Jakobson

Roman Jakobson's essay distinguishing "Metaphor and Metonymy" accessible here -- shall try to summarise or highlight the points relevant to NaM syllabus, when I get the time.

To help populate the worlds of Lucy Snowe and Anne Elliot, without being anachronistic. Or worse, square.

Chemise

 

Plus Corset.

Plus Under Petticoat. Upto 6 of these could be worn, depending on the time of year.

Hoop Petticoat.

Over Petticoat. Yes, these are still undergarments.

Dress! With Bonnet and Gloves.

 (All Images from Victoriana.com)

This Week

• We're likely to begin with Bronte's Villette in Novel and Modernity. E-text here.
• In Modernism, AG is going to start with Hopkins.
• We're still on Aristophanes' Frogs in Comedy.
• And in Macbeth, we're still doing Macbeth. 

This isn't strictly on syllabus; but a post on why we I study English literature. I'm curious about what you guys think.

D

Recap: Weeks 1 & 2

Comedy: Dicussions of Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Attic Comedy and its origins. The Dionysia festivals. Structural elements of Comedy. Aristophanes' contribution to Greek Comedy. Frogs - begun.

Detailed Study of a Shakespearean Play: Stage history of Macbeth.

Novel and Modernity: The prevailing social, intellectual and moral climate that allowed the birth of the Novel. The novel as an embodiment of "transcendental homelessness" (George Lukacs). Robinson Crusoe as an absolutist fantasy. Internalisation in the novel (with ref. to and distinguishing between Richardson and Sterne, in addition to Defoe). Persuasion: Publication history. Austen's Romantic nostalgia for a near-extinct social mode of existence in Persuasion.

Modernism: General distinctive features of Modernism. Modernism's fallout - Post-Modernism and its complicated lineage. Modernist Drama: Death of a Salesman. DoaS as a formally innovative work, a social commentary, a Marxist text (?).

PS: I'm going to try and post on these individual issues. Might not be possible to post on each - so let me know which ones you need the most.

Monday: Heads Up!

NaM: Remember, SC will start Persuasion. Read the book online (searchable e-text). Or at least watch the movie (link in Sidebar). Look up publication history and thematic concerns here.

• Think about how the theme of "persuasion" runs throughout the story; remembering of course, that Austen did not name it herself. 
• Also think about Anne's character - how does the modern film adaptation represent her?
• What do the Musgroves represent? How are the two girls a foil to the Elliott daughters? What is Anne's (and presumably Austen's?) opinion of them?

Modernism: NG will probably continue with the various difficulties in classifying Modernism. A recap of the last class - issues that were brought up

• In our contemporary search for "modernisms" (Frank Kermode's term), are we risking re-enacting the presumptions of older critics? Modernism was largely defined in Euro-centric, elitist terms. If we look to literatures from marginalised communities to add to the Modernist canon - how do we choose? By applying the same definitions? Isn't this still regressive and narrow? 
• Has the Modernist movement ended? The term "Post-Modern" is often used to describe art from the 1970s onwards - this is one way of reconciliation - to acknowledge the difference in later art but by retaining Modernism as a frame of reference. One could also differentiate between the two by referring to "High Modernism" (Joyce, Eliot) - but will this mean imposing hierarchy yet again?
• Think about the use of Myth in Modernist works (Ulysses, The Wasteland) - could it be a device of accessibility? To even out the obscurity caused by use of techniques like the "stream-of-consciousness"? A key to the dense allusive nature of the work? Also, How influential is The Golden Bough to the Modernist movement?
• Recommended reading: John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses.

Comedy: SS discussed classical comedy. Class ended with a discussion on the Dionysia. Some info on the City Dionysia here. Will upload notes on the emerging features of Comedy and on Aristophanes' contribution soon.

If you still end up on the last bench, groggy and wondering who the heck these Moss Grove Epi Cure Dedalus people are - I can only tsk tsk!at you. =D

From Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel - 2

Pages 9-11 discuss what constitutes "realism" in the 18th century novel. We ended with stating that the question of the novel and the reality it imitates is an epistemological debate.

1. Somewhat paradoxically, in Philosophy "realism" traditionally refers to the notions of reality advanced by medieval scholars. -> one that was thought to exist in universals, abstractions (novelists, you remember, emphasized the particularity and diversity in human experience).
2. In novels general truths only ever appear post res - this indicates the beginnings of the "Modern" conception of reality.
3. "Modern realism [...] begins from the position that truth can be discovered by individuals through his senses." (Watt, Rise, 12)
4. This is of course ushered in by the likes of Descartes, Locke and later, Thomas Reid (mid 18th. century)
5. Philosophical realism is characterised as:

• critical
• anti-traditional
• innovating
• preoccupied with semantics
• and, particulars of human experience
• free from traditional assumptions
• => all these have analogies in the novel form. 

This was P12. They won't let me continue numbering (gah blogger) - so rest in later posts.

NaM Syllabus Handout

From Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel

This book by Ian Watt was recommended by Supriyadi for the Novel and Modernity course. There are multiple copies available at the DL, although they have probably all been issued by now. E-book (in .doc format) available here.

This is a brief summation of what Watt contends in the first chapter. I would still ask you to read through the text - it's brilliant and not dense at all.

Realism and the Novel Form:

1. A few of the questions that this chapter presumes to answer: Is the novel really a "new" form? And are Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (DRF) responsible for its inception? How different was this form from previous Medieval prose or 17th century French prose?
2. DRF do not constitute a proper "literary school" - there is very little mutual influence observable. Can their contribution to the rise of the novel be explained by "sheer genius" and "accident"? What social conditions were conducive to it?
3. "Novel" - the term became an established literary epithet only by the end of the 18th century. - Realism becomes a distinctive feature. 
4. "Realism" - from réalisme that was used in 1835 to denote the vérite humaine (true to life, presumably) of Rembrandt's paintings. As opposed to the idéalite poetique or poetic idealism of most Neo-Classical art.
5. Becomes a specifically literary term in 1856 when used in Duranty's journal Réalisme.
6. The term gets connotations of the "low life" because of the alleged immorality of Flaubert and his ilk. 
7. Older texts (prose works) were linked to newer "realistic" works on the basis of their portrayal of the low life. egs. The story about the Ephesian matron is said to prefigure the genre because in it libido triumphs over wifely sorrow. The fabliau and the picaresque is similarly connected for presenting economic or carnal motives as overriding forces.
8. => Thus, one of the reasons Moll Flanders, Pamela and Tom Jones are "realistic" works is because Moll is a thief, Pamela a hypocrite and Tom Jones a fornicator (first Gigolo novel?)
9. BUT. This interpretation devalues the novelist's purported attempt of representing all varieties of human experience. They are not just an "inverted romance" (Watt, Rise)
10. The French Realists (Furetiére, Scarron, Lesage) claimed to present a dispassionate scrutiny of real life - this brings us to an important question - that of the correspondence between The Novel and the Reality it seeks to imitate.
11. This is a more epistemological (i.e. dealing with how knowledge is acquired, processed - a branch of philosophy) question.

(This was the summary of Pages 9-11 of the book. Rest will follow soon. The purple highlighting apparently makes it easier to remember later.)