BIG LIT QUESTIONS
II. Who
determines artistic value of something and How is it judged?
III. “Recognized lasting significance” means
what? How is it judged?
Given
out today: ERATTTTIC handout
IV. BOOKS, STORIES
are a “living” text. What does that
mean?
Monday: No classes
Give out (read) for WED:
Maupaussant’s Vendetta, plot handout,
I. So what is Literature?
Generally, A body of writing that *represents a group, culture, subculture, language,
school or philosophy, with
a) recognized lasting significance [
b) artistic value [‘464’ handout].
!!!!Both a) recognized lasting significance and b) artistic value can change over time
and audience
*Eg Colonial literature, African American literature, Russian
Literature, Early American Feminist Literature, Science Fiction (Speculative
literature), Utopian literature, Alternative Press literature, Existentialist
Literature, etc
Lit can be STORYTELLING DOMINANT OR MESSAGE
DOMINANT
II. ARTISTIC
VALUE: judged how? Judged for what
qualities or wants?
QUICK SUMMARY OF roughly 3 different periods or
attitudes towards ‘artistic value’
|
CLASSICAL
(Conservative) PERIOD: Something is great or NOT. Period. So… I will tell you what the story
is really about. Other interpretations are wrong. Example: Shakespeare is the
best writer. PERIOD. Example of
Abuse: You are in college and haven’t read
Shakespeare? Goodness, the educational
system has gone to hell. |
MODERN PERIOD Different people think different things are great So… Your interpretation is just as
valid as mine if you can defend it. Example: Shakespeare is among the best writers in
the West, but don’t discount The Mahabharata, and others like T.S. Elliot,
Dickens, and more recently Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman Example of
Abuse: We are not going to talk about Shakespeare
because we need to cover at least 3 great albino Eskimo rappers of the
Canadian arctic circle to truly be inclusive. |
POST MODERN PERIOD Most interesting for the conversations it starts. In a way this story is a
commentary on writing and manipulating you.
Look for the twists and in-jokes. Example: Take a look at the anime version of Hamlet. It’s got the Shakespeare brilliance, but
puts it within the walls of loneliness of space colonies, making us feel the
real impact Shakespeare had to the audience when it was written. Example of
Abuse: The brilliance of the Satanist Native American
Artist Steven Johnson Leyba’s art was that in painting in feces and sexual
body fluids, while cutting religious symbols into himself and integrating the
blood, he both ridicules and re-examines modern art as political statement
and art critique. |
“464”: The Phases of WHAT’S valued in Art in the Western World (Greco-Roman to Modern Times)
TNAB SAMTIC 4 S’s
|
CLASSICAL PERIOD -- Age of God/Age of Destiny
|
MODERN PERIOD --Age of Man, concept of equality and tolerance, to
the Age of Machines, humanism, hope à gritty reality, humanity is not pretty |
POST MODERN PERIOD -- Age of Information to information overload, fear
of the loss of dominance of human nature, the remix, loss of truth |
|
EXAMPLES |
||
|
Heroes: Beowulf |
Heroes: Superman à
Batman |
Heroes: TerminatoràNeo
from Matrix |
|
Sculpture of Apollo |
African Masks |
DuChamp’s Urinal (1917) |
|
Opera about Infidelity |
Soul song about infidelity |
The Mash up: Hip hop song that samples/remixes
the opera and soul song |
|
“High vs Low Society” / Birth castes: royalty à
peasants |
“Gritty Reality” Players vs Everyman |
“(Dis)information society/Big Brother” Insider/hacker vs Everyone else |
|
High Language: epics & nature” |
“reality & real dialogue & slang &
dialects” |
remixed/global/pastiche/secret codes |
|
One Great Literary Tradition |
World Lit/ translations |
Subculture & taboo lit/ makeovers/ total
remakes |
|
|
|
|
IN THIS
CLASS? WE JUDGE A WORK MOSTLY FROM A MODERN
SET OF VALUES
(What do you (reader) find important? Defend it with examples in order to be
accepted)
IV. A living
TEXT???
“Text are lazy machines that ask someone to do part of their job””
–UMBERTO ECO
I. Eco:
QUADRUMVIRATE (set of 4 things)
that gives ‘life’ to a TEXT:
Work, Artist, Universe, Audience
READER is needed to complete a text:
EXAMPLES
Sentence from William Carlos William’s “The Use of Force”: “They were new patients to me, all I had was
the name, Olson”
Reader assumes “Doctor”
II. EXPECTATION OF THE STORY depends on the reader doing his
thinking job and the UNIVERSE: If you are
reading a book titled “Do the Right Thing” and If a chapter closes with a line
like “The woman relaxed as the running man outside said, ‘Lady, just returning
this $10 dollar bill – I think you dropped it when you left the store.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK STORY IS ABOUT?
Now if the book is titled, “The Walmart Serial Killer”, WHAT DO YOU
THINK?
Now if the book is titled, “Do the Right Thing” and you don’t know the writer
– this could be ironic – it could still be about the serial killer. The reader, depending on whether they are
paranoid, street smarts, have ever been robbed, is trusting, has never been to
the city, will create ghost chapters of their interpretation differently.
If the book is titled “Do the Right Thing” and is written by the
POPE: Probably a morality tale. WHO THE AUTHOR is has guided your
interpretation.
If the book is titled “Do the Right Thing” and is written by Stephen
King: your probably going to expect a crime/horror twists.
TWIST: If the guy who walks up
to the car is covered in a bloody white jacket and the scene takes place in
front of an empty alley… WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What if there’s a butcher shop in that alley? THE UNIVERSE – the setting in this case
guides your interpretation.
III.“Recognized
Lasting Significance” = 4-9 of 9 categories
THE
ERATTTTIC
“
1)
9 Categories (and relationship between them) that
people judge for, look for, experience, or recognize in a work to find value;
2)
Reasons a work has longevity/accepted by different
audiences and/or generations;
3)
Why it is reprinted or how it is (re)marketed
1)Everyman: Good writing
on an issue that is universal or makes a statement about people or life in
general. Has common, universal themes such as man
vs Nature, Man vs Man, Man vs himself, questioning what it means to be human,
etc.
2)Reader: Connects strongly with the reader in some
particular way: emotionally, nostalgically, intellectually, with wit and humor,
suspense, etc. A favorite among MANY readers at a particular
age (eg Catcher in the
3)Author: Author is famous, has a reputation or
controversy, or is connected to a particular type or set of writings, and this
reputation colors or precedes his/her actual work. Author’s reputation can increase/ decrease a
work’s value A) because of his/her biography (what author’s been thru) and
authenticity (who are they?); for B) being a leader of/spokesperson for a
viewpoint or writing; or C)being first to do/write something.
4)Topic: First time, important, or excellent
example of a work dealing with a topic, or exposing it in a different or
controversial way. For example, first slave narrative; Keroac’s
“On the Road;” “
5)“The Times”: Socially or politically important for
what it reveals or exposes about a)the time/place /social conditions of when it
was written (Herman Wouk’s “The Winds of War” ; b)for what the effect the work
had on the audience at the time of publication (Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses”); or
c)for how it makes us look or re-examine our times in comparison to the times
depicted in the work (Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” Orwell’s “1984”).
6)Trends: Did it (or we believe it to) start, end
or make fun of a popular trend in ideas, content or literary techniques? Ex: Poe (Gothic horror), Asimov’s Robot
Stories, Raymond Chandler (Gritty Noir detective stories)
7)Tradition: Revives or reminds of a previous style,
author, trend, content or circumstances – even if with a twist of newness. Ex:Chekhovian writer Raymond Carver,
Faulkner-like settings of Erdrich, “the GenX Austen”
8)Interpretation: Important for a dominant
interpretation(s), for its symbolic, hidden, stylistic or interpreted message
or literary analysis – even more than for its actual literal story. Ex: Kafka’s
Metamorphosis.
9)Canonization: Someone important or “in charge” (eg in
Academia) states that an author or work is important or essential; a particular
subculture or group promotes the work as important, vital, or seminal (eg in
Anime, Akira); or publisher choices are made to
fulfill a need or emptiness in a representative category of literature (eg need
to find Chicano writers to publish in a compilation to meet the need of Chicano
studies).
SHORT STORIES: STORYTELLING vs MESSAGE STORIES
Preliterate:
Oral Tradition à mythology, religion, epics, survival
skills, folktales, poetry, romance (music added for memory)
&
Art Tradition à written images à religion and epics and impt to history
Two basic/universal elements: character
and setting (oral tradition added
action, conflict and plot)
books
Medieval book, hand drawn/written for the
literate priesthood and as treasure and collectables for the aristocrats
Medieval Arabic culture
In
Tablets vs
papyrus vs Vellum (animal skins) vs (strange cases) Human Skin
[Moveable] Printing Press, Guttenberg
Press, 1440
Guttenberg Bible: 180 copies in 3 years
(mind blowing amt)
Earliest Novel: 1700
Pamela or Robinson Crusoe
Short Story: circa 12 pages or less
Short Short Story: under 5 pages
Novella/Novelette:
Novel:
Short
Stories: circa
12 pgs or less (500-12,000 words)
1) begin close to or
at the height of main action, and/or typically centers on one character or
incident;
2) different from oral tales & legends: more focus on a)characterization (developing characters by their actual
reaction to events), plot, & Setting;
3) beginning/middle/end;
4) Climax is often an epiphany: moment of awareness/understanding in
which something missed, hidden, or unclear is now clear;
5) DEPENDS on reader to complete text
A)Expectations, B)Reader
experience, C)passive expectations
Short Story limits:
Cannot develop complex story or large number of characters
BEGIN
DISCUSSION of MAUPAUSSANT’S VENDETTA
Summary?
How do you see the author?
Works/doesn’t work? Why?
Simple or complex?
Why?
Impt or just another story?
ENH110: INTRO TO LIT “BIG
PICTURE” HANDOUT
“
Above the straight story,
beyond the narrative at face value,
beyond the artistic level ,
These are
1)-- Categories (and relationships between them) that people study or
look for in a work of literature, to find “value”
2)-- the hidden or “between the lines” messages in a text
3)-- The buried treasures or easter eggs of knowledge or insider understanding
1)Everyman:
Man vs Nature
Man vs Man
Man vs himself
What it’s like to be human
___________________________________________________________________
2)Reader:
Implied Reader
Ideal Reader
Actual Reader
3)Author
Biography (what author’s been thru) – Nature vs Nurture
Leader of/Spokesperson for/Author’s Point of View on life
First to do…./First of a group to start….
4)Trends
What’s popular in styles and subject matter
What is now tired or “over-exposed”
What’s sellable
5)“The Times”
Examining the Social condition
Politics/ “what’s wrong with the world” from the point of view of insider, review, rebel, participant, etc
6)Topic
Meaning, Special Interest, Symbolism, metaphor, style, controversy, etc
____________________________________________________________________
7)Tradition:
No artist exists in a vacuum – what are his influences, favorites, dislikes, education, jobs, family
8)Interpretation:
What are the values important to the reader, author, and culture
What phase of the 464 are we currently interpreting
9)Canonization
What do the academics think of a work?
Does the older or “educated” generation approve or dismiss the work
Does a subculture promote or favor a work
Trends in the Lit Crit “business”
|
CLASSICAL PERIOD “Man under God” -- Age of God/Age of Destiny
|
MODERN PERIOD “Man using Machines” --Age of Man, concept of equality and tolerance, to
the Age of Machines, humanism, hope à gritty reality, humanity is not pretty |
POST MODERN PERIOD “Machines using Man” -- Age of Information to information overload, fear
of the loss of dominance of human nature, the remix, loss of truth |
|
|
||
|
VALUES
IMPORTANT IN EACH PERIOD |
||
|
TRUTH
”we know the truth” |
SUBJECTIVISM (every culture has a valid point of view) “different people believe different things…ours is not
automatically the best way” |
SIMULATION: “truths are lies” |
|
NATURE/NORMALCY “everything and everyone in their proper place” |
ART FOR ART’S SAKE (aesthetics) |
SCHIZOPHRENIA: “normal is the hiding and false talke of public
hypocrisy of the majority/ Everyone is a unique snowflake just like everybody
else”/ “We can sell you rebellious uniqueness” (Problems of Global diversity, Subjectivism taken to
extreme, both believe and attack the truth, too many truths, age of the remix
and sample without reference to original meaning) |
|
AUTHENTICITY (purity, race,
class) ”Art about the truth, purity, victories, and
beauty/perfect nature of the chosen and the masters” |
MOTIVE (Art can change the world, done with a purpose) |
SKEPTICISM and UNCERTAINTY (Maybe humans cannot fix their problems,
cannot live together without destroying each other, no spirit and no
humanism, meaning and emotions/truths are “made-up”) |
|
BEAUTY “One standard of beauty not up for debate” |
TIME/SPACE: A literary
work is about capturing a moment in space and time. |
SIMULACRUM (The original and truth are lost or meaningless,
the digital copy/perfect copy/ the remake/ the remix/ as more important than
the original, death of original thoughtwe are becoming machine-like |
|
|
INTERPRETATION: reality is merely an interpretation. |
|
|
|
CAUSALITY (Everything is part of cause and effect, can be
analyzed, any problem can be solved) |
|