Emese Boda

(1) Literature and literary study

• Literature: a vague term, definition is problematic:

- 1. Everything written/ in print?(L.: ‘littera’-letter) → disregards oral traditions, includes all kinds
of writing.
- 2. ‘Great books’ – involves value judgement ( often includes works of historians, philosophers,
politicians, scientists, etc.)
- 3. Best: Imaginative literature

Literature: is an art, a creative activity. Its medium is language, in a different (from everyday)
use→ expressive (tone and attitude); sound symbolism (meter, sound patterns). It has different
referentiality (to a world of fiction).→ organization, personal expression, exploitation of medium,
lack of practical purpose, fictionality.

• Literary study: study of literature, literary texts: ‘if not precisely a science, a species of knowledge, or of
learning (Wellek-Warren, Theory of Literature). ~ is a controversial term, field of study → the nature of its
subject is artistic → so the nature of criticism is something of an art, too → it cannot be an exact science
itself (there are no natural or universal laws in this field). → ideas arising about the critic as a parasite.
- Arguments against criticism: - the critic is a second-rate artist
- criticism is a parasitic activity
- criticism is artificial →← public taste is natural
- art is a mystery → cannot be interpreted
- Arguments for criticism: - a critic is a useful person, who makes pieces of art more consumable
- ~ translates the experience of literature intellectual terms, assimilates it into a coherent scheme
- ~ has its own valid methods, which do not necessarily meet scientific requirements (posed by
scientists) but is able to convey valid knowledge.
- Three main fields of ~-s : - Literary theory
- Literary criticism
- Literary history
a; Literary theory: studies the principles, categories, criteria of Literature. Provides the
universal terms, the basis of L. criticism and L. history.
b; Literary criticism: interpretation of concrete works of Literature.
c; Literary history: interpretation of works of literature in a chronological framework.
- Literary criticism and literary history are closely interrelated, and ‘interdependent’

(2) Elements of literature: rhythm and metre

Although Literature is divided into genres and categories, there are some common elements. Rhythm
is present in most types of writings, but most easily observable in poetry.
• Rhythm: regular pattern of change; an arranged order of stressed aand unstressed syllables. Rhythm
has a power of its own (e.g. lullabies, charms, etc.) and can contribute to the meaning besides
underlying the musicality of the text. (Blake: Tyger (the tense rhythm suggests the beats of
hammering) Differences in the units of rhythm → in verse / in prose
- Verse rhythm: Unit of rhythm is the line; and is created by the use of meters./
- Prose rhythm: Unit of rhythm is the sentence, may or may not be regular.

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• Metre: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that creates rhythm in verse . 3 types: 1.
syllabic, 2. quantitative, 3. accentual
- Verse systems /versification: - there are different verse systems/types of versification in poetry:
Syllabic: metres are based on the number of syllables per line (not natural in Germanic lang.)
Quantitative: metres are based on the duration of syllables (short and long) possible, not
common
Accentual: (ütemhangsúlyos) based on stress, the alteration of stressed (heavy) and
unstressed (light) syllables the most common in English poetry since Renaissance
- Base: regular rhythmic pattern, independent of words, an abstract pattern, the base must be
dominant esp. towards the end of the line (The last foot is the base)
- Modulation: departure from the base, the abstract pattern;. Line: consists of metrical feet.
- Foot: A group of syllables forming a metrical unit; a unit of rhythm. A line consists of metrical
feet.
- - Base feet:
- Rising feet: iamb (x / ), anapaest (x x /)
- Falling feet (ereszkedő): trochee (/ x), dactyl ( / x x)
Feet used only in modulation:
Spondee: //, Pyrrhic (or dibrach): x x, Choriambus:/ x x /
hexameter: dactyl + spondee: / x x / / (tá ti ti tá tá)
• Stress patterns : 3 major factors define the stress:
- Accent - the pattern of polysyllabic words (e.g. descending – x / x)
- Rhetorical accent: in monosyllabic words: its grammatical function (major word classes: nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs have stronger stress than minor word classes: articles, prepositions, etc.)
- ‘metrical accent’ – the stress pattern of the line
• Strong stress metres: only the strong stress counts; the number of unstressed syllables may vary
• Lines: Classified according to the number of feet contained.
- Monometer: a line consisting of one metrical foot; Dimeter (2), Trimeter 3)Tetrameter(4)
- Pentameter (5), Hexameter (6), Heptameter (7), Octameter (8) feet

The most common in English poetry is the iambic pentameter.

- End-stopped line: concludes with a distinct syntactical pause.

- Run-on line (enjambment): sense carried over into the next line without a syntactic pause.
- Caesura: a marked (||) pause within the line (dictated by the natural rhythm of the language
and/or enforced by punctuation)

• Stanza: a strophe, a group of lines of verse / grouping of a prescribed number of lines, usually with a
particular rhyme scheme, repeated as a unit of structure.
Most common stanza types: Couplet (a stanza consisting of 2 lines), triplet/tercet, (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines) /heroic abab, ballad abxb/, sestet (6 lines), octave (8 limes)

• Blank verse: poetry that has a fixed rhythm but does not rhyme (~ unrhymed iambic pentameter)
• Free verse: no regular meter, no rhyme (~ no regular metre)
• Paragraph: grouping of lines, varying length of units, no fixed number of lines

(3). Elements in literature: FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

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Figurative language: departure from the standard meaning of words (átvitt értelem) or from the standard
order of words. (Language which uses figures of speech; must be distinguished from literal language.) →
Includes:
- Figures of thought or tropes (szókép): change in meaning (figurative as opposed to literal
meaning, e.g. irony)
- Figures of speech or ‘rhetorical figures’ (PL. szórendcsere): change in the order or position of
words; it does not alter the meanings of words.
Types of literary images: (about 250 figures)
• Allegory: Abstract quality personified
Two meanings: Image = (abstract quality personified); Narrative = (a story in verse or prose with a double
meaning: a primary or surface meaning; and a secondary or undersurface meaning, correspondence between
them in terms of character, action and place,) e.g. J. Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress (17th century; Christian
s pilgrimage to the Celestial /~ égi, mennyei/ city)
• Anaphora: repetition of a word or groups of words at the beginning of successive clauses
• Epiphora: repetition of a word or groups of words at the end of successive clauses
• Anticlimax: a deliberate destroying of high respectation
• Apostrophe: addressing someone or something not directly present or listening
• Metaphor: one thing is expressed in terms of another; a comparison is usually implicit, whereas in
simile it is explicit (~ compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as.")(~ Language
that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject
as being or equal to a second object in some way.)
Explicit ~: tenor and vehicle („All the world’s a stage)
Tenor = general idea
Vehicle = pictorial image
Implicit ~: vehicle only (‘golden daffodils’)
Dead ~: became so commom that it is no longer considered a metaphor (arm of a chair)
+ mixed (leaps from one identification to an other identification which is inconsistent with the first)&
extended metaphors (the principle subjects of the metaphor are extended, the metaphor is carried on)
• Metonymy: the name (e.g. xerox) or an attribute of a thing stands for the thing itself/ in which a word or
phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated with (such as “crown” for “royalty”,
‘Washington’ for the government of the US

• Palindrome: A word or sentence (occasionally a verse) which reads the same both ways.
(civic, level, rotor etc.)
• Onomatopoeia: vocal imitation of sound
• Prosopopoeia /~personification/: human qualities are attributed to nonhuman agents
• Simile: explicit comparison with as or like
• Synecdoche: the part stands for the whole or the whole stands for the part, and thus something
else is understood within the thing mentioned (e.g. Give us this day our daily bread where
bread stands for the meals taken each day.
• Tautology: redundant words or ideas
• Kenning: a descriptive phrase standing for the ordinary name for a thing; e.g.
whale-road & sail-road in Beowulf both stand for the sea.
• Invocation: addressing a god or a muse to assist the poet in his work
• Rhetorical question: a q. asked to achieve a stronger emphasis than a direct statement would
give
• Literary images: are not simply used for ornamentation, but also when language is felt to be
insufficient to express what is meant. Basis of imagery: sensation. Signifier & Signified .

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 Analogue & Subject ./ Vehicle (pictorial image & Tenor (general idea) .

Classification of literary images: Basis of imagery:

1.a Relationship between analogue and subject: (vehicle – tenor): similarity: Images of similarity: simile,
metaphor, allegory, prosopopoeia
b. Relationship between analogue and subject: (vehicle – tenor) : contiguity, Images of contiguity /~
egymásmellettiség/: synecdoche, metonymy
2. Sensory field: visual (majority) auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory

• Analogue: A word or thing similar or parallel to another. As a literary term it denotes a story for
which one can find parallel examples in other languages and literature. (~ A work which resembles
another in terms of one or more motifs, characters, scenes, phrases or events. OR An individual
motif, character, scene, event or phrase which resembles one found in another work.)
Subject:?
• Symbol: not an image in the narrow sense of the word only vehicle /pictorial image/ apparent,
tenor /general idea/: rather a broad field of associations.
In contrast with other images or metaphors a symbol is rather repetitive and constant in nature. A metaphor
can become a symbol by constant repetition of both the vehicle and the tenor.
A word or a phrase that signifies an object or event which in turn signifies something, or has a range or
reference, beyond itself. An object that refers to another object but demands attention also in its own right, as
a presentation.
- Conventional/public symbols the Cross ;
- private symbols in poetry
• Myth: an anonymously composed story of origins and destinies. The supernatural - the natural; the
divine - the human; a record of fundamental human experience. Use of myth in Modernist literature
(Joyce: Ulysses). Myth criticism viewing all works of literature as recurrences of archetypes and mythic
formulas.

(4) Elements of Literature: sound patterns

Literary language utilises sound symbolism by using the potential musicality of language.
Devices of verbal music are:

• Alliteration: close repetition of identical speech sounds (mainly consonants) at the beginning
of words. The principal organising device in Anglo-Saxon poetry, later used only for special
stylistic effects.
• Assonance: close repetition of identical vowels between different consonants. (child of silence)
• Consonance: close repetition of identical consonants with different vowels. More frequent
type: similar vowels followed by identical consonants = slant rhyme /flower fever, hell – heel
/similarity instead of identity

• Rhyme: the identity of the last stressed vowel and of all the speech sounds following it. (face – place)
The most common sound pattern. Aesthetic satisfaction (echoing sounds) and structural importance
(intensifying meaning, binding the verse together).

Types of rhyme:
• Masculine: single stressed syllable; face - place

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 • Feminine: stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable; daughters - waters
Single, double, triple,
internal (~ within a line),
end, perfect (~ is the identity of the last stressed vowel and all following sounds of two or more words or
phrases (fish/dish, smiling/filing), eye /prove- love/ (~homographic endings),
slant (flower – fever) /approximate/suspended /:→similarity rather than identity~ either the vowel
segments are different while the consonants are identical, or vice versa /
• Rhyme scheme: the sequence of rhymes represented by the letters of the alphabet (abab, cdcd, etc.)

(5) Theory of genres

• Aristotle: Art is the imitation of nature (mimesis), the arts differ from each other in 3 respects:
- medium
- object (subject)
- manner and mode / of imitation

• Medium: the material vehicle of art, which determines its possibilities and limitations – accounts for
differences between arts : written and plastic / visual arts; temporal (moving in time) and spatial (moving
in space).
• Genre: type of species of literature; theory of genres: classifying literature by specifically literary types
of organization and structure. Numerous categories
- Earliest (and still prevailing) theory: Aristotle: epic (narrative), lyric, drama.
Differentiation according to manner and mode (when the medium and the object is the same) The
poet can may imitate by narration (epic), can speak in his own person (lyric) or may present the
characters as living persons moving before us (drama).

- Northrop Frye (made 42 categories) used the Aristotelian basic categories + added fiction→ that supposes a
reader → drama, epos, fiction, lyric – differentiation based on the supposed presence or absence of an
audience: drama→ spectators present, the concealment of the writer from the audience; epos → recited in
front of an audience; fiction→ written for readers; lyric → the audience is concealed from the poet. Epos
and novel (when reading out) are interrelated.
- Other ideas: defining the categories in grammatical terms (R. Jakobson): lyric: first person singular, present
tense; epic: third person singular, past tense.

- More general view: 3 overall classes in literature: poetry, fiction, drama

- Most common genres: epic, tragedy, comedy, satire, lyric, biography, essay, novel. From Renaissance to
18th century neoclassicism → categories should be kept pure, no mixing; hierarchy between categories: with
tragedy and epic on the top. From Romanticism onwards → categories more flexible, no hierarchy.

(6) Poetry: Narrative and Lyric

Poetry: comprehensive term for metrical composition.

• Types of poetry:

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 - 1. epic /narrative (poetry)

- 2. lyric (poetry)

- 3. dramatic (poetry)

- 4. satirical (poetry)

Generally: narrative and non-narrative poetry (Aristotle’s epic and lyric)

1. Narrative (epic) poetry: the narrative poem tells a story. European literature begins with this:
Homer → non-literate societies – oral tradition.

types of ~

- Epic

- Ballad (folk and literary ballads)

- Metrical romance (The Canterbury tales)

2. Lyric poetry: essentially non-narrative poetry. Deals with feelings, emotions, thought, moods. There
might be a narrative base (a story), but the focus is not this. (Wordsworth: ‘I wandered lonely

- Elements of lyric poetry:

- Theme

- Tone (The poet’s/author’s attitude towards his theme or audience)

- Voice (What we hear in the poem.) T.S. Eliot: There are 3 kinds of voices: 1. The poet talking to
himself or nobody; 2. The poet addressing an audience; 3. The poet creates a dramatic character
speaking in verse. (That conveys the poem’s tone)

- Speaker

- Persona (the invented speaker /A character invented for a particular purpose, not equivalent with
the author

Emotion: central concern in lyric poetry; the way emotion is expressed. Relationship between
thought and emotion → Schiller: originally they were not separated (Golden Age)

3. Dramatic poetry: the third voice (Eliot) (an invented character speaks in an invented situation.

- 2 major genres: - Dramatic monologue (an imaginary character addresses an imaginary

audience, revealing his character.)

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 - Dramatic lyric (the speaker’s thoughts reveled, not his character)

4. Satiric poetry: satire in verse – popular in the late 17th century (Pope)

• Poetic diction – the language of poetry. The characteristic language use, choice of words, phrases of
a poet; Also may refer to the general poetic language of a period:

- Neo classicism, 18th century→ decorum (diction suited to the genre, frequent use of archaism,
invocation, personification → Pope

(7) Drama I. Tragedy

• Drama: literary work in prose or verse (written in dialogues) meant to be performed on a stage by
actors (by contrast, closet drama is for reading not for presenting on the stage). It has two main
types: tragedy and comedy. Later categories are tragicomedy, mystery, miracle, morality, chronicle
play, romance. Origins: Greece 6th century BC; festivals for Dionysus.

• Tragedy, comedy: The genre of tragedy is Aristotle’s main concern in his Poetics.. Briefly a noble
action of noble characters. A dramatic presentation (imitation) of serious actions that turns out
disastrously for the protagonist. Tragedy arouses pity and fear in the spectator and after the climax
there comes a sense of release from tension, which he called catharsis (purgation). Aristotle defined 6
elements for tragedy: External elements: 1.spectacle (spectacular presentment, scenery, costumes,
etc.), 2.lyrical song, 3. diction, and Internal elements: 4. plot, 5. character, 6. thought (the main
idea).

Comedy: Aristotle distinguishes it from tragedy by saying that it deals in an amusing way with
ordinary people in rather everyday situations. It has a happy ending for the main characters.
Renaissance theory of comedy: it teaches good behavior by negative examples. There is a later
distinction between high comedy (that evokes intellectual laughter) and low comedy (simply
physical actions produce comic effects: farce, commedia dell’arte).

Tragedy Comedy

- noble action - everyday situations

- noble characters (represents people as - ordinary people (represents people as

„better than than they are”) „worse than they are”)

- tragic ending - happy ending

- serious representation - amusing representation

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• Diction: One of the 6 elements of tragedy (Aristotle) referring to the way the language of the play is
delivered by the actors.

• Plot: simple or complex: Plot – the most important of the 6 elements. It is the representation of
human actions. Plots can be simple or complex, but a successful tragedy should have a complex plot.
The plot must be unified, clearly displaying a beginning, a middle and an end. It must be long enough
to fully represent the course of actions but not so long that the audience loses interest. Simple plot:
Simple plots have only „a change of fortune” (catastrophé). The change of fortune in the
protagonist’s life takes place without reversal of the situation and without recognition. Complex
plot: The change is accompanied by reversal and/or recognition.

• Reversal, recognition: Reversal of fortune (Peripeteia-Gr. sudden change), a fall. (In the plot) a
sudden, unexpected change of fortune usually from prosperity to ruin. This change is not a result of
vice, but of some great error or frailty of the protagonist. Ignorant – does not know enough (hamartia
or hubris). – Recognition (Anagnorisis): gaining of the essential knowledge that was previously
lacking, a change from ignorance to knowledge.

• Hamartia, hubris: Hamartia – some great error of judgement that results in Reversal. Hubris –
(exaggerated pride or self-confidence) – shortcoming in the hero’s character that leads him to ignore
the warnings of Gods.

• Catharsis: (purgation) – discharge of bad emotions (pity and fear). Relief from tension and anxiety
at the end of tragedy (Whether it refers to the character or the audience is dubious).

• The unity of the plot /according to Aristotle: The plot must be unified (complete) clearly
displaying a beginning, middle and an end. It shouldn’t contain negligible details of the hero’s life.
Misunderstanding Aristotle’s suggestions on the preferable brevity of time of the action French and
Italian neo-classicists created a strict canon of the three unities: The unified action must take place in
a single day and in a single place.

• Characters /dramatis personae/: protagonist, antagonist: One of the 6 required elements of

tragedy (Aristotle). Protagonist is the first, principal character in a play. The antagonist creates
obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. In ancient tragedy the chorus had a role, as well.

• Setting: The where and when of a story or a play. In drama the term may refer to the scenery or the
props.

• Comic relief: Comic elements or interludes to relieve the tension or heighten the tragic element by
contrast. (cf. Hamlet, the gravedigger’s conversation in Act V) In ancient tragedy there were no
comic elements.

• Senecan tragedy, Revenge tragedy, tragedy of blood, heroic tragedy, bourgeois tragedy or
domestic tragedy: - These are types of tragedies.

- Senecan tragedy – the closet dramas of the Roman Seneca (1st cent.AD) had a great influence on
the Elizabethan tragedians, who accepted them as stage plays.

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 - Revenge tragedy – A Renaissance genre of drama. In the centre of the plot is the hero’s attempt
to avenge some previous wrong by killing the wrongdoer. Involves a great deal of bloodshed.
(Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy);–

- Tragedy of blood - an intensified form of the Revenge Tragedy popular on the Elizabethan stage.

- Heroic tragedy – most popular during the English Restoration aand is about the torment of a
noble heroic protagonist who has to choose between love and patriotic duties.

- Bourgeois or domestic tragedy – a play typically about middle class or lower middle

class life, the private, intimate matters within the family. Popular in the Tudor and Jacobian era.
(Shakespeare: Othello) Bourgeois tragedies developed in the 18th century with the emergence of
the bourgeous class- its protagonists are ordinary citizens.

(8) Drama II. Comedy and other forms

• Comedy: farce, comedy of manners, comedy of humours, comedy of ideas, comedy of intrigue,
comedy of menace, comedy of morals, satirical comedy:

- Farce: a form of low comedy, whose intention is simply to provoke roars of laughter (not smile),
using exaggerated phisical actons, characters, absurd situations.

- Comedy of manners: - or „Restoration comedy” – is preoccupied with the behavioral codes of the
middle and upper classes and is often marked by elegance, wit and sophistication. (Oscar Wilde:
The Importance of Being Earnest)

- Comedy of humours: - (late 16th early 17th cen.) presented humorous characters whose actions
were ruled by a particular passion oe trait or humour. (Ben Jonson)

- Comedy of ideas: - Plays that tend to debate ideas and theories in a witty and humorous manner.
(G.B. Shaw: Man and Superman)

- Comedy of intrigue: - A form of comedy which depends on an intricate plot full of surprises nad
tends to subordinate character to plot. (Beaumarchais)

- Comedy of menace: - A kind of play in which the characters feel that they are (or they actually
are) frightened by some obscure force or power. The fear and menace becomes the source of (sort
of black) comedy. (Pinter: The Birthday Party)

- Comedy of morals: - Satyrical comedy designed to ridicule and correct vices like hypocricy,
pride, greed, social pretensions, simony (egyházi javakkal való üzérkedés), and nepotism.
(Moliére)

- Satirical comedy: - A form of comedy whose purpose expose, criticize and ridicule the follies,
vices and shortcomings of society, and of people who represent that society. (Jonson: Volpone)

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• Tragi-comedy or dark/black comedy: - It mingles the subject matter and the forms of comedy and
tragedy. Characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Characters are of both high and low
degree, typically, the final tragedy is prevented by an abrupt reversal of circumstance.

• Mystery play, miracle play, morality, interlude: - Genres of Medieval drama which developed
independently from antique drama. Originates in Christian tradition – parts of the liturgy were
elaborated as chanting between priest and choir, later this developed into performance. Moving
gradually out of the church into the marketplace led to secularization.

- Mistery plays: - based on the stories of the Bible, mainly concerned with the Creation, the Fall
and Redemption.

- Miracle plays: - later developed from Mystery plays, dramatizing saints’ lives and divine
miracles, or miraculous interventions by the Virgin.

- Morality plays: - did not deal with Biblical stories, but presented personified abstractions of
virtues and vices struggling for man’s soul.

- Interlude: - a type of morality play, but more secular. General moral problems are treated in an
allegorical way with more realistic and comic element. Interludes marked the transition from
medieval religious drama to Renaissance drama. Renaissance rediscovered classical antique
drama, influencing the native tradition.

• The theatre of the absurd – a term applied to many of the works of a group of dramatists who were
active in the 1950s: Adamow, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Pinter, etc. These works rejected all basic
traditional elements, concepts of conventional plays, such as plot, (round) characters, well-grounded
motivations, different language, conflict, logical dialogues and a causative plotline developing from
A to B (In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, for example, famously, ’nothing happens’).

They emphasize the absurdity of human existence, the impossibility of human actions fulfilling a
purpose,(life with no purpose) the struggle of human beings in a hostile and irrational universe; life
with no apparent purpose, basically: meaningless life in a meaningless universe (Ideas of Albert
Camus, who wrote the Myth of Sisyphus, 1942) Roots in expressionism and surrealism. Godot:
there’s no change – change is only an illusion; cyclical pattern

• (Act, scene, dialogue, monologue – soliloquy) –

- act – is a unit of drama. The number of acts can range from 1 to 5. Until the 18th century, most
plays were divided into 5 acts. Between acts the scenery, the setting may change.

- scene – Each act is subdivided into scenes.

- dialogue – a conversation in a play (short story, novel)

- monologue - a speech by a single character without another character’s the response – soliloquy-
a speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the
stage.

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 (9) Fiction

• Fiction – is a vague and general term for an imaginary work, usually in prose. Common meaning –
fiction = ’an invented story” = not fact (euhemerism, by contrast, treats myths as based on actual reality. Greek
mythographer Euhemerus thought that Greek Gods had formerly been great kings or heroes who were later deified by
In the most general sense, fiction refers
admirers, and mythological accounts are reflections of historical events.)
to any kind of prose narrative: short story, novel, romance, novella/novelette.

Elements of fiction: story, plot, character, experience, time, point of view

• Short story, novella/novelette, novel, romance – are kinds of fiction.

- short story – is problematic to define (how short it should be?) Poe’s solution: that can be read
between ½ hour and 2 hours. Less complex than a novel, with usually one line of action, few
characters (of whom only one or two are well-drawn). Minimizing the exposition and the details
of setting, focusing on the selected central incident that reveals a great deal of the totality of the
life and the character of the protagonist. Each detail is of great significance.

- novella/novelette – Originally a novella was a kind of short story developed by Boccaccio.

Decameron was a collection of such short stories. In general, a fictional tale in prose,
intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel. novelette – a work of
prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Often used derogatorily of
’cheap’ fiction’, sentimental romances and thrillers of little literary merit.

- novel – an extended work of prose fiction with a more complicated plot (or plots), greater variety
of characters, subtle exploration of character, motive and circumstance. A relatively new genre.

- romance – originally all romances were written in verse, then, gradually in prose. Basically a
form of entertainment. It is usually about improbable events involving characters who live in a
courtly world somewhat remote from everyday. (Typical theme: a knight on a quest, etc.)

Relatively recent genre in its present form. Antique (Roman) precedents. (Petronius, Apuleius).
In the Middle Ages: versed romances. Modern European novel: 16th, 17th century (Rabelais,
Cervantes; England: early 18th century – Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson.

• Story: - mere sequence of events

• Plot; exposition, body, conclusion: - a compositional whole, an artistic arrangement of events –

casual link between the events that make up the story. The elements of the plot-structure: exposition,
body, conclusion.

- exposition: - or beginning - setting up the story (setting, introduction of characters)

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 - body – or middle – the major action containing conflict and complication.

- conclusion - the outcome of the story, the end.

Suspense, surprise, dénouement – Suspense is created when action (what is going to happen next)
is in doubt. Surprise – what happens violates our expectation. Dénouement – a series of events that
follow the climax, and thus serves as the conclusion of the story.

• Organic plot , inorganic plot– organic plot - events are related by cause and effect, develop
organically towards resolution of conflict, favorable to main characters. Inorganic plot – perception
of life as endless series of crises, no conclusion, no resolution, → a coherent story/plot would be
distortion of life. (no apparent faith in divine dispensation.);

• Flat and round characters: types of character

Flat characters are built around a single idea or quality. They do not change in the course of a story or
play (static), and can be described in one single sentence.

Round characters are more complex, show development (dynamic), and capable of surprising the
reader in a convincing way.

Caricature, type, stereoty –

- caricature – a portrait which ridicules a character by exaggerating and distorting his most
prominent features and characteristics.

- type – A literary character with traits that are commonly associated with a particular class of
people, thus not a real individual.- a flat character.

- stereotype - an oversimplified (flat) character representing a type, a gender, a class, an

occupation, etc., based on prior assumptions. (e.g. the „dumb blonde”)

• Experience: external and internal: - external experience: adventure, internal experience takes place
in the character’s psyché. Modernism has made a shift from the external to the internal.

• External/objective and internal/subjective time: - External time is that of the clock. The time of
external experience, dominant in older type of fiction. Internal time is that of the mind. Subjective
and objective time may be represented simultaneously (Joyce: Ulysses)

• Time-shift: - a broken chronology, moving back and forth in the objective time.

• Point of view: The narrative technique that the writer uses to tell the story. In other words, who is
telling the story.

- 1st and 3rd person narratives – 1st person narrative – the narrator is one of the characters (a
minor or a major character), the most limited; 3rd person narrative – the author is the narrator
(doesn’t appear in the story as a character), either omniscient or limited.

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 Types of narrators:

- omniscient narrator – or: ’all-knowing’ 3rd person narrator sees into the mind of all characters,
having access to their thoughts, feeling and motives

- limited narrator – sees the events of the story through the eyes of a single character.

- self-conscious narrator: - reveals to the reader that the narration is a work of fiction.

- unreliable narrator – the perceptions and interpretations of the narrator do not coincide with the
implicit opinions and norms of the author.

Stream of consciousness: - a narrative technique where the narrator represents the continuous flow
of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, associations or memories, in a word: the mental processes of the
character. Typical technique of Joyce, V. Woolf, Faulkner.

• Setting: - the where and when of the story.

Local colour: - the use of details characteristic of a specific (real or fictive) region, to specify the
background, the social milieu the character comes from.

• Consistency (and credibility) – approaching the story with a „willing suspension of disbelief”.

• Types of novel:

- Picaresque: - (picaro – Spanish ’thief’)- humorous novel about the misadventures of a knave, told
in a loose, episodic structure of comic, satiric scenes. (Fielding: Jonathan Wild)

- Gothic novel: - tales of mystery and horror, designed to thrill readers. Popular in late 18th and
early 19th century. Stock elements (desolate landscapes, ancient buildings, torture chambers,
secret doors, young, handsome heroes, fainting heroines, etc. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein.

- Historical novel: - where fictional characters take part in real historical events, interact with
historical figures of the past. Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe.

- Bildungsroman: - education novel, the development of the protagonist from childhood to

maturity. Dickens: David Copperfield.

- Künstlerroman: - the development of an artist from childhood to maturity. Joyce: A Portrait of an

Artist as a Young Man.

- Documentary: - a novel based on documentary evidence. Dreiser: An American Tragedy

- Psychological novel: - focusing on the spiritual, emotional and mental lives of the characters.

- Epistolary novel: written in the forms of letters. Richardson: Pamela

- Key novel: - actual persons presented under fictive names. Huxley: Point Counter Point

- Anti-novel: - a form of experimental fiction, (term of J-P Sartre). Breaks with conventional story-
telling methods; little attempt to create and illusion of realism. Works of Nabokov.

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 An outline of British literature

Beginnings:

• Anglo-Saxon period (ca. 449-1066)

- alliterative meter, heroic poetry, religious poetry, prose (chronicles, etc.)

• Middle English period (1066 – end of 15th cent) – aristocracy → French-speaking Normans; revival
of interest in English: 14th century → Geoffrey Chaucer. Romances, dream allegories, medieval
drama

• Renaissance (16th – early 17th century) Humanism. Drama: tragedy, comedy, chronicle plays. Poetry:
sonnets (Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser. Metaphysical poets: John Donne
(early 17th cent), Ben Jonson, John Milton.

• Restoration 1660. John Dryden. Restoration drama – another flourishing period of drama. 18th
century – Neo-classicism – strict principles of form and decorum. Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson.
Beginnings of the English novel (Richardson, Fielding). Enlightenment – Age of Reason

• Romantic period (ca. 1798 – 1832) begins with W. Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge. Revival of
lyric. W. Blake, John Keats, B. Shelley, Lord Byron

• Victorian era – from1830s on - the flourishing of novel: Dickens, George Eliot, Bronte sisters,
Thomas Hardy. Darwin.

• First part of 20th cent – breakdown of Victorian values; Modernism. Novel: Henry James, Joseph
Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf. Poetry: W. B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot

• The theatre of the absurd – a term applied to many of the works of a group of dramatists who were
active in the 1950s: Adamow, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Pinter, etc. These works rejected all basic
traditional elements of conventional plays, such as round characters Round characters are more
complex, show development (dynamic), and capable of surprising the reader in a convincing way˙]
(Gogo and Didi), well-grounded motivations, logical dialogues and a causative plotline developing
from A to B (In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, for example, famously, ’nothing happens’).

They emphasize the absurdity of human existence, the impossibility of human actions fulfilling a
purpose, the struggle of human beings in a hostile and irrational universe; life with no apparent
purpose, basically: meaningless life in a meaningless universe (Ideas of Albert Camus, who wrote the
Myth of Sisyphus, 1942)

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 In the first edition of The Theatre of the Absurd, Esslin saw the work of these playwrights as giving
artistic articulation to Albert Camus' philosophy that life is inherently without meaning as
illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus.

- an experimental form of theatre

John Beckett: Waiting for Godot

• One of the most prominent works of the “Theatre of the Absurd”. (Subtitled, only in English,
“tragicomedy in two acts”.

• the only thing they are pretty sure about is that they are to meet at a tree: there’s one nearby

• they discuss what they should do while waiting, like hanging themselves, but finally they decide to
do nothing: “It’s safer.”

• They mistake first Pozzo for Godot

• basically they are living the same day over and over

• Act II. Estragon can hardly remember the previous day. / Pozzo again arrives, now blind and Luck is
dumb

• there are no physical descriptions of either of the two characters

• Estragon is inert and Vladimir is restless. Vladimir is sort of philosophical and Estragon “belongs to
the stone”. Es. is direct, intuitive. He continually forgets, Vladimir continually reminds him.

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