Englisch (Fach) / Steop Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture (Lektion)

Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture

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• Types of Metre • 1. Accentual metre: Same number of stresses, different number ofsyllables.• 2. Syllabic metre: Same number of syllables, varied number ofstresses.• 3. Free verse: Irregular patterns of stresses and syllables.• 4. Accentual-syllabic metre: Same number of stressed and nonstressedsyllables in a fixed order
• Full Rhyme last consonants preceding last stressed vowels differ; e.g.night/delight, power/flower
• Rich rhyme, pure rhyme or perfect rhyme the last consonant or consonantcluster are the same in both words & sound the same; e.g. lap/clap,stick/ecclesiastic
• Identical rhyme words are either the same or homonyms.
• Half rhymes, slant rhymes or pararhymes only the vowels or the consonantssounds are identical.– Consonance: same consonants but different stressed vowel sounds, e.g.boot/boat.– Assonance: same vowel sounds, different consonant sounds. Dice/ slice.– Eye-rhyme: look the same but sound different; e.g. river/ rider.
• End-rhyme at the end of a line.
• Internal rhyme within lines(“Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white”; S. T. Coleridge, “The Rimeof the Ancient Mariner”)
• Leonine rhyme a word in the middle of the line - usually before a caesura- rhymes with last word (“I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers”;P.B. Shelley, “The Cloud”)
• Alliteration repetition of initial sounds in neighbouring words– He clasps the crag with crooked hands (Tennyson, „The Eagle“)– So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
• Assonance repetition of vowel sounds– Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May (3)– So long lives this, and this gives life to thee (14)– I saw old autumn in the misty morn
• Consonance Repetition of consonant sounds– This is the rhythm of the boneyard rap/knuckle bones click/and handbones clap
• Masculine rhyme one identical syllable/ends in one stressed syllable (ran - man)
• Feminine rhyme two identical syllable/ends in one or more unstressed syllables (Niger - tiger)
• Triple rhyme same vowel sound in third-to-last syllable and all following soundsHer favorite science was the mathematical,Her noblest virtue was her magnanimity,Her wit (she sometimes tried at wit) was Attic all,Her serious sayings darkened to sublimity;In short, in all things she was fairly what I callA prodigy – her morning dress was dimity,Her evening silk, or, in the summer, muslin,And other stuffs, with which I won’t stay puzzling.
• Metaphor – figure of speech (rhetorische Figur)– Figurative language (uneigentliches Sprechen)– rhetorical comparison that leaves out the comparison particle  not: *All theworld‘s LIKE a stage; but: „All the world‘s a stage“ (Shakespeare, As You Like It)– implied analogy between concepts which, on the surface, do not seem to haveanything in common– creates semantic tension (deviation!); cannot be understood in its basic way(its ‘denotation’) but needs to be understood in a non-conventional way– Transfer of meaning– Something is seen IN TERMS of something else
• Synaesthesia special type of metaphor; unites various senses („And thehapless soldier‘s sigh/runs in blood down palace walls“
• Personification special type of metaphor; anthropomorphising something(=making it human) or making it animate („Nor shall death brag thouwand'rest in his shade“)
• Personification special type of metaphor; anthropomorphising something(=making it human) or making it animate („Nor shall death brag thouwand'rest in his shade“)
• Simile:  cf. metaphor, PLUS comparative particle (*you are like a summer‘sday)
• Metonymy vehicle is closely associated with the tenor(„The crown will find an heir“ = the monarch
• Culture with a Capital C High CultureCulture as a „product“ works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity culture is the word that describes music,literature,painting and sculpture, theatre and film Culture in this sense is widely believed to concern "refined" pursuits in which the cultured person engages
• Culture as a way of life Specific signs, symbols and communitiesCulture as a set of „practices“ Culture is a product of humans living together Culture in the sense of way of life must be distinguished from the neighbouring concept of society a particular way of life,whether of a people, a period or a group, or humanity in general Only humans, it is often argued,are capable of creating and transmitting culture and we are capable of creating and transmitting culture because we create and use symbols What is a symbol? When people agree that some word or drawing or gesture will stand for either an idea or an object or a feeling. When this has been done, then a symbol conveying a shared idea has been created. A symbol defines what something means, although a single symbol may have many meanings -> flag, may stand for marterial entity like a country and an abstract value such as patriotism
• Culture as progress CultivationCulture as a „process“ The earliest uses of the word culture in the late Middle Ages refer to the tending or cultivation of crops and animals (agriculture); a little later the same sense was transferred to describe the development of the indicidual's capacities and it has been extended to embrace the idea that cultivation is itself a general,social and historical process.
• The Arnoldian perspective Matthew Arnold • Poet• cultural critic• professor of poetry atOxford (1860)• school inspector “The whole scope of this essay is torecommend culture as the great help out ofour present difficulties;culture being . . . the best which has beenthought and said” The Arnoldian perspectiveculture’s role is to . . .… to police civilisation… to provide a refuge from civilisation… to operate as a utopian space Culturethe best which has been thought and said = studyof perfection = English literature-> high culture as product used as civilising tool Anarchyworking class (and their lived culture) gainingpower, threatening “social stability” Education“road to culture”
• Arnoldian & Leavisite perspective • rise of industrial capitalism, anxiety of political upheaval ofthe masses – culture as a conservative means of control• the minority of the cultural elite has to foster the civilizingprocess of the nation – elitist idea of culture (dominantidea till the 1950s)• education as road to culture and social stability• negative approach to mass culture, but Leavisites introducean academic discourse on popular culture
• Founding Fathers of the British Tradition of Cultural Studies Raymond Williams• Rejects the elitist Leavisite claim concerningculture• Turns to the culture of “ordinary” people-> positive approach to popular culture• broadens the idea of culture• links culture and meanings• suggests a new mode of analysis Williams: social definition1. Culture is a way of life2. Culture is the way in which groups expressthemselves3. Culture is the making and circulation of meaning(s)cultural analysis as a method to find out aboutmeanings and values implicit or explicit in aparticular way of life-> culture is ordinary Richard Hoggart E.P. Thompson
• CCCS Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1964)Birmingham University = ‘Birmingham School’- founded by Hoggart in 1964- closed in 2002Directors of the Centre:Richard HoggartStuart HallRichard Johnson
• Doing Cultural Studies being haunted by the question:„What does it have to do with everything else?“Stuart Hall, Keynote Speech: Cultural Studies Now Conference 2007
• The circuit of culture Analyse cultural products and practices and theirmeanings by looking at the articulation of the 5moments• representation• identity• production• consumption• regulation
• Representation Which signifying practices are used (to represent what)?
• Identity What social identities are/were associated with it?gender, age, class, nationality, ethnicity etc. act as markers of differenceand define identitiesWho is privileged, who is excluded?
• Production When and were and how and by whom was it produced?
• Consumption Who, consumed it when, where how?
• Regulation Which mechanisms, authorities, institutions regulate itsproduction, consumption and distribution? Who is in power?
• representation II ...the way we give meanings to things and ideas,how we „realize“ them“Partly, we give things meaning by the way werepresent them, and the principal means ofrepresentation in culture is language.Language is the use of a set of signs or asignifying system to represent things andexchange meanings about them. Modes of representation• Visual signs• Verbal signs• Composition/design/layout
• arbitrariness Tree – Baum – arbor -> relationship between signifier (form) andsignified (concept) is arbitrary-> fixed by conventions, codes-> contingent on time, place, people....
• Iconic signs • Resemblance, likeness with referent-> reader recognizes• E.g portraits, cartoons, imitative gestures,photographs, depictions, onomatopoeia• Descriptive level• Eg. pig: pink, four legged animal• E.g. Rooney: a human being with painton his body, arms wide spread, mouth open....
• Indexical signs •„Indicates“ - pointing towards something• Correlation, causality, symptomatic• Signs without referent -> reader infers– E.g smoke –> fire– E.g Footprints –> previous presence– E.g. Rooney –> Football– E.g Celebrating -> scoring a goal– E.g open mouth – roar• Metonymical level
• Symbolic signs • Replacement/substitution of an image with another ->reader interprets• Completely arbitrary, but convention based• E.g. Letters ,numbers, national flags/colours• E.g St. George Flag -> England• E.g Rooney -> Patriotism but also Rooney -> Crusades• Metaphorical, interpretative level:Icon+index = symbol
• denotation • Descriptive, literal, typical/conventional level of themeaning of a sign shared by a majority of members ofa culture/society/community• a denotation is what you would find in a dictionary•„identifying“ signse.g.Pig: pink farm animale.g. Rooney: Nike ad featuring W.Rooney
• connotation • Meanings are generated by connecting signsto wider cultural concepts and by associationswith other cultural codes and concepts•„interpreting“ signse.g. pig: nasty police officer, male chauvinist,e.g. Rooney: fan enthusiasm or Jesus or warrior,violence, & crusades, imperialism• (Peirce-> indexical, symbolic reading)
• myth • myth = ideology = ideas which defend statusquo and promote values of dominant groupsetc.• Myth works by turning culture into nature• Myth is an „invisible, but dominant code“ “myth is constituted by the loss of thehistorical quality of things: in it, things losethe memory that they once were made. . . . Inpassing from history to nature, myth . . .organizes a world . . . wallowing in theevident, it establishes a bliss clarity; thingsappear to mean something by themselves ...”
• Britain • England: a country of the UK• UK: United Kingdom of Great Britain and NorthernIreland• Great Britain: England, Scotland, Wales• Britain: fuzzy umbrella term • Act of Union, 1707 (Scotland + England)• ‘Rule Britannia’, 1740 (unofficial national anthem)• ‘God Save the King/Queen’, 1745 (official nationalanthem)• Act of Union, 1801 -> Union Jack
• The Commonwealth • Intergovernmental organisation (since 1926)• Legacy of the British Empire• Queen Elizabeth II head of the commonwealth• Commonwealth Games (British Empire games)
• racialization = race formation„Instances where social relations betweenpeople have been structured by thesignification of human biologicalcharacteristics in such a way as to define andconstruct differentiated social collectivities.“Miles, 1989 Racism
• markers of difference symbolic markers  physical features, skin colour, hair, age,language, fashion ... random, arbitrary markers subject people to(fixed) identities & meanings (eg. skin colourmore dominant than hair colour or colour ofeyes) entail power relations, such as dynamics ofinclusion and exclusion
• race vs ethnicity • “Race“implies biologically argued superiority andsubordination (-> power, domination)• “Ethnicity“implies formation of cultural boundaries(-> history, language, culture)
• the ideology/myth of racisms • establishes hierarchies: superiority –inferiority• entails questions of power and domination• ideology/myth of (visible) markers ofdifference (arbitrary selection)• unmarked vs. marked– E.g whiteness vs. people of colour
• stereotypes • Origin: Printing, „solid block“, „solid type“• Psychology/Social Sciences– Method of grouping people to easily refer to themin surveys and experiments• Ordering process,• Indexical, metonymical function•„grain of truth“, definite relationship betweenstereotypes and referents • emphasise shared meanings, ignore conflictingmeanings• reduce, essentialize, naturalize and fix “difference”(Hall, 1997)“Vivid, but simple representation which reduce persons to a setof exaggerated, usually negative, character traits. A stereotype isa form of representation that essentializes (i.e. suggests thatcategories have inherent and universal characteristics) othersthrough the operation of power.
• articulation „Production in use“texts do not mean anything outside of thearticulations (expressions and connections) ofdifferent voices and groups. Such 'articulation'adds to the meanings texts

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