Englisch (Subject) / Steop Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture (Lesson)

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• Story „chronological sequence of events“
• Plot events of story are causally/logically linked
• What is an event? „smallest plot unit“, „propel the action onward and bringabout changes in the situation of the characters“
• Kernels important events „open narrative options“
• Satellites „merely embellish the central plot sequence“(ibid.) not so important events
• Ab ovo chronological beginning (e.g. the birthof the character)
• In medias res in the middle of the action
• In ultimas res „gradually revealing theconditions of its beginning“
• Closed ending all conflicts resolved
• Open ending fate of characters left unclear, problems remainunresolved
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• semanticised space The way a particular setting is structured, aswell as the juxtaposition of different locations(for example contrasts between town andcountry), can yield important conclusionsconcerning the semantization of space.Particular attention should be paid to theboundaries between the various locationswithin literary spaces, and to the crossing ofthese boundaries.
• topology left – right – central, top – down, in – out, center –margin etc. organising phenomena (political, social, economical,emotional etc.) according to spatial criterias (on aimaginative/cognitive map);→ possible to show contrast and correspondence betweenphenomena/entities/microstructures etc. that existsimultaneously
• topography rendering literary space with natural, cultural,architectural, psychological, economical etc. characteristics;often conventionalised topographies such as „dark forest“,„home sweet home“, „factory“, „dragon's lair“; sometimesunconventional, more metaphorical, associative, suggestive,abstract
• Why is defining poetry so difficult? „[P]oetry […] is characterised by a high degreeof diversity. Secondly, both poems themselvesand our conception of poetry and itscharacteristics are subject to historicalchange. Thirdly, addition to the individualgenres, the entire system of genres andmedia is continually changing and beingtransformed.“
• What is poetry‘s relation to music? „The Greek word 'lyric' refers to a lyre, a stringedinstrument; and the term 'lyric' was originallyused to refer to those songs that were sung to theaccompaniment of the lyre. […] [M]usicalityremains one of the main characteristics of poetry,and is the origin of a variety of other features thatare specific to the genre“
• What are, according to Müller-Zettelmann, the generic tendencies of poetry? ● Generic tendencies:brevityoverstructuringdeviationsubjectivityself-referentialityfragile aesthetic illusion
• Multiple Plot Lines • Connected causally, or through character(s), common themeetc.• Hierarchy: main plot vs. subplot• Contrast – correspondence sex and the city,desperate housewives
• Local Setting • Semanticised space• The text as a spatial system• Correspondences and contrasts
• Characterisation • Character grouping (acc. to correspondences & contrasts)• Character‘s position within system of characters• Which larger concept(s) does a character stand for? • flat vs. round (= one-dimensional vs. pluri-dimensional)• static vs. dynamic• Main character vs. minor character• Protagonist vs. antagonist• Character types (acc. to function)– Rake/fop/witwould/witty couple– Confidante– Foil character– Blocking character… • narratorial vs. figural• explicit vs. implicit• self- vs. altero-characterisation
• Homodiegetic (narrator is part of narrated story); 1st personnarration
• Autodiegetic (narrator tells his own story); 1st person narration
• Heterodiegetic (narrator is outside narrated story); 3rd personnarration
• overt has more direct, ‚overt‘ contact with narratee, often addressesreadership and refers to him/herself in the 1st person
• covert does not address narratee, uses no voice markers (such asperformative, phatic, appellative or expressive speech acts)
• Stanza group of lines in a poem that aretypographically marked
• line part of a poem, typographically offsetfrom each other; if written with in a certainmetre, we also speak of verse
• ● Metre „refers to the scheme of stressed andunstressed syllables that forms the basis structure of apoem“
• ● (Metrical) Foot smalles unit of the verse Iamb (x X) away / we / əˈ ɪTrochee (X x) hollow / h l / ˈ ɒ əʊDactyl (X x x) merrily / mer li/ ˈ əAnapest (x x X) understand / nd (r) stænd/ ˌʌ ə ˈ Number of feet per line: dimetre (2), trimetre (3), tetrametre(4), pentametre (5), hexametre (6), heptametre (7), octametre(8)
• Verba dicendi (she said, asked, replied, muttered, confessed,claimed, remarked, promised, announced …)
• Verba cogitandi & percipiendi (she thought, realized, felt, heard,felt, remembered, imagined, dreamed, …)
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• F.K. Stanzel’s Typical Narrative Situations (1955) • Authorial narrative situation (auktoriale ES)• First-person narrative situation (Ich-ES)• Figural narrative situation (personale ES)• Camera eye narration
• Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe, Naturformen der Dichtung (1819) „Es gibt nur drei echte Naturformen der Poesie:die klar erzählende, die enthusiastisch aufgeregte unddie persönlich handelnde: Epos, Lyrik und Drama.“
• William Wordsworth, „Preface to Lyrical Ballads“ (1800) „all good poetry is thespontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:it takes its origin fromemotion recollected in tranquillity“
• T.S. Eliot, „Tradition and the Individual Talent“ (1922) „Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion,but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression ofpersonality, but an escape from personality.But, of course, only those who have personality andemotions know what it means to want to escape from thesethings.“
• Dylan Thomas “Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, besilent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want todo this or that or nothing, makes you know that you arealone in the unknown world, that your bliss and sufferingis forever shared and forever all your own.”
• Robert Frost (?) Poetry is what is lost in translation.“
• Why is defining poetry so difficult? • Oldest genre• Extremely heterogeneous in both form and content• Generic criteria have changed over time• NO exclusive, defining features, but• Typical features, generic tendencies
• Quantitative Brevity • „Space-saving code“:brevity compensated for by vertical density(overstructuring on all linguistic levels)• Intensified reading experience(can be read in one sitting)• Simultaneous cognitive presence of all textual details(poem as texture, as spatial object)
• Qualitative Brevity • Little information on communicative constituents(speaker, addressee)• Few (no) events• Sketchy fictional world, semantic gaps (Leerstellen)• Einfachdefinition: prototypical element triggers context(cognitive frames)• Heightened reader activation: reader needs to supply missinginformation (tendentially more so than with other genres)
• Overstructuring/Artificiality = Patterning, Structure, Correspondences/Contrasts, Repetition,Parallelism, Equivalences, Similarity, Self-Referentiality,Jakobson‘s Poetic Function, Poeticity, Aestheticism …– Order through sameness– Repeated elements establish network of relations, structure, order meaning! Poetry establishes order on ALL levels of language(including the ones that are not normally used for semantic oraesthetic purposes: typographical level and sound level )– Each poem creates unique code– Requires different way of reading: mindful of (formal) details– Reading poetry: visual and auditive component typographical and acoustic information (Lesen und In-Sich-Hineinsprechen)
• Overstructured Typology • ‚Verse‘: first and last word fixed• Creates additional unit for establishing correspondences• Slows down reading• Draws attention to discourse (self-referentiality)
• Overstructured Sound 1. Overstructuring suprasegmental level(stress vs. unstress; metre / rhythm)2. Overstructuring phonetic level(alliteration, assonance, rhyme)• Cave: sounds do not mean anything in themselves;effect will be determined by innertextual context
• Deviation • Poetry breaks inner- and extratextual rules• Causes reader activation• Causes self-referentiality• Produces unique code (subjectivity)• Example: metaphor
• Subjectivity • Often: focus on speaker‘s subjective perspective (cf. autodiegeticnarrator, internal focalisation in narrative texts)• Cave: the speaker is not the author !!• Terms: speaker, persona, lyrical I (lyrisches Ich)• Overt vs. covert speaker• Impression of subjectivity through– 1st person pronoun– Reduced information on communicative constituents– Emotionality markers– Idiosyncratic language use– Deviation– …
• Self-referentiality • "The set (Einstellung) toward the MESSAGE as such,focus on the message for its own sake, is the POETICfunction of language" (Jakobson 1958:356)• As direct consequence of– Overstructuring/artificiality (similar elements draw attention toeach other rather than to world outside)– Deviation
• Fragile Aesthetic Illusion (Immersion) • Aesthetic illusion: to be re-centred in the fictional word(“willing suspension of disbelief for the moment”S. T. Coleridge)• Illusion of lyric world: more sketchy, less consistentlyimmersive, because of– Static cognitive images– Fragmented fictional world– Focus on form (overstructuring/artificiality)– Distance through deviation• But: strong speaker illusion !
• The Sonnet: History • Francesco Petrarca (1304-74) = ‘Petrarch’ (eng.)• Italian poet and humanist• Sonnet cycle Il Canzoniere (366 poems)• On unhappy love for an unattainable woman (Laura) cf. medieval concept of courtly love• Central tension: erotic passion vs. spirituality• Became model for textualising emotion• Sublimating sexual urge through self-reflection,soul-searching, religious purification• Imitated by European sonneteers
• The Petrarchan Sonnet • Story level– extreme idealisation of woman, Laura cult– praising her perfection (perfectly beautiful & perfectlypure problem!)– Frustration, melancholy, isolation– Self-scrutiny; self-definition through renunciation• Discourse level– Sonnet: strict form necessitates strict logical structure,rational way of dealing with passion– abba abba cde cde: octett vs. sestett– Very artistic, stylised, formulaic, mannered (no attempt at detailedrealism)– esp. with imitators: stereotypical „blazon“ = description of lady‘s assets
• Shakespearean (English) Sonnet • abab cdcd efef gg : 3 quartetts, 1 couplet; iambic pentameter• Argumentative structure (thesis – antithesis – synthesis;expectation vs. solution; tension vs. solution; claim vs. proof;claim vs. contradiction)• Couplet often provides surprising/ironic twist• Arranged in loose cycle• William Shakespeare: 154 sonnets (1609)
• Shakespeare‘s Sonnet Cycle • Characters– Poet speaker– Dark lady: sexual love– Young man: spiritual love– Rival poet• vs. Petrarch: realistic, complex,flawed characters• Themes: transience; immortal poetry;love in all its aspects

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