Introduction to English/American Lit. Studies

Mesopotamian commentaries (8th cent.)

hermeneutics try to interpret line by line/passages

history of production and reception of literature, of changing literary media, techniques and genres

Techniques:

• thinking about/focussing on meanings of a term
• studied the histories of a particular word and all the different meanings the word carried in the past

Methods

• giving consideration to figurative/methaphorical meanings
• historizing the text (author + event)

studies classical literature in latin or greek 

away from hermeneutics to secular texts

a lawyer or a church man

--> because of social ambission/mobility

they had to learn how to speak politely to socialize with the english peers 

to make polite/intelligent conversation to fit into society/modernity

• much more narrowly (poetry, drama, bit prose)
• texts never linked to historical events
• lit. studies thought how to do small talks in english

• focus on lit. form/language and close textual analysis
  --> many immigrants, so had to share the same language
   
• focus on political/social functions
  --> lit. studies heavy politicised, sharpened people's sense of race/class conflict
   
• from English literature to literatures in English
  --> reading list changes, female voices have strong presence, small group of texts from dead male authors

at the beginning of the 19th cent (napoleon collapse)

theoretical reflections on the nature of literature and the methods of studying it

gives you a theoretical framwork/guideline in which you can understand the text and what makes literature literature

analysis/interpretation of lit. texts

= a set of texts whose purpose includes communication, in which the language itself is as much a part of the end product as is the content.

• oral
• written
• audio-visual media of transmission

• genres 
• standards of writing at a certain point of time
• difficult for non-contemporary reader (need to decode the codes/sort of used language)

• historical context
• overall circumstances the text is written in 

the mode of fiction

facts, dates

author's right to lie, characters are invented

• literature creates false realities
• can corrupt readers
• literature is dangerous

• literature gives the probable truth
• children/people learn in playful way
• lit. doesn't give facts, but we can relate to what's described
• lit. should be plausible 

• ask how people understand the meaning of this term at different points of time
• codes/conventions that regulate how people think about fiction have changed over time 

feature of texts that reflect on their own status as carefully crafted artworks/fictions

= texts that give directions for specific actions, gives a set of instructions

• texts that aren't used to convey informations
• texts whose design is shaped by attention to structure, form, language

• set of lit. texts that are recognized for their importance, influence, originality, stylistic brilliance 
• is/has always been controversial
• not stable/static 

cultural prestige 

as less prestigious/realistic 

--> Memours of Woman of Pleasure: never been in canon, low lit.
--> Fanny Hill: scholarly edition, in canon

• part of story world
• addresses homodiegetic audience/implied heterodiegetic reader

• outside story world
• narrator is not the author
• not addressing someone special
• like authorial narrator

• protagonist (I-as-protagonist)
• story world is world of narrator 

communication between real author and real reader

• homodiegetic narrator is part of the story world 
  --> addresses homodiegetic audience/implied heterodiegetic reader
   
• heterodiegetic narrator is outside the story world 
  --> addresses implied reader

• communication between characters who are a part of the story world 
• usually no adressing to the reader

how something is being told

what is being told 

• reader is adressed directly
• narrator = outside story world
• narrator = omniscient
• swith between present/past 
• no doubt in narrators voice
• limitless insight into minds

• involved in story world
• other character's minds are limited
• experiencing-I and narrative-I
• I-as-protagonist and I-as-witness
• more or less reliable 

• outside story world
• presented in 3rd person from one/more characters (reflector character)
• much info about feelings/thoughts of the reflector character

• addresses reader
• has presence
• identification possible 

• narrator is invisible
• neutral/anonymous voice

focus on character's experiences, feelings, thoughts

• outside view of things
• no insights into feelings/emotions

• no restrictions
• various eyes
• like authorial narrator 

flashforward

flashback

narrative stops = pause

(Abschweifung)

time to read the story

relates to narrated time

• telling
• high level of narrator involvement
• comments to help understand

• showing
• very little narrator involvement
• acts of character are central 

• narrators voice/perspective dominates
• not in characters head
• written in 3rd person

• mix of narrators and characters voices
• no quotemarks
• written in 3rd person
• shows how character's mind works, how personality operates

• representation of character's thought process
• written in 1st person
• minimizes narratorial involvement
• unlimited access to character's mind
• unfiltered 

representation of physical spaces, time, socio-cultural contexts in which the narrative unfolds 

agent in the text, no matter if human/animal/object

direct assessement of a charaters personality (diegetic: telling)

indirect mode of characterization (mimetic: showing)

• flat: one characteristic/function
• round: complex, many facettes, many contradictions

• static: no changes
• dynamic: change by the struggle they face or by people

• transparent: obvious motives
• opaque: hard to understand the motivation/actions, mystery 

• minor: tend to be round
• major: tend to be flat

• embodies values/actions that contradict to them of protagonist 
• doesn't have to be human

have things in common but differ in important ways: comparing and better understanding through their differences 

• single-plot and multi-plot narratives
• main plot and subplots/minor plots
• linear/tightly plotted and episodic
• open and closed structure

• brevity
• few characters
• medias res beginning
• focus on moment of crisis

• few more characters
• more backstory
• use of frame narrative 
• more extended plot-lines

• extended fictional text
• many characters, multi-plot
• many subgenres
• detailed

• highly self-reflexive fictional texts that reflect on nature
• breaks illusion
• stresses that a text is just a text

• high density, shortness/brevity
• deviation from everyday language (metre, rhyme, rhethorical features)
• lines and stanzas

paired lines of verse

paired lines written in iambic pentameter

• tercet
• quatrain
• quintet
• sestet
• septet
• octet

• no stanzaic structure
• continuous sequence of lines roughly the same length 
• not necessarily iambic pentameter

• always non-rhyming iambic pentameter
• often stichich (early modern drama)

• quatrains
• rhyming abcb
• usually iambic tetrameter alternates with iambic trimeter
• "galopping" sound

• quintet
• 2 lines trimeter (trochee, 2 anapest)
• 2 lines anapestic dimeter
• 1 line trimeter (trochee, 2 anapest)

• septet
• iambic pentameter
• rhyming ababbcc

• octet
• iambic
• rhyming abababcc

• nine lines
• first eight pentameter, final hexameter
• rhyming ababbcbcc

• very short poem
• presented in 3 lines
• seventeen syllables

Iamb (xX), Trochee (Xx), Dactyl (Xxx), Anapest (xxX), Spondee (XX)

mono-/di-/tri-/tetra-/penta-/hexa-/hepta-/octametre

end-rhyme, internal rhyme

• rhyming couplet (aa bb)
• alternate rhyme (abab)
• envelope rhyme (abba)
• tail rhyme (aab)
• masculine/feminine rhyme
• triple rhyme
• identical rhyme
• eye-rhyme, half-rhyme

author (production) and reader (reception)

Speaker and addressee

speaker addresses directly a "u"

repetition of a word/phrase at the beginning

repetition of a word/phrase at the end

repetition of words in close succession  
(I celebrate myself, and I sing myself)

word repeated in different forms 
(Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young)

repetition of the root of a word in different forms
(Lit some lighted light)

clauses/sentences in the same structure

reversal of structure

common word order is reversed

sentence components aren't there 

implicit comparison 

(characteristics of a vehicle are transferred to a tenor without being mediated by a comparative particle)

= Bildspender; image that is connected to tenor (tiger)

concept from which metapher is taken (biology, fauna, animal kingdom)

= Bildempfänger; person/concept the poem talks about, actually addressed

concept area to which metaphor is applied (technology, transport)

tenor and vehicle are linked by it 

one thing is connected to another by a comparative particle (is like, as)

idea, thing, non-human entitiy presented as if it were alive/human

sensory perceptions are mixed and combined (smelling, touching)

replacement of a part with a whole 
(two hundred hands at work)

replacement of one term with another, logically/causal connected

item stands or a concept, is actually there and ha s particular presende 
(rose = love)

more positive decorative term used to make something seem better 
(I'm gone = I'm dead)

exaggeration 
(thousands of years)

use of an expression that means the opposite of what is said

using the negative 
(it actually doesn't taste bad)

• not static
• helps to compare texts
• helps to think about the way writers engage with traditional genres and their features

• short, no story
• focus o feelings, consciousness of speaker
• not much external actions

• emphasis on narrative content
• characters/plot
• everything's brought to life
• sometimes narrator
• much external actions

monologue and clearly identified character

• popularised by Petrarca
• traditionally associated with celebration of love
• 14 lines, often iambic pentameter

• octet (two quatrains) + sestet (two tercets)
• octet: develops on part of a question
• sestet: develops other part/provides answer
• volta between octet and sested 
• always about a man longing for an idealized woman he can't have

formal break in the rhyme scheme, argument turns, new point

• 3 quatrains + rhyming couplet
• iambic pentameter
• couplet often sums up the argument/intruduces a twist
• volta between third quatrain and couplet

• often praise of a god-like person/object
• formal style

• looking at mortality
• grave language, formal tone
• quatrains in iambic pentameter

• one/more clearly identified characters
• quatrain with rhyming abcb
• often dialogues

• clearly identified character addresses explicit/implicit audience
• insight into innter lifre
• speaker is untrustworthy
• addressee is silent

• produced by individuals
• monomedial
• individual reception (imagination)

• collective production and reception
• multimedial 

1. primary text = verbal communication, utterances you hear the actors speak 
    
2. secondary text = not spoken out loud, stage directions, gestures, movements, ... 
    

• external: relation between real author/reader
• internal: lack of narrative mediation

• external: theatre company, audience
• internal: contains performance/interpretation of secondary/primary text

characters/audience have extra knowledge (more than characters)

audience has extra infos about consequences/implications of a character's actions 
(additional meaning)

• no speaker/narrator
• introduces other characters
• anounces major events
• gives a time span

conversation between two/more characters

• character takes a moment to talk to himself during a convo
• character takes a moment to make a comment addressed to one character while others are also on stage

two characters exchange short (one-line) comments in quick succession 

character speaks in his mind for an extendend while, others on stage

character alone on stage, talkes for an extended while, reflects his thoughts/emotions/plans

entire cast of characters

• info given in secondary text
• telling names

• explicit: character assesses her own or another character's personality in direct statement
• implicit: acoustic signs, visual signs (non-verbal codes)

• chronological vs. anachronic 
• prolepsis and analepsis
• discourse time vs story time
• performance time vs fictional time (time represented in play)

• ab ovo: from very beginning
• in medias res: start in the middle
• in ultimas res = beginning with actual outcome/ending

• scene is constructed through words from charactes
• audience has to imagine 

• open-air
• performed in daylight
• great distance to stage
• no reality effects 
• no women/slaves 

• moveable pageant wagons
• open-air
• audience surrounding "stage"
• stories from bible
• sponsored/performed by members of guilds

• open-air
• performed in daylight
• often word scenery
• bare stage
• apron stage

• picture framed stage
• audience in the dark
• indoors

• action: single plot line
• place: on place
• time: one day
• resolution at the end
• achieving a realistic story, perfect illusion, perfect realistic reality

• many different plots, places, moments in time
• no closure, order, fundamental meaning, order in life
• Brecht: wanted to avoid that people got lost in performance/illusion

• noble protagonist
• own downfall through error in judgement (hamartia)
• recognizes failure at the end (anagnoris)
• audience suffers with protagonist (catharsis)

• middle/lower class characters
• plot elements: disguise, mistaken identities, battle of the sexes

• epic narrator
• alienation effects
• appeal to audience's feelings, to make them think critically

• pessimistic view at society
• emphasis on hopelessness
• black humour
• minimalistic language (repitition)

= division of lit. history into concrete periods, creating areas characterized by sharing certain features

• helps to compare texts
• helps to place texts into historical events

• monachrs reign seems to imply that monarch had influence on lit. at this period and ends when death of monarch 
• always fussy, impossible to fix for everybody, manmade 

• historical periods aren't homogenous
• period can contain cultural/political forces that belong to the past
• concept of historical periods need to be rethought

= both kinds of text are given equal importance (no hierarchy between lit. and non-lit. texts)

• lit. is never produced in a vacuum
• lit. is a complex product of production 
• lit. is influenced by social/political/cultural circumstances

• documents are never objectiv/neutral
• all sources are shaped by someone's perspective
• own perspective is never neutral, it's shaped by interest/culture

• has to be chronologically ordered otherwise it's hard for us to believe in their importance
• only manageable for us when narrative order 
• BUT: no narrative is neutral, our understanding of the past is textual/dependend

= specific way of thinking/writing connected to a certain topic

= version that comes with annotations, useful for historical texts, helps to make sense

• not in contact with actual product
• de-humanizing kind of labour
• no skill needed to do one-hand-movement
• humanity is being ignored/downplayes

• class struggle ultimately generates something new (class less society)
• very interested in the antagonistic relationship between the social classes

• thoughts are based in materialistic perspective
• spiritual ideas which we can't touch shouldn't be used
• opposite is idealism

= class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production, employers of wage labour. 

= class of modern wage labourers who are reduced to selling their labour in order to live. 

= things in our world that determine ideology, that determine how we think about society
(ideas, art, media, politics, religion, ...)

= foundation of our society, the economic base of society 
(material reality)

--> base determines superstructure

= most people follow ideologies withought reflecting them, without being conscious!

• only one viewpoint/one system of values
• aesthetic failure

• different viewpoints and the struggle between them
• competition between different ideologies
• up to the reader which ideology to accept/reject

= refers to the presence of multiple, contradictory voices within the same text 

= co-presence of voices 
(ironizes the original statement)

= forces you to believe, if not you'll get excluded/punished

= refers to ideas/values that individuals accept willingly bc they match their own

= institutions which perpetuate/foster ideology (university, church, ...)

= individuals can't act/express themselves, can't exist on their own bc there are forces that constantly put you in a subject-position

= refers to the cultural/social construction of femininity/masculinity, it is not innate and not natural

= refers to the anatomical/physiological markers

that what it means to be a woman/man and what people find appropriate for the sexes changes over time

18th century macaronis were seen as aggressively heterosexual and ultra-masculine but later on society saw wigs/make-up as a sign for femininity 

--> unacceptable 

• cultural/social discourses have an impact how we understand/think about sexuality
• thoughts about are very much shaped in which culture/society someone lives

to give people a label, to punish them, to classify

as something that you did, not as something that you are

to have freedom from domestic duties, to be able to practise their creativity

we are not born as a woman, we are socialized/turned into a woman by culture/discourses

= a culture organized by men, men have power

men are the agents, women are there to please the men (decorative objects)

• Androtexts: male authored
• Gynotexts: female authored

recovering forgotten female writers, explore techniques of writing used by female writers

language is male-coded and ignoring female experiences 
(clear male bias)

female style of writing

--> resist patriarchy

male authors created an image of women that women themself can't identify with or can't relate to 

intentity is constructed by the way we perform 

--> gender is constituted by the way we behave, dress, walk, ... 

in-between masculinity-femininity, in-between hetero- and homosexuality