Core Concept #4: 1/24/11-2/4/11

Changes in Literature

• Dante (13th century) is a part of the Italian Renaissance but it was the Middle Ages in the rest of Europe
• Until the 1700s/1800s, creativity was an insult so authors recycled stories
• Authors were seen as a conservative force: they were meant to continue the social order/culture
• Allegories don't have to make a lot of sense because they're already externally validaded by society
• During the Middle Ages: Roman Catholicism was prominent, thus allegory was also prominent in the Middle Ages
• Connection: Animal Farm is an allegory
• If you think about it, Animal Farm makes absolutely no sense without its external context
• In the play, Everyman learns valuable lessons about faith
• Everyman represents the average person
• Connection: in AP U.S. Government, we were discussing how the president sort of needs to be an "everyman" figure
• If Everyman refers an era, it's capitalized, if it refers to qualities, it's not capitalized
• i.e. In a sense, Golding's boys are more "everyman" figures than they are real boys-they lack the development one expects of fully realized characters
• Romantic v. romantic qualities, Existential v. existential qualities
• i.e. The Wizard of Oz, a Postmodern allegory, has romantic features, laid over grittily realistic themes
• At the beginning, in literature, things happen because of natural law, the audience is passive, the literature is serious, and there are many rules
• The literature focused on Gods and societal values
• The medium of communication was poetry, plays, essays, and myths
• The narrative voice was elevated, 3rd person omniscient
• The characters focus on Gods, nobility, everyman, and the upper class
• At the end, in literature, individuals caused plot, more people have a voice in literature, literature became less serious, and there were fewer rules
• The literature focused on the individual vs. nature/self/technology/society, there was general dispair & rage over inherited society, there was a lost of trust in society, and literature began to focus on unnecessary pain that is not fixed
• The medium of communication was poetry, plays, essays, myths, and graphic novels
• The narrative voice was limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator, multiple narrator, or stream of conscious
• The characters focused on everyone

The Novel

• Definition: a fictional prose narrative of considerable length and complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience
• It is conveyed by the author through a specific point of view and connected by a sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting
• The novel is any extended fictional narrative almost always in prose writte before the 18th century
• Connection: The novel arose as an result of changes in literature and has caused many more changes in literature as seen above

Everyman

• Everyman is an example of a type of Medieval drama: the morality play
• The play is about a complacent Everyman who loses everything upon finding out that he is going to die soon
• When he dies, the only thing remaining that he owns is his Good Deeds
• Point of the play: we can take with us from this world nothing that we have received, only what we have given

Medieval Literature

• The Divine Comedy by Dante is an allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife
• The speaker is lead through the three realms of the dead by Virgil, and leader Beatrice
• The poem is emblematic of the medieval worldview
• The Divine Comedy's Circles of Hell, Terraces of Purgatory, and Spheres of Heaven, have been called the most perfect and longest lasting map in the history of Western culture

Archetypal and Mythological Criticism

• Every story ever told is a part of one story, but it is always dressed up in new clothes, because even though it's always the same story, the old stories have already been told
• Romance: "the quest"
• The quester starts as an embodiment of society's values, he is separated from high social standing, he enters the "belly of the whale" (the low point), and he comes home and reestablishes himself at the pinnacle of society
• Tragedy
• Guy falls and can't get back up
• Misstep can end in disaster
• The story ends at the low point
• Connection: Compare Frye-tragedy with the tragedy of earlier notes
• Irony
• The story starts at the low point, things get better? (maybe), but no, everything's useless
• Comedy
• Start at low point, main character follows the rules, so he reaches the top
• Usually ends in windfall and marraige
• When using these terms, make sure that the reader knows that these terms are used in the Frye-sense, not the normal sense

What Makes Good Writing?

• Good content, good style & usuage (diction, syntax, plain style, concise-ness, and tone), and good spelling & structure
• Connection: diction, syntax, plain style, and tone have all been discussed in previous notes
• Don't say stuff like "really" and "very"
• Don't use evaluative language (i.e. Shakespeare is the best...)
• Remember your audience
• Don't use informal language (colloquialisms)
• Be specific
• Use quotes