Intro to Lit Lectures - Pueblo West High Schoolpwh.district70.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Intro-to-Lit-2014.pdf · relevant over time. There is a minor caveat that is not always

READING LITERATUREIntro to Analysis ☀ Sumer Reading 2014

KELLY JACKSON

WELCOME TO LITERATURE STUDIESFirst, I’d like to congratulate you for choosing to take Literature Studies. It is a challenging course, but by no means impossible. The rewards are great: you will end this year with analytic reading and writing skills that will serve you well as you enter the world.

I could spend pages telling you about the benefits of being able to read complex texts and being able to articulate and support an argument, but instead I’ll just tell you this: people haven’t appreciably changed in...well...hmmm. It seems that people have been arguing, loving, displaying ambition, displaying pride, and jockeying for power since recorded history began. Literature is one record of those efforts and a way for others to try to understand what makes people tick. This course is part sociology, psychology, history, rhetoric, art, and critical thinking. We encourage individualism, self-direction, and out-of-the-box musings.

Some resources that may be of value:

The College Board AP Website:

https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/home?affiliateId=stdlp&bannerId=apstd7

Bedford Exercise Central (grammar reviews):

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral/

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL):

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Mrs. Jackson: [email protected]

Finally, this book is your go-to source for Lit Studies. Write in it. Ask it questions. Tell it your ideas. Refer back to it. Let it help you when you’re confused and I’m not around. Keep it handy during class.

See you in August!

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∏READING

LITERATURE

How do we determine what literature is?

VOCABULARY

• Literature

• Literary Merit

• Genre

• Close Reading

• Analysis

• Evaluation

• Literary Canon

SECTION 1∏

Literature, as a descriptor, is used often to mean any type of written text. Unfortunately for our purposes as literary scholars, that definition isn’t going to work. What we need to do, then, is figure out what texts are really “literature” and what texts fall into other categories. In order to do this, we need to address not only broad genres of writing, but the idea of literary merit, as well. I want you to imagine that you’ve just walked into Barnes and Noble, the library, or any place with a large collection of books. Where are you going to find this elusive “literature”? We’ll start with the easy part: literature refers to a work of fiction. Okay, that takes out half of the store. What next? Look up—there are signs directing us to the Children’s section, the Young Adult section, Mystery, Romance, Fantasy/Science Fiction, and Literature. Okay! Grab a book off of one of the shelves under the literature sign, and we’re done, right? No, you’re right. That was a little too easy. The very first thing I told you was that the title “literature” is broadly applied, and what it looks like here is that anything that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories is, by default, considered literature. To make it trickier, there are books shelved in the other categories that may have literary merit. So, there are two concepts that we need to address before we go any further: literary merit, and the literary canon.

The word literary is defined as relating to literature, and merit is defined as excellence. So, literary merit is the idea that a text demonstrates the very best qualities of literature. For literary scholars, this is demonstrated in two basic ways: that the text speaks to a universal human experience, and that the text remains

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What is Literature?

relevant over time. There is a minor caveat that is not always addressed, because it is often assumed: the text must be written for an adult audience. Let’s consider some examples:

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. Published c. 1623. This is a play about ambition, pride, guilt and a few other basic human characteristics. It fulfills the first part of the test: no matter when, where, or what culture, humans have exhibited these characteristics in both positive and negative ways. Obviously we have the time element here as well, as this play is working on its fourth century of production.

All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy. Published 1992. This is a novel about cultural naiveté, choosing one’s moral stance, ambition, pride, guilt; basically the whole concept of coming of age and deciding what type of person you’re going to be. Again, something that is relevant to humans, regardless of culture or society. This book is on year 20, so not as time-tested as Shakespeare, but a pretty good run so far.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by JK Rowling. Published 1997. This one is going to be a little contentious. First, popularity doesn’t equal literary merit. Having said that, it’s a coming of age story, like the McCarthy book, and it’s about the same age. But, remember that little caveat about audience? This is classified as a young adult book. Did adults read it? Sure. Is it enjoyable? Sure. Does it have literary merit? No. And just for clarifications sake, I’m not basing this judgment on the fantasy elements of the story. Macbeth

has a number of ghosts, including a phantom dagger, and three of the most famous witches ever written.

Yep, you heard that right: I made a judgment about the relative literary merit of a particular text. I’ll ask you to do the same throughout the year. Experience plays a large part in making the determination as to whether or not a text has literary merit. So does breadth of reading: being able to compare a text to others you’ve read in the past—especially to those you know are considered “literature”—makes it a little easier to decide. There are a lot of books that I like, and have read multiple times, but that don’t have literary merit…at least, not at the level of the texts I’m going to ask you to read. So, as a beginning literary scholar, is there any way you can get a baseline to help you make these decisions? Why, yes, yes there is. It’s called the literary cannon.

As much as I would love to tell you that the literary cannon is a large cannon from which poorly written texts are fired into a deep, dark hole, that is not the case. It’s just a list of books which make the cut; those having been determined to have literary merit. Determined by whom? By generations of scholars whose careers have been dedicated to teaching and learning from the best writers of the centuries. Prior to the 1960s, the cannon was primarily populated by writers of European descent, which was the source of the phrase “dead white guys,” since that was who you’d be studying in class. In the mid-twentieth century, there was a definite movement to include ethnic and contemporary writers as well. There

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are different lists: the American cannon, the British cannon, and so on. The lists vary slightly depending on who you ask. If you Google “literary cannon”, you’re likely to get a hundred (if not more) different lists. However, there will be quite a bit of overlap among the lists, and you’ll see certain trends and levels of quality.

At some point, though, you’re going to need to make some determinations for yourself. The next step in your journey as a literary scholar is being able to analyze and evaluate the texts that you’re reading. At the very basic level, this is to determine what the text is about beyond the plot. Remember that literature always has something going on in the background; something that isn’t going to be covered by a summary of the plot. Think about how I described Macbeth earlier: I used abstract nouns instead of a series of events. It wouldn’t be wrong to describe Macbeth using the plot, but it wouldn’t be complete, either. In your schooling so far, you’ve undergone a progression: making meaning of letters and words, comprehending ideas, understanding various types of writing, and analyzing text for both meaning and how an author expresses meaning. The culmination of scholarship—in any field, but particularly in the study of literature, is evaluation, which brings us right back to the “is it or isn’t it” question.

But first things first: Analysis. You no longer have the luxury of mindless reading. I’ll apologize in advance if, after this course, you’re no longer able to mindlessly watch TV or

movies, either. They’re another kind of text, and once you get in the habit of close reading, it’s hard to break. So: close reading. Mindful reading. Most readers (or viewers) have some sort of affective response to their text. At the most basic level, this can be a like/dislike response. When you’re reading closely, you delve into this response to understand the story at a deeper level. The basic questions that literary scholars ask are: Why? How? and Where have I seen this before? Whether you ask these questions as you’re reading, or whether you read once and then go back to consider the text, your job is not just to comprehend the text, but to look for the hidden messages. Let’s consider Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. It was banned within weeks of publication and continues to make the American Library Association’s top ten list of banned and challenged books each year. The primary reason? Twain’s use of a derogatory word throughout the text. We could excuse Twain on historical grounds, because it was a word in use in the late 1800s, but as literary scholars, we have to ask, “why?”. Not every character in the book uses the word. One of the worst offenders is Huck’s dad—who is an abusive, greedy, racist, drunk. In short, not someone that we as readers feel sympathetic for. Maybe Twain is using derogatory language as a shortcut for characterizing a man that we think is a jerk, anyway. But Huck, who we are sympathetic toward, also uses the word. Looking closely, though, we see his use of the word decrease as he comes closer to resolving his internal conflict. His dad’s influence, society’s influence, lessen and

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Huck makes his own decisions. After that, he doesn’t use the derogatory language. Because we asked why, we found Twain’s negative comment on social norms and social acceptability—obviously not something that he overtly argued in the text. If you didn’t catch this, the book would still be entertaining. But understanding this facet of the book offers a deeper understanding of the text and the society that Twain lived in. Over the next few weeks, we’ll address the multiple techniques that authors use to create meaning. Very often they work in tandem with each other, and to understand one is to start a domino-like chain of cause (how) and effect (why).

Typically speaking, the more complex a text is, the more likely it is that you have something of literary merit on your hands. Thus, your analysis of a particular text will provide you with a basis for evaluating the text’s place as “literature.”

Finally, I want to speak to one mistake that novice literary scholars are prone to: judging the acts of a character on the basis of your own morals and ethics—and even laws. While you don’t have to excuse bad behavior/language/etc. strictly on the basis of historical setting, you do have to be extremely cautious about the criteria you’re using to make judgment calls. If your family abstains from alcoholic drinks, and you can’t find any sympathy for the hero because he has a beer after work every day, then you’ve run into a situation where you need to suspend your own beliefs in order to understand the characterization that the author is

establishing. It’s a fine line, to be sure: you make meaning based on your experiences, which includes your beliefs about right and wrong. Just keep in mind that in order to develop complexity in a text, that text has to address positive and negative aspects of human nature. When you see something you don’t like or don’t approve of, your first question should be, why? Why is this included? What purpose might it serve? How are my beliefs influencing my reading?

So, back to Barnes and Noble and our search for literature. Wander around the store (library, whatever) and look for a work of fiction that interests you. Stay away from the Young Adult section. Look for something that has won awards, or that has comments from authors who have. The older it is, the easier your job is going to be—because of course, Shakespeare wasn’t the only one writing in his time period, but he’s one of only a few that are remembered or still read, let alone published—but beyond that point, it’s going to be trial and error, read and analyze. Of course, I won’t leave you adrift; and you have a specific reading list for this class. We’re going to practice—a lot. You won’t have a doctorate in literary studies at the end of this class, but no longer will you be a novice, either.

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WHY DO I CARE?

• Ok--so you’ve read some story, and now you’re being asked to identify the author’s argument. The problem is, you have no idea what this book is about, beyond the subject. You know that your AP Lit instructor wouldn’t have assigned a love story unless it was about something more, but you’re stuck.

• No Worries.

• If you can identify the literary movement, you can get a broad idea of what people were worried about at that time--then you can start questioning the text to see if any of those ideas show up. You have a 95% chance of figuring our the argument!

SECTION 2∏

Literary movements are periods of time in which the style and type of literature is marked by common characteristics. Just like generational categories (Baby boomers, Gen X, the millennials) we seen attitudes and social concerns change in response to what is going on in the world. And like generational categories, there is some overlap in dates and styles. This list speaks to the American literary movements, but the European movements were similar in timing; world-wide movements depended on issues of colonization, industrialization, civil war, and so on.

Enlightenment (1750-1800) Heavily influenced by science and logic, this period is characterized mainly by political writings and speeches. There is a lack of emphasis and dependence on the Bible and more use of common sense (logic) and science. There was not a divorce from the Bible but an adding to or expanding of the truths found there.

Romanticism (1830-1865) This style of writing tends to see the individual at the center of all life; thus, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of individual feelings and experiences. Sees in nature a revelation of truth; sees industrialization and scientific inquiry as a corrupting force. It is not uncommon to have fanciful or idealized characters, situations, or solutions. A subcategory of romanticism is the gothic movement, which focuses on the wild, irregular, and grotesque elements of humans and human nature.

Realism (1865-1900) Attempts to recreate real life in that there are no purely heroic characters, but instead flawed people trying to do the best they can. Bad

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Literary Movements

things happen to good people, bad guys get away, and simple good or bad doesn’t exist. Realism, then, tends to avoid plot in favor of ethical dilemmas and complex characterizations; it is often satiric in nature. Naturalism (1900-1930) These texts are typified by an unbiased portrayal of the human driven by fundamental urges—fear, hunger, greed, ambition, etc. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs inspires many of the behaviors and reactions of these characters. Again, the line between hero and villain is hazy, and internal conflicts often take center stage. Modernism (1914-1965) Texts are marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional writing—both patterns and topics. The writing and characters may appear confused and broken—which mirrored what was happening socially during this time. Authors elevate the individual and the “inward” over society and the “outward”. They posed philosophical questions about surviving in a changing world, although they rarely offered answers to those questions.

Post-Modernism/Contemporary (1965-Present) Like Modernist writing, post-modernists tend to focus on alienation, asocial individualism, and existentialism, but prefer a much less ordered format. Traditional forms are denied, and often literally broken apart.

There are more movements than these, but these are the major transitions in thought and style.

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ABOUT THE READING LIST:

• I will provide copies of all of the necessary texts, however, if you wish to have a copy of your own to annotate, you may certainly buy or use your own copy.

• Please do not try to read all of this before class starts. I expect the summer work only for the first day of school; the rest is so that you can plan ahead.

SECTION 3∏

For the summer:

“The Garden Party” Katherine Mansfield

“To Build A Fire” Jack London

“The Waltz” Dorothy Parker

“An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” Ambrose Bierce

“For The Union Dead” Robert Lowell

“Penelope” Dorothy Parker

Collected Poems Robert Frost

For the school year:

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde

Hamlet William Shakespeare

Candide Voltaire

Chronicle of a Death Foretold G. Garcia-Marquez

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The Reading List

CHAPTER 2∏

THE COMPONENTS OF THE TEXT

How do authors achieve their goals?

How can a reader figure out what those goals are?

VOCABULARY• Protagonist • Antagonist • Static • Dynamic • Stock • Foil• Anthropomorphism • Stereotype • Archetype• Hero • Heroine • Tragic Hero • Antihero • Fool • Outcast • Deceiver • Tempter • Learned Advisor

SECTION 1∏

As far as I’m concerned, there are three foundational elements needed to create a story, and plot isn’t one of them. Before you can ever get to plot, you need to have a setting. Star Trek notwithstanding, very little happens in a vacuum. So, a place and a time. Next, we need to have characters. Whether we’re dealing with people, anthropomorphism—giving animals the power of human thought and behavior—or

space aliens, there is someone doing something. Finally, there has to be some conflict. Seven people standing on stage, all agreeing with each other and showing no particular ambition, doesn’t make very interesting or entertaining literature.

Let’s start with the people. Characterization is, of course, the process of crafting and developing the characters in the story. Analysis of characterization is recognizing the levels of development and effects that various choices in development have on the story. What is the character, how is the development, and why is the effect. The basic terms of characterization should be familiar to you from your earlier years of literary studies. I’m going to address them again, however,

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Characterization

because any time there is a group of people discussing an idea, there are certain terms that need to be put into context—we all need to be working off of the same definitions. Toward that end, I offer the following working definitions for the basic terms of characterization:

• Protagonist: the person in the play who resolves the major conflicts, either internal or external. Most of the time, the action will be driven by this character’s internal conflict, and the resolution of that conflict is very often the climax of the plot. I don’t want you to simplify this definition to be the hero—you’ll see why in a minute.

• Antagonist: the person who creates or drives conflict in the story. Occasionally, this will be an entity such as society or nature, but most often there is a person who embodies whatever problems the author wishes to address. Again, please don’t oversimplify this as the villain of the story—some stories don’t have a “bad guy” per se.

• Static, or flat characters are those characters whose personalities—notably their morals and ethics—are fully formed at the beginning of the story. This is not necessarily mean that these characters are bad, or that they’re minor characters. Elizabeth Proctor is a notable example of a static character. Think about why.

• Dynamic, or round characters are those characters that undergo some type of notable change in beliefs, ethics, morals and the like throughout the story. Children are often

recognizable as dynamic characters because they are still forming their ideas about the world around them. Adult characters very often reach this new realization through the resolution of a conflict—but not always their own conflict.

• Foils are character pairings. There are a significant number of similarities between the two characters which serves to underscore the differences. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Mr. Cunningham is a poor farmer, he has young children, and he is a widower. Bob Ewell is also a poor farmer, has young children, and is a widower. Mr. Cunningham would no more take charity than he would fly; he insists on paying in some way for any services rendered. Bob Ewell, on the other hand, expects the county to take care of him. Their similar situations only serve to highlight the differences in their characterization.

That should take care of the basics. At the next level of analysis is the idea of stereotypes and archetypes. A stereotype can be defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular person or thing. The key here is that the figure is fixed—so you’ll find little variation or development. Stock characters may fall into this category—that is, the characters that are so ingrained into our social/cultural conscience that we don’t need a lot of description to know who and what that character is, and the author doesn’t need to waste words on him/her. Think of some example of stock characters: what does it mean that a character wears glasses? What does it mean that a

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character’s pants are too short? What does it mean that a character is surrounded by an adoring crowd—popularity, sure, but what else? How is the grouchy old man supposed to act and look? How is the benevolent, kindly old man supposed to act/look? Which grandma figure will yell at you to get off the lawn, and which one will give you a cookie? You have a number of these images fixed in your memory—the trick is to recognize that such a character is being presented and to understand that character’s purpose in the text as a whole.

A second type of cultural characterization is the archetype. An archetype is defined as an original model or type after which other similar people, events and so on are patterned. So, this isn’t a fixed image, but rather a variation on a theme. Again, this is a figure that is familiar to us, but less obviously recognizable and open to usage in ironic ways. There are scores of archetypal characters, situations, symbols, and so on, but I’m going to give you a few of the basics. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

• Hero/heroine: First, get the idea of a superhero out of your head. In literature, there are very rarely characters whose motivation is solely to help save society from evildoers. There are unlikely heroes, who function more like that guy who rushes into a burning building to save a child, but not a person who goes around looking for such opportunities. When there is a character identified as a hero—Achilles, King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Beowulf—that

character functions as a hero according to the standards of the time he or she is living in. Mostly, this means that they’re excellent warriors, very often conceited about their own abilities, and view the world (and the people in it) as theirs for the taking. But remember that an archetype is a pattern, so there are variations, especially as civilizations become more, well, civil. You might have someone acting heroically on the behalf of an underrepresented section of society; you might have a soldier (warrior) who is humble. Your job as a reader is to consider why these deviations from the pattern exist and what effect they have on the character and ultimately the story. A hero refers to a male heroic figure; heroine refers to a female heroic figure.

• Tragic Hero: A tragic hero is a character that functions or attempts to function heroically throughout the text but is ultimately brought down by a fatal flaw of some sort: thirst for knowledge, conceit, devotion to duty, ignorance (of any number of things) and so on. In Oedipus Rex, the main character attempts to find the cause of a plague that is causing his people to go hungry, children to die, and generally causing the city to waste away. Several people tell him to abandon his search for the criminal that he’s told is being unintentionally harbored in his city—he refuses. It turns out that he is the (unintentional) criminal, and his quest for knowledge and justice end up causing his downfall.

• Antihero: the antihero is a character that is not seen as heroic by the people—either physically matching the

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standard, or matching in behavior. Generally, this character sets himself apart from society for some reason. The key here, though, is that this character has an extremely rigid personal code of morals and ethics. Maybe it doesn’t match what society says is right, but the antihero is after justice based on his code, not that of the prevailing laws. Think Zorro, Wolverine, Batman.

• The fool serves a number of purposes. Simple comic relief is one; even in Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies there are a couple of scenes that lighten things up. Very often the fool will utilize double meanings and double entendres, which may cause an epiphany of sorts in the character listening. The fool himself is completely oblivious to this, which is often what allows him to continue living, as questioning the king often had a deleterious effect on one’s head. In The Crucible, Giles Corey serves as the fool—although his character deviates from the pattern, and completely earns our respect, in the way that he dies.

• Outcast: (Also known as the stranger)This figure is not accepted by society because of some real or perceived difference that makes him/her unable to interact with the rest of the group. Very often, especially in literature that is pre-1920s or so, this is due to race. Illness, crime, theology, class and income are other reasons for the exclusion of individuals from a group or space. Unlike the antihero, the outcast is not trying to help others, or only incidentally doing so—mostly, this character is just trying to survive.

• Deceiver: This character lies; generally for personal gain. That makes him or her generally the bad guy. As readers, we have to figure out what this personal gain is, and how that affects the story. What makes the deceiver’s ambition different from the hero’s ambition? Obviously, Abigail, from The Crucible.

• Tempter: This character serves to challenge the hero in some way. Think about Odysseus’ travels back home: he was tempted by wealth, lust, power, and simple survival. How he overcomes these temptations, and that he chooses to, illuminates his character for the readers.

• Learned Advisor: This figure guides the hero’s journey in some way. It might be practical advice (Stay away from poison ivy) or something more specific to the situation (hey, kid—maybe you should try to pull that sword from the stone, huh?). It might be encouragement or training (think any martial arts master or even Alfred to Batman). Going back to The Crucible, Hale is supposed to be the learned one, but he realizes that he isn’t, and that his hubris causes some of the deaths in Salem. This makes him dynamic; what effect does it have on the overall story that his learning fails the people?

Okay. Just a couple more thoughts, and then I’ll let you off the hook for the moment. I’ve cautioned you before about the dangers of applying your standards for ethics and morals to characters from other places, times, cultures, and belief systems. While I personally think Achilles is a jerk, I do

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recognize that he was considered a hero in his own time, and why—civilization and survival was a different thing in BCE Athens than in 21st Century America. So, you need to gauge a character’s morality or immorality based on the standards of the time—not that you have to let anyone off the hook. Just be cautious that you don’t let your personal views on feasting, smoking, drug use and so on overly color the argument that the author presents. Remember too, that the presentation of some of these vices as normal can be done in an ironic way, so that the argument becomes “even though it’s accepted, it’s not okay.” Lastly, consider that there is such a thing as being amoral—not good, not bad, just being. Snowstorms can be beautiful or deadly, depending on which side of the window you’re standing. They’re not intrinsically evil or good, they just are. There are characters, especially some of the mythological archetypes, that fit into this category.

That should get you started on character analysis, and thinking about how the characterization relates to the text as a whole. We will, of course, practice with and extend this knowledge as we go.

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VOCABULARY

• 1st person

• 3rd limited

• 3rd omniscient

• internal

• external

SECTION 2∏

The importance of Point of View (POV) goes beyond knowing whether or not the narrator is involved in the story: understanding the point of view of a story is important because that understanding gives us (the readers) information about the reliability of what we’re being told, the bias that the author inserts, the beliefs and understandings of the characters, and the motives that drive the characters. Manipulating point of view also gives the author a means of manipulating the reader; for instance, if the narrator is sympathetic to a character, the odds are that the reader will be more sympathetic as well. There are three commonly used points of view:

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Point of ViewConflict

• First person: the easiest to identify, the narrator speaks as “I” and is involved in the story. The reader understands all the events of the novel through this person’s understanding, which may include biases, ignorance, or likes and dislikes. Readers should always consider the reliability of the first-person narrator; although a narrator who is concealing something will provide clues about what is being hidden or disseminated.

• Third-person limited: this narrator speaks of the others characters as “he,” “she,” or “them” and doesn’t participate directly in the story. The narrator is limited to seeing the actions, thoughts and feelings of one character. To be clear, as that character interacts with others, we’ll see and hear what those others are doing, but we as readers follow only one character.

• The third-person omniscient narrator is not part of the story but reveals the words, actions, and thoughts of many, if not all, of the characters within the story. These narrators are generally considered reliable because their information comes from multiple sources, eliminating the biases present in first-person narration.

Beyond plot events, though, we can learn about values and ethics, how these are developed, and how they might alter from generation to generation. We can see the effects of

world-changing events—like war—on people, and how the conflict created, creates change.

Of the three foundational pieces, conflict is probably the most straightforward. That being said, you’ll almost never have just one conflict happening; usually there’s an internal and at least one external. The longer the work, the more conflicts there are and they become tightly interwoven.

Internal conflict means that the character is debating an issue within him- or herself. Although the question of whether to sneak out on Saturday night seems pretty mundane, how the character eventually resolves that question is going to cause some change—in maturity, morality, respect, and so on. When the questions get bigger, like whether or not doing something illegal is okay if it means you get the love of your life, then the impact on the individual is going to be correspondingly greater. In Huck Finn, Huck has a conflict between how he thinks people should be treated versus how society tells him that slaves should be treated. When he resolves that issue, he matures (despite his physical age) and removes himself from a hypocritical society.

You know from your past studies that there are, depending on how they’re defined, three or four types of external conflict. Man v Man, Man v Society (possibly Man v Technology), and Man v Nature.

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• Man versus man is the easiest: one person who has a direct argument with another person. This can also cover family versus family (the Hatfields and McCoys) or even two countries at war. The defining factor is that each side can be grouped into one entity of approximately the same size.

• Man versus society is when one individual (entity) is seeking to change or gain retribution from the society at large. Archetypically, social rules are determined by majority vote regardless of relative fairness or equality. When one person goes up against the practices, laws, traditions or norms of society, there is always some tension and resistance to change—regardless of how good an idea that change is. By definition, the character seeking the change slips into the outsider archetype, regardless of his/her status when the story begins.

• I’ll discuss hospitable settings at more length, but a man versus nature conflict generally has little to do with human interaction. This is the shipwreck, the sudden blizzard, the flood that tests the abilities of those trapped to survive. Remember that nature is amoral—not good, not bad, and certainly without sentience: this is a test of the mental and physical abilities of the central character. It is very often an acknowledgement that as advanced as our society may be, there’s something out there that is infinitely stronger.

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VOCABULARY

• Mood

• Futuristic

• Historical

• Pastoral

• Hospitable

• Inhospitable

• Social Environment

SECTION 3∏

The third cornerstone, or foundational, part of any literary text, is the setting. On the surface, this seems pretty simple—a place and a time for the events to take place. Sometimes, it is that simple. Sometimes, the setting takes a much more significant role. In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” there is only one (human) character—the other major driving force in

the story is the Alaskan backcountry in the winter. The story would not have the same effect on the reader—or on the character—in a milder climate. Time can also play a significant role.

The most significant job of the setting is to establish the mood. In describing the weather, the environment, the time of day or night, the prominence of light or shadow, the level of comfort and welcome that a house or building exudes, the author is able to manipulate the reader’s mindset. This makes the author’s job easier: the reader is already in a place to be comforted, nervous, angered, or

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Setting

shocked. Authors use archetypes—archetypes of setting—to help them establish the mood as well. If the story is set in a country town with sunny skies and smiling people, we as readers don’t really expect anything bad to happen. Mostly, nothing bad happens. Sometimes, authors use this expectation to shock the reader and challenge a belief.

If this makes the study of literature seem more like sociology, then you’re on the right track. Much of the literature that we read is in some way challenging a social norm or practice. Sometimes this is done in a very subtle way as a means of subverting the censors and others who would disregard the argument before understanding it—perhaps before reading it.

Common setting archetypes are historical, futuristic, urban, and pastoral.

Historical settings are those that are in the past relative to the time of publication, not to the time of reading. So Things Fall Apart is considered to have been written at about the time of its publication, whereas Shakespeare went back in time to write Julius Caesar. Twain set Huckleberry Finn approximately 30 years earlier than the time of its publication. It is significant that this move places the story before the Civil War instead of after it; it is our job as readers to ask why Twain made this decision. How does the placement of the story in time help Twain to critique his current society? Harper Lee also set To Kill A Mockingbird

about 30 years earlier—during the depression instead of at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Why?

• Futuristic settings are, unsurprisingly, in the future. The author is predicting what might happen if a particular course of action continues to play out. Examples of this are Fahrenheit 451 and 1984.

• Urban settings use cities, social events, and other large gatherings. There are some archetypal implications to this type of setting; namely a two sided coin with sophistication, education, and progress on one side and corruption, disease, pollution, and poverty on the other. Although not all stories address this dichotomy, keep in mind that there is no Utopia.

• Let’s try a little word association: Pastoral and pasture share the same root. What do you think of when you think of pasture? Big open green space? Couple of horses grazing? Birds twittering, maybe a little creek running over rocks? Deer instead of horses? The general idea is that it is a bucolic place; a place where the pace of life is slower and one can retreat from the demands of city life. Even in the country, thought, there is that dichotomy: peaceful, unpretentious, unexplored, simple; versus isolated, xenophobic, and superstitious.

• Hospitable settings are those that encourage the prosperity of the characters. This might mean a temperate climate, adequate shelter and food, a positive social environment, or a combination of the three. An inhospitable

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climate, then, doesn’t encourage the prosperity of the characters. Many of Jack London’s works are set in Alaska during the gold rush. Very few of the people who went looking for gold were prepared for the climate they found, and many froze to death because of inadequate clothing or starved because the winter was two months longer than they were used to. The ocean is often used as both: it provides food, a space for exploration, and is the basis of many dreams of a pastoral life. It can, however, be deadly: not just the storms, but for those stranded by shipwreck, etcetera, who may slowly dehydrate in the middle of millions of gallons of water.

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Very often, once the mood is established, the author uses the setting to prove the mettle of a character or to demonstrate the folly of humanity. That’s why characterization, conflict, and setting have to work together: because even though archetypes and patterns exist, writers constantly find new ways to explore the human psyche. We still read Shakespeare because we still haven’t figured out how to avoid jealousy, where the line is between good ambition and bad ambition, and how to keep from screwing up a relationship. We continue to write and explore because we use literature as a means of understanding experiences, emotions, and memories; both our own and those of the people around us.

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VOCABULARY

• symbol

• archetype

• allusion

SECTION 4∏

I want to tell you a story: In ancient times, the city of Thebes angered the Sphinx. She was a merciless monster, and she settled at the entrance to the city, asking a riddle of anyone who tried to enter. Anyone who got the riddle wrong was eaten—which was everybody. As you can imagine, travel to Thebes dropped off drastically, and the Thebians were pretty desperate for trade goods. They offered a reward: anyone who could solve the Sphinx’s riddle would be rewarded with marriage to the queen (the king having been killed some years before). One day, a young man name Oedipus came to the gates, and the Sphinx asked her riddle: “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and

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SymbolismAllusions

three legs in the evening?” Oedipus replied that it was man, who crawled on all fours as a baby, walked on two legs through adulthood, and used a cane in old age. The sphinx was banished, and Oedipus was crowned king of Thebes and married Jocasta, the queen.

What does this have to do with symbolism? The connection between the stages of life and the time of day, or the stages of life and seasons, has been around since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. I’m sure most of you have heard this story, but you might not connect this riddle to William Blake’s poem, “Nurse’s Song.” As literary scholars and close readers, though, we have to constantly ask the question, where have I seen this (in this case, this pattern) before? Symbolism is about reading between the lines and recognizing when inanimate objects are representing more than themselves. Sometimes it is obvious—the woman haunted by a ghostly dagger is seeing a manifestation of her guilt. Sometimes it is more subtle—running water symbolizing the maturation of a character.

While symbols are generally inanimate objects, the door remains open to any number of objects that may take on symbolic properties. Colors, status symbols, emblems, seasons, water (or lack of), names, disease, the weather…the list could go on and on. We’re going to talk about some of the basic symbol archetypes, but like the list of character archetypes, understand that this is by no means an exhaustive or even complete list.

We’ll start with colors—because you know these already. What words/feelings/or traits do you associate with: yellow, blue, green, red, white, black, and purple? Well, for starters, each has a positive connotation and a negative connotation.

• Yellow is typically associated with sunshine and brightness. It is generally seen as a cheerful color. Gold and yellow are close cousins, so this can represent money and wealth also. On the negative side, yellow symbolizes cowardice (think yellow-bellied)

• Blue is calm and calm water. It can also be unhappiness or depression—there’s a reason that the music genre is called the blues.

• Green is growth, freshness, naiveté. Its flip side is envy and jealousy.

• Red is passion, power or blood—which can be a positive or negative trait—and anger.

• White is innocence, purity, and general goodness. Naiveté can go either direction.

• Black is evil or death; but it can also be privacy (especially versus a public persona) or opposition to the status quo.

• Purple symbolizes royalty or monarch. It also represents bravery—such as the purple heart.

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Light/Dark: These are very often seen together, and work in opposition to each other. Whatever the light shines on is visible—so this is the public face, the exposition of secrets, positive growth, truth, knowledge, and so on. Darkness hides, so this is the private self, the keeping of secrets, corruption, ignorance. In an urban setting, there are streets bathed in sunshine and alleys shrouded in darkness: be aware of what actions happen in each place and how those changes affect characterization and conflict. In the country, the forests are often shadowed and can be a place of fear (what monsters be here?) or a place where one can drop the public pretenses. When dealing with a multi-racial work, this symbolism may transfer over to the people involved in the story and their relative sophistication, corruption, education, beliefs, and treatment of others.

Water is a frequently seen symbol, but it can have a variety of meanings, depending on whether it’s running or still, storm-tossed or kind currents. The act of falling in the water also has symbolic properties. Rebirth—a change in perception, status, identity, is frequently seen in characters who get wet in some way but do not drown. This might include being rained on, bathing, swimming purposefully, or falling into a pond, lake, or ocean. Occasionally, of course, someone who falls into water drowns. In this case, we’re generally looking at character revelation, thematic development of violence, failure, or guilt, or some type of plot complication.

The archetype of Disease stays pretty stable, but of course there are exceptions. Someone with physical deformities or a disease which causes ugliness—scars, loss of skin, etc—tends to represent an internal beauty. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a prime example of this. He is shunned because of his physical abnormality, his deafness, and his lack of socialization, but he’s really not evil. I’m not going to go so far as to say he’s the misunderstood voice of kindness from the Disney film, but his faults can be attributed to ignorance rather than willful, antagonistic behavior. The opposite is also true: characters who are the epitome of beauty are often broken, twisted, and damaged on the inside. Heart disease is almost never about cardiac problem, but about lost love, lost freedom, guilt, cruelty, selfishness, or faithlessness. When you’re reading about someone who is suffering from a disease, you’ll almost certainly have to suspend disbelief. Medical prognosis, as we know it, has really developed in the last 150 years. In the Victorian time period, it was hit or miss, and the cure was often as bad as the disease. If a character has a “wasting disease,” it doesn’t really matter what the disease is, but rather what this illness does for characterization, how it can be read metaphorically, and what it symbolizes. (Metaphor: Malaria=bad air=gossip) (Scarlet Ibis)

Food and eating: The sharing of a meal is the traditional means of recognizing your allies. Watching other people eating lacks a lot of zing, as far as entertainment goes, so if

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there’s a meal written into your text, the chances are good that it means something. It can go toward characterization—which people are allied—and toward conflict—these two are sharing a meal but he doesn’t think she’s much of a cook. It can reveal the two-faced enemy who toasts your health with poisoned wine.

The irony of it all is that like all archetypes, symbols can be turned on themselves and used in the opposite way. So, how are you going to know when something is a symbol, whether it symbolizes good or bad, or is being used ironically?

Practice. Not what you wanted to hear, I know.

Typically, a symbol will show up more than once, and more emphasis will be placed on its description than on, say, table linen. Think about the rapture that Daisy showed when she was going through Gatsby’s shirts: something about this scene is significant in a way that the general descriptions of the party scenes are not.

Allusions

To allude to something is to reference it—perhaps not directly, but a specific mention. Hamlet, in Shakespeare’s play of the same name, describes his father as being like Hercules: strong, a good warrior, honorable, brave. So because we as readers recognized the allusion, and we know something about Greek mythology, we have an idea of what Hamlet’s father was like. Allusions can be drawn from literature, film, art, music, TV, advertising…just about

anything that sticks in the reader’s mind. I read an allusion to “having the endurance of the old battery bunny” the other day; we’re not limited to classical works. That being said, however, the two largest sources of allusions are The Bible and Greek mythology, with Shakespeare running a close third. I’ll tell you right now: there are some Biblical and mythological allusions that I miss. There are some that you’ll miss. It’s okay, and it doesn’t mean that you’ll miss the meaning of the whole story

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TECHNIQUES

Allegory AllusionAnalogyArchetypeAnthropomorphismCharacterization, including Static/Dynamic; Antagonist/ProtagonistFoilConflict: Internal/ External: v. man; v. society; v. natureFigurative LanguageFlashback/ ForeshadowingImageryIronyMetaphorMetonymyMoodSetting: Pastoral, Futuristic, HistoricSymbol/ MotifThemeTone

FORMS AntithesisDiction: Low (slang)/medium (conversational)/high (formal)Dialect DialogueGenreLitotesParallelismPoint of View: 1st Person/ 3rd Person limited/ 3rd Person Omniscient PunSatireSyntax

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Literary Terms (Prose)to be familiar with

SECTION 5∏

Poetry Termsalliterationallusionambiguity antithesisassonanceaubadeaudienceballadblank versecacophonyconceitconnotationconsonancecoupletdenotationelegyEnglish sonnet aka Shakespearean enjambmentepitheteuphonyextended metaphor free versehyperbole

imageryironyItalian sonnet aka Petrarchan sonnetlitotesmetaphormetonymyodeonomatopoeiaoxymoronparadoxparallelismpersonificationrepetition rhetorical questionrhyme schemesestetsimilesonnetspeakerstanza synecdochethemetonevillanelle volta zeugma

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CHAPTER 3∏

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Now we come to the actual graded part of your summer work. The tasks are slightly different for each text, so make sure you read the directions carefully. Your responses to these questions must be typed.Please be aware: even though there is a right and wrong answer for each of these, I’m looking at your critical thinking as much as your ultimate answer. Identifying the connections between devices and arguments will serve you well as we move on.

KATHERINE

MANSFIELD

• 1888-1923

• Born in New Zealand but lived much of her life in bohemian London

• Her brother was killed in action during WWI

• Wrote short stories about “ordinary people” which reveal significant lessons about life and society

• Her stories tended to be sympathetic to the marginalized members of society

SECTION 1∏

You can find this story online at www.americanliterature.com. Read the story carefully, then answer the following questions. Each answer should be 25-50 words. Total time for this exercise: 75 minutes

1. Who is the protagonist of this story? Explain your response. Remember that the protagonist must a, seek to resolve conflict; b. demonstrate growth (maturation) as a result of resolving an internal conflict; and c. serve as a guide to other characters in the story.

2. What two settings are contrasted in the story? Identify specific imagery Mansfield uses to make these comparisons (at least three pairs of images), your reaction to this imagery, and what effect the imagery has on the story as a whole. You may consider these questions as you look at overall effect:

a. How does the move from the garden to the street change the story from an airy recounting to a rite of passage?

b. How does the move from the garden to the street literally change Laura’s perspective?

3. Identify three color-based symbols. Explain what the symbolism of each is and the effect of each on the story as a whole. Remember that a symbol has a literal meaning and an inferred meaning, and I’m interested in both.

4. Into which literary movement does this story best fit? Explain how this helps readers to identify Mansfield’s argument about society.

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“The Garden Party”

JACK LONDON

• 1876-1916

• London pursued a number of interests, including journalism, mining, commercial sailing, and social activism

• He wrote novels, plays, short stories and poetry, but his short stories are his best works.

• London’s works are considered part of the Naturalism literary movement, which is part of the larger Realism movement.

SECTION 2∏

You can find this story online at www.americanliterature.com. Read the story carefully, then answer the following questions. Each answer should be 25-50 words. Total time for this exercise: 60 minutes.

1. Trace the main character’s development. Identify four specific characteristics and why these are important to the overall story. You might consider:

a. very few of London’s readers would have experienced this extreme type of weather. How does this severity build toward a social criticism?

b. The dog, like the storm, is amoral. How does this affect the reader’s judgement of the man?

c. The third-person POV means that we don’t know what the man thinks and can only judge him on his actions.

2. Take a few minutes (seriously, 10 minutes, tops) and research the symptoms of hypothermia. At what point does the character develop hypothermia? As London traces the worsening effects of hypothermia, anticipation builds. What is the effect of this anticipation on the story as a whole?

3. In most stories, the plot is driven by conflict between individuals. What conflicts exist in this story? Why can’t we clearly define a “good guy” or a “bad guy”?

4. How is London using this specific event in this specific place to speak to a larger social problem? Identify the problem he’s looking at and his opinion on that problem.

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“To Build A Fire”

DOROTHY PARKER

• 1893-1967

• Humorist, poet, satirist, theatre critic, and social activist

• Blacklisted during the McCarthy trials

• Her work is characterized by its wit. She often plays words off of each other and uses multiple meanings of a single word to create puns. Her work is reminiscent of Hemingway’s in that she uses description sparingly.

SECTION 3∏

You can find this story online at www.americanliterature.com. Read the story carefully, then answer the following questions. Each answer should be 25-50 words. Total time for this exercise: 60 minutes.

1. How does point of view affect the story as a whole? Consider:

a. What is the irony between the words in regular print and the words in italics?

b. What is the difference in tone between these sets of words?

2. How is each of the major figures characterized? Is the characterization of the man reliable? Why or why not? How about the female figure? What stands out/seems out of sync about her characterization?

3. With a double voice present, many reader’s thoughts turn to double standards. Is Parker making an argument about double standards? If so, what is her opinion? If not, then what part of society is this story critiquing?

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“The Waltz”

AMBROSE BIERCE

• 1876-c. 1914. Bierce disappeared during the Mexican-American War and no definitive proof of his place or cause of death exist.

• Journalist, satirist and critic

• Served as a lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War

SECTION 4∏

You can find this story online at www.americanliterature.com. Read the story carefully, then answer the following questions. Each answer should be 25-50 words. Total time for this exercise: 75 minutes.

1. Farquhar has a strong reaction to his watch--why is this significant? Consider the use of past and present tense verbs to indicate flashback and present time; also consider how time affects the structure of the story.

2. At what point do you realize that Farquhar is an unreliable narrator? How does this affect the story as a whole?

3. Many young men of this period joined either the Union or Confederate armies because of a romanticized ideal of honor and courage. What argument does Bierce make about the realities of war? Why does he go into such detail about military protocol?

4. Which literary movement does this text belong to? Explain your answer.

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“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

THE TEXTS

• “For the Union Dead” by Robert Lowell

• “Penelope” by Dorothy Parker

• “Water, is Taught By Thirst” by Emily Dickenson

• “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” by Emily Dickenson

• “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” by Emily Dickenson

• “Success is Counted Sweetest” by Emily Dickenson

• “The Tyger” by William Blake

• “Introduction to the Songs of Experience” by Wm. Blake

• “Introduction to the Songs of Innocence” by Wm. Blake

• “To The Muses” by Wm. Blake

SECTION 5∏

The basics of reading literature--that is, prose--also work for drama and poetry. We will talk at length about how to identify poetry versus verse or doggerel as well as more nuanced ways of reading poetry. In the meantime, however, I want you to analyze the ten poems on the left using this process (apply to each poem).

1. Paraphrase the poem. This does not mean “pull out the thesaurus and change the words.” Take the poem, sentence by sentence--not line by line, figure out what each sentence says, and state that in your own words. Your paraphrase must maintain the main idea and context of the original. Your paraphrase should not be in verse form. It should look like a paragraph.

2. Clarify any terms that you’re unfamiliar with, including references to people, places, or events.

3. You need to identify a minimum of two devices and explain how they are used to make the implied theme clear.

4. For each poem, find an illustration, photograph, sculpture, meme, or other visual means of conveying the theme (which is implied--it won’t be the same as the subject of the poem). Warning: a pretty landscape isn’t going to cut it here.

5. You should have a ~50 word explanation of how the illustration speaks to the implied theme of the poem.

You can find these poems at www.poetryfoundation.org

Total time for this exercise: 2.5 hours.

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Poetry