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The Renaissance
Shakespeare lived and wrote during a remarkable period of English history, a time of
relative political stability and great development, 1485 - 1649. Science made it possible to
navigate, explorers set out to find a new world. The ideas of the Renaissance are strongly
influenced by the concept of humanism. The aim was to restore human values from antiquity by
reintroducing the philosophies, language and literature of the ancient Greece and Rome. One of
the major developments in English literature at this time is in drama. Some of Shakespeares
plays reflect historical and political tensions, others deal with common life experiences which are
described in comedy as well as tragedy. During this period poetry was another important literary
genre.
The novel was written during the Enlightenment era, a period of scientific awakening, a
time of unprecedented optimism in the potential of knowledge and reason to understand and
change the world. It was believed that the use of reason and science could improve the human
condition. This period saw the rise of the political pamphlet and essay but the leading genre of
the Enlightenment became the novel. The hero of the novel was the average man, the middle-
class man, with a pragmatic common sense, and literature became very instructive; writers aimed
to educate readers through their stories, criticizing the flaws of society and individuals. Most of
the writers of this time wrote political pamphlets, but the best came from the pens of Defoe and
Swift. The novel writing was influences by travel literature, biographies, memoirs, diaries.
Romanticism (1789-1832)
(S. Coleridge , J. Austen, J. Keats, W. Whitman, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Melville)
Born at the end of the Civil war, the literary period in which
wrote, aimed to recreate reality in literature. The years following the war
symbolized a time of healing and rebuilding. In literature this was a time of
upheaval. As the United States grew rapidly after the Civil War, the
increasing rates of democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism
and urbanization, an expanding population base due to immigration, and a
relative rise in middle-class affluence provided a fertile literary environment
for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture.
Realists are concerned with the effect of the work on their reader and
the reader's life, a pragmatic view. Pragmatism requires the reading of a
work to have some verifiable outcome for the reader that will lead to a better
life for the reader. This lends an ethical tendency to realism while focusing on
common actions and minor catastrophes of middle class society.
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Literary Analysis: Using Elements of
Literature
Students are asked to write literary analysis essays because this type of
assignment encourages you to think about how and why a poem, short
story, novel, or play was written. To successfully analyze literature, youll
need to remember that authors make specific choices for particular
reasons. Your essay should point out the authors choices and attempt to
explain their significance.
Another way to look at a literary analysis is to consider a piece of
literature from your own perspective. Rather than thinking about the
authors intentions, you can develop an argument based on any single
term (or combination of terms) listed below. Youll just need to use the
original text to defend and explain your argument to the reader.
Allegory - narrative form in which the characters are representative of
some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt
to convey some larger lesson or meaning to life. Although allegory was
originally and traditionally character based, modern allegories tend to
parallel story and theme.
William Faulkners A Rose for Emily- the decline of the Old South
Robert Louis Stevensons Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-
mans struggle to contain his inner primal instincts
District 9- South African Apartheid
X Men- the evils of prejudice
Harry Potter- the dangers of seeking racial purity
Character - representation of a person, place, or thing performing
traditionally human activities or functions in a work of fiction
Protagonist - The character the story revolves around.
Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Minor character - Often provides support and illuminates the
protagonist.
Static character - A character that remains the same.
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Dynamic character - A character that changes in some important
way.
Characterization - The choices an author makes to reveal a
characters personality, such as appearance, actions, dialogue, and
motivations.
Look for: Connections, links, and clues between and about
characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of
each character is. Make this determination based upon the
character's history, what the reader is told (and not told), and
what other characters say about themselves and others.
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Suspense - The tension that the author uses to create a feeling of
discomfort about the unknown
Conflict - Struggle between opposing forces.
Exposition - Background information regarding the setting,
characters, plot.
Rising Action - The process the story follows as it builds to its main
conflict
Crisis - A significant turning point in the story that determines how
it must end
Resolution/Denouement - The way the story turns out.
Point of View - pertains to who tells the story and how it is told. The point
of view of a story can sometimes indirectly establish the author's
intentions.
Narrator - The person telling the story who may or may not be a
character in the story.
First-person - Narrator participates in action but sometimes has
limited knowledge/vision.
Second person - Narrator addresses the reader directly as though
she is part of the story. (i.e. You walk into your bedroom. You see
clutter everywhere and)
Third Person (Objective) - Narrator is unnamed/unidentified (a
detached observer). Does not assume character's perspective and
is not a character in the story. The narrator reports on events and
lets the reader supply the meaning.
Omniscient - All-knowing narrator (multiple perspectives). The
narrator knows what each character is thinking and feeling, not just
what they are doing throughout the story. This type of narrator
usually jumps around within the text, following one character for a
few pages or chapters, and then switching to another character for
a few pages, chapters, etc. Omniscient narrators also sometimes
step out of a particular characters mind to evaluate him or her in
some meaningful way.
Rhythm - often thought of as a poems timing. Rhythm is the
juxtaposition of stressed and unstressed beats in a poem, and is often
used to give the reader a lens through which to move through the work.
(See meter and foot)
Setting - the place or location of the action. The setting provides the
historical and cultural context for characters. It often can symbolize the
emotional state of characters. Example In Poes The Fall of the House of
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Usher, the crumbling old mansion reflects the decaying state of both the
family and the narrators mind. We also see this type of emphasis on
setting in Thomas Manns Death in Venice.
Speaker - the person delivering the poem. Remember, a poem does not
have to have a speaker, and the speaker and the poet are not necessarily
one in the same.
Structure (fiction) - The way that the writer arranges the plot of a story.
Look for: Repeated elements in action, gesture, dialogue,
description, as well as shifts in direction, focus, time, place, etc.
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Useful phrases for analysing texts
Task 1:
The text at hand / the given text is [an extract/excerpt from] [a
short story/speech/newspaper article/novel/poem a.s.o.] written by []
[and published in (the New York Times etc.) on [date] / in [year]. It is
about / deals with / treats of / describes / is concerned with / presents
[topic = general topic, no details!].
The general/essential/main idea expressed is
The [author/writer/speaker/poet] starts off by [+ gerund, e.g. stating
that ].
He/She goes on by [+ gerund]
He/She speaks about / discusses / gives his (her) opinion on /
expresses his (her) view concerning / holds the view that /
comments on / presents the thesis that / draws (come) to the
conclusion that
Use the present tense; dont quote; use neutral language, i.e. dont
evaluate; use your own words / paraphrase.
Task 2:
In the following, Im going to [say what you are about to do, e.g.
characterise Molly while putting special emphasis on the reasons for
her behaviour in this excerpt cf. task!]
When analysing the structure of a text:
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The text/story/speech can be divided into / is divided into / falls into / is
composed of / contains / consists of [] parts / paragraphs / chapters /
sections.
The first / [] / last part / paragraph / sentence constitutes / gives us /
comprises the introduction / central problem / principal part / solution.
In the first / [] / last part the author varies the theme / changes the
topic / goes into detail / passes from to
When characterising:
The author describes the characteristics / outer appearance /
intellectual qualities / mood / activities / social and psychological
condition / character traits of
The author gives a realistic / detailed description of / only gives a
rough description of ..
The character is described / presented / characterised as
The basic traits of As character are
One of As striking characteristics is
When analysing rhetorical / stylistic devices:
The author makes use of / employs
This is done in order to stress / put emphasis on / emphasise / draw
attention to / highlight
The author wants to involve the readers/listeners by [+ gerund] /
convince them of
He/She wants to appeal to (e.g. the readers conscience)
He/She wants to imply / implies that
He/She wants to arouse interest / simplify / illustrate
He/She refers to an example
He7She makes use of / employs / uses formal / informal / colloquial
words / expression / language.
This word / phrase / expression refers to / underlines / emphasises /
means / stands for
When referring to the text:
As it is written in l./ll.:
As one can read in l./ll.
This is indicated by l./ll. where it is said that
This can be proven with l./ll.
L./ll. () suggest(s) that as it is said that
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Try not to repeat what youve already written in task 1.
ANALYSE doesnt mean SUMMARISE, i.e. read between the lines.
Task 3:
Task 3 can either be an EVALUATION (i.e. pro- and counter-arguments +
own opinion) or a RE-CREATION OF TEXT (e.g. a diary entry).
You usually DONT quote in task 3, but for a re-creation of text task it
might be necessary to refer to the text again (e.g. in case youre asked
to refute an argument etc.)
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