...polemical issues in the application of literary theories to the field of literature and literary criticism. Out of the several modern approaches to literary criticism as employed by the critics, four literary theories are strategically chosen for analysis in this paper; Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism/Deconstruction and Marxism. This work is objectively carried out by consulting articles, journals and books written on the literary theories. The opportunity of information technology via the internet is also utilized. It is established in the course of writing this paper that literary theories are indispensable tools for literature to achieve its goal of sensitizing its audience towards literary awareness. The application of literary theories to literature, that enhance better and detail insight into text or literary works, would continue to be relevant and make literature more enjoyable and meaningful to its readers and users. Further research and enquiry into the relationship between the two (literature and literary theory) is open and should further be exploited. Keywords: literary theory, literary criticism, Marxism, Formalism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism Introduction Literary criticism is the study, evaluation and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have...
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...his arguments to the Senate and other countries by using English. If we were in the period of time, everything important would be in Latin. The journey of language was not an overnight change. Other languages also help shape our language as we know it now. I often wonder where languages come from. Not such different dialactes that come with different areas of the United States. But during the origins of language with its spread from culture to culture came changes. Now that there is a different means to communicate, people may not agree with one another. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the term vernacular can be defined as using a language that is native to a country or province rather than a cultured, foreign, or literary language (Merriam-Webster, 2011). These languages would one day be known as Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, and etc. The vernacular languages would also be considered as the large family of contemporary “Romance” languages. Before the twelfth century, Latin was the major language that was used. Especially by writers, This means all of the books were in Latin. This is how teachings and traditions were passed down. This affected the development of a society. “The developments of Latin were influenced by other native languages which included Celtic languages, Greek, and Etruscan” (University of Calgary, 1996). Over the years Latin became used less. So over time maybe even the meaning of different Latin words may have changed meaning...
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...Country Lovers ENG 125: Introduction to Literature Shatara Williams Instructor: January Pearson May 27, 2013 COUNTRY LOVERS Nadine Gordimer wrote Country Lovers in 1975. This story is about a prohibited relationship between an African American girl and a Caucasian boy on a South African farm. (Clugston, 2010) Years ago a relationship between two people of the opposite ethnic group was frowned upon. I am going to explain why this story caught my interest, explain the reader response method, and I plan to assess the story I chose using the reader response method. I chose Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimer because I love romance and mystery stories that are full of suspense and drama. Country Lovers is one of those short stories that have romance, suspense, and drama. Thebedi and Paulus are the main characters in this story. Thebedi and Paulus grew up together on Paulus father farm. (Gordimer, 1975) Thebedi and Paulus were childhood friends who flirtation leads to them to have a sexual relationship. (Gordimer, 1975) This story is full of suspense, drama, and romance. Thebedi had gotten pregnant from Paulus but she never told him. (Gordimer, 1975) She married another man he was a member of her tribe in South Africa. (Gordimer, 1975)When Paulus returned, he found out that she had married another man and had a baby. (Gordimer, 1975) The baby that Thebedi gave birth too was Paulus baby. (Gordimer, 1975) Paulus did not know that Thebedi daughter was his. (Gordimer...
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...Reading response to a poem ENG 125 October 29, 2012 "My Papa's Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke, is a fascinating poem. It is one that provokes its reader to have different emotion and interpretation. “My Papa’s Waltz” was written in first person narrative and provides tons of rhythm and symbolism. This poem displays a moment in the life of a father and son. “My Papa’s Waltz” has a known rhythm that brings to mind the type of dance that is symbolized in the title. Recognizing the character was easy because the author used “I” for first person narrative which endorsed the reader to communicate to what Roethke, the author was intending for his reader to understand passionately. Roethke used the introduction of the poem to set the tone and setting for the story to follow. “The whiskey on your breath” was the first entry verse. Immediately, it reminded me of a familiar story my wife shares about her childhood. The method in which the poem is written opens the door of vagueness regarding the father true state of mind. The child's father appeared as being forceful to his son while the son is frightened by his father drunkenness. The author wanted his reader to understand that whatever the frame of mind a parent is in, they have all the power and the child has to obey. It is clear that the author wanted to provoke his reader with a bit of remembrance of truthfulness by constructing the poem in a first person narrative. The father also has power over his wife who does...
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...written and spoken forms. I have also known that things that are produced out of creative imagination can be referred as literary works which are the ones that comprise literature. Considering this description of what literature is, the coverage of literature seems very puzzling. If literary works are those produced out of creative imagining, then it would directly point to fictional works. But then, there are also non-fictional works that are considered literary. There are literary essays and novels that are non-fictional. Examples of these are those based on true stories. Thus, literature goes beyond just creative imagination. And also, one person may consider a work produced out of creativity while another person may not, so then can that work be considered literary? Another important factor to be taken with high regard in discussing literature is periods of time since people coming from different historical periods may have different perceptions on what they consider 'literature'. It is vital to tackle these questions since literature is present in our everyday life, though it is not consciously felt by many. Terry Eagleton, a literary critic and writer, had written in his essay 'What is Literature?', “What matters may not be where you came from but how people treat you”. He considered an individual's perception as a basis for a work to be considered literary. This point of him is very much agreeable since people from different places with different culture, gender, and beliefs...
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...story of Gene Forrester who struggles to come to grips with the guilt over his role in a traumatic event from his childhood. The novel, told as a flashback from the perspective of an adult Gene, looks back on his friendship with a private school classmate and Gene’s destructive feelings of jealousy, fear, and anger. Assignment Write a 3-5 page literary analysis that explores one of the attached essay topics. Structure You might want to think of a five-paragraph structure, but because of the length requirements, you may need to expand on that to adequately explore your topic. Intro: This should include a “hook,” background information, and a thesis. It should clearly lay out what you are going to discuss in your essay. Body: Provide analysis and supporting evidence. Mention several key events or moments from the novel. Include at least three carefully chosen quotes to help capture larger ideas from the novel. Blend them in with your own writing. Conclusion: Finalize your argument with final thoughts related to the main idea. Reminders: This is a literary essay so there should be no uses of “I” or “you.”Include an original title to capture interest. Requirements Your essay should have the following: ✓ A clear argument of opinion and purpose expressed in a thesis statement and introduction. ✓ Numerous accurate supporting details and events from the novel that directly back up...
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...ESSAY - Callow, Simon. "Getting to Know Charles Dickens." The New York Times. N.p., 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/books/review/getting-to-know-charles-dickens.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www> BLEAK HOUSE: BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR: Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. New York: Ronald Press, 1960. Print. BOOK IN A SERIES: Johnson, Edgar. “The Anatomy of Society.” Bleak House. Ed. A.E. Dyson. Aurora: Nashville, 1969. 136-156. Print. Rpt. of “The Anatomy of Society.” Charles Dickens; His Tragedy and Triumph. N.P., N.C., 1953. N.Pag. BOOK IN AN ANTHOLOGY Harrison, Fredrick. “Charles Dickens.” Charles Dickens. Ed. Harold Bloom. Bloom’s Literary Criticism: New York, 2008. 72-79. Print. Rpt. of “Charles Dickens.” Studies in Early Victorian Literature. N.P., N.C.,1895: 133-44. BOOK/ESSAY THAT PLACES YOUR WORK IN ITS HISTORICAL/CULTURAL CONTEXT Marks, Patricia. “Charles Dickens.” Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Carl Rollyson. Vol. 2. Salem Press: California, 2000. Print. CHARLES DICKENS: BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR: Marcus, Steven. Dickens from Pickwick to Dombey. New York: W.W.Norton, 1965....
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...References Early novels in English[edit source | editbeta] See the article First novel in English. The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722),[1] though John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688) are also contenders, while earlier works such as Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, and even the "Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales have been suggested.[2] Another important early novel is Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, which is both a satire of human nature, as well as a parody of travellers' tales like Robinson Crusoe.[3] The rise of the novel as an important literary genre is generally associated with the growth of the middle class in England. Other major 18th century English novelists are Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), author of the epistolary novels Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) and Clarissa (1747-8); Henry Fielding (1707–54), who wrote Joseph Andrews (1742) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749); Laurence Sterne (1713–68) who...
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...beginning is a good start. T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Harvard, and went overseas to England for graduate school. It was here that he settled down, becoming a banker, and more importantly, writing poetry (Nobelprize.org). In the early and mid-1920’s, Eliot suffered from numerous nervous breakdowns, and during one of these breakdowns in 1925 the poem The Hollow Men was written. Using the archetypal literary school of criticism we will magnify the archetypes of hopelessness, desperation, misery, and despair throughout the work. The archetypal school of literary criticism determines a text’s meaning using cultural and psychological myths. Commonly used symbols such as crucifixion or the snake serve as a marker to delve deeper into the reading. Carl Jung, whose theory of a “collective unconscious”, has been accredited with founding this school of literary criticism. This Jungian theory claims literature imitates the “dream of humanity”, not life. Archetypal criticism splinters from the Formalist or New Criticism schools of literary criticism by approaching the work in the context it is read in, instead of holding it aloof from other texts. Archetypal images, sounds, and symbols are used in all areas of the humanities and are tied to our fundamental thinking patterns (Delahoyde). Before the first line of the poem, the line “A penny for the Old Guy” (Eliot 79), is the first reference to Guy Fawkes Day, the English holiday where a celebration is held every...
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...The Decline and Fall of Literature November 4, 1999 ANDREW DELBANCO E-mail Print [pic]Share [pic] [pic]In Plato’s Cave[pic] by Alvin Kernan A couple of years ago, in an article explaining how funds for faculty positions are allocated in American universities, the provost of the University of California at Berkeley offered some frank advice to department chairs, whose job partly consists of lobbying for a share of the budget. “On every campus,” she wrote, “there is one department whose name need only be mentioned to make people laugh; you don’t want that department to be yours.”1 The provost, Carol Christ (who retains her faculty position as a literature professor), does not name the offender—but everyone knows that if you want to locate the laughingstock on your local campus these days, your best bet is to stop by the English department. The laughter, moreover, is not confined to campuses. It has become a holiday ritual for The New York Times to run a derisory article in deadpan Times style about the annual convention of the Modern Language Association, where thousands of English professors assemble just before the new year. Lately it has become impossible to say with confidence whether such topics as “Eat Me; Captain Cook and the Ingestion of the Other” or “The Semiotics of Sinatra” are parodies of what goes on there or serious presentations by credentialed scholars.2 At one recent English lecture, the speaker discussed a pornographic “performance artist”...
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...Christopher Gilchrist Professor Ms. Alyse W. Jones World Literature I - English 2111 October 7, 2012 The Universal Truths on ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh & The Hebrew Bible’ The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible are considered by their audiences’ as two of the greatest literary works of ancient literature. The universal truths on The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible, are most fundamental when viewed from both the contemporary and traditional audiences. Fundamentally, both audiences develop their own universal truths during the time in which the events transpired or by reading the scenic events from an anthology or other literary works. Most importantly, both literary works have sought the attention of their perspective audiences by their ancient texts, which also brought about spiritual interpretations from a religious point of view. These ancient literatures were written and re-written by numerous authors with their spiritual interpretations as their main thesis. Thus, the audiences’ philosophical interpretations create the thread that sews these two literary works to their universal truths. There are several scenes in both literatures that have similar spiritual interpretations. For example, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, “Your clothes should be clean, Your head should be washed, You should bathe in water, (Sec. 10, 77 – 79).” In this epic scene, Gilgamesh embraces the notion of cleansing himself from the darkness that was bestowed upon him. Gilgamesh’s...
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...Un-Interpretable In Poulet’s A Phenomenology of Reading, he asserts that in a sense the reader, by reading and thinking about a text, creates the text. When the reader reads a text, his consciousness unites with the consciousness of the author, and their ideas combine and transform the text from a “dead object”, or objective words on a page, into a living, dynamic work. In other words, Poulet gives the reader license to provide his own reasonable interpretation of a text, because the reader is the author’s partner in creating the text. This is especially true with regards to John Ashbery’s “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape”, where a straightforward explanation of the poem is almost impossible. Therefore, in accordance with Poulet’s literary theory, I would like to unite my consciousness with Ashbery’s and provide my own interpretation of the poem: the poem is not meant to be understood. Upon reading the poem, the reader is immediately confronted with numerous questions. Who is sending the messages in the first and third stanzas? What do they mean? What is all the scratching about? Why is Swee’pea sad? Why is Popeye shooting green thunderbolts, and what is he laughing about at the end of the poem? These are merely questions about the plot of the poem, but there are also several technical questions. For example, in line 23 the thunder is described as loving. Since when does thunder have emotions? These are some of the questions I faced upon examining the poem. ...
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...THESIS STATEMENTS IN LITERARY ANALYSIS PAPERS *The thesis statement is one of the (if not the) most important parts of your paper—think of it as the foundation of a house—if your foundation is weak and poorly constructed, what do you think happens to the house? *The thesis statement is the announcement of your analytical argument that you intend to make and prove in the duration of your paper. It is a road map for the paper—it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. *It should be placed somewhere in the Introduction of your paper—Many like to put it as the last sentence(s) of their Intro which is fine. *Successful thesis statements provoke thought and should read beautifully. *Your thesis statement should include two parts: WHAT and WHY. *WHAT: What claim are you making about the text? *WHY: Why should we care? Why is your claim important? Your thesis should answer the “so what?” question. *A thesis statement is usually, but can be more than, one sentence long. Examples of Literary Thesis Statements: * “Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.” *What’s wrong with this thesis statement? *An opinion about the book, not an argument. * “In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.” *Better? How so? What is still missing? *Doesn’t answer the “so what?” question—what is the point of the contrast? What does the contrast signify? * “Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry...
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...Monsieur Loisel Personality description: unselfish, wimpy/pushed around, generous, hardworking, loves his wife, likes to hunt 3. Name: Madame Jeanne Forrestier Personality description: Mathilde’s friend, kind, generous, trusting, wealthy Plot Details: Exposition – Learning about Madame and Monsieur Loisel and their background Rising action – Receiving an invitation to the ball, buys a dress and borrows the necklace, has a wonderful time at the ball Climax – Discovers the loss of the necklace, looks everywhere and cannot find it Falling action – They buy a matching replacement and spend 10 years paying it off Resolution – Madame Loisel comes clean to Madame Forrestier and finds out it was a fake. Identify at least five literary elements used and cite examples from the text. Alliteration – “Every possible physical privation.” “Attended the party and attracted everyone’s attention.” “She would weep whole days.” “whose wife will be turned out…” “…madame, I must have merely supplied the clasp.” Flashback – “But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago…” Foreshadowing – Madame Forrestier easily lends her the necklace. The...
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...Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading: Implied Reader Wolfgang Iser’s The Act of Reading presents a list of the various types of readers possible when it comes to interpreting literary text. These readers have different interpretations of the text. These interpretations are affected by how the author appeals to each of the readers, either through the text itself or through the beliefs that the reader brings to the text. One reader Iser focuses on is the implied reader. After carefully examining what an implied reader is, Iser’s main assumptions about this role are easily noticeable. Iser’s implied reader allows the text to be broken down in such a way that the structured effects of a text can be described. Also, the implied reader allows for all predispositions to be mentioned so the text can achieve its meaning effectively. In fact, Iser says it best when he writes the implied reader “embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect.” An implied reader is a part of the text. And this part is extremely imperative to the text. Iser himself states that this implied reader concept “designates a network of response- inviting structures, which impel the reader to grasp the text.” In other words, the implied reader is a backbone to a person reading the text. Without the implied reader, the text will have no sufficient value present. Iser’s implied reader also has structured acts which help...
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