Students Again

Fiction – is a name for stories not entirely factual, but at least partially shaped, made up, imagined.

 

Fable – a brief story that sets forth some pointed statement of truth. – Animals represent human traits –

 

Parable – a brief narrative that teaches a moral. It’s plot is plausibly realistic, and the main characters are human rather than anthromorphized animals or natural forces. – Usually possesses a more mysterious and suggestive tone on literal and symbolic levels –

 

Tale – a story, usually short, that sets forth strange and wonderful events in more or less bare summary, without detailed character-drawing.

 

Tall Tale – folk story which recounts the deeds of a superhero or of the storyteller.

 

Fairy Tale – set in a world of magic and enchantment.

 

Dramatic Situation – a person is involved in some conflict.

 

Exposition – the opening portion that sets the scene (if any), introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened, and provides any other background information that we need in order to understand and care about the events to follow.

 

Complication – a conflict.

 

Protagonist – a better term than hero, for it may apply equally well to a central character who is not especially brave or virtuous.

 

Suspense – the pleasurable anxiety we feel that heightens our attention to the story, inheres in our wondering how it will all turn out.

 

Antagonist – the most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narrative or drama.

 

Foreshadowing – indication of events to come.

 

Crisis – a moment of high tension.

 

Climax – the moment of greatest tension at which the outcome is to be decided.

 

Conclusion – (a.k.a. resolution, dénovement) “the untying of the knot.”

 

Plot – the artistic arrangement of events in a story.

In Medias Res - “in the midst of things.”

 

Flashback – (a.k.a. retrospect) a scene relived in a character’s memory.

 

Summary – terse, general narration.

 

Short Story – a form more realistic than the tale and of modern origin, the writer usually presents the main events in greater fullness.

 

Scene – a vivid or dramatic moment described in enough detail to create the illusion that the reader is practically there.

 

Epiphany – some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character’s life, or view of life, is greatly altered.

 

Story of Initiation – tell of a character initiated into experience or maturity.

 

Godfather Death: What was the meaning or moral of the story:

 

1. You cannot cheat death.
2. Don’t break promises.
3. Wealth, prestige, and power do not mean anything if it is gained through dishonesty.
4. You can’t escape fate.
5. We always do what we are told not to do.
6. Death rules all (it is the only constant).
7. Don’t take anything for granted.
8. Learn from your mistakes.
9. You can’t have everything.
10. Selfishness will bring you down.
11. We all are equal in the eyes of death.

 

Aristotle: poetry is a more philosophical and a higher thinking than history, in that poetry expresses the universal, history the particular fact.

 

- Poetry is synonymous with the mother of language: -

Poetry

Comedy                                  History                                    Drama

(worse than they area)                   (as they are)                 (better than they are)

Aristotle says: The roadmap of any story:

(tying the knot)                                  (untying the knot)

Complication                                     Resolution

Conflict                                              Conclusion

Blake says: Journey of the human soul:

Ignorance à Knowledge

Innocence à Experience

Drama of life:

Mistake à The Discovery

Two-fold purpose of literature:

1. Entertains
2. Instructs

 

5 Parts to a Plot:

 

“No one choose evil because it is evil; they merely mistake it for the happiness they seek.”             - Mary Wolfenstonecraft Shelly

 

- Myth represents abstract concepts –

 

The Theater of Sophocles

- Citizens of Athens in the fifth century B.C. à theater was both a religious and civic occasion.

- Plays were held twice a year at religious festivals.

- Both were associated with Dionysius (the god of wine & crops):

1) January – Lenaea (the festival of the winepress) à plays, especially comedies were performed.

2) March – Great Dionysia (the major theatrical event) à a citywide celebration that included sacrifices, prize ceremonies, and spectacular processions as well as three days of drama.

- Each day at dawn a different author presented a trilogy of tragic plays – three interrelated dramas that portrayed an important mythic or legendary event. Each intense tragic trilogy was followed by a satyr play.

*Satyr Play – an obscene parody of a mythic story, performed with the chorus dressed as satyrs, unruly mythic attendants of Dionysius who were half goat or horse and half human.

- The Greeks believed competition fostered excellence.

- Theater was a competitive event:

1) A panel of 5 judges voted each year at the Great Dionysia for the best dramatic presentation.

2) A substantial cash prize was given to the winning poet – playwright (all plays were written in verse.

3) Sophocles did not win for Oedipus the King (although this play proves to be the most celebrated Greek tragedy ever written) – It lost to a revival of a popular trilogy by Aeschylus, who had recently died.

 

Staging:

- Seated in the open air in a hillside amphitheater, as many as 17,000 spectators watch performances that must have somewhat resembled an opera or musical.

- The audience was arranged in rows:

1) Athenian governing council & young military cadets seated in the middle sections.

2) Priest, priestesses, and foreign dignitaries were given special places of honor in the front rows.

- The performance space was divided into two parts:

1) The orchestra – a level circular “dancing space” (at the base of the amphitheter).

2) A slightly raised stage built in front of the skene.

*Skene – (a.k.a. stage house) originally a canvas or wooden hut for costume changes.

- The actors spoke & performed primarily on the stage, and the chorus sang and danced in the orchestra.

- The skene served as a general set or backdrop.

- The skene had a large wooden door at its center that served as the major entrance for principal characters. When opened wide, the door could be used to frame a striking tableau.

- By Sophocles time, the tragedy had a conventional structure:

1) No more than 3 actors were allowed on stage at any one time.

2) Along with a chorus of 15 (the number fixed by Sophocles himself).

3) The actors’ spoken monologue and dialogue alternated with the chorus’ singing and dancing. - The chorus represented public opinion –

4) Each tragedy began with a prologue.

*Prologue – A preparatory scene.

5) Next came the Párados.

*Párados – the song for the entrance of the chorus.

6) Then the action was enacted in episodes.

*Episodes – Like the acts or scenes of modern plays; the episodes were separated by danced choral songs or odes.

7) Finally, there was a closing éxodos.

*Éxodos – the last scene, in which the characters and chorus concluded the action and departed.

- What did the actors look like?

1) They wore mask – some of these mask had exaggerated mouthpieces, possible   to project speech across the open air. The mask covered the actors’ entire head          which helped spectators far away to recognize the chief characters. The mask   often represented certain conventional types of characters (ex. The old king, the     young soldier, etc.). Women’s parts were played by male actors.

2) Perhaps in order to gain in both increased dignity and visibility, actors in the      Greek theater eventually came to wear cothurni.

*Cothurni – high, thick-soled elevator shoes that made them appear taller than ordinary man.

 

The Civic Role of Greek Drama:

- Athenian drama was supported and financed by the state.

- Administration of the Great Dionysia fell to the head civil magistrate.

- He annually appointed 3 wealthy citizens to serve as choregoi for the competing plays.

*Choregoi – Producers.

- Each producer had to equip the chorus and rent the rehearsal space in which the poet/playwright would prepare the new work for the festival.

- The state covered the expenses of the theater, actors, and prizes (which went to authors, actors, and choregos alike).

- Theater tickets were distributed free to citizens à every registered Athenian, even the poorest, could participate.

- Only the size of the amphitheater limited the audience à 14,000 – 17,000 spectators out of 40,000 Athens citizens.

- Greek theater was pointed at the moral and political education of the community.

 

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy:

- Aristotle observes that the protagonist, the hero or chief character of a tragedy, is a person of “high estate,” apparently a king or queen or other member of a royal family.

- The tragic hero is fallible.

- The hero’s downfall is the result, as Aristotle said, of his hamartia.

*Hamartia – his error or transgression or his flaw or weakness of character.

*Hubris – extreme pride, leading to overconfidence.

*Recognition – (a.k.a. discovery) the revelation of some fact not known before or some persons true identity.

*Reversal – An action that turns out to have the opposite effect from the one it’s doer had intended.

*Katharsis – (a.k.a. purgation) In general, whatever people fear for themselves, makes them feel pity when it happens to others.

 

Drama:

Desire + Danger = Drama

 

Conflicts

Man against:

· Nature

· God

· Society

· Man

· Machine

· Himself

Aristotle

· Man is his desire

 

Uniqueness of Greek Drama:

- Greek tragedy has no villain (the hero is the villain; they are one in the same)

- This is why Aristotle says “It’s amazing.”

- English drama à resembles reality.

- Classical drama:

· Greek à Poetic Justice

· Spanish à Poetic Justice

*Poetic Justice – like karma but more precise. (ex. A man who chops down trees gets killed by the tree as it falls to the ground.)

 

How Greek Mythology Works:

* Gods are abstract concepts in human costumes.

Part Whole

Ouranos                                               Gaea

(vault of heaven)                                 (cosmic egg)

Titans:

Kronos                                                Rhea

(time)                                                   (eternity)

Olympians:

Zeus                                                    Hera

(reason)                                               (truth)

*Whenever Greek gods get together they must have babies!

*Gods can never go back on their word if they promise something!

*A god cannot undo what another god has done!

*Dramatic Irony – character in play does not understand the significance of what they are saying à the audience knows more. (ex. Oedipus saying “he never saw the previous king (Laius). à The audience already knows he killed the man he claims he never saw.)

Parts of Oedipus the King:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Grief (depression)
• Acceptance
• Hope

 

Oedipus the King:

What               à murder

Who                à Laius

When               à before Oedipus came

Where              à location not specified

How                à lying report

Why                à thief/conspirators

 

Oedipus’ Proclamation:

a) leniency

b) reward

c) banish (exile)

d) curse (out of civic zeal)

 

*Women enjoy sex 9 times more than men according to Tiresias because…

- It is more pleasurable to learn than to teach.

- It is more pleasurable to be ravished than to ravish.

 

*Dionysus was conceived by Zeus & Semele.

 

*Agur – studies the flight path of birds to tell the future. (Controlling metaphor; sight = knowledge & blindness = ignorance)

 

*Just as Oedipus mocks Teiresias’ blindness, Teiresias mocks Oedipus’ ability to solve riddles. This is an example of a paradox.

*Paradox – a contradiction that turns out to be true.

 

Anger Stage:

• blame others
• irrational (displaced in all directions)
• burn bridges

 

*The Leader is a part of the chorus; he is the oldest and the wisest.

 

Aristotle’s 3 Parts to a Plot

Oedipus Complex

*You want to be the center of your mothers world and her to be the center of yours. Dad is competition.

 

*Place where the 3 roads meet:

 

--Killed father… to have mother!—Complex triangular scene.—

 

*Apollo – “sun god” The god of knowledge. “Know thyself”

 

 

*What amounts to Oedipus’ Hamartia (error in judgement)?

· Ignorance – “All evil acts arise from ignorance.” –Plato

 

*Epiphany – life altering insight.

 

*The pins Oedipus used to mutilate his eyes à 1) A symbol of incest because they were the pins used to hold on his mothers clothes. 2) Goad of father (phallic symbol). 3) Diaper pin. 4) Ankles pinned together.

*Why does Oedipus blind himself? It shows the audience that he recognizes his error à he can see now!

*Noose on Jocasta’s neck à symbolizes umbilical cord.

1^st Socretes à “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – First martyr of free speech –

*Dialectic Method – Answering a question with another question.

 

2^nd Plato (student of Socretes) à “Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Explains things in no particular order – Started school called “academy.”

 

3^rd Aristotle (student of Plato) à Started own school called “lyceum.” The father of biology and literary criticism.

 

Literary Criticism

On Rhetoric                                   Poetics

“Double speak”

Poetics à 3 sciences guided by Apollo (knowledge chasing itself for its own sake):

1) Theoretical              (ex. Math)

2) Practical                  (ex. Ethics)

3) Productive              (ex. Mimetic Arts – imitation/copy/mimic)

 

Ancient hierarchy of Mimesis à Economy of expression:

1) Music              (imitation of sound) Most Abstract

2) Poetry             (imitation of words)

3) Painting          (imitation of images)                                                         2D

4) Sculpture        (imitation of forms) 3D

5) Dance             (imitation of rhythmic movement)

6) Theater           (imitation of action) Most Concrete

“Vision without action is a daydream, but action without vision is a nightmare.”

- Japanese Proverb

Aristotle’s six parts of drama:

Literary Terms

1) Plot (artistic arrangement of action)

2) Characters (pattern/history of a personality type)

3) Thought

4) Language (Script)

5) Spectacle (F/X)

6) Melody (Soundtrack)

Plot

Character

Theme

Diction

Setting

Tone & Style

 

 

Sound + Images = Words

 

 

“tree”  +

Language & Melody – are the media (the medium “means of expression”)

Spectacle – is the manner (the method; way of performing)

Plot, Character, & Thought – is the objects (the message, thought, feeling, or actors)

 

3 Parts of Plot (Aristotle): As applied to “Oedipus the King”

Not men, but their actions

(because life is about action)

 

1) Peripeteia – Reversals

Major: reversal of fortune, from good to bad

Minor:

a) Teiresus accusation

b) Jocasta doesn’t console just the opposite

c) Messenger’s news doesn’t cheer him up.

2) Anagnorisis – Recognition

Major: Oedipus “Oh god, it’s all true.”

Minor:

a) 3 crossroads à shiver of recognition

b) Jocasta à infers ghastly truth

c) Marks on the body

3) Pathos - Suffering

Major:

a) Jocasta hangs herself

b) Oedipus blinds himself à i. surface: erase his memory ii. Psychology: symbolic of the horror that follows the revelation of repressed ideas or wishes.

Minor: the household & city

 

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy

* Character – Ideal tragic hero.

1) High ranking (prosperity/significant fall & effect everyone)

2) Neither good nor bad/in between extremes, like ourselves

3) Downfall due to error (Hamartia) not because of vice, depravity, or chance.

 

--Character must be consistant:

Good                                                               Bad

Problem solver                                                Arrogant, defiant,

Persistent                                                         Stubborn

Integrity                                                          Impatient

Quick to act

Courageous                                                     Impulsive

 

Freud:

3 Greatest humiliations/devastations to mankind:

1) Galileo à proving theories that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

2) Darwin à we are not the crown of creation; “theory of evolution” – origin of species –

3) Sub-conscious desire à we are not in full possession of our minds! – sometimes we are not in control –

 

West Coast East Coast

Hate Freud (Behaviorist)                                            Love Freud

 

Freud’s thesis à The destiny of Oedipus – Why does Oedipus move a modern audience?

Can’t be because of destiny vs. free-will.

 

 

 

We recognize that his destiny (Oedipus) is ours.

 

Freud’s Oedipus Complex (pg. 1492)

- sexual impulse toward mom

+

- murderous hatred toward dad

||

- Oedipus Complex (everyone ages 3-5)

 

 

 

- if you do not resolve or forget we become psycho neurotics.  à detach from mom/forget hatred of dad.

 

According to Freud à mythology is societies dream.

1) Deus ex Machina à (“God out of the Machine”) – When the author/poet does not know how to “untie the knot” he resorts to a forced or improbable device in plot resolution.

2) *The pins Oedipus used to mutilate his eyes à 1) A symbol of incest because they were the pins used to hold on his mothers clothes. 2) Goad of father (phallic symbol). 3) Diaper pin. 4) Ankles pinned together.

3) *Why does Oedipus blind himself? It shows the audience that he recognizes his error à he can see now!

4) *Noose on Jocasta’s neck à symbolizes umbilical cord.

5) Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy

* Character – Ideal tragic hero.

a) High ranking (prosperity/significant fall & effect everyone)

b) Neither good nor bad/in between extremes, like ourselves

c) Downfall due to error (Hamartia) not because of vice, depravity, or chance.

*Hamartia – his error or transgression or his flaw or weakness of character.

6)   Dramatic Irony – character in play does not understand the significance of      what they are saying à the audience knows more. (ex. Oedipus saying “he                       never saw the previous king (Laius). à The audience already knows he killed the man he claims he never saw.)

7) 

8) Katharsis -  Pity & Fear

In general, whatever people fear for themselves, makes them feel pity when it happens to others.

*Purifying the soul by developing human sympathy!!!

Katharsis

Mere purgation                                 Purified

(Therapeutic)                         (Tragedy transforms the soul

Beyond purgation)

Frighten VS.

(Purification)

 

Scares

(Permanently alters human behavior)

 

Physical, intellectual, & emotional

(Purification)

-Lessons are learned

-tragedy develops human sympathy

-e.g. tragedy serves to enlarge human empathy

-Identify & understand others situation,

feelings & motives

Startle

(Purgation)

Temporarily shock & surprise

(e.g. horror films)

-release of pent up emotion (purging)

-Purely physical

-No lesson is learned (merely shocking)

• Elizabeth Bishop – “Fish” (Pg. 793 – Poem & Pg. 809 – Explanation) à Bishop’s poem is a comparison and respect for the fish’s lifelong struggle to survive. It is through the description of the capture of an aged fish that Bishop offers her audience her theme of compassion derived from a respect for the struggle for survival.
• Strategies For Reading Poetry:

1. Plowing straight through & going back
2. Isolating difficulties
3. Trying to paraphrase
4. Reading aloud
5. Using a dictionary

• 4 Types of Poetry:

1. Lyric – a short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker.
2. Narrative – one whose main purpose is to tell a story.
3. Dramatic – presents the voice of an imaginary character (or characters) speaking directly, without any additional narration by the author.
4. Didactic – a poem apparently written to state a message or teach a body of knowledge.

• What impact did the printing press have on poetry?

- Ever since the invention of the printing presses in the fifteenth century, poets have written less often for singers, more often for readers. In general, this tendency has made lyric poems contain less word-music and (since they can be pondered on the page) more thought – and perhaps more complicated feelings.

• The best preparation for law school is the study of poetry because of all of the ways it can be interpreted.
• Tone isn’t affected just by voice it is also the choice of words.
• Flashback – A scene relived in a character’s memory. Flashbacks can be related by the narrator in a summary or they can be experienced by the characters themselves.
• Difference between Plato & Aristotle interpretation of poetry:

- Plato (Esoteric View) – You are born a poet. Natural ability can’t be learned. If you have natural ability study will sharpen you skill. If you don’t have natural ability study will teach you mechanics, but you will never be a great poet because natural ability cannot be taught. Poets create with absence of mind. They don’t think about it… they do it. Poet possess their own style an do not usually deviate from it because they are “possessed by their god given talent.” It is as if “god is speaking through them.”

- Aristotle (Scientific View) – Poets create through the use of two natural instincts. A) Imitation (because we love to learn) B) “Harmony” & “Rythem”

• Rhyme – The matching sounds of syllables at the ends of lines of verse.
• Rhyme Scheme – Every other line rhymes then the final couplet rhymes.
• Sonnet – Contains 14 lines à 3 quatrains and a final couplet and contains rhyme scheme.
• Motif – A significant element that recurs throughout narratives across many literary works. (Ex. Candles symbolize life throughout literature)
• Allusion – A brief (and sometimes indirect) reference in a text to a person, place, or thing – fictitious or actual.

• Freud’s 4 dream work distortions

1) Condensation

2) Displacement

3) Symbolism

4) Reversal

• Onomatopoeia -  a word whose sound suggest it’s meaning.
• Regarding Robert Frost Poem “Out, Out.” What is the connection between the title of the poem and line 28 of the poem (He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath):

- The connection between the title and line 28 is the ending of the boys life – the “candle” is out.

• 4 Poetic tropes:

1) Metaphor – comparisons.

2) Metonymy – associated meanings.

3) Synecdoche – part represent the whole.

4) Irony – says one thing and means the opposite.

• Stanza – each section (paragraph)
• Verse – each line.
• Quatrain - four lines.
• Couplet – two lines.
• Can it be that the entire understanding of a poem is based on illusion?
• Portmanteau Word – an artificial word that combines parts of other words to express some combination of their qualities (Ex. Brunch – combines breakfast & lunch). A portmanteau is a large suitcase that opens up into two separate compartments. (From Humpty Dumpty explicates “Jabberwocky”)