English Literature 1

***LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCES BTW ROMANCE&NOVEL (pwp)

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Northpop Frye (literary critic), Anatomy of criticism (1957)

Formalist and structuralism approach to literature.

Analisi della storia della letteratura; studiare scientificamente un testo]

The main differences btw romance and novel are in the conception of characterization and Frye illustrates

this idea by setting down a series of opposing qualities, which characterize the two forms.

“The romancer does not attempt to create “real people” so much as stylized figures which expand

into psychological archetypes. It is in the romance that we find Jung’s libido, anima, and shadow

reflected in the hero, heroine, and villain respectively. That is why romance so often radiates a glow

of subjective intensity that the novel lacks, and why a suggestion of allegory is constantly creeping

in around its fringes. Certain elements of character are released in the romance, which make it

naturally a more revolutionary form than the novel. The novelist deals with personality, with

characters wearing their personae (:latin name for masks, masks that the actors have to wear to

the theatre in order to be …by the public) or social masks. He needs the framework of a stable

society, and many of our best novelists have been conventional to the verge of fussiness. The

romancer deals with individuality, with characters in vacuo idealized by revery.(AC, 304–5)” CIT.

[Con persona si indica quella maschera sociale che si indossava per essere accettati nella società, in

questo caso si tratta di adattamento dell’individuo alla società; cioè non essere rivoluzionari, per

rimanere nel Sistema]

Archetypal literary criticism

When Frey introduces the idea of psychological archetypes, in order to describe the characters in the

romance, he is availing himself of the archetypal literary criticism (type of critical theory analyses

text by focusing on meanings and archetypes present in the text itself) so he introduces the idea of

psychological archetypes in order to describe the characters in the romance.

The origin of archetypal literary criticism are rooted in two other academic disciplines that are social

anthropology (Frazer) and psychoanalysis (Jung, founder of analytical psychology). Jung works

theorizes ‘bout the function of archetypes in relation to the unconscious.

“Myths as “culturally elaborated representations of the contents of the deepest recess of the human

psyche: the world of the archetypes” (Jung)

The psychology of Jung distinguish btw the personal and the collective unconscious, he considers

collective unconscious as important to archetypal criticism.

Collective unconscious is a number of emotions, feelings, instincts, memories which relights in the

unconscious of all people

[Frey ha chiamato in gioco l’archetipo, si rifà a una forma di teoria critica che è la teoria critica

archetipica, che affonda le sue origini in altre due discipline accademiche, cioè l’antropologia sociale

il cui maggior esponente è Frazer con Il rame d’oro, che influenzò fortemente la scrittura di TS Eliot

e in particolare The West Land, e la psicoanalisi di Jung, che nel suo approccio psicoanalitico si

focalizza sul mito e si focalizza sugli archetipi mettendoli in relazione con l’inconscio.

Per Jung esiste un inconscio collettivo + personale, quello collettivo è un insieme di emozioni,

pensieri e istinti presenti in un ampio gruppo di persone e condivise, in maniera innata. Questo ci

permette di leggere nei testi letterari il ricorrere di idee e di miti. E.g. we can analyze the Lion King

and we can find there the story of Amlet, we can do this thanks to this collective unconscious.]

Jung points out 4 types of archetypes: shadow. Anima, animus and self.

a) Persona; it’s that we present in the out world, it is not our real identity (maschera sociale),

b) Ego; center of consciousness, it refers to the conscious part of psyche,

c) Shadow; dark, unknown, potential dangerous,

d) Anima; female personality, as it is represented in the male unconscious,

e) Animus; male personality, as it is represented in the female unconscious,

f) Self; archetype that contains all the archetypes.

Anima + Animus make the soul, our true self, source of our creativity.

[Archetypes: schemi di base universali, I più importanti sono quelli legati alla persona]

Other archetypes

Story archetypes:

The hero----champion

 The heroine-----purity, desire

 The wise old man: knowledge

 Magician: mysterious, powerful

 [Ci si sposta dagli archetipi del sé a veri archetipi, collegati alla narrazione (romance) in cui

non si ha a che fare con un personaggio reale, ma ideale]

Family archetypes:

The father----powerful, controlling

 The mother-----feeding , nurturing

 The child : birth, salvation, beginning



19 ottobre 2015

Film Theory

They focus their attention on semiotic and psychoanalysis to analyze the ways in which the film function as a system of

language.

They think that individual engaged with the world is conditioned by large structures or systems. These structures are

inescapable (he has no control on his position) and are subjects to their processes.

The first attempt to understand film is in 1960 in psychological terms when Münsterberg wrote in 1916, The

Photoplay: A Psychological Study parallel between the structure of the human mind and the filmic experience.

Mustemberg analyses only the conscious mind, not the unconscious mind.

From 1960, there is a focus on the conscious mind predominated.

Jacques Lacan (psychoanalysis) idea of the mirror stage; focus on the process of spectator identification. This process

was understand thanks to Lacan’s study.

According to Lacan the mirror stage takes place in the infant btw 6 and 18 months, this mirror stage refers to the

misrecognition of the infant himself while looking in the mirror. The infant looks in the mirror, he perceives his

fragmented body as a whole, and he identifies himself with this illusion unity. He assumes control on his body and this

self-deception forms the basis for the development of the ego of the infant.

[lo sviluppo della teoria filmica si rifà alla semiotica e alla psicoanalisi, basati sulla comprensione di strutture che

controllano il modo in cui gli individui si rapportano con il mondo, non possiamo sfuggire alle strutture e siamo soggetti

ai processi di queste strutture. E’ importante la fase dello specchio di Lacan, il bambino guardandosi nello specchio si

riconosce come un tutto, questa esperienza prima non ce l’aveva perché prima allo specchio non si differenzia dalla

mamma. Il percepirsi come un tutto crea un’idea di potenza che permette la formazione dell’io del bambino]

According to film theorists, the film screen is a mirror and through the screen, the spectator can identify himself as ego

and can have this sense of power. The power is suggested by the identification with the camera itself. The spectator sees

all, but he remains unseen in the dark cinema room, he is passive. He has the power ‘cos he sees and controls all, but

remains unseen. The camera activity is hidden to create the idea of power, classical Hollywood film use to hide it. (the

link btw Lacan and cinema is based on the analogy btw the film screen and the mirror. The screen is a mirror through

which the spectator can identify himself and he can have the illusion of power)

[Nello schermo lo spettatore si riflette e riceve una visione potenziata del suo io, nella scena possiamo potenziare le

nostre capacità d’azione (qualcosa che nella vita non riusciamo a portare a termine e noi pur essendo passivi, abbiamo

l’impressione di controllo sull’azione perché ci si identifica con lo sguardo della telecamera, infatti la telecamera è

nascosta per permettere ciò, nel film Hollywoodiano, mentre il film sperimentale lo denuncia e mostra la finzione

dell’azione filmica]

1. The first critic is devoted to the passivity of the spectator; every spectator receive the same meaning from the film

2. Because Lacan notion of oedipal development is experienced only by male children so the theory is valid only for male

spectators (idea of gender and feminism)

3. These theories do not take in consideration cultural, social and historical transformation, they imply that all the male

spectators will response to film language in the same ways regardless these context (connected to postcolonial studies,

idea of racial)

“Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (1975), L. Mulvey (feminist position), film language is controlled by a male

❖ controlled system and designed for the benefit of male pleasure (connected to the idea of looking, link with the attempt

of the female image). It is necessary for women to invent a new type of film language that is not controlled by male.

[donna è sempre in posizione di sudditanza nella scelta delle inquadrature]

Manthia Diawara and Jaqueline Bobo; psychoanalytic theory of spectatorship ignores the importance of race, viewers

❖ have the capacity to resist dominant readings and to establish oppositional prospective. J. Bobo focuses attention of

African, American female spectators and she underlines the idea of gender and race. The spectators are empty, they can

analyse the film and introduce a new prospective.

Teresa de Lauretis, Andrea Weiss and Patricia White (gay and lesbian theorists); they focus on the idea of lesbian

❖ spectators desire, ‘cos this challenges the traditional heterosexual and create new possibility of spectatorship.

is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you

“My task, which i’m trying to achieve

feel — it is, before all, to make you see” Joseph Conrad, Preface,emphasis on the idea of seeing. Conrad

introduces the link btw literature and the act of seeing. The nigger of the Narcissus… …

“btw the percept of..” he stresses the fact that the main difference btw media lit and film is a difference traced

back to the visual image on one hand and the mental image on the other, in using image to describe the link

btw film and lit, he stresses the connective link of seeing. It is difficult to establish a mental image and visual

image, ‘cos of the role of imagination, thanks to the imagination the distinction btw mental and visual image is

not so clear. [Film Theory sviluppato a partire dagli anni ‘70 in maniera netta, Blueston evoca queste due

citazioni si enfatizza il potere del vedere nel cinema e nella litteratura; Bluestone dice che la differenza sta tra

la percezione tra immagini visive e quelle mentali, image = link tra letteratura e cinema. Nella sua trattazione

afferma che immagini mentali si distinguono a fatica da quelle evocate dallo stimolo non verbale, entrambe

sono condizionate dall’immaginazione, da ricordi di altre immagini, vissuti.]

Bluestone is theorizing the position of th