LITERATURE

Chapter 4

Classics and Masterpieces

Classics-have outlived their time and continue to be relevant.

May be remade into modern versions Sons of Anarchy

(Hamlet) 10 Things I Hate About

You (Taming of the Shrew)

Masterpieces- a work that in style, execution, and resonance far exceeds what other writers were doing at the same time

Many classics are masterpieces, but they don’t have to be

The First Epic: Gilgamesh

Epic-long narrative poem recounting the actions and adventures of a hero (not necessarily moral)

Gilgamesh-tyrannical king who intimidated even the gods so they created a compassionate counterpart for him (Enkidu)

The 2 heros wrestle, resulting in a tie. Enkidu eventually dies but Gilgamesh lives on…some interpret it as aggressiveness outlasting kindness

The Iliad

Accounts for the 10 year duration of the conflict between Greece and Troy. Achilles Trojan Horse Helen of Troy

Unique because it shows not only the glory of Greece but the tragedy of the losing side.

Can be categorized as a tragedy because of the story of Hector, the Trojan hero. His ambition is his fatal flaw.

Iliad as a Masterpiece

Established the fundamental principle- real life is not a simple struggle between good and evil.

Internal conflict of Hector makes it a great tragedy

Poetry

Lyrical Poetry-sung to accompany a lyre

Popular with RomansWritten about

pleasurable pursuits of life-good food, wine, expressed personal feelings (unrequited love)

Sonnet-14 line poetic form

Popular in Italy during the Renaissance

Iambic pentameterPetrarch is the most

famous, wrote to his married love, Laura

Unrequited love

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Extraordinary vocabulary

Genius lies in his ability to merge form and content into a unified whole

Metaphors Conceits

An abstract is explained in terms of something that is visual and concrete

Ex. Juliette is the sun

Special kind of metaphor, elaborate and extended associations between 2 dissimilar things

Ex. Your Spouse and God

Poetry Devices

Haiku

Detestable crow!Today alone you please me-Black against the snow.

short poem in which the writer captures a thought or image captured from nature.

Springs from the Buddhist tradition

Religious Poetry Premodernism

The urge to communicate and sing the praises of a deity is an early component of the humanities

Some fear “modern” poetry will be too hard to understand.

Emily Dickinson is on the threshold of modern poetry, influenced by both lyrical and modern

Forms

Poetry of Our Time

Can be read and reread, studied

Most modern poets prefer their work not be analyzed or translated into prose, loses its meaning

The Novel

Essentially a long narrative

First “official” novel was The Tale of Genji

Romances-french stories of knights, bravery and love affairs

Word “novel” comes from Latin meaning new and unfamiliar

Early Western Novels

First Western novel was Don Quixote by Cervantes

English novels were presented as true stories of adventurers, such as Gulllivers Travels by Jonathan Swift and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Alonso Quixana is an older gentleman who lives in La Mancha, in the Spanish countryside. He has read many of the books of chivalry and as a result, he has lost his wits, and he decides to roam the country as a knight-errant named Don

Quixote de La Mancha. 

The Novel in America

American writers were slow to gain respect and recognition from readers in other countries.

Eventually they earned the respect of their international peers

Washington Irving “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

James Fennimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans

Nathanial Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter

Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Ernest Hemmingway The Old Man and the Sea

The Coming-of-Age Novel

Influenced by Freud’s unveiling of the inner world as well as the growth of the new science of developmental psychology, authors started a new genre of literature centered on the early stages of youthful consciousness.

Huckleberry Finn

The Catcher in the Rye

The Member of the Wedding

Magazine Fiction Epiphany

Printed pieces of short fiction that could be read in one sitting.

Edgar Allen Poe

The sudden insight into life or human nature which short stories often give us

“The Lottery”

The Short Story-An American Invention

The Short Story Today

Literary trend today is the zeitgeist of our age: there is no overarching theory that applies to people and their cultures the world over