Introduction to Literary Studies
Introduction:
- Professional reading: Requiring large amounts of time (kind of labor with salary), Disciplinary activity,
Vigilant (misstrauisch) of mere reading for pleasure, Connected to public and publishable forms of reading
- Lay reading: Leisure, takes place outside of work, Different reading matters (more quotidian (alltäglich)
practices), Single motive is pleasure, Largely a solitary practice
- Literary Criticism: Describes, analyzes, interprets and evaluates literary work
Critique, serious and profound essay or article
- Literary Theory: What is Literature, how does it come to existance and what does it do for which reasons
- Literary History: reconstructs the development of literature
What is Literature?
- Eagleton: whole body of valued writing in society, writing which embodied the values and “tastes” of a
particular social class
- Stanley Fish: the reader who “makes” literature as a member of a community whose assumptions about
literature determine the kind of attention he pays
Poetry: Defining Features:
- language cast in verse, frequently revealing these additional features:
- a subjective first-person persona or voice
- brevity, concentration, and reduction
- an unusual use of words and phrases
- suggestive imagery
- rhythm and metre
- repetition of sound
- lines grouped in stanzas
Poetry: Jakobson’s formalist/ structuralist definition:
- Paradigmatische Beziehung: Segmentierung und Klassifizierung von zwei oder mehr Einheiten, die
miteinander austauschbar sind
- Syntagmatische Beziehung: chronologische Abfolge von Wörtern/ Phrasen beim Sprechen bzw. lineare
Abfolge beim Lesen von links nach rechts
Ich esse Obst.
Du wirfst Steine. Paradigmatische Achse
Sie bastelt Papierflieger.
Syntagmatische Achse
- In poetry, the syntagmatic relations (relations of combination) determine the paradigmatic relations (choice)
Poetry: Figurative vs. literal speech:
1. Using “figures of speech” vs. “calling a spate a spate”
2. Metaphor (figure of similarity) vs. Metonymy (figure of contiguity (=unmittelbare Nähe))
Example:
Literal: “ships crossed the sea”
Metaphor: “ships ploughed the sea”
Metonymy: “keels crossed the deep”
Poetry: metaphor analysis:
Caesar Is like A lion
Tenor (=Bildempfänger) Simile (=Vergleich) Vehicle (=Bildspender)
Braveness, fearlessness, etc.
, Poetry: metaphor vs. metonymy vs. simile vs. allegory:
- metonymy (figure of contiguity): refers to the replacement of one word with another to which it is
ontologically, logically, or causally related, words are from the same source domain as the literal
- metaphor (figure of similarity): A connection between formerly disparate terms is forged by means of
language, tenor and vehicle are derived from different domains than the literal (target and source domain)
- simile (figure of similarity): one thing is likened to another by means of a comparative particle (like/as)
- symbol: more abstract meanings, needs context, in (post-)Romantic thought: symbol is concrete and
dynamic
- allegory: uses symbols as part of a narrative/story, is more specific than symbolism, in (post-)Romantic
thought: allegories have to rely on “footnotes”; it is the personification of abstraction
- Conceit: A complex and arresting metaphor, in context usually a part of a larger pattern of imagery, which
stimulates understanding by combining objects and concepts in unconventional ways
Drama: Semanticization of the stage:
- Primary Text: characters remarks (spoken aloud during performance)
- Secondary Text: Everything that is not part of the dialogue (stage directions, demarcation of acts and scenes,
title, dedications, etc.)
- Dialogue: utterances between two or more characters (‘duologue’/ ‘polylogue’)
- Monologue: character speaks alone, but in the presence of others
- Soliloquy: character is alone on stage while speaking
- Monological aside: only the audience gets the information
- Dialogical aside: conspirational (= verschwörerisch) conversation
- Aside ad spectators: directly addressed to the audience
Drama: Compositional motivation vs. Reality Effect:
- Compositional motivation probes the film's cause-effect logic - that is, does the movie flow logically from
one scene to the next.
- Realistic motivation examines whether the actions that occur within the film are plausible or believable
within the realms of the film's fiction.
Drama: Wallis on character:
Character conception: mode
- Archetype: stands for something held to be universal; usually without malintent (böswillige Absicht)
- Stereotype: reductionist, simplified characterization (can be positive or negative)
- Social/ moral types: characters as representative of specific cluster of people
- Simple mode: type, archetype, stereotype, abstraction, personification, caricature, model
- Complex mode: individuals (“character effect”)
Character conception: basis
- What is the mode based on, i.e., what does a character stand for
- e.g., Discursive (speaking from particular position, e.g., pessimist, Marxist), Generic (stock types, e.g., the
fool, the dandy), Historical (historical figures), Moral position, Emotional, Cultural/ ethnic/ racial, Etc.
Character development: static vs. dynamic
Drama: Freytags Pyramid:
- introduction/exposition, rising action, complication, climax, turning point, falling action, catastrophe/
denouement
Drama: Hamlet: (basic knowledge of the text needed)
publication history:
- Quarto 1: ca. 1603, ‘bad quarto’: most likely a bootleg, probably construction from memory of The actor
who played the minor role of Marcellus
- Quarto 2: 1604: most likely from a manuscript believed to be Shakespeare’s foul papers; almost twice as
long as first quarto
- First Folio: 1623; Printed from a manuscript thought to be a transcript of a fair copy prepared from
Shakespeare’s foul papers
Introduction:
- Professional reading: Requiring large amounts of time (kind of labor with salary), Disciplinary activity,
Vigilant (misstrauisch) of mere reading for pleasure, Connected to public and publishable forms of reading
- Lay reading: Leisure, takes place outside of work, Different reading matters (more quotidian (alltäglich)
practices), Single motive is pleasure, Largely a solitary practice
- Literary Criticism: Describes, analyzes, interprets and evaluates literary work
Critique, serious and profound essay or article
- Literary Theory: What is Literature, how does it come to existance and what does it do for which reasons
- Literary History: reconstructs the development of literature
What is Literature?
- Eagleton: whole body of valued writing in society, writing which embodied the values and “tastes” of a
particular social class
- Stanley Fish: the reader who “makes” literature as a member of a community whose assumptions about
literature determine the kind of attention he pays
Poetry: Defining Features:
- language cast in verse, frequently revealing these additional features:
- a subjective first-person persona or voice
- brevity, concentration, and reduction
- an unusual use of words and phrases
- suggestive imagery
- rhythm and metre
- repetition of sound
- lines grouped in stanzas
Poetry: Jakobson’s formalist/ structuralist definition:
- Paradigmatische Beziehung: Segmentierung und Klassifizierung von zwei oder mehr Einheiten, die
miteinander austauschbar sind
- Syntagmatische Beziehung: chronologische Abfolge von Wörtern/ Phrasen beim Sprechen bzw. lineare
Abfolge beim Lesen von links nach rechts
Ich esse Obst.
Du wirfst Steine. Paradigmatische Achse
Sie bastelt Papierflieger.
Syntagmatische Achse
- In poetry, the syntagmatic relations (relations of combination) determine the paradigmatic relations (choice)
Poetry: Figurative vs. literal speech:
1. Using “figures of speech” vs. “calling a spate a spate”
2. Metaphor (figure of similarity) vs. Metonymy (figure of contiguity (=unmittelbare Nähe))
Example:
Literal: “ships crossed the sea”
Metaphor: “ships ploughed the sea”
Metonymy: “keels crossed the deep”
Poetry: metaphor analysis:
Caesar Is like A lion
Tenor (=Bildempfänger) Simile (=Vergleich) Vehicle (=Bildspender)
Braveness, fearlessness, etc.
, Poetry: metaphor vs. metonymy vs. simile vs. allegory:
- metonymy (figure of contiguity): refers to the replacement of one word with another to which it is
ontologically, logically, or causally related, words are from the same source domain as the literal
- metaphor (figure of similarity): A connection between formerly disparate terms is forged by means of
language, tenor and vehicle are derived from different domains than the literal (target and source domain)
- simile (figure of similarity): one thing is likened to another by means of a comparative particle (like/as)
- symbol: more abstract meanings, needs context, in (post-)Romantic thought: symbol is concrete and
dynamic
- allegory: uses symbols as part of a narrative/story, is more specific than symbolism, in (post-)Romantic
thought: allegories have to rely on “footnotes”; it is the personification of abstraction
- Conceit: A complex and arresting metaphor, in context usually a part of a larger pattern of imagery, which
stimulates understanding by combining objects and concepts in unconventional ways
Drama: Semanticization of the stage:
- Primary Text: characters remarks (spoken aloud during performance)
- Secondary Text: Everything that is not part of the dialogue (stage directions, demarcation of acts and scenes,
title, dedications, etc.)
- Dialogue: utterances between two or more characters (‘duologue’/ ‘polylogue’)
- Monologue: character speaks alone, but in the presence of others
- Soliloquy: character is alone on stage while speaking
- Monological aside: only the audience gets the information
- Dialogical aside: conspirational (= verschwörerisch) conversation
- Aside ad spectators: directly addressed to the audience
Drama: Compositional motivation vs. Reality Effect:
- Compositional motivation probes the film's cause-effect logic - that is, does the movie flow logically from
one scene to the next.
- Realistic motivation examines whether the actions that occur within the film are plausible or believable
within the realms of the film's fiction.
Drama: Wallis on character:
Character conception: mode
- Archetype: stands for something held to be universal; usually without malintent (böswillige Absicht)
- Stereotype: reductionist, simplified characterization (can be positive or negative)
- Social/ moral types: characters as representative of specific cluster of people
- Simple mode: type, archetype, stereotype, abstraction, personification, caricature, model
- Complex mode: individuals (“character effect”)
Character conception: basis
- What is the mode based on, i.e., what does a character stand for
- e.g., Discursive (speaking from particular position, e.g., pessimist, Marxist), Generic (stock types, e.g., the
fool, the dandy), Historical (historical figures), Moral position, Emotional, Cultural/ ethnic/ racial, Etc.
Character development: static vs. dynamic
Drama: Freytags Pyramid:
- introduction/exposition, rising action, complication, climax, turning point, falling action, catastrophe/
denouement
Drama: Hamlet: (basic knowledge of the text needed)
publication history:
- Quarto 1: ca. 1603, ‘bad quarto’: most likely a bootleg, probably construction from memory of The actor
who played the minor role of Marcellus
- Quarto 2: 1604: most likely from a manuscript believed to be Shakespeare’s foul papers; almost twice as
long as first quarto
- First Folio: 1623; Printed from a manuscript thought to be a transcript of a fair copy prepared from
Shakespeare’s foul papers
