comparative lit presentation

7/28/2019 Comparative Lit Presentation

1/21


2/21


3/21

Textual Analysis of:

Subjectivity

The Use of Children


4/21

SUBJECTIVITY

Subjective: Relating to a person who is subject; belonging to or

characteristic of a political subject (OED) Narrative structure (i.e. memoir format) suggests the ultimate subjective a first

person narrative

Unreliable narrator (Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction)

Can we really rely on the texts to give us an accurate depiction of the events

portrayed?


5/21

SubjectivityThe Journey

Who does The Prom isetake the side of? Where does the subjectivelay?

The men all arrived in Palestine feeling incredibly pro-Jewish. A few of them hadhelped to liberate the concentration camps, so they had seen what hadhappened with their own eyes []Over time, though, the soldiers' attitudeschanged. Some of this was just the usual British support for the underdog;there's no question that by 1948 the Arabs were perceived as that.

Peter Kosminsky (Director), The Guardian, 2011

Many dominant characters within the production mirror this, alluding toa similar shift in sympathy

Len Matthews

Erin Matthews

Paul Meyer


6/21


7/21

Subjectivity:

Case Study The King David Hotel Bombing

Eight armed men dressed as Arab workers forced their way into

the hotels service bay. After overpowering and locking up the

chief delivery clerk and the kitchen staff, they unloaded seven

milk churns packed with 350 kilograms of TNT and gelignite

from the truck and dragged them one by one along a long and

narrow corridor to La Rgence, the hotels basement bar

directly underneath the civilian and the military headquarters

in the south wing. As they did so, they were challenged by aBritish army officer, whom they shot and fatally injured. While

some of the fake Arab workers acted as lookouts, others

placed the milk churns next to two supporting columns in the

basement bar and ignited their thirty-minute fuses.

- James Barker, History Today (2006)


8/21

Subjectivity

Due to this, we are left to question as an audience what are we being

shown and why?

Political objective? To raise sympathy?

Unreliable Narrator

Israeli fighters as Terrorists, Palestinians as Freedom Fighters

Subjectivity, whether in literature or film is impossible.

We cannot tell who is right or wrong in the production through the

narrative narrative is designed to create an emotive reaction towards a

particular cause or event.


9/21

USE OF CHILDREN

Children often used as emotive tools in literary storytelling (E.g.) Trocaire Commercials

In The Prom ise, used as a tool for evoking a specific, intentional

emotional response

The production shows children used in several different ways

throughout the four episodes

Contrast between the depiction of Jewish children and Palestinian

children


10/21

Len and Hassan

Depiction of Len helping Hassan with his

work

Creation of a bond between Hassan and Len

and therefore Hassan and the audience

Bond exploited to pro-Palestinian focus at the

moment of Hassans death to the Jewishincursion

Erin and Samira

(Daughter of Palestinian bombers family)

Main bond made within the family of a Terrorist

Erin begrudges is with the only child within the

familyEmotional connection made

Image of war-affected child relays sympathy onto

Erin and the audience

Bond exploited to pro-Palestinian focus at themoment ofSamiras reaction to the Jewish attack

USE OF CHILDREN

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN:

Synecdoche: Len and Erin portrayed as Protectors of

Palestinian rights

Exploitation of the audience to a pro-Palestinian sympathy


11/21

USE OF CHILDREN

JEWISH CHILDREN IN HEBRON

Jewish children in Hebron portrayed as nasty, wild and dangerous

Synecdoche: Creating a negative image of the Jewish in Hebron

through the image of the children

Exploitation of the audience to an Anti-Jewish sympathy


12/21

USE OF CHILDREN

Stark contrast between the portrayal of Palestinian children and Jewishchildren

Use of children as a tool for creating an emotive response with Len and

Erin and the audience

Texts play on audiences link between children and innocence to convey

feelings of anger, sympathy, shock, or to convey a specific

political/social objective


13/21


14/21

Textual Analysis of:

Subjectivity

Traitor


15/21

SUBJECTIVITY

Novel is memoir-like

Diaries problematic prone to bias

However, Oz makes use of this uniquely two narrators

Underscores prejudices, contrasts assumptions with reality


16/21

ASSUMPTIONS VS REALITY

Righteous persecuted Jews vs Angry Jews

..in the burning valley ofBeit Shan, a new breed of Jews was growing up,who were not pale and bespectacled like us, but bronzed and strong, theywere pioneers, and they had wellsprings of the real, murderous kind ofanger. (Oz 64)

Bloodthirsty Vs Civilized/Persecuted Arabs

..that they should become a persecuted people, instead of the Jews (Oz71)

Fanons Oppressor Vs Gentle Dunlop In the colonies it is the policeman and the soldier who are the official,

instituted go-betweens, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule ofoppression()maintain contact with the native and advise him by meansof rifle butts and napalm not to budge. It is obvious here that the agents ofgovernment speak the language of pure force. (Fanon 37)

Hand like cotton wool (Oz 30)


17/21

THE TRAITOR

Both opens and closes novel with accounts of his treachery

However prevalent the theme of betrayal is in Ozs fiction in general, inTPITB it is a mainstay of the plot (Mazor 97)

Problematic, fluid definition: The fact is that everyone nowadays uses

the word traitor too freely. But what is a traitor?. (Oz 2)

...anyone who is branded a traitor is a traitor and thats that. It is

pointless to try and defend yourself. (Oz 19)

.


18/21

TRAITOR CNTD

Treachery in mind or deed? Who else is a betrayer?

Sergeant Dunlop, for sympathisizing with the Jewish cause? Forgossiping to locals?

Proffys father, for almost betraying the package?

Proffy himself?

Yardena, his father, Dunlop, the Underground

Very notion of being a panther in the basement deceitful, dishonest,treacherous?

Loyalty: Young boy vs man he wants to become


19/21

Conclusion: Both texts portray a specific, intended messageSubjectivity

Both texts contain childish innocence, an element of theQuestionable Subjective

Neithercan be seen as portraying the Ultimate Truth

Both are told from a memoir-like perspective, the Ultimate

Subjective, and therefore imply the theory of the Unreliable

Narrator, bringing us to the conclusion that neither can provide

us with information as an accurate historical document


20/21

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barker, James. "The Bombing of the King David Hotel." History Today 56.7. 2006

Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fict ion . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Cooke, Rachel. "Peter Kosminsky: Britain's Humiliation in Palestine [Interview]." The

Guardian[London] 23 Jan. 2011

Kosminsky, Peter, dir. "The Promise." The Prom ise. Channel 4. London, 2011. Television.


21/21

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fanon, Frantz. "Concerning Violence." Zero Anthropo logy. N.p., 12 2009.

Web. 15 Oct 2012. .

Mazor, Yair. Somber Lust : The Ar t of Amos Oz. New York: State University

of New York, 2002. Web.

Oz, Amos. The Panth er in the Basement. London: Random House, 1997.

Print.

comparative lit presentation

Documents