Saturday, January 31, 2015

Philippine Literature Introduction

Circumstances
milieu - period; environment
social environment

Schools of though
1. May be influenced (purely realistic)
2. may not be influenced by the milieu
3. may still be influenced

Intentions
1. Pre-conceived intentions (far more superior)
- notions before you did the actions
- pre-writing stage
*Plato - what exists in the imagination is perfect (ideal world); reality is just a poor
copy of the imagination
2. Actual intention
- work itself

I.

Misconceptions

1. minor course
2. purely subjective and deals only with feelings and emotions
3. meant only to be appreciated
4. entertainment only
5. about plot, setting, characters, conflict, climax, and teaching a moral

II. Definition of Literature

- highly creative discipline

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- interrogates and debunks ideas and concepts

III. Literary criticism

- evaluate or critique literary works

- use of certain standards
- consider the ff questions:
- under what circumstances was the work of art created
- what did the artist intend to create
- how successfully did he accomplish it
- by what standards should it be judged
Standards- criteria where you can say that a literary work is an art; must at least satisfy
two
1. Artistry - appeal to our sense of beauty
a. multi dimensional vs one dimensional characters
-1D characters - good from beginning to end
-multi dimensional - possess good and bad virtues
*Anna Karenina
b. Crisp dialogue vs inane dialogue
-inane dialogue - stupid convo
-impeccable language - faultless
2. Intellectual value
- makes readers thing; realise fundamental truths of the life and human nature
3. Suggestiveness
- the work must stir our feelings and emotions
* The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
- must elicit proper response from the reader
4. Spiritual value
- purpose of literary work: elevate the spirit by bringing out the moral value

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- not all literary works are didactic (to teach)
5. Permanence
- it can be read again and again
- it can endure
- it can stand the test of time
6. Universality
- the work must be timely and timeless
- forever relevant
*George Orwells Animal Farm and 1984
7. Style
- peculiar to distinct way in with a writer sees life
- forms his ideas and expresses them
* A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
* Of Human Bondage Somerset Maugham

IV. Kinds of critics

1. Radical - uses more than one theory but his evaluation lacks grounding
2. Dogmatic - uses one theory or approach
3. Dogmatic but catholic - knows the positives and negatives of each and comes
up w a criticism based on the best elements

V. Problem of literary criticism

1. Mimesis (2)
- mime art of imitating life
* 1984 George Orwell
2. Artistic expression (1)
- art having its own universe
-art has its own standards producing art for arts sake
* Jose Garcia Villa
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3. Communication
- readable understand
-business of the writer is to write and not to be understood

VI. WC Brownell
- correspondence bw ideas and the expression of the idea as well as the value or
insignificance of the idea itself
- form - how it is written
- language
- style
- strategies
-craftsmanship - how it was made
- content - what is written; cannot be judged

VII. Creative writer vs critical writer

- there should be no conflict

VIII. Obscurity
-a device of art; ambiguity of art
1. with meaning
2. without meaning
-nuances - a delicate shading of tone (music), colour (visual art), and meaning
(literature)
* Bliss Katherine Mansfield

IX. Kinds of truth

1. Philosophical (2)
2. Historical (4) - concerned w data gathering; merely factual; fiction based on
facts
3. Imagination (1)
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4. Scientific (3) - like history; subjected to the physical world

X. Use of sin

- ethical consideration of an ethical situation is different from the consideration of an

ethical situation

XI. Approaches to Literature

- Intrinsic - formalistic
- Extrinsic
- external; from the outside
- moral - morality or doctrine
- psychological - Sigmund Freud, Karl Jung
- Sociological - Sons and Lovers DH Lawrence
- Archetypal - perfect example of something
- Goddess
- Hera - offer yourself to the male; main concern is the boyfriend
- Demeter - family main concern
- Hestia - nun
- Mother Teresa
- love for people
- Athena - have the life of the mind
- marriage is secondary
- Artemis - compete w men
XII. Critical/Literary theories
1. Formalism

- focus:
- language
- strategies
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- craftsmanship
- organic unity
short story -experienced by the main characters
1. one major character
2. one plot
3. key moment
denouement
moment of illumination
epiphany
cortigiana
-courtesan

Point of view
- 1st person - I
- omniscient - all knowing narrator
- central intelligence - third person; the major character (through his eyes that the
story unfolds) - best for short stories

NOVEL
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Use of images
1. Visual image - it is what you see in your minds eye
2. auditory - what you hear through you minds ears
3. olfactory - what you smell through your minds nose
4. gustatory - what you taste through your minds tongue
5. tactile - what you feel through your minds skin
6. thermal - hot or cold imagery

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7. erotic - idea
8. synaesthesia - combination of any of the 7

- TS Eliot, William Wimsatt & Monroe

art immortalises, life realises

2. Russian formalism
3. Structuralism
4. Post-structuralism
5. Deconstruction
6. Reader-response theory
7. Psychoanalytic theory
8. Post-colonial theory
9. Feminism/Body politics
10. Queer theory
11. Marxist theory
12. New historicism
13. Hermeneutics
14. Post Modernism