A Script for final test

INTRODUCTION TO

GOOD LUCK!! 

L.M.
 WEEK 7&9: NARRATIVE GENRE
DRAMA & NARRATIVES, SIMILARITIES & DISSIMILARITIES
 Drama may have some narrative elemens, dramatic texts are not always purely
dramatic but may resemble narratives (epic drama, 20th century, e.g. Wilder)
 Unlike narrative or other genres, drama is highly visual/scenic & dependent on
performative aspect of its text (exceptions: closet plays, Milton: Samson Agonistes, or
Shelley: Prometheus Unbound)
 Play's text: blueprint (collection of instructions which gain full meaning only when
performed)
 Drama: Multimedial form (uses both auditory & visual media);
 Narrative fiction: monomedial (nothing visualised, or heard, reader has to imagine a
lot)
 Epic drama illustrates strong resemblance between dramatic & narrative texts
 Theoreticians: epic narratives (novels, short stories) & dramatic narratives (dramas)
 Similarities:
1. A story & a plot;
2. Tellability & experientiality are both dramatic & narrative criteria;
3. Double chronology of narrative presentations (in drama) vs. Interplay between
the narrated time & the narration time (in narratives)
 Main distinction: novels read; plays enacted
 Additional differences not as clear-cut:
a) Easier for the novelist to supply information on historical background; be
spatially mobile; present summary accounts/ comments; present the story
through this/that persepctive; express character's „secret inner life“;
b) All of the above, if in drama relies on specific conventions (e.g. soliloquy; „alter-
ego“ characters, etc.) notably less natural

NARRATIVE GENRE – STORY VS. DISCOURSE

 STORY: a chronological sequence of events (what happens next?)

 DISCOURSE: the manner in which the story is shaped by the author (How it happens?
What structure?)
 Theoreticians who focus on the level of story (story-oriented approach) distinguish
narratives from lyrical/non-narrative texts in that that narrative texts have a story/plot.
 Story-oriented approach: discusses events, causal chain of events in which an event
changes the situation; discusses characters etc.
 Discourse-oriented approach: narrativity/typical narrative features defined in relation
to the manner in which the story/plot are presented to readers

22
 Central issue: analysis of the point of view.
 Third approach: thematic level (discussing content; disregarding formal characteristics
of narratives)
 Combination of the approaches suggested; even if one of the three may be dominant,
depends on historical period; style of the author; particular narrative genre (adventure
novels plot has the primacy;etc)

NARRATIVE GENRE – HISTORICAL SURVEY

 First novels: medieval romances written in France in 11th century (dealt with knightly
adventures etc, incl. Love adventures) or
 Origin of the novel (the most popular genre/literary form of the modern age) in
Renaissance prose stories
 First modern European novel: Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (2part; 1605; 1615)
 The novel fully developed in 18th century & reflected the new self-awareness and
power of the middle-class
 First 18th century novels: numerous adventures of the protagonist & minor figures;
picaresque form; kept the pretence of realism (e.g. Henry Fielding; Tom Jones; Danel
Defoe; Robinson Crusoe etc)
 Novel flourishes in 19th & 20th century
 Victorian novel (Bronte sisters; George Eliot; William Thackeray)
 Novel at the turn of the centuries (Thomas Hardy; D.H. Lawrence);
 Modernist novel-characterized by experimental approach to literary form & new
narrative techniques (James Joyce, Virginia Wolf, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann..)
 Postmodernist novel – usually combine all the previous literary techniques and devices;
challenge traditional views on literature; combine literary and non-literary discourse
(Margaret Atwood; John Barth, Jorge Luis Borges, Don Delillo, Umberto Eco..)
 Novels grouped according to:
a) Theme/subject matter: historical novel; the family novel; society novel; love
novels; university (campus) novels; the women novel; war novels...
b) Content & form: neo-picaresque; buildungsroman;
c) Form only: picaresque (series of episodes usually including the travels of the
main hero); epistolary (in the forms of letters)
d) Style: sentimental, romantic, realist, naturalist, modernist and postmodernist
(refers to not only the historical period but also narrative techniques are
associated with the period and/or school)

23
NARRATIVES; STORY-ORIENTED APPROACH
Story-oriented narratology:
a) Time
b) Place
c) Characters/figures
d) Plot/story

Central issue: presentation of characters (characterisation & relation of characters)

 Characters:
1. Static/dynamic;
2. Individuals/types (round/flat, E.M.Forster)
 Forster: round characters/individuals found in novels and tragedies; flat
characters/types found in comedies (esp. English Restoration Comedy, 17th century)
satires, some film genres.
 Varius approaches, depend on historical historical & literary period/style
 Characterisation related: from whose persepective is the figure characterised
 Two types:
a) Explicit (character him/herself; or other characters; + their non-verbal
behaviour)
b) Implicit / auctorial technique (reader draws conclusion on the basis of the
plot/story)
 Additional element in characterisation: reliability of a character &/or narrator

PLOT
 Logically & causally entwined series of events, smallest units events (the events
significant for the progress of a story)
 Roland Barthes:
a) Kernels/nuclei
b) Catalysts/satellites
 KERNELS/NUCLEI: constitutive parts of plot
 CATALYSTS/SATELLITES: unnecessary events that serve as decoration
 Distinction based on assumption that narratives primarly consist of/describe event;
con; Modernist novels

24
WEEK 9/ EXPOSITION TECHNIQUES & TYPES OF ENDINGS

 Ways to being a story (exposition techniques):

a) ab ovo („from the egg“)
b) in medias res (in the midst)
c) in ultimas res (to begin from the end“)
 Ways to end a story (types of endings)
a) Closed ending
b) Open ending
c) The expected ending
d) Deus-ex-machina ending („God-from-the-machine“/contrived ending)
NARRATIVES; DISCOURSE-ORIENTED APPROACH

 Central issue of discourse-oriented approach: manner/mode of narrative

mediation of the story/action
 NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE/POINT OF VIEWS & NARRATORS
 NOTE: Some novels use one throughout, others combine
 NARRATOR ≠ AUTHOR
 GENERAL NOTE: Viewpoints & types of narrators MAY be combined in a
single novel; Particular periods favoured some viewpoints/ narrators over
others
 Narrators may be presented as:
a) Naive narrators
b) Unreliable narrators
 Modes of presenting character's mental state:
a) Psycho-narration
b) Free-indirect discourse
c) Interior/quoted monologue

25
POINT INTERNAL
OF EXTERNAL
VIEW
(Ich form of novels) Personal Medium

Omniscient (all- Objective

knowning (dramatic,
I-as- Stream-of- Interior
NARRATOR auctorial, camera-eye I-as-witness
protagnosti consciousness monologue
Olympian technique, fly-
viewpoint) on-the-wall)

Describes
Jumbled & Single
characters Main
Knows Side figures, chaotic character's
from the protagonist
everything (of narrate of mixture of thought as
outside ,can tell us
the past main character's if spoken
(appear, about
&future events); protagonists's thoughts in aloud;
speak,act); his/her
FEATURES Intercepts actions, 0 fragments, thoughts &
Pretends not thoughts
narration;Knows access to abolishes inner
to know more but not
characters minds of syntactic, world
than others, Not
inside-out; others, Not semantic, presented
readers;Illusion omni-
omnipresent omni-present punctuation more less
that narrator is present
rulesL logically
neutral

26
 WEEK 10: FIGURATIVE USE OF LANGUAGE, FIGURES OF SPEECH; LAKOFF
„METAPHORS WE LIVE BY“
 Language used in both literature and everyday life highly figurative distinguish between:
1. Denotative meaning (basic, literal meaning of a word/phrase)
2. Conotative meaning (additional, extra meaning of a phrase based on its
associations)
 A trope (Greek tropos; Latin tropus, = a turn/turning) – the use of word/words in a
figurative sense, figurative language in general.
 Field of rethorical theory.
 Rhetoric = the art of persuading through the use of language
 Classical times: 2 major treatises – Aristotle's Rhetoric; Quintilian's Institutes of
Oratory
 Important science/discipline in both Medieval times as well as Renaissance times;
basically became the art of writing
 Rhetorical figures (figures of speech; tropes) widely used in poetry, but also in dramatic,
narrative (all fictional) & non-fictional texts.
 Figures are not only decoration, but contribute to the next coherence
 Rhetorical figures classification:
a) Morphological (the level of morphology)
b) Syntactic (the syntax)
c) Semantic (word meanings)
d) Pragmatic rhetorical figures (actual use of language in everyday situations)

FIGURATIVE USE OF LANGUAGE

 Morphological rhetorical figures => Repetitions on the morphological

level; the most important & frequent
 Anaphora: Word repetition at the beginning of sentence or verse (So long as men can
breath or eyes can see,/ So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.)
 Epiphora: Word repetition at the end of sentence or verse (The yellow fog that rubs its
back upon the window-panes / The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the winow-
panes.)
 Epanalepsis: Immediate or near-immediate word repetition (Peace, peace thou
hippopotamus!; or I celebrate myself & sing myself!)
 Anadiplosis: Repetition of the preceding sentence ending (And gentle wishes long
subdued, / Subdied and cherished long!)
 Polyptoton: Recurrence of a word in its different inflexional forms (Thus vainly thinking
that she thinks me young)

27
 Figura etymologica: Recurrence of a word stem in different parts of speech (I had (...) /
Lit some lighter light or freer freedom)
 Synonymy: Replacement of a word by its synonym – a word with similar meaning – (For
thee I watch, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere.)
 Syntatic rhetorical figure => figures operating on the level of sentence
contruction and sentence structure; most common
 Parallelism - successive parts of sentence have the same structure (Happy my studies,
when by these approved!/Happy their author, when by these beloved!)
 Chiasmus – inversion of the second of two parallel clauses or sentence parts (With
wealth you state your mind with arts, improve.)
 Asyndeton – the leaving out of conjuctions between coordinate sentence elements (All
whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies/ Despair, law, chance hath slain (...))
 Polysyndeton – coordinate sentence elements linked with conjuctions (After the
sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, (...))
 Inversion- the reversal or distortion of ordinary word order (Here rests his head upon
the lap of earth/(...))
 Hysteron proteron – the reversal of the logical sequence of events (I die! I faint! I fail!)
 Ellipsis – omission of sentence elements (Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, / But
are not Critics (partial) to their judgement too?)
 Zeugma – one and the same verb controls more objects, to which it is tied semantically
(Here thou, great Anna! Whom three realms obey,/ Dost sometimes counsel take – and
sometimes (dost take) Tea.)
 Semantic rhetorical figures: connected with term „imagery“; not restricted to literature
but also important for other media (film or visual art).
 Imagery generic term for different kinds of images created through language
 The chief semantic figure metaphor; but there are also: simile, symbol, metonymy,
synecdoche, personification, synaesthesia, antonomasia, hyperbole, irony..
 Subdived into:
a) Figures of similarity (metaphor, simile, personification & synaesthesia)
b) Figures of contiguity (metonymy, including synecdoche & antonomasia)
 Metaphor (Greek metapherein, Latin metaphora = to carry over): figurative / indirect
use of language in which something is not directly, explicitly named, but replaced /
circumlocuted through the use of expressions from a completely different field or
sphere.
 Involved an implied comparison
 Tenor (target domain/recipient field): that what is eventually meant or described by a
metaphor
 Vehicle (source domain/ donor field): the contect from which a particular expression or
word is borrowed

28
  Similarity, either formal or thematic, has to exist between tenor and vehicle
 Metaphors filter out only those semantic features relevant for a particular occasion
 „All the world's a stage/ and all men merely players“ (Shakespeare: As you like it)
human life is described in terms of stage in a theater; the comparison between life and
stage/art is implid, suggesting that life imitates art (contrary to classical assumption that
art imitates life). Hence human beings are like actors and actresses (comparison made
implicit; Sh. Does not use „like“)
 Metaphor = more subtle & more complex than the ordinary simile

LAKOFF, METAPHORS WE LIVE BY

 Metaphor part of our everday language, and constitutes and shapes our everyday
thinking and action. Thus, not only rhetorical device, but also determines or shapes the
way we think and act
 Our conceptual system is largely metaphorical & language is thus a source of evidence
for what our conceptual system is like: what we say reflects how we think and our
thinking and speaking is closely connected with how we act and what we do
 Lakoff argues that most of our conceptual system is metaphorical in nature
 Terms: conceptual metaphors, orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors
 Do not mix Lakoff's conceptual, orientational and ontological metaphors (figures of
thought) with actual metaphorical expressions (figures of speech)
 Lakoff's are implied in various expressions which are not necessarily metaphorical,
whereas metaphors are figurative use of language

OTHER SEMANTIC FIGURES OF SPEECH

 Simile => actual comparison
 Symbol => something with sensual & literal reality, a physical object, which stands for or
suggest something else, often an abstract idea or complex of ideas (matters of
convention); Metaphors can become a symbol in a single poetic work: e.g. Shakespeare,
Sonnet 73
 Metonymy => replaces one notion by another which are linked in a logical way. Always
involve logical, or causal, or pragmatic connection between two terms, words or
notion; either a reduction/expansion of meaning (Cf.Lakoff, practical classes)
 Generally, metonymy involves a variety of relations between the thing referred to and
the expression used to refer to it.
 Synecdoche => A subtype or a special case of metonymy where the relation involved
can be described as „part for a whole“ or pars pro toto (Cf.Lakoff)
 Personification => gives human qualities or attributes to animals, ideas, or inanimate
objects. Personifications are the most obvious ontological metaphors (e.g. Life has
cheated me; cf.Lakoff)

29
 Synaesthesia => is an unusual blend of sensory perceptions: (e.g.“The mind forged
manacles I hear“)
 Hyperbole => intensifying exaggeration which should not be taken literally („Is this the
face that launched a thousand ships/ And burned the topless towers of Ilium?“)
 Euphemism => more polite, more polished, less direct or less offensive expression or
phrase instead of the one regarded to be too drect, too coarse, too insulting (You can't
believe that British troops „retire“; Students are kindly asked to report to professor so
and so)
 Litotes => is an understatement for effect; a negation of the contrary: e.g. „not
infrequently“ meaning frequently
 Oxymoron => a witty paradox, or a combination of contradictory ideas e.g. „sweet
harm“
 Paradox => a seemingly contradictory statement which on a closer examination turns
true: „We die and rise the same“
 Antithesis => the juxtaposition of logically contrary or opposite notions:“Resolved to
win, he meditates the way, /By force to ravish, or by fraud betray“
 Paranomasia/Pun => play on words using homonyms: „Therefore I lie with her, and she
with me, /And in our faults by lies we flattered be“...

WEEK 11: LITERARY THEORY/PLATO-ARISTOTLE-LONGINUS

 Why bring up the names & theories of the Ancient world when your major is the English
language and Anglo-American authors? – Socrates, Plato & Aristotle laid the
foundations to Western philosophy (&indirectly to literary criticism/theory)
 Why discuss or even get acquainted with literary crticism/theory)? – Not knowing
theoretists, and the traditions of crticial theory/ interpretation, one left with mere
literary texts, could cause confusion & ambiguity: (issues with classification of
texts/authors, analytical approaches, or how to interpret lines or sentenes, the
„readings2 of literary texts would be unobjective & prone to significant differences.
 Classical Greek (pre-Hellenic) philosophy: philosophical works of Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle.
 Period: about 360 BC to 322 BC, then preserved & spread in /via the great Alexandrian
library & museum, and through the first histories of literature and criticism ( e.g. The
one written by Suetonius)
 To the ancient Greeks, literature important element of education & social
conditioning; by Plato and Aristotle, literature had achieved considerable authority and
status
 All discussed:
a) Role and importance of poetic authors,
b) Integral elements of their art,
30
 c) Ultimate aim/function of good work of art/literature,
d) The source of inspiration to poets

SOCRATES
 None of the works by Socrates ever mentioned with historical accuracy or cetainty.
 Most information on Socrates derived from/via the work of his disciples and/or other
ancient scholars (e.g. Plato (Apology), Aristotle, Xenophon & Aristophanes).

PLATO
 Many shorter and longer philosophical works asking a series of questions such as:
defining virtue & goodness, how to arrive at truth & knowlege, the ideal political state,
(social) function of art/literature, what is art/literature etc.
 The list of works: 35 dialogues & 13 letters
 A dialogue form, using Socrates' dialectical method of pursuing truth; Socrates
frequently cast as the main speaker
 Plato's major dialogues of his middle period (Gorgias, Apology, Phaedo, Symposium
and the Republic) move to the theory of knowledge (epistemology), metaphysics,
political theory & art theory.
 All governed by Plato's theory on Forms (Ideas)
 According to the theory, any object in the physical world is a mere echo/an imitation of
the object as conceived in the world of pure form (e.g. one sees some object as
beautiful because it partakes of the ideal of Beauty which exists only in the higher
realm)
 The Republic, book 7, „the myth of the cave“ Cave is a metaphor for physical world & its
limitations; light of the sun is „soul's ascension“ to the ideal world of Forms

PLATO ON POETS/LITERATURE
 Poetry: powerful force in moulding public opinions & a danger to the ideal city/social
system:
 Acc to Plato, ultimate goal of a human should be pursuit of the truth/of the ideal. As the
physical world is an echo of the pure Forms; art/literature is mimetic (mimesis = mere
copying) => art then is „an imitation of an imitation of the pure Form“, that is, three
times removed from the truth
 Art influential, can delude average human, humans can be sidetracked from the pursuit
of the Ideal by the art, thus artists are a danger (liars and deceivers).
 Plato asks for censorship & full banishment of artists on several accounts:
1) Art is deceitful
2) Art is corruptible
3) Art is imitation of imitation/far from truth

31
 4) Art is disorderly, complex
5) Art appeals to „lower aspects of the soul such as emotion and appetite“
(encourages individualism in emotions)

PLATO, ION
 The most systematic comment on poetry/art, composed before Republic
 In the Ion, Socrates points out to Ion that rhapsodes, just like poets, are all in the state
of „divine possession“; that at the moment of compostion/enactment of the works of
art, the subject/agent is not himself, possesses no consciousness of his own, nor any
talent, because the poet, or the entertainer is not speaking with his own voice, but is
only a medium (instrument, such as loudspeakers) through which a divinity speaks.
 In order to depict the process vividly, Plato uses two images:
1) The metaphor of a magnet,
2) Image of Bacchic maidens that intoxicate themselves in order to lose all
limitations/inhibitions that might prevent their communion with God
 According to this attitude, poetry and criticism of it is irrational, inspired by God(s); the
artists, 6/or their critics, cannot be considered proper/authentic authors, but only
empty vessels (God's puppets).

ARISTOTLE
 One of Plato's disciples, considered the most brilliant of all students at Plato's Academy.
 Contribution to the history of thought in: metaphysics, logic, ethics, politics, literary
criticism & various branches of natural science
 In 343 BC tutor to Alexander of Macedon; later opened school of rhetoric & philosophy,
the Lyceum, in Athens
 Reversing Plato's hierarchy, Aristotle urges that universals depend on particular
objects for their existence. Hence, he insists that senses are the strating point & the
source of knowledge
 Aristotle's approach more empirical than the idealistic Platonic vision
 Greatest contribution in the discipline of logic, formalizing the rules & methods of logic

ARISTOTLE'S POETICS
 Most important document, & the oldest known piece of literary criticism in the
Western world; composed some 50-75 years after the Golden Age of Greek tragedy;
structure; three main parts
 General introduction: notion of poetry; briefly outlining various literary forms; concept
of mimesis (imitation as fundamental to the phenomenon of art, the elementary
characteristics of art)
 In Poetics mimesis most likely refers to the peculiarities of the artistic process

32
  Contrasted to Plato, Aristotle sees poetry having positive function in the political state;
Like Plato, Aristotle claims poetry is a mode of imitation; unlike Plato, for Aristotle the
mimesis has positive significance
 Imitations differ in:
a) The means used
b) The objects presented
c) The manner of presentation
 A poet is an integral part of human society; arts imitate men in action; the action
imitated has to have a moral end/purpose
 Aristotle draws important distinction in between history & literature; in the hierarchy
of disciplines, literature second to philosophy, and history in the last (third) place.

HORACE'S ARS POETICA

 Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Roman) primarily a poet, composer of odes, satires, and
epistles; lived in the first century BC (65-8 BC)
 In literary criticism Horace associated with the following notions: poetry should „teach
and delight“; „poem is like a painting“; poetry is a craft demanding labour (& practice).
 Influence of Ars Poetica vast, exceeding influence of Plato, & even Aristotle
 Ars Poetica: the form of a letter (epistle); an established poet advises the would-be
poets; a piece of literary criticism and a poem: later frequently imitated (e.g.Alexander
Pope or Lord Byron.)
 Ars Poetica discusses:
1) Relation of a writer to his own work, the tradition & his own ability
2) Moral & social functions of poetry
3) Issue of audience's own contribution in the creation of work of art
4) Awareness of literary history & change in language and genre of the work
 Poetry has a valuable social function & is there both to entertain as well as teach
(poem is not only to charm a reader but to offer a moral advice);
 Idea that a poet has to possess empirical knowledge (coming from keen observation of
actual life), be realistic, select a fitting form to content, expression to the thought, style
to subject matter, and diction to the characters (rules of decorum).
 Insisting that poets are to work hard in order to compose a piece of good poetry; once
the work is published it is forever a piece of public property.

ROMAN EMPIRE
 The first four centuries, the Roman Empire, 2 intellectual currents:
1) Second sophistic (best represented by Longinus and „on the sublime“)
2) Neo.Platonism (best represnted by Plotinus). Through Neo-Platonism & works
of Macrobius and Boethius, essentially Greek developments transmitted to the

33
 Middle Ages (detected in the poems by great English authors as well, e.g.
Geoffrey Chaucer)

ON THE SUBLIME
 Ascribed to Longinus, dates from the 1 or 2ct. AD, considered the most influential
rhetorical text through much of the Second Sophistic period; exerted significant
influence on literary criticism since the 17th century
 Treats the sublime as a quality of the soul or spirit, not a matter of mere technique
(skill)
 The sublime: important element in Romantic reaction against neoclassicism in Europe;
in the work of thinkers such as Immanuel Kant; re-echoed in the work of English
theorists such as Arnold & Leavis
 Five sources of the sublime:
1) Command of robust ideas
2) Inspiration of „vehement emotion“
3) Proper construction of figures (of thought and speech)
4) Nobility of phrase, incl. Diction & the use of metaphors
5) General effect of dignity & elevation (embracing previous four.)
 The most important element: arrangment of various elements of a passage into a
unified, single system (advocating an artistic organicism „organic whole“, analogous to
human organism)

WEEK 12: LITERARY THEORY/ENGLISH RENAISSANCE & SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
 Uomo universalis: Elizabeth I's courtier, had a successful public career (a diplomat, a
soldier)
 His literary works (pastoral „Arcadia“; sonnet sequence „Astrophil and Stella“) mainly
circulated privaetly in his lifetime;
 Died at a battlefield in Europe in 1586; was given a hero's funeral (St Paul's Cathedral),
and 200-odd formal elegies.
 Ar. 1600, biography by Fulke Greville (the memory of Sidney in his many roles became
public property).
 His works emerged as crucial to the literary discourses in the late 16th century
 Began composing poetry in 1578; writing career lasted 7-8 years only

34
DEFENCE OF POESIE
 Composed in 1579; was a response to Stephen Gosson's 'School of Abuse' (1579)
 Follows the tradition of Boccaccio & Du Bellay (also composed apologies & defences of
literature – the tradition continued through the nineteen century into our day.)
 The „aesthetic“, struggling to break free from theology, morality, politics, philosophy &
even history resulted from Renaissance poetics
 Originally published under two different titles: The Defence of Poesie, and Apology for
Poetrie in 1595
 A thorough and strong argument, written by a practitioner of the art, who had a strong
education in the classics; In it Sidney, not bringing up Gosson's name responded to
Gosson's and all the other's demeaning opinions & assaults against literary works
 Both Sir Philip Sidney and George Puttenham (1529-91) produced two treatises in
aesthetic theory respectively: Defence of Poesie (1579/80) and Puttenham's The Arte
of English Poesie (1589)
 Defining a way forward; offering prescripitive defintions of literature in general &
poetry in particular; claiming literature is the principal of the human art (& should be
taken as the measure of true civilization)
 Puttenham's style contrived; Sidney's simple, the one of the essay smooth &
conversational
 Sidney draws from many ancient & modern authors: Aristotle, Horace, Boccaccio or
Julius Caesar Scaliger the ideas not original, but the Defence a seminal text of literary
crticism in English; raises the issues such as the value and function of poetry, nature of
imitation, and the concept of nature
 The work opens up with an anecdote
 Sidney defends “poor poetry”, arguing that poetry whose “final end is to lead and draw
us to as high perfection as our degenerate souls, …, can be capable of”, is the best
means of “purify (ication) of wit.”
 Produces a wide range of arguments in defence of literature: based on chronology, on
authority of ancient tradition, on the relation of poetry to nature; discusses the function
of poetry as imitation, the status of poetry among various disciplines of learning and the
relationship of poetry to truth or morality.
 Classical seven-part structure for its structure
 References of allusions to classical texts, mostly from three Classical authors: Plato,
Aristotle & Horace
 Sidney frequently uses logical & historical evidence, but relies heavily on the emotional
effect of his words as well, hence his treatise might not be considered scientific by the
modern standards
 Literature is as old as human civilization & merits the respect and reverence given by
the ancient civilizations

35
 'neither Philoshoper nor Historiographer could at the first have entered into the gates
of popular judgements, if they had not taken a great Passport of Poetry“.
 Poetry, even amongst the most marginalized cultures on the fringes of Europe, had
always acted as the great communicatior, and it was, from the first, the discipline that
encouraged learning, and it should be so with England
 Poetry (literature in gen) is older than philosophy or history & should be given priority;
best teaches people morality/ethics, unlike philosophy or history, literature works by
the living example & not by abstract theories and projections.
 The poet thus superior to both the philosophers and historians (more concrete than
the first & more universal than the latter)
 Manages to prove false Plato's charge that poets are deceivers and liars by stating that
„the poet nothing affirms (claims)“; he also denies Platonic claim that poetry arouses
base desires.
 Moreover, the benefit of poetry is that it simultaneously teaches and provides delight
 Obvious connection with the works of Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica –
when poetry (and lyric poetry above all) gives delight, it also breeds virtue (dulce et
utile)
 Aristotle's definition of art as mimesis elaborated upon: poets take a step forwards by
taking a natural image or object, purifying it, beautifying it and then creating shapes that
do not exist in nature, hence making another nature, new and more beautiful
 The central part of the Defence: the greatest achievement of poets is that they do not
speak of „what is, had been or shall be“, but rather „what may be and should be“.
(Hence, the task of poetry is not present the mere facts of faily existence but rather
portraying what is probable and ideal)
 Attempts to classify poetry-two strands:
1) Formal, conventional and slight
2) More original and thus more artistic
 The latter (more artistic one) further subdivied into:
1) Divine (including bible)
2) Philosophical
3) Lyrical-descriptive poetry (literature)
 A portion of the essay dedicated to examining and describing poetry in English, native
poets & metrics in English poetry: names of his great predecessors such as Chaucer
(and his Troilus and Criseyde), and the contemporary works (such as the collection the
Mirror of Magistrates, Earl of Surrey's poetry, & Spenser's the Shepherd's Calendar)
 Apart from the example of Gordobuck (the first English/native tragedy, 1501, Sackville
and Norton), English dramatic poetry deviates from the classical rules and are
therefore erruoneous, according to Sidney (already discussed it, re-read homework
UNIT 5)

36
 The treatise shaped by a need to reply to the case put by Plato/Gosson & by an evident
pleasure in displaying his own enthusiasms and observations
 Prepared to admit that Plato's intolerance to poets has a validitiy when directed against
sacred and philosophical verse – the poetry which is most likely to misrepresent ideas
 The Defence => a refined rhetorical argument intended to establish the artistic, social
and moral values of poetry, defending it from Puritan assaults
 The work significant as a noteworthy example of an artistic essay on literature but also
as an example of a Renaissance aesthetic treatise

WEEK 13:LITERARY THEORY/ NEO-CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM &

VICTORIAN CRTICISM
AUGUSTAN AGE/ THE NEO-CLASSICAL AGE/ THE AGE OF POPE/AGE OF
REASON/ THE GOLDEN AGE/ AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT
 1702 – 1704;
 Return to classical models, literary styles and values of ancient Greek and Roman
authors
 Both heirs of Renaissance humanists and reacted sharply against stylistic excess,
superfluous ornamentation and linguistic over-sophistication of later Renaissance
 Marked by the philosophy of John Locke (1832 – 1704) true essence of any human being
is reason; hence, reason should be put to noble purposes only it has its own
limitations
 Representative authors: Alexander Pope & John Dryden in poetry; Johnathan Swift &
Joseph Addison in prose
 Literature characterized by striving for harmony and precision, rigidity and ubranity and
imitation of classical models (Homer, Cicero, Virgil, Horace)
 Role models for 'creative imitation': ancient classical literature of Greece and Rome &
style of Horace (Ars Poetica) in particular
 Preferred set rules to the seriousness of subject matter; ignored creativit, depth, vigour
or freshness of expression
 Emphasis of the classical values of objectivity, impersonality, rationality, decorum,
balance, harmony, proportion and moderation; literary compostion a rational and
rule-bound process, requiring a great deal of craft, labour & study; separation of
poetry and prose, the purity of each genre, and the hierarchy of genres (places the epic
above tragedy)
 Typical meters and verse forms: alexandrine in France, heroic couplet in England
 Much neoclassical thought marked by a recognition of human finitude
 „Imitation“ and „nature“ central to neoclassical theory and practice

37
  The notion of imitation – of the external world and of human action – a reaffirmation of
the ideals of objectivity and impersonality.
 Also referred to the imitation of classical models, especially of Homer and Vergil
 „Nature“ referred to:
a) To the harmonious and herarchical order of the universe, including the various
social and political hierarchies within the world. In this vast scheme of nature,
everything had its proper and appointed place
b) Also to human nature (what was central, timeless, and universal in human
experience. Hence, „nature“ had a deep moral significance.
 Invention allowed but only as a modification of past models
 Dryden's An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) and Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711)

ALEXANDER POPE & NEO-CLASSICISTS

 Nature as derived from classical theory: a rational and comprehensible moral order in
the universe, demonstrating God's beneficial design
 Saw the ancients such as Homer and Vergil as having already expressed the
fundamental laws of nature. Hence, the external world could best be expressed by
modern writers if they followed the path of imitation already paved by the ancients
 The literary circle around Pope considered Homer unsurpassed among ancient poets in
his descriptions of nature, and therefore concluded that the writer who „imitated“
Homer was also imitating nature
 From this ensued the rules that Pope articulated in his Esssay on Criticism (1711),
written in verse, in the tradition of Horace's Ars Poetica: „Those rules of old discovered,
not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodized.“
 Emphasized the finitude of human reason, cautioning against its arrogant and
unrestriced employment
 Reason in neoclassical thought largely in Aristotelian and sometimes Horatian terms:
an adherence to the requirements of probability and verismilitude to the three unities,
and the prinicple of decorum (harmony of form and conent)
 This general tendeny of neoclassicism toward order, clarity, and standardization also
manifested in attempts during the seventeeneth and eighteenth centuries to regulate
the use of language and the meaning of words – dr.Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
published in 1755.
 The impetus behind these endeavours echoed John Locke's theory of language & his
insistence on philosophy using „clear and distinct“ ideas which would avoid figurative
language. Hence, ideal of clarity permeated neoclassical poetry (often discursicve,
argumentative, aimed to avoid obscurity)

38
ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
 Begun in 1789-1798, cca 1800, and lasted until mid 19th century
 Deeply connected with the politics of the time
 Reached its most mature expression in the work of William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
who saw nature as embodying a universal spirit, and Samuel Taylor Colreidge who drew
on the work of Kant, Fichte and Schelling
 Other English Romantics: John Keats (1795-1821); Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822);
George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824)
 A rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization and
rationality of the late 18th century Neoclassicism in particular
 To some extent a reaction against the Enlightment and against 18th century
rationalism and physical materialism
 Emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the
personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary and the transcdental
 Frequently thought to have been concerned with expression of emotions in their
works, but even more stressed was a revolution in form and language
 Wished to free themselves from the neoclassical heritage
 Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads (collection comp.both by Wordsworth and
Colreidge) a Romantic manifesto
 The Preface states one thing of a vital importance: the idea was to have common
language, vernacular back to the world of poetry
 As much as they desired to rid themselves of the neo-classical heritage, they more
wanted to rid themselves of limitations &constraints of too much order in life as such:
they fled to wild nature of Wales, Highlands, Celtic and pseudo-Celtic romances.

WORDSWORTH
 Relationship of the Romantics to nature a vast subject; briefly, cultivated great
sensitivity to untamed nature: felt as a muse, a divinity; and to view a thundering
waterfall or even confront a rolling desert could be morally improving
 Most important contribution to literary criticism – „Preface“ to Lyricall Ballads (1798)
 Wordsworth tresses the poems present „the real language of men in a state of vivid
sensation“ / „language really spoken by men“.
 Adds that the poet should throw over these incidents from common life „a certain
colouring of imigation, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an
unusal aspect.“
 The poet is „a man speaking to men“; who has a „dispostion to be affectd more than
other man by absent things as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself
passions“

39
  In support of such realism, Wordsworth refers to a classical authority, Aristotle
(„Aristotle, I have been told, has said, that Poetry is the most philosophic of all writing“)
 Most famous for: „all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings“...
„our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our ghoughts, which are
indeed the represntatives of all our past feelings“; and that „the emotions are
recollected in tranquillity“.
 Spontaneity, thus, is the result of long reflection and practice and Wordsworth views
poetry as a meditated craft

COLERIDGE (1772-1832)

 A highly talented poet; his genious extended over many domains, yet bequeathed us
with little poetry; his few poetic and theoritical works influenced many of his
contemporaries as well as his posterity (e.g. T.S Eliot and Cleanth Brooks, theoreticians
of the New Crticism)
 Responsible for importing the new German critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant and
Friedrich von Schelling to the UK
 Biographia Literaria, 1817, prose medley, consists of samplings of literary criticism,
philosophising and literary theory (echoes of German philosophy of Kand and von
Schelling)
 The first volume recounts the author's friendship with poets R.Southey &
W.Wordsworth (including his well-known discussion of the difference between fany and
imagination)
 Second volume concentrates on literary criticism and propses theories about the
creative process and the historical sources of the elements of poetry
 Chapter 13, volume 1 of Biographia Literaria, fancy and imigation and imigation appears
in two degrees (primary and secondary imagination)
 Primary imagination: an unattainable, divine-like abstraction; imigation in its pure form,
of the eternal and infinite kind from which all human (limited) perception and creation
draws its source and power – clearly associated with Plato's ideas/abstractions of the
real world, unattainable to humans, and of which this world is a mere echo/mirror
 Secondary imagination: an echo of the primary (retains certain traits of the primary
imagination, yet appearing in a lesser degree); refers to the power of an extraordinary
mind to analyse, dissipate and then synthesise, and recreate elements of in a new form;
obviously of the kind needed by poets and various artists – only poets/ artist may
possess it
 Fancy: something that any healthy average human being possesses (still qualified with
the fixed possibility of combination of various elements of perception, yet not marked
by a creative, synthetic aspect)

40
  Poetry distinguished from other disciplines such as science and history „by proposing
for its immediate object pleasure, not truth“
 Definition of „poetic faith“ as a „willing suspension of disbelief“ explain poetic
autonomy: the images in poetry have a force and logic of their own that urge the reader
to enter the world of poetic illustion and to suspend judgement as to whether the
images of that poetic world have a real existence

VICTORIAN CRITICISM
 1850s > the vast unifying systems of thinkers and the unfying visions of the Romantics
collapsed into a series of one-sided systems, such as utilitarianism, pistivism, and social
Darwinism
 Additionally, a number of movements continued the oppostional stance of Romanticism
to mainstream bourgeois and Enlightenment ideals, such as Matthew Arnold's, Thomas
Carlyle's version of German idealism, or John Ruskin's philosophy
 The values were increasingly attuned to the rapid progress of science and technology
(science effectively displaced religion and theology; natural sciences became the model
and the measure of other discplines)
 The broadest name for this emulation of science is „positivism“, which prevaded many
domains: sociology (as exemplified by Durkheim), psychology (Freud) and social thought
(evolutionism of Herbert Spencer)
 Literary expressions of this general tendeny (positivism) were realism and naturalism
 In criticism and literary theory two greatest strands in Victorian England (1830s-1901)
appear:
a) Aestheticism (as represented by Pater and Wilde and the axiom „I'art pour I'art“;
art has no purpose, needs just to be beautiful);
b) Sociological school of criticism (as presented by Matthew Arnold – the critic's
critic: criticism must be „disinterested“ by „following the law of its own nature“;
must attempt to know „the best that is known and thought in the world“; the
purpose this, to lead man „towards perfection, by making his mind dwell upon
what is excellent in itself“).

41
 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL (PRACTICAL CLASSES)

William Shakespear – SONNET LV

 10 syllables
 Iambic pentameter
 4 stanzas
 14 lines, rhyme
 Sonnet
Robert Frost – Mending wall
 One verse paragraph
 45 lines, no rhyme
 Iambic pentameter
BEGINNING MY STUDIES
 Single stanza poem
 6 lines
 Do not follow rhyme scheme or metrical pattern
 Free verse
Arthur Quiller-Couch - ‘Daffodils’
 SUBJECTIVITY
 Subjectivity is the individual treatment of particular theme.
 Iambic tetrameter
 The speaker’s loneliness is cured by a field of daffodils
 Beauty of nature
 Subjective thoughts
 He was walking in the nature alone and lonely and saw the daffodils. Because of
the reaction of the daffodils to the wind he sees them as if they were dancing.
 He sees a whole field of daffodils and compares them with the Milky Way because
it seems that they are endless – there is so many of them that they seem as if they
end where the sea begins in the bay. He sad he saw the thousand because he
saw a lot of them he could say one million as well, and the wind was blowing so
they were dancing.
 He draws a parallel between the flowers and waves. In this stanza he also shows
us that the poet himself is the poetic persona and he’s happy, he enjoys the view.
 When in bad mood he recalls the view and the daffodils dancing in the wind.

42
Ezra Pound – ‘Liu Che’
 In this poem is described the death of a beloved person but the poetic persona
doesn’t say anything about ‘his’ feelings. It is autumn and life is missing in this
poem; there is nobody walking, no more movement, no more rustling of the silk,
just dust and fallen leaves. Leaves had fallen on the ground ‘and she the rejoicer
of the heart is beneath them’ – she’s dead. He tries to make this less personal but
it is not, it is ‘mocking personal’ – he obviously misses her but he doesn’t say so
but everything expresses the feelings.

‘In a Station of the Metro’

 Pound used haiku because of the movement – Imagism – in the early 20th century.
It concentrates on the images themselves. Haiku has only 3 lines and number of
syllables in lines is 5 – 7 – 5.
 In a station of the metro there are many strangers, even the metro itself is strange
– it’s from France. The petals are the strangers – they hang but they may fall off
as well. Black bough is the rail lines which are usually black, and it is wet because
it’s raining.

Walt Whitman – ‘Tears’

 BLANK VERSE
 NO RHYME
 On the beach at night – hiding and crying – not showing emotions in public. The
theme is how we behave in public – we don’t show ourselves.
 Important here are the images that the poet creates and that a reader should
create in his mind his mental images.
 Perspective is the point of view that the teller takes.

Siegfried Sasoon – ‘Glory of Women’

 2 STANZAS, 8+6 LINES
 Iambic pentameter
 Irony statement In title
 Criticizing women for glorifying the war
 Reality of war
 From the perspective of british soldier
 German mothers care
 Sasoon wrote from the trenches, he was in the ‘War Poets’. This poem is about
World War II. ‘YOU’ are the women that partook in the confront. Women started
producing ammunition; they were left alone in the cities while men were in the

43
 battle. This poem is anti-war. Who is the ‘I’? – the soldier. Even the German mother
is mentioned because nobody was left untouched by the war.

Stevie Smith – ‘Not Waving But Drowning’

 3 stanzas
 Complaining in pain
 Cry for help
 Nobody seemed to care that he was gone
 From other’s perspective how they saw it
 Stevie Smith attempted suicide.
 A man is dead and the other are not paying attention. While he was alive he was
crying for help but they misunderstood. His jokes were not necessarily just jokes
but cries for help. There is the dead person’s perspective and the other’s
 perspective. Second stanza their perspective –
 people observing. 3rd stanza is the way he saw and knew the situation. Relativity
– what appears to be waving to someone can be drowning for someone else.

Theodore Roethke – ‘My Papa’s Waltz’

 4 stanzas
 4 lines in each quatrain
 6 syllables
 Iambic trimester
 Alternate (cross rhyme)
 Waltz is metaphor
 Relationship between father and son
 The boy is telling the story and addressing his father. This poem can be
interpreted as a positive or as a story of a battered child. There are many
ambiguous facts in this poem.

ARISTOTLE – POETICS - TRAGEDY

 Mimesis – imitative process
 Tragedy = imitation of action
 Action:Serious (‘matter of life and death’)
o Complete (beginning, middle, end)
o Has magnitude (person in difficult situation)

 Media:
o Language (made, artificial-poetic language)
o Acting (actors)

44
 Purification of the audience means that they should feel pity and fear.
 Language has to be:
o Rhythmic and melodious (poetic language)
o Different forms – verses, songs (music, choruses, singing)

 Constituent elements (make the form): plot, characters, verbal expression,

thought, song composition, visual adornment

 Plot is structuring (organisation) of events (of the action imitated)

 Aristotle constantly focuses on the plot; plot is imitation of the events and tragedy
is imitation of events – there’s no tragedy without plot.
 What is imitated: plot, characters, thought

 Constituent elements:
o 1 the greatest importance has the plot; tragedy imitates life – actions in life
o 2 characters – tragedy imitates the persons for the sake of their actions
o 3 thought – underlying the theme of the tragedy – based on the ability of
the writer
o 4 verbal expression
o 5 song composition
o 6 visual adornment
 Unity of plot of place and time
 Unity of plot depends on logical connection of events and how logically events
are tied. It has to be all the elements of plot tightly knit in order to make sense.
 Hierarchy of disciplines
 Events
 History – just describes what has happened
 Literature – prevents something from happening.
 Characters are important because of their actions. In Shakespearean tragedy
Hamlet’s inner state is important. In Oedipus it’s not.
 Chapter 12 - Plots
 Simple and complex plot
 If we have a tightly knit structure it is a good plot if not it is a simple plot which is
not good. Here if it is not simple it is complex – contains events that are fearful
and pathetic; it has to induce fear and pathos (emotional charge)
 The plot is best constructed if even the events that are unexpected come
logically; even accidents have to be very much connected with the previous
actions.
 Cause and effect – logical causality of plots
 REVERSAL (shift, change): in simple plot there is no peripety and no recognition
(anagnorisis); in complex plot we have both the peripety and anagnorisis.
 Peripety is a sudden reversal. Recognition is finding some peace of information
we did not know before.

45
 Everything begins with chorus (people of city Thebes) begging Oedipus to save
them from the plague. Reversal is when Teiresias tells Oedipus… The shift is
when Oedipus starts realising something is wrong. He realises the strangeness
of this all
 Hamlet begins with the ghost.
 Monologue is meant to be heard.
 Cythe – govor postrance – short comments that nobody hears, while other
characters are speaking
 Soliloquy – 1 character is alone on the stageit seems as if he were speaking to
God of himself.
 Hamlet has several plots
 Accidents : Polonius’ death and Ophelia’s suicide
 Revenge is at the end
 Pg 37 of Poetics:
 3 elements:
o Pathos (destructive act, acts causing
o pain) Peripetia ( peripety, shift)
o Anagnorisis (recognition)
 Chapter 13 – pg 38
 -pity/fear is motivating catharsis through characters of particular type and
particular direction of events evolve.
 Artistically made plot.
 HAMARTIA – mistake (character is a normal person, not too good, not wicked,
not a god, he’s just what is expected of human being; but he does make
mistakes)
 Direction of events is from good to bad
 Chapter 15 – characters
 Deux ex macinae – in Greek theatre everything supernatural – image of god
coming from machine
 – no person plays gods.
 Pg. 43 – appropriate in actions – behave in a particular way in society
 Inappropriate is not credible, has to behave according to the expectations
 Consistent – behaves in the same way throughout the whole play
 Likeness to human nature – should be a human, even if a hero must not be a
superman.
 Hamlet experiences a downfall because of a mistake, because of hi
indecisiveness; he spends too much time lamenting and acting, he’s melancholic;
he thinks and prolongs; he is inconsistent; he’s more good than bad. In
Elizabethan time theatre is about characters not just actions; it does not revolve
around actions. Hamlet had chances but he does not act – no cause and effect
relation.

46
  Pg 42 – underlined : according to this Hamlet would be a disaster of a play; but
this reflects the modern theatre

OUR TOWN
NARRATIVE
DRAMATIC
 Story/plot
 Plot
 Narration (narrator)
 Enactment
 Characters
 Characters
 Lines/paragraph/chapt
ers
 Scenes/acts
 Dialogue and/or
description
 Dialogue
 Action/events
 Action
 Costumes/scenery

 This play was written in the 30s. Structure has narrative elements.
 Wilder:
o No scenery/costumes
o Little action
o Some dialogues
o Plot
o Enactment
o Characters + narrator
o Narration and descriptions
 He doesn’t follow the characteristics. He wants the audience to imagine; he
focuses on the imagination of the audience.
 Preface:
o In the Preface he blames issues of 19th century middle class; says that
theatre became dull business due to habits and tastes of 19th century
middle class
 Tragedy aimed at the audience
 Satire aimed at government – form of criticism
 Comedy – exaggerated characteristic of people – set the model of behaviour;
 All of their purpose was teaching; ‘this can happen to you’. Now the teaching part
was less and Wilder showed rebellion against it.
 Then the most popular were the melodrama (today’s soap operas), sentimental
drama and comedy (grotesque comedy). Dramas were sheer entertainment and
the theatre became a place where you went to be seen.

47
 The theatre lost its universality, it became particular. We understand something
because we can identify with everything that is universal. Ideas and messages
have to be universal; anti-illusionist theatre was universal.
 Message of this play: enjoy your life as it is!
 Act 1 : Daily Life
 o 1901
o Daily activities in an ‘ordinary’ small town presented on the
example of the Webbs and Gibbs. 1 Stage Manager introduces
 the play and the setting.
 o 2 Paper boy, milkman, Dr Gibbs
o 3 Stage Manager talks about
paper boy’s life and death 4
The families have breakfast
 Act 2 : Love and Marriage
o 1904
 Wedding day and ceremony of Emily W and George G.
o 1 Stage Manager introducing/describing the setting for the act
o 2 Milkman and constable
o 3 George visits the Webb’s house
o 4 Stage Manager introduces a flashback
o 5 Emily and George in 1901/02
o 6 Ceremony
 Act 3 : Death
o 1913
 Funeral of Emily Webb – Gibbs and her reappearance on a day of her 12th
birthday – 1902.
o 1 Stage Manager introduces the setting and the background for the act
o 2 Grave digger and the man who is leaving town
o 3 Dead speak
o 4 Funeral procession
o 5 Emily joins the dead
o 6 Emily returns on the day of her 12th birthday
 Appreciate small things in life.
 No community; no town is perfect and untouchable; can’t be isolated (because of
the locking of the doors)
 Anti-illusionist elements:
 1 Stage Manager:
o Narrator
o Commentator
o Character (these 3 were the tasks of a chorus in Greek tragedy)
o Director
 2 Sparse scenery
o (difference between number of chairs – live / dead)
o Changes of scenery by characters themselves before your very eyes

48
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS & MELVILLE
 Viewpoint:
o External (not part of action/story)
o Internal (is part of the story, is a character)
 Narrators:
o Omniscient
o Objective
o Protagonist
o Witness
 H. Fielding’s Tom Jones (English author) 18th century has omniscient narrator.
 E. Hemingway (American author) Short and Happy Life of Frances Macomber, 20th
century – has objective narrator
 Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels – protagonist narrator
 Herman Melville Bartleby the Scrivener – witness narrator
 External point of view: omniscient and objective
 Internal point of view: protagonist and witness
 Omniscient and objective, similarities:
o - 3rd person narration (prevailing)
 Differences:
o Omniscient knows everything and tells you everything; explains the thoughts of
characters; tells you what to think (directly and subtly); passes a judgement of
the character (e.g. Nightingale); points at himself; uses royal we; presents a
certain image of himself
o Also called: Olympian narrator.
o Objective: does not know everything; follows action; gives dialogues; does not
give judgements; he reports (no unnecessary details or comments)
o Also called: Camera-eye, fly-on-the-wall
 Protagonist and witness in common: - 1st person narration
 Protagonist is telling a story which is happening to him, his thoughts.
 Witness is expressing emotions, but expressing his own emotions not character’s whose
story he’s telling. He’s a bit similar to the omniscient: witness tells because he knows;
omniscient because he’s a God-like figure.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS:
 protagonist narrator
 1st person narration
 Parts of Gulliver’s Travels:
o In each of its four books the hero, Lemuel Gulliver, embarks on a voyage; but
shipwreck or some other hazard usually casts him up on a strange land. Book I

49
 takes him to Lilliput, where he wakes to find himself the giant prisoner of the six-
inch-high Lilliputians.
o Book II takes Gulliver to Brobdingnag, where the inhabitants are giants. In Book
III Gulliver visits the floating island of Laputa, whose absent-minded inhabitants
are so preoccupied with higher speculations that they are in constant danger of
accidental collisions.
o Book IV takes Gulliver to the Utopian land of the Houyhnhnms—grave, rational,
and virtuous horses. There is also another race on the island, uneasily tolerated
and used for menial services by the Houyhnhnms. These are the vicious and
physically disgusting Yahoos. Although Gulliver pretends at first not to recognize
them, he is forced at last to admit the Yahoos are human beings.

MELVILLE
 witness narrator
 describes Bartleby and his actions not his own actions
 he watches and describes the actions of a character; he mentions his own actions only
when they have to do with Bartleby. He focuses on Bartleby, on his position in the
office, on his work – the way he does it, describes which kind of character he is.
 Bartleby’s temperament:
o (silent mechanic..) there’s no
passion, hoes completely
phlegmatic, he could not possibly
rebel Bartleby is described as
sedate, neat, pitiably respectable,
incurably forlorn…But in the end
Bartleby shows protest, quiet
rebellion. A mechanic, silent man
rebelled – contrast !!!
 Byron was a rebellious character Byron and Bartleby – pure contrast.
 The chief treats Bartleby as his servant – authoritarian relationship.
 ‘privacy’ – Bartleby’s desk is behind a screen but where he can hear boss’s demands.
Boss is not satisfied, he doesn’t respect Bartleby’s work – silent, pale, mechanic; he’s
not happy nor passionate. There’s no respectful relationship just boss’s orders.
th
 Woolf and Joyce are British authors from 20 century. The movement is called
Modernism. In that time there was much experimentation in order to find best ways to
express characters’ thoughts and actions. Sometimes these novels were not even
understandable because of this experimentation; e.g. later works of Joyce.

WOOLF, JOYCE
 20th century British authors experimented with techniques. They goal was to present
the state of mind of characters.
 VIRGINIA WOOLF – MRS. DALLOWAY
 Technique that she used is interior monologue.

50
 The point of view is internal (perspective of one of the characters).
 Here we have personal narrator – personal medium.
 She uses 3rd person narration but not as in external point of view.
 Personal medium – the external world is described through perspective of one or more
characters in the novel. (Swift gives us objective description of external world, gives us
facts and we can draw conclusions).
 Personal medium is inside the story. He talks about other characters when they come
into his/her thinking process; when they affect his/her thinking process.
 Peter Walsh is Clarissa’s former lover.
 Armenians/Albanians, Committee and then roses – she talks about them because they
affect her thinking at the moment. She shoes external world when it affects her – shows
it through her eyes. Personal medium is interested in showing his/her thoughts.
 (Freud had strong impact on world literature in this time.) Reader was allowed access to
the mind of character.
1. Narrator(who reports) is protagonist (who experiences)?
It is better to call it personal medium because we cannot distinguish narrator
from protagonist.
2. Object of narration?
The way she thinks, feels, the way her mind goes on triggered by the things she
sees/feels (aim is to recreate the mental process, to show how we think not
talk). 3rd person is used instead of ‘I’ when she steps out of herself. Aim’s to
represent chaos and defects of our thinking process.
3. Language/syntax; grammar; punctuation?
language has to show the chaos in the head, because of that the rules of syntax
are broken, some punctuation is missing. Grammar rules are not always
respected
4. Form?
combination of dialogue (direct speech) and reporting – indirect speech;
presentation of inner thoughts
5. Which person narration?
uses 3rd person when referring to herself, presentation of inner world; she’s
analysing herself
6. Facts of the external world?
given only when they affect her thinking process
7. Time/flashbacks?
goes back and forth, which is quite chaotic. Encouraging development of ideas in
character’s mind; blending of ideas, realities, experiences
8. Transitions between conversations and contemplations?
transitions are blurred

51
  Distance between them (e.g. poem Tears – idea: you’re sincere only when you’re alone),
it is the
 status of 20th century marriage.
 There’s no closeness, not even in marriage.
 Only thing that is shown is coldness.
 Her opinion of marriage is a struggle between her idea of marriage and what it should
be and what she’s got, this is because of conventions about gender roles.
 Her life is all about hiding emotions.
 The conventions say that a woman should be a housewife and one of her main
obligations is the organisation of parties.
 Pg 132* she is trying to find reasons for that feeling of unhappiness.
 Here she’s a person but a pearl as well (pearl is something that has no practical use).
What is the reason? No one understood her parties and what they meant. The reasons
are not even that someone called her husband stupid (earlier she spoke about his
adorable simplicity – even in her mind he’s a bit ‘limited’) not even that her daughter
Elizabeth is lesbian and has a girlfriend Doris Kilman; she’s not bothered with any of
these but with the fact that no one understood her parties.
 Hunting pearl is a metaphor representing searching process – trying to find reasons.

JAMES JOYCE - ULYSSES

 Internal viewpoint/personal medium -similar:

 Personal medium
 But Joyce uses more complicated technique; he is more extreme in terms of blurring
(language and style).
 He records true inner life of his characters, he goes to the extremes and because of that
it is necessary to free yourself – he uses barely fool sentences, little punctuation,
language seems simple but grammar rules and rules of syntax are broken and all of that
makes this more complicated. (Virginia Woolf uses at least some amount of marks that
show what is thinking and what dialogue).
 Joyce expresses the free flow of thoughts – stream of consciousness.
 Every single thought is like a stream – chaotic, you can’t completely control it. External
environment triggers it and it goes freely in your mind.
1. Differentiate/disntiguish narrator/character?
There is no difference at all, blurred
2. Content(object of narration?
constant, chaotic, not chronological, sets of associations, reactions to external
environment, dreams, memories, even frustrations, secret emotions
3. Language?

52
 no regular punctuation, no suggestion where the direct where indirect speech
comes
4. Form?
Woolf had dialogues, Joyce gives only narration
5. Which person narration?
1st person narration
6. Time flux?
Goes back and forth
7. External world/internal world of character?
Just stimulates thoughts
8. What type of thougts?
It is a mix of thoughts – serious, intellectual and trivial. Joyce tends to present the
way human mind thinks based on associations: external world only triggers
everything else

FIGURES OF SPEECH

 Rhetoric is art of speech.

 Figures come in particular shape/form.
 Morphological figures of speech: anaphora, epiphora, epanalepsis, anadipolisis,
polyptoton, figura etymologica, synonymy.
 These use sentence for expressing: parallelism, chiasmus, asyndention, inversion,
hysterion proteron, ellipsis, aposiopesis, zeugma.
 Semantical figures of speech: metaphor, metonymy, synedochy, personification,
synaestesia, antonomasia, hyperbole, euphemism, litotes, periphrases, irony, oxymoron,
paradox, antithesis, hendiadys, pun, symbol.

LAKOFF METAPHORS WE LIVE BY

 Objects, plants, animals, abstract conceptions, ideas, emotions – inanimate entities

Personification is giving human characteristics to inanimate entities.
 According to Lakoff personification is:
o metaphor
o ontological metaphor
o obvious (because metaphors are not easy to see/understand)
 Metaphor is a form of comparison-, indirect, implied comparison (no ‘as’ no ‘like’) e.g.
“red rose is my love” – red rose stands for a person.
 Text examples:
o This fact argues…
o Fact has no vocal qualities, can’t argue. This means ‘fact is like a human who
argues’ Personification gives human qualities to inanimate entities – it is more
specific than metaphor. From text ‘personification in itself allows us to
comprehend…’
 Why personification is not metaphor? (in texts)
 non-human becomes ‘human’

53
  A (inanimate) is B (person) – a particular type of person. A certain aspect: inanimate
thing is given a particular property of a person. E.g. of aspect: ‘it’s not a person but
enemy’.
 Personification is different in terms of aspect you pick.
 -general category under which you can pick any quality; range of qualities you would use
for a metaphor.

METONYMY

 In personification we refer to inanimate entities as persons, but not in metonymy.

METAPHOR A=B (there’s no logical but there is extraordinary connection) e.g. Person A
= sunshine
 METONYMY (also a form of comparison)
 1. Here there is logical connection between A and B.
o A = B (logical, almost tangible connection between entities)
o According to Lakoff metaphor is implicit comparison – A and B have no obvious
logical connection. Aim is to create extraordinary connections between entities.
o In metonymy the relation is based upon logical connection between entities. It
establishes connection between A and B which is logical, related – B is part of A;
A is part of B
 2. Synecdoche (pars-pro-toto) pg 36-39
o This is a particular type of metonymy. It goes further – A is part of B (e.g. picture
of the face – a part stands for the whole – face stands for the body)

TO HIS COY MISTRESS - Andrew

 What is this poem about?
 CARPE DIEM – grab/seize your day! (phrase used by the Roman poet Horace to express
the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. The sentiment has been expressed in
many literatures, especially in 16th-and 17th-century English poetry. Two of the best-
known examples are Robert Herrick's “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and
Andrew Marvell's “To His Coy Mistress.”)
 Poetic persona is a man; addressee of the poem is a young lady. He’s trying to persuade
her to get into sexual relations with him.
 This poem is a formal invitation for sex. In this period (17th c) men wanted their wives
in bed. (In “To His Coy Mistress,” which is one of the most famous poems in the English
language, the impatient poet urges his mistress to abandon her false modesty and
submit to his embraces before time and death rob them of the opportunity to love)
 Carpe diem philosophy was developed and it was theme of many poems. There are 3
parts in this poem:
 the poetic ‘I’ – the man – suggests all the things they could do if they had time but they
do not have enough time so because they don’t have time – let’s do it, let’s have sex

54
  This poem uses metaphors, personifications and hyperbole.

PLATO ION
 Plato says that art is a poor copy of something that is already a copy of real world.
 Art = mimesis – just imitation, copy, but not in the sense Aristotle says.
 In Republic Plato says that world should be without artists.
 Statesmen should be the philosophers – lovers of wisdom/truth – they are the best
equipped to govern a state.
 He wants to banish artists because they are dangerous; they have the ability to attract
attention; they can fill minds of people and take them from real reality – world of ideas.
 Artists focus on the distorted view of reality which is remote from real world. They can
corrupt the masses, can lead them astray. They had great influence.
 Out of the ideas of Plate we can see that he thought that artists were dangerous; had
dangerous power to lead people astray. Only GOOD art could penetrate the world of
ideas.
 GENRE: Narrative, not fiction but theory; this is a theoretical piece of work – theoretical
essay discussing role and nature of art and artists.
 FORM: Dialogue
 PARTICIPANTS: Socrates (Plato’s teacher) and Ion
o Here Socrates speaks on behalf of Plato. Ion is a rhapsode, a performer, recites
poetry. He interprets Homer; he’s just come back from a festival where he got
and award for best interpretation of works of Homer. Homer is considered to
have been the greatest Greek poet; he wrote epics.
 THEME: Art and artists
 STRATEGY: They start having a casual conversation. Socrates’ strategy is asking
questions (question– answer strategy) and coming to the point where Socrates/Plato
expresses his
 IDEAS: Socrates asks Ion why he is the best at interpreting Homer. Ion says: ‘why then
do I loose attention and go to sleep … when anyone speaks of any other poet; but when
homer is mentioned, I wake up at once and am all attention and have plenty to say?’
Ion’s argument: he is good at interpreting Homer because he has learnt it, he
practised it – he has practice, skill, talent.

Socrates says –no, because in that case he could then interpret other poets as
well. (examples with arithmetician, military leader etc): ‘The reason my friend is
obvious. No one can fail to see that you speak of Homer without any art or knowledge.
If you were able to speak of him by rules of art, you would have been able to speak of
all other poets; for poetry is a whole.’
He calls Ion a liar here – if you learned it you’d be able to discuss everything.
 Basic ideas:

55
o It is not artist who is speaking, but God is speaking through artist’s mouth. Artists
are chosen. They are instruments of God to communicate with people. They
have no consciousness or wilful report. They are possessed with divine
inspiration.
o He compares artists/poets/rhapsodes to holy prophets and diviners (shamans of
a kind).
o Artists are instruments – media

56