Název projektu Rozvoj vzdělávání na Slezské univerzitě v Opavě
Registrační číslo projektu CZ.02.2.69/0.0./0.0/16_015/0002400
Úvod do literatury
Distanční studijní text
Michaela Weiss
Opava 2019
Obor: 0232 Literatura a lingvistika, Class P – Language and Literature.
Klíčová slova: Literární věda, naratologie, figury a tropy, poetika, rým, rytmus, styl,
psaní eseje, přehled britské literatury, přehled americké literatury, drama,
poezie, funkce literatury
Anotace:
V předmětu bude literatura podána jako specifická disciplína s podobnostmi,
ale i odlišnostmi od jiných disciplín. Studenti se seznámí se základními
pojmy literární vědy v oblasti prózy, poezie i dramatu. V závěru
cyklu předmět představí specifika britské a americké literatury. Cílem
předmětu je poskytnout studentům dobré literárně teoretické zázemí
a současně praktickou výbavu pro čtení konkrétních textů v návazné
výuce.
Autor: Michaela Weiss
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
3
Obsah
ÚVODEM............................................................................................................................4
RYCHLÝ NÁHLED STUDIJNÍ OPORY...........................................................................5
1 LITERATURE: FUNCTION AND CLASSIFICATION ...........................................6
1.1 WHAT IS LITERATURE, WHY DO WE READ? ............................................7
1.2 LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE........................................................................8
1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF LITERATURE .............................................................9
1.4 PROSE: CHARACTERS, SETTING, STORY.................................................12
1.5 NARRATOLOGY .............................................................................................13
2 POETRY AND DRAMA ..........................................................................................18
2.1 DRAMA TYPES ...............................................................................................19
2.1.1 ELEMENTS OF DRAMA.........................................................................20
2.2 POETRY: TYPES, ELEMENTS, AND FORMS .............................................21
2.2.1 POETIC FORMS.......................................................................................22
2.2.2 POETIC METRE.......................................................................................23
3 WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE..........................................................................28
3.1 ESSAY WRITING.............................................................................................28
3.2 CITATION GUIDE ...........................................................................................31
3.3 OVERVIEW OF BRITISH LITERATURE......................................................34
3.4 OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN LITERATURE ................................................38
SOURCES..........................................................................................................................45
SHRNUTÍ STUDIJNÍ OPORY.........................................................................................46
PŘEHLED DOSTUPNÝCH IKON...................................................................................47
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ÚVODEM
Vážení studenti,
Vítejte v kurzu Úvod do literatury. Tento předmět je zařazen ve studijních plánech mezi
povinné předměty Vašeho bakalářského studijního programu.
Tento studijní materiál obsahuje základní teoretický základ, v němž jsou představeny zásadní
literární žánry. Kurz je členěn do 3 částí, které mapují zásadní rysy poezie, prózy a
dramatu a dále obsahují stručné pojednání o psaní esejí, a zpracování poznámkového aparátu
a bibliografie. V neposlední řadě kurz poskytuje stručný přehled základních literárních
směrů britské a americké literatury. Cílem kurzu je nejen podat přehled prozodických prostředků,
ale také dále rozvíjet schopnost práce s textem a kritického myšlení.
Vzhledem k obtížnosti samostudia, obzvláště v oblasti literatury, obsahuje každá kapitola
část teoretickou, v nímž jsou vysvětleny a ukázány hlavní rysy dané literární problematiky,
obvykle doplněné praktickým příkladem. Každá podkapitola obsahuje kontrolní otázky,
jejich řešení najdete na konci každé podkapitoly.
Přeji Vám hodně úspěchů při studiu.
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RYCHLÝ NÁHLED STUDIJNÍ OPORY
Studijní opora k předmětu Úvod do literatury poskytuje především teoretické nástroje
k lepšímu chápání textů. V kurzu se studenti seznámí se základními pojmy literární vědy.
Výchozím bodem budou obecná zamyšlení nad literaturou, příbuznostmi a naopak odlišnostmi
literatury od jiných disciplín, nad její povahou a funkcí a rolí jazyka v literatuře.
Studijní opora je rozdělena do 3 kapitol. Každá kapitola odpovídá jednomu setkání během
přímé výuky. Každá kapitola obsahuje několik podkapitol, které odpovídají jednotlivým
položkám sylabu.
Studijní opora poskytuje nástroje k analýze procesu literární komunikace a různých pojetí
autora, čtenáře, literárního díla a jeho významu. Budou diskutovány pojmy syžetu a
fabule, typologie postav, hlavní žánry a vyprávěcí techniky, tropy a základy poetiky (rytmus,
rým, verš, aliterace a jiné). Bude pojednáno o otázce stylu a v české literární teorii
méně užívaných pojmech, jako jsou např. juxtapozice a intertextualita. V semináři pak budou
všechna tato témata a pojmy aplikovány na konkrétních textech.
Cílem cyklu je poskytnout studentům dobré literárně teoretické zázemí a současně praktickou
výbavu pro textovou analýzu, kterou budou užívat v návazných literárních seminá-
řích.
Literature: function and classification
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1 LITERATURE: FUNCTION AND CLASSIFICATION
QUICK OVERVIEW
The students will be acquainted with the various definitions of literature. They will discuss
the role and function of literature and art in education and society. Special attention
will be paid to the differences between language of art and everyday language. The students
will also learn the main classification of literature into genres and subgenres. Special attention
will be paid to the elements of prose, such as setting, atmosphere, narrative situations
or plot structure.
AIMS
This chapter will
 Discuss role and function of art and literature
 Define and understand language of literature
 Define and understand genres and subgenres
 Define and recognize prose elements
KEYWORDS
Definitions of literature, Literary Language, Instrumental Language, Flash Fiction, Narrative
form, Narrative Genre, Novel, Metafiction, Popular Genres, Short-Story, Sub-genres,
narrative situations, plot structure, literary tropes
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1.1 WHAT IS LITERATURE, WHY DO WE READ?
DEFINITION – LITERATURE
Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature"
is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific
works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination,
including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction.
Literature is an expression and reflection of culture. Reading is also a form of listening.
You will learn a lot about most authors or their work by reading them aloud. A
good start is listening to music, and trying to follow the lyrics as if they were a story.
As readers, we discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says and
how he/she says it.
Reader types
There are various types of readers. We read differently and for different purposes. Some
people only run through the text, others pay attention to details. Some readers search for
inspiration or knowledge, others to fill their time, for fun or to forget everyday life. Some
readers look at the ned first, others skip long description, some sympathize with the protagonist,
others focus on action.
Common readers mainly focus on the story (action) and the characters. They follow the
protagonist’s fate and read predominantly on the emotional level. They let the work affect
them, making them laugh, cry, or distressed. That means they are emotionally involved in
the work. Professors as well as students of literature, should, however, read a bit differently.
They are many questions to be asked: how did the writer do it? Why do I feel this way?
Are the characters, setting or the structure of the story similar to what I have read?
FOR REFLECTION
1. What do you read? Do you enjoy reading?
2. What kind of reader are you? What is your major focus and reason for reading?
3. What do you think are the functions of literature? Do we need stories and why?
Literature: function and classification
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1.2 LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE
Literature has its own structures, or grammar, which is formed by conventions, patterns
and rules. Every language has a grammar that establishes its form and meaning and the
same is true for the literary language.
Major features of literary language
polysemy
ambiguity
strong/poetic metaphor
connotation
open/indeterminate
more potential interpretations
DEFINITION – LITERARY TROPES
The word trope can refer to any type of figure of speech, theme, image, character, or
plot element that is used many times. Any kind of literary device or any specific example
can be a trope. Most often the word is used to refer to tropes that are widespread such as
irony, metaphor, juxtaposition, and hyperbole, or themes such as ‘the noble savage’ or ‘the
reluctant hero.’ It must be used multiple times to be a ‘trope’
Examples:
Simile: is explicit comparison of things that are similar at some points (Her smile was
like the sun, / As warm as morning light upon the rose).
Analogy: comparison of things that are not identical (He stood as if he were an oak /
Braced against the wind.
Contrast: is comparison by pointing out the difference: (The lake was no more mirror
than the sky is a pancake.)
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Allusion: reference to something outside the text (He came, like Rome, to see, and
stayed to conquer.)
Oxymoron: combines objects that look the opposite; i.e., "sweet bitterness," "terrible
beauty," "burning chill," and so forth.
Metaphoric Tropes—
A Symbol: a concrete object that is at the same time understood on a n abstract level.
Bird- a symbol of freedom.
Paradox: is a metaphor or statement that combines terms which seem mutually exclusive,
but which in fact are not—"Freedom is the prison of rebellion.”
Allegory: a whole story based on a metaphor, usually commenting on human lives. "
Rhetorical Tropes
Apostrophe: speaking to somebody who is not present or to a personified object.
Dramatic Irony: what appears true to a character is not what the audience or reader
knows to be true. The audience knows more about a character’s situation than the character
does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character’s expectation. In tragedies, this is
called "tragic irony."
Irony, is witty mockery, usually effected by saying the opposite of what is actually
meant.
Sarcasm saying the opposite of what is actually meant is similar to the technique of
irony, but the emphasis is on the bitterness.
Situational Irony: what appears likely to happen is not what actually happens.
Structural Irony: involves the use of a naïve hero or unreliable narrator, whose view
of the world differs widely from the true circumstances understood by the author and read-
ers.
Verbal Irony: words that appear to mean one thing really mean the opposite.
1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF LITERATURE
The classification of literature is the major concern of narratology, which analyses all
types of narratives, literary and non-literary, fictional and nonfictional, verbal and nonver-
bal.
Literature: function and classification
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DEFINITION – FICTIONAL NARRATIVE
A fictional narrative presents an imaginary narrator's account of a story that happened
in an imaginary world. A fictional narrative is appreciated for its entertainment and educational
value, possibly also for providing a vision of characters that might exist or might
have existed, and a vision of things that might happen or could have happened. Although a
fictional narrative may freely refer to actual people, places and events, it cannot be used as
evidence of what happened in the real world.
Classification of genres
Genres are further divided into sub-genres. Literature can be organized according to the
poetic genres and the prose genres.
Poetry is subdivided into epic, lyric, and dramatic
Prose is subdivided into fiction and non-fiction.
Plays are subdivided into comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and etc. Each subgenre can
have further subdivisions, e.g., comedy has its own genres: farce, comedy of manners, burlesque,
and satire.
Types of Prose Fiction
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The novel cis a longer prose fiction. The novel has become popular at the beginning of
18th
century. Flash fiction is prose under a thousand words.
A short story consists of 10,000 to 20,000 words.
A story containing between 20,000 and 50,000 is a novella.
In the epistolary novel a novel in letters. (e.g. Samuel Richardson, Pamela.)
A picaresque novel tells stories and adventures of a picaro (rogue). It consists of episodes
that together form a journey of the protagonist who struggles against society, masters
of just fate.
Examples: Cervantes, Don Quixote; and in the English tradition: Mark Twain, The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn; Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.
The historical novel retells some historical event, the setting and characters are historical,
usually blends facts and fction.
Examples: Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
The bildungsroman (novel of initiation) concentrates on the mental development of the
character, changing from a child to an adult.
Examples: Henry Fielding, Tom Jones; Charles Dickens, David Copperfield; James Joyce,
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
The gothic novel became popular in the second half of the 18th.
century. It should evoke
fear, the setting often includes ruins, damaged landscapes, swaps. The atmosphere is
gloomy. There are often supernatural forces, demons, or monsters.
Examples are Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; Ann Radcliffe, Mysteries of
Udolpho; William Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom!
Satire: is usually very funny, but its main aim is to criticize an individual or society.
Crime fiction: deals with crimes, criminals, and their motives.
Detective fiction: concentrates on the the investigation of a crime.
Popular genres
FantasyHorror
Science fiction
Literature: function and classification
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Thriller
Western
1.4 PROSE: CHARACTERS, SETTING, STORY
Theme: The essential idea. A theme of the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” is “Don't
talk to strangers.”
A motif is an idea, that is repeated. Can be used by various authors in different eras.
Example: A comparison of seasons of the year to human life (childhood-spring, old age:
autumn).
Plot
Structure of the Plot:
I. Introduction
A. Setting: Where and when the story takes place
B. Protagonist: The main character of the story; who the story is about.
C. Mood: How the reader feels about the story, setting and character.
D. Tone: The Feelings and state of mind of the speaker or narrator.
II. Rising Action: the point where the protagonist meets the antagonist.
A. Conflict: 1. Person vs. Person (External Conflict)
2. Person vs. Nature (External Conflict)
3. Person vs. Himself or Herself (Internal Conflict)
4. Person vs. Society (External Conflict)
5. Person vs. Fate, Destiny, God (External Conflict)
B. Antagonist: The character which opposes the protagonist.
III. Climax: The turning point.
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IV. Falling action: Prepares reader for the end, all mysteries and secrets are uncovered.
V. Denouement: This is French for “unknotting” and is essentially the wrapping up of
all the loose details of the plot in order to satisfy the reader or audience.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Plot Structure
1.5 NARRATOLOGY
The first question before analyzing the text is: “Who speaks?
DEFINITION – NARRATOR
„A narrator is the speaker who decides what is to be told, how it is to be told (perspective
or a point of view, and in what order), and what is to be left out.“
Literature: function and classification
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Stanzel intended to show how narratives work in a typological circle
mediacy:
 Person (first person or third person)
 Perspective (internal or external)
 Mode (narrator or reflector)
Narrative situations:
 First-Person narrative situation (1st person narrator)
 Authorial narrative situation (omniscient narrator)
 Figural narrative situation (Reflector)
1st person narrator
narrator who is present as a character in his/her story
events s/he has experienced himself
narrator (narrating I) is also a character (experiencing I)
Unreliable Narrator: A narrator "whose rendering of the story and/or commentary on it
the reader has reasons to suspect. [...] The main sources of unreliability are the narrator's
limited knowledge, his personal involvement, and his problematic value-scheme."
I-as-protagonist / I-as-witness (Moll Flanders/
Nick The Great Gatsby )
Example:
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been
turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told
me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve
had.” He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved
way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence,
I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to
me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. (The Great Gatsby, opening
paragraph).
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Authorial Narrator
no character in the story itself (impersonal narration)
status of an outsider => godlike abilities such as omniscience and omnipresence
may speak directly to their addressees, in order to comment on action and characters
and to engage in philosophical reflection or socio-political criticism and the like
Reliable Narrator: A narrator "whose rendering of the story and commentary on it
the reader is supposed to take as an authoritative account of the fictional truth."
Example:
The twin city of proud Ankh and pestilent Morpork, of which all the other cities of time
and space are, as it were, mere reflections, has stood many assualts in its long and crowded
history and has always risen to flourish again. So the fire and its subsequent flood, which
destroyed everything left that was not flammable and added a particularly noisome flux to
the survivors’ problems, did not mark its end. Rather it was a fiery punctuation mark, a
coal-like comma, or salamander semicolon, in a continuing story.’ (Terry Pratchett, The
Colour of Magic)
Reflector
subjective reflector; internal focalizer
effect: attract attention to the mind of the reflector-character
through the eyes of a character in story => third-person, all is seen through the
character’s eyes - - subjective narrative
Example:
what a variety of smells interwoven in subtlest combination thrilled his nostrils; strong
smells of earth, sweet smells of flowers; nameless smells of leaf and bramble; sour smells
as they crossed the road; pungent smells as they entered bean-fields. But suddenly down
the wind came tearing a smell sharper, stronger, more lacerating than any – a smell that
ripped across his brain stirring a thousand instincts, releasing a million memories – the
smell of hare, the smell of fox. Off he flashed like a fish drawn in a rush through water
further and further. (Virginia Woolf, Flush).
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Narrative Situations
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QUESTIONS
1. What is the difference between a simile and metaphor?
2. What is the difference between situational and structural irony?
3. Name three narrative situations
4. Describe the main points of plot structure
STUDY GUIDE
In LMS Moodle you will find texts with tasks concerning the first chapter, marked as
TEXTS 1. You can try to complete them with the use of the study support. The text analysis
will be carried out in class.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
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SUMMARY
This chapter deals with definitions of literature and its functions. It further provides main
classification and overview of genres. The following subchapters include main prose types,
poetry types and drama types. The chapter also provides an overview of literary tropes, and
discusses major aspects of narratology, that is plot structure and narrative situations.
TAKE A BREAK
Now it is time to take a break, you have finished the first chapter, which covers our first
in-class meeting.
Poetry and Drama
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2 POETRY AND DRAMA
QUICK OVERVIEW
The chapter deals predominantly with drama a poetry. It provides an overview of the
main types of drama: comedies and tragedies and their subgenres, together with basic terminology
concerning drama. The second part of the chapter focuses on poetry, especially
poetic forms and stanza types and metrics.
AIMS
This chapter will:
 Define drama and its structure
 Provide an overview of terminology concerning drama
 Define poetry
 Define and recognize poetry elements
KEYWORDS
Dramatical Utterance, Dramatic Sub-genres, Types of Drama, Dramatic Literary Terminology,
three unities, poetic forms, poetic metre
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2.1 DRAMA TYPES
DEFINITION – DRAMA
Drama is a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. It is a Greek word
meaning "action", drawn from the Greek verb, "to do".
There are two major types of drama: Comedy and tragedy
Types of Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Depicts lovers and their struggle to come. Romantic comedies can also involve magic,
dreams, the fairy-world, etc. Examples: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream or As
You Like It.
Satiric Comedy
This type of comedy has a critical purpose. It usually attacks philosophical notions or
political practices as well as general deviations from social norms by ridiculing characters.
In other words: The aim is not to make people ‘laugh with’ the characters but ‘laugh at’
them. Examples: Ben Jonson’s Volpone and The Alchemists.
Farce
Farce shows exaggerated and caricatured characters and often has an unlikely plot.
Example: Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
Melodrama
Melodrama joins romantic or sensational plots with musical elements. Usually has a
happy endings, characters appeal to emotions.
Types of Tragedy
Revenge Tragedy/Tragedy of Blood
A popular genre during Renaissance.
Motifs: murder, revenge, mutilations and ghosts, madness
Poetry and Drama
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Examples: Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus
and Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.
These plays were written in blankverse, the protagonists were usually aristocrats. were
of a high social rank
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedies, mix conventions of actions, characters and theme from tragedy and
comedy.
Example: Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1600.
2.1.1 ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
1. Aside - Lines whispered to the audience or to another character on stage (not meant
to be heard by all the characters on stage)
2. Catastrophe - the ending of a drama (a death in a tragedy or a marriage in a comedy)
3. Comic Relief – use of humour in a serious scene to relieve tension
4. Crisis or Climax - the turning point in the plot (time of a crucial decision).
5. Dramatic Irony - the audience knows something that the character does not.
6. Foreshadow – Events or speeches that provide a hint or clue to future events.
7. Nemesis - the punisher.
8. Soliloquy - A character on stage thinking out loud (a way of letting the audience know
what is in the character's mind).
9. Tragic Flaw - A character trait that leads one to his/her own downfall or destruction.
Three Unities
Older plays traditionally followed one of the classical poetic ‘laws’, one of them being
the three unities: unity of plot, unity of place, and unity of time. The unities mean that a
play should have only one single plot line, which ought to take place in a single location
and within one day.
Drama structure
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2.2 POETRY: TYPES, ELEMENTS, AND FORMS
DEFINITION - POETRY
To ask ‘What is poetry?’ is very much like asking ‘What is Literature?’ and in fact the
answers to both these questions overlap: Poetry is perceived as fictional, it uses specialised
language, in many cases it lacks a pragmatic function, it is also ambiguous.
Alexander Pope once explained that he preferred to write poetry even when he wrote
about philosophy because it enabled him to express himself more briefly (Pope, Preface to
An Essay on Man, 1734).
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Major features of poetic texts:
• dense expression
• subjective
• musical or songlike quality (rhythm)
• poetic language
Poetry and Drama
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Types of poetry
Lyric Poetry
A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker
presents a state of mind or an emotional state. Lyric poetry retains some of the elements of
song which is said to be its origin: For Greek writers the lyric was a song accompanied by
the lyre.
Subcategories of the lyric are: sonnet and dramatic monologue
The sonnet: originally a love poem of 14 lines. Started in Italy and became popular in
England in the Renaissance. Later used for religious and meditative topics.
Dramatic monologue: a speaker talks reveals his secret motivations and thoughts
Narrative or Epic Poetry
Epics long narratives, dealing with founding of the nation, beginnings of the world.
Include supernatural characters.
Examples: Homer Illiad, Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid
A ballad is a folk song that tells a sad story, originally taken from oral tradition.
2.2.1 POETIC FORMS
A sequence of lines within a poem are often divided into parts: stanzas. The division
does not have a fixed meaning.
Stanza types
Blank verse is a non-rhyming iambic pentameter. Often used both in poetry and Renaissance
drama.
Couplet: two rhyming lines. The heroic couplet, consists of two lines of rhyming iambic
pentameter.
The quatrain is one of the most common stanza forms. It consists of four lines with
various rhyme patterns.
The ottava rima consists of eight lines rhyming abababcc.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
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Example: Byron in Don Juan.
The sonnet is a lyric poem that consists of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter
Rhyme patterns in the sonnet:
The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: octave (eight lines): rhyming abbaabba and a sestet
rhyming cdecde (or cdccdc)
The English or Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains and one final couplet: rhyming
abab cdcd efef gg.
Spenserian sonnet: 3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming : abab bcbc cdcd ee.
2.2.2 POETIC METRE
iamb
o1 da-DUM
A man put on his hat
And walked along the strand
And there he met another man
Whose hat was in his hand
(Samuel Johnson)
trochee
1o DUM-da
Hark, the hour of ten is sounding
Hearts with anxious fears are bounding
Hall of Justice crowds surrounding
Poetry and Drama
24
Breathing hope and fear
(Gilbert and Sullivan, from: Trial by Jury)
dactyl
1oo DUM-da-da
Cannon to right of them
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered.
(Tennyson, from: Charge of the Light Brigade)
spondee
11 DUM-DUM
Bark bark bark bark
Bark bark BARK BARK
(T.S. Eliot, Book of Practical Cats)
The metre of a poem is a combination of the stress pattern and number of stresses in the
line: iambic metre which has four stresses in a line is called iambic tetrameter:
Had we but world enough, and time
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
(Marvell, To His Coy Mistress)
Free verse does not have a regular metre, what is important is rhythm, which is usually
reached by repetition or line breaks.
Some quick to arm,
some for adventure,
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
25
some from fear of weakness,
some from fear of censure,
some for love of slaughter, in imagination,
some learning later ...
some in fear, learning love of slaughter
(Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn Mauberly)
Types of rhyme
The most noticeable rhyme is the rhyme at the end of a line, the end-rhyme. But there
are also lines within lines, so-called internal rhymes.
I’ve a head like a concertina; I’ve a tongue like a button-stick
I’ve a mouth like an old potato, and I’m more than a little sick,
But I’ve had my fun o’ the Corp’ral’s Guards: I’ve made the cinders fly,
And I’m here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the
Corporal’s eye.
(Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads)
Sound patterns
An alliteration is the repetition of the same sound, usually a consonant, at the beginning
of words or stressed syllables in close proximity.
But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
(From: Eliot, Book of Practical Cats)
Poetry and Drama
26
An assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound in the stressed syllables of
words in close proximity, while the consonants differ:
Rend with tremendous Sound your ears asunder,
With Gun, Drum, Trumpet, Blunderbuss & Thunder
(Pope, Imitations of Horace, Ep. II.i)
QUESTIONS
1. Name the drama types, including their major subgenres.
2. Name and explain the three unities.
3. What are the two main types of poetry? Provide examples of poetic forms.
4. Describe the main points of plot structure.
5. What is a blank verse?
STUDY GUIDE
In LMS Moodle you will find texts with tasks concerning the third chapter, marked as
TEXTS 2. You can try to complete them with the use of the study support. The text analysis
will be carried out in class.
SUMMARY
This chapter introduces main features of poetry and drama. It includes basic terminology.
It also discusses drama plot structure, drama elements (dramamtic irony, comic relief,
aside, etc), and main conventions (the Freytag Pyramid).
The second part of the chapter introduces poetry types and their examples. It also includes
stanza types and shows examples of poetic metre and types of rhyme.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
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TAKE A BREAK
Now it is time to take a break, you have finished the second chapter, which covers our
second in-class meeting.
Writing about literature
28
3 WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
QUICK OVERVIEW
The chapter provides general rules for essay writing. It addresses the structure, choice
of topic, and style. It also includes a citation guide, the Chicago Manual of Style that specifies
how to cite both primary and secondary sources, how to create bibliography and footnotes
and in-text notes. The chapter further includes a brief overview of major literary
tendencies, movements and writers in British and American literature.
AIMS
The chapter will:
 Outline main rules of writing an essay,
 Teach you how to quote and paraphrase,
 Provide an overview of English literature
 Provide an overview of American literature.
KEYWORDS
Essay writing, Citation norm, Chicago Manual of Style, Overview of English literature,
Overview of American literature
3.1 ESSAY WRITING
During your studies, you will be asked to write several essays, both in the field of language
and literature. In many of these classes you will be asked to write an essay of some
kind. Some of your teachers will give you pre-assigned questions while others will expect
you to come up with your own topic. Eventually you will write your Bachelor Thesis.
First of all, when writing an essay one must formulate a theme. A major idea that you
will argue for. The teachers will expect you to think for yourself and present your opinion.
In secondary school you were asked to write book reports on various texts in which you
either copied or adapted from the web. It probably included a lot of information on the life
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
29
of the author and summarized the story. This is not what we want. Similarly, the essays you
are asked to write for the Practical Language courses are not what we are looking for.
Let's take Shakespeare's Hamlet as an example. If you were to write, "Hamlet is the story
of a prince who has to revenge his father's death," this is not a theme but the most basic
surface description of the action. Better might be, "Hamlet symbolizes the intellectual incapable
of action." This is still however fairly unoriginal and obvious. Try to formulate
your own 'reading' of the text., such as “Romance in Hamlet.” The nature of your thesis
will of course also depend on the length of the essay to be written. If you are assigned a
four page essay, choose a topic which can be reasonably dealt with in that kind of detail.
Do not say for example, " In my essay I will discuss the meaning of each of the soliloquies
in Hamlet." That's not only a vague thesis, but too much to deal with in a short paper. In
general, the rule is, always narrow your topic as much as possible. Try to go in depth into
one topic, not discuss everything possible under the sun. And if this isn't already clear, stick
to one topic, only one, not two nor three, but one.
Essay structure
An introduction for the length of essays you will normally write would probably consist
of a paragraph of around four or five sentences. This paragraph's job is to introduce the
subject of the essay as clearly as possible. In order to do this certain phrases are customarily
used, such as, "In my essay, I would like to examine/ look at/ focus on the question of/ the
topic/ the problem ......"The introduction could be compared to a map, helping the reader
find out where he or she is going in the rest of the essay. By the end of the introduction, the
reader should know what to expect from the remainder of the essay.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
In the introduction you say what you are going to say, in the body you say it, and in the
conclusion, you say what you've said.
Before discussing the actual body of the essay, let's skip to the conclusion. The conclusion
again, in a relatively short essay, would probably consist of once again a medium sized
paragraph in which you bring the essay to a close by summarizing the argument or thesis.
Strange as it may sound, the conclusion partially repeats in other words what you've already
said in the introduction. Here, once again, certain customary phrases are made use of, " In
this paper/essay/work I have tried to point out/explore/examine the question of/the problem
of .....I hope I have demonstrated/shown/ indicated that ......" Do not introduce anything
new in your conclusion.
Writing about literature
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Do not make a statement such as the following, "Another interesting topic is such and
such which is unfortunately outside the scope of my paper." You want to bring things to a
close, not open up new possibilities. Also, do not end your work with a quotation as it
only shows your own lack of resolution, end with your own statement on the matters at
hand.
The body of your essay will consist of various paragraphs. This may seem once again
extremely obvious, but I do occasionally receive essays from students consisting of one
never-ending paragraph. Paragraphs can be understood as storeys in a building. You
are building up your argument, so to speak. Ideally each paragraph should be something
like a mini essay with each of your leading sentences being something like a mini-thesis.
It is also important to make logical transitions between paragraphs. There are no fixed
rules as to how long a paragraph should be, however, a paragraph of more than half a page
is probably getting too long. Paragraphs also serve as rest for the eyes, breaking up the
words so as to make them easier to process mentally.
In all of the literary essays you will be expected to write, you will be working with a
text, in most cases with a primary text as opposed to secondary texts, i.e. literary criticism.
You will have to quote from the primary text in order to support your argument.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
In the introduction you say what you are going to say, in the body you say it, and in the
conclusion, you say what you've said.
You want to find passages in the text analysed which demonstrate the validity of the
points you are trying to make. After the quotation, one should comment on what you have
chosen, interpreting it in the way which will, once again, contribute to the thesis.
In you intend to make use of secondary texts, these will also need to be cited properly.
Citations from any source must be documented. Failure to do so is to commit plagiarism or
to plagiarize. This is an academic crime and is a punishable offence. Plagiarism amounts
to claiming another author's work as your own. This is not only the case when you directly
steal a quotation, but also when you take somebody else's idea and pass it off as your own.
It is perfectly all right to paraphrase a statement from somewhere as long as you indicate
where you took it from, in other words acknowledge your sources. This can be rather tricky
at times. What is the line between plagiarism and common knowledge, for example. If I
want to refer to the date of Hamlet's publication as a text and look it up in a literary dictionary,
I need not cite my source as this is common knowledge. If, however,r I read a
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
31
theory that Hamlet was actually a description of Shakespeare's own son, I need to indicate
my source, even if I do not directly quote from the actual book or article.
Style
Students often want to use big words in order to sound intellectual. They have a sophisticated
word in their own language, look it up in the dictionary, are faced with a number of
choices and consequently choose the longest, most impressive sounding one, hoping it does
the trick. It doesn't!
Avoid using metaphorical language. Do not translate sayings or proverbs from your
own language into English, assuming that they will work in the same fashion. They don't.
Do not use contractions: I’d, I’ll, etc. They are perfectly acceptable in an oral presentation,
but not in a formal paper. Either British or American spelling or vocabulary is acceptable,
however do not make use of dialect.
Avoid sentimentality and clichés. Do not say that the message of the book is that we
should all love one another more. Avoid empty statements which say absolutely nothing.
Do not begin an essay with “William Shakespeare was born in the 16th century.” This is
common knowledge and not worth saying. Neither is, "Hamlet was written by Shakespeare."
Avoid statements such as, “I really love Shakespeare,” or “I want to recommend
this book to all readers.”
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Avoid using metaphorical language
Do not use contractions
Avoid sentimentality and clichés
3.2 CITATION GUIDE
Chicago-style source citations come in two varieties:
(1) notes and bibliography and
(2) author-date.
Notes and Bibliography or Author-Date?
Writing about literature
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The notes and bibliography system is used in humanities—including literature, history,
and culture studies. Sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each note
corresponds to a raised (superscript) number in the text. Sources are also listed in a separate
Works cited.
The author-date system is used sciences and social sciences. Sources are cited in the
text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each in-text
citation matches up with an entry in Works cited, where full bibliographic record is pro-
vided.
The examples are sorted in the following order:
1) Works Cited, 2) Footnote, 3) shortened version of a footnote used for repeated
citations from the same source. Paraphrases use the same form as footnotes, only there
is See at the beginning.
1) Footnote system
Book
1) Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New
York: Penguin, 2006.
2) Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New
York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.
3) Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 3. (Paraphrase: See Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 3.
Chapter in a book
1) Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Ámericana, and the Moral Economy
of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly,
67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
2) John D. Kelly, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Ámericana, and the Moral Economy
of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, ed. John D. Kelly (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2010), 77.
3) Kelly, “Seeing Red,” 81–82.
Electronic source
1) Áusten, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle
edition.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
33
Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: Úniversity
of Chicago Press, 1987. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
2) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), Kindle
edition.
3) Kurland and Lerner, Founder’s Constitution, chap. 10, doc. 19.
Journal Article
1) Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104
(2009): 439–58.
2) Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104
(2009): 440.
3) Weinstein, “Plato’s Republic,” 452–53.
2) In-text note system
Book
1) Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
New York: Penguin.
2) “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular” (Pollan 2006, 3).
3) According to Pollan: “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular”
(2006, 3).
Chapter in a book
1) Kelly, John D. 2010. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Ámericana, and the Moral
Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D.
Kelly, 67–83. Chicago: Úniversity of Chicago Press.
2) “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular” (Kelly 2010, 67).
3) According to Kelly: “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular”
(2010, 67).
Writing about literature
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Electronic Source
Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle edition.
Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. 1987. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
“In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular” (Austen, 2007).
“In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular” (Kurland and Lerner,
1987).
According to Áusten: “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular”
(Austen 2007).
Journal Article
1) Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104
(2009): 439–58.
2) “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular” (Weisstein 2009,
439).
3) According to Weisstein “In Europe, vegetarian diets are becoming more and more
popular” (2009, 439).
TAKE A BREAK
Now it is time to take a break.
3.3 OVERVIEW OF BRITISH LITERATURE
Old English Literature
Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) includes literature written in Old English,
from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest (1066).
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
35
Genres: narrative poetry, sermons, religious poetry, chronicles. The most popular
and well-known feature of Old English poetry is the alliterative verse.
The Old English poetry which has received the most attention deals with the Germanic
heroic past. The longest and most important, is Beowulf. It tells the story of the legendary
hero Beowulf. The story is set in Scandinavia, in Sweden and Denmark It has achieved
national epic status, on the same level as Homer’s Iliad.
Middle English Literature
There were three major languages employed: Latin, French and English.
Popular forms: Arthurian legends, folk tales.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER: The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387–1400).
Literature of the Renaissance
The Renaissance poetry introduces traditions from other European culture, especially
old Greek and Roman literature.
Major Renaissance poetic form: sonnet (sonnet sequence)
Major dramatic forms: histories, tragedies, comedies (in blankverse)
Genres
History play: depicted English or European history.
Examples:
Shakespeare: Richard III, Henry V,
Christopher Marlowe: Edward II
George Peele: Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First.
Tragedy
Marlowe: Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta.
Tragedy of revenge: Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy.
John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi.
Writing about literature
36
Comedy
Thomas Dekker The Shoemaker's Holiday
Thomas Middleton A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Beginning of the novel
The novel as a literary genre emerged in the beginning of the 18th century. It developed
as a piece of prose fiction that presented characters in real-life events and situations.
Examples:
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones
Romanticism
Emphasis on nature and natural or primitive way of life
Critical of civilization
Association of human moods with nature
Emphasis on imagination, spontaneity
Features of Victorian era:
Industrialism, rise of technology, spreading of the British empire and recovery from the
Napoleonic wars, materialism
Britain became the world power. The economic success was marked by of the middle
class. The time became famous for its social conventions, Puritanism. Sexuality became
social taboo.
New technological inventions: steam engine, phone, and railroad.
Poverty and unemployment.
The mainstream literature could be defined as critical realism, the main representatives
being Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray or George Eliot.
Charles Dickens:
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
37
David Copperfield (1849–50) uses the form of a fictional autobiography
Great Expectations (1860–61)
William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair (1847–48)
George Eliot: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Silas Marner
(1861), Middlemarch (1871–72).
English literature in the 20th century
British modernism:
Modernist methods: Subjective treatment of time and space
Use of stream of consciousness and internal monologues.
Major representatives: James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence
Postwar writing
Main features of the era:
Effects of the WW I., WW II. and global economic crisis of the 1930s
Rise of fascism
Spanish Civil War (1936–39)
Major themes in literature:
Class division
Sexual repression
Loss of meaning, inability to communicate
Major prose writers
William Golding, George Orwell, John Fowles
Angry Young Men. A group of writers: John Braine, John Wain, Alan Sillitoe, Stan
Barstow, and David Storey
Writing about literature
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Major playwrights
Arnold Wesker, John Osborne,
The Theatre of the Absurd has no clear plot or action, characters are types, dialogues
often do not make sense. Language does not work as a means of communication
Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter
Major poets
Philip Larkin, D.J. Enright, Elizabeth Jennings, Ted Hughes, Tony Harrison, Paul Muldoon,
Seamus Heaney
3.4 OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
COLONIAL LITERATURE
The first written record of America, though not the mainland, came from Christopher
Columbus on the October 12, 1492 in The Journal of the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus
(1492–3).
The plantation owners, who were mainly Anglicans, produced a lot of writing, ranging
from sermons and hymns to autobiographies and diaries. Letters, journals and reports
from the voyage thus became one of the most popular and earliest genres of American
literature. They mostly contained geographical description and potential dangers.
Puritan Poetry
All writings were meant to cultivate and define a holy life. The works written chiefly
for entertainment, such as theatrical plays or novels, were not appreciated. The Puritans
supported only religious, scientific and didactic writings, yet there were several poets
who, aside from keeping to the spiritual and religious poetry, were recognized even in
Europe.
In the 18th century the Puritan heritage was changing and adapting to the „Age of Reason“.
The population increased, there were armed conflicts with the Indians and rise of
slavery. The public figures became more liberal and more political. The writing of that
time mostly reflected the struggle for independence. The main forms were thus essays and
pamphlets. One of the essential concepts of Enlightenment was the rise of nationalism.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
39
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN AMERICAN PROSE IN THE 19TH
CENTURY
There were three writers who expressed their doubts and disbelief in the American optimism
and progress. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)
and Herman Melville (1810–1891) searched the darker aspects of human existence, American
past and nature.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts to a prominent New England
family. This is also a region where he set most of his stories. His fiction deals mainly with
his Puritan heritage, on one hand he was proud of his ancestors, yet he also felt guilt, especially
because one of his forefathers John Hathorne was a judge in Salem witchcraft trials.
Though he became known for his stories, his most influential book was a romance The
Scarlett Letter.
Herman Melville was born into an eminent family claiming war heroes and wealthy
merchants. His most famous novel is Moby Dick in October (1851) was inspired by epics
of Homer, Chamoes and William Shakespeare. Melville’s captain Ahab pursuits the whale
and in one scene he talks to a skeleton of a whale, his black cabin boy Pip turns insane.
Melville was also inspired by Shakespeare’s style.
REALISM
Realism stresses the common and ordinary everyday life. Realists concentrate on common
characters living ordinary lives and having the same, or at least, similar experience as
the reader. Realists try to represent life as it is, the characters speak in a colloquial language
and act according to understandable motives, and the writer captures the manners and values
of his time.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) grew up in the Mississippi River frontier town of Hannibal,
Missouri. Ernest Hemingway's famous statement that all of American literature comes from
one great book, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
NATURALISM
Realism turned into naturalism under the influence of the theories of Darwin, Marx and
Freud. It believed in determinism.
Naturalism is a literary expression of determinism. Associated with bleak, realistic depictions
of lower-class life, determinism denies religion as a motivating force in the world
and instead perceives the universe as a machine. Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers
had also imagined the world as a machine, but as a perfect one, invented by God and
Writing about literature
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tending toward progress and human betterment. Naturalists imagined society as a blind
machine, godless and out of control.
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) started as a journalist. He was the first writer to write an
impressionist novel about the Civil War: The Red Badge of Courage. His last novel Maggie:
A Girl of the Streets (1893) is one of the earliest naturalistic novels.
Jack London (1876-1916) became famous after the publication of his first collection of
stories, The Son of the Wolf (1900), set in the Klondike region of Alaska and the Canadian
Yukon. Other of his best-known books include The Call of the Wild (1903) and The SeaWolf
(1904) that made him the best paid writer in the United States of his time.
AMERICAN LITERATURE OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH
CENTURY
Modernism
Characteristics of Modernism in Literature
1) uses images and symbols as typical and frequent literary techniques
2) uses colloquial language rather than formal language
3) poetry close to a sculpture or a painting
5) form, style, and technique become as important as the content.
Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885. He became one of the major figures of
modernism, as he was the one who defined and promoted a modernist aesthetic in poetry.
He started a crucial exchange of work and ideas between British and American writers.
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His poem
The Waste Land published in 1922 is still considered by many to be the most influential
poetic work of the twentieth century. He was influenced by the English metaphysical poets
of the 17th century (especially John Donne) and the 19th century French symbolist poets.
THE LOST GENERATION
The generation raised during this time felt abandoned by their country. Many of the
defining literary figures of the Lost Generation (Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F.
Scott Fitzgerald) felt that the America they knew was gone and could not be revived. The
war experience also affected the Lost Generation’s relationship with their predecessors.
They felt as outsiders, who can, because of their war experience, provide an external
perspective on America and relationships in general.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
41
POSTWAR AMERICAN PROSE, POETRY AND DRAMA
Drama
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) became one of the most important American playwriters.
His main theme is the false ideal of American dream and the unnecessary suffering and
deaths caused by the will to succeed. His plays were never complicated or symbolical and
therefore gained wide audiences.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983): His plays openly reflect sexual and psychological
aspects of relationships which are traditionally controversial. His plays are full of neurotic
characters, sexually obsessed men and women, violence, both physical and mental. One of
the main motifs of Williams's plays is the contrast and conflict between fragile, highly sensitive
character and the world or other characters that represent the animalistic, aggressive
forces.
Poetry
The American Beat Generation of the 1950s names both a literary trend and a broader
cultural mood. Rejecting the conformism "normality" of the Truman and Eisenhower years,
the Beats emphasized an liberal approach to sexuality, religions, and spirituality.
major writers
Allen Ginsberg – The Howl
Jack Kerouac – On the Road
Prose
After the war, there was a period named after one American senator, Joseph McCarthy.
War became one of the main themes of American literature: Joseph Heller (1923–1999)
Catch 22, Norman Mailer (1923) The Naked and the Dead, Herman Wouk (1915), The
Winds of War and Irwin Shaw (1913–1984) Young Lions and Leon Uris (1924–2003) Mila
15. In the war novels written at that time, the enemy was not so much the fascists but the
war and American army.
E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) a Jewish-American writer who is famous for his rewriting
American history. He is combining fictional and real historical figures to bring back the
political and social climate of that time. He concentrates mainly on the first half of the 20th
century.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg into a
wealthy family. In 1937 he moved to Paris, where he met the Irish modernist James Joyce.
In 1939 with the help of a loan from Rachmaninov (famous music composer), he moved
with his family to America. He became famous with his novel Lolita.
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QUESTIONS
1. What should you avoid when it comes to style in essays?
2. What were the three major sources of Middle English literature? What were the
dominant forms?
3. Name at least three features of English Romanticism
4. Name typical features of the Theatre of the Absurd?
5. What are the major genres of American Colonial literature?
6. What are the typical features of American realism?
7. What are the main features of American modernism?
STUDY GUIDE
In LMS Moodle you will find texts with tasks concerning the third chapter, marked as
TEXTS 3. You can try to complete them with the use of the study support. The text analysis
will be carried out in class.
SUMMARY
This chapter provides general guidelines of essay writing. It focuses mainly on the essay
structure, finding a suitable topic, or choosing a title. The following subchapter introduces
the citation norm Chicago Manual of Style, with examples on how to crete footnotes, when
to use in-text citations and how to put together the Works Cited.
Finally, the chapter includes overview of English and American litertature, providing a
general introduction to the major literary movements and trends of these two English speaking
countries.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
43
TAKE A BREAK
Now it is time to take a break, you have finished the last chapter, which covers our last
in-class meeting.
ANSWERS: CHAPTER 1
1. Simile is explicit (uses “as”, “like”), whereas metaphor compares two different objects,
often in hidden quality.
2. Situational Irony means that what appears likely to happen is not what actually happens,
whereas structural irony relates to naïve narrator who cannot see the situation
or world as it is.
3. First-person narrative situation, authorial narrative situation, figural narrative situ-
ation.
4. Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement
ANSWERS: CHAPTER 2
5. Tragedy (revenge tragedy,tragicomedy), comedy (romantic comedy, satiric comedy,
farce, melodrama)
6. You can find the answer on page 20.
Writing about literature
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7. Lyric and epic poetry. Lyric poetry: sonnet, dramatic monologue; epic poetry: Epic,
ballad.
8. Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.
9. Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
ANSWERS: CHAPTER 3
1. using metaphorical language, contractions and clichés
2. Latin, French and English; Arthurian legends, romances, folk tales.
3. Emhasis on nature, subjectivity, individuality, feelings, colloquial language
4. The Theatre of the Absurd has no clear plot or action, characters are types, dialogues
often do not make sense. Language does not work as a means of communication
5. sermons, journals, diaries, chrnicles, poetry
6. realists try to represent life as it is, the characters speak in a colloquial language.
7. poetry close to a sculpture or a painting, form and style as important as content, use
of images and symbols.
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45
SOURCES
Bennett, A. and Royle, N. (2016). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory.
5th ed. Oxon: Routledge.
Sparling, D., Gilbertová, E. and Hardy, S. (1997). Introduction to Literature. Brno: Masarykova
univerzita.
Wellek, R., Calda, M. and Warren, A. (1996). Teorie literatury. Olomouc: Votobia.
Stanzel, F. (1986). A Theory of Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
46
SHRNUTÍ STUDIJNÍ OPORY
Tato studijní opora slouží jako stručné představení nástrojů a terminologie potřebné
k hlubšímu chápání textů. V kurzu se studenti seznámí se základními pojmy literární vědy.
Výchozím bodem jsou obecná zamyšlení nad literaturou, příbuznostmi a naopak odlišnostmi
literatury od jiných disciplín, nad její povahou a funkcí a rolí jazyka v literatuře.
Hlavní pozornost je věnována procesu literární komunikace a různým pojetím autora,
čtenáře, literárního díla a jeho významu. Jsou diskutovány pojmy syžetu a fabule, typologie
postav, hlavní žánry a vyprávěcí techniky, tropy a základy poetiky (rytmus, rým, verš, aliterace
a jiné).
V semináři jsou pak všechna tato témata a pojmy aplikovány na konkrétních textech.
Tento studijní materiál poskytuje studentům dobré literárně teoretické zázemí a současně
praktickou výbavu pro textovou analýzu, kterou budou užívat v návazných literárních se-
minářích.
Michaela Weiss - Úvod do literatury
47
PŘEHLED DOSTUPNÝCH IKON
Čas potřebný ke studiu Cíle kapitoly
Klíčová slova Nezapomeňte na odpočinek
Průvodce studiem Průvodce textem
Rychlý náhled Shrnutí
Tutoriály Definice
K zapamatování Případová studie
Řešená úloha Věta
Kontrolní otázka Korespondenční úkol
Odpovědi Otázky
Samostatný úkol Další zdroje
Pro zájemce Úkol k zamyšlení
Pozn. Tuto část dokumentu nedoporučujeme upravovat, aby byla zachována správná
funkčnost vložených maker. Tento poslední oddíl může být zamknut v MS Word 2010
prostřednictvím menu Revize/Omezit úpravy.
Takto je rovněž omezena možnost měnit například styly v dokumentu. Pro jejich úpravu
nebo přidávání či odebírání je opět nutné omezení úprav zrušit. Zámek není chráněn hes-
lem.
Název: Úvod do literatury
Autor: Jména autorů každé na nový řádek včetně titulů
Vydavatel: Slezská univerzita v Opavě
Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě
Určeno: studentům SU FPF Opava
Počet stran: 48
Tato publikace neprošla jazykovou úpravou.