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Slezsk univerzita v Opav

stav cizch jazyk

VOD DO LITERATURY

Studijn opora

Opava 2006

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Course Description ............................................................................................................2Course Schedule ................................................................................................................3

Course Prerequisites ..........................................................................................................4Recommended Literature ..................................................................................................5Communication with Tutor ...............................................................................................6

1. What is literature?........................................................................................................72. Author-Reader-Text...................................................................................................123. Classification of Fiction ............................................................................................174. Fiction: Main Features...............................................................................................24

4.1.Theme, Motif, Plot .............................................................................................254.2.Setting.................................................................................................................264.3.Characterization..................................................................................................27

5. Fiction: Literary Tropes.............................................................................................306. Fiction: Narratology ..................................................................................................347. Introduction to Drama ...............................................................................................38

7.1.Types of Drama..................................................................................................397.2.Drama: Literary Terms.......................................................................................42

8. Drama: Main Features ...............................................................................................449. Poetry: Function and Types.......................................................................................4810.Poetic Forms..............................................................................................................5411.Poetry: Prosodic Features ..........................................................................................58

11.1 Metre..................................................................................................................59

11.2. Rhyme...............................................................................................................6512. Literary Essay............................................................................................................6812.1. How to Write an Essay .....................................................................................6912.2. MLA Norm......................................................................................................72

Exam Topics....................................................................................................................78

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

Students will become familiar with major literary forms and genres (poetry, drama,fiction, and non-fiction). They will demonstrate that familiarity by being able to read

and write critically about one of those forms (or genres).

Specific intended student learning outcomes: 1) The ability to demonstrate a criticalunderstanding of and appreciation for literature when analyzing stories, poems, and

plays. 2) The ability to understand and appreciate figurative language (metaphors,similes, and the like) in poetry, fiction, and drama. 3) The ability to understand,appreciate, and apply knowledge of plot, character, point of view, imagery, theme,setting, irony, tone, symbols and language when reading fiction, poetry, or drama. 4)The ability to develop a reasonable interpretation of a literary text and to support thatinterpretation with evidence.5) The ability to identify common or culturally specificthemes in literature by writers of different races, genders and ethnic backgrounds. 6)

The ability to identify similarities between works of literature and other works of art orforms of communication.

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COURSE SCHEDULE

NameSession

Date*

Homework

Due Date*

Unit 1 What is literature?

Unit 2 Author-Reader-Text Relationship

Unit 3 Classification of Literature

Unit 4 Fiction: Main Features

Unit 5 Fiction: Literary Tropes

Unit 6 Fiction: Narratology

Unit 7 Introduction to Drama

Unit 8 Drama: Main Features

Unit 9 Poetry: Function and Types

Unit 10 Poetic Forms

Unit 11 Poetry: Prosodic Features

Unit 12 Essay Writing

Test/Exam Exam

* to be announced

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COURSE PREREQUISITES

This is the first literary course the students must pass. All following literary courses will

presume active knowledge the theory covered in this course.

LIST OF PREREQUISITES

Technical

1) MS Office2) Internet connection

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RECOMMENDED LITERATURE

Aristotels: Poetika, Praha: Svoboda, 1996.

Barnet, S. a kol.: Literature: Thinking, Reading, and Writing Critically, New York:Longman, 1997.

Cuddon, J.A.: The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 3.vydn, London: Penguin, 1992.

Sparling, D., Hardy, S. a I .Gilbertov,: Introduction to Literature, 2. vydn, Brno:Masarykova univerzita, 1999.

Stanzl, Franz: Teorie vyprvn, Praha: Odeon, 1988.

tefan, F.: Theory of Anglophonic Literatures, 1. vydn, Preov: Slovacontact, 1994.

Wellek, R. a Warren, A.: Teorie literatury, 1. vydn, Olomouc: Votobia, 1996.

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COMMUNICATION WITH TUTOR

The students will send the assigned homework to the tutor via e-mail. The students canalso consult the tutor during the office hours or arrange a personal consultation.

Channels of Communication

E-mail: _______________________________ Telephone: _______________________________ WWW:

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1. WHAT IS LITERATURE?

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the various definitions of literature. They willdiscuss the role and function of literature and art in education and society. Specialattention will be paid to the differences between language of art and everyday language.

Keywords

Definitions of Literature; Literary Language; Instrumental Language

Time Required for this Unit

Theory: 55 minutes Tasks: 60 minutes

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The Theory

Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking,"literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical orscientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creativeimagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction.

1.writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent anduniversal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history,

biography, and essays.

2.the entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc.: the literature of

England.

3.the writings dealing with a particular subject: the literature of ornithology.

4.the profession of a writer or author.

5. literary work or production.

6. any kind of printed material, as circulars, leaflets, or handbills: literature describingcompany products.

Synonyms: Literature, belles-lettres, letters refer to artistic writings worthy of beingremembered. In the broadest sense, literature includes any type of writings on anysubject: the literature of medicine; usually, however, it means the body of artisticwritings of a country or period that are characterized by beauty of expression and formand by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal: English literature of the 16thcentury. Belles-lettres is a more specific term for writings of a light, elegant, orexcessively refined character

Why do we read literature?

Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is moreimportant than just a historical or cultural artefact. Literature introduces us to newworlds of experience. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the comedies andthe tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow and evolve throughour literary journey with books.

Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author saysand how he/she says it.

We may interpret the author's message. In academic circles, this decoding of the text isoften carried out through the use of literary theory, using a mythological, sociological,

psychological, historical, or other approach.

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Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze literature, there is still anartistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it isuniversal, and it affects us.

Literary Language/Instrumental Language

There have been a variety of attempts to distinguish the difference between the languageof literature and the language of not-literature. We may distinguish between the literallanguage, and "expressive language," the language of literature.

The principle upon which the definition of literary language will be based is the conceptof multiple meaning, known as polysemy. The degree to which a text exhibits polysemyis a measure of its complexity. Thus, a highly complex text (by definition, then, aliterary text) is characterized by the preponderance of metaphors.

Literary language is, however, more characteristic of written texts than verbal

communications, or of texts derived from an originally oral tradition.Attributes specific to literary and instrumental language:

Literary Language

polysemic

radical ambiguity

strong/poetic metaphor

connotation

open/indeterminate

less probable

more potential messages

Instrumental Language

monosemic

unambiguous

conventional/extinct metaphor

denotation

more probable

fewer potential messages

clear

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Example

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 1

FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thou that art now the world's fresh ornamentAnd only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy content

And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

"Men and Women of the Corporation"

Gender issues in the workplace have made many changes in the

past decades. While women today have much more equal footingwith men, there are still many discrepancies. Women are

still lagging behind in taking their place alongside men in

top management positions. Those who are in the organization

are there typically as lesser paid employees and often

expected to be more subservient than equal even to their

male peers. Even women who do not actually work for the

organization are subjected to many of the same biased

expectations.

Kanter (1993) explains this lag that is apparent for women

entering the top echelon of organizations as being

reflective of "homosocial reproduction", the tendency of

homogenaic workplaces to promote those that move in theright social circles in the organization. The workplace

emphasis on homogeneity even promotes specific manners of

dress, dress that is often determined by the male-oriented

social norms of that workplace. Peer acceptance is an

important factor in the phenomena of homosocial reproduction

as well.

The justification for homosocial reproduction is that it

strengthens an organization.

Study Questions

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1) What is the function of literature?2) Should be literature taught at primary and secondary schools? State your

arguments

3) What and why do you read?4) Compare and contrast the two texts

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2. AUTHOR-READER-TEXT

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with various critical approaches and definitions of theterms author and reader and their relationship to the text.

Keywords

Author; Reader; Text; Narrative CommunicationTime Required for this Unit


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The Theory

An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article, or thelike, whether short or long, fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, technical or literary.Within copyright law the term "author" is often used for the creator of any work, be itwritten, painted, sculptured, music, a photograph or a film, and may be a corporation aswell an individual.

Role of the author in critical theory

One key issue in literary theory is the relationship between the meaning of a literary textand its author's conscious intent. In literary theory, the author function is the writer of a

work as seen by the reader. Each work by the same author has a separate authorfunction, and each work by numerous or unknown authors has a single distinct authorfunction.

The phrase "Death of the Author" was popularized by Roland Barthes in his 1968 essaywith the same name. It is used to convey the idea that texts have meaning and anindependent existence outside that intended by the author, depending on the context andreader. The death of the author is in self-conscious opposition to the New Criticism, aliterary critical movement popular in England and America in the first half of the 20thcentury. According to this movement, the author's intent is assumed to be quite clear tothe author and it becomes the critic's task to understand this intent.

Michel Foucault's 1969 essay "What is an Author?" responds in part to Barthes anddefines the author-function in four main ways. He claims that the author-function islinked to the juridical and institutional system of the discourse that it is not the same forall discourses, that it is not spontaneous attribution, and that it might not refer to a realindividual.

The term writercan apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word moreusually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who havewritten in many different forms. Skilled writers demonstrate skills in using language to

portray ideas and images, whether producing fiction or non-fiction.

Michel Foucault analyzed various functions of the author: First, they are objects ofappropriation; the form of property. In the past speeches and books were assigned realauthors, other than mythical or important religious figures, only when the author

became subject to punishment and to the extent that his discourse was consideredtransgressive. It was at the moment when a system of ownership and strict copyrightrules were established (toward the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenthcentury) that the transgressive properties always intrinsic to the act of writing becamethe forceful imperative of literature. It is as if the author, at the moment he was acceptedinto the social order of property which governs our culture, was compensating for hisnew status by reviving the older bipolar field of discourse in a systematic practice of

transgression and by restoring the danger of writing which, on another side, had beenconferred the benefits of property.

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Secondly, the "author-function" is not universal or constant in all discourse. Even withinour civilization, the same types of texts have not always required authors; there was atime when those texts which we now call "literary" (stories, folk tales, epics and

tragedies) were accepted, circulated and valorised without any questions about theidentity of their author. Their anonymity was ignored because their real or supposed agewas a sufficient guarantee of their authenticity. Text, however, that we now call"scientific" (dealing with cosmology and the heavens, medicine or illness, the naturalsciences or geography) were only considered truthful during the Middle Ages if thename of the author was indicated. Statements on the order of "Hippocrates said..." or"Pliny tells us that..." were not merely formulas for an argument based on authority;they marked a proven discourse. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a totallynew conception was developed when scientific texts were accepted on their own meritsand positioned within an anonymous and coherent conceptual system of establishedtruths and methods of verification. Authentication no longer required reference to the

individual who had produced them; the role of the author disappeared as an index oftruthfulness and, where it remained as an inventor's name, it was merely to denote aspecific theorem or proposition, a strange effect, a property, a body, a group ofelements, or a pathological syndrome.

At the same time, however, "literary" discourse was acceptable only if it carried anauthor's name; every text of poetry or fiction was obliged to state its author and the date,

place, and circumstance of its writing. The meaning and value attributed to the textdepended upon this information. If by accident or design a text was presentedanonymously, every effort was made to locate its author. Literary anonymity was ofinterest only as a puzzle to be solved as, in our day, literary works are totally dominated

by the sovereignty of the author. (Undoubtedly, these remarks are far too categorical.Criticism has been concerned for some time now with aspects of a text not fullydependent upon the notion of an individual creator; studies of genre or the analysis ofrecurring textual motifs and their variations from a norm rather than author.Furthermore, where in mathematics the author has become little more than a handyreference for a particular theorem or group of propositions, the reference to an author in

biology or medicine, or to the date of his research has a substantially different bearing.This latter reference, more than simply indicating the source of information, attests tothe "reliability" of the evidence, since it entails an appreciation of the techniques andexperimental materials available at a given time and in a particular laboratory).

Narrative communication

As is shown in the following graphic, literary narrative communication involves theinterplay of at least three communicative levels. Each level of communication comeswith its own set of addressers and addressees (also 'senders' and 'receivers').

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This model distinguishes between the levels of action, fictional mediation, andnonfictional communication, and establishes useful points of reference for key termslike author, reader, narrator, and narratee/addressee (for a book-length study oncommunication in narrative see Coste 1989; for the pragmatic status of narrativestatements Hamburger 1977 and Genette 1991).

Following the reception-oriented model, some narratologist now differentiate betweenthe 'authorial' and 'narrative' audiences: Authorial audience: The audience of realreaders addressed by the author.

Narrative audience: The fictional audience addressed by the narrator. The term covers both named or otherwise explicitly specified addressees as well as the wider set ofunspecified, implied, or hypothetical addressees.

Although the terms person, character and figure are often used indiscriminately, moderntheoretical discourse makes an effort to be more distinct and accurate.

A person is a real-life person; anyone occupying a place on the level of nonfictionalcommunication. Hence, authors and readers are persons.

A character is not a real-life person but only a "paper being" (Barthes 1975 [1966]), abeing created by an author and existing only within a fictional text, either on the level ofaction or on the level of fictional mediation. Example: the character Harry in Sillitoe's"The Fishing Boat Picture".

The term figure is often simply used as a variation of 'character'; however, sometheorists also use for referring to the narrator. Hence the first-person narrator inSillitoe's story can be called a 'narrator figure'.

Example

Roland Barthes: Death of the Author,

http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/whatis.htm

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Study Questions

1) How does Barthes date the death of the author?2) What is the difference between the writer and the author according to Barthes?3) What is the role and function of reader according to Barthes?4) What does Barthes mean by the death of the author?5) What is the relationship between author and a text? Can the reader according

to Barthes explain the text from the life and opinions of the author?

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3. CLASSIFICATION OF LITERATURE

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the main classification of literature into fiction andnon-fiction, narrative genres and non-narrative genres. They will also learn about thevarious types of novels.

Keywords

Flash Fiction; Narrative form; Narrative Genre ; Novel; Metafiction; PopularGenres; Short-Story; Sub-genres



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The Theory

Narrative forms and genres:

narratology is concerned with all types of narratives, literary and non-literary, fictionaland nonfictional, verbal and nonverbal. The overarching distinction is clearly that

between fictional and nonfictional narratives:

A fictional narrative presents an imaginary narrator's account of a story that happened inan imaginary world. A fictional narrative is appreciated for its entertainment andeducational value, possibly also for providing a vision of characters that might exist ormight have existed, and a vision of things that might happen or could have happened.

Although a fictional narrative may freely refer to actual people, places and events, itcannot be used as evidence of what happened in the real world.

A nonfictional narrative (also factual narrative) presents a real-life person's account of areal-life story. Unless there are reasons for questioning an author's credibility, a factualnarrative can serve as evidence of what happened in the real world. In principle, theauthor of a factual narrative is accountable for the truth of its statements and can always

be asked How do you know?

Types of Prose Fiction

The following definitions are based on Barnet/Berman/Burto 1964, Cuddon 1998,Hawthorn 1986, Fowler 1987.

The novel can be defined as an extended work of prose fiction. It derives from the

Italian novella (little new thing), which was a short piece of prose. The novel has become an increasingly popular form of fiction since the early eighteenth century,

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though prose narratives were written long before then. The term denotes a prosenarrative about characters and their actions in what is recognisably everyday life. Thisdifferentiates it from its immediate predecessor, the romance, which describesunrealistic adventures of supernatural heroes. The novel has developed various sub-genres:

Narrative fiction (narrative prose) generally favours prose for the writing of novels,short stories, graphic novels, and the like. Singular examples of these exist throughouthistory, but they did not develop into systematic and discrete literary forms untilrelatively recent centuries. Length often serves to categorize works of prose fiction.Although limits remain somewhat arbitrary, modern publishing conventions dictate thefollowing:

A Flash fiction is generally defined as a piece of prose under a thousand words.

A short story comprises prose writing of less than 10,000 to 20,000 words, but typically

more than 500 words, which may or may not have a narrative arc.A story containing between 20,000 and 50,000 words falls into the novella category.

A work of fiction containing more than 50,000 words falls squarely into the realm of thenovel.

For convenience in analyzing the forms of the novel, critics often place them incategories that encompass years of historical development. An early and prevalent typewas the picaresque novel, in which the protagonist, a social underdog, has a series ofepisodic adventures in which he sees much of the world around him and comments

satirically upon it. Modern variations of this type include, in addition to those alreadymentioned, Saul Bellow's Adventures of Augie March (1953) and Thornton Wilder'sTheophilus North (1973).

In the epistolary novel the narrative is conveyed entirely by an exchange of letters. (e.g.Samuel Richardson, Pamela.)

A picaresque novel is an early form of the novel, some call it a precursor of the novel. Itpresents the adventures of a light hearted rascal (pcaro=rogue). It is usually episodic instructure, the episodes often arranged as a journey. The narrative focuses on onecharacter that has to deal with tyrannical masters and unlucky fates but who usuallymanages to escape these miserable situations by using her/his wit. The form of the

picaresque narrative emerged in sixteenth-century Spain. Examples are: Cervantes, DonQuixote; and in the English tradition: Thomas Nash, The Unfortunate Traveler; MarkTwain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.

The historical novel takes its setting and some of the (chief) characters and events fromhistory. It develops these elements with attention to the known facts and makes thehistorical events and issues important to the central narrative. (e.g. Walter Scott,Ivanhoe; Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

The bildungsroman (novel of education, novel of initiation) is a type of noveloriginating in Germany which presents the development of a character mostly fromchildhood to maturity. This process typically contains conflicts and struggles, which areideally overcome in the end so that the protagonist can become a valid and valuable

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member of society. Examples are J.W. Goethe, Wilhelm Meister; Henry Fielding, TomJones; Charles Dickens, David Copperfield; James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as aYoung Man.

The gothic novel became very popular from the second half of the eighteenth century

onwards. With the aim to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety ofhorrors, the gothic novel is usually set in desolate landscapes, ruined abbeys, ormedieval castles with dungeons, winding staircases and sliding panels. Heroes andheroines find themselves in gloomy atmospheres where they are confronted withsupernatural forces, demonic powers and wicked tyrants. Examples are HoraceWalpole, The Castle of Otranto; Ann Radcliffe, Mysteries of Udolpho; WilliamFaulkner, Absalom! Absalom!

The social novel, also called industrial novel or Condition of England novel, becameparticularly popular between 1830 and 1850 and is associated with the development ofnineteenth-century realism. As its name indicates, the social novel gives a portrait of

society, especially of lower parts of society, dealing with and criticising the livingconditions created by industrial development or by a particular legal situation (the poorlaws for instance). Well-known examples are: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton; CharlesDickens, Oliver Twist; Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil and Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke.

Subgenres of fiction

Genres are often divided into sub-genres. Literature can be organized according to the"poetic genres" and the "prose genres". Poetry might be subdivided into epic, lyric, anddramatic, while prose might be subdivided into fiction and non-fiction. Furthersubdivisions of dramatic poetry, for instance, might include comedy, tragedy,

melodrama, and so forth. This parsing into subgenres can continue: "comedy" has itsown genres, for example, including farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, and satire.[citation needed],

Many times, the criteria used to divide up works into genres are not consistent, leadingto works that belong to more than one genre.

Autobiography: Biography of oneself narrated by oneself. Little autobiographicalliterature exists from antiquity and the Middle Ages; with a handful of exceptions, theform begins to appear only in the 15th century. Autobiographical works take manyforms, from intimate writings made during life that are not necessarily intended for

publication (including letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and reminiscences) to theformal autobiography. Outstanding examples of the genre extend from St. Augustine'sConfessions (c. AD 400) to Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory (1951).

Children's literature: The earliest of what came to be regarded as children's literaturewas first meant for adults. Sagas, Ballads and epic tales were among the humble

beginnings of this genre, where they were passed on in oral literature as myths andlegends created to explain the natural wonders of night and day and the changingseasons.

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Parody: In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in orderto ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, thesubject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject.Parody is imitation with a critical difference, not always at the expense of the parodiedtext.

Satire: Satire (lat. medley, dish of colourful fruits) is a technique used in drama and the performing arts, fiction, journalism, and occasionally in poetry and the graphic arts.Although satire is usually witty, and often very funny, the primary purpose of satire isnot primarily humour but criticism of an individual or a group in a witty manner.

Crime fiction : rime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection,criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction andother genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, andindeed are, blurred. It has several sub-genres, including detective fiction (including thewhodunnit), legal thriller, courtroom drama, and hard-boiled fiction.

Detective fiction: Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that canters upon theinvestigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur.Detective fiction is the most popular form of both mystery fiction and hardboiled crimefiction. A common feature of detective fiction is an investigator who is unmarried, withsome source of income other than a regular job, and who generally has some pleasingeccentricities or striking characteristics. He or she frequently has a less intelligentassistant, or foil, who is asked to make apparently irrelevant inquiries and acts as anaudience surrogate for the explanation of the mystery at the end of the story.

Fable: moral lesson, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. "Fable"

comes from Latin fabula (meaning 'conversation', 'narrative', 'tale') and shares a rootwith faber, "maker, artificer." Thus, though a fable may be conversational in tone, theunderstanding from the outset is that it is an invention, a fiction. A fable may be set inverse, though it is usually prose. In its pejorative sense, a fable is a deliberately inventedor falsified account. The word "fabulous" strictly means "pertaining to fables," althoughin recent decades its metaphorical meanings have been taken to be literal meanings, i.e."legendary," "mythical," "exaggerated," "incredible." An author of fables is called afabulist.

Fairy tale: A fairy tale is a story featuring folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins,elves, trolls, giants, talking animals and others. The fairy tale is a sub-class of the

folktale. These stories often involve royalty, and modern versions usually have a happyending. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales maymerge into legendary narratives, where the context is perceived by teller and hearers ashaving historical actuality. However, unlike legends and epics they usually do notcontain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, persons, andevents although these allusions are often critical in understanding the origins of thesefanciful stories.

Romance: As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic

prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.The term was coined to distinguish popular material in the vernacular (at first the

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Romance languages French, Portuguese and Spanish, later German, English and others)from scholarly and ecclesiastical literature in Latin. In general, the ballads were the

property of professional performers, while the romance was associated more withamateurs and private readers. Nevertheless, a professional poet-performer like Chrtiende Troyes could turn his hand to composing romances. The distinction between an early

verse romance and a chanson de geste is often difficult, and perhaps unnecessary, tomake.

Unlike the novel (nouvelle romaine or "new romance") and like the chansons de geste,the romance dealt with traditional themes, above all three thematic cycles of tales,assembled in imagination at a late date as the Matter of Rome (actually centred on thelife and deeds of Alexander the Great), the Matter of France (Charlemagne and Roland,his principal paladin) and the Matter of Britain (the lives and deeds of King Arthur andthe Knights of the Round Table, within which was incorporated the quest for HolyGrail).

Popular genres

Fantasy: Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as aprimary element of plot, theme, or setting. The genre is generally distinguished fromscience fiction and horror by overall look, feel, and theme of the individual work,though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known asspeculative fiction). In its broadest sense, fantasy covers works by many writers, artists,film makers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent worksembraced by a wide audience today.

Horror: "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of an evil or, occasionally,

misunderstood supernatural element into everyday human experience. Since the1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionallysuspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called "horror." Horror fiction oftenoverlaps science fiction or fantasy, all three of which categories are sometimes placedunder the umbrella classification speculative fiction.

Science fiction: Science fiction (often called sci-fi or SF) is a popular genre of fiction inwhich the narrative world differs from our own present or historical reality in at leastone significant way. This difference may be technological, physical, historical,sociological, philosophical, metaphysical, etc, but not magical (see Fantasy). Exploringthe consequences of such differences (asking "What if...?") is the traditional purpose of

science fiction, but there are also many science-fiction works in which an exoticallyalien setting is superimposed upon what would not otherwise be a science-fiction tale.

Slave narrative: The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the experienceof enslaved Africans in the New World. Some six thousand former slaves from NorthAmerica and the Caribbean gave an account of their lives during the 18th and 19thcenturies, with about 150 published as separate books or pamphlets. There are also

North African slave narratives, which were written by white Americans or Europeanscaptured and enslaved in North Africa. Slave narratives were first produced in Englandin the 18th century, but they soon became a mainstay of African American literature.

North American and Caribbean slave narratives can be broadly categorized into three

distinct forms: tales of religious redemption, tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle,and tales of progress. The tales written to inspire the abolitionist struggle are the most

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famous because they tend to have a strong autobiographical motif, such as in FrederickDouglass's autobiography and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs(1861).

Thriller: The thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television. It includes

numerous, often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing,frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settingssuch as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. The heroes in most thrillersare frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies,soldiers, seamen, or pilots. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn intodanger by accident. Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished

by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy,rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. Jeopardy and violentconfrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mysteryis solved; a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own

life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by film noir and tragedy, thecompromised hero is often killed in the process.

Western: The Western is an American genre in literature and film. Westerns are artworks films, literature, television and radio shows, sculpture (particularly that byFrederic Remington), and paintings devoted to telling stories set in the 19th CenturyAmerican West (and sometimes Mexico, Canada or the Australian Outback, during thesame time period), with the setting occasionally portrayed in a romanticised light. Thewestern film genre often portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordinationof nature, in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of theoriginal inhabitants of the frontier.

Example

Donald Barthelme: Glass Mountain,

www.fti.uab.es/sgolden/docencia/glassmountain.htm

Study Questions

1) What is the difference between a short story and a novel? Think of the length,number of characters, number of story lines

2) What is the main function of a short story?

3) What is the most popular genre generally and why?

4) What genre is Donald Barthelmes story? State your arguments. Is it only onegenre?

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4. FICTION: MAIN FEATURES

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the main features of fiction such as the differencebetween theme and motif, types of characters, various settings and their influence uponthe story.

Keywords

Plot; Theme; Motif; Setting; CharactersTime Required for this Unit


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4.1 THEME, MOTIF, PLOT

The Theory

Theme: The essential idea, group of ideas, or philosophy that the writer wants the readerto understand from the story she is telling. A simple theme from the folk tale aboutLittle Red Riding Hood might be "Don't talk to strangers."A motif is an idea, a theme that is repeated or carried through an individual work aswhen John Steinbeck's narrator constantly compares Lenny to an animal such as horseor bear throughout the novel Of Mice and Men. There are musical motifs as well. InJaws, the approach of the shark is always signalled by a strumming of bass stringsslowly as the music builds in pitch and speed.

A motif is also an idea which is so powerful and recognizable that it will be used by

many authors and artists in many different works in many different ages. Many writerswill liken the ages of a person to the seasons of the year. In the spring of one's life isyouth and the winter is old age when older persons are said to have snow on the roof.Other motifs used in many works includes the savior motif and the innocence toexperience motif .

Plot:

Structure of the Plot:

I. Introduction: Several things may be introduced at the beginning of the story.

A. Setting: Where and when the story takes place

B. Protagonist: The main character of the story; who the story is about; this charactersets the action in motion.

C. Mood: The emotional feeling the reader gets from the setting and characterdescription; the atmosphere.

D. Tone: The attitude of the speaker or narrator.

II. Rising Action: This essentially the point where the protagonist meets the antagonist.

A. Conflict: One force meets an opposing force.

1. Person vs. Person (External Conflict)

2. Person vs. Nature (External Conflict)

3. Person vs. Himself or Herself (Internal Conflict)

4. Person vs. Society (External Conflict)

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5. Person vs. Fate, Destiny, God (External Conflict)

B. Antagonist: The character or force which opposes the protagonist.

III. Climax: The point at which the reader can see who will inevitable win the conflict.

This can often not be seen until the story is over and the reader looks back on the plot.The climax is not the most exciting part of the story! Some stories do not have excitingparts.

IV. Denouement: This is French for unknotting and is essentially the wrapping up ofall the loose details of the plot in order to satisfy the reader or audience.

4.2 SETTING

The Theory

Setting

Setting refers to the set of locations (or the entire world) where the story takes place.Sometimes, this also includes local and world history and the general laws of nature ofthat world.

Fiction is an imaginary world that serves as the setting or backdrop for a story. This

term is not very common, since all more or less elaborated fictions hosting multiplestories are referred to as fictional universes. A fiction can be identical to our world (savea few details) or different from it in every aspect - depending on the wishes of theauthor.

Fictional universe is an imaginary world that serves as the setting or backdrop for one or(more commonly) multiple works of fiction. Usually, fictional universes are a

prerogative of science fiction and fantasy (see also Fantasy world) genres, since anysetting that only slightly differs from our can be called and seen as fictional.

Space in fiction is distinct from space in the visual arts because space in fiction can

never be presented completely. Describing the entire interior of a room, to the smallestvisible detail, is an impossible (and rather boring) task, but the full depiction of a roomin the medium of film clearly poses no problem at all. In verbal narrative, a room canonly be described by referring to a small selection of more or less 'graphic' detail --luckily, in the process of reading, readers will complete the 'verbal picture' by imaginingthe rest.

Definition of literary space: Literary space: the environment which situates objects andcharacters; more specifically, the environment in which characters move or live in.Literary space in this sense is more than a stable 'place' or 'setting' -- it includeslandscapes as well as climatic conditions, cities as well as gardens and rooms, indeed, it

includes everything that can be conceived of as spatially located objects and persons.Along with characters, space belongs to the 'existents' of a narrative.

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Any description of space invokes a perception of space: apart from the reader'simaginative perception, this is either a narrator's perception, or a character's perception;

both can be either actual perception or imaginary perception. For this reason, fictionalspace is evidently strongly correlated to focalization.

4.3 CHARACTERIZATION

The Theory

The characters are distinctive personalities who are involved in the events described bythe story. One usually differentiates between major (primary) characters and minor(secondary) characters. The former are the heroes of the story around whom the entire

plotline evolves while the latter have supporting roles whose function is to provide themain characters with information, material goods, services or whatever they may need

in order to advance the plot.The process of creating a character is called characterization. Characterization is ofcrucial importance for all major characters, since they must possess a memorable andcomplex personality to appear interesting and appealing (or repulsive, if it is anantagonist). However, since it is impossible to describe all aspects of a character's

personality in a story without sacrificing too much of its other components, the authorsusually have to follow the Iceberg Theory proclaimed by Ernest Hemingway.

Unlike the major characters, the minor ones are usually not created from scratch butrather picked from a list of the stock characters (or created by merging them together).

These are mostly stereotypical simplifications of human personalities, with a fewdistinctive features (compared to dozens of the major characters), but considering theirusual supporting roles, this is an advantage since both the author and theaudience/reader don't spend much time on them anyway. There are, however, someclichs that should better be avoided.

Every major character of a story normally has his/her own motive (motivation) thatdrives him/her forward and advances the story. Different motives and interests oftencause conflicts between characters and thus create the inciting moment for a plot orsubplot. Throughout a story, especially if it is an epic of some kind, the motives of the

major characters may change, adding to the complexity of the story and their ownpersonalities.

Another common attribute of the primary cast are the s.c. character shields - a plotdevice that protects them from the misfortunes perilous for minor characters. This can

be presented as something paranormal (in fantasy settings), as unusual luck or skill, orsimply left unexplained.

The main characters usually follow some basic guidelines:

Protagonist is a hero or heroine of story, whose progress towards the finale the narrative

explicitly follows. The protagonist is usually blessed with all kinds of virtues anddespite having many personal problems (which are eventually solved in the progress ofthe story), stays on the side of "good". "Good" is a very subjective term and usually

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describes the side the audience is supposed to sympathize with. Longer and epic storiesmay feature multiple protagonists at once, each with his/her own separate story.

Tragic hero is a type of a character (often, a protagonist) whose personality has sometragic flaw (hamartia) that prevents him from being what he wants to be and thus means

constant suffering for him. Tragic heroes and heroines are usually the ones theaudience/reader sympathizes with the most, once their hamartia (be it a hunchback, ownancestry, lycanthropy, etc.) is revealed. Sometimes, the antagonist can be presented as atragic hero in order to justify his/her utter virulence. A special case of this type is aByronic hero.

Anti-hero is a type of a protagonist who expresses traits that are more appropriate for anantagonist, but in the end, stands to the cause of "good" (see above). Such protagonistsare more common in the contemporary fiction, since they appear more realistic thantraditional righteous heroes and thus, more appealing to the audience/reader.

Antagonist is a hero or heroine of story who actively opposes the protagonist(s) inachieving his/her/their goals or represents an opposing force (an organization, a naturalor supernatural force, etc.) in the conflict. Since the protagonist usually stands on theside of "good", the antagonist is always depicted as "evil".

Villain is the most stereotypical type of an antagonist, almost a stock character. He/sheis usually depicted as an utterly evil person (while the reasons for this are seldomgiven), not caring for human life or emotion, hating the entire world and aiming toenslave or destroy it. In more elaborate cases, the villain can be depicted as a tragic herowhose actions are an act of revenge or another justified cause (e.g. protection from aneven greater evil).

Evil twin is a type of an antagonist who is virtually identical to the protagonist, butstands on the opposing side. A conflict between "twins" is usually much more tense anddifficult to resolve than usual, but is generally not very common because of itsobviousness.

False protagonist is a character who is introduced as a protagonist at the beginning ofthe story but removed (normally, killed) halfway through. Another major or minorcharacter, which was also introduced early in the narrative, then takes his/her place andcompletes the story. This technique is applicable only if the narrative is not very long (afilm, a short story, etc.) and has only one protagonist.

Fictional character is a character that is fictional even in the context of a fictional story.This technique can be used to give a new view on the protagonist's problems, to create acomedic effect, etc.

Wedge-type characters are minor characters that possess character shields, which allowthem to survive mortal dangers just like the major ones, but do not ascend to their

primary status. This is an unofficial term, invented after Wedge Antilles.

Stock characters

A stock character is a character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for itspersonality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. Stock characters are instantlyrecognizable to members of a given culture, therefore they are often used during the

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characterization of minor characters, which don't need an original personality to fulfiltheir main function - supporting the primary characters.

Some typical examples for stock characters are:

Absent-minded professorBad Fianc

Competent Man

Damsel in distress

Dumb blonde

Dark Lord

Evil genius

Femme fatale

Hero

Mad scientist

Private investigator

Example

E.A. Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher,

http://www.online-literature.com/poe/31/

Study Questions

1) Identify the theme and motifs2) Describe the plot3) Analyze the setting, what atmosphere does Poe create and how?4) How is the setting connected with the characters?5) Describe the characters, what type of characters are they?

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5. FICTION: LITERARY TROPES

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the distinction between metaphoric and rhetoricaltropes and their various examples such as irony, metaphor, symbol or metonymy.

Keywords

Metaphorical Tropes; Rhetorical Tropes; Analogy; Symbol; Metaphor;Metonymy; Irony



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A trope is a figure of speechcertain language constructs present figures to the eye, theear, to the other senses. A trope makes a picture or a sensationit is descriptive innature. But not all descriptions are tropes, for a figure of speech is more complex than

simple adjective-noun (pretty girl) or verb-adverb (run quickly) constructions.Simile: is the comparison of things that have points of likeness (Her smile was like thesun, / As warm as morning light upon the rose).

Analogy: is the means by which simile proceeds: comparison of things that are notidentical (He stood as if he were an oak / Braced against the wind.)

Contrast: is comparison by differentiation: Things are not alike (The lake was no moremirror than the sky is a pancake.)

Allusion: is comparison by reference to something outside the text, or to something notorganically part of the text; i.e., "He came, like Rome, to see, and stayed to conquer."

Parabola: is resemblance by imagerytalking about one thing in terms of somethingentirely different in kind.

An Oxymoron: is a descriptive phrase that combines terms that seem mutuallyexclusive, but which in context may not be so; i.e., "sweet bitterness," "terrible beauty,""burning chill," and so forth.

Metaphoric TropesMetaphoric Construction: The vehicle of a metaphor is the tropethat bears the weight of the comparison of dissimilar things or qualities that have asingle point in common (Coins is the vehicle of our example; roundness is the point incommon between coins and sun & moon). The subject of a metaphor is called the tenor(sun & moon is the compound tenor of the example).

Denotation: is the primary meaning, or dictionary definition of a wordHeart: "Abodily organ, the purpose of which is to circulate the blood."

Connotation: is an ancillary or second meaning of a word. Connotations of heart arecourage, as in "he has great heart"; love, as in "An affair of the heart": and essence, as in"He is pure of heart."

Context: is the environment surrounding a word situated in a phrase, clause, or largergrammatical unit. This environment limits the denotations and connotations of the word.In "His heart beat strongly in battle," the context of the word heart allows the denotationa bodily organ and the connotation of courage, but eliminates the other connotations oflove and essence.

The Pathetic Fallacy: is absurd or overstated personificationendowing non-humanthings with bathetic or pathetic qualities, often through cue-words (such as apple-pie,motherhood, etc.) which are meant to induce automatic sentimental responses in thereader. In the phrase, "The little white cloud that cried," little, cloud, and cried are cue-words.

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A Symbol: is a concretion which represents an abstraction; i.e., in some context theocean might be symbolic of eternity.

Paradox: is a metaphor or statement that combines terms which seem mutuallyexclusive, but which in fact are not"Freedom is the prison of rebellion," or "Winter is

the Spring of contemplation"; or it is a statement that contradicts a commonly heldbelief"The earth is not round, it is egg-shaped."

Allegory: "a long and perpetual metaphor." It is a method of telling a story on thenarrative level, but meaning something more general regarding the human condition onthe symbolic level.

Rhetorical Tropes

Rhetoric: is the art of effective speaking and writing; it is concerned with creating aneffect in the listener or reader, and with affecting him/her as well. Certain tropes may be

called rhetorical tropes because they are concerned with making there effects throughnon-metaphorical figures of speech.

Aporia: expresses doubt or uncertainty or a logical gap.

Apostrophe: is direct addressspeaking to an absent human being, or to a (usually)personified thing or abstraction.

Dramatic Irony: what appears true to a character is not what the audience or readerknows to be true. Thus, with dramatic irony the audience knows more about acharacters situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to thecharacters expectation, and thereby giving a sharply different sense to some of thecharacters own statements; in tragedies, this is called "tragic irony."

Ecphonisis: is exclamation or outcry.

Ironia, or irony, is witty mockery, usually effected by saying the opposite of what isactually meant.

Paralepsis: makes a little thing of something by passing over it lightly, or denying it isof importance and thereby emphasizing its actual importance through understatement.

Sarcasmus: or sarcasm, is heavy verbal irony, or "the bitter taunt." There is little wit in

sarcasm, as for instance when one bridge partner says to the other, who has just played abad hand, "Oh, youre just a terrific player, simply marvellous." In this case, saying theopposite of what is actually meant is similar to the technique of irony, but the emphasisis on the bitterness, not on the mockery.

Situational Irony: what appears likely to happen is not what actually happens.

Structural Irony: involves the use of a nave or deluded hero or unreliable narrator,whose view of the world differs widely from the true circumstances recognized by theauthor and readers. This irony thus flatters its reader's/audiences intelligence at theexpense of a character (or fictional narrator). A similar sense of audience/readers

detached superiority is achieved by dramatic irony.

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Verbal Irony: words that appear to mean one thing really mean the opposite. Theopening sentence of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice (1813) is a famous example: "Itis a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortunemust be in want of a wife" (part of the ironic implication is that a single woman is inwant of a rich husband). In its lowliest form, verbal irony is sarcasm.

Example

E.A. Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher,

http://www.online-literature.com/poe/31/

Study Questions

1) Find symbols and metaphors in the story2) Find any example of dramatic or tragic irony3) Find any example of oxymoron

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6. FICTION: NARRATOLOGY

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the main distinctions between narrator andreflector. They will be analyze the various narrative situations and points of view of thestory.

Keywords

Narrative Situation; Point of View; Narrator; ReflectorTime Required for this Unit


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The Theory

The first question before analyzing the text is: Who speaks?A narrator is the speaker or 'voice' of the narrative discourse. He or she is theagent who establishes communicative contact with an addressee (the 'narratee'),who manages the exposition, who decides whatis to be told, how it is to be told(especially, from what point of view, and in what sequence), and what is to beleft out.

Stanzel intended to show how narratives render theirmediacy (Mittelbarkeit)

and to systematize the various kinds of mediacy in a typological circle

constitutive elements ofmediacy: Person (first person or third person) Perspective (internal or external) Mode (narrator or reflector)

Stanzel: First-Person narrative situation (1st person narrator) Authorial narrative situation (omniscient narrator) Figural narrative situation (Reflector)

1st person narratornarrator who is present as a character in his/her story

events s/he has experienced himself

narrator (narrating I) is also a character (experiencing I)Unreliable Narrator: A narrator "whose rendering of the story and/or commentary onit the reader has reasons to suspect. [...] The main sources of unreliability are thenarrator's limited knowledge, his personal involvement, and his problematic value-scheme."

I-as-protagonist / I-as-witness (Moll Flanders/NickThe Great Gatsby )

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Authorial Narrator

no character in the story itself (impersonal narration)

status of an outsider => godlike abilities such as omniscience and omnipresence

may speak directly to their addressees, in order to comment on action andcharacters and to engage in philosophical reflection or socio-political criticismand the like

Reliable Narrator: A narrator "whose rendering of the story and commentaryon it the reader is supposed to take as an authoritative account of the fictionaltruth."

Reflector

subjective reflector; internal focalizer

effect: attract attention to the mind of the reflector-character and away from thenarrator and the processes of narratorial mediation

through the eyes of a character in story => third-person

Example

E. A. Poe: The Tell Tale Heart, www.online-literature/poe

Study Questions

1) Who speaks? Describe the narrator2) Is this narrator reliable? Does he present the reader with the story as it

happened? State your arguments

3) What narrative situation is this?

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7. INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA

Learning Objectives

The students will be acquainted with the main types of drama: comedies and tragediesand their subgenres. They will also learn the main literary terminology concerningdrama.

Keywords

Dramatical Utterance; Dramatic Sub-genres; Types of Drama; Dramatic LiteraryTerminology



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7.1 TYPES OF DRAMA

The Theory

Drama (Classical Greek) is a literary form involving parts written for actors toperform. It is a Greek word meaning "action", drawn from the (Classical Greek),"to do".

Dramatic Sub-Genres

Ever since Aristotles Poetics, one distinguishes at least between two sub-genres ofdrama: comedy and tragedy (see also Genre in Basic Concepts). While comedytypically aims at entertaining the audience and making it laugh by reassuring them thatno disaster will occur and that the outcome of possible conflicts will be positive for the

characters involved, tragedy tries to raise the audiences concern, to confront viewerswith serious action and conflicts, which typically end in a catastrophe (usually involvingthe death of the protagonist and possibly others). Both comedy and tragedy have, in thecourse of literary history, developed further sub-genres of which the following list

provides only an initial overview.

Types of Comedy

Sometimes, scholars distinguish between high comedy, which appeals to the intellect

(comedy of ideas) and has a serious purpose (for example, to criticise), and lowcomedy, where greater emphasis is placed on situation comedy, slapstick and farce.Further sub-genres of comedy include:

Romantic Comedy

A pair of lovers and their struggle to come together is usually at the centre of this typeof comedy. Romantic comedies also involve some extraordinary circumstances, e.g.,magic, dreams, the fairy-world, etc. Examples are Shakespeares A Midsummer NightsDream or As You Like It.

Satiric Comedy

This type of comedy has a critical purpose. It usually attacks philosophical notions or political practices as well as general deviations from social norms by ridiculingcharacters. In other words: The aim is not to make people laugh with the characters

but laugh at them. An early writer of satirical comedies was Aristophanes (450-385BC), later examples include Ben Jonsons Volpone and The Alchemists.

Comedy of Manners

The comedy of manners is also satirical in its outlook and it takes the artificial and

sophisticated behaviour of the higher social classes under closer scrutiny. The plotusually revolves around love or some sort of amorous intrigue and the language is

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