Class Notes : Week 2: September 20th - September 24th

Figurative Language

http://toonlet.com/render/awsomeguy21/panelset/20903-Figurative_Lang-sfull.png 

• Figure of speech is a way of saying something other than the ordinary way. It is saying one thing while meaning another
• Figurative language is language that shouldn’t be taken literally
• There are 4 forms of metaphors
• Both the literal and figurative terms are named; like a simile; ex: “life the hound”
• The literal term is named and the figurative term is implied
• The literal term is implied and the figurative term is named
• Both the literal and figurative terms are implied
• Personification is giving attributes of human beings to animals, objects, or concepts. It is a metaphor where the figurative term is always a person.
• Apostrophe is addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if they were present and alive and could reply.
• Synecdoche is the use of the part for the whole. For example, when Shakespeare says the “cuckoo’s song is unpleasant to a married ear”, he means a married man’s ear
• Metonymy is the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant. For example, the popular use of tongues in the place of languages
• Figurative language gives us imaginative pleasure, adds more imagery, and adds emotional intensity and concentration (say things in fewer words).
• When reading a poem, one should ask: What use is being made of this language? How does it contribute to the experience of the poem?
• A symbol is something that means more than what it is. For example, in “The Road Not Taken”, the road is a symbol for choice
• A literary symbol functions literally and figuratively at the same time
• An allegory is a narrative of description that has a 2^ndmeaning beneath the surface.
• Paradox is an apparent contradicting that is nevertheless somehow true.
• In a paradoxical statement the contradiction usually stems from one of the words being used figuratively or with more than one denotation.
• Paradoxes shock the reader and by its absurdity underscores the truth of what’s being said.
• In Computational Physics, we learned about the "Twin Paradox", which is the idea that if there are two twins, and one stays on Earth while another blasts off into space at relativistic speeds, the Earth twin would think that the rocket twin's moving, while he's not moving, so the rocket twin would be aging slower, but the rocket twin would think that he's not moving, the Earth twin's moving, so the Earth twin's aging slower. So what if the rocket twin went back to Earth? Who would be older then?
• Overstatement = hyperbole = exaggeration in the service of truth
• Understatement is saying less than one means.
• Verbal irony is saying the opposite of what one means and sometimes even what one means and the opposite of what one means at the same time.
• Sarcasm is colloquial while satire is literary, although they both imply ridicule.
• Sarcasm is almost always cruel, and satire is usually both cruel and kind at the same time.
• Sarcasm and satire may contain irony, which is neither cruel nor kind, it is just a literary device.
• Irony may show a discrepancy between appearance and reality or between expectation and fulfillment.
• Dramatic irony is a discrepancy between what the speaker says and what the poem means.
• Irony of situation is a discrepancy between actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or between what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass.
• All of the above literary devices can be used in poetry to make it what it is. Last week, we learned that poetry quickens our senses and deepens our experience, and the above rhetorical devices are part of what makes poetry this way.
• A really good website explaining figurative language with ample examples: http://www.frostfriends.org/figurative.html  

“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy

     This poem is about a girl who was born to be bred under society’s rules. She was presented with dolls, stoves, irons, and lipsticks as a child, all representatives of what she was expected to use when she grew up. The problem was, “she was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy 7-9), all the traits that a man is supposed to possess, not a woman. As a result, “she was advised to play coy” (12), to wheedle her way through life because that is what’s expected of women to do in order to get a husband, which is of course, the ultimate goal of a woman: to snag a husband. Eventually though, “her good nature wore out like a fan belt” (15-16), and she snapped. She offered up herself, her personality, all the things that made her who she was, and married. In this way, she became a lifeless doll.
    The things we learned about diction last week can also be used to analyze this poem because at the last stanza of the poem, the author chooses vagueness over specificity. There, Piercy does not say that the girl died, or she got married, but left the last stanza deliberately vague so that it can be interpreted in either way, or in both ways (meaning she got married and died figuratively speaking). In the last stanza, the evidence for the girl's death is when it mentions "casket" and "undertaker", and the evidence for the girl's marriage shows up in the description of her clothes (pink and white nightie), the cosmetics and satin that is mentioned, and the word "consummation". Consummation's dictionary definition is completion or fulfillment, but in its connotation, it is often used in the case of marriage or love.

 http://www.agendamag.com/Fall2006/images/barbie/barbie.gif 

“Sorting Laundry” by Elisavietta Ritchie

            “Sorting Laundry” is about a woman folding and washing clothes. The objects that she comes across continuously remind her of her husband. She also comes cross a shirt left by a former lover, and since it has been through the wash, this most likely means that it was the woman’s lover, because only a woman would wear her lover’s clothes: a guy would not go around wearing female clothes, while a female might go around wearing guy clothes.

Rhetoric

• Rhetoric is the art of communication
• The “Rhetorical situation” is the context for an act of communication
• It’s the situation in which communication takes place. This analysis will lead to a plan that will lead to more effective communication. Anyone who needs to communicate anything will always try to analyze the rhetorical situation before beginning to compose the message.
• A deeper explanation of the rhetorical situation: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/01/
• The “plan”
• Subject: What’s the topic?
• Are you sure it’s what you wanted to communicate?
• What’s the main idea?
• Is the idea too broad or too narrow?
• How can the idea be developed?
• Purpose: What do you want to get out of this?
• Why are you engaged in this communication?
• Are you here to entertain? Reflect on the world? Inform? Persuade?
• Audience: Who, exactly, do you imagine will received this communication?
• Think about the age group and their vocabulary and reading level
• Think about the audience’s cultural base/knowledge
• Think about the audience’s educational background
• What’re the audience’s expectations?
• Speaker (Persona): What kind of a person do you want to seem like as you send this message?
• Do you want to speak as yourself, or as a fictional character?
• What characteristics or attributes do you want to convey?

Argument

• Argument is one way to accomplish the goal of persuasion
• Persuasion is a purpose for communication, while argument is a technique to accomplish the purpose of communication
• There are three types of arguments:
• Ethos: argument of ethics: appeal to our immortality (the sense of right and wrong)
• Logos: logical arguments: constructed according to certain rules and appeal to our intellect (ability to reason)
• Pathos: arguments of emotion: appeal to our feelings (pity, jealous, etc.)
• The Vocabulary of argumentation
• Thesis is the one main point. It’s always an opinion that we’re seeking to prove as correct
• Claim is an assertion. It’s an idea that is not a simple fact. Claims should be used to support the thesis and they make good topic sentences.
• Warrant is an explanation of your reasoning and evidence. It shows how claims are supported and ties the evidence to the claims
• Evidence is a fact that shows that your claims are reasonable
• Necessary elements of an argument are points that can’t be ignored
• Sufficient evidence is the weight of the evidence. Is there enough evidence to make the case?
• Some common types of arguments
• Proposal argument
• Cause & effect argument
• Argument of evaluation
• Argument of fact
• Argument of definition
• When constructing an argument, use the rhetorical situation to guide you
• When writing an argument, put it all on the page

Homework

• Due 9/22/10: finish responding to the "Pink Dog" forum by 8pm
• Due 9/24/10: write the rough draft of an essay that, in 750-1000 words, analyzes the meaning of one of the poems that we have read