UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA FACULTATEA DE LITERE NVMNT LA DISTAN

PROGRAMA ANALITIC Disciplina: Limba englez. Curs practic: Interpretari de Texte Specializarea: Romn- Englez Anul I, Semestrul I Coordonatorul disciplinei: Asistent Drd. Sorin Cazacu

I. OBIECTIVELE DISCIPLINEI: Cursul practic i propune: dezvoltarea deprinderilor de intelegere si interpretare a textelor literare (poezie, proza); imbunatatirea deprinderilor de exprimare scris n limba englez prin exerciii de compozitie: paragraful, eseul literar; nsuirea structurilor tipice interpretarii textelor literare in limba engleza. II. TEMATICA CURSULUI 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. How to comment upon a literary text; General observations Practical hints on the method of approach to the text. Analysis of the text proper Conclusion Useful Expressions Style The figurative use of language

III. EVALUAREA STUDENTILOR La finalul fiecrei unitti de nvtare, studentii vor avea la dispozitie un test de evaluare, compus din cateva intrebari, precum si un model de rezolvare. La sfrsitul modulului, exist atasat un test recapitulativ, care verific modul n care studentii au asimilat unittile de nvtare. Modalitti de evaluare: Evaluare continu: testare 25%, autoevaluare 25% Evaluare final: examen 50%

IV. BIBLIOGRAFIE RECOMANDAT: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

LIMBA ENGLEZA - CURS PRACTIC INTERPRETARE DE TEXTE

ANUL I

SEMESTRUL I

Asist. univ. drd. SORIN CAZACU

TEMA NR. 1 HOW TO COMMENT UPON A LITERARY TEXT

Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului de interpretari de texte, studentii vor invata o serie de metode de abordare a unor texte literare in vederea interpretarii lor Studentii vor cunoaste o serie de expresii folosite in construirea comentariilor literare Studentii vor fi capabili s isi exprime punctele de vedere critice asupra unor texte literare Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

General observations The first step in interpreting a text is to read the text as many times as it is necessary in order to make a clear mental picture of the passage: what it is aout how it is said what impact it has on the reader

what is its essential interest

Try to form an overall impression, then get down to the detail, make sure you have fully understood the literal meaning and followed he development of the writers thought, and that you have grasped the underlying idea. It may be helpful to ask yourself about the writers intention. Does he just mean to convey information, express his personal feeling, or elicit an emotional response from the reader, trying to convince him, challenge or win over his sympathy, stir up his indignation, disturb him or stimulate his imagination? As you will be examining the fundamental purpose of the passage, such indications as the title, the period when it was written, the sources, if given, may prove extremely useful and rewarding. Make a note of the various devices the writer has used to achieve his particular aim; the literary and stylistic devices that go to create and justify te overall impression: images metaphors comparisons degree of technicality register tone You must pay close attention to the kind of language used, and distinguish between formal and informal English, polite and familiar language, literary, elevated, oratorical or rhetorical language. You must also pay attention to the setting, and general atmosphere. It is advisable to make a list of key-words, synonyms, repetitions, oppositions, archaisms, neologisms, technical terms, foreign words and phrases etc. Once you have made clear what you think the writers general purpose is, and what impact he seeks to make on the reader, as well as what devices are used in order to achieve this impact, then you may safely let ourself be guided by the general plan suggested below, adapting to your particular needs, both the various elements to build up a commentary, and the different terms belonging to the vocabulary of appreciation. Always bear in mind that your approach depends on the nature of the text, its particular contents, its characteristic aspects, and its resources. From the first reading you must be on the look out, ready to seize the clues it offers, and to follow up the slightest hints it may provide. The value and interest of your commentary greatly depend on your own resources, on the echoes the text is liable to arouse in you. Your cultural background, your knowledge of literature will stand you in good stead. In the end, it is a matter of your own response, your own culture, in a word your own personality. 5

Test de evaluare: Comment upon the following quotations: About aesthetic distance: Whatever makes him (the reader or spectator) aware that he is dealing with an aesthetic object and not real life increases aesthetic distance Wayne C. Booth, Essays in Criticism p. 69 (Jan. 1961) The repetition of any phrase or construction will give it, if repeated often enough, a new semantic dimension. A similar process occurs if some parallelism establishes itself between the separate episodes in a narrative or drama. Gradually an unstated generality superimposes itself on the sequence of particulars. A narrative pattern emerges. F.W. Bateson and S. Shahevitch Essays in Criticism pp. 49-50 (Jan. 1962)

Henry James, who wanted to eliminate the irresponsible, illusion-breaking garrulousness of the omniscient author, looked upon the arbitrary and unconsidered shift in point of view as a menace to the intimacy and illusion of truth. James substituted the consciousness of one or more personages for the all-seeing, and all-knowing author, and it is this, or these states of consciousness which, respectively, filter the action. Ben F. Stoltzfus Allain Robbe-Grillet 1964

TEMA NR. 2 PRACTICAL HINTS ON THE METHOD OF APPROACH TO THE TEXT

Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului de interpretari de texte, studentii vor invata o serie de metode de abordare a unor texte literare in vederea interpretarii lor Studentii vor cunoaste o serie de expresii folosite in construirea comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

Introduction Where is the passage taken from? If the passage is taken from a well-known boor or writer, you may be well-advised to show you are aware of the fact. You may then introduce your passage with one of these formulas: This is a passage from (name of the book) This is a passage from Xs (latest and) most successful novel. . . This extract is taken from Xs well-known novel which was published in ... 7

This passage belongs to . . . It is a good example of Xs usual manner. It exemplifies his usual preoccupations.

You must be brief and avoid padding. It may be useful then to place the passage in its context, set it against its historical, social, political background, so as to bring out its real dimensions. Or, on the contrary, the passage can be studied as a self-contained unit. If you are given no indications, or if these indications mean nothing to you, just go ahead. What is the genre of the passage? You may have to make it clear from the start whether the passage is descriptive, polemical, dialectic, controversial, explanatory, anecdotal, poetic, imaginative, autobiographical, didactic, sociological in essence, or a piece of mere entertainment. What is the passage about? You are expected to say clearly what the text is about, giving a brief summary of the subject-matter, with a view to elucidating the point of the passage. You are to summarize the ideas of the text in one or two sentences, without commenting on them yet. The passage is about (concerns. . . , is concerned with . . .) The passage deals with . . . The passage seems to be telling us about . . . The passage describes an incident that occurs during . . . The passage is a detailed account of ... The passage points out that . . . The main idea of the passage is .. . . Sometimes the first sentence (or paragraph) tells us what the passage is going to be about. Ou may use a formula like: The subject of the passage as stated in the first sentence is. . .

If the passage deals with a topical question (raises a topical issue), one of the following introductory sentences will be appropriate: It is a well-known fact that the problem is both acute adn topical The question under discussion is a vexed (baffling, perplexing, confusing, debatable) one. It has aroused much controversy. X is a topic of current interest X is a question of topical interest X is one of the major problems of our civilization The question raised in this passage is of major interest and deserves consideration The questino, as each of us is aware, is all important . . . We are all deeply concerned with . . .this problem Though of minor interest, the question deserves consideration.

It may prove useful to start with a definition of what seems to you a key-word in the passage or the title, one on which the essential meaning of the passage hinges. For example: We must start with a clear definition of the word X . . . The very title calls for a definition. We must make it clear from the start what the writer means by . . .

Evaluation test: 1. Considering the text below, extract the key-words which contribute to the definition of power. 'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?' Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said. 'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new 9

shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy--everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always--do not forget this, Winston--always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever.' (George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty Four)

Supplementary tasks: 1. Comment upon the contradiction between the New World and the Old World, as they are presented in the fragment above. 2. Using the fragment from Nineteen Eighty Four, extract a list of key-words related to the mythology of power and try to identify the writers intention. 3. Comment upon the picture of the future from the end of the fragment. TEMA NR. 3

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ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT PROPER

Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului, studentii vor invata o serie de metode de abordare a unor texte literare in vederea interpretarii lor Studentii vor cunoaste o serie de expresii folosite in construirea comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

You may have to say a word about the main lines of the construction of the passage. Avoid such phrases as: the passage falls into x parts, or we may divide the passage into x parts, especially if this division serves little or no purpose. If several parts (stages, sections, elements) are perfectly obvious just say so, using sentences as: The passage may be built on a contrast: then you may say, for example: 11 There are X parts in the passage corresponding to the different stages of the authors argument. . . Several parts stand out in the passage. .. The passage starts with a description, it then concentrates on . . .; next it moves to . . before coming back to . . .

The whole passage is built on a contrast between . . .and; this opposition is obvious in the presentation... When we read the text closely we are struck by the dense structure ... The passage is a logical sequence of events . . . It is a narrative of events arranged in strict time-sequence This passage is a logically structured demonstration The whole passage is a rather loose arrangement of statements.

Expository passages often proceed by elucidation and amplification of an initial statement. Announcing the points for discussion: You must then state the main points of interest you are going to consider (two, three or four of them), under separate headings. They must be the result of logical reorganization of the elements you have discovered worthy of interest in the course of your reading of the text, and they will enable you to show clearly the essential interest of the passage. The transitions must appear very clearly. The points to consider depend on the genre of the passage. It is not possible to prescribe any order of priorities or of importance, for these will vary from one text to another. According to circumstances, you may be led to select two or three points for discussion from the following: Narrative technique; the point of view. Style. Setting: the building up of the atmosphere Dramatic intensity The art of suspense Characterization, psychological interest The main theme; the underlying themes; the handling of the themes Aspects of the comic Tragic elements Argumentative texts: the passage as a social document, social criticism.

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In certain cases, and especially if the passage deals with a topical problem, or is explanatory or dialectical, you will have to discuss the writers opinion as revealed in the text: it is new, thought-provoking, partial, paradoxical? Then you will state your opinion and take sides. As you go, you will make some remarks about the way the writers opinions are expressed. If it is an anecdotal passage, you will have to assess the importance of the anecdote. You may introduce different points in the following manner: As a starting-point we shall examine . . . then . . . We will first consider the way in which X treats . . . Having introduced the notion of . . . I shall discuss . . . We shall focus attention on . . . which is of primary importance in our passage and show how the ideas are developed Once you have chosen a few essential points you must keep to them and deal with them in coherent, logical order. In fact, you must consider your commentary as a logical demonstration, efficiently and convincingly organized. You must be as clear and precise as possible, keeping an eye on the text, and quoting the relevant passages or sentences, referring to specific words and phrases to justify what you say. Your arguments must always be to the point. You must carefully avoid statements which are not supported by the text.

Test de evaluare: 1. William Goldings novel Lord of the Flies from which the following passage is taken has been one of the most widely read books in the last decades. Comment upon the imaginative powers exercised by the story teller in this short extract to illustrate a moral and psychological truth: The pigs lay, bloated bags of fat, sensuously enjoying the shadows under the trees. There was no wind and they were unsuspicious; and practice had made Jack silent as the shadows. He stole 13

away again and instructed his hidden hunters. Presently they all began to inch forward sweating in the silence and heat. Under the trees an ear flapped idly. A little apart from the rest, sunk in deep maternal bliss, lay the largest sow of the lot. She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept or burrowed and squeaked. Fifteen yards from the drove Jack stopped, and his arm, straightening, pointed at the sow. He looked round in inquiry to make sure that everyone understood and the other boys nodded at him. The row of right arms slid back. "Now!" The drove of pigs started up; and at a range of only ten yards the wooden spears with firehardened points flew toward the chosen pig. One piglet, with a demented shriek, rushed into the sea trailing Roger's spear behind it. The sow gave a gasping squeal and staggered up, with two spears sticking in her fat flank. The boys shouted and rushed forward, the piglets scattered and the sow burst the advancing line and went crashing away through the forest. "After her!" They raced along the pig-track, but the forest was too dark and tangled so that Jack, cursing, stopped them and cast among the trees. Then he said nothing for a time but breathed fiercely so that they were awed by him and looked at each other in uneasy admiration. Presently he stabbed down at the ground with his finger. "There--" Before the others could examine the drop of blood, Jack had swerved off, judging a trace, touching a bough that gave. So he followed, mysteriously right and assured, and the hunters trod behind him. He stopped before a covert. "In there."

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They surrounded the covert but the sow got away with the sting of another spear in her flank. The trailing butts hindered her and the sharp, cross-cut points were a torment. She blundered into a tree, forcing a spear still deeper; and after that any of the hunters could follow her easily by the drops of vivid blood. The afternoon wore on, hazy and dreadful with damp heat; the sow staggered her way ahead of them, bleeding and mad, and the hunters followed, wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood. They could see her now, nearly got up with her, but she spurted with her last strength and held ahead of them again. They were just behind her when she staggered into an open space where bright flowers grew and butterflies danced round each other and the air was hot and still. Here, struck down by the heat, the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her. This dreadful eruption from an unknown world made her frantic; she squealed and bucked and the air was full of sweat and noise and blood and terror. Roger ran round the heap, prodding with his spear whenever pigflesh appeared. Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a highpitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her. The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the center of the clearing. Lord of the Flies ch. 8, Gift for the Darkness (by William Golding) Sample essay: Lord of the Flies - The Killing of the Sow This is a descriptive and narrative passage. The words the characters speak are reduced to a minimum of four exclamations by the leader of the boys, Jack. We are never acquainted with the thoughts or the feelings of the boys. This is logical enough, since the boys are involved in action and have therefore no time for thinking or speaking. The story is told by an anonymous author-narrator, who does not comment on the action of the boys directly. However, he succeeds in arousing a very specific feeling in the reader: an overwhelming, almost unbearable impression of cruelty. How does he manage to do it? Why does he want to excite this feeling in the reader? 15

The striking characteristic of this passage is that it is built on an opposition. On the one hand, we are given a picture of innocent pleasure, peacefulness, love and beauty. It is the paradisiacal world of the island in which living creatures (pigs, butterflies) live happily amidst an exotic nature (bright flowers, damp heat). On the other hand, we are confronted with strenuous activity (sweating, Jack breathed fiercely), with bloodlust and cunning: the world of the hunters. We might suppose that these boys hunt pigs because they are driven by one of the simplest and most compelling of human needs: hunger. They do want meat. They have instinctively reinvented the hunting techniques of savages. But it is clear that they go beyond the basic necessity of finding food. These British boys are not simply presented as savages, but as sadists. They kill more for pleasure than for food. They enjoy inflicting pain. They reach a state of wild excitement, of frenzy when they put the sow to death. We are all the more sorry for the sow, as she is a defenceless, innocent animal in the process of feeding her piglets. An examination of the vocabulary used to describe the pursuit and the killing of the sow may reveal certain intentions on the part of the author. The cumulative effect of such expressions as wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase, (Roger) prodding with his spear, Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife, Roger found a lodgement for his point and began to push, the spear moved forward inch by inch, the sow collapsed under them, and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her points very clearly to the identification of the killing to a sexual act, a sort of rape. The hunting and killing of the sow have awakened in these young boys deep, unconscious instincts. In this light, the sow might stand for a mother figure and the killing as a re-enactment of Oedipus wedding night. Whatever the interpretation may be, it is clear that a passage like this springs from a pessimistic (or shall we say realistic) view of human nature. These boys become typical of man at large, as they are not living with adults, the former repressions, the taboos of civilization have been done away with, and they can give vent to their subconscious desires without restraint. Their awe-inspiring leader is the catalyst of their most basic drives, and reveals the desire of the herd to be let by a powerful individual, (cf. awed by him, admiration, right and assured). Jack, at the end of the passage, appears as a sort of sacrificer, the high priest of a cruel rite (Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands). We feel that the implicit intention of the author is to hold a mirror up to nature and to make his readers feel what boys (i.e. man) might become if the fable (people on a desert island) were to become true. Other writers in other centuries (cf. Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, or Coral Island) have used he same device to reach different conclusions, because 16

their world-view and the presuppositions of their age were different. Goldings cruel children are the products of our disillusioned modern world. This piece of prose therefore is not an extract from a common adventure story. It is allegorical. It is carefully written. As suggested before, in this passage there are two contrasted impressions corresponding to the two different worlds. This contrast is reflected in the stylistic device of repetitive expressions, or parallelisms. 1st example: In the first two sentences the word shadows is repeated twice. In connection with the pigs, shadow has positive connotations since it is associated with innocent sensuous pleasure. In connection with the boys (silent as the shadows) the word connotes something completely different. It becomes disturbing. 2nd example: At the end of the last paragraph but one, we read that the air was hot and still. This, we feel, is the usual atmosphere on the island. But in the last paragraph the dreadful eruption of the boys world has transformed this garden of Eden. The accumulation of syntagms (andand) stresses the turmoil that has just been created: the air was full of sweat, and noise and blood and terror. 3rd example: Nature, and the animal realm have been assaulted by the hunters. The following verb is significant Jack stabbed down at the ground. It announces the sentence: Jack was stabbing downward with his knife. Nature submits to the boys as the sow does: (Jack) touching a bough that gave is paralleled by the sow collapsed. This descriptive passage does not only rely on precise realistic touches to give the impression of an actual scene (e.g. she was black and ping, fifteen yards from the drove), or on a wide range of verbs expressing movement, but also on the sounds, on alliterations. Let us read for instance the following sentence aloud and appreciate the value of the consonants g, s and f. The sow gave a gasping squeal and staggered up, with two spears sticking in her fat flank. Lord of the Flies from which this passage is taken has been one of the most widely read books in the last decades. This short extract gives an idea of the imaginative powers exercised by a story teller to illustrate a moral and psychological truth.

Supplementary tasks: 1. Give examples of other contrasted expressions corresponding to the two different worlds as presented in this fragment. 17

2. Comment upon the symbolic meaning of the butterflies.

TEMA NR. 4 CONCLUSION

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Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului, studentii vor invata o serie de metode de abordare a unor texte literare in vederea interpretarii lor Studentii vor cunoaste o serie de expresii folosite in construirea comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

You should say what the value of the text is, what light it throws on the problems discussed and then give your personal opinion. For example: All things considered we can only come to the conclusion that. . . To sum up, we may say that the writer . . . In conclusion, let us say that ... Everything points to the fact that the narrative is . . . All we have said tends to show that . . . The passage seems to suggest certain kinds of solutions The writer shows himself aware of current issues. . . He raises the problem of . . . He gives his mind to it . . The passage throws light on . . . The passage awakens interest . . . The writer draws on his own experience. He sticks to reality.

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The passage conveys an impression of sincerity and honesty, and will make most readers reconsider their position... The writer makes the point forcefully and clearly...

Evaluation test 1. Analyse the fragment below and identify the main theme and the underlying themes.

The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do except for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea. He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

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He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept well within his speed and the surface of the ocean was flat except for the occasional swirls of the current. He was letting the current do a third of the work and as it started to be light he saw he was already further out than he had hoped to be at this hour. I worked the deep wells for a week and did nothing, he thought. Today Ill work out where the schools of bonito and albacore are and maybe there will be a big one with them. Before it was really light he had his baits out and was drifting with the current. One bait was down forty fathoms. The second was at seventy-five and the third and fourth were down in the blue water at one hundred and one hundred and twenty-five fathoms. Each bait hung head down with the shank of the hook inside the bait fish, tied and sewed solid and all the projecting part of the hook, the curve and the point, was covered with fresh sardines. Each sardine was hooked through both eyes so that they made a half-garland on the projecting steel. There was no part of the hook that a great fish could feel which was not sweet smelling and good tasting. The boy had given him two fresh small tunas, or albacores, which hung on the two deepest lines like plummets and, on the others, he had a big blue runner and a yellow jack that had been used before; but they were in good condition still and had the excellent sardines to give them scent and attractiveness. Each line, as thick around as a big pencil, was looped onto a green-sapped stick so that any pull or touch on the bait would make the stick dip and each line had two forty-fathom coils which could be made fast to the other spare coils so that, if it were necessary, a fish could take out over three hundred fathoms of line. Now the man watched the dip of the three sticks over the side of the skiff and rowed gently to keep the lines straight up and down and at their proper depths. It was quite light and any moment now the sun would rise. The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see the other boats, low on the water and well in toward the shore, spread out across the current. Then the sun was brighter and the glare came on the water and then, as it rose clear, the flat sea sent it back at his eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rowed without looking into it. He looked down into the water and watched the lines that went straight down into the dark of the water. He kept them straighter than anyone did, so that at each level in the darkness of the stream there would be a bait waiting exactly where he wished it to be for any fish that swam there. Others let them drift with the

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current and sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred. But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready. The sun was two hours higher now and it did not hurt his eyes so much to look into the east. There were only three boats in sight now and they showed very low and far inshore. All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, be thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful. Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him. He made a quick drop, slanting down on his back-swept wings, and then circled again. Hes got something, the old man said aloud. Hes not just looking. He rowed slowly and steadily toward where the bird was circling. He did not hurry and he kept his lines straight up and down. But he crowded the current a little so that he was still fishing correctly though faster than he would have fished if he was not trying to use the bird.

Supplementary tasks: 1. Enlarge upon the metaphor of the sea in the fragment above. 2. Comment upon Santiagos philosophy of life as presented in the text above.

TEMA NR. 5 USEFUL EXPRESSIONS

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Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului, studentii vor invata o serie de metode de abordare a unor texte literare in vederea interpretarii lor Studentii vor cunoaste o serie de expressi folosite in construirea comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

Additional vocabulary: The presence of the author is very obtrusive. The voice of the writer is persuasive. The purpose of the writer is very plainly didactic. The author oversimplifies the moral texture of life by his generalisations. Analytic passages predominate. The strength of the novel, we feel, is in the freshness and vividness of its descriptive passage, its weakness in the unsatisfactory moral lesson. The perspective shifts back to the mind of X. The text is based on the flow of associations in the consciousness of the protagonist. The narrative pattern is lucid and economical The book has a tremendous narrative impact, even though the episodes occasionally border on the melodramatic. The novel seems to be rich in symbols that render concrete many abstract problems. 23

We note a recurrent darkness motiff, the sun motif reemerges here The rhythm begins to gather speed. The rapid succession of verbs matches the dramatic swiftness of the action.

Evaluation test: Examine the following sample of Eric Segals art and bring out some of the features which appealed so much to the public.

Chapter 1 What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me. Once, when she specifically lumped me with those musical types, I asked her what the order was, and she replied, smiling, "Alphabetical." At the time I smiled too. But now I sit and wonder whether she was listing me by my first name-in which case I would trail Mozart-or by my last name, in which case I would edge n there between Bach and the Beatles. Either way I don't come first, which for some stupid reason bothers hell out of me, having grown up with the notion that I always had to be number one. Family heritage, don't you know? In the fall of my senior year, I got into the habit of studying at the Radcliffe library. Not just to eye the cheese, although I admit that I liked to look. The place was quiet, nobody knew me, and the reserve books were less in demand. The day before one of my history hour exams, I still hadn't gotten around to reading the first book on the list, an endemic Harvard disease. I ambled over to the reserve desk to get one of the tomes that would bail me out on the morrow. There were two girls working there. One a tall tennis-anyone type, the other a bespectacled mouse type. I opted for Minnie Four-Eyes. "Do you have The Waning of the Middle Ages?" She shot a glance up at me. "Do you have your own library?" she asked. 24

"Listen, Harvard is allowed to use the Radcliffe library." "I'm not talking legality, Preppie, I'm talking ethics. You guys have five million books. We have a few lousy thousand." Christ, a superior-being type! The kind who think since the ratio of Radcliffe to Harvard is five to one, the girls must be five times as smart. I normally cut these types to ribbons, but just then I badly needed that goddamn book. "Listen, I need that goddamn book." "Wouldja please watch your profanity, Preppie?" "What makes you so sure I went to prep school?" "You look stupid and rich," she said, removing her glasses. "You're wrong," I protested. "I'm actually smart and poor. "Oh, no, Preppie. I'm smart and poor." She was staring straight at me. Her eyes were brown. Okay, maybe I look rich, but I wouldn't let some 'Cliffie-even one with pretty eyes- call me dumb. "What the hell makes you so smart?" I asked. "I wouldn't go for coffee with you," she answered. "Listen-I wouldn't ask you." "That," she replied, "is what makes you stupid." Let me explain why I took her for coffee. By shrewdly capitulating at the crucial moment-i.e., by pretending that I suddenly wanted to-I got my book. And since she couldn't leave until the library closed, I had plenty of time to absorb some pithy phrases about the shift of royal dependence from cleric to lawyer in the late eleventh century. I got an A minus on the exam, coincidentally the same grade I assigned to Jenny's legs when she first walked from behind that desk. I can't say I gave her costume an honor grade, however; it was a bit too Boho for my taste. I especially loathed that Indian thing she carried for a handbag. Fortunately I didn't mention this, as I later discovered it was of her own design. We went to the Midget Restaurant, a nearby sandwich joint which, despite its name, is not restricted to people of small stature. I ordered two coffees and a brownie with ice cream (for her). 25

"I'm Jennifer Cavilleri," she said, "an American of Italian descent." As if I wouldn't have known. "And a music major," she added. "My name is Oliver," I said. "First or last?" she asked. "First," I answered, and then confessed that my entire name was Oliver Barrett. (I mean, that's most of "Oh," she said. "Barrett, like the poet?" "Yes," I said. "No relation." In the pause that ensued, I gave thanks that she hadn't come up with the usual distressing question: "Barrett, like the hall?" For it is my special albatross to be related to the guy that built Barrett Hall, the largest and ugliest structure in Harvard Yard, a colossal monument to my family's money, vanity and flagrant Harvardism. (Erich Segal - Love Story, 1970, Coronet Books) Supplementary tasks: 1. Identify the narrative technique in the fragment from Eric Segals Love Story. 2. How is the mood of the new generation reflected in this passage? 3. Which are, in your view, the most important ingredients which contributed to the success of this book?

TEMA NR. 6 STYLE

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Obiectivele temei: Pn la sfrsitul cursului, studentii vor invata cum sa identifice o serie de figuri de stil pe care le vor include in comentarii literare Studentii isi vor imbunatati vocabularul specializat comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

Where to place the commentary on style? There is no hard and fast rule to the point where you should place your commentary on style, because texts vary greatly in their literary value. If you think that the text under examination is far more interesting for its contents (or thing signified) than for the means of expression (signifier) it resorts to, you may concentrate on the analysis of the signified exclusively. If, on the other hand, you are struck by the beauty of the passage, the appreciation of the style should be the heart of your commentary. According to a certain academic tradition, the study of style constitutes the last part of the expose. There is no strong justification for this method if it is used mechanically. It is perfectly reasonable to draw attention to some stylistic effects while you are discussing points like character, action, atmosphere etc. But if you think that a special sectino should be devoted to a stylistic study, try to justify it, and avoid crude or simplistic transitions like: Now, what about the style?

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Mistakes to be avoided 1. Do not discuss style of a passage in vacuum, but try to relate your commentary to other aspects of the text. For instance, the use of a word, an expression, a grammatical or syntactical pattern, may reveal the social origin of a character, and tell us something of his characterization through style. 2. Language is a code. The style of a writer is the way he uses this language to literary ends. So do not confuse the code (a general usage) and the message (or the text), langue on one hand and parole on the other (the famous Saussurean dichotomy). Style has been defined as: An individual stylistic deviation from the general norm. What belongs to the code should not be attributed to the writer. The norm, which is not easy to define, varies according to the period in which the text was written, according to the country the writer belongs to, according to the literary genre of the piece, and many other factors.

3. When you examine a short extract, refrain from dangerous generalizations or conclusions. It is often easier to show the selection and combination process in a poem because it has a closed structure, but a passage in prose is only a short specimen which may or may not be typical of the whole book, or indeed, of the author. So your stylistic commentary will be, of necessity, limited because you are examining a fragment.

Suggestions on how to proceed: You may start from smaller units and pass on to large ones, bearing in mind that all the elements, from the simplest to the most complex ones, contribute to a total effect, that an element taken in isolation, out of context, has no intrinsic value. See if you can discover the unifying principle for all the elements. Given a particular situation, there are degrees of suitability, of appropriateness for each utterance. Your task will be to describe the elements and to evaluate the effectiveness, or expressiveness, or originality of the performance.

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Evaluation test: 1. Identify the stylistic devices used by W.H. Auden in his poem The Wanderer.

The Wanderer By W. H. Auden

Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. Upon what man it fall In spring, day-wishing flowers appearing, Avalanche sliding, white snow from rock-face, That he should leave his house, No cloud-soft hand can hold him, restraint by women; But ever that man goes Through place-keepers, through forest trees, A stranger to strangers over undried sea, Houses for fishes, suffocating water, Or lonely on fell as chat, By pot-holed becks A bird stone-haunting, an unquiet bird. There head falls forward, fatigued at evening, And dreams of home, Waving from window, spread of welcome, Kissing of wife under single sheet; But waking sees Bird-flocks nameless to him, through doorway voices Of new men making another love. Save him from hostile capture, From sudden tiger's leap at corner; Protect his house, 29

His anxious house where days are counted From thunderbolt protect, From gradual ruin spreading like a stain; Converting number from vague to certain, Bring joy, bring day of his returning, Lucky with day approaching, with leaning dawn. 1930

Supplementary tasks: 1. Interpret the title of the poem. 2. Can you draw the character of the Wanderer? 3. Does the poem have a clear structure?

TEMA NR. 7 THE FIGURATIVE USE OF LANGUAGE

Obiectivele temei:

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Pn la sfrsitul cursului, studentii vor invata cum sa identifice o serie de figuri de stil pe care le vor include in comentarii literare Studentii isi vor imbunatati vocabularul specializat comentariilor literare

Timpul alocat temei: 4 ore Bibliografie recomandat: Frye Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism, Atheneum, New York, 1965 Booth Wayne, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, 1961 Lodge David, Language of Fiction, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1969 Raban Jonathan, The Technique of Modern Fiction, Edward Arnold, 1972 Scholes Robert, Elements of Fiction, Oxford University Press, 1968 Wellek Rene and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. Cape, 1966 Allott Miriam, Novelists on the Novel, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1959 Bergonzi Bernard, The Situation of the Novel, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1970

Words have more than a literal meaning. They denote and connote. A word used in a particular context, in a network of relations, may, owing to its associations with other words or expressions, acquire a special aura, a poetic halo, new meanings not found in a dictionary. Its evocative power depends on the sensibility, on the culture, on the critical acumen of the reader. The old rhetoric has tried to describe ways to write and compose correctly, to persuade the mind and touch the heart. Among the most common tropes let use mention: The synecdoche which uses the part of the whole (e.g. sail for the boat) or the whole for the part (France won for the French football team). Euphemism Irony Metonymy which uses one element for another with which there is a relation of contiguity e.g. The Crown for the Sovereign. Metaphor which brings together elements apparently disconnected e.g. My heart sings with joy. The whips of time (Hamlet). Metaphors may be original or trite or even dead. They may have great poetic value, but may also be in burlesque style (cf. The chariot of the State navigates over a volcano)

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A simile is an explicit comparison introduced by a word such as like or a verb such as seem. In a metaphor, the originally separate elements coalesce, are fused together. Figures of construction: ellipsis, repetition, opposition, syllepsis etc Figures of thought: hyperbole, litotes (e.g. I am not unhappy for: I am happy), apostrophe, antithesis, exclamation, interrogation, prosopopoeia (personification), enumeration etc All these terms are often used by critics to characterize aspects of the style of an author. The most common ones should be known. Evaluation test: 1. Identify the figures of speech used in the following exerpts:

My words swirled around his head like summer flies. E. B. White Like a crack in a plank of wood which cannot be sealed, the difference between the worker and the intellectual was ineradicable in Socialism. Barbara Tuchman his mind was like a vast sea cave, filled with the murmur of dark waters at flow and the stirring of nature's greatest forces, lit here and there by streaks of glorious sunshine bursting in through crevices hewn at random in its rugged sides. George Macaulay Trevelyan Cold air is heavy; as polar air plows into a region occupied by tropical air.. . it gets underneath the warm air and lifts it up even as it pushes it back. A cold front acts physically like a COWCatcher. Wolfgang Langewiesche as complicated as a medieval mousetrap. Virginia Woolf 32

The taste of that crane soup clung to me all day like the memory of an old sorrow dulled by time. Neihardt Then the apse [of a medieval cathedral] is pure and beautiful Gothic of the fourteenth century, with very tall and fluted windows like single prayers. Hilaire Belloc John C.

The easy phrases covered the cruelties of war, like sand blowing in over the graves of their comrades. Thomas Pakenham Sometimes visitors from Europe drifted into the farm like wrecked timbers into still waters, turned and rotated, til l in the end they were washed out again, or dissolved and sank. Isak Dinesen Or again the summer sea may glitter with a thousand moving pinpricks of light, like an immense swarm of fireflies moving through a dark wood. Rachel Carson The observer could see thoughts slowly floating into it, like carp in a pond. Rupert Brooke What was needed was a strong [Socialist] party with no nonsense and a businesslike understanding of national needs which would take hold of the future like a governess, slap it into clean clothes, wash its face, blow its nose, make it sit up straight at table and eat a proper diet. Barbara Tuchman Their touch had no substance, like a dry wind on a July afternoon.

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Sharon Curtin

There was a glamour in the air, a something in the special flavour of that moment that was like the consciousness of Salvation, or the smell of ripe peaches on a sunny wall. Logan Pearsall Smith Cape Cod is the bared and bended arm of Massachusetts. Henry David Thoreau [Science] pronounces only on whatever, at the time, appears to have been scientifically ascertained, which is a small island in an ocean of nescience. Bertrand Russell We squat before television, the idol of our cherished progress. Evelyn Jones they were marked by the thumbprint of an unnatural vulgarity, which they never succeeded in surmounting. Lawrence Durrell He designated his old benefactor, O. K. Allen of Winnfield, as the apostolic choice for the next full term. Hodding Carter .. . a bulge of colorless slime on a giant spoon. William Gibson

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What distinguishes a black hole from a planet or an ordinary star is that anything falling into it cannot come out of it again. If light cannot escape, nothing else can and it is a perfect trap: a turnstile to oblivion. Nigel Calder Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue. Eugene O'Neill

TEST FINAL DE EVALUARE

1. Comment upon the way in which John Steinback develops on the theme of the American Dream in the fragment from Of Mice and Men. 35

Georges voice became deeper. He repeated his words rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They dont belong no place. They come to a ranch an work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know theyre poundin their tail on some other ranch. They aint got nothing to look ahead to." Lennie was delighted. "Thats it - thats it. Now tell how it is with us." George went on. "With us it aint like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We dont have to sit in no bar room blowin our jack jus because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us." Lennie broke in."But not us! An why? Because .... because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and thats why." He laughed delightedly. "Go on now, George!" "You got it by heart. You can do it yourself." "No, you. I forget some a the things. Tell about how its gonna be." "O.K. Someday - were gonna get the jack together and were gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an a cow and some pigs and -" "An live off the fatta the lan,"Lennie shouted. "An haverabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what were gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is an the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George." "Whynt you do it yourself? You know all of it." "No.... you tell it. It aint the same if I tell it. Go on.... George. How I get to tend the rabbits."

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"Well," said George, "well have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, well just say the hell with goin to work, and well build up a fire in the stove and set around it an listen to the rain comin down on the roof - Nuts!" He took out his pocket knife. "I aint got time for no more." He drove his knife through the top of one of the bean cans, sawed out the top and passed the can to Lennie. Then he opened a second can. From his side pocket he brought out two spoons and passed one of them to Lennie. They sat by the fire and filled their mouths with beans and chewed mightily. A few beans slipped out of the side of Lennies mouth. George gestured with his spoon. "What you gonna say tomorrow when the boss asks you questions?" Lennie stopped chewing and swallowed. His face was concentrated. "I.... I aint gonna.... say a word." "Good boy! Thats fine, Lennie! Maybe youre gettin better. When we get the coupla acres I can let you tend the rabbits all right. Specially if you remember as good as that." (John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, Chapter 1)

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