist fiction by James Joyce, shares a richly intertextua! relationship with Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Inversion. Reversal of the normal order of words for dramatic effect. William Shakespeare used many examples of inversion in his plays and poetry. He changes around some of the words order to make lines more poetic and stylized: Sometime too hot the eve of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, Irony. A device that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning embedded in one message. Verbal irony becomes sarcasm when the speaker says something other than what he really means. In dramatic irony, the audience is more aware of the facts than the characters themselves. Situational irony occurs when the opposite of what is expected happens. This type of irony is often emphasized when people are caught in forces beyond their comprehension and control. Shakespeare's plays usually contain all types of irony. Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts. In literature, juxtaposition is a useful device for writers to portray their characters in great detail to create suspense and achieve a rhetorical effect. Charles Dickens uses the technique of juxtaposition in the opening line of his novel A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. Minimalism. A style of art in which objects are stripped down to their elemental geometric form and presented in an impersonal manner. In literature, minimalism uses short descriptions and simple sentences. A clean, well - lighted place is such an example. Monologue. It represents the thoughts of a single person directed outward. In Mrs. Datloway by Virginia Woolf or in Ulysses by James Joyce, the stream of consciousness technique, also known as interior monologue, is used extensively. 15) Parable. A brief and often simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson Some of the best-known parables are encountered in the Bible where Jesus uses them to teach his disciples moral lessons. The Old man and the Sea may be read as a parable of human endurance. Paradox. [tis a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include @ latent truth, tt is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas. In the famous play of Shakespeare, Hamlet, the protagonist says: | must be cruel to be kind. Pathetic Fallacy. The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or the nature. Charles Dickens makes use of pathetic fallacy in “Great Expectations”. At the beginning of chapter 39, his protagonist “Pip” comments on the wretched weather. Parody. A literary form in which the style of an author or particular work is mocked in its style for the sake of comic effect. Shakespeare's sonnet 130 isa parody of traditional love poems common in his day. Pastoral. A literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life usually in an idealized way. Keats’ poems are such examples of pastoral poetry. Persona. In literature, the persona is the narrator or the storyteller of a literary work created by the author. As Literature: An Introduction to Fiction Poetry and Drama puts it, the persona is not the author but the author's creation--the voice through which the author speaks. . Protagonist. The central character of a literary work. pun. Iisa play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings. Charles Dickens plays around with words in his novel Great Expectations. In his opening chapter Pip says: They seemed to think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the conversation to me, every now and then, and stick the point into me. Note the pun in the use of the word “point”. Rhetoric, The art of persuasive argument through writing or speech--the art of eloquence son. mto le of ude a pted must nate jreat n the nits !love an vork Its it, the rent fto he from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. \ Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot; O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Sarcasm. It's a form of irony. In Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, there is an interesting example of sarcasm, because the reader may choose to believe that the Cheshire Cat is being perfectly genuine or being sarcastic. She gives the girl answers that, while being true, are not necessarily helpful, “Would you tell me, please, which way | ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to go,” said the Cat. “1 don’t much care where~" said Alice. “Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you're sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” Satire. A literary work which exposes and ridicules human vices or folly. Historically perceived as tending toward didacticism, it is usually intended as a moral criticism directed against the injustice of social wrongs. Gulliver’s Travels is a satire. Soliloquy. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. Shakespeare usually employed soliloquy in his work. Tone. The writer's attitude toward the material and / or readers. The tone may be playful, formal, light-hearted, intimate, disgusted, angry, joyful serious, ironic, paranoid, outraged, baffled, tender, serene, depressed, contemplative or combinations. Tragedy. A serious play in which the chief figures or character pass through a series of misfortunes leading to a final devastating catastrophe. Such examples are Macbeth and Hamlet by Shakespeare. Tragic Flaw. The character's flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. It is universally agreed that Ahab in Moby Dick is considered a tragic hero. He shows many examples of good leadership and being quite intelligent. However, he dooms his ship and all his shipmates by deciding to chase the whale that took his leg, Moby Dick Utopia / Dystopia. A utopia is an imaginary and indefinitely remote place of ideal Perfection especially in laws government and social conditions. A dystopia is an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives; an imaginary place or state a7] where everything is as bad as it possibly can be: or a description of such a place. The imaginary countries that Gulliver encountered in his travels are examples of utopia Vernacular. It is the use of ordinary, everyday and plain language in speaking or writing, his De vulgari eloquentia, was possibly the first The Italian poet Dante Alighieri, European writer to argue cogently for the promotion of literature in the vernacular important early vernacular works include Dante's Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (both in ttalian), John Barbour's The Brus (in Scots), Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (in Middle English). The riting. first cular. ccio's ucer's FIGURES OF SPEECH Alliteration. The consonant sounds at the beginning of the sentence are repeated e.g. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, in the below lines, we can find alliteration (“b”, “f” and “s”) in the phrases "breeze blew”, foam flew, furrow followed, and silent sea. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; Aphorism. It is a remark or a sentence, often a definition that conveys the truth about something in a concise and witty way. “Having nothing, nothing can he lose."(Henry V1) “Life is a tale told by an idiot — full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Macbeth) “Lord, what fools these mortals be!"(A Midsummer Night's Dream) Apostrophe. A figure of speech sometimes represented by the exclamation O. The writer \ speaker detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech. e.g. Welcome, O life! James Joyce, A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) Assonance. Two or more words close to one other repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds. e.g: Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no. man knows how and why the first poems came. (Carl Sandburg’s Early Moon) Cacophony. It points to a situation where there is a mixture of harsh and inharmonious sounds. In literature, however, the term refers to the use of words with sharp, harsh, hissing and unmelodious sounds primarily those of consonants to achieve desired results. In order to describe the destructive consequences of war, Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels chooses words and arranges them in an order that they produce an effect that is unmelodious, harsh and jarring that corresponds with the subject matter: And being no stranger to the art of war, | have him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights. 19 | Chiasmus is a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect. €.g.: Do | love you because you're beautiful? Or are you beautiful because I lave you? (Oscar Hammerstein, Do / Love You Because You're Beautiful?) Cliché refers to an expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty. A cliché may also refer to actions and events which are predictable because of some previous events. Countless clichés were coined by Shakespeare, including: All that glitters is not gold — (The Merchant of Venice) Jealousy is the green-eyed monster — (Othello) Forever and a day ~ (The taming of the Shrew) Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. In As imperceptibly as Grief, Emily Dickinson has relied on the consonant “n” to create the intended effect: A Quietness distilled As Twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon ~ Epithet. An adjective or adjective phrase that describes a place, a thing or a person. e.g. : God! he said quietly. Isn’t the sea what Algy calls it: a great sweet mother? The snot- green sea. The scrotum-tightening seal | must teach you. You must read them in the original. Thalatta! Thalatta! She is our great sweet mother... (Ulysses by James Joyce) Euphemism refers to polite, indirect expressions which replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite or which suggest something unpleasant. e.g. /am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs. (Othello, W. Shakespeare) Here, the expression “making the beast with two backs” refers to the act of having sex. Hyperbole. A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration is used for deliberate effect. €.g.: had to wait in the station for ten days-an eternity (from Joseph Conrad’s novel The Heart of Darkness) 20] zach inal able are, rot- he ses she or he Litotes is a figure of speech in which a negative statement is used to affirm a positive sentiment: lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald) The difference between the neighbourhoods of East Egg and West Egg is an important theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. The narrator Nick Carraway and his neighbour Jay Gatsby live at West Egg. Here, Nick gives a foreboding sense of how this difference will affect the events of the novel. Instead of just calling them different, Nick says that there is a “bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.” This sets up expectations of the reader to find out what is, in fact, quite sinister in this part of the world. Metaphor. A type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is something else but literally it is not. In connecting one object event or place to another a metaphor can uncover new and intriguing qualities of the original thing that we may not normally notice or even consider important. Metaphoric language is used in order to realize a new and different meaning @.g.: Shall | Compare Thee to a summer's Day? (William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18) Metonymy. A figure of speech in which a word represents something else than it suggests. e.g.: Lend me your ears! (Julius Caesar, Shakespeare) Onomatopeia. It is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting. Poo — tee — weet? represents the imitation of the sound of a bird in Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut Oxymoron. A combination of contradictory terms. €.g.: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. (Animal Farm by George Orwell) Parallelism. The repetition of words, phrases or sentences that have the same grammatical structure or that restate a similar idea, e.g. What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace wos thy brain? 2u| What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? (William Blake, The Tyger) Personification. A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. e.g.: Have you got a brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so? (Emily Dickinson, Have You Got A Brook In Your Little Heart). Pleonasm, It is the use of an excessive number of words to say something, including repetition. €.g.: The most unkindest cut of all. (Julius Caesar, Shakespeare) Redundancy. It is the use of unnecessary words and phrases that express somet! already said in an utterance or sentence. €.g.: Praise them with great prise! (Lord of the Rings, J. R. Tolkien) Repetition. It is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer. I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody too? Then there’s a pair of us-don’t tell! They'd banish us you know. (i'm nobody! Who are You?” by Emily Dickinson) Simile. It is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as”. : e.g. would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage. (Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad). Synecdoche. A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part as wheels for automobile or society for high society. e.g: The western wave was all a-flame. The day was well was nigh done! Almost upon the western wave Rested the broad bright Sun. (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge) 2| The western wave is a synecdoche as it refers to the sea that is the wave. a ven Zoomorphism. It is a literary technique in which the animal attributes a imposed upon non-animal objects, humans, and events. Therefore, animal features are ascribed to humans, Gods and other objects: / have had a dream, past the wit of mon to say what dream it wos: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream... (A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare) rt) This excerpt is the speech of Bottom in the play, who had a dream in which he was an jing ass-headed monster adored by gorgeous fairy queen. He describes that humans cannot comprehend his dream; it is beyond their approach hing sto 1 uf id the 2a | LITERARY MOVEMENTS . Renaissance - half part of 14" century—end of the 17 century . Enlightenment - end of 17 century ~ end of the 18" century . Romanticism - end of 18" century - half part of the 19" century . Transcendentalism — half part of the 19‘ century — 1880s, America Realism - half part of the 19" century — end of the 19" century . Naturalism - late part of the 19" century - early 20" century . Modernism ~ beginning of the 20" century ~ half part of the 20" century ;. Expressionism - 1920s ~ 1940s, America Postmodernism — half part of the 20" century — present time the time of the Reformation of the Catholic Church 1. RENAISSANCE William Shakespeare (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. 47°40 Widely regarded as the greatest writer in English literature, William Shakéspeare is the author of 454-sonnets and 37 plays. The period in which he lived and wrote is a time between two sets of Civil Wars ~ The War of the Roses and The English Civil War, but also Shakespeare's career-bridged the reign of Elisabeth I (until 1603) and James | (until 1625) and he was a favourite of both monarchs. The plays he wrote under the reign of Queen Elisabeth often seem to embody the general happy, confident and optimistic mood. However, those he wrote under the reign of James | are darker and more cynical, reflecting the curiosities of the Jacobean The reign of Queen Elisabeth saw England emerge as the leading and commercial ower of the Western world. The epoch is often described by historians as the Golden . _Age, When she came to throne, the queen declared that the content of the plays could, no longer be religious, Yet, new theatres were built and new forms of drama emerged, Such as romance. At the time, all parts in the play were played by men. The Elizabethan, society was strongly patriarchal, the father had the right to treat its daughters as saleable, goods, whereas marriage was a business agreement. Through the Middle Ages, the English drama was mainly religious, presented in crude dialogue stories taken from the Bible or from the lives of the Saints. With the, Renaissance came the study of ancient classical drama. The invention of the printing press, encourages authors to write in their local vernacular rather than in Greek and Latin, languages. The greatest problem during the Renaissance was..the public hygiene. Therefore, the plague was a result of uncleanliness., In. 1592 there was a persistent, _ Outbreak of plague in London which resulted in theatres and other public gatherings being closed. At the time, Shakespeare is believed to have written most of his sonnets, b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. 30-40 * THE SONNETS ( XVIII, CXXX ) Publication date: 1609 Themes: Different types of romantic love, the dangers of lust and love, real beauty versus clichéd beauty, the responsibilities of being beautiful. les Motifs: art versus time, the significance of sight, art’s struggle to overcome the inevitability of death, Symbols: flowers and trees, stars, weather and seasons. Literary devices: rhythm, chyme, rhetorical. questions, parody, comparison, alliteration, parallelism, metonymy, metaphors, The author of 154 sonnets, Shakespeare introduced two factors in English poetry: verbal immediacy and the moulding of stress. He also borrowed words and phrases from other languages — the phenomenon called neologising - adding almost two thousands New words to the English language. His standard poetic form is the blank verse composed in iambic pentameter. An iamb means a pair of syllables, the first one being unstressed and the second one stressed. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was established by Petrarch in the 14 century, in his Wyric poems addressed to his bellowed woman and it was adopted by Shakespeare in the 16" century. The Shakespearian sonnet has 14 lines, divided into 4 parts. The first three parts are each four lines long and are known as quatrains, rhymed ABAB, whereas the fourth part contains only two lines, and is called a couplet. The rhyme scheme of each sonnet is ABABCDCDEFEFGG. In the quatrains, the poet establishes a theme, while in the couplet he either offers @ summary or a retake of an idea from the previous lines. His. Poems deal with love, death, immortality, beauty., The first 126 sonnets seem to be addressed [Link] unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much, referred to as the Fair Youth, Addressing sonnets to @ young man was unique in Elizabethan England. The speaker expresses passionate concern for W. H., praises his beauty and articulates what we would nowadays call homosexual desire, The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, urge him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next. generations, However, sonnet 18 is a statement of praise of the beauty of the beloved, the first one which doesn’t explicitly encourage him to father a child. The speaker opens the poem with a rhetorical question (Shall / compare thee to a summer day?). The next eleven lines are dedicated to such a comparison. The speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from a summer day, using Personification of nature (Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May) and metaphors (the Eye of Heaven). Through an alliteration (fair from fair declines), the speaker implies that summer and time in general is fleeting. The major theme of the sonnet is the power _ of the speaker's poem to defy time, implied through another personification (Nor shal! dead brag thou wander'st in his shade). in the couplet, the speaker explains, using a Parallelism, how the beloved’s beauty will never perish, as itis preserved in his poem. 26 | ? ne the arison, oetry: from ssands dosed ressed ary, in ‘are in, > first yereas each in the s. His oman, ets to onate s call urge 2 the of the etoa raker using hors uplies ower shall sing a n The next 26 sonnets are addressed to a mysteriotis woman - the Dark Lady, One interpretation of Shakespeare’s sonnets is that they may be a parody or a pastiche of Petrarchan love poems, as the author inverts gender roles, comments on political event makes fun of love, speaks openly about sexual desire, parodies beauty and even, “teferences pornography. In sonnet CXXX, the speaker compares his lover to a number of other beauties, using various antithetic metaphors. He uses strong imagery to get his satirical message across. The speaker draws on sight, sound and smell to describe his mistress. To express the depth of their feelings, poets frequently employed hyperbolig terms. Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious creatures to walk, on Earth, Shakespeare makes fun of this convention by contrasting an idealized woman toa real one. The rhetorical structure of the sonnet is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, the speaker spends one line on each comparison, whereas in the second and third quatrains, he expands his description to occupy two lines each. Thus each comparison receives a pair of unrhymed lines. In the couplet, rather than offering a summary, he offers a contradiction (and yet...). In Shakespeare’s poetry, the symbols of weather and _seasons stand in for human emotions, whereas nature, flowers and trees illustrate the __passage of time. ROMEO AND JULIET | ioO, Publication date: 1601 Themes: The forcefulness of love, the individual versus the society, the inevitability of fate, Motifs: Light \ dark imagery, nighttime. Symbols: poison, thumb biting, Queen Mab. Literary devices: all forms of irony, inclusion of two choral sonnets, use of rhetorical questions, dramatic techniques. Shakespeare used for his play the Italian tale The tragical history of Romeus and Juliet. Though Romeo and Juliet is considered the greatest love story in English literature, __28 the two young lovers perform the. most dramatic act out of love by killing themselves, it portrays only a specific type of love = the young, irrational one. It is one of the few tragedies, along with Othello, which is not based on historical figures. In this play, Romeo and Juliet are of noble families, but they are not royals either. The idea that two upper ~ middle class youth could serve as protagonists was outlandish for Elizabethan audiences, interested in the history of their kings. Neither of the lovers has a classic tragical flaw; therefore, their end is the outcome of the circumstances of fate. In its first address to the 2h. audience, the Chorus state that the two youngsters are. star crossed, meaning that Fate. controls them A first innovation is the inclusion of two choral sonnets. The first one tells about the storyline and establishes the central theme as the antithesis between love and hate, This theme is best noticed in Juliet's balcony soliloquy when the girl asks Romeo to reject his name. Another innovation is the use of rhetorical questions: Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques as the abrupt shift from tragedy to comedy, Before Mercutio’s death, the play is largely a comedy. After that, it suddenly takes a serious, tragic tone, The writer also uses subplots, Except for the plot of the hate between the Montague ~ Capulet families we discover, as the play begins, that Romeo is in love with Rosaline and Paris loves Juliet. Another literary device that Shakespeare uses in particular is irony, in all of its forms: verbal irony ~ for example when Juliet confuses her mother that he is not ready to marry yet but she is quite literally preparing herself to wed that very night; an instance of situational irony is when Juliet’s father makes plans for his daughter's marriage with Paris although she was already married to Romeo; The play is also rife with instances of dramatic irony. When Romeo believes Juliet to be dead he mourns over her, saying how alive her dead body looks. Furthermore, Juliet awakens only a few seconds later, to find her dead lover besides her. Two important symbols in the play are the dagger and the poison, both symbolizing deceit. The writer doesn’t paint an attractive picture of the institution of marriage. Even the sole religious figure in the play marries the lovers as part of his plan to end the feud between their families and not necessarily because he approves of their love. One of the play’s most consistent visual motifs is the contrast between day — night, often in terms of light — dark imagery. Shakespeare uses various figures of speech — metaphors, personifications, similes, hyperboles,- in describing the lovers. Juliet is compared to a dove among the crows; She is named a bright angel but also described as the sun which banished the envious moon. Moreover, her eyes are like two stars. Romeo is also compared to a light that illuminates the darkness. However, darkness is not always associated with evil as the evening hours hold all the significant moments for the lovers:_ 2. they meet, pledge their love, consummate their marria ‘+ AMIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM Publication date: 1597.2) .7"!. Themes: love's difficulty, magic, dreams. Motifs: contrast. Symbols: Theseus and Hippolyta wiles: Fate pout vate eject ‘neo, the ely a dots. er, as of its dy to ace of Paris -2s of = how > find id the . Even feud of the ms of iphors, toa which is also ways lovers: Literary devices: all forms of irony, simile, metaphor, personification, In the First Folio, Shakespeare’s plays wei grouped into three categories: tragedies, histories and comedies, Comedy, in its Elizabethan usage, had a different meaning from the modern comedy. A Shakespearian comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters; it emphasizes on the struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty often presented by elders; a clever, servant; an unexpected twist; multiple inter - plots; [Link] living an idealized rural life. Written in the mid #1950s, A midsummer’s night dream has an obvious plot link with Romeo and Juliet The title suggest an atmosphere of fantasy and imagination, being an accurate description of the magical wood outside Athens where the characters experience events that seem more like a dream than reality. The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain the peculiar events in which they are involved. Another important theme is the love's difficulty, often explored through the motif of love. out of balance among the four Athenians, Though most of the conflict in the plays stems. “From the troubles of romance and though the play involves a number of romantic, “clements, itis not truly a love story as, the tone of the play is very light.- hearted, The. “entire plays constructed around groups of opposites and doubles: Helena is tal, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim of the pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque; the fairies are graceful and magical whereas the craftsmen are clumsy and earthly; The craftsmen are merry while the lovers are serious The major symbol is the Love potion, used to create a surreal world and to fepresent the unreasoning, erratic nature of love, The moon symbolises the. passage of time but it is also linked to sexual desire, as it is noticed in Theseus’ speech. Theseus and , Hippolyta represent order and stability in the play., Their return at the end of the play signifies the end of the dream state and return to rationality. The Craftsmen’s party—the , play within the play ~ takes most of Act 5 and is used to represent, in condensed form, ‘most of the important ideas and themes in the play. Because the craftsmen are week actors, their performance satirizes the Athenian lovers, giving the play a joyful, comedic Lending... One classic way to create comedy is trough irony. All forms of irony (dramatic, situational and verbal) can be found [Link] play. Regarding the writing style, the three. most common types of verse in the play are: blank verse composed in iambic pentameter (spoken by the noble characters); rhymed verse,(the speech of the lovers) and trochaic tetrameter (spoken by the fairies). 231 HAMLET Publication date: 1603 { fy) Themes: the impossibility of certainty, the complexity of action, the mystery « death, the nation asa diseased body. Motifs: incest, misogyny. Symbols: Yorik’s skull Literary devices: ail forms of irony, puns, metaphor, allusion, The majority of Shakespeare's tragedies are based on historical figures. The ploy focuses on the reverse of fortune of the central characters, which lead to their ruin and ultimately death. His tragedies work on a five part structure, corresponding to the five acts: (exposition) which outlines the situation and introduces the main characters; the’ development; the climax) consisting of a change of direction, further development and the final resolution,, Death is a constant presence in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies. In this play, the plot 's set in motion by the murder of Hamlet's father through poisoning and the apparition of the. Ghost, What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays is that the action we A first theme which links Hamlet of Ofelia is that of suicide as they deeply of it. In his famous soliloquy To be or not to be, based on an antithesi "a5 Hamlet speaks to Yorik’s skull, he concludes that no one would choose to endure the pain of life SS one wasn't afraid of what comes after death, as in Christian religion suicide leads to element in many revenge plays. The most popular revenge tragedy of the Elizabethan Period, The Spanish Tragedy, also features a main character who goes mad in the build — up to his revenge. But Hamlet is unique among revenge tragedies in its treatment of madness because the main character's insanity is deeply ambiguous, Incest and misogyny are two recurring motifs throughout the play. Instances of incest are implied between Hamlet and Gertude, in his fixation on Gertude’s sexual life with Claudius, but also between Laertas and his sister. Full of hatred and disgusted by his 30] ary of .e plot aand ve five 5; the tand 2 plot arition n we ledge. noral 3dom. innot think amlet of life isto sitting ssad let is shed ethan tid - int of 2s of >I life y his mother’s sexuality, Hamlet becomes cynical about women, He even repudiates Ophelia, urging her to go to a nunnery and accusing her of being a promiscuous girl Among the literary devices used in the play there is irony, both verbal and dramatig. Dramatic irony occurs at the beginning of the play, when Hamlet only pretends to be dead but he ends up going mad; It can also be found at the end of the play when Claudius poisons his sword and the goblet to kill Hamlet but instead he dies from his own act, Shakespeare also frequently uses puns. The first words that the audience hear Hamlet _say are ironical, He alludes to his uncle saying that he is more than kin, but less than kind. The play — within — the — play, having the name Mousetrap js another example of the kind At one point, an allusion provides foreshadowing of Polonius’ fate. Polonius notes that he once acted the part of Julius Caesar and was stabbed by Brutus. s MACBETH (G0), Publication date: 1606 Themes: the corrupting power of ambition, the relationship between cruelty and masculinity, the difference between kingship and tyranny, Motifs: hallucinations, violence, prophecy. , ‘Symbols: blood, the weather. Literary devices: all forms of irony, metaphors, foils, paradox. This is Shakespeare's shortest but bloodiest tragedy whose source is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland. The play tells the story of a brave Scottish General who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he would become the King of Scotland. It is an irony the fact that King Duncan gives Macbeth the title General, considering him to be the most noble and worthy man when Macbeth, consumed by ambition, kills the King in his own house and takes the throne for himself. He becomes known as the Tyrant whereas in the play Duncan is always referred to as the King. An important literary device that Shakespeare uses in the play is foreshadowing,,through a paradox: Fair is foul and foul is fair, quoted by the three witches at the beginning of the play. The phrase is a hint to the corruption power of ambition. In the world of the play, Banquo is used as a foil to Macbeth, as he is less obsessed with power, Another major theme explored in the play is the relationship between cruelty and Tasculinity. While the male characters are known to be able of cruel deeds and violence, the cruelty of female characters is striking, The witches prompt Macbeth to kill the King and to blindly believe in his own immortality. In some way, they resemble the Mythological Fates but use their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings. They speak in catalectic trochaic tetrameter as opposed to the noble characters, who speak in blank verse, composed in iambic pentametey. Macbeth is also spurred to 31] action by his ambitious wife who lusts for power and position and who, at certain times, seems to be stronger and more ruthless than her husband. She encourages Macbeth to, fook like an innocent flower but be the serpent under ‘t - a metaphor to suggest him to act normally in front of Duncan, not to reveal their true intentions. After the King’s death she is convinced that a little water will clean the blood off of their hands and deeds. Although most of the killings take place off stage, throughout the play the characters provide the audience with descriptions of carnage. From the opening scene on the battlefield where the captain describes Macbeth covered in blood, to the endless references to the blood stained hands of Macbeth and his wife, to the dagger covered in blood that the main character sees floating into the air, pointed toward the King’s chamber, when Macbeth is about to kill him. Hallucinations and blood come to symbolize guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of the main characters. Another literary device that Shakespeare uses in the play is fallacy, as the weather in Macbeth mirrors the action,, This is because in Elizabethan times people believed that the state of the Universe could be disturbed by a horrible act of betrayal, such as the murder. of a good king, From the thunder and storm that accompany the witches’ appearance to the terrible storm on the night of Duncan's murder ; they all reflect, corruption in the moral and political order. 32] mes, sth to mto eath, 1 the eon dless adin sing’s volize ather that s the hes’ flect 2. ENLIGHTENMENT Daniel Defoe ( British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. The end of the 17" century marked the beginning of an intellectual movement in Europe known as the Enlightenment. Enabled by the Scientific Revolution, it opened a path for independent thought and the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Politics, Medicine, Astronomy were updated and expanded. Egalitarianism was the promise of the century, together with fair treatment for everyone, regardless of the background. At the time, Britain was as powerful as France, had the strongest navy in the world which controlled Britain’s own trade routes. It made Britain the most advanced economy in the world The first half of the 18 century in English literature became known as the Augustan age, an epoch ruled by Queen Anne, King George | and King George II, that featured the rapid development of the novel. Literature in that century became highly instructive whereas the fiction of the day reflected an interest in travelling; Characters change their lives by voyaging. The hero in the novel is no longer a prince but a representative of the middle class. The greatest British writers of that period were the poet Alexander Pope and the novelists Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. As 2 young boy, Defoe witnessed two of the greatest disasters of the 17 century: a recurrence of the plague (1665) and the Great Fire of London (1666), which nearly destroyed the city. This may have shaped his imagination with catastrophes in his writings b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ROBINSON CRUSOE Publication date: 1719 Themes: the ambivalence of mastery, the necessity of repentance, the importance Of self - awareness Motifs: counting and measuring, eating, ordeals at sea Symbols: the footprint, the cross, Crusoe’s bower Literary devices: personification, biblical allusion, simile, foreshadowing, imagery Point of view: first person (narrated by Robinson Crusoe) Daniel Defoe has written many novels on which he has based his life upon. His best known novel, Robinson Crusoe may be seen as a fictional autobiography, written from the first person point of view. The main character tells his story retrospectively. The book is 33] presented as Crusoe’s memories after his shipwrecked experience. Due to the incorporation of his diaries into the narrative, the story becomes an epistolary narrative, His focus on the actual conditions of everyday life and avoidance of the courtly and the heroic made Defoe a revolutionary in English literature and helped define the new genre of the novel, The author used vivid descriptions of characters and places and a lot of details to make his book seem more realistic. From the beginning of the novel, the narrator mentions his date and place of birth, the origin of his family, he describes his activities on the island, the tools he possesses. The concept of time is central to the structure of Robinson Crusoe as Defoe presents the protagonist's life chronologically. In his writings, Defoe claims that he endured “great solitude” throughout his life. With Robinson Crusoe’s theme of solitary human existence Defoe paved the way for the modern theme of alienation and isolation. The novel can also be read as a spiritual fable as Defoe was very concerned with religious issues. There are many religious allusions incorporated in the book. Crusoe’s experiences constitute not simply an adventure story but also a moral tale, illustrating the right and the wrong ways to live one's life. Crusoe believes that his major sin is his rebellious behaviour toward his father, which he refers to as the Original Sin. The Biblical allusion suggests that Crusoe’s exile from civilization is equivalent to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden. Another religious reference is the Cross, which is a symbol of his new existence on the island just as the Christian cross is a symbol of the Christians’ new lives into Christ after baptism. Crusoe’s encounters with water are associated with a kind of symbolic ardeal. Therefore, the sea, eating, counting and measuring are the main motifs in the novel. Other important symbols in the novel are the footprint and the bower — both being evidence of Crusoe’s loss of connection to human society. One of the major themes of the novel is the ambivalence of mastery. Crusoe’s success in mastering his situation, overcoming his obstacles and controlling his environment shows the condition of mastery in a positive light. But this theme of mastery becomes less positive when it is applied to unfair relationship between humans. He teaches Friday to call him Master as if that was his name, Moreover, he never entertains the possibility of considering Friday an equal. Friday is probably the first non-white character to be given a realistic, individualized and humane portrayal in the English novel. He represents all the natives that would be later oppressed in the age of European Imperialism. 34] lyand 0 the ly. is life. or the i fable isions story rusoe refers tion is is the ssisa 3 with anting novel ion to 1soe’s g his astery s. He tains white ovel pean Europe know path for independent together with Britain was as powerful as F Britain’s own trade routes. It made Britain the most advanced The first half of the 18” century in English literature became known as the Augustan age, an epoch ruled by Queen Anne, King George | and King George Ii, that featured the rapid development of the novel. Literature in that century became highly instructive whereas the fiction of the day reflected an interest in travelling; Characters ‘conomy in the world. changed thelr lives by voyaging. The hero in the novel was no longer a prince but a representative of the middle class. This was also a time when Britain's first politcal parties were created — The Whig and the Tory. While Swift was writing Gulliver's Travels, England was undergoing a lot of political changes. After the death of Queen Anne, George! - prince of Germany, ascended the British throne which he had gained with the assistance of the Whig Party. Swift resented the Whig’s actions against his friends, who often faced while or worse, so he began to write satires on the political and religious corruption surrounding him. ») Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ® GULLIVER’S TRAVELS Publication date: 1726 Themes: might versus right, the individual versus the society, the limits-of human understanding, Motifs: excrement, foreign languages, clothing Symbols: Liliputans, Brobgingnagians, Laputans, Houyhnhnms, England Literary devices: personification, imagery, allusion, satire, humour Point of view: itst person (narrated by Gulliver Lemuel) Travels” serves as a biting satire Jonathan Swift's best known novel “Gullive constantly attacking the European society through its depiction of imaginary nations. The Satireis the use of literary elements such as irony, sarcasm, humour, hyperbole to criticise 35 | or mock the foolish behaviour of others. It is entertaining but often used to bring attention to a particular subject and promote change. All the races that Gulliver encounters in his travels could be versions of the English Liliputans could be allegorical Whigs, symbolizing human pride; the tiniest race ever encountered by Gulliver is by far the vainest society, always prone to conspiracies Brobdingnagians represent the physical side of humans when examined up close. Laputans are parodies of theoreticians symbolizing the absurdity of knowledge that has never been tested or applied - just as the side of Enlightenment intellectualism. Houyhnhnms represent a society governed by reason. As for the Yahoos, although they look like men, they are naked, filthy and primitive, not capable of government. Gulliver ends his writings referring to himself as a Yahoo. Swift's depiction of rational societies like Brobdingnag and Houyhnhnms emphasize not these people's knowledge or understanding of abstract ideas but their ability to live their lives in a happy and steady way. Aspiring to higher fields of knowledge would be meaningless to them and would interfere with their happiness. The major character, Gulliver himself narrates the story but his first person perspective is not completely reliable. Though Gulliver is very precise with the details of his travels he is also naive making the reader more sceptical about the ideas presented in the book. Over the course of the novel there are several changes in Swift's style. In the first two voyages, his style is relatively light-hearted but satiric about European culture and politics, framed as an adventure among dwarves and giants. In these sections, humour is an important literary device; for instance, the image of tiny Lilliputans soldiers looking at Gulliver's human body part in admiration or Gulliver's “intelligence” to urinate over the palace fire to put it out. In the third voyage the tone shifts, he becomes more of an abstract observer, whereas in the last part the tone becomes more serious, which indicates his change in personality ~ darker, bitter and more cynical. One of the themes of the novel is might versus right. Gulliver’s Travels implicitly poses the question of whether physical force or moral righteousness should be the governing factor in social life. The book also explores the idea of utopia, an imaginary model of the ideal community like many other narratives about voyages to non-existing lands. Gulliver's Travels could be seen as one of the first novels of modern alienation as it focuses on an individual's repeated failures to integrate into societies. England itself is not much of a homeland for Gulliver. Every time he returns home he is quick to leave again, Recurrent motifs in the novel are excrement, foreign languages and clothing. Even though the Enlightenment culture of the eighteenth century England tends to view humans as noble souls rather than vulgar bodies, Swift emphasizes on the common filth 361 lish, ever acies, lose thas lism. they liver slike > or zady rould 2»rson Is of edin the ture ons, Jiers nate eof shich icitly the inary ting asit aifis ave ven view filth of life ~ Gulliver urinates to put out a fire in Lilliput, Brobdingnagian flies defecate on his meals or scientists work to transform excrement back into food. Gulliver seems to be a gifted linguist, thing which allows him to learn the languages of the lands he visits and thus gain access to their culture quickly. The more ragged his clothes become and the rom the comforts and convention of stranger his new wardrobe, the further he w: England, 37] 5 3. ROMANTICISM S$. T. Coleridge (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. The publication of Lyrica! Ballads in 1798 by the Lake Poets (W. Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge) marked the start of The Romantic movement in English literature Romanticism was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, which began to take hold at the end of the 17" century but also a revolt against the political norms of the Age of the Enlightenment. Intellectuals around Europe were thrilled and inspired by the notion of Revolutionaries rising up and demanding their rights. The industrial Revolution had transformed the social landscape, enabling manufacturers and capitalists to amass huge fortunes. New factories were built and various mechanical means of producing goods more quickly and cheaply than those made by hand were invented. Although the Industrial Revolution increased social mobility, the gap between the rich and the poor remained wide. More people moved from the country to the city in search of the opportunities that technological innovation promised. Yet, the migration overpopulated the already crowded cities and poverty, disease and hazardous factory conditions became widespread. At the time, only few children went to school as most poor children worked in factories, being expected to help the family’s budget often working for long hours and low payment in dangerous jobs in blacking warehouses. The Romantic poets were aware of the changes which represented such a contrast between the hellish life of city labourer and the purity and tranquillity of nature or the simplicity of other historical eras. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ‘> THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER Publication date: 1798 Themes: nature, supernatural, sin and redemption, love and pride Motifs: conversation poems, the act of storytelling, retribution. Symbols: the Sun, the Moon, the albatross, the Vessel, Nightmare life —in - Death. Literary devices: rhyme, alliteration, personification, consonance, assonance, imagery, Point of view: first person 38] vand ature. hold age of ation “bling and made 1 the suntry , the rdous ‘olas often trast ~ the coits rath. ance, In his lyric and meditative poems such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Coleridge used the idea of supernatural. As the author wanted to mimic the patte cadences of everyday speech in his poetry, many of his poems are conversation poems in which the narrator openly addresses a single figure, in this case the wedding guest who listens silently to the story. This a frame story which begins in the third person and ends up in the first person. Over the course of the poetry, the narrative voice reverts to various perspectives. Where Wordsworth believed nature to be the source of his inspiration and Keats looked back to the past to seek inspiration and consolation, Coleridge considered love to be the source of power. Being a religious man and drawing from Christ's instruction that the greatest commandment is love, Coleridge develops a story that illustrates the importance of balance and harmony among all living things, which may also be read as a parable, presenting the fall of man. Therefore, the narrative develops into an ‘examination of sin, penance and redemption. The bird poses no threat to him or to his shipmates but it remains with the ship day by day, a faithful companion until the mariner kills it, making a deliberate act of destruction. Many years after killing the albatross, the gravity of his sin still haunts him. Thus the mariner must confess his sin, teaching people a spiritual truth. ‘As the albatross symbolizes good luck and positive events, by killing it the Mariner brakes the natural connection between man, nature and fate, which leads to misfortune. Coleridge used the metaphor of the albatross around one’s neck as a psychological burden to be carried out by someone. The writer also used vivid description in his poetry through repetitions: water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink; the ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around, The word Rime in the title may have three different representations. On the one hand, it represents the mariner’s story ~ his rhyme ~ a metonymy for the poem itself. On the other hand, it can symbolize the crime of the mariner. Thirdly, the rime is also a meaning of a frost coating of ice. Because of the many repetitions of the word, the ice comes to symbolize death, as the crew has no escape and no hope to life among all that amount of ice. Other important symbols in the poem are the Sun and the Moon which represent two sides of the Christian God: the Sun represents the angry, vengeful God whereas the Moon represents the benevolent God. Bad, troubling things happen to the crew during the day but favourable things occur during the night. Death and Nightmare Life in Death both symbolize punishment. While Death wins the lives of the crew members, Nightmare Life in Death wins the life of the Mariner, who will endure a fate worse than death as Punishment for killing the albatross; he has to live on, wandering the Earth, driven by guilt, tell his story and teach a spiritual lesson to all those he meets. 39] P= John Keats (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. (the same context as Daniel Defoe’s) b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ODEON A GRECIAN URN - Publication date: 1819 Themes: the inevitability of death, the contemplation of beauty. Motifs: departures and reveries, the five senses and art, the disappearance of the poet and the speaker. symbols: music and musicians, the Ancient World. Literary devices: personification, imagery, rhyme, assonance, metaphor. In his short life Keats wrote some of the most beautiful and enduring poems in English literature. Among his greatest achievement is the sequence of six lyric odes. The Ode represent a chant or a song. Taken together, the odes do not exactly tell a story as there is no unifying plot and no recurring characters, but the odes explore the same themes: the contemplation of beauty as a way of delaying the inevitability of death, nature. There has been a great deal of debate over how to treat the voices that speak the poems: are they meant to be read as though a single person speaks them all or did Keats invent a different persona for each ode? Even before the diagnosis of terminal tuberculosis, Keats focused on death and its inevitability in his work. His bitter request for his tombstone was to be written: here lies one whose name was writ’ on water. The poet also had an interest in antiquity and the ancient world, He borrowed figures from the ancient mythology to populate his poems. For Keats, objects such a Grecian urn had a solidity and a permanence that contrasts with the fleeting, temporary nature of life. He saw the possibility of permanent artistic achievement: if an urn still spoke to someone several centuries after its creation, there was hope that a poem or artistic object from Keats’ time might continue to speak to readers. Ode on a Grecian Urn is composed of five stanzas, each of ten lines long, written in iambic pentameter. Keats highlighted the use of imagery in his poetry, a characteristic of the romantic period. In this poem, the imagery is based upon the urn as the main character as the urn is personificated. From the outset of the poem, the speaker uses metaphors, comparing the urn to a mistress: unravish'd bride of quietness, foster child of 401 ontex: eto its of the ms in °s. The ory as same feath, uk the Keats and its velies ad the vems, swith ttistic chere ak to ritten ristic main uses hil of silence. Keats’ speakers contemplate urns, books, birds, stars. The poet also used rhetorical questions in the second half of the first stanza Keats imagined that the five stanzas corresponded to various types of art. He used a paradox to open the second stanza: heard melodies are sweet but those unheard \ are sweater. The speaker praises the silent music coming from the pipes as far more pleasant than the audible music of real life, Thus the poem associates sight with sound. Music and musicians appear throughout Keats’ work as symbols of poetry and poets, suggesting that people can also delay the inevitability of death through the timelessness of various types of art: music, poetry. In many of his poems the speaker leaves the real world to explore a mythical, transcendent realm, Often the appearance or contemplation of a beautiful object makes the departure possible. At the end of the poem the speaker returns to his ordinary life, transformed in some way and armed witha new understanding. The speaker of Ode on a Grecian Urn describes the scenes on the urn for several stanzas until the famous conclusion about truth and beauty, enclosed in quotation marks: Truth is beauty, beauty truth, a phrase that resembles a quotation from Shakespeare's play, Macbeth: Fair is foul and fout is fair. “ LA BELLE DAMME SANS MERCI Publication date: 1920 Themes: impossible love, terminal illness. Motifs: dreams. Symbols: paleness, the lake Literary devices: imagery, personification, metaphor, repetition, narration. 4a belle damme sans merci is a ballad, a medieval genre revived by the romantic Poets which imitates a folk ballad — one of the oldest poetic forms in English. Ballads are Usually narrative or storytelling and use simple language addressed to common people of @ particular culture or place. Ballad’s primarily themes were love and courage and were transmitted in oral forms. Keats took the title from a French poem written in the 14" century. The speaker of the former poem is mourning his dead mistress. Keats’ poem is divided into twelve stanzas — known as quatrains ~ because each is four lines long. The lines are written in ‘ambic trimeter, usually rhymed ABCB. The iamb consists of two syllables taken together, the first one being unstressed and the second one being stressed. Like the old ballad, the Poem too deals with supernatural. An unidentified speaker asks a pale, dying knight what afflicts him. The knight tells the story of the beautiful lady without pity, a faery’s child who pretended to love him but then abandoned him, ate Keats setts his simple story of love and death ina late autumn, during the Age of Chivairy near a lake where no birds sing. The repetition of this phrase throughout the Poem, as well as the concluding lines of the poem emphasize the major themes of the ballad: impossible love and terminal illness. The mood of the ballad is sober and sorrowful, while the entire nature reflects the mood of the night. The [Link] literary devices such as repetitions, metaphors, refrains, dialogue, alliterations f \ r. Keats highlighted the use of imagery in his poem in his descriptions of the lady but also of the flower imagery: lily, rose. He also uses the word pale many times throughout the poem: pale kings, pale warriors. Thus paleness is associated with death. The title itself could be seen asa personification for death Jane Austen (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Jane Austen’s brief life and writing career overlapped with one of the most transformative eras in British history when Britain was engaged in the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars. It represented a period of great financial instability. Outside the genteel world we see portrayed in Austen’s novels, a third of the country's population lived on the verge of starvation. Though Industrialization and urbanization had begun to take hold at the end of the 18 century, the most influential sector of society was still the landed gentry. At the beginning of the 19" century the conception and the role of women began to change as the British culture became increasingly focused on the accumulation and concentration of wealth within the family. One way for families to rapidly accumulate capital was through advantageous marriages. As a result, the daughters became the means through which a family could attain great wealth. While for young men social advancement lay in the military, law or Church, the chief method for women to accomplish their goals was through marriage. Another significant change that occurred during Austen’s life was the expansion of literacy and print culture in England, Almost everyone could read and the novel became the main form of literature. The realistic novel, defined by an objective narrator, lots of characters, description of the realities of domestic life was in part inaugurated in Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which marks the end of Romanticism and the beginning of Realism in English literature. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author’s literary canon. 42] Age of it the of the nost yand » the ation id of ‘the ueas ation was sugh yin was sion vel tor, din sof its “+ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Publication date: 1813 Themes: love, class, reputation, Motifs: courtship, journeys. Symbols: Pemberley, Literary devices: irony, simile, imagery, foil, satire, personification. Point of views third person limited omniscient ‘Austen’s novels have often been characterized as comedies of manners, meaning that they are concerned with the relations and intrigues of characters living in a sophisticated society. Austen’s novels portray the gentry, a social class that includes those who owned land, as well as the professional classes who do not own land. Critics have often accused Austen of portraying a limited world. The lower classes, if they appear in her works at all, are usually servants who seem pleased with their lot, There’s a lack of interest in the lives of the poor. Pride and Prejudice has fairy elements, as it seems to follow the traditional Cinderella's plot. in the novel, the lines of social class are strictly drawn. The Bennets are middle class who may socialize with the upper class, Bingley and Darcy, but they are Clearly social inferiors and treated as such. Mrs Bingley dislikes anyone who is not as. socially accepted as she is whereas soldier Wickham would do anything to get enough money. In her novel of courtships, Austen shows that the power of love overcomes class boundaries and prejudices. Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman's reputation is very important. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways; thus stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable. By becoming the soldier’s lover without the benefit of marriage, Lydia -one of the sisters - places her outside the social pale and her disgrace threatens the entire Bennet family. | Austen's distinctive literary style relies on a combination of parody and burlesque, intended for comic effect, irony, to criticize the marriage market of the 19" century, dialogue and free indirect style, through which the thoughts and the speech of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator. Austen is also famous for her style of characterization which goes in great detail especially with reference to the characters’ emotions, reactions, behaviour. The writer uses the noise and foolish Mrs. Bennet to highlight the necessity of marriage for girls. She is a woman consumed by a single-minded Pursuit - thatis to see her daughters married. A first instance of irony can be found in the first sentence of the novel: itis @ truth universally acknowledged that a single man in Possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. This statement is highly ironic because in the world of the novelit’s not the man seeking a woman but women, especially those of lower classes, were obsessed with the idea of marriage BlPag The novel is written in the third person. Since the omniscient narrator focuses primarily on the character of Elisabeth, giving the reader far more of her thoughts and feelings than of the other characters, the point of view is thus third person limited omniscient. Darcy's estate, Pemberley, sits at the centre of the novel both literally and figuratively as a geographic symbol of the man who owns it, It even offers a symbol within ~~ symbol for Darcy and Elisabeth's building romance - the small bridge, suggesting the class prejudice that lies between them. Edgar Allan Poe (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. When he published The Tei Tale Heart, The United States was entering a period of great internal conflicts that would culminate a few decades later with the Civil War. His writings reflect the qualities of the literary period called Dark Romanticism, a movement that reached America in 1820, some twenty years after the Lake Poets had revolutionized English poetry by writing Lyrical Ballads. Industry bloomed as the 19" century began, with many technological innovations coming to fruition. There was also an abundance of historical events, starting with the War of 1812 between the United States and the Great Britain; The White House was burned; in 1831 there was a huge slave rebellion; huge population gains with an influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia; the expansion of America’s territorial holdings with the Mississippi River; the development of hundreds of miles of railroads and the continual transformation from a nation of farmers to an industrial and urban setting. At the time, tuberculosis was a leading cause of death. Idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery, improvements were made to the printing press. For a while, the economy seemed to born, until 1837 when recession set in. It meant lean times for many Americans, while in cities poverty, crime and wage slavery skyrocketed, b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its - author's literary canon. “+ THE TELL TALE HEART Publication date: 1843 Themes: love and hate, mental illness. Motifs: animals MalPege ‘ocuses Ats and limited ally and within ting the period var. His ‘ement onized ations vith the ‘was aflux of th the intinual time, -ecially tin. It slavery toits Symbols: eyes, literary devices: in medias res, allusions, foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, personification Point of view: first person (narrated by the insane protagonist) Edgar Allan Poe brought the Gothic literature to America, which explored the dark side of human experience: death, alienation, nightmares, ghosts and haunted landscapes. His characters are afflicted with various forms of insanity. The narrator of The Tell Tale Heart kills a man because the man’s eye haunts him, then hears the man’s heartbeat after he is dead. He tells the story from the point of view of one who is trying to defend his sanity. He admits in the first sentence to being nervous yet he is unable to understand why he should be thought mad. However, his senses which help him hear the heartbeat beneath the flashboards is evidence that he is truly mad. His burst of paranoia is more clearly noticed when he believes that even the police could hear the man’s heart. The story is told retrospectively which means the character is remembering the events while being locked up in a prison or mental institution. Poe’s narrator has neighbours who later call the police. This indicates that the neighbours live close enough to hear or see anything unusual that goes on. Thé proximity, at least in the author's time implies an urban setting. Poe's stories are not specifically set in one city or another. His attention to setting is focused more specifically on houses or rooms that his. Characters inhabit. As his characters suffer from various mental problems, in some way their minds become a setting as welll, as they confuse fantasy with reality. The first person point of view is not only limited because it comes from a single character but is further limited when it is slowly revealed that the narrator is suffering from extreme nerves. His frequent exclamations reveal his extreme nervousness. Poc’s untrustworthy narrator became a classic element of modern horror. A first theme explored in the poem is guilt. The narrator cannot stand his burden and releases his overwhelming sense of guilt by shouting his confession to the police. The old man is known to readers only through the narration of the insane protagonist. He is apparently Quite rich, for he possesses treasures and gold but the narrator is not greedy for the man’s fortune, nor vengeful. The narrator thus eliminates motives that would normally inspire such a violent murder. Some critics argue that the old man must have known about the narrator's violent tendencies for he cries out in horror well before he is killed. Other Suggest that the old man may have been the narrator's guardian or even father. Apart from the symbol of the heart, which shows that the narrator is dillusional, other important symbols are the eyes. The protagonist fixates on the idea that the old an is looking at him with the Evil Eye but he reveals his inability to recognise the eye in the. The eyes symbolise the essence of human identity which cannot be separated from 45 | > the body. Poe considers murder a fundamentally animalistic, inhuman act. in the Teil T Heart the murderer dehumanize his victim by likening him to an animal. He claims to hate and murder the old man’s vulture eye. Therefore, he attempts to justify his actions by implicitly comparing himself to a helpless creature threatened by a hideous scavenger. 46 | ell Tale to hate ons by ager, 4. TRANSCENDENTALISM Nathaniel Hawthorne {American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view, When Hawthorne published his best known novel, U. S. was entering a period of great internal conflicts that would culminate a few years tater with the Civil War. His writings reflect the qualities of the literary period called Dark Romanticism, a movement that reached America in 1820, some twenty years after the Lake Poets had revolutionized English poetry by writing Lyrical Ballads. Dark Romanticism emerged from Transcendentalism, a religious and philosophical movement that was dedicated to the belief that divinity manifested itself particularly in the natural world, Industry bloomed as the 19 century began, with many technological innovations Coming to fruition. There was also an abundance of historical events, starting with the War of 21812 between the U. S and the Great Britain; The White House was burned; in 1831 there was a huge slave rebellion; huge population gains with an influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia; the expansion of America’s territorial holdings with the Mississippi River; the development of hundreds of miles of railroads and the continual transformation from a nation of farmers to an industrial and urban setting, At the time, ‘uberculosis was a leading cause of death. Idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery, improvements were made to the printing press. The most popular authors in the growing U. S. were those who wrote adventure fiction while American nautical exploration captured the imagination of the public. For awhile, the economy seemed to born, until 1837 when recession set in, It meant lean times for many Americans, while in cities Poverty, crime and wage slavery skyrocketed, ») Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, > THE SCARLET LETTER Publication date: 1850 Themes: Sin, knowledge and the human condition, the nature of evil, identity and Society, Motifs: civilization versus the wilderness, night versus day, evocative names. Symbols: the Scarlet Letter, the meteor, Pearl \Rerary devices: personification, symbolism of names, irony, foreshadowing, a Ie. simile, metaphor, suspense. Point of view: third person subjective. The transcendentalist movement advocated a direct relationship with the Divine The Scarlet Letter. Closely instead of a formalized, structured religion, an idea privileged i related to Transcendentalism was the Romantic Movement. Dark Romantics believed nature to be a deeply spiritual force but seen in a sinister light. The Romantic vision tended to express itself in the form Hawthorne called the romance ~ a heightened, emotional and symbolic form of the novel. Romances were nat love stories but stories in which heroic figures, larger than life, are pitted against dark, unknown forces. Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, Captain Ahab, Heatcliff are such haunted, alienated individuals. The novel is told retrospectively as part of a frame story. The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor in Salem, Massachusetts who discovers in an attic a number of documents together with a manuscript that was bundled with a scarlet patch of cloth in the shape of an A. The manuscript detailed events that occurred two hundred years earlier and the narrator wrote fictional accounts of the events recorded in the manuscript. The Scarlet Letter is the fictional product. The omniscient narrator is subjective because he voices his own interpretations of things and his opinions, as he is, clearly sympathetic to the protagonists. Hawthorne took influence from the Bible in exploring the themes. The Scarlet Letter takes as its main subject the colonial 17 century New England, meaning America’s puritan past. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers known for its intolerance to lifestyle and had John Calvin's teachings as its theological basis: Depravity and the Original Sin. Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin reminds of the story of Adam and Eve who were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Thus sin results in expulsion and suffering. Puritan elders see earthly experience as an obstacle on the path to Heaven. They view sin as a threat to the community that should be punished and suppressed. Another theme explored in the novel is the nature of evil. The characters in the novel frequently debate the identity of the Black Man, the embodiment of evil, who is associated over the course of the novel with Hester, Dimmesdale and even little Pearl who is thought, by some, to be the Devil's Child as she is the physical consequence of her mother’s sexual sin. A recurrent motif in the novel is civilization versus the wilderness. The town and the surrounding forests represent opposing systems. The town represents civilization while the forest is a space of natural rather than human authority. In the forest, society's rules do not apply. Hester's cottage, which is located on the outskirts of town and at the edge of the forest embodies both orders. Regarding the symbolism of names, Prynne rhymes with sin, Pearl means something valuable earned with a great price while 48 | ee 2 Divine Closely relieved vision htened, dries in Arthur enated wr is an attic a t patch Indred in the ator is as he is Scarlet verica’s ‘rance nd the dwere >uritan nasa theme ebate course ne, to mand ation ciety's at the rynne while Chillingworth reflects a cold attitude, a man deficient in human earth. Another important symbol in the novel is the meteor, which traces out an A onto the night sky. For Dimmesdale, it implies that he should wear a mark of shame just as Hester does, whereas the meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community who think it stands for Angel. Initially intended to be a symbol of shame, marking Hester as an Adulterous, the Scarlet Letter eventually becomes a powerful symbol of identity and comes to stand in for Able. Hester gives the Scarlet Letter human qualities by making it a part of herself, Other instances of personifications in the text are the Personification of the sun and of the forest. Herman Melville (American writer) as Nathaniel Hawthorne's ) b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, * Mosy Dick Publication date: 1851 Themes: the limits of knowledge, the deceptiveness of fate, the exploitative nature of whaling. Motifs: whiteness, surfaces and depths Symbols: The Pequod, Moby Dick, Queequeg’s coffin Uterary devices: foreshadowing, biblical allusions, personification, hyperbole, imagery, paradox, metaphor, irony. Point of view: first person (narrated by Ishmael) Europeans, in the 19" century. The traditional association of white with good and pu is thus reversed in the novel. Other important symbols in the novel are Pequod and Queequeg's coffin. Pequod, which takes its name after a Native American tribe which didn’t long survive the arrival of white man is, therefore, a symbol of extinction and doom. It’s also @ major source of foreshadowing in the novel. Queequeg’s coffin is a symbol of both death and life as it becomes ishmael's life buoy, saving not only his life but the life of the narrative that he will pass on. The most important characteristics of Melville's literary writing style would be his. literary allusions. An incident on a ship being attacked and sunk by a sperm whale was the inspiration for the plot of the novel. But his most important sources are Hawthorne, Shakespeare and the Bible. He admired Hawthorne's psychological depths and gothic ideas as Moby Dick features several characters who seem insane or who believe in prophecies. The Shakespearian influences can be noticed in Ahab’s first extended speech to his crew, which is in blank verse, but also in his soliloquy: O, Ahab, Ahab! The Biblical allusions can be seen in Ishmael’s name, which suggest that he may be an outcast. Though he tells the reader that he is the son of a well - established family in the land, he mentions neither wife, nor children. Moby Dick opens with one of the most known sentences in the literary world: Call me Ishmael. In this unusual manner, the first person narrator introduces himself to the reader. Other literary devices that Melville used in the novel are repetitions and personifications. Both the whale and the water are personificated numerous times in the novel: The sperm whale begged a few moments confidential business with him, the dancing white water. A major theme explored in the novel is the limits of knowledge. As Ishmael points out, the majority of a whale is hidden from view at all times. In a way, whale mirrors its environment because, like the whale, only the surface of the ocean is available for human observation and interpretation, while its depths conceal unknowable truths. On a symbolic form, Moby Dick’s will is inscrutable like the ways of the Christian God. Trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, proves to be inevitably fatal. The novel was published in a time when the whaling industry was dying and the whales had been hunted into near extinction. The sheep's crew includes men from all corners of the world and all races, who seem to get along harmoniously. The conditions of work abroad the Pequod promote a kind of egalitarianism. However, the work of whaling parallels the other exploitative activities: buffalo hunting, gold ~ mining, unfair trade with indigenous people, which leads to another major theme: The exploitative nature of whaling, 50] purity ‘2quod, rival of urce of easit that he abe his asthe shorne, gothic eve in speech 3iblical Though ntions sinthe srrator is and ~in the ‘nm, the ‘ge. As way, a ean is owable ristian vel was vunted end all >equod other reople, Emily Dickinson (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. (the same context as Nathaniel Hawthorne's ) b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. * POEMS Publication date: between 1850 and 1886 Themes: the individual's struggle with God, the assertion of the self, the power of words and poetry. Motifs: the connection between sight and self. Symbols: feet, birds, stones. Literary devices: unusual punctuation and capitalization, alliteration, assonance, metaphor, personification, In the poetry of 1850s, the development of the self becomes a major theme. The ‘dea of self, which suggested selfishness to earlier generations was redefined. New compound words with positive meaning emerged: self - realization, self - reliance, self — expression, The assertion of the self is also a major theme in Dickinson’s poems. Her poems are lyric, generally defined as short poems with a single speaker who expresses her \ his thoughts and feelings. As in most lyric poetry, the speaker in Dickinson’s poems is identified in the first person, /. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality. Among her best known are: 'm nobody! Who are you?: Hope \ '5 the thing with feathers - ..;! heard a Fly buzz ~ when | died -..; I died for beauty — but was scarce ...; Because I could not stop for Death... . Her poems are unique for the era in which she wrote. First of all, they lack titles so they are commonly known by their first lines. They contain short lines, often use slant rhyme (ABCB). Dickinson’s verse is often associated with common meter, whichis defined by the alternation lines of eight syllables with six syllables. In common meter, the syllables alternate between stressed and Lnstressed. Nonetheless, she experimented with a variety of metrical forms, including short meter and ballad stanza. Dickinson used an unconventional punctuation and capitalization. She often Punctuated her poems with dashes rather than the most expected array of periods, commas and other punctuation marks. She may have intended for the dashes to indicate Pause when reading the poem aloud. The poet also capitalized interior words with the Tole of emphasizing. One of her abilities is to describe abstract concepts using concrete 51] Fag images. Dickinson usually employed metaphors to assign physical qualities to abstract entities. For instance, in Hope is the thing with feathers, the speaker describes hope as a bird, She introduces the metaphor in the first two lines, then develops it throughout the poem. Thus the bird becomes a personification for hope. Elsewhere, she links birds to poets, whose jab is to sing for people to hear. In Because / could not stop for Death, the word Death is capitalized, meaning that Dickinson gives it a proper name as if being a human. Not only is Death named but it is also given the ability to kindly stop for the speaker. The writer does the same thing with Immortality Dickinson was not famous during her lifetime. Though she wrote more than 1800 poems, she published fewer than ten of them. in ’m Nobody! Who are you? She implies that to be a Nobody is a luxury unlike the somebodies who are too busy keeping their names in circulation. For the poet, seeing is a form of individual power while sight becomes an important expression of the self. The horror that the speaker of J heard a Fly buzz ~ when | died - ... experiences is attributable to her loss of eyesight in the moments leading up to her death. The final utterance: / could not see to see points to the fact that the speaker's last desire is to see. In other poems, Dickinson even plays with the sonic similarity of / and eye. Dickinson dedicated a great amount of her work to exploring the relationship between an individual and a Judeo ~ Christian God. Many of her poems describe 2 rebellion against God whom she saw as cruel, vindictive or indifferent to human suffering. In a sense, she was a religious poet but unlike other poets who saw themselves as subordinated to God, she rejected that premise in her poetry. Among the recurrent symbols in Dickinson’s poems, apart from birds, there are feet and stones. Feet enter Dickinson’s poems with double meaning since the words foot and feet denote poetic forms as well as body parts. The speaker of one of her poems, remembering himself as a barefoot boy, indirectly alludes to a time when his sense of poetry was not fully formed. Stones, on the other hand, represent immutability, permanence and finality Walt Whitman (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. When Whitman published his collection of poetry Leaves of Grass, U. S. wes entering a period of great internal conflicts that would culminate a few years later with the Civil War. His writings reflect the qualities of the literary period Transcendentalism, a religious and philosophical movement that was dedicated to the belief that divinity * manifested itself particularly in the natural world. 52] ostract pe asa out the rds to th, the reing a or the 11800 implies 3 their © sight daFly ments “ct that > sonic anship cribe a fering ves as urrent senter poetic alfasa armed. S. was sr with ism, 2 ivinity wl: Industry bloomed as the 19% century began, with many technological innovations coming to fruition. There was also an abundance of historical events, starting with the War of 1812 between the U. S and the Great Britain; The White House was burned; in 1831 there was a huge slave rebellion; huge population gains with an influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia; the expansion of America’s territorial holdings with the Mississippi River; the development of hundreds of miles of railroads and the continual transformation from a nation of farmers to an industrial and urban setting. At the time, tuberculosis was a leading cause of death. Idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery, improvements were made to the printing press. For a while, the economy seemed to born, until 1837 when recession set in. It meant lean times for many Americans, while in cities poverty, crime and wage slavery skyrocketed. In 1861 The Civil War broke out between the industrial North and the agricultural, slave owning South. tt was a watershed in America’s history and ended with hundreds of thousands of deaths, including the American President at the time, Abraham Lincoln, but also with the abolition of slavery. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. * LEAVES OF GRASS Publication date: 1855 Themes: democracy as a way of life, the cycle of growth and death, the beauty of the individual Motifs: lists, the human body, rhythm and incantation Symbols: plants, the self literary devices: personification, metaphor, simile, dialogue, anaphora, metonymy. Leaves of grass is a unique collection of poetry for the time the poet lived and Wrote, as it seems unplanned, disorganised. The title reveals the central metaphor of the book, that something as small as a blade of grass contains the divinity of God. It also refers tothe pages of the book itself, making the grass blades equivalent the poems collected in it Among the particular traits of Whitman's writing style are the following: a romantic enthusiasm for life, beauty, brotherly love; a strong emphasize on the self and the speakers, speaking directly and honestly; free verse. Long, twisting sentences. The Writer filled his poetry with long lists. Often, a sentence would be broken into many Clauses and each clause will describe some scene, person or object. These lists and the S31 Page length of his sentences mirror the growth of the U.S in the 19" century. Many of these traits are clearly visible in the opening lines of Song of Myself, the most famous of Whitman's poems collected in Leaves of grass. Whitman experimented with meter, rhythm, rhyme and form because he thought that experimentation is the law of innovation. He also believed that poetry should be spoken so he used reiterative devices such as repetition. His language is full of eccentricities: he spelled Canada with K, he used the word presidentiad for presidency, he also employed archaic expressions and words from other languages. Whitman’s poetry reveals depictions of sexuality as several of his poems praise the bodies of both women and men at play, work at interacting. The free expression of sexuality horrified some of Whitman's early readers. The speaker of his poems worship the body because the body houses the soul. In the poetry of 1850s, the development of the self becomes a major theme. The idea of self, which suggested selfishness to earlier generations was redefined. New compound words with positive meaning emerged: self — realization, self - reliance, self ~ expression. One of the themes explored in the collection of poetry is the beauty of the individual. Songs of Myself opens with a triumphant praise to the individual: / celebrate myself and sing myself. The speaker of this poem identifies himself as Walt Whitman and lists several adjectives to describe himself. He praises several individuals as well, particularly Abraham Lincoln. When the leader was assassinated, Whitman began to compose several elegies, including 0, Captain! My Captain! Throughout his poetry, Whitman uses plant life (flowers, bushes, trees) to allude to the expansion of the U. S. population but also to signify the possibilities of regeneration and regrowth after death, as his poems imagine death as an integral part of life. In the 19" century America expanded and its growth and potential seemed limitless. The focus ‘on the cycle of growth and death helped the poet contextualize the severe injuries and trauma he witnessed during the Civil war. 54] of these aous of use he poetry 5 full of ‘dency, = poetry women ome of e body 1e. The d. New | self— of the ‘ebrate anand s well, yan to allude sration In the 2 focus >s and 5. REALISM Charles Dickens (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Charles Dickens lived and wrote in the Victorian Era. Under Queen’s Victoria reign. (1837 - 1901), Great Britain turned into one of the most expanded empires in the world, extending its borders into America, Africa and Asia, therefore becoming the first economic and politic world power. A significant change that occurred during the mid — 19" century was the expansion of literacy and print culture in England. Almost everyone could read and the novel became the main form of literature. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the social landscape, enabling manufacturers and capitalists to amass huge fortunes. The greatest example of Britain's Industrial power at the time was its railway system and the Great Exhibition. New factories were built and various mechanical means of producing goods more quickly and cheaply than those made by hand were invented. Although the Industrial Revolution increased social mobility, the gap between the rich and the poor remained wide. More people moved from the country to the city in search of the opportunities that technological innovation promised. Yet, the migration overpopulated the already crowded cities and poverty, disease and hazardous factory conditions became widespread. At the time, only few children went to school as most poor children worked in factories, being expected to help the family’s budget often working for long hours and low payment in dangerous jobs in blacking warehouses b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. * DAVID COPPERFIELD Publication date: 1850 Themes: the plight of the week, equality in marriage, wealth and class. Motifs: mothers and mother figures, accented speech, physical beauty, Symbols: the sea, flowers, Mr. Dick’s kite Uterary devices: pathetic fallacy, foreshadowing, foils, hyperbole, imagery, bildungsroman, Point of view: first person (narrated by David). | England, the realist movement coincided approximately with the Victorian era, Which was the great age of the English novel: long, plotted, with many complications. It 55]? ag life and entertain the middle classes through don life and th¢ which focuses on was the ideal form to describe contemporary t complications. Dickens wrote about Le its drama, humour and pio! struggle of the poor and chose the bildungsroman form for his works, dual from youth to adulthood. The story the psychological and moral growth of the indivi following the experiences of the main is narrated from the first person point of view, character, Although David tells his story from his grown up, all knowing perspective, hj 5 he had from a youthful point of view. In David's narration, Dicken: relays the impression: conveys the wisdom of the older man through the eyes of a child. Throughout his novels, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian Englan starting from the rich, the poor of the country to the most wretched criminals, In hi novels, the author criticizes the society's view of wealth and class as measures of person's value. He uses Steerforth in David Copperfield, who is a wealthy, powerful ant class to show that these traits are more likely to corrur, in Dickens’ time believed that poverty noble member of the upper ~ than improve a person’s character. Many people was a sign of moral degeneracy and that people who were poor deserved to suff because of their deficiencies. Dickens sympathizes with the poor and implies that poverty results from society's unfairness and not from their feelings and morality. He shows th; wealth and social class are unreliable indicators of character and morality, He does not go so far as to suggest that all people are absolutely noble and th all rich people are evil. Doctor Strong and his wife are @ wealth, middle class fami Nonetheless, they are morally upstanding. In the novel, marriages succeed to the exte that husband and wife attain equality in their relationship. Dickens holds up the Strong} marriage. Uriah Heep, on the other hand, was raised in cruel environment similar David's but Uriah’s upbringing causes him to become bitter and vengeful rather th honest and hopeful. Dickens’ physical description of Uriah marks him as a demont character, He is given red hair and red eyes, while his movements are described snakelike. In the world of the novel, physical beauty corresponds to moral goodnes: “Those who are physically beautiful like David's mother are good and noble, Mothers ha | influence on the identity of the characters. The aunt who raises Da an essential /h’s mother allows ‘encourages him to mature into a balanced adult. In contrast, Uria son to dominate her, so he becomes a cruel, vain man. Throughout the novel, the powerful abuse the weak and the helpless. Dickey focuses on orphans, women and the mentally disabled to show that exploitation, neitl pity nor compassion, is the rule in an industrial society. Dickens draws on his experienc as a child to describe the inhumanity of child labour and debtors’ prison. His charact suffer punishment at the hand of forces larger than themselves even if they are moral 561 hrough and the ne story he main tive, he Dickens England, 3. In his res of a ful and corrupt poverty > suffer poverty ws that nd that 5 family. 2 extent Strong's nilar to ver than 4emonic ibed as nodness. ars have Dickens neither >riences sracters morally good people. Especially the children deprived of the care of their natural parents suffer at the hands of their own supposed protectors. The most important symbols in the novel are the sea, flowers and Mr Dick’s kite. The sea represents a powerful force in the lives of the characters and it is almost always connected with death. Flowers represent simplicity and innocence. Steerforth nicknames David daisy because he is naive. Davis brings Dora flowers on her birthday and she will forever paint flowers. Mr Dick's kite represents his separation from society. 4+ GREAT EXPECTATIONS Publication date: 1861 Themes: ambition and self - improvement, social class, crime, guilt and innocence. Motifs: doubles Symbols: Satis House, the mists on the marshes. Literary devices: pathetic fallacy, foreshadowing, foil, hyperbole, imagery, gothic setting, symbolism of names, bildungsroman. Point of view: first person (narrated by Pip) Throughout his novels, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian England, starting from the rich, the poor of the country to the most wretched criminals. In his Novels, Dickens criticizes the society's view of wealth and class as measures of a person's value. He uses Bentley Drummle who is a wealthy, powerful and noble member of the upper ~ class to show that these traits are more likely to corrupt than improve a person's character. Miss Havisham, a wealthy woman but mad and vengeful, adopts Estella and raises her as a weapon to achieve her own revenge on men, He does not go so far as to suggest that all people are absolutely noble and that all rich people are evil, Magwitch, who is a convicted criminal, proves to have a noble soul, From the early 1850, Dickens gave public reading of his novels. His writing is designed to be read aloud so many of his characters are either hilariously comic or heartbreakingly sentiméntal. Many of his characters’ names provide the reader with a hint as to the roles played in the storyline. Among the figures of speech that Dickens used in his novel there are metaphors and similes: Drummle is compared to a spider, Mrs Joe is compared to an eagle, Pip to a lamb, Estella to a statue. Pip’s desire for self - improvements the main source of the novel's title: because he believes in the possibility of advancement in life, he has great expectations about his future. Ambition and self-improvement take three forms: social, moral and educational, which motivates Pip’s best and worst behaviour throughout the novel. One of the most Femarkable aspects of Dickens’ work is its balance and symmetry. To begin with, most of the characters have foils, characters to contrast with. The novel has two convicts, two S71 Page invalids, two secret benefactors, two young women who interest Pip, two adults who seek to mould children after their own purposes, 'n Great Expectation, the weather and the setting match the novel's dramatic action and the emotional states of the characters, Satis House i one of the major symbols in the novel. itis some sort of gothic setting, The crumbling stones of the house, as well symbolize danger and uncertainty, As a child, Pip brings Magwitch food in these mists, Later, he is kidnapped and nearly killed in them, Pip B0es into the mists when he travels ‘0 London shortly after receiving his fortune, alerting the reader that this apparently Positive development in his life may have dangerous consequences Lewis Carroll (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view, Under Queen's Victoria reign (1837 - 1901) Great Britain turned into one of the most expanded empires in the world, becoming the first economic and politic world Boverness. At the time, England started to build more Universities, where Technology and Science were the main studied subjects : 58] py the chi th wh thel cre not ger: cons goe ther trar thro® her told folle: asc the n with with ¢ most 10Seek g) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. amatic mbols 4 ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND peel Publication date: 1861 tants Themes: the tragic and inevitable loss of childhood innocence, life as a meaningless ‘onic puzzle, death as a constant and underlying menace. home Motifs: dream, subversion, language. mists, ‘Symbols: the Garden, the Caterpillar’s mushroom. ravels Literary devices: personification, imagery, allusion, childish language, allegory. ently Point of view: third person omniscient. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are listed among the most influential books ever written in English, regarded as guides to the Victorian childhood. Lewis Carroll sets the action of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland in England of the Victorian Era, but also in the Wonderland realm. As the main character is sleeping when having the fantasy dream, it shows that there is some emphasize on dreaming in the story. Alice’s fall through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar ce creatures makes the novella subscribe to the fantasy genre. Because the tale plays with nonsense and logic, it is considered to be one of the best examples of literary nonsense sbling genre, along with Edward Lear's stories. Rs One of the major themes in the novel is identity. Throughout the story, Alice snade Constantly questions who she is ~ Who in the world am 1?. In Wonderland, the little girl the ees througha variety of absurd physical changes. The discomfort she feels at never being intry __ the Fight size acts as a symbol for the changes that occur during puberty. She finds these while “@nsformations to be traumatic and feels discomfort, frustration and sadness as she goes the ‘rough them, Furthermore, she continually finds herself in situations in which she risks ious _ het life, which suggest that death may be a possible outcome at every step, The story is told from a third person limited omniscient point of view. The anonymous narrator rarles __TOllOws the little girl around her travels but doesn’t use many words to describe the events nof _38Carrollused dialogue to reflect the passionate feelings of the main character. However, sure ‘RE Narrator frequently refers to the girl as poor Alice or poor litte thing, sympathising sour ‘Wither whenever she is ina difficult situation, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland opens sold Wha complaint: For what is the use of a book ...without pictures or ilustrations?. Thus tren OST OF the story is told through pictures and dialogue. MF ay Among the particular traits of the author's writing style is the use of italics. This a es makes words stand out in a positive way and has the effect of emphasizing, also employs an odd usage of parentheses by the side of a general sentence. He 59] Pa f uses capital letters to display what is wei multiple meanings of the words througho expressions. Alice’s exclamation Curio Wonderland and Carroll's manipu! ion of language reflects t possibility. Alice uses words such urious, NONSENSE ANC describe phenomena she has trouble explaining Nearly every object in the story functions as a symbol. The garden may symbo the Garden of Eden, an idyllic space of beauty and innocence that Alice is not allowed access. By comparing humans to a deck of cards, Carroll further implies that life is 3 2H Alice’s adventures in Wonderland was originally told to entertain a little girl. One of t F humor} main devices Carol used to communicate his story is parody, intended effect. Alice’s conversations to herself are an allusion to certain aspects of Victor’ childhood education: we notice her study of Latin, her knowledge of Geography, poems she had to memorize. Carroll's living in the Victorian Era is further displayed in writings, in Carrols allusions to Queen Victoria, as the book also features an import queen — the Queen of Hearts, Henry James (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. The American writer Henry James moved to Europe early on his professig career, being naturalized as a British citizen. He is best known for a number of no\ showing Americans encountering Europeans, such as the Portrait of a Lady. The post - Civil War era, as the nation prospered economically, came te knownas the Gilded Age. Industry flourished with many technological innovations com to fruition. A few industries were growing (coal, iron, gold, silver); the intercontinental railway and transcontinental telegraph gave access not only to mate markets but also to an influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia. Improvements v| made to the printing press, more people became literate and the popularity of the no exploded, as well as the expansion of the periodical press. The increasing rate democracy and literacy provided a fertile literary environment for readers intereste~ the rapid shifts of the U. S. culture. The nation was transforming from a small, agricult ex- colony to a huge, modern, industrial nation, becoming a major world power. While in the Great Britain the realist movement coincided approximately with Victorian era, in American literature the term realism expresses the perlod from the ith the 's ani sible in Smited eys to bolize ned to game. of the orous torian y, the -inhis ortant ional covels 0 be oming new terial vere novel s of edin ural hthe civil pe ste War to the turn of the century (1865 ~ 1890) and James Joyce and Mark Twain fall into this category of realistic writers. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. *> THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY Publication date: 1884 ‘Themes: independence, contrasting regions, identity. Motifs: possession Symbols: windows, architecture, landscape. Literary devices: personification, ellipsis, allegory, metaphor, simile Point of view: third person limited omniscient While in Great Britain the realist movement coincided approximately with the Victorian era, in American literature the term realism expresses the period from the Civil War to the turn of the century. (1865 — 1890). This literary movement attempted to create reality as it was and was characterized by its attention to details. The plot was no longer the focus of the author but the focus was on creating complex characters with emphasize on accurate descriptions of setting, clothes, speech, everyday quotidian activities. In American literature, Mark Twain and Henry James fall into this category of realistic writers. The latter is considered the foremost author of psychological realism. One of James's contribution to the art of fiction is his use of point of view. Previous to James’s novel, much of the fiction of the day was written from the author's viewpoint, that is, he was the storyteller but he also directed the readers’ response to the story. Henry James's fiction establishes a central character around whom the story revolves and the reader setts the action through its character eyes. The Portrait 2f@ Lady is narrated in the third person by an unidentified external voice. The point of view is limited omniscient as it often given insights of the characters’ thoughts and feelings but remains an objective distance. Despite the fact that the narrator is frequently Critical of his characters, the novel refrains from placing an overt judgement on them 'n the 19 century, women were expected to marry for social status and wealth. 'sabel's father leaves the girl a fortune to prevent her from marrying for the wrong ‘easons, However, she becomes the victim of a Machiavellian scheme by two American ©*Patriates and succumbs to the patriarchal order. When Isabel's first appeared in the novel she had a thirst for knowledge but her husband despises her dreams of independence, She becomes a thing of beauty rather than an animate, independent S[Page ottitude toward the three women in his life: wife, lover and innocent daughter. Alterary technique that Henry uses in particular in the novel is ellipses. inst of narrating moments such as Isabel's wedding, James skips over thems, relating that t have happened only later after the fact, in characters’ conversations. Marriage is of described in the novel in negative terms and it comes to be compared to a cage or a tr: Seiting, either in the form of natural landscapes or architecture is an important eleme, in fealism. The places encountered in the novel shine a significant light upon th Symbol of her name suggests, was raised in a convent to guarantee her docility an obedience. a ship. Ralph makes use of this image twice. First, he convinces the girl’s father to put a little wind in her sails, by giving her a fortune. Later, he claims that there she is on an| expedition to explore life. This metaphor expresses Ralph’s sense of admiration for his cousin’s sense of adventure. Mark Twain (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. The American writer Mark Twain achieved his reputation based on a series of novels describing the Deep South in a time after the U. $, Civil War, when the Mississippi River was shut down for travel and shipping, (the same context as Henry James's) 5) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. 62] Z| that they ~ is often ara trap. element on their ility and urope ~ World ~ arasites, rel, are asions to © put 2 is on an for his ries of sissippi THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN: Publication date: 1884 Themes: racism and slavery, intellectual and moral education, the hypocrisy of civilized society, childhood, lies and cons. ‘Symbols: the Mississippi River. Literary devices: colloquial language, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, anecdote. Point of view: first person (narrated by Huckleberry Finn) While in Great Britain the realist movement coincided approximately with the Victorian era, in American literature the term realism expresses the period from the Civil War to the turn of the century. This literary movement attempted to create reality as it was and was characterized by its attention to details. The plot was no longer the focus of the author but the focus was on creating complex characters with emphasize on accurate descriptions of setting, clothes, speech, everyday quotidian activities. In American literature, Mark Twain and Henry James fall into this category of realistic writers while the former's writing style marks the end of Romanticism and the beginning of Realism. After the war, local colour stories were especially popular. An outgrowth of Realism, Regionalism was the tendency to write about specific geographical areas, presenting the distinct culture of the area including its speech, customs, beliefs, history asit is the example of Twain's description of Mississippi River. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is narrated in the first person point of view by Huck himself. From the beginning of the novel he tells us who he is but also mentions that the book is being written by Mr. Mark Twain. Twain’s use of dialogue is very realistic, as the author is able to accurately feproduce the Southern dialect. He uses accents and slang to bring his characters to life. He also often writes in incorrect grammar in order to reflect the setting of the story or the characters’ lack of education. Huck always addresses a listener: you know, you see. In this way, the author introduces a new trend in American literature — the oral telling technique. In this book, Mark Twain focuses on the institution of slavery and the South. The action of the novel is set in the pre — Civil War years when slavery was about to come to an end but racism was still rampant. We might read Twain’s novel as an allegorical representation of the condition of blacks in the U S., even after the abolition of slavery. By focusing on Huck’s education, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn fits into the tradition of bildungsroman, a novel of self ~ development. As a poor, uneducated orphan boy, he distrusts the Morals and precepts that treat him as an outcast and fail to protect him: Twain frequently draws links between Huck’s youth and Jim’s status asa black man, Both are vulnerable, Yet, because Huck is white, he has power over Jack. In comparing the 83 Plight of slaves to the plight of Huck at the hands of his father, Twain implies that it is impossible for a society that owns slaves to be just, no matter how sivilizing that society proclaims itself to be. Therefore, another major theme expiored in the novel is the hypocrisy of civilized society. Other literary devices that Twain [Link] his novel are irony and symbolism Twain pokes at the fact that Miss Watson tried to become a better Christian. Yet, she owns slaves and considers them property. Furthermore, the story is full of malicious cons, For Huck and Jim, the Mississippi River is a symbol of freedom as it carries them toward the Freer states but also away from Huck’s abusive father. On the raft, the two of them are equals. Nigger Jim is more than a character in a book, he symbolises all the slaves in the South and the Southern attitude towards them, He remains at the mercy of every other character in the book although he is the only one who provides a positive, respectable figure for Huck to follow. ica toe mesa 64] that it is it society vel is the nbolism Yet, she bus cons n toward of them slaves in of every positive, 6. NATURALISM Thomas Hardy (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. (The same context as Lewis Carroll's) b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, # TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLE Publication date: 1881 Themes: the injustice of existence, changing ideas of social class in Victorian England, men dominating women : Motifs: the Book of Genesis, birds., (0vu4 ore Symbols: Prince, the D’Urberville family vault, Brazil literary devices: metaphor, symbolism of names, foreshadowing, pathetic fallacy, religious allusions, irony. Point of view: third person omniscient. Naturalism was a literary movement that used detailed realism to suggest that Social conditions, heredity and environment had inescapable forces in shaping human character. Thomas Hardy, an important naturalist writer from the Victorian era wrote Stories of people living in the countryside whose fates were governed by forces larger than themselves. In his work, he demonstrated a deep sense of moral sympathy for England's lower classes, particularly for young, rural woman who were victimized bythe Meldity of England’s upper classi)Hardy uses a third person omniscient point of view to tell the story of a seduced girl. Drama in the story is achieved nonverbally. The most obvious example is the Seduction scene, where Hardy achieves non - dramatic tension through silence and ambiguity rather than through explicitness. Alec’s act of abuse over Tess is the most Serious instance of a male’s domination over women: The act is reversed when she kills him, but this leads to an even gréater act of suppression of a woman by men when the Crowd of male police officers arrest Tess _hfter-the girtis hanged; the nareator concludes the story-withthe- statement lustice was done but justice may be putin quotation marks There are many scenes which foreshadow Tess's final end such as the killing of Prince or Of the birds found by Tess in the forest. On various occasions Tess is resembled to the Snimals she loves. As the horse, Tess too bears a high ~ class name but is doomed to a life Ee of physical labour. The woman is also associated to a bird in a cage. ironically, birds offer images of hope and liberation for the girl In his work, Hardy made dense use of imagery. The setting is rural and many of the images are drawn quite naturally from the countryside. He also employs pathetic 1g mirrors the action. The seasons are in fallacy as a literary device. In the novel, the s direct accord with Tess life as she falls in love with Aan Simmer, she is raped autumn and marries Alec in winter. The use of imagery is furthe? manifested through the Be of the symbolism of colours. Tess often wears white clothes - when she first meets Angel butalso before being raped by Alec —to suggest her innocence On the other side, red, the colour of blood, is associated with guilt or sin. Although Hardy wrote mainly of country people, the diction and vocabulary used in Tess is frequently sophisticated, The author shows his literariness trough his allusions; he frequently quotes, directly or indirectly from other texts, putting his allusions into the mouth of his characters who have been well educated, such as Alec or Angel. At the same time, he is able to reproduce the *ypical language of ordinary, uneducated people using short, simple sentences, Among the most important allusions that Hardy uses is the origin of the is evoked repeatedly. While Tess would be Eve and Angel would be Adam, Alec would be the bad - to ~ the - bone Satan. He even describes himself as a demonic character: / Suppose lam a damn bad fellow. | was born bad and | have lived bad and | should die bad, Sin. At one point, the converted Alec preaches heavenly justice for earthly sinners but this ‘San instance of dramatic irony as his faith is shallow and insincere Tess represents, in a religious sense, the fallen humanity. Just as Tess’s clan was once glorious and powerful but itis now sadly diminished, so too did the early glory of the first human beings Adam and Eve fade with their expulsion from Eden, making human sad shadows of what they were once. George Bernard Shaw (British writer) [Tof—- [WG » a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. The year of Caesar and Cleopatra's premiere marked tremendous changes in Britain’s history, as it was the year when Queen Victoria died and King Edward came to 66 | tr the th wor pre cal bre pol vot politi birds offer d many of 's pathetic ons are in 5 raped in rough the irst meets ther side, mainly of ated. The sirectly or who have rduce the n of the se visions lexander esis story would be aracter: | ‘die bad, seduced * Original 3 but this clan was 1 glory of 3human nges in came to throne, (Likewise, the year of Pygmalion’s premiere marked tremendous changes in Britain's history as it was the year when World War I broke out.) During the Edwardian period (1901 — 1914) literature and theatre flourished New theatres were built where dramas related to social problems were played, The greatest example of Britain’s industrial power at the time was its railway system which allowed people to travel more and also attend public gatherings. Other improvements were the Education Acts. As a consequence, more universities started to be built, where Science and Technology were the main studied subjects. A few women from the middle class started to attend these Universities but they would not receive a degree at the end. At the same time, in Ireland, the movement called irish Revival began to reinvigorate the Irish language and culture The Industrial Revolution had transformed the social landscape, enabling manufacturers and capitalists to amass huge fortunes but the gap between the rich and the poor remained wide. More people moved from the country to the city in search of the opportunities that technological innovation promised whereas poor women went to work as servants in the houses of the upper ~ class. At the time, the idea of women professionals was new as most women were generally housewives. The power of the working class increased. Class divisions gave rise to strikes and thus a new political party came into existence, advancing an eight - hour work day. Reforms to the right to vote brought the working class into participatory democracy. But only after many years of political struggle of the women called suffragettes did the women too receive the right to vote. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA Publication date: 1901 Themes: politics, clemency. Motifs: women as leaders ‘Symbols: the Sphinx. Literary devices: irony, hyperbole, satire, foil, imagery. The Irish ~ born playwright and critic G. B. Shaw wrote frankly and satirically on Political and social topics such as class, war, feminism. Shaw was a long admirer of the works of Henrik Ibsen, whose new style of realistic drama appealed to his sensibilities. Shaw was writing at the very moment when the World was entering in the Modern Era although his plays also have naturalist features. When he began to write, Shaw believed 87] rage that plays, whatever their plots, had to be discussion plays, Watching them, the audience Was to Become more interested in the inward drama than in outward action, The ‘liscussion had to contain important, new ideas. Therefore, he called them plays of Ideas, Their purpose was not so much to make people laugh as to make them realise the absurdity of certain prejudices and reconsider their ideas and attitudes, thus to promote change. Caesar and Cleopatra was in many ways intended as a prequel to W. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, especially in the way Caesar promises to send Mare Antony to Cleopatra and she is portrayed as eagerly anticipating Antony's arrival. But the Play satirizes Shakespeare's use of history as Shaw subtitled this comedy — a History lesson, The playwright wants to prove that it was not love but poli ics that drew Cleopatra to Caesar. In this play, Shaw stresses on the genius of Caesar and not on the beauty of Cleopatra. The dictator of Rome and conqueror of the world is too Practical and detached to be enthralled by the gir’s charms. He forces her out of her childishness and teaches her the art of politics that eventually makes her the Queen of Egypt and a strong leader. Shaw sees the Roman occupation of ancient Egypt as similar to the British Otcupation that was occurring during his time. His character, Caesar, understands the importance of good government and values these things above love. The writer’s aim was neither to present Cleopatra as an immortal love nor to idealize Caesar as a mighty Warrior oF conqueror of the world. Shaw’s Caesar is tired of war, is presented as a man of clemency: No, Cleopatra, no man goes to battle to be killed. The leader throws away letters that would have identified his enemies in Rome, instead trying to win them by his Side. He doesn’t torture nor kill his captives but lets them go. The wisdom of his approach p comasted with Cleopatra's desire to kill and detain absolute supremacy. In this way, Cleopatra is a foil to Caesar. This theme of clemency is best proved in Caesay’s lines: And $9, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and Justice and peace until Gods create a race of man that can understand, Act 1 opens with Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of the Sphinx. Caesar comes upon the Sphinx and speaks to it profoundly. As the Sphinx is a huge monster with 3 lion’s body and a woman's face and head, Caesar compares himself to the symbol in - Greatness. He is in part brute because he is a fighter who kills, he is in part woman because 2 he is gentle, He claims that there is nothing of man in him. Therefore Shaw introduces ; Caesar as a strong man, with reason, clemency and gentleness. £ @ i * PYGMALION : Publication date: 1914 Themes: feminism, social class. i 68 | wudience on. The plays of ilise the sromote 1 to W, ad Marc But the + History eopatra eauty of stached teaches leader. e British nds the aim was mighty man of ws away n by his ipproach nis way, nes: And ght and Caesar’ wter with: mbol in recause. troduces? titan cat Motifs: the Myth of Creation, change and transformation, language Symbols: the looking glass, clothing. Literary devices: allegory, allusion, cacophony, irony, sarcasm, satiré Pygmalion is a classic Shavian play as it shows the playwright’s feelings about the falsity of class system, his belief that all humans are equals and that privilege should play no part in life. The social hierarchy is a reality in Britain, The general sense is that class structures are rigid and that should not be tampered with, so the example of Lisa’s class mobility s shocking. In this play and in British society, at large, language is closely tied up with class. From a person’s accent one can determine where that person comes from and usually what that person’s socio ~ economic background is. Because accents are not very malleable, poor people are marked as poor for life. Higgins’ teachings are somewhat radical as they allow for social mobility. The whole play is a satire. Eliza’s transformation into what the society perceives a lady doesn’t lie in a change of personality or morals, but in a change of accent and appearance. The symbol of clothing shows what powerful appearance is. The exchange of rags for fine dresses is symbolic of Eliza’s social transformation from a flower girl into an upper class lady. The title of the play is symbolic, making the play to be an allegory. Shaw took it from the ancient Greek legend of the famous sculptor who could find nothing good in women. He carved a statue out of ivory that was so beautiful and flawless that he fell in love with his own creation. After he prayed to the Goddess of love, Aphrodite brought the statue to life. Shaw used several aspects of the legend in retelling the myth. Higgins is the sculptor and Eliza is his creation, but the girl develops a soul of her own and a fierce independence from her creator. Shaw's plots are static, but enlivened by mental actions with dialogue in which characters engage in intellectual debates, His plays are remembered for their incisive humour. in Pygmalion, the mood is witty and humorous, due to the use of sarcasm, irony. Isan irony the fact that Higgins is teaching Eliza manners while he doesn’t have manners himself. Higgins’ bitter sense of humour and bad manners can be noticed in his replays: Put her (Eliza) in the dustbin. in this way, the writer shows that bad manners are not only reserved for the lower classes. Irony also occurs when Mrs Higgins tells Henry that he is the life and soul of grand parties, when she actually means that he is rather unconventional at gatherings. Dramatic irony is employed in the end of the play. As Mrs Higgins notices, after the conclusion of the experiment, Liza will have no income only the manners that disqualify a fine lady from earning her living. As a solution, Henry suggests ‘marriage to a rich man, 7. MODERNISM Joseph Conrad (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Conrad published his novels at the dawn of the 20" century when the world rapidly changing in many ways. One of the biggest changes was the massive anc widespread colonization of islands and other remote lands in many cases to establis trade or military posts. This was also the moment when Queen Victoria’s reign was at it end. Under her rule, Great Britain turned into one of the most expanded empires in the world, extending its borders into America, Africa, Asia. In the context of Imperialism, the concepts of home and civilization were meaningless to men for whom survival was constant threat. They were either conquerors or conquered. At the time, women woul occupy traditional roles as arbiters of domestic and morality. The prevailing attitude of Europeans at the end of the 19" century was that the colonists were assuming the white’s man burden of governing the lands because th Africans or the Asians could not handle the responsibility themselves. They felt ¢ people required introduction to European culture and technology in order to becom more evolved. In exchange of that culturalization, European took from Africa huge quantities of ivory. In 1878 King Leopold Il established a Belgium colony in Congo. He described his motives as springing from his desire to end slavery and civilize the natives but his actus desire was for material gain only. He never set foot in Congo, but formed a Company to rule the place for him. He declared all natural resources from Congo to be his property As a consequence, new stations were set up along the Congo River and the Belgium traders did many acts of atrocity against the African natives b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. “+ HEART OF DARKNESS “Publication date: 1899 Themes: the hypocrisy of Imperialism, madness Motifs: observation and eavesdropping, darkness, Symbols: fog, the Whited Sepulchre, women, the river. Literary devices: irony, imagery, foreshadowing, metaphor, personification allusion. Flees ‘ld was ve and stablish Sat its sin the m, the | was a would ‘hat the se the ait that 2come a huge bed his actual any to vperty. elgium © e toits Point of view: first person (narrated by Marlow). Conrad’s novels look forward to many of the developments of modern novel, particularly the point of view, fracturing of time, and use of symbolism. Heart of Darkness is framed as a story — within ~ a story. The point of view belongs primarily to Charlie Marlow, a narrator that Conrad used in other of his stories as well. Used as both a character as well asa narrator, Marlow tells the story of Kurtz. But his point of view is, in turn, framed by that of an unnamed narrator — an anonymous passenger on a pleasure boat who listens to Marlow’s story, providing his own first person perspective of the facts he had heard. Marlow, as a narrator, doesn’t tell his story straightforward from the beginning to the end. The book’s structure is cyclical, both in terms of geography and chronology. It begins in 1890, on a boat sitting on the River Thames, goes back several years onto the African continent, on the Congo River and returns to the present. Heart of Darkness is one of the first literary texts to provide a critical view on European Imperial activities, but it explores the issues surrounding Imperialism in complicated ways. Some of the themes explored in the novel are alienation and loneliness, insanity, Violence and cruelty. The men who work for the company describe what they do as trade and their cruel treatment of Native Africans is part of the project called civilization However, Kurtz is conscious of the fact that they do not trade but actually take ivory by force. He doesn’t hide his actions behind good intentions. Kurtz resembles the archetypal evil genius and can be compared to Moby Dick's Captain Ahab or Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff, from the perspective of having a tragic fatal flaw of being affected by madness. However, his madness is only relative, because in the context of the Company, insanity is difficult to define. The author allows for multiple perspectives into Kurtz’s character: to his fiancée, he was an upstanding citizen and a great humanitarian; to his cousin he was 2 great musician; for the journalist, Kurtz was a brilliant politician and a great leader; to the Natives he was a tyrant. Another literary device that Conrad uses in this text is ambiguity. Kurtz’s final words on the manuscript: Exterminate all the brutes is such a proof, as the character doesn’t make reference to the natives of Africa but to his own brutality and that of the Company that was carried out in the name of progress and civilization. In the novella, Conrad makes dense use of imagery. Heart of Darkness is structured as a journey of Aiscovery, both externally in the jungle and internally in Marlow’s own mind. The physical ‘Burney into the jungle is allegorical to the darkness of the heart of Kurtz, so the imagery 'S mostly based on the light ~ dark imagery. The novella is rife with symbolism. The Whited Sepulchre is probably Brussels, Even the Imperialisms mission which implies violence and death, The phrase comes from Ica! book and refers to something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within. The Congo River is the key to Africa for Europeans. It allows them to access to the centre of the continent without having to cross it as the river allows the white man te always remain separate or outside. Fog doesn’t only obscures, but distorts. It gives one enough information to begin to make decisions but no way to judge the accuracy of the information. Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no idea what sort of water lies ahead. Women in the novel are not really viewed in such a negative light, they aren’t neither weak, nor helpless. Kurtz's African mistress is an imposing presence, while his Intended comes to dominate the scene at the end of the novel. LORD JIM Publication date: 1900 Themes: principles and reputation, guilt and blame. Motifs: dream of heroism, the leap Symbols: Jim, Fog, rain, water and jungle, Patna, Patusan. literary devices: flashbacks, ellipses, imagery, contrast, juxtapositions, bildungsroman, Point of view: third person omniscient, then first person (narrated by Marlow). Conrad’s novels look forward to many of the developments of modern novel, particularly the point of view, fracturing of time, and use of symbolism. . Rather than looking out into the world, the great modernists of the 20th century surveyed the inner space of the human mind. The novel was now reflective, holding on to the idea that nothing was truly knowable, all truth became relative. Lord Jim is remarkable for its elaborately scheme of narration. Most of the novella is concerned with Marlow, trying to put together Jim’s story from a variety of sources. In the first line of the chapter, the reader is introduced to the title character. Narration continues in the third person omniscient, until Conrad introduces a first person narrator, Marlow. Small bits of the story are also given by other characters, aimed to give the reader multiple perspectives into Jim's character. Conrad may be more interested in the act of storytelling than in Jim's actual deeds. Time in the story is broken up; in a single paragraph, Marlow makes reference to the past, present and future. By manipulating the flaw of time, using flashbacks and ellipses, Conrad is able to create juxtapositions and contrasts. He is also a master of withholding information. Jim’s final fate becomes a matter of discussion several chapters before the reader learns what that fate actually is. Conrad used the bildungsroman form for his work. The theme of wanting to be perceived as heroic is the dominant theme of the novel. Lord Jim's dreams of heroism accomplish when he defeats the island of Patusan by a local bandit, which leads to his title of Lord. However, Jim’s sense of shame that RI 3to the yan to es one of the 2 what gative posing itions, w). novel, or than + inner 22 that for its ying to ar, the person 2story Sim's ence to: sand off ster of f arises because he jumped from what he believed to be a sinking boat never quite leaves him and becomes a constant shadow over his happiness. Jim’s failure to protect the son of the local chief is seen as an act of betrayal, another important theme explored in the novel, which leads to a lethal effect. Lord Jim is one of Conrad’s less involved works in the issues surrounding colonialism. The novella is filled with symbolism. Since much of the book centres on good versus evil, the characters become symbolic, Marlow and Stein are symbols of goodness, representing the value of life in contrast to the Patna crew which represent the evil. Jim symbolizes the idealist and the dreamer who is torn by the darkness of guilt. Closely connected to good and evil, light and darkness become important symbols. Light is a source of visions. Jim is always dressed in white. Fog, rain, water and jungle are all forms of darkness. The butterflies symbolize the dreams of people and the wish for living. Jim is particularly associated with a butterfly as he is a man devoted to dreaming heroic ideals. ‘Actions also take on symbolic meaning. Jim’s jumping becomes a leap into darkness and fear, into a life plagued with guilt and shame. Jim’s jump into the mystery of Patusan is equally frightening. James Joyce (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. World War | was the first main shock that ravaged Europe. By the time it was officially ended, millions of people were dead or wounded. Disillusioned by the war, Writers such as Woolf, Joyce and Eliot rebelled against the traditional logical thinking and began to experiment with form. James Joyce was an Irish novelist, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the 20" century. He is best known for Ulysses, published in 1922 Before WWI, the Irish nationalist Charles Parnell was spreading the movement for Irish independence. His longstanding affair to a married woman was exposed, leading the Catholic Church to condemn him and causing many of his former followers to turn against him. Many Irish Nationalists blamed Parnell’s death on the Catholic Church. By 1900, the Irish people felt largely united in demanding freedom from the British rule. The British government agreed to home rule for Ireland but for the fear that the Protestants, inthe north might start a Civil war, the government delayed the introduction of the home Tule and called on Irishman to join the Army. It wasn’t until 1921 that Britain agreed to the Independence of Southern Ireland, while the Northern Ireland remained united with Britain BiPage Joyce wrote in a time when the Irish citizens struggled to define what it meant to be Irish and a movement began to reinvigorate the language, literature and culture. Despite the cultural Revival, Ireland splinters into fractions of Protestants and Catholics, ich social forces form a complex context for Joyce’s Conservatives and Nationalists. writings which taps into religious and political matters. All his work is strongly tied to trish political and cultural history. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ‘+ A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN Publication date: 1916 Themes: the development of individual consciousness, the pitfalls of religious extremism, epiphany, the role of the artist, the need for Irish autonomy. Motifs: music, flight, prayers, secular songs and Latin phrases. symbols: green and maroon, Emma Literary devices: stream of consciousness, bildungsroman, allusion, parallelism, imagery. Point of view: first person (narrated by Stephen) In English literature, modernist writers such as Woolf and James Joyce broke convention by writing frankly about sex, religion or poverty. Modernism introduced a new type of narration ~ the unreliable narrator. Rather than looking out into the world, the great modernists of the 20th century surveyed the inner space of the human mind. The novel was now reflective, holding on to the idea that nothing was truly knowable, all truth became relative The narrative voice of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of the most spectacular features of the novel. Joyce was a pioneer of the stream of consciousness style and we see this most-clearly in chapter one, where we're basically inside young Stephan’s head. The narrative is limited omniscient as we never get to see inside other characters’ heads; Instead, we see them the way Stephan does. In the first chapters, young Stephan, the son of an impoverished father and a highly devout Catholic mother is only capable of describing his world in simple words and phrases. When Stephen was obsessed with religion, his mind is more mature and he is coherently aware of his surroundings. As a teenager, his beliefs in the morals of the church leads him to two opposite extremes. First sin, repeatedly sleeping with prostitutes, turning his back on religion. He is aware that he acts in violation of the church’s rules and even compares himself with Lucifer. The, he bounces to the other extreme, becoming a fanatical model val ant to ture. r0lics, yee's a lrish to its gious lism, oroke anew 4, the a. The truth > most sness voung other rpters, heris n was of his 0 two ck on pares model of religious devotion and abedience. At University, Stephen is truly rational. By the end of the novel, Joyce renders a portrait of a mind that has achieved emotional, intellectual and artistic adulthood TWo other themes explored in the novel are the role of the artist and the need for Irish autonomy. The novel explores what it means to become an artist. Stephen's decision at the end of the novel, to leave his family and friends behind and go into exile in order to become an artist, suggests that Joyce sees the artist as a necessarily isolated figure Despite his desire to steer clear of polities, Stephan constantly ponders Ireland's place in the world, He concludes that the Irish have always been subservient people, allowing outsiders to control them. Using the borrowed language of the English, he plans to write ina style that will be both autonomous from England and true to the Irish people. We can often tell Stephan’s state of mind by looking at the fragments of prayers, songs and Latin phrases that Joyce inserts into the text, Music, especialy singing, appears repeatedly throughout the novel, closely tied Up to Stephan's love for the sounds of language. Another recurrent motif is flight. Daedalus is @ figure from Greek mythology, a craftsman who designs the Labyrinth of Crete for Minos, the king who keeps Daedalus and his son, Icarus, imprisoned on the Island. The craftsman plans to escape by using feathers and wax to create a set of wings for himself and his son. Daedalus escapes successfully but Icarus flies too high. The Sun’s heat melts the wax holding Icarus’ wings together and he falls into the sea. With this mythological reference, Joyce implies that Stephen must balance his desire to flee Ireland the danger of overestimating his own abilities, The most important symbol in the novel is Emma, who is seen by Stephan as the 'deal of feminine purity and who delivers inspiration to the young man. The boy imagines his reward for his piety as a union with Emma in Heaven, Other symbols are green and maroon, associated with one of the leaders of the Irish resistance. % ULYSSES Publication date: 1922 ‘Themes: the quest for paternity, the remorse of conscience, compassion as heroic, Parallax or the need for multiple perspectives Motifs: lightness and darkness, the home usurped, the East Symbols: Plumtree’s Potted Meat, the Gold Cup Horserace, Stephen’s Latin Quarter Hat Literary devices: allegory, allusion, foreshadowing, colloquial language, stream of Consciousness Point of view: multiple perspectives (narrated mainly by Stephen, Molly, Bloom), BlPage In the 18" and 19% century, many novels focused more on outer than inner events and the plot was usually arranged in a linear fashion. But Ulysses achieves a kind of realism hardly unlike any other novel before it, by rendering the thoughts and feelings of the main characters in a scattered and fragmented form. The most important feature of modernism is the stream of consciousness style, also known as interior monologue. It is 2 narrative technique that seeks to depict the thoughts and feelings which pass through 2 character's mind. It is characterised by associative leaps in thought and lack of punctuation. ovce first tried the stream of consciousness technique in A Portrait of the Artist as @ Young Man, but in Ulysses he used interior monologue extensively. He also experimented with shifting style, the story becomes a multi voiced narration as the narrative voice shifts with each episode of the novel. Bloom - one of the narrators of the novel - enjoys thinking about science. Parallax is an astronomical term that he encounters inhis readings; it refers to the difference of position of one object seen from two different points. AS a novel, Ulysses uses a similar tactic. Three main characters: Stephen, Molly and Bloom, and a subset of narrative techniques that affect our perception of events combine to demonstrate the fallibility of one perspective. The most obvious example is Molly's past love life. Though we can construct a judgement of heras a loose woman from the testimonies of various characters, the judgement must be revised with the integration of Molly’s own final testimony. The novel's plot line, taken from a mythic text — Homer’s Odyssey - and the modern hero are other modern features. The novel has as its hero as the most ordinary man, Leopold Bloom. Unlike the muscular, militaristic Homeric hero, whose name serves as the novel's title, Bloom is gentle, reserved, an outsider. It is only his capacity for sympathy and compassion that allows an unironic heroism in the course of the story, Bloom empathizes with a wide variety of beings: animals, vicious men, women in labour. Another modern technique is the setting of the action. Apart from flashbacks, all the action takes place in a single day of June, 1904, in a metropolis, Dublin, Two emotional crisis plague Bloom’s cheerful attitude: the breakdown of his male family line and the infidelity of his wife. The deaths of both his father and only son led Bloom to feel lonely and powerless. Plumtree’s Potted Meat symbolizes Bloom’s USurbation of his wife and house by Boylan. Stephen’ lack of house keys also symbolizes the home usurped. At the most basic level, Ulysses is a book about Stephen’s search for 2 symbolic father and Bloom’s search for a symbolic son. Both men are searching for paternity as a way to reinforce their own identities. The traditional associations of light with good and black with bad are reversed in the novel where the more menacing 76 | Fishnet Molly vents ple is «from -ation id the linary serves xy for story. bour. all the _male on led 2om’s >olizes ch for ng for Flight nacing 4 characters are associated with light and brightness. Both men are dressed in mourning black. Ulysses juxtaposes characters who experience remorse of conscience with characters that do not. Stephen feels guilt over his mother’s death and suspects that he may have Killed her by refusing to kneel down and pray at her sickbed when she asked. Another important symbol is Bloom’s potato talisman. As an organic product that is now shrivelled, it gestures towards Bloom's anxieties about fertility and his family fine. Most important, however, is the potato’s connection to Ireland — the talisman stands for his frequently overlooked maternal irish heritage ~ as it was received from his mother. Virginia Woolf (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. World War | was the first main shock that ravaged Europe. At first, all who joined the army were volunteers but later the Government forced men to fight the war whether they wanted or not. They persuaded the people that, in spite of its disastrous results, the war was still worth fighting in the name of democracy and freedom. For the first time modern artillery was used, including guns such as tanks, airplanes, toxic gas. By the time it was officially ended, millions of people were dead or wounded. Modernism is the broad term to define post WWI literature. Disillusioned by the war, British writers such as Woolf, Joyce and Eliot rebelled against the traditional logical thinking and began to experiment with form, while in American literature the group of writers and thinkers known as The Lost Generation became synonymous with this current. After the war, poverty, economic instability, unemployment were at its highest Points. Immigration increased, veterans returned from different parts of Europe broken both in body and mind. Women had to struggle to provide for their children without the help of their men. However, for some it was an exciting, promising time. London buzzled with airplanes, cars, commerce; a few industries were growing, the upper class was still jons and rich while some segments of the working class were enjoying better work con higher wages. Women started agitating for their right to vote, began drinking, smoking, attending Universities. It was even possible to imagine a career for themselves. ) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. * MRs DALLOWAY Ip Publication date: 1922 Themes: communication versus privacy, disillusionment with the British Empire, the fear of death, the threat of oppression, feminism, mental illness, homosexuality Motifs: time, Shakespeare, trees and flowers Symbols: the Prime Minister, Peter Walsh’s pocketknife and other weapons, the old woman in the window, the old woman singing an ancient song, Literary devices: allusion, foreshadowing, flashbacks, simile, juxtaposition, metaphor Point of view: multiple perspectives (narrated by Virginia Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith), stream of consciousness Virginia Woolf has written Mrs Dalloway in a continuous stream of consciousness and has also experimented with shifting style. The first line of the novel begins in the third person, then it continues in free indirect speech. The next paragraph takes the reader into another powerful aspect of the novel's narration: memory; without any indication, Woolf shifts from Clarissa’s present to past. Most of the novel is composed of the thoughts of the characters. Like a web, they are entangled into each other through their memories Another modern technique is the setting of the action. Apart from flashbacks, all the action takes place into a single day of June 1923, in a metropolis — London. Another important feature of the novel is also the exploration of modern themes such as feminism, homosexuality and mental illness. Clarissa’s character highlights the role of women in an interwar society. She keeps up with and even embraces the social — expectations of the wife of a politician but she is still able to express herself and find | distinction in the parties she throws. Her old friend, Sally, whom Clarissa admires is remembered as a great independent woman. She exists only in Clarissa’s memory for most of the novel. Clarissa is strongly attracted to Sally. Over thirty years later, Mrs Dalloway still considers the kiss they shared to be the happiest moment of her life. As a girl, Sally was without inhibitions. The girls plotted to reform the world together, but now they are both married, a fate which they-once considered a catastrophe. When Clarissa meets her in the present day, Sally turns out to be the perfect housewife, married, having five sons. Other important themes are the fear of death, the threat of oppression, disillusionment with the British Empire, communication versus privacy. The novel has two main narrative lines, involving two separate characters: Clariss® and Septimus Smith, the shocked war hero who operates in the novel as a pointed Aen rit sna ne criticism of the treatment of the mental illness and depression. Woolf criticizes medical discourse through Septimus’s decline and suicide. Woolf has called Septimus — Mrs Dalloway’s double. Her reality is vastly different from his as the woman is part of the 4 upper class while he is part of the working class; she finds meaning in the symbols off 78] ire, the tion, imus ness third into Jolt ats of ores. HI the emes s the social | find ces is ry for _ Ms Asa =now arissa aving sssion, | varissa inted edical — Ms of the 2ols of English society, such as the Prime Minister and expensive cars, while he thinks them to be meaningless. However, nature matters a great deal for them; they both enjoy being at home in the domestic sphere, both quote Shakespeare and find comfort in art and literature. Clarissa quotes Shakespeare's poetry many times during the day. She even identifies with the title character in Othello in the sense of having lost a love, especially when she thinks of Sally Seton. Before the war, Septimus appreciated Shakespeare as well, going so far as aspiring to be a poet One of the recurrent motifs in the novel is time. Big Ben, a symbol of England sounds out the hours relentlessly, ensuring that the passage and the awareness of eventual death is always palpable. As they age, the characters evaluate how they have spent their lives. Two important symbols for the passage of time are the old woman in the window who represents loneliness and the old woman singing an ancient song that celebrates endurance and continuity. She is oblivious to everyone around her as she sings, beyond carrying what the world thinks. The woman's song touches everyone who hears it in some way. Peter doesn’t catches the triumphant message and feels only pity for her while Rezia finds strength in the old woman’s words. Other symbols in the novel are Peter Walsh’s pocketknife. The man is armed with a knife when he paysa visit to Clarissa, while she herself is armed with her sewing scissors. Their weapons make them equal competitors, but they are also symbols hinting at sexuality and power. The flowers, which appear from the very beginning of the novel and are meant to beautify. They may be a mirror of image of Mrs Dalloway’s own complexity of character. T. S. Eliot (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. (the same context as Virginia Woolf's) 4) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. WASTE LAND Publication date: 1922 Themes: death, sexuality, resurrection rought, decay, lust iresias, water literary devices: disjointed time, juxtaposition, Metaphor, monologue, dialogue, free verse ps5 allusions, fragmentation, i t f t i -Dante’s Hell. The city is desolate and depopulated, inhabited only by ghosts of the past. Waste Land and Ulysses may be considered the greatest works of modernist literature. Eliot’s poem, in all of its complexity, is like a catalogue of modern poetic techniques including free verse, odd stanza lengths, dialogue, quotations from other works, phrases from other languages, conflicting ideologies such as Christianity and paganism, depictions of sexuality. Waste Land as a symbol refers to the past war devastation. Elliot envisioned the modern world as a waste land in which neither the land, nor the people could conceive. The land has been destroyed with chemical weapons while the eradication of an entire generation of young men led to a general crisis of masculinity. The poem also portrays rape, prostitution, abortion and other incidents of non - reproductive sexuality. At another level, the symbolic title recalls the ancient vegetation or fertility myth associated with the sterility of a land affected by the impotence of its ruler. Elliot saw the Fisher King, robbed of its sexual potency as symbolic for the post war humanity. His impotence brought unhappiness and famine, The poem is organized into five sections. The first and the fourth section deals mainly with issues of death, whereas the second and third sections deal mainly with sexual issues. The final section is mainly about resurrection or restoration which may or may not be attainable. One of the first noticeable aspects of this order is that the four sections are symmetrical ~ the first two are a mirror image of the next two sections. In| this way, Eliot created juxtapositions. However, the final section does not fit this | symmetry. With each section, time and space shift with little or no transition and the bizarre landscape is populated with historical and mythological figures. The poem opens with a reference to Chaucer's Canterbury tale cruellest month. However, in this case April is not the happy month of pilgrimages and storytelling but is the time when the land should be regenerating after a long winter. In this section, Eliot makes references to London as to the Unreal City of Baudelaire or as to \pril is the 3 i i images of two women: a wealthy woman waiting for her lover, who begins to give voice to her paranoid thoughts and another one, who has a ravaged look because of the # medication she took to induce an abortion. The two women represent two sides of the 4 modern sexuality: one side is a dry neurosis and self - destructive being associated bY comparison with Cleopatra, a woman who committed suicide out of frustrated love; the other is rampant fecundity, associated with a lack of culture and rapid aging The third section includes bits of musical pieces: a wedding song, a soldiers ballad. A significant image in these lines is the rat, who takes about what it can from the Eliot packed his work full of allusions, quotations, footnotes, arguing that the literary past must be integrated into contemporary poetry. The second section is focused on the 30 | 3 ernist oetic other and od the eive, entire trays ty. At iated King, ence deals with ray or four ons. In this id the | 1s the sand er. In rasto past. ypast a the voice f the ‘of the od by <; the | dier’s m the refuse of other, higher creatures. itis an allegory for Eliot's poetic process; like a rat, Eliot takes what he can from earlier, greater generations of writ 's. Modernist writers also created gay and lesbian characters as over the course of Eliot's life, gender roles and sexuality became increasingly flexible. Waste Land's central character is Tiresias, a hermaphrodite whose power of prophecy and transformation are due to his male and female genitalia. Eliot creates a character that embodies wholeness, represented by two genders coming together in one body. in the fourth section, water symbolizes both life and death. Traditionally, water can imply baptism and Christianity. The characters wait for water to quench their thirst and cry for rain to quench the dry Earth. Although water has the regenerative possibility of restoring life and fertility it can also lead to drowning and death. The fifth section, What the thunder said, is associated with apocalypse. A decaying chapel is described, which suggests the chapel in the legend of the Holy Grail E. M. Forster (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Published in 1924, E. M. Forster's novel A passage to India examines the racial misunderstandings and cultural hypocrisies that characterized the complex interactions between Indians and the English toward the end of the British occupation in India. Victorian Era ended at the very beginning of the 20" century. Under Queen Victoria's reign Great Britain become the first political and economic power of the world, but also one of the most expanded empires, extending its power into Africa, Asia. The British Government had been officially ruling India since the mid - 19" century. Forster began writing the novel in 1913 when Britain’s control over India was complete: English Bovernors headed each province and were responsible to Parliament. Though England had promised the Indian people a role in the government in exchange for their aid during WWI, India din not win independence until three decades later. The racial oppression divided the Indian people and the British colonists. The prevailing-attitude among the British in india was that the colonists were assuming the white man’s burden — novelist Rudyard kipling phrase ~ of governing the country, because the Indians could not handle the responsibility themselves. The British made improvements, constructing roads, railways, telegraph lines and providing educational and economic advancements. Some indians even grew Wealthy. Generally, however, Indians were Poor second class citizens, especially in British India. The British got the best Jobs, held the top government posts and exploited the Natural resources. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. ‘+ A PASSAGE TO INDIA Publication date: 1924 Themes: the difficulty of English ~ Indian friendship, the unity of all living things, the muddle of India, Motifs: the echo, eastern and western architecture, Godbole’s song Symbols: the Marabar Caves, the green bird, the wasp Literary devices: satire, irony, foreshadowing, simile, alliteration, synecdoche Point of view: third person omniscient The novel begins by posing the question of whether it is possible for an Englishman and an Indian to ever be friends, at least in the context of British colonialism. Foster uses this question as a framework to explore the general issue of Britain’s political control of India through the friendship between-Fielding and Aziz. Forster suggests that The British tule in India could only be successful and respectful if only the English and the Indians treated each other as Fielding and Aziz treat each other. The author's final vision of a friendship is a pessimistic one Foster takes great care to strike a distinction between the ideas of muddle and mystery. Fielding, who acts as Forster’s primary mouthpiece in the novel admits that India is a muddle, which has connotations of dangerous and disorienting disorder. The natural life of plants and animals also defies identification. Just after Adela and Ronny agree for the first time to break off their engagement, they notice a green bird sitting in the tree above them. Neither of them can positively identify the bird, which also symbolize the muddle of India, Furthermore, the very landscape and architecture of the countryside is formless, interior blend into exterior gardens, structures appear unfinished. Foster spends time detailing both Eastern and Western architecture. Three architectural structures provide the outline for the book’s three sections: The Mosque, The Caves, The Temple. The Marabar Caves as a symbol represent all that is alien about nature. The Caves are older than anything else on the earth and embody nothingness and emptiness, A recurrent motif throughout the novel is the echo, which begins at the Marabar Caves and plagues Mrs Moore and Adela India’s population is mixed into a muddle of different religious, ethnic, linguistic Broups. The events that trouble and disorientates Adela at the Marabar Caves can be seen a5 a manifestation of this muddle. Though the main characters of A Passage to India are generally Christian or Muslim, Hinduism also plays a large thematic role in the novel. Professor Godbole, the most visible Hindu in the novel claims that the religion’s ideal is 82] to its ings, aman uses ol of “itish ians of a sand ndia tural for tree the Je is rster ural ves > that all living things be united in love as one. Although a Christian, Mrs Moore also shows openness to this aspect of Hinduism. At the end of Fielding’s tea party, Godbole sings for the English visitors a Hindu Song in which a milkmaid pleads for God to come to her and to her people. The song's refrain of Come, come recurs throughout the book mirroring the appeal for the entire country of salvation from something greater than itself. Although A Passage to India is in many waysa highly symbolic mystical text, it also aims to be a realistic documentation of the attitudes of the British colonial officials in India, Forster spends large sections of the novel characterizing different typical attitudes the English hold toward the Indians whom they control. Forster's satire is most harsh toward English women, whom he depicts as racist, whereas men are largely well ~ meaning and invested in their jobs. F. Scott Fitzgerald (American writer) “ @ 1 Grae eT ly 9) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural paint of view. The first main shock that ravaged the world was WWI By the time it was officially ended, millions of people were either dead or wolided: For the first time modern artillery was used, including guns such as tariks, airplanes, toxic gas. The generation who came of age during or after the war became known as the as The Lost Generation, although most critics today associate this term with a number of writers who produced some of the best literary works of the 20" century. Among them, there are F. S Fitzgerald and E. Hemingway, two of the leaders of the modernist movement in America. The Great Gatsby holds a mirror up to the society of the post WWI era as it is Considered the defining work of the 1920s, the decade often referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring 20s. America had just came out of one of the bloodiest and most violent episodes in the nation’s history. After suffering from the tragic war, Americans felt Entitled to find comfort and pleasure in order to forget about the war. Many people tried to involve themselves in schemes to get rich quickly that sometimes included illegal Activities such as gambling and bootlegging. At the time, alcohol was banned by the Constitution. This ted to secret private parties that sold liquor. Therefore, the generation who fought the war turned to wild and extravagant living to compensate. Money, Opulence and exuberance became the order of the day; Jazz music and the saxophone eplaced the violin; women began agitating for their right to vote, began to smoke, drink and even imagine a career for themselves. The younger generation was rebelling against the values and customs of their parents. Bl ras eS b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, “: THE GREAT GATSBY Publication date: 1925 Themes: the decline of the American dream in the 1920s, the hollowness of the upper class Motifs: geography, weather Symbols: the Green Light, the Valles of Ashes, the eyes of Doctor T. J, Eckleburg Literary devices: foreshadowing, irony, allusion, aphorism, flashback, simile, metaphor, repetition Point of view: first person (narrated by Nick Carraway) In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores themes such as the Decline of the American Dream and the Hollowness of the upper class. The writer portrays the 1920s as a period of decayed social and moral values when the desire for money and pleasure surpassed the more noble goals. The author uses satire in describing the newly rich and their vulgar parties. The newly millionaires differ from the old aristocracy as they are ostentatious and lack in social taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls Royce, throws decadent parties where jazz music is played. tn contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, elegance. However, they seems to lack in heart for they are bullies who use money to ease their minds and never worry about their deeds or about hurting the others, The plot is told as part of a frame story in the first person by Nick Carraway, who is also one of the main characters of the novel. The technique used by Fitzgerald seem to lie in his readings of Joseph Conrad, another modernist English writer. The story is narrated in retrospect and Fitzgerald uses repeatedly flashbacks throughout the novel. ‘Nick is writing the accounts two years after the events of the summer he describes have, happened. The time scheme is further complicated as the history of that summer of 1922 contains within it the story of another summer, when Gatsby and Daisy first courted, Fitzgerald starts the novel in the present tense, giving the reader a glimpse of the four main locations of the story, which also act as symbols. The setting reveals the values of the characters who live and work there: West Egg, where the newly rich live, East Egg, where the old aristocracy live, New York, a place where money is made and bootleggers flourish, a place of affairs and decadent parties; the Valley of Ashes, which recalls of Eliot’s Waste Land. It’s a long stretch of desolate land where the poor live, where the inhabitants are dumped on by the rich. It represents the social and moral decay that results from the pursuit of wealth. Fitzgerald’s style may be called imagistic, due to the 84 | o its vivid descriptions, especially with reference to the symbolism of colours. Gatsby is associated with pink while Daisy with yellow and white. An important symbol is also the Green Light, which represents the dreams and hopes for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, as a guiding light to lead him towards his goal Another literary device that Fitzgerald uses is pathetic fallacy. The weather in the the novel matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story. Gatsby's and Daisy’s reunion happens on a pouring rain day, provoking melancholy and their love awakens just as the Sun begins to come out. Likewise, Gatsby's confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest re day of summer. There are many instances of dramatic irony in the story, starting with the nile, title. Everybody comes to Gatsby's parties but no one attends his funeral. Gatsby stays outside Daisy's window until the morning to make sure that Tom doesn’t hurt her. But after killing Myrtle, Daisy moves to another house and doesn’t recognize her fault, she se of lets Gatsby take the blame for her actions, Fitzgerald also uses foreshadowing as a literary 920s device. An example of such is Jordan's reckless driving. sure Band William Faulkner (American writer) are nate | Bs a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. they | Faulkner achieved his reputation based on a series of novels describing the decline of the Deep South and the deterioration of the Southern aristocracy after the Civil War. He published his novels in a time after WWI, one of the greatest shocks that ravaged the entire world. By the time it was officially ended, millions of people were dead or wounded. The generation of men and women who came of age during or after the war vever mto ary is ovel. nave 1922 became disillusioned about their future and became known as The Lost Generation. One of the symptomatic features of this disillusionment is the protest against the patriarchal order of the family and the children’s rebellion against the values and customs of their _ Parents. . Modernism is the broad term to define post WWI literature when writers began fo experiment with form. By the time Faulkner's novels were published, America entered » Inthe Great Depression of the 1930s, which threw millions of people out of work. In cities, Poverty, crime and wage slavery skyrocketed. It was in many ways comparable to the post ‘Gwvil War era in the South. At the time, men were expected to act like gentleman, to {Misplay courage, moral strength, chivalry in the defence of the honour of their family fPme. Women were expected to be models of feminine purity, grace and virginity until it £2me time for them to provide children | | ato | | se of 5 the 1 live, and which here that > the 5) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon, * THE SOUND AND THE FURY Publication date: 1929 Themes: the corruption of Southern aristocratic values, resurrection and renewal, the failure of language and narrative Motifs: time, shadows Symbols: Quentin's watch, water Literary devices: allegory, simile, Point of view: multiple perspectives (the three Sutpen brothers - Benjy, Quentin and Jason - narrate in the first person; the Voice in the ‘Sky narrates in the third person) The first half of the 19 century saw the rise of a number of prominent Southern [Seonstruction devastated many of the families. Mr Compson becomes an alcoholic; Mrs Compson is distant from her children; Caddy becomes a Promiscuous girl, as well as her daughter. Though Quentin loves Caddy, his love is Neurotic, obsessive. None of the men &xperiences any true romantic love, they are unable to marry and carry on the family’s name. Benjy commits no real sins, but the family’s decline is manifested through his retardation, The title refers to a line from Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Act 5. In his soliloquy, he says: life .i8 @ tale told by an idiot full of sound and, fury \ signifying nothing. The novel literally begins as a tale told by an idiot, the mentally disabled Benjy, anon~verbal invalid. Trough him, Faulkner demonstrates his opinion regarding the impossibility of ideal Communication. The novel has four different narrators: Benjy, Quentin, Jason and the ives, Faulkner allows for uss to see how much the siblings share: they all meditate on their childhood at some point in their sections and about Caddy. However, not even the final section, with its omniscient third person narrator does not tie up all the novels loose ends. Holly Saturday and is currently thirty three, the same Weekend is associated with death, it also brings the hop Although the Compson family has fallen, Dilsey represents a source of hope. She is herself @ of renewal and resurrection, 86 | @ as Jesus. Though the Easter” sits wal, atin rer jf and Mrs her nen ly's his a Christ figure for she has endured hardship throughout her long life service to the disintegrating family. d Faulkner's representation of time in the novelis revolutionary. The author suggests “A) that time is not a constant or objectively understandable entity. Benjy has no concept of time and cannot distinguish between the past and the present. Quentin, in contrast, is trapped by time, unable and unwilling to move beyond his memories of the past. , Quentin's watch, which was a gift from his father, constantly reminds the boy of the slotious heritage of his family, He attempts to escape time by breaking the watch but it continues to tick even without its hands Jason has no use for the past, he focuses | completely on the present and immediate future. Dilsey is perhaps the only character ats/ peace with time. Water in the novel symbolizes purity, especially in relation to Caddy. Playing in the stream as a child, she seems to reveal purity and innocence. Benjy becomes upset when he first smells Caddy wearing perfume so the girl washes her perfume off, symbolically washing away her sin. Likewise, she washes her mouth with soap after her brother catches her kissing another man * ABSALOM, ABSALOM | Publication date: 1936 Themes: race, history and the South Motifs: Biblical allegory of Absalom, Symbols: wisteria, the Sutpen’s house Literary devices: biblical allusions, flashbacks, circumlocution, Southern Gothic genre zi Point of view: multiple perspectives (Quentin, Miss Rosa) In American literature, regionalism is the tendency to write about specific Beographical areas, presenting the distinct culture of the area, including its speech, customs, beliefs, history, religion, as it’s the example of Mark Twain's description of the Mississippi River or Faulkner’s description of the Deep South. Absalom, Absalom is Probably Faulkner's most focused attempt to face and understand the problem of race during and after the Civil War. The families in Faulkner’s novels are rife with failed sons, disgraced daughters and resentments between blacks and whites in the aftermath of African American slavery. Race is the central theme of the house of Sutpen as well as the house of the South, According to the legend of the family, Henry killed Charles Bon not -, because he was their half-brother who wanted to marry Judith, but because he had black blood, The book is written in the styie of high modernism, using multiple points of view, flashbacks, stream of consciousness style, circumlocution. Absalom, Absalom! has a complex narrative structure; every narrator in the novel has a voice through wihich the Story Is told. There are four main narrators and Faulkner switches from one to another with little or no transition, Each character tells the Sutpen legend from his \ her memory, Omitting important details from their stories Quentin, a narrator that Faulkner used in other of his novels as well, is attempting to escape his memories by fleeing to North, at Harvard. There, he is asked over and over again by his Northerners mates about what it 's like in the South. Miss Rosa has lived all her life obsessed with memories, haunted by the past. She describes Thomas Sutpen as evil, as a devil, facts, motivation. A symbol which shows up in other of Faulkner's novels as well is Wisteria, a Southern wine. Its smell is associated with Miss Rosa, becoming thus a symbol The title of the book is an allusion to the biblical story of Absalom, a son of David, He killed his brother for having sexual relationship with their sister and then rebelled Bround as well as its dynasty. As the action of the story is set in a big mansion surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery and fear, and because it deals with a powerful, tyrannical male and also incest, the novel falls into the Southern Gothic Genre. Ernest Hemingway (American writer) associate this term with a group of American writers and thinkers who produced some of the best literary works of the 20" century. Among them were also E, Hemingway and T. S. Fitzgerald, two of the leaders of the modernist movement in America. After the war, poverty, economic instability, unemployment were at its highest points. Immigration increased, veterans returned from different parts of Europe broken both in body and mind. Women had to struggle to provide for their children without the help of their men. The country was heading toward deep depression, food shortages and epidemics. The Great Depression of the 1930s threw millions of Europeans out of work. During the time between the two world wars, Africa - where Mount Kilimanjaro is located- was a popular destination for adventurous Americans and Europeans who wanted to escape the realities of that period. The Old Man and the Sea was published in a time when the world was recovering from WWII. The main post war events of the 1950s included the beginning of the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the U. S., the rise of the Communist Party and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Also, the booming of the American population fuelled consumerism. Therefore, it was a time of international. upheaval. At the time of the novel's publication, relations between Cuba, where the action of the story is located and the U.S. were generally friendly. The traditional fishing culture in rural Cuba began shifting to the material progress of a fishing industry, based on mechanized methods to ensure progress. b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. Three major themes can be found in almost all if his stories: nature, masculinity and war and death. In the form of beautiful landscapes and surroundings, nature in a constant Presence in Hemingway's fiction almost always described in a positive light. He was a great believer in the healing power of nature and thought that the ability to conquer nature and overcome natural obstacles was a test of masculinity. Hemingway's life and works revolved around big game hunting, fishing, boxing. Animals, in Hemingway's canon, whether they are game, pets or wild serve as symbols for their human hunters, caretakers or observers. Animals are manifestations of the psychological states and emotional desires of the main characters. The characters are characterised by their unflinching integrity: they are vulnerable but they do not compromise; they are often defiant of what society expects of them: they devour adventure, have sexual relationships, face both death and emotional crisis with grit and grand tenacity. Hemingway called his style of writing the iceberg theory, also known as the theory of omission ~ a modernist approach in which the underlying meaning is hinted at, rather than clearly and explicitly stated. His more mature stories are composed of dialogue as 89 | he often been described asa master of dialogue. His work also gave rise to the minimalist movement in American literature. The omniscient narrator focuses only on facts; he uses simple, monosyllabic words and straightforward, unemotional prose; the narrator offers little for consideration as the point of this style is to cut down any authorial intervention * THE BIG TWO HEARTED - RIVER Publication date: 1925 Themes: disillusionment with war, the healing power of nature Motifs: natural world, suffering Symbols: the grasshoppers, the river, the swamp Uterary devices: iceberg theory, allusion, ambiguity, imagery, short and simple sentences, repetition, Point of view: first person Many of Hemingway's stories are semi — autobiographical as the author wrote about himself in the character of Nick Adams. The Big Two - Hearted River was published in the short story collection in our time. itis a descriptive story devoid of a plot which oxplores the destructive qualities of war which is countered by the healing powers of nature. Hemingway saw the World War | as a devastated land. The grasshoppers in the Story are an important symbol as they have become black to adapt to their new, Blackened surroundings. The grasshoppers also represent the soldiers who became hardened by the war experience and who live in a tough environment too. * ACLEAN, WELL LIGHTED PLACE Publication date: 1933 Themes: life as nothingness, the struggle to deal with despair, Motifs: loneliness Symbols: the café : Uterary devices: minimalism, iceberg theory, foreign words, repetition, short and simple sentences, dialogue. Point of view: third person objective Published in the short story collection Winners take nothing, the story is one of the best examples of minimalism. Two waiters talk, an old man drinks and they all go home, ‘he characters don’t even have names. The setting is also barely described and what the cafe may look like apart from the fact that it’s a clean, well-lighted place, the reader doesn’t know. Hemingway seems to be embracing nihilism, the belief that life is nothingness and that resistance to death is futile. This movement's adherents, such as the French Albert 01 Camus, believe that life has no higher purpose and that the world is devoid of a benevolent creator and purpose; instead, humans are left alone to find meaning in the world and in their lives. When the older waiter substitutes the Spanish word nada into the prayers he recites he indicates that religion is just nothingness; By reciting our nada who art in nada, he wipes out both God and the idea of Heaven in one breath. The café serves as a natural refuge from despair felt by those who struggle with loneliness, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO. Publication date: 1936 Themes: acceptance of death, regret. Motifs: wilderness. Symbols: Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, the plain, the leopard, alcohol, the gangrenous leg, the hyena, the vulture. Literary devices: stream of consciousness, shifting style, short and simple sentences, imagery, flashback, foreshadowing, dialogue. Point of view: first person The story centres on the memories of a writer who is on a safari in Africa. Harry develops an infected wound and lies awaiting his slow death. The story is very reflective of modernism due to the first Person narration, stream of consciousness, shifting style and modern themes. This is an atypical iceberg story for the matters that trouble Harry are made clear to the reader in short, declarative sentences. The story is divided between Present time sections in which the protagonist is facing his death and flashbacks, set in italics, in which the main character faces his life, haunted by the memories of WWI. As Harry's condition worsens, the sentences grow older and almost develop into stream of consciousness. The stary is rife with symbolism. Africa represents the freedom of mind, the place where the society isn’t materialistic. Mount Kilimanjaro symbolizes immortality, purity, a place where Harry wishes to die, in contrast to the plain which represents evil and confusion. The leopard is also a symbol of immortality and courage. The alcohol represents self— destruction; the gangrenous leg is a symbol of artistic decay as he failed to write; the hyena and the vulture represent the approaching of death. “THE SHORT, HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS MACOMBER Publication date: 1936 Themes: fatal heroism, masculinity, coming of age. Moti Symbols: cars, animals, guns : courage and cowardice 91] Literary devices: flashback, ambiguity, allusion, imagery, foil Point of view: third person limited omniscient The Macombers, wealthy, urban people are on a big game safari in Africa. The story is narrated in the third person by an objective narrator who doesn’t have access in the minds of the characters, thing which creates ambiguity. Irony is an essential element of the story, starting with the title. Francis lives his short, happy life as a courageous man for only a few moments. It is an irony the fact that Wilson fears that Francis might accidentally shoot him in the head when Francis is actually the one shot in the head. Margot criticizes Macomber from killing animals from the safety of her car, then shots Francis, as a professional, from the safety of her car. Only Margot can be certain of her guilt or innocence as the narrator does not settle a debate. The cars provide an unfair advantage to animals but also symbolize safety; guns symbolize courage. Wilson carries a big, ugly hunting gun that reflects this survival skill. Francis is at first compared to a rabbit, then to a buffalo. “+ THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA Publication date: 1952 Themes: the honour in struggle, defeat and death, pride as a source of greatness Motifs: crucifixion imagery, life from death ‘Symbols: the lions on the beach, the marlin, the shovel — nosed sharks literary devices: allusion, allegory, alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes, personification. Point of view: third person omniscient The novella is a parable of a man’s endurance and perseverance through the hardest of time, presenting the epic struggle of an old fisherman against the forces of nature towards the greatest catch of his life. From the very first paragraph, Santiago is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. In Hemingway's portrait of the world, death is inevitable but the best man will refuse to give in to its power. This idea is noticed in Santiago's observation: man is not made for defeat ... man can be destroyed but not defeated, The novella is narrated by an anonymous, omniscient narrator, who is clearly sympathetic to the old man's struggle against the marlin and other elements. Most of the action takes place in the old man’s boat out on the sea, hence the title. The sea represents the dark forces of the Universe against which humanity is pitted... Many parallels exists between the old man and the classic heroes of the ancient world. They possess a tragic flaw, a quality that, though admirable, leads to their eventual downfall. Santiago’s fatal 82| flaw Is pride. Both Santiago and the marlin display qualities of pride, honour and bravery and both are subjected to the same eternal law kill or be killed. There are also many biblical parallels. in order to suggest the profundity of the old Iman’s sacrifice and the glory that derives from it, Hemingway links Santiago to Christ. Santiago’s palms are cut by the fishing line; he struggles up the hill with the mast across his shoulders. While bringing in the mast, he stumbles three times under the weight SLY ne uber hiershouldets, which resembles Chvist’s-camryit his hasky cross to the fill Where he was crucified. Then, the old man collapses with the arms out stretched and the Palm of his hands up, resembling Jesus on the cross, Mandolin is comparable to a disciple [eft in charge of continuing the work of the Master. He is present only at the beginning and end of the book, but his presence is important, because Manolin’s devotion to Santiago highlights the old man’s value as person and fisherman, Other symbols are the marlin, the shovel nose sharks and the lions Magnificent and glorious, the Marlin symbolizes the ideal opponent and Santiago feels lucky to find himself matched against a creature that brings out the best of him: endurance, perseverance, strength, courage, honour, The sharks are scavengers that stand in Contrast to the marlin. Santiago dreams the fierce predators ~ the lions - playing on the beaches of Africa, so they come to suggest the promise of triumph and immortality but also @ harmony between the opposing forces, life and death, 93 8. EXPRESSIONISM Eugene O'Neill (American writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Through one of his best known plays, Mourning becomes Electra, staged in 1931, O'Neill tries to place before the audience the calamities that haunted the post World War I household. WWI was one of the greatest shocks that ever ravaged the world. By the time it was officially over, millions of people were dead. The young generation who came of age during or after the war became hopeless about their future. One of the symptomatic features of this disillusionment was the protest against the patriarchal concept of the family and the rebellion against the values and customs of their elders ‘After the war, poverty, economic instability, unemployment were at its highest points. Veterans returned from different parts of the country broken both in body and mind, women had to struggle to provide for their children without the help of their men. O'Neill placed the action of his story in the post — Civil War era as it was, in many ways comparable to the post WWI era. By the time the play was written, America was entering the Great Depression of the 1930s, which threw millions of Europeans out of work. In cities, wage slavery and crime skyrocketed. ‘At the time, writers began to experiment with form. The American theatre in the 1920s experimented in many different ways. Expressionism was brought from Germany as part of the modernist movement whereas the most precursor playwright of the expressionist movement in American literature was Eugene O'Neill b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. “> MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA Publication date: 1931 Themes: Oedipus’ myth and Electra’s myth, the double and the rival, the Law of the Father Motifs: the Blessed Islands, the natives Symbols: The Mannon House Literary devices: pairing of elements, chorus, personification, simile ‘Among the expressionistic elements that can be found in O'Neill's plays there are: masks which conceal the actors’ faces, pairing of characters and a chorus. Mourning becomes Electra represents the playwright’s most complete use of Greek forms, based on 94 | Oresteia trilogy. To give the story contemporary credibility, the writer sets the play in New England of the Civil war period. Yet, he retained the forms and conflicts of the Greek characters: the heroic leader returning from war, his adulterous wife who murders him, his jealous, repressed daughter who avenges him through the murder of her mother and his weak, incestuous son who is goaded by his sister first to matricide and then to suicide, Although O'Neill supposedly derived the play from Aeschylus’ Oresteia, the myth of Gedipus is also implied. Freud elaborated this myth into Oedipus’ complex, meaning the child’s incestuous desire for the parent of the opposite sex. Though titled after Electra, the main pair of incestuous lovers in the play is the Mother ~ Son. The main theme of the play is incest. Other incestuous desires are also implied between Lavinia and his father and Orin and her sister. The whole family is also ruined because of hatred. Firstly, because of Christine’s hatred for her husband. Lavinia was born of her mother’s disgust for her father. Secondly, because of Lavinia’s hatred for Christine whom he sees as a double and asa rival, Thirdly, because of Adam's hatred for Ezra, whom he considers responsible for his mother’s death. Orin wants revenge with Brant for sleeping with his mother. Therefore, the second main theme of the play is Hatred and revenge. Other characteristics of O'Neill's plays are extensive stage directions, evocative titles and Greek style structure. Traditionally, in Greek tragedies, the Chorus consisted of masked actors who dance and chant but do not participate in the action itself. They often present background information and represent the community's position on traditional values. In his masterpiece, the group of local people whose conversation open the play serve as the Chorus. The American playwright is famous for his multi ~ page — long stage directions which focus on setting but also on characters. His descriptions go in great detail for two purposes: to ensure that the character is exactly as he pictures it when writing the play and to reveal information about the character before he \ she can even speak, such as the portrait of Christine, The main symbols in the play are the Blessed Islands, Ezra and the Mannon House. The Islands represent a paradisiacal existence, a place where the characters can consume their incestuous relationships. Although dead, Ezra haunts the livings in various symbolic forms. Christine will cringe before his portrait in which he wears the judge’ s rabes, while Lavinia will invoke his name and voice to command Orin to attention. He serves as a figure for the paternal law even after his death. The Mannon house is built in the style of a Greek Temple. It is coloured in white, resembling a mask which is symbolic for the mask ~ like faces of its inhabitants. As Christine complains in Act 1 of Homecoming, the House is the Mannon’s sepulchre. It functions as a crypt not only to the family’s deaths but also to it secrets. Day light is associated with guilt and it is personficated by Orin: | hate the sunlight! It’s like an accusing eye. 951 9, POSTMODRNISM William Golding (British writer) a) Contextualize the text from a historical and cultural point of view. Golding’s novel was published in a time when the world was still living in the shadow of the horrors of WWII. By the time it was officially ended, an estimated sixty million people were killed. The entire city of Dresden was destroyed in only one night due to firebombing. Atomic bombings destroyed two other Japanese cities as well: Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Ethnic groups like the Jewish and the Gypsy were deliberately killed. Economically, Great Britain was devastated by the war as homes, factories, railroads, docs and other facilities had been destroyed by the German force. Formerly a leading nation, Great Britain became for the first time in history a debtor nation. The main post war events of the 1950s, the ere which produced the Lord of the Flies included the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U. S., the rise of the Communist Party and the Civil Rights Movement in the U. S. The general atmosphere of the decade was one of suspicion, distrust and threats among the big powers of the world. An atomic war such as the one suggested in the novel did not seem out of the realm of possibility. The year when both James Joyce and Virginia Woolf died (1941) is sometimes used as a boundary for post modernism’s start. This literary movement emerged in the wake of WWIl era, with its disrespect for human rights b) Discuss the relevance of the text, in terms of content and style, with reference to its author's literary canon. “THE LORD OF THE FLIES Publication date: 1954 Themes: civilization versus savagery, loss of innocence, Motifs: Biblical parallels Symbols: the conch shell, Pigey’s glasses, the signal fire, the Beast, the Lord of the Flies, Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon. Literary devices: allusion, irony, personification, foreshadowing, hyperbole, simile. Point of view: third person omniscient Postmodernism is a form of literature marked by a reliance on such literary conventions as intertextuality, fragmentation, symbolism, parody, paranoia, dark 96 | Hi

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