STEFANIE LETHBRIDGE AND JARMILA MILDORF: 1.

Basic Concepts

Basics of English Studies:

An introductory course for students of 1.1. What are English Literary Studies?
literary studies in English.
The question “What are English literary studies?” does not look complex at
Developed at the English departments of the
first sight. However, the answer is not as simple as one might imagine. One
Universities of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Freiburg
answer students may obviously give is that English literary studies deal with
English literature. Thus, literary studies differ from other branches of the
subject, namely linguistics, where the main focus is on the structures and
1. Basic Concepts uses of the English language, and cultural studies where students learn
how the various cultures in English-speaking countries have been
Table of Contents: constructed over centuries.
And yet, what is English literature? First of all, do we talk about
literature written in England or do we take into account other English-
1.1. What Are English Literary Studies? .................................................. 2 speaking countries such as Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia, etc.? And how
1.2. What is Literature? ................................................................................ 2 about the diversity of cultures and literatures within the United Kingdom,
[Link] ................................................................................................ 3 e.g., Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish? To make matters even more
1.2.2. Specialised Language ............................................................................. 4 complicated, a great many authors from former colonial countries in Africa,
1.2.3. Lack of Pragmatic Function ................................................................. 6 India, etc., write in English, and literature from immigrant writers in the US,
1.2.3. Ambiguity ................................................................................................ 7 e.g., Chicano literature, has increasingly received interest from literary
1.3. A Model for Literary Communication ............................................. 7 scholars. In other words: It is very difficult to draw a clear line, and perhaps
1.4. Topic Areas of Literary Studies ...................................................... 10 one cannot and should not delimit the subject area at all, given the diversity
1.4.1. Literary History ................................................................................... 10 of texts written in English today.
1.4.2. Poetics and Genre ............................................................................... 11
1.4.3. Literary Theory ......................................................................................14
1.5. Theme .................................................................................................... 19
1.6. Language in Literature ...................................................................... 20
1.6.1. Diction .................................................................................................. 21
1.6.2. Syntax .................................................................................................... 22
[Link]. Syntactical Deviations .......................................................................23
1.6.3. Rhetorical Devices ................................................................................23
[Link]. List of Rhetorical Schemes and Tropes ....................................... 24
SO WHAT? ....................................................................................................... 29 English-speaking countries around the world.
Source: [Link]
[Link]. Analysing a Metaphor .......................................................................33
[Link]. Symbols ...............................................................................................36
Another question that arises is: What is literature? Although most people
SO WHAT? .........................................................................................................36
have some idea of what the term ‘literature’ means, the concept often
remains vague and students, when asked about distinct features of literary
Bibliography of Secondary Sources: Basic Concepts ....................... 38
texts, start to falter. In the following section, the concept of ‘literature’ will
be discussed in more detail.

1.2. What is Literature?

In the attempt to define the term ‘literature’, one can distinguish between
two general directions: a broad and a narrow definition. The broad
definition incorporates everything that has been written down in some form
or another, i.e., all the written manifestations of a culture (hence, there are
terms such as ‘research literature’, ‘the literature on civil rights’, etc.).
Needless to say that such a broad definition is problematic as it does not
really facilitate communication about the topic. Furthermore, this concept

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neglects the fact that in many cultures in the past and for a number of information in mind, we suddenly stop regarding this text as fiction: We
indigenous peoples today, literature has not been captured in written media take it for granted that the people described here are real and that the events
but has been passed down in a long oral tradition of storytelling, myths, related in the text are also real.
ritual speeches, etc. Attempts to come up with a narrow definition have, What does this example tell us? First of all, we can say that the
however, led to such a diversity of approaches that one can hardly talk boundaries between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ are often blurred and by no means
about ‘the’ narrow definition. Nevertheless, it is possible to sift out some of always identifiable. More importantly, whether a text is fictional or not, is
the criteria scholars have applied in order to demarcate ‘literary texts’ from perhaps less the consequence of some inherent quality of the text but of a
‘non-literary texts’. These criteria include: reader’s attitude towards it. If I know the text above is from a newspaper I
automatically assume that the ‘story’ must be real. By contrast, if this had
• fictionality been the beginning of a novel, I would undoubtedly have classified these
• specialised language characters and the setting as fictitious. In other words: We as readers are
• lack of pragmatic function conditioned through education and cultural norms to approach texts in
certain ways. In this view, fictionality is no longer an inherent feature of
• ambiguity
literary texts but part of our expectations of what a literary text should be.
Likewise, literary language is partly determined by the fact that we want to
read it as ‘literary’. This will be explored in the following section.
1.2.1. Fictionality

One characteristic feature of literary texts arguably is their fictionality.

1.2.2. Specialised Language
People usually agree that literary texts, even if they attempt to represent
Key terms:
reality in some form or another, are ultimately products of a writer’s
It is often said that literary language is ‘special’ and that it differs • poetic function
imagination and that at least the characters and their conversations are • defamiliarisation
considerably from normal everyday language. The linguist Roman Jakobson
fictitious. Thus, some of the characters in Sir Walter Scott’s historical
spoke of the poetic function of literary texts in his essay “Linguistics and
novels, for example, are pure inventions although they are situated in
Poetics: Closing Statement” (1960), i.e., the fact that literary texts draw
authentic historical contexts, and they have fictitious conversations with
attention to the language they employ. As the Russian Formalists
historical figures who actually existed. On the other hand, texts that are
maintained in the early twentieth century, literary texts make use of language
normally read as non-fiction, like a reportage, often display features that
in such a way that it becomes strange and unfamiliar in a given context.
remind one of literature. Consider the following example:
They called this process defamiliarisation. The following example from
Charles Dickens’s novel Bleak House illustrates this process:
Sesca Rompas climbed on to a plastic stool and peered through a dirty
window at her brother, Aldo Kansil, lying motionless in a bed below.
Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general
He was a pitiful sight: two drips attached, arms swathed in bandages,
infection of ill-temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners,
his face an angry mosaic of burns.
where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping
and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new
Taken out of its context, it is difficult to decide what type of text this is. If
deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points
one looks at the way this passage is written, one can easily imagine this to be
tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.
the beginning of a novel. First, it is a descriptive passage (see ch. 2.6.3.)
(Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 1)
which introduces a certain setting: (see chs. 2.3 and 3.4) the window is dirty
and so high up that the woman needs a plastic stool to be able to peep
The way the bad November weather in London is described here has hardly
through it. The brother’s desolate state is captured in epithets describing his
anything to do with the way people would normally talk about the weather.
motionless, afflicted body. Secondly, characters (see chs 2.4 and 3.6) are
One thing is particularly conspicuous: the blending of a description of
introduced and a mini plot (see chs. 2.2 and 3.3.1) is elaborated: A woman
natural phenomena (“mud”, bad weather) with the jargon of the world of
called Sesca Rompas visits her brother, Aldo Kansil, who is in hospital. Just
finance (“deposits”, “accumulating”, “compound interest”). By combining
like the beginnings of novels, this text passage is written in such a way as to
these two areas, the words are taken out of their usual context and put into
urge the reader to read on and to find out more, e.g., who are these people,
another one, which thus becomes ‘new’ and ‘unfamiliar’ to the reader. We
why is the brother in hospital, what happened? Moreover, the language used
are attracted by this ‘strange’ linguistic description and we start to wonder
is reminiscent of literary texts. We can identify rhetorical devices (see ch.
why such language is used here. One explanation might be that London as
1.6.3.) such as alliteration (“bed below”), metaphor (“angry mosaic of
one of the financial centres in the mid-nineteenth century has become so
burns”), asyndeton and ellipsis (“two drips attached, arms swathed in
immersed in its business that even nature participates in it and is no longer
bandages…”). In other words: The text uses embellishments to present a
‘natural’.
specific ‘story-world’ and to attract the reader’s attention. And yet, these are
One area where the ‘literariness’ of language seems to be particularly
in fact the opening lines of a newspaper article (The Independent, 16 October
obvious is poetry. Poetry is often marked by a conspicuous shape (lines,
2002) which deals with the victims of a Balinese bomb attack. With this

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stanzas, etc.), a dense structure (thematically and linguistically), specific Although this text must originally have been an advert for anti-hemorrhoids
prosodic features (see chs. 4.3 and 4.4) and rhetorical devices (see ch. medication, we can now read its language as literary language and thus
1.6.3.). Now, as the example above from The Independent shows, even non- perceive the text as a piece of literature simply because it has been
literary texts frequently use rhetorical devices and certain patterns to arouse transformed by means of formalisation and re-arrangement. Trained readers
the readers’ interest. Still, we do not necessarily classify them as literature. of literature may even identify this text as a sonnet because it follows the
We do not, for example, consider a telephone directory a literary text structural convention of 14 lines with an octave and a sestet (here
although it is indeed extremely structured and ordered in a special way. Nor presented as two tercets). What this example also shows is that the way we
do we regard the above-mentioned newspaper article as a poem, for read texts depends very much on the context in which we read them. If we
example. And yet, is this really because the language in this article does not had read this text on an information leaflet we would never have dreamed
qualify for poetry or because we are simply not used to looking at of looking at it as poetry and paying closer attention to its language. As
newspaper articles in such a way? Consider the following sentence from the soon as it appears in the guise of a sonnet, however, our reading practice
same article: also changes and we can start treating it as ‘literary’, e.g., by attempting an
interpretation. This leads us to the next criterion often mentioned in
Just around the corner, an anxious-looking couple were standing close discussions of literary texts, namely their lack of a pragmatic function.
together, clutching plastic bags.

At first sight, this looks like a ‘normal’ sentence. There is nothing 1.2.3. Lack of Pragmatic Function Key terms:
conspicuous about the words or the sentence structure. What happens if • pragmatic
one pays attention to the rhythm of this sentence and displays it Undoubtedly, texts derive their meaning partly from their context. I read a function
accordingly? novel as a novel because it is presented in a certain way (bound, with a title
on the front page, sometimes the word ‘novel’ in the subtitle, and a plot
Just around the corner, summary as well as commentary on the back cover). Moreover, I use the
An anxious-looking couple novel as a novel and not as a cookery book, a newspaper or an
Were standing close together, encyclopaedia of garden plants, for example. Why is that? One might argue
Clutching plastic bags. that these texts, in contrast to literary texts, have a definite pragmatic
function, i.e., they are written and used for a specific purpose, e.g., to assist
All of a sudden, one realises that the sentence actually follows a regular with the cooking or gardening or, generally, to inform the reader. A piece of
metrical pattern, namely a trimeter with alternating stressed and unstressed literary writing, on the other hand, need not have been intended by the
syllables. Does that make the sentence poetic? Again, one can see that the author for any specific purpose. It sometimes seems as though literature
line between literary and non-literary language is a very fine one and that the was just written into time and space, to nobody in particular and without
decision whether a text is literary or not largely depends on the way we look any function.
at the text and perceive its language. A lot of contemporary poetry plays Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to take that as a basic rule. Even
with our alleged ‘knowledge’ of the literariness of texts. Have a look at the literary texts do have a purpose, e.g., to criticise, to educate or even just to
following “Found Poem” by Ronald Gross: entertain. The fact that authors like Salman Rushdie, for example, are
persecuted by political and religious groups shows that something must be
All too often, humans who sit and stand attributed to their writings which other people consider dangerous or at
Pay the price of vertical posture. Sitting least influential in some way or another. While non-literary texts may have a
And standing combine with the force of gravity, more clearly defined and generally agreed-upon function, literary texts can
Exerting extra pressure on veins and tissues have a range of purposes which again depend on the reader. Thus, I can
In and around the rectal area. read a book simply to have a good laugh or, for that matter, a good cry, or I
Painful, burning hemorrhoids result. draw analogies with my own life and try to gain consolation or advice from
The first thought of many sufferers the text. The text as such may not necessarily tell me how I have to use it
Is to relieve their pain and their discomfort. but the reading practices I have been taught in school, at university, etc. will
Products, however, often used for this certainly influence my approach to texts. In other words: Even if we claim
Contain no anesthetic drug at all, or one that a literary text has no immediate pragmatic function, we usually start to
Too weak to give the needed pain relief, ascribe one to it in our usage or treatment of that text. While non-literary
texts seem to have an inherent pragmatic function, i.e., they were ‘born’ to
Or only lubricate. But now, at last be a telephone book, a time-table, a women’s magazine, etc., literary texts
There is a formulation which provides gain their more specific and possibly individual pragmatic function in the
Pain-killing power, prolonged relief, on contact. reading process.
(Gross/Quasha 1973: 475)

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1.2.4. Ambiguity

People generally accept the view that literary texts are far more ambiguous
and thus often more complicated than non-literary texts. If one reads a Context (historical/present reality)
recipe, for example, or a time-table or an instruction manual, the meaning
expressed in these texts is presumed to be more or less fixed and not open
to interpretation. In fact, these texts must not be open to interpretation
because then they just would not ‘work’. A time-table has to be precise in Medium/Channel
order for people to be able to rely on it, and ten people using the same
recipe for carrot cake should reach approximately the same result by Author Literary text Reader
following the step-by-step instructions. (Message)
• This is certainly not the case if these ten people read a novel, for
example. As classroom discussions show, different students can come up Code
with rather different interpretations of what a specific literary text ‘means’ Aesthetically mediated
or what it tries to convey. This is also reflected in the vast amount of reference to reality
divergent critical interpretations of literary texts published over the years.
So what is it that makes literary texts so ambiguous? For one thing, there
is obviously the ‘human factor’: When we read a text we usually bring to
bear on it certain expectations and interests, and inevitably we start
looking for exactly those things that seem relevant to us. Thus, for
example, Christina Rossetti’s long poem “Goblin Market” can be According to this model, literary production and reception obviously
interpreted as a simple fairytale, as a hymn in praise of sisterly devotion, as require at least two participants: someone who writes a literary text and
a poem restating the biblical concepts of sin and redemption, as the someone who reads it. The literary text itself functions as message between
indirect expression of repressed sexual fantasies, or indeed as a author and reader. Of course, the term ‘message’ must not be taken literally.
combination of all of these facets at the same time. No matter which It would be absurd to imagine that an author two hundred years ago, for
interpretation one favours, one can find evidence for all of them in the example, sent a message to me, the present-day reader. However, literary
text if one only searches through it thoroughly. This example illustrates texts are usually created for an audience, and by the same token literary texts
that literary texts must indeed have some quality which makes them more only come to life when they are actually received by a readership. That
‘open’ than non-literary texts. One can say that literary texts always author and reader are spatially and temporally deferred from one another in
express meaning on different levels or in different layers. In other words: most cases must of course be kept in mind.
They express something beyond their literal ‘meaning’, and these other The message is conveyed in a specific material shape, e.g., as a book,
layers of meaning can be explored by attentive reading and analysis. It is a a stage script, a screenplay, an audio tape, video or nowadays on the internet
bit like archaeology: the deeper one digs the more interesting one’s or CD-Rom. In other words: The channel or medium through which the
findings are likely to be. At the same time, one needs suitable equipment literary text is presented can vary significantly. Nevertheless, literary texts
for ‘digging out’ hidden meanings. That is where literary studies become depend on certain conventions of both producing and receiving literature. I
important and where the fun begins once one has mastered the tools at always apply certain strategies when reading a novel, for example, such as
hand. accepting its fictionality (see ch. 1.2.1) or perhaps special uses of language,
while I also bring to bear predefined expectations on literary texts. For
example, we usually set our ‘autopilot’ on poetry-reading mode if we see a
1.3. A Model for Literary Communication text which presents itself in the shape of a poem. Likewise, authors follow
Key terms:
• communica-
literary conventions when they create a piece of literature or they
In analogy to the communication model applied in linguistics to face-to-face tion model deliberately defy these conventions to create something new and innovative.
interaction (sender – message – receiver), literary scholars have come up • text (message) At any rate, there is always some reference to what we might call the code
• code of literary production and reception, i.e., rules for writing and reading texts.
with a model for literary communication. In a very schematised way, one • reference
can visualise the model like this: A banal and yet extremely important aspect is the fact that author and
reader must share a language for communication to work at all. Another
part of the literary code would be the way we classify literary texts in terms
of genre (see ch. 1.4.2.). Needless to say that literary codes can change over
time (as languages and cultures generally do) and that different periods have
used different classificatory systems. This is also one of the reasons why
literary texts themselves change: They accommodate in some way or

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another to the existing literary code, even if they ostensibly move away from 1.4. Topic Areas of Literary Studies
it.
The context of literary production and reception thus becomes very Some of the major concepts which students of English literature should be
important. Both readers and authors are situated in a specific place, familiar with are the following:
historical time and cultural context, which of course influence the way they
read and write. At the same time, the literary text also refers to the external • Literary History
world either by imitating what can be found there or by creating an • Poetics and Genre
alternative world. Reference is a term used in linguistics to denote the
• Literary Theory
relationship between a sign and the object it signifies. While this narrow
concept is problematic for literary studies because objects and persons in a
story-world, for example, do not strictly speaking refer to ‘real’ objects or
people, the concept is useful if one allows for relationships between signs 1.4.1. Literary History
Key terms:
and mental models, concepts, ideas, etc. The reference of a literary text to • Old English
the world is thus never direct but is always aesthetically mediated, i.e., it is Names of literary epochs or periods have mostly been ‘invented’ in Period
embedded in certain literary conventions and makes use of special linguistic retrospect. The underlying assumptions are based on certain common • Middle English
features, this time not merely of texts but of socio-cultural developments Period
codes. Michael Ondaatje’s bestseller, The English Patient, for example, • Renaissance
undoubtedly depicts circumstances and events related to World War II but and phases in the history of literary production. In English literature, (Early Modern
it does it in such a way as to leave enough room for poetic renditions of the historians for convenience often use the name of the sovereign in power at Period)
a certain time. Thus, they speak about the Elizabethan Age or the • Neoclassical
characters’ emotions and experiences. Period
Literary studies investigate various aspects of the processes shown Victorian Period. Sometimes, approximately the same period of time can
• Romantic Period
in the communication model. Thus, one can look at the relationship have various names, depending on the perspective adapted by the historian. • Victorian Period
between author and text or reader and text, one can focus on the text itself The Elizabethan Age, for example, is also referred to as the Early Modern • Edwardian
or on how it is embedded in its socio-historical and cultural contexts. Period or the Renaissance. While the term ‘Early Modern’ focuses on the Period
historical process of modernisation, ‘Renaissance’ is a term borrowed from • Georgian Period
Scholars have also considered the literary code and what it entails. In sum, • Modern Period
one can say that literary studies offer a wide range of topic areas for art history and captures the idea of the ‘re-birth’ of antiquity in various art
• Postmodernism
research activities, and this introductory course can only provide a very first forms of the sixteenth century. Labels can also vary across nationalities.
glimpse of what is actually out there. The next section gives a preliminary While in English, for example, ‘Victorian Period’ is a widely-used general
overview of some of the study areas within literary studies. label for the time between 1832 and the late nineteenth century, scholars of
German literature have focused more on people’s attitudes, political
developments and modes of writing in their classifications and therefore use
different labels to denote shorter time spans of roughly the same period,
e.g., Biedermeier, Vormärz, Realismus, Naturalismus. This example
shows that labelling a literary period is often at the discretion of the literary
historian and largely depends on which aspects a scholar considers
important. Nonetheless, even though exact numbers, names and dates vary
in books of literary history, one can come up with a general list of periods
which underlies common practice (Abrams 1999: 210):

450-1066 Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) Period

1066-1500 Middle English Period

1500-1660 The Renaissance (or Early Modern Period)

1558-1603 Elizabethan Age
1603-1625 Jacobean Age
1625-1649 Caroline Age
1649-1660 Commonwealth Period (or Puritan Interregnum)

1660-1785 The Neoclassical Period

1660-1700 The Restoration
1700-1745 The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope)
1745-1785 The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)

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1785-1830 The Romantic Period genres and genre systems are subject to historical changes and by no means
closed categories.
1832-1901 The Victorian Period Genres are defined by certain conventions, common recurring
1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites features which texts display. These features can be formal or structural or
1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence they can relate to themes and topics or forms of presentation. Thus, prose
fiction is generally defined by the fact that it is not written in verse like
1901-1914 The Edwardian Period poetry, for example, and that it is narrative while drama normally includes
the direct presentation of a scene on stage. If one starts collecting features
1910-1936 The Georgian Period for each genre, one will soon find exceptions and it becomes clear that the
boundaries of genres are blurred. In certain periods, people were not very
1914- The Modern Period strict about the limitations of different genres, as can be seen in the
1945- Postmodernism following quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Polonius introduces the
actors who have just arrived at the Danish court:
One must not forget that periods are categories which do not necessarily
encompass clearly demarcated time spans. Since literary developments The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history,
evolve gradually and are often based on the co-existence of diverse pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical,
movements, periods inevitably also overlap. As their names suggest, periods tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem
derive their labels from divergent sources. Frequently, they are analogous to unlimited.” (Hamlet, II, 2: 392-396)
philosophical movements such as the Age of Sensibility. Sometimes periods
are named after artistic avantgarde movements, which also express the Although plays in the Early Modern Period seemingly crossed generic
predominant mood of the time, e.g., Aestheticism and Decadence. The boundaries, the basic major categories are still valid and are used as frames
Romantic Period derives its name from a genre, the Medieval romance of reference. This is one of the main functions of genres: Genres allow us
or chivalric romance, which was popular at the time and set an example to talk about groups of texts rather than just listing individual examples.
with its fantastic and exaggerated subject matters. Postmodernism is given They help us communicate about structural and thematic features and
its name because it succeeds and goes beyond Modernism in terms of enable us to state similarities as well as differences between texts. We can
literary conventions, philosophical assumptions, etc. No matter which discuss the diachronic development of genres, i.e., throughout history, and
names literary periods are given, they are selected according to shared see how the individual historical contexts shaped forms of drama, prose
criteria and features which are considered characteristic of the time. fiction and poetry. Put another way, the concept of genre helps us approach
A division into literary periods is useful for our understanding and literary texts. Authors usually construct their texts within certain genre
discussion of connections between literary and socio-historical conventions. By labelling a text a ‘tragedy’ for example, they raise certain
developments. They help us compare texts within one period and also expectations in readers or spectators. These expectations can then be met or
across periods. Nevertheless, they should not become coathangers for disappointed. Keeping generic features in mind, one should therefore
simplistic assumptions or even clichés. Therefore, good books on literary always also look for deviations from standard patterns because this is often
history set out very clearly right from the beginning what their motivating where a literary text is particularly innovative and interesting and where
force is and why they arrived at a certain form of periodisation. interpretations can yield fascinating results.
One study area which is influenced by historical developments is the Over the centuries, analysis has become more and more fine-grained
area of poetics and genres since the conventions for writing literary texts and consequently numerous sub-genres ( see chs. 2.9, 3.9. and 4.2.) have
and for setting up individual genre categories and genre systems depend on been identified for each main category. Again, historical developments play
their socio-cultural context and thus change over time. an important role. Some sub-genres like the romance, for example, have
become obsolete while there is always a possibility for new sub-genres to
emerge. The following tree diagram shows prose fiction and some of its
1.4.2. Poetics and Genre Key terms:
sub-genres:
• genre
Ever since Aristotle’s Poetics, if not before, scholars have been concerned • sub-genre
with classifying literary texts according to predefined categories. The groups • literary competence
or classes of texts have been labelled by means of group-specific names.
Thus, Aristotle already divided ancient plays into tragedies and comedies
(see ch. 3.9) and attributed certain features to each type of drama. The labels
we attach to groups of texts with similar or correlated features can be
summarised under the heading genre. The three major generic groups are
prose fiction, drama and poetry. One must of course bear in mind that

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 1.4.3. Literary Theory
Prose fiction Key terms:
An area of literary studies which students are often afraid of is literary • biographical
criticism
theory. Theories in general can be defined as sets of elaborate, ordered and
• psychological/psy-
consistent categories which facilitate the systematic exploration and choanalytical
explanation of phenomena in a given study area. Literary theory is infamous criticism
for being complicated, boring or simply self-satisfying. • Elizabethan world
Romance Novel Novella Short etc. picture
Story However, people who argue along those lines seem to forget that
• Marxist criticism
essentially, there is no reading of and no thinking about texts without • reader response
theory. When we read a poem, for example, we approach the text in a theory
certain way and, whether we are aware of this or not, we make assumptions • reception theory
about the text which, in a broad sense, already constitute a framework for • New Criticism
• close reading
Historical Novel of Social novel Gothic Epistolary etc. decoding what the poem is, what it tries to express, etc. Since our reading • structuralism
novel education novel novel practice and our world view in general is inevitably steeped in some ‘theory’ • Russian formalism
or another, we may just as well make an effort to become more familiar • narratology
with this underlying theory. After a while, we may find that our vision has • signifier
become clearer and that we can discern things in texts which we would not • signified
• referent
have noticed without a theoretical background.
• poststructuralism
The other two main generic groups, poetry and drama, can of course also In this sense, theory is a bit like wearing glasses. Glasses can help • deconstruction
be subdivided into numerous sub-genres, such as: ballad, sonnet, ode, you sharpen your view, and aspects one did not notice before are suddenly • feminist criticism
comedy, tragedy, satire, tragicomedy, epic theatre, etc. What one ought thrown into greater relief. At the same time, however, glasses can be tinted • gender studies
to bear in mind is that, although genres are defined according to common in different colours and thus you may perceive an object one way while • postcolonialism
characteristic features, the allocation of texts to certain genres is still someone else sees it differently. The same applies to literary theory. Theory • new historicism /
cultural materialism
ultimately our decision. can help us identify small and often minute facets of a text. However, if one • literary canon
Sometimes, texts pose difficulties because they cannot be classified always wears the same theoretical lens, one risks missing out on a lot of • cultural studies
definitely as belonging to one category. Where does one place ‘long’ other features which may be equally fascinating but which simply do not
narratives such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or Henry James’ The match the categories or concepts of one’s theory. In order to avoid that,
Turn of the Screw, for example: novella, novel or short story? For this reason, students should learn early on in their studies what types of theory are
one also has to be careful not to oversimplify generic terms. In everyday currently available and how to engage with them critically.
parlance, people often use words like these in an undifferentiated way: “Oh, Literary theories can generally be located at the interface of
that accident was so tragic!” or “They had quite a little romance going on”. components of the communication model (see ch. 1.3). Thus, one can
Nonetheless, generic terms in literary studies are very useful since genres find theoretical approaches which look primarily at the relationship between
form part of readers’ and writers’ literary competence at a given time. text and author, while others focus on the relationship between text and
Literary competence encompasses people’s ability to produce and reader, text and historical reality or text and other texts. Theories are useful
understand literary texts and their knowledge about literary texts in general. because they explain systematically premises, terms and research questions
and because they develop clear hypotheses about the effects and functions
The classification of genres is of course guided by theoretical of texts. Thus, theories also help us analyse texts and communicate our
considerations, and it is not only for this reason that literary theory must findings to others.
hold an important place in an introduction. It is important to bear in mind that theory and methodology are
closely related. On the one hand, theory informs methodology. Thus, the
questions we ask about a text will determine which tools we are going to use
to analyse it. On the other hand, methodology can yield results which may
ultimately change an already existing theory. It is also important to note
here that theories depend on the socio-cultural context in which they
emerge and therefore undergo changes. Theoretical considerations go as far
back as the classical poetics, i.e., works about the art of writing literary
texts, such as the poetics by Aristotle or Horace. Early examples of
theoretical writings about English literature are: Philip Sidney (The Defence of
Poesy, 1595), Alexander Pope (An Essay on Criticism, 1711) and William
Wordsworth (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1800).
Today, one can distinguish among a whole range of different
theoretical approaches, of which the following summaries can merely

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provide a first overview. The list is by no means complete, and interested their production. E.M.W. Tillyard’s (1943) study, for example, investigates
students should consult the bibliography for further references. Generally instantiations of the Elizabethan world picture in Shakespeare’s works,
speaking, one can identify the following ‘groups’ of theoretical approaches and Ian Watt (1957) asks to what extent Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is
(for the following see Korte/Müller/Schmied, 1997: 95-105): related to Puritanism and the rise of the middle class in the eighteenth
century. Another example is Marxist criticism which regards the
• biographical approach production of literary texts at the interface of material and socio-economic
• psychological or psychoanalytical approaches circumstances (Eagleton and Milne 1996). While after the Second World
• contextual approaches War contextual approaches, especially the Marxist tradition, were initially
regarded as outdated, they have had a major comeback over the last two
• reader-orientated approaches
decades in approaches like new historicism, cultural materialism and
• text-immanent approach and New Criticism cultural studies.
• structuralist and semiotic approaches
• poststructuralist approaches
• feminist approach and gender studies Reader-orientated Approaches
• ethnicity and postcolonialism The most well-known reader-orientated approaches to literary texts are
• cultural materialism and new historicism reader response theory for Anglo-American criticism (e.g., Stanley Fish)
and reception theory or reception aesthetics, which mainly originated in
Germany (Wolfgang Iser, Hans Robert Jauß). The questions reception
Biographical Approach theorists ask focus mainly on the relationship between text and reader.
As early as the nineteenth century, scholars considered literary texts against Thus, one can investigate what exactly happens during the reading process
the background of the author’s biography. The aim was to find references in the reader’s mind, how readers react emotionally to texts and in what
to the author’s life, education and socio-cultural environment in a literary ways the reception of literary texts is influenced by socio-demographic
work. Ever since the French critic Roland Barthes announced the “death of factors such as age, gender, social class, education, etc. An important
the author” in 1968, the biographical approach has lost its appeal for many concept in reception theory is that of textual gaps or blanks which readers
scholars: Barthes and critics following him have argued that an author’s have to fill while reading a text. In filling the gaps, readers also contribute to
biography is irrelevant since the meaning of a text only emerges in the the construction of a text’s meaning. Other reader-orientated approaches
reading process and the reader thus becomes the real ‘author’ of the text. take into account the historical dimensions of text reception and investigate
One could argue against this radical viewpoint that there are texts where how readings and interpretations of texts change over time. Thus, one can
knowledge of an author’s biography can sometimes help us understand the ask, for example, how Shakespeare’s contemporaries are likely to have
text better because otherwise we would not be able to decipher certain perceived his plays in comparison with modern theatre goers.
allusions or references. D.H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers (1913), for
example, draws heavily on Lawrence’s own family background. Bearing this
knowledge in mind, it is then interesting to see where the literary text Text-immanent Approach and New Criticism
deviates from references to the author’s real life. In the first half of the twentieth century, a critical approach emerged which
opposed prevailing practices of considering the biographies of authors,
social contexts and literary history. This new approach, which came to be
Psychological and Psychoanalytical Approaches known under the name of New Criticism, focused on the literary work
Following Sigmund Freud’s work on the unconscious and the interpretation itself as an independent entity. Studies by authors such as Cleanth Brooks
of dreams, critics in the 1930s attempted to interpret literary texts with and Robert Penn Warren postulated the method of close reading, i.e., a
regard to the author’s psychological state or the psychology of the text itself. detailed investigation of the overall composition of texts with regard to their
Thus, one question raised for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for example, was unifying principles. At the centre of this approach was the idea that all the
whether Hamlet suffered from the Oedipus complex. The reading process elements of a text ideally formed a coherent whole both on the formal and
has also been considered from a psychological point of view. Furthermore, the content level. Further questions addressed the principles whereby
psychoanalytical approaches have made an inroad into poststructuralist literary texts create rich and varied meanings, which can ultimately lead to
(Jacques Lacan) and feminist approaches (Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous). ambiguities (see ch. 1.2.3).

Contextual Approaches Structuralist and Semiotic Approaches

Contextual approaches go back to the nineteenth and early twentieth Other approaches which deal primarily with the code in the literary
centuries where scholars asked to what extent literary texts were rooted in communication model are the so-called structuralist and semiotic
the historical, political, economical, philosophical, religious, etc. contexts of approaches. Structuralism and semiotics were greatly influenced by

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structuralist linguistics, most notably by Ferdinand de Saussure’s work on While deconstructive theory focuses entirely on written texts, the
linguistic signs and later by Noam Chomsky’s seminal work on so-called poetics of culture regards literature as a semiotic subsystem in
transformational grammar. A first group of theorists under the title of which culture is reflected. The common underlying assumption is that
Russian Formalism considered literary language as deviant from everyday cultural systems, like signs, do no consist of fixed binary oppositions.
language and postulated the concept of the poetic function of literary Michel Foucault’s work, which applies historical discourse analysis, was
texts, i.e., the fact that literary texts always draw attention to their very influential in this context. In his analyses of the history of medicine and
literariness by using language in unusual or ‘unfamiliar’ ways. This process is of sexuality, for example, Foucault considers the social discourses about
called defamiliarisation. Authors to be mentioned in this context are these areas and demonstrates how these discourses have changed concepts
Roman Jakobson and Victor Shklovsky. The structuralist approach also had and ideas about medicine and sexuality over time. Discourse in Foucault’s
a great impact on narratology, i.e., a research area which focuses on sense consists of collections of statements (both verbal and non-verbal)
narrative structures, in France (Tzvetan Todorov, A.J. Greimas, Gérard about a given topic that are culturally defined by institutions and through
Genette) as well as in Great Britain and the USA (Robert Scholes, Jonathan conventions. Discourse thus also becomes an area where knowledge is
Culler, Seymour Chatman). Generally speaking, structuralists assume that created and power is seized and maintained by leading social groups.
literary texts function on the basis of an underlying ‘grammar’ according to
which individual parts of a text are structured. Thus, it is possible to sift out
universal patterns, e.g., with regard to plot structures or the functions of Feminist Approaches and Gender Studies
characters (protagonist, antagonist, etc.).
Feminist approaches emerged along with the women’s rights movement
Closely connected with structuralism is semiotics, i.e., the study of
in the late 1960s and were initially a reaction against hitherto male-
signs and sign systems and the process by which signs are assigned meaning.
dominated literary studies, which neglected literature produced by women
Semiotics goes back to Saussure’s description of the linguistic sign and which had perpetuated clichés and stereotypes about women. The main
consisting of a signifier, the sound image (TREE or TABLE), and a
merit of feminist approaches was that they rediscovered a number of female
signified, the concept the sound image denotes (the concept of ‘tree’ or
authors who had been considered ‘minor’ and allocated them a more central
‘table’). Signifier and signified are inseparable like the two sides of a coin.
place in literary history. At the same time, feminist approaches highlight the
According to Saussure, the relationship between ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ is
differences between ‘male’ and ‘female’ writing in terms of style, topics and
arbitrary, and a sign receives its meaning solely from the fact that it differs
structures. More recently, feminist approaches have opened up to more
from other signs and not because it refers to an object in the real world, the
general gender studies where gender roles and gendered perspectives in
referent. The ‘reality’ we perceive is thus only a projection of the meaning
literary texts come under closer scrutiny. So-called queer theory has started
inherent in the linguistic system rather than a transcendental meaning to address issues concerning literature by and about homosexuals.
beyond language. In a literary text, the semiotics of the story-world as
‘reality’, for example, can be achieved through a number of ‘signifiers’ such
as speech, the characters’ body language, spatio-temporal frameworks, etc.
Ethnicity and Postcolonialism
Through the processes of colonialism and migration, an increasing amount
Poststructuralist Approaches of literatures by ethnic minorities has emerged in English-speaking cultures
all over the world and has become the focal point for postcolonial theories,
In reaction to structuralism and semiotics, poststructuralist approaches
which investigate, for example, aspects of national identities, hybrid
deny the existence of universal principles which create meaning and
cultures, the significance of indigenous cultures and problems surrounding
coherence. Deconstructive theory, for example, which was first
their ‘own’ history and language (Edward Said, Homi Bhaba, Gayatri
propagated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, maintains that even
Chakravorty Spivak). Concepts of race and ethnicity and the presentation of
within the linguistic system there can be no ultimate ‘meaning’ because
cultural suppression are also investigated in texts by African Americans,
signifiers always refer to other signifiers and never to a signified. This can
Chicano as well as Asian and Indian minorities.
be exemplified by what happens when one tries to look up a word in a
dictionary. What one usually finds is a definition or explanation of the word
which in turn uses words that can be looked up and so on. Signifiers
Cultural Materialism and New Historicism
become traces, and meaning is constantly deferred. Derrida introduced the
term différance, a combination of the French word for ‘difference’ The common assumption underlying both cultural materialism and new
(différence) and the gerund of the verb denoting ‘defer/ postpone’ historicism is that literature does not form a realm of its own that can be
(différant), to capture this process. Since words in a text are always viewed against the background of socio-historical developments, for
reminiscent of other signifiers, one can never establish a ‘fixed’ or ‘final’ example, but that it is as much part and expression of a culture as other,
meaning of words and thus of texts. This poses questions for literary studies non-literary, texts (e.g., travelogues, religious tracts, historical documents
concerning the validity of interpretations: If there is no finite meaning, can and ‘texts’ in a much wider sense such as adverts, pop music, TV
one speak of texts at all? And can there be ‘wrong’ interpretations at all or programmes, film, etc.). Both are influenced by Marxist criticism. They try
do we have to allow for endless possibilities of reading a text? to relate problems of interpretation to cultural-historical problems and are

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concerned with the uncovering of power structures (economic, class, form enables us to make certain aesthetic judgements, it enables us to
culture) as they become manifest in literary texts explain to a certain extent why some texts have a notable impact on readers
Both movements are interdisciplinary in that they draw upon and other texts have not.
insights and methods from a number of disciplines, and they both question Once these patterns and especially their functions have been
the notion of a literary canon, i.e., a set of ‘important’ or ‘major’ literary analysed separately, it usually becomes apparent that all the separate
works agreed upon through convention that are considered to be of a patterns of repetition taken together form new and larger patterns of
higher quality than other texts. By incorporating non-literary expressions of thematic coherence. A useful concept for establishing such patterns of
a culture, cultural materialism and new historicism raise questions thematic coherence is the concept of isotopy, introduced by the French
concerning the literariness of texts and the function of literature in general critic A.J. Greimas (Greimas 1966, see also Jahn 2002: P3.6). An isotopy is a
and thus, ultimately, the validity of disciplines involved in the study of sequence of expressions joined by a common 'semantic denominator'. Thus
literature. While some scholars nowadays wish to include literary studies in a a series of expressions or formal elements in a text might relate to the
broader discipline of cultural studies, others point towards the specifically contrast between life and death, or a development from despair to
artistic and aesthetic nature of literary texts, which requires a set of special, consolation, or an end and a new beginning and so on. Patterns of rhythm,
i.e., literary, analytical tools. sound or syntax aid or highlight thematic patterns. This is why it is worth
analysing them. (For a practical demonstration of how this might work see
The aim of this introduction is to familiarise you with exactly those special ch. 4.6).
tools and thus to enable you to engage critically with literary texts. Literary texts usually develop their theme within a certain structure.
Such structures can be created through plot developments (see ch. 2.2. and
3.2.), a change of setting (see ch. 2.3.), a change of narrative voice (see ch.
1.5. Theme 2.5), or with rhyme patterns or stanzas in poetry (see chs. 4.4. and 4.5.). A
Key terms:
• theme sonnet for instance might describe a problem in the octet and a solution in
The first and foremost task of the analysis and interpretation of literature is • isotopy the sestet. Other poems might have a three-part structure cutting across
to find out in some way or other what the text is about, to discover its • motif stanzas. This could be, for instance: description of an event – reflection on
theme, the abstract concept a text presents or deals with. On the face of it, • topos the event – moral drawn from it. In the analysis of texts it is helpful to first
• structure and of all decide on the general structure of the development that takes place
this may seem silly. It would appear that all one has to do is read the text development
and then say what it is about. Why go through all this rigmarole of analysis within the text.
with complicated terminology? Related to theme and structure is the motif. This is a concept which
On a very general level one can of course simply read a text and derives from music and it forms a sub-unit of a text’s overall theme; a motif
then say something like: This text is about a woman who falls in love with can be the frequent repetition of one significant phrase, description or
the wrong sort of man and who dies in the end. But this sort of response image within one work or it can be a type of situation or formula that
leaves a great many questions unanswered: What then is the difference occurs again and again in literature (see Abrams 1999: 169), such as the carpe
between Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and Tennyson’s poem The Lady diem motif or the enchanted prince. An older term, deriving from classical
of Shalott and Dickens' novel Bleak House? All of these texts are in some way rhetoric, for the repetition of certain formulas in literature is topos
about a woman who falls in love with the wrong sort of man and dies. And (commonplace), such as for instance the ‘modesty-topos’, where the speaker
how are all these texts different from last week's police report about the or narrator claims to be incapable of doing his task well but promises to try
same problem? How is one to account for the different degree of sympathy his or her best (for a discussion of topoi see Curtius 1990).
and compassion one feels for Shakespeare's Juliet, Tennyson's fairy Lady of
Shalott and Dickens' Lady Dedlock? Why do we derive different kinds of
aesthetic pleasure from these texts? Why do we derive pleasure at all since 1.6. Language in Literature
they deal with a sad event? Such questions make it necessary to examine Key terms:
how a text creates meaning, since the difference between texts lies not The effect a text has on its reader is to a very large extent determined by • style
• diction
simply in their topic but also in their way of presenting this topic. In fact, it style. In its broadest definition, style is the way in which language is used
• syntax
is the modern critical position that the use of formal elements is part of the (see Leech/Short 1981: 10 for a discussion of various definitions of style). • decorum
text’s meaning (see esp. the relation of form and meaning in poetry ch. 4.6). Style is thus not a phenomenon that is restricted to literature; it is • poetic diction
The question that is of interest here is how to analyse a text, how to necessarily part of any utterance, because for each context one chooses the • deviation
unravel its formal and linguistic code in interpretation. Much of the way one speaks: One uses different vocabulary and probably different • poetic licence
meaning and effect of literary texts depend on patterns of repetition or syntax when talking to one’s granny than one uses when talking to one’s • collocation
contrast (which is a sort of negative repetition). This is particularly examiner in the final oral exam; a report in the newspaper is expected to
pronounced in poetry, but it is a phenomenon of all literary texts. These display – and in most cases does – a different style than a love letter.
patterns can be created on all levels: rhythmic, metrical, phonological, Obviously, most people are limited in the range of styles they have at their
morphological, syntactical, semantic. It is these patterns that need to be command, and sometimes style expectations are deliberately flaunted: A
uncovered and understood. The ability to decode and understand the use of newspaper report written in the style of a love letter will no doubt cause a

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certain amount of surprise and thus possibly increase its effect. A love letter Are words used in unusual combinations?
written in the style of a report will most likely cause trouble or appear Which lexical categories are used frequently and which are used little or not
simply ridiculous. at all: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, auxiliaries, and so on?
There are utterances where style is used with more deliberation than What rhetorical devices are used on the levels of individual sound or word?
in others. Political speeches or manifestos may be counted among such, but
also most literary texts. In fact, it is partly the calculated and deliberate use Most important of all remains the question: What effect does the use of
of language, or, the special attention the receiver pays to the use of diction have in this particular text?
language, that makes a text literary (see ch. 1.2.).
There has long been disagreement whether style, or form, can be In classical rhetoric styles were classified into three main levels: the grand
separated from content or not. To put the question another way, are we style, the middle style and the low (or plain) style. Certain types of diction
saying the identical thing when we use different means of saying it, or is the were thought appropriate for certain stylistic levels. This was called the
meaning of the utterance (partly) produced by the way we say it? When A.E. principle of decorum, which was an influential concept well into the
Housman, for instance, says “Wake: the vaulted shadow shatters, trampled eighteenth century. John Dryden, for example, famously agonised over the
to the floor it spanned, and the tent of night in tatters, straws the sky- appropriateness of the word ‘marjoram’ (the herb) for the middle style (he
pavilioned land”, would it be the same as saying: “Get up mate, it’s eventually decided it was too low a word). Poetry, perhaps more than other
daylight”? Or is there a difference in WHAT he says because of HOW he types of literary texts, tends to use words or phrases that are not current in
says it? Most modern criticism would agree that form and content are not in ordinary conversation, so-called poetic diction.
fact clearly separable, that one is intrinsically dependent on the other, and
that a paraphrase never expresses exactly the same thing as the original
utterance. Form, in other words, produces meaning. It is thus worth 1.6.2. Syntax
examining how it does that.
When examining the style of a text, one scrutinises mainly two Just like the analysis of diction, the analysis of syntax involves answering a
aspects: diction (the choice and use of words) and syntax (the sentence series of questions relating to the use of sentence structure. These are
structure). In other words, one examines which words are used and how questions such as:
these words are put together. Closely related to such questions is the use of
rhetorical devices. Particularly in poetry and verse drama one also focuses What kind of sentences are used?
on the rhythmical patterns and sound effects, though these can also be used Simple or complex?
effectively in prose. The question at the centre of such examinations is Long or short?
HOW the use of diction, syntax and rhetorical devices produce certain Paratactic or hypotactic?
effects and are aimed to evoke certain responses in the reader. Statements, exclamations, questions, or commands?
etc.
Geoffrey Leech and Michael Short (1981) provide a list of categories for
analysis on which most of the following is based. They also give several Is there a type of clause that is preferred?
illuminating examples, demonstrating the use that can be made of style Relative clause?
analysis in literary studies (see esp. their ch. 3). Adverbial clause?
Interrogative clauses?
That-clause?
1.6.1. Diction Finite or non-finite clause?
etc.
The analysis of diction involves answering a series of questions, all relating
to the use of vocabulary: its origin, its effect, its grammatical categories. How are sentences linked (sentence cohesion)?
These could be questions such as: Are there cross references and what type?
Are sentences connected with logical links? Or are they purely associative?
Is it simple or complex? Are any particular sentence structures repeated?
Latinate or anglo-saxon? Are any particular words repeated which create cross references?
Abstract or concrete?
Neutral, evaluative, emotionally charged? What rhetorical devices are used on the sentence level
Formal or informal?
Vulgar or refined? Once again, the most important question is: What effect does the use of
Any particular sociolect? syntax achieve? There are no fixed answers to this question. The effect of
Any jargon (subject-specific or technical language)? stylistic devices will differ from text to text and within texts, depending on
Appropriate or inappropriate in the context? the immediate context.

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[Link]. Syntactical Deviations 1. Schemes: Phoneme-level (level of individual sounds)
In literary texts generally, and especially in poetry, syntax can differ from alliteration the same sound is repeated at the beginning of several words or stressed syllables in words that
everyday usage. There is, on the one hand, a certain amount of poetic are in close proximity
licence which makes it quite acceptable for a poet to deviate slightly from Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell (T.S. Eliot, Book of Practical Cats)
ordinary syntax to accommodate the sentence to the line form and metre. Moping melancholy mad (Housman, Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff)
Such accommodations can be, for instance, inversions, that is a change in
word order: “The King's real, or his stamped face / contemplate” (Donne, Dombey and Son had often dealt in hides but not in hearts. They left that fancy war to
boys and girls, and boarding-schools and books. (Dickens, Dombey and Son)
Canonization) instead of 'Contemplate the King's real or his stamped face'.
assonance the same or similar vowel sounds are repeated in the stressed syllables of words that are in
A deviation from common collocation, the way words are combined with close proximity while the consonants differ
other words, can achieve interesting effects. Geoffrey Leech (1969: 29-31) Breathing like one that hath a weary dream (Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters)
illustrates this kind of deviation using the title of Dylan Thomas' poem A Gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss and thunder (Pope, Imitations of Horace)
Grief Ago. Usually, the expression 'ago' is only combined with time
consonance two or more consonants are repeated, but the adjacent vowels differ
measurements: two years ago, an hour ago, a week ago, etc. To combine
'ago' with 'grief' is a deviation from common usage. It is unusual and thus Friend/frowned
the expression is particularly noticeable, though we still interpret it as a time killed/cold,
measurement. The deviation draws the reader's attention to the importance
horse/hearse
that grief has assumed in the speaker's life; it has become so dominating
that it has replaced other time measurements. A rather different effect onomatopoeia the sound of the word imitates the sound of the thing which that word denotes
would be achieved by an expression like 'two wives ago'. This collocation, clatter, bash, bang, rumble, sniff, howl, etc.
though one can easily work out its meaning, makes the speaker sound rather
[…] aspens quiver,
frivolous, perhaps a little callous even, since one expects a wife to take a Little breezes dusk and shiver
more central part in a man’s life than merely as a time measurement. Also, (Tennyson, Lady of Shalott - imitates the sound of the breeze in the leaves)
in our culture it is still unusual to change wives regularly and often enough
Hear the loud alarum bells –
to make them convenient as time measurements. Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
[...] How they clang, and clash and roar! (Poe, The Bells)
1.6.3. Rhetorical Devices

Style is part of classical rhetoric and a number of rhetorical devices are 2. Schemes: Word-level
worth considering in any analysis of style. For the analysis of literature, a anadiplosis / (Greek for “doubling back”) the word or phrase that concludes one line or clause is repeated at
knowledge of rhetorical devices is indispensable since there is often a reduplicatio the beginning of the next
considerable density of rhetorical figures and tropes which are important
A wreathed garland of deserved praise,
generators and qualifiers of meaning and effect. This is particularly the case Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,
in poetry. Especially the analysis of the use of imagery is important for any I give to thee, who knowest all my ways,
kind of literary text. (For further details see chs. [Link] and [Link]) My crooked winding ways, wherin I live. (Herbert, A Wreath)
Figures of speech in classical rhetoric were defined as “a form of [...] if you have a lot of things you cannot move about a lot, [...] furniture requires dusting,
speech artfully varied from common usage” (Quintilian, Inst. Orat. IX.i.2). dusters require servants, servants require insurance stamps [...]. (E.M. Forster, My Wood)
The forms of figurative languages are divided into two main groups: anaphora a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines
schemes (or figures) and tropes. Because I do not hope to turn again
Rhetorical schemes describe the arrangement of individual sounds Because I do not hope
(phonological schemes), the arrangement of words (morphological Because I do not hope to turn. (T.S. Eliot, Ash-Wednesday)
schemes), and sentence structure (syntactical schemes). Rhetorical tropes So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
are devices of figurative language. They represent a deviation from the So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
common or main significance of a word or phrase (semantic figures) or climax / gradatio (Greek for “ladder”) arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power
include specific appeals to the audience (pragmatic figures). Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon
them. (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)
The following definitions are mainly based on Abrams 1999, Corbett 1971, epistrophe a word or expression is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses or lines
Homan/Harmon 1992, Preminger 1993, Jahn 2001, Scaif, n.d. There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;
Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee.
(Byron, Stanzas Written on the Road between Florence and Pisa)
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another.

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 (Nixon, Inaugural Address) Swans sing before they die – ‘twere no bad thing
Did certain persons die before they sing.
We meet tonight and part tonight. (Dickens, Dombey and Son)
(S.T. Coleridge, Epigram on a Volunteer Singer)
epizeuxis / the repetition of the same words immediately next to each other
ellipsis a word or phrase in a sentence is omitted though implied by the context
geminatio
Peace, peace seems all (Browning, The Bishop Orders His Tomb)
A mighty maze! but not without a plan. (Pope, Essay on Man)
homonym words with the same pronunciation and / or spelling but with different meanings
hyperbaton (Greek for “stepping over”) a figure of syntactic dislocation where phrase or words that belong
their – there (see also together are separated
inversion)
ball (toy) – ball (dance event) I got, so far as the immediate moment was concerned, away. (James, Turn of the Screw)
hear – here Were I, who to my cost already am,
polyptoton / one word is repeated in different grammatical or syntactical (inflected) forms. A special case of One of those strange, prodigious creatures, Man. (Rochester, Satire Against Mankind)
metabole polyptoton is the figura etymologica which repeats two or more words of the same stem hypotaxis clauses and sentences are arranged with subordination, usually longer sentence constructions
(opposite of parataxis)
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie (Tennyson, The Kraken)
The house had a name and a history; the old gentleman taking his tea would have been
[…] love is not love delighted to tell you these things: how it had been built under Edward the Sixth, had
Which alters when it alteration finds, offered a night’s hospitality to the great Elizabeth (whose august person had extended itself
Or bends with the remover to remove. (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116) – figura etymologica upon a huge, magnificent and terribly angular bed which still formed the principal honour
portmanteau words formed by blending two words into one of the sleeping apartments), had been a good deal bruised and defaced in Cromwell’s wars,
words (blend, and then, under the Restoration, repaired and much enlarged; and how, finally, after having
contaminatio) spellotape (spell + sellotape in Harry Potter)
been remodeled and disfigured in the eighteenth century, it had passed into the careful
brunch (breakfast + lunch) keeping of a shrewd American banker, who had bought it originally because (owing to
symploce A combination of anaphora and epistrophe, so that one word or phrase is repeated at the circumstances too complicated to set forth) it was offered at a great bargain; bought it with
beginning and another word or phrase is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses or much grumbling at its ugliness, its antiquity, its incommodity, and who now, at the end of
sentences twenty years, had become conscious of a real aesthetic passion for it, so that he knew all its
points and would tell you just where to stand to see them in combination and just the hour
Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD
when the shadows of its various protuberances – which fell so softly upon the warm, weary
Much is your building, but not the House of GOD. (T.S. Eliot, The Rock)
brickwork – were of the right measure. (James, Portrait of a Lady)
synonym use of words with the same or similar meanings
inversion the usual word order is rearranged, often for the effect of emphasis or to maintain the metre (a
alter – change, brief – short, assist – help type of hyperbaton)
I hate inconstancy - I loathe, detest, Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made And often is his gold complexion dimmed (Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
Of such quicksilvery clay [...] (Byron, Don Juan) (instead of: ‘Sometime the eye of heaven shines too hot and his gold complexion is often
tautology one idea is repeatedly expressed through additional words, phrases, or sentences dimmed’)
parallelism the repetition of identical or similar syntactic elements (word, phrase, clause)
small dwarf
Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of
With malice toward none, with charity for all. (Lincoln, Second Inaugural) mind over morals. (Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray)
Though the heart be still as loving
3. Schemes: Sentence-Level And the moon be still as bright (Byron, So We'll Go no More A-Roving)

aposiopesis the speaker fails to complete his sentence, (seemingly) overpowered by his emotions Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes.
Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and
Sir Leicester's gallantry concedes the point; though he still feels that to bring this sort of pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though
squalor among the upper classes is really – really – (Dickens, Bleak House) (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as
asyndeton the omission of conjunctions to coordinate phrases, clauses, or words (opposite of yet. (Dickens, Dombey and Son)
polysyndeton) where normally conjunctions would be used parataxis clauses or sentences are arranged in a series without subordination, usually shorter sentence
constructions (opposite of hypotaxis)
What can the sheepdog make of such simplified terrain? no hills, dales, bogs, walls, tracks
(C. Day Lewis, Sheepdog Trials in Hyde Park) My hot water bottle was red, Manchester United’s colour. Sinbad’s was green. I loved the
smell off the bottle. I put hot water in it and emptied it and smelled it. I put my nose to the
I may, I must, I can, I will, I do
hole, nearly in it. (Doyle, Paddy Clarke)
Leave following that which it is gain to miss (Sidney, Astrophil and Stella)
polysyndeton the unusual repetition of the same conjunction (opposite of asyndeton)
that government of the people, by the people, for the people (Lincoln, Gettysburgh Address)
It is a land with neither night nor day,
chiasmus from the shape of the Greek letter ‘chi’ (X); two corresponding pairs are arranged in inverted,
Nor heat nor cold, nor any wind, nor rain,
mirror-like order (a-b, b-a)
Nor hills nor valleys. (Ch. Rossetti, Cobwebs)
At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. (W
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Somerset Maugham)
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
Gross as her sire, and as her mother grave (Pope, Dunciad) That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. (Tennyson, Ulysses)
redditio / kyklos a syntactic unit or verse line is framed by the same element at the beginning and at the end
Fair is foul and foul is fair. (Shakespeare, Macbeth) / framing

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 Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; things I write with my quill)
Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure. oxymoron (Greek for “sharp-dull”) a self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units;
(Shakespeare, Measure for Measure) usually noun-noun, adjective-adjective, adjective-noun, adverb-adverb, or adverb-verb – a
paradoxical utterance that conjoins two terms that in ordinary usage are contraries
Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity! (Browning, The Bishop Orders his Tomb)
zeugma (Greek for “yoking”) one verb controls two or more objects that have different syntactic and bittersweet, pleasing pains, loving hate
semantic relations to it
I will complain, yet praise;
Harriet had broken all her old ties and half the commandments [...] I will bewail, approve;
(Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night) And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love. (George Herbert, Bitter-Sweet)
Or stain her honour or her new brocade,
paradox a daring statement which unites seemingly contradictory words but which on closer
Forget her prayers or miss a masquerade,
examination proves to have unexpected meaning and truth
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball
(Pope, Rape of the Lock) Snail-paced in a hurry (Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market)
Dark with excessive bright (Milton, Paradise Lost)
paronomasia / wordplay, using words that are written or pronounced similarly or identically, but have
4. Tropes pun different meanings

antithesis opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a parallel construction […] he

Who lied in the chapel
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed. Now lies in the Abbey. (Byron, Epitaph for William Pitt)
(Samuel Johnson)
Holland [...] lies so low they're only saved by being dammed.
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar) (Thomas Hood, Up the Rhine)
apostrophe addressing an absent person, a god or a personified abstraction
Some folk are wise, and some are otherwise. (Smollett, Roderick Random)
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
I always say beauty is only sin deep. (Saki, Reginald's Choir Treat)
euphemism substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer
meaning might be harsh or unpleasant His death, which happen’d in his berth
At forty-odd befell:
[…] one particular lady, whose lord is more than suspected of laying his umbrella on her They went and told the sexton, and
as an instrument of correction, [...] (Dickens, Bleak House) The sexton toll’d the bell. (Thomas Hood, Faithless Sally Brown)
hyperbole obvious exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect pejorative the use of words with disparaging connotations
[…] he couldn’t, however sanguine his disposition, hope to offer a remark that would be a […] the nurse, a simpering piece of faded gentility (Dickens, Dombey and Son)
greater outrage on human nature in general […] (Mrs Chick’s response to her
periphrasis a descriptive word or phrase is used instead of a proper name
husband’s suggestion that the starving baby should be fed with the teapot since there was
no nurse. Dickens, Dombey and Son) finny race (for fish), fleecy people (for sheep)
irony expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing
but mean another On one occasion […] a mighty Silurian […] chose to get his front paws over the stern of
my canoe, and endeavoured to improve our acquaintance. I had to retire to the bows, to keep
‘Well!’ said Mrs Chick, with a sweet smile, ‘after this, I forgive Fanny everything!’ It was a the balance right, and fetch him a clip on the snout with a paddle, when he withdrew […] I
declaration in a Christian spirit, and Mrs Chick felt that it did her good. Not that she should think that crocodile was eight feet long. (Mary Kingsley, Travels to West Africa)
had anything particular to forgive in her sister-in-law, not indeed anything at all, except her
having married her brother – in itself a species of audacity – and her having, in the course […] the Fans round Talagouga wouldn’t go at any price above Njole, because they were
of events, given birth to a girl instead of a boy […]. (Dickens, Dombey and Son) certain they would be killed and eaten by the up-river Fans. Internally consigning the entire
tribe to regions where they will get a rise in temperature, even in this climate, I went with
In addition [...] you are liable to get tide-trapped away in the swamps, […] Of course if you Mme Forget to M. Gacon […](Mary Kingsley, Travels to West Africa)
really want a truly safe investment in Fame, and really care about Posterity, and Posterity’s
Science, you will jump over into the black batter-like, stinking slime cheered by the thought personification / animals, ideas, abstractions or inanimate objects are endowed with human characteristics
of the terrific sensation you will produce in 20,000 years hence, and the care you will be prosopoeia
And moody Madness laughing wild
taken of then by your fellow-creatures, in a museum. (Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa) Amid severest woe (Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College)
metaphor a figure of similarity, a word or phrase is replaced by an expression denoting an analogous
circumstance in a different semantic field. The comparison adds a new dimension of meaning On the brow of Dombey, Time and his brother Care had set some mark.
to the original expression. Unlike in simile, the comparison is not made explicit ( ‘like’ or ‘as’ (Dickens, Dombey and Son)
are not used, see the longer discussion in Analysing a Metaphor ch. [Link]) simile two things are openly compared with each other, introduced by ‘like’ or ‘as’

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. My heart is like a singing bird. (Christina Rossetti, A Birthday)
(Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well) Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather.
That fence about my soul (MacNeice, London Rain) (Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim)
metonymy a figure of contiguity, one word is substituted for another on the basis of some material, causal, synaesthesia the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another (description of sound in terms of
or conceptual relation colour: blue note; description of colour in terms of sound: loud shirt; etc.)

My Head and Heart thus flowing thro’ my Quill (Pope, Imitations of Horace) The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath
(i.e. the thoughts produced in my head and the feelings of my heart are expressed in the Not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue
To conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

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 (Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream) Cautious Beginning of the Speech
If music be the food of love, play on […] (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night) Antony’s speech has a clear structure, moving from unemotional and factual
argument to increasingly charged emotional appeals. In a calm and
synecdoche A figure of contiguity (form of metonymy), the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for measured introduction Antony states the supposed purpose of his presence
the part: ‘pars pro toto’ or ‘totum pro parte’ before the people of Rome (“I come to bury Caesar not to praise him”, III,
I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’beer 2: 75) and he praises Brutus and his followers. (“For Brutus is an
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.” (Kipling, Tommy) honourable man; /So are they all, all honourable men”, III, 2: 82f). The
(instead of ‘a soldier’, who wears a red coat) praise of Brutus at this point operates as a captatio benevolentiae, it ingratiates
understatement an idea is deliberately expressed as less important than it actually is; a special case of Antony with an audience that is on Brutus’ side. He then starts an
(meiosis) understatement is litotes, which denies the opposite of the thing that is being affirmed
(sometimes used synonymously with meiosis) argument, much as he would in a judiciary speech before a court, carefully
laying evidence before his audience with the aim to question the accusation
Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her
that Brutus has levelled against Caesar: that he was ambitious. Antony
appearance for the worse. (Swift, Tale of a Tub)
moves from small, private matter (“He was my friend[...]”, III, 2: 86), to
This is not unexciting. (litotes) issues of wider interest (money for the state, Caesar’s compassion for the
poor), thus gradually involving the audience’s concerns more directly.

The Implied Accusation through Patterns of Repetition

SO WHAT? Much of the effect of Antony’s speech is derived from patterns of
repetition. He uses a few alliterations in the first part of his speech (“faithful
Stylistic devices can obviously serve a great number of purposes: draw one’s friend”, “sterner stuff”, “kingly crown”, “brutish beasts”) and anadiplosis
attention to or even create connections between certain text elements, make (“it was a grievous fault, / And grievously hath Caesar answered it”, III, 2:
a text easier to comprehend, characterise the speaker and so on. Possibly 80f), which make his remarks more memorable and easier to follow for the
the most interesting effect of style is that it can elicit certain emotional audience. But mainly he uses a parallel sentence structure (“the poor have
responses in readers or listeners. This becomes important especially in texts cried, Caesar hath wept”, 92, “what Brutus spoke [...] what I know”, 101f)
(spoken or written) that aim to convince other people of something they and a refrain-like repetition of “But Brutus is an honourable man” or
may not have been convinced of before: political speeches, speeches in variations thereof. With these repetitions – and without explicitly saying so
court and sermons. – he gradually puts Brutus in the wrong. The examples from Caesar’s past
life all seem to belie Brutus’ accusation and the refrain-like “But Brutus [...]”
This SO WHAT section wants to demonstrate how an analysis of stylistic becomes increasingly ironic because so patently in opposition to the
devices can be constructed into a coherent argument, the sort of essay that accumulating evidence. The remark, parallel in syntax but antithetical in
is expected from students at the end of an introductory seminar on the implication “What Brutus spoke [...] what I know” almost, but not quite,
analysis and interpretation of literature. The introduction presents a thesis states openly that Brutus is wrong. But it remains for the audience to draw
(marked bold). The argument which follows the introduction, proceeds in this conclusion.
several stages, each paragraph representing one step in the unfolding
argument. Note that stylistic devices are used to support an argument. It The Implied Accusation through Syntactical Figures
is not an end in itself to simply identify them! A suggestive arrangement of sentence elements sways the audience’s
opinion without actually presenting any arguments. Having suggested that
Introduction Brutus was in fact wrong to accuse Caesar of ambition, Antony shifts the
A famous example in English literature for the emotional impact achieved meaning of the word “wrong” from ‘being wrong’ to ‘doing wrong’ and
through stylistic and rhetorical means is Mark Antony’s speech in aligns the audience to his own, and Caesar’s, side. “I will not do them
Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. Antony begins his speech to an audience wrong; I rather choose / To wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you /
that has just been convinced by Brutus of the justice of the murder of Than I will wrong such honourable men” (III, 2: 126-128). With the climax
Caesar (JC III, 2: 13-47, see Plett 2000: 166-171, for an enlightening analysis “the dead [...] myself [...] you”, still denying that he will say anything against
of Brutus’s speech). Gradually, Antony’s speech sways the audience’s Brutus, Antony implies that Brutus’s act against Caesar was in fact an act
mood and finally incites them to rebellion against the murderers of against the audience. The sequence of this climax (the dead, myself, you) is
Caesar without doing so explicitly. He achieves this effect employing a extremely effective. “I will not do them wrong” restates Antony’s own
number of specific stylistic devices: suggestive patterns of repetition, parallel honourable intentions. He will not attack men who claim to have acted for
structures, and an increasingly direct appeal to audience emotion. (For a noble reasons. This ingratiates him further with an audience that is only just
copy of the speech both printed and spoken press the audio button. Please beginning to question the justness of Brutus’ action. Had Antony chosen a
note that this is a fairly large file: 4MB) direct attack on Brutus, the audience would most likely have assumed a
defensive stance and turned against Antony. “I rather choose to wrong the
dead” Antony continues. This is likely to cause concern. It was – and is –

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generally considered unethical to wrong the dead. In this case the evidence audience gradually. First he displays his own emotion, then he imagines the
that Antony has presented suggests that Caesar has indeed been wronged emotions of the poor and only then does he appeal to the audience directly:
already: he was not ambitious. As described by Antony, the situation seems He asks them to judge for themselves as he shows them the cuts in Caesar’s
to present a choice between two wrongs, either of Brutus or of Caesar, who mantle. So far, he has used adjectives and images very sparingly. But now
has already paid a ‘grievous’ price for his alleged wrong, his ambition. But evaluative adjectives begin to accumulate (“envious”, “well-beloved”,
Antony continues: “to wrong myself”. Antony has established himself as a “cursed”, “unkindly”, “unkindest”, “noble”, 172-182). A simile (“Mark how
man of honour who will not wrong others. Now he presents himself as a the blood of Caesar followed it, / As rushing out of doors, [...]”, 176f)
sort of martyr to his noble principles, a stance likely to evoke sympathy. increases the pathos of his description of the murder scene. The passage is
Antony does not give an explicit reason why he should be wronged, he dominated by imperatives (”Look”, ”Mark”, ”See”, ”Judge”, 172-180), all in
operates in fact in an imaginary scene (“if I were dispos’d [...]”, 122). initial positions and stressed against the iambic metre, and repeated deixis
Nonetheless, he gives the impression that wrong has been done. (this, that), which heightens the directness of the appeal to the audience.
Though the last imperative, “Judge”, is an appeal to the gods to judge how
Constructing a Link between Caesar and the Audience much Caesar had loved Brutus, the delay that is achieved by the apostrophe
At this stage, Antony slips in “and you” (127) which gives the likely “O you gods” (180), make it first appear – following on “Look”, “See”,
audience response a decisive turn. Suddenly it is no longer a moving “Mark” as it does – an appeal to the audience to judge the murderer. But
spectacle observed by more or less unconcerned spectators, suddenly it again, Antony withdraws from explicit incitement to condemn Brutus.
concerns them personally: they have been wronged. As a result of the
sequence in which Antony presents his view, the audience does not turn The Effects of Rhythm
against him but against Brutus. In actual fact, Antony tells the audience that Antony’s speech is in blankverse and the overall regularity of the metrical
he would wrong them before he would say anything against Caesar’s pattern and the length of lines offer further opportunities for special effect
murderers. Put like this, it is a statement rather startling in its audacity. But when the pattern is broken. “The noble Brutus” (78), coming at the end of
of course, Antony was careful to make it very clear that he himself has been the line, though in fact a run-on-line, invites to a slight pause, it invites to
wronged also. And thus the audience’s anger is directed against Brutus and linger, just for a moment, on this phrase. Thus the phrase assumes an
his followers; the repetition of “honourable men” has by now assumed the emphasis, not justifiable from its informational value, which may be taken
sound of bitter mockery. as a first hint of irony right at the beginning of Antony’s speech. The
marked caesura in line 184 gives full force to the second half of the line
Direct Appeal to the Audience “then burst his mighty heart” and since in performance the “then” is likely
Antony’s tactics are to place the responsibility of judgment and action to be stressed (compare the speaker in the audio file) even though it is
entirely with his audience. His speech is full of assertions what he will not metrically speaking an unstressed syllable, the parallel between Caesar’s
do, and in denying that he will do them, Antony says and does those very murder and the fate of Rome “When the noble Caesar saw him stab [...]
things, or rather, he allows his audience to make him do it. (“I speak not to then burst his mighty heart [...] then I, and you, and all of us fell down.”
disprove what Brutus spoke” (101), “this testament, / Which [...] I do not (184-187) The link between Caesar and the Roman audience is further
mean to read” (131f), “I must not read it” (141), “You will compel me, strengthened at this point.
then, to read the will?” (157), “Let me not stir you up” (103 and 204), “I
come not to steal away your hearts” (209). In a series of conditional clauses Precarious Morals
he paints the scenario of the possible outcome of the actions he will not Antony’s speech is moving even though it rests on somewhat precarious
undertake to do, or, even more tantalising for his audience, he only hints at morals. Divested of its emotional appeals, his argument runs thus: Brutus is
possible results (“O, what would come of it?”, 147). In reaction to this, the honourable and I will not wrong him – But here is evidence that Brutus is
audience feels the need to assert its independence. Antony constantly wrong – Brutus (who does wrong things) would incite you to rebellion if he
appeals to the audience’s knowledge and he claims not to tell them anything were me – I do not do this because I am not Brutus (i.e. I do not do things
new (“as you know me all” (211), “I tell you that which you yourselves do that would be wrong). All this time he does exactly, and intentionally (see JC
know”, 217). In the illusion that they make Antony do what they want, the III, 1: 292-294 “[...] there shall I try / In my oration, how the people take /
audience does what Antony wants them to do: They turn against Brutus in The cruel issue of these bloody men”) what he says he will not do and what
the belief that this decision is the result of their own knowledge and he claims to be wrong: He incites his audience to rebellion.
judgment.
As his speech continues, Antony increases the emotional appeal Conclusion
through his choice of diction. Describing the reaction of the poor to Brutus had defended the assassination of Caesar as an act of freedom
Caesar’s murder, he aligns Caesar with holiness, especially for Shakespeare’s against tyranny. Antony contrives to give his Roman audience the illusion
Christian audience (“sacred blood”, 134, beg a hair like a relic, 135, kiss that they are making a free and independent judgment. Without directly
Caesar’s dead wounds, 133). In contrast, the beasts that have lost their accusing Brutus, Antony gradually aligns the audience emotionally on the
judgment are “brutish” (105) beasts, the pun on Brutus’ name obviously side of Caesar and places Brutus in the wrong. He achieves this effect
suggesting a similar fault in his judgment. As before, Antony approaches the through constant direct and emotionally charged appeals to the audience’s

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judgment and a pattern of repetition and parallel sentence structure which
suggest connections without making them explicit. primum comparandum secundum comparatum
(Brunhilda) (bulldozer)

[Link]. Analysing a Metaphor

Key terms:
Similes and metaphors are rhetorical tropes, i.e. figurative language, which • primum
comparandum
combine two semantic fields in order to enrich the meaning of one. Similes
• secondum
and metaphors are both figures of comparison, but there is a difference in comparatum
execution and complexity. To start with the less complex one: A simile is • tertium
an overt comparison, i.e. it makes the comparison explicit with the use of a comparationis
tertium comparationis:
particle of comparison (‘like’, ‘as’). Take for instance your assessment of the • common ground
• vehicle (large built, flattens
culinary delights provided in mensa: • tenor everything around her)
• catachresis
This Tofu-steak is like paper-maché.

In a simile one compares one thing to another in order to make a point In I.A. Richard’s terms, the vehicle of this metaphor is the bulldozer, the
about the first thing. So in the end there are three elements to a tenor, the purport of the image, in this case would be ‘Brunhilda is
comparison: First, the item you are interested in at the moment (the steak). ungraceful, merciless, tactless, has no sense or feeling’, or something along
In rhetoric this is called the primum comparandum. Second, the item you those lines.
are comparing the first item to (paper-maché). This is called the secundum As becomes obvious from this very simple example, it is often
comparatum. Then there is a third element which is the element of impossible to determine the exact and only tenor of a metaphor. This is
similarity, the common ground, between the first item (the steak) and the what makes metaphors complex and interesting as a tool in literary
second item (paper-maché). This is called the tertium comparationis (or expression. Metaphors do not merely replace one meaning-generating
ground). In the example with the mensa dish this would be something like: expression with another one of the same meaning. Instead, the combination
tasteless, of gluelike consistency. of the two semantic fields generates additional meaning which opens a
A metaphor, in very simplified terms, is a covert comparison; a range of possibilities for interpretation. It forces us to consider the world in
word or phrase from one semantic field is substituted with a word or new terms and it expands the meaning potential of language (for an
phrase from another. There has to be at least one common characteristic accessible exploration of the complexities of metaphor see Bode 2001: ch.
between the two parts for the metaphor to work (common ground or 4, for an example of interpretation see below and the SO WHAT section). It
tertium comparationis). No particle of comparison is used. A terminology, introduces ambiguity and thus a typically literary quality to a text (see ch.
introduced by the critic I.A. Richards, distinguishes between tenor – the 1.2.3).
purport or meaning of the image – and vehicle – the image which conveys When one tries to interpret a metaphor or a simile, the focus of
the meaning. Other terminologies distinguish between idea and image or attention is at first the tertium comparationis, the common ground between
target and source. Note that these concepts make slightly different the two items, because this provides additional information about the
distinctions than the terms from classical rhetoric. primum comparandum (Brunhilda). The secundum comparatum (the
Consider an example: Here is how you introduce your brother’s new bulldozer) is not really important in itself, it only ‘delivers’ the message
girlfriend Brunhilda when she cannot hear you: about the girlfriend (and that is why it is also called ‘vehicle’). Obviously, the
bulldozer has characteristics which are not likely to be relevant in this
Here comes the bulldozer. particular case: Maybe it has tracks instead of wheels, it runs on petrol and
so on. Important for the immediate impact of the metaphor are those
Even though only one element is explicitly mentioned (the bulldozer), there characteristics which Brunhilda and the bulldozer are likely to have in
are also three elements to this metaphor. Graphically, the relation between common (i.e. the common ground): forcefulness, unstoppability, size and
the three elements could be expressed thus: mass. In addition, it may be significant to our impression of Brunhilda that
the secundum comparatum is from the semantic field of technology.
In most cases one identifies the common ground without thinking
about it. It is, however, useful to be aware of the exact steps of the
decoding process, especially when one wishes to explore the effects of an
image in some detail. Take the following statement made by Richard of
Gloucester in his opening speech in Shakespeare’s Richard III. In the late
medieval war now referred to as the War of the Roses, Richard’s noble

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family, the House of York, have just defeated the House of Lancaster, and [Link]. Symbol
Richard’s elder brother Edward is now king:
A symbol is an object or an event which represents an abstract idea. In this
Now is the winter of our discontent sense all letters of an alphabet for instance are symbolic, they are arranged
Made glorious summer by this sun of York into words which represent certain concepts that we link with objects in
(Richard III I, 1:1-2) reality. In text analysis one looks for symbols in a more restricted sense of
the word: for those objects and events that are symbolic for a concept
The tenor of this metaphor (three metaphors actually: winter, summer, sun) immediately relevant to the development of plot or character.
is something like this: Now the time of our unhappiness is past, it has been Some symbols are known to everyone within a certain cultural
replaced by a time of well-being owing to the new king who is of the York community, they are public symbols. The cross for instance, which
family. As vehicles (i.e. as the actual images or secunda comparata) operate represents the Christian religion, is such a public symbol. The colour white,
the words “winter”, “summer” and “sun”. A common association with representing purity and innocence, can also be considered a public symbol.
‘winter’ is darkness, dreariness, even death and these aspects offer In literature one often finds private symbols, symbols that are not
themselves as likely common ground (or tertium comparationis) for ‘time of generally known and that can only be decoded from their usage in a specific
discontent’. ‘Summer’ is easily associated with warmth, bloom, or ease. A text. In Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House for instance, Mr John Jarndyce
comparison between ‘sun’ and ‘king’ is fairly common and the additional uses the expression ‘There is an east wind’ to indicate that he is distressed
(homonymic) pun on sun/son makes this point quite clear, since the about tensions or unhappiness among people around him. The expression,
present King Edward is of the York family, i.e. a son of York. which is normally merely about the weather, is thus used as a private
Two things are worthy of remark at this point. First, the paraphrase symbol. In the following poem by Carl Sandburg, ‘grass’ functions as a
is rather an impoverished rendering of the original expression and does not private symbol for the world’s forgetfulness of the horrors of war and
seem to exhaust the full potential of the image. It seems somehow more destruction:
expressive to say “Made glorious summer” than to say “made a pleasant
time”. Critics are thus of the opinion that an image always expresses
something beyond its paraphrase. Grass
The second point to be made is that Shakespeare uses three
metaphors here (winter, summer, sun) and all three are taken from the same Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
semantic field: the seasons. It also happens, however, that semantic fields Shovel them under and let me work –
are mixed incongruously, as in the following image: I am the grass; I cover all.

A burning sense of injury flooded through her and was not to be And pile them high at Gettysburg
rooted out. And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
In this example three semantic fields are mixed: fire (“burning”), water Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
(“flooded”) and gardening (“rooted out”). In effect mixed metaphors are What place is this?
rather confusing because they become difficult to visualise. This happens Where are we now?
when Lady Macbeth says to her husband:
I am the grass.
[…] Was the hope drunk, Let me work.
Wherein you dress’d yourself? (Macbeth I, 7:35)

First, she personifies hope and describes him or her as drunk, i.e. not based
on sober facts, but then she moves to the semantic field of clothes and the SO WHAT?
personified hope is turned into an item of clothing. This is confusing
because in one’s imagination one ends up with a drunken piece of clothing. In the analysis of figurative speech, especially simile and metaphor which
Of course one can still work out the tenor of the metaphor which would be link two separate semantic fields, it is often useful to examine the sort of
something like: ‘Was the hope you expressed just a delusion?’ In such cases semantic fields that are put into relation. For instance, are inanimate objects
one talks of mixed metaphor or catachresis. It has long been considered compared to animate (“the dirty room gave a sigh of relief when Imelda
bad style to use mixed metaphors. The above example from Macbeth for started her cleaning operations”), are people compared to animals or plants
instance, so shocked editors of Shakespeare that some editions changed it (“Her cheeks red roses such as seld have been”, Bartholomew Griffin), are
to “Was the hope drunk, / Wherein you bless’d yourself” or “Was the hope concrete objects compared to abstract notions (“Streets that follow like a
drunk, / Wherein you ’dressed [=addressed] yourself” (see Muir in tedious argument”, T.S. Eliot)? and so on. (For a comprehensive list of the
Shakespeare, Macbeth ad loc.). types of transfer and a sample analysis see Plett 2000: 183-203.) The

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