English Literature 1 - appunti completi per l'esame

English literature 1

Fundamental features of the novel

Plot: is the essentially of the story, the events that make up what the novel is about. In a novel, the plot is about everyday life and human experiences, and this is in contrast with the romance, in which the plot is about history, mythology etc. The novelists set their story in a precise time and space.

Characters and their developments: here we go from simply sketches for the secondary characters to high detailed biographies for the main characters. There is a great attention to the particulars (very often the name of a character is the title of the novel, this is the so-called individuality, and we can find it for example in Jane Eyre or Robinson Crusoe).

Writing style: it means how a novel is written. Literary fictions have long and complicated sentences; thrillers have short and effective sentences. In general, different styles are used for different aims.

Length: we can notice it if we compare novels and short stories.

Fictionality: distinguishes between novel and historiography. It is a problematic criterion because (in early modern period) authors of historical accounts include inventions in order to give credibility. In novels, authors included social and political elements.

Chapter 13 – The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowls – 1969

The French Lieutenant’s Woman was written in 1969 but is set in the mid-19th century and mimics a Victorian novel. However, in chapter 13 we have a digression, this metafictional chapter reflects on the role of the author, the reader and the characters, and there is a comparison between these problems in the Victorian period and in the postmodern period.

This chapter is a clear example of metafiction/metanovel: that is a form of literature that emphasizes its own construction and constantly reminds the reader to be aware that they are reading the production of the author's fantasy, of a fictional work. Metafiction is mostly associated with post-modern literature (1970) but in reality, we can find examples of it even in Shakespeare (metatheatre).

Metahistory and grand narrative

Metahistory is invented by Hayden White in the 20th century and is a new perspective of history as something that combines:

• Historical details
• Theatrical approach, which is necessary to approach the details
• Narrative structure for the presentation of dates

History is not an objective account, and it becomes a union of historical details and narration. Novel tells a fiction, historiography is connected with the idea of telling reality.

Victorian novels used to describe social, political details with the presence of historical account that include fictional (e.g. Oliver Twist).

Grand narrative/metanarrative were introduced by the historian Jean François Lyotard in the post-modern era 1979. It is a narrative about stories of historical meaning, experiences, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a master idea. The global schemes are created by power and they control our knowledge (e.g. Freud).

Post-modern comment on this method because they try to give a particular perception, so we do not have a universal explanation and it depends on various things.

Analysis of the text

The chapter starts with an epigraph, which is a phrase, a quotation or a poem that is set at the beginning of a document or a component. It may serve as preface, as a summary, as a counter-example or to link work to a wider literary canon, or to invite comparison between books.

In this case, thanks to the epigraph we can compare two books (this comparison was not wanted by the author but was made by the 20th-century reader).

Chapter 13 - The French Lieutenant's Woman Possession (by Antonio Byatt)

In both cases, we are dealing with metanovels and there is the presence of both Victorian novel and post-modern novel.

The most important points that are analysed in the book are:

• Reflection on the role of the author
• Reflection on the role of the reader
• Ascent narrator
• Fictionalised aspects of reality
• Real connections of fiction

Reflection on the role of the author

The epigraph evokes the Victorian novels, and makes the reader understand the time setting. The word “marker” refers to God, and the quote says that it is impossible to know what God wants (it is important to know that during the Victorian age the author was considered as God).

• “I don’t know” this phrase in the text is without complement of object so it stresses the idea that for the author it is impossible to know everything. He is also announcing that he lost his God power that he had during the Victorian age; from now on he is not a Victorian author anymore like he was in the 12 chapters before.
• “this story I’m telling…” in this passage the author is destroying his authority and transforming into a post-modern author (Victorian age authors used to convince the reader that they were telling the truth and they knew that they had the same perspective of reality as the reader).

Fictional aspect of reality

In a novel, there are usually two levels of reality:

• The reality of the author’s existence (superior level during the Victorian age)
• The reality of his characters

• “this character I create…” he is now reflecting on the ontological levels of reality of the author and the characters. He is breaking the differences between the two levels so sometimes in the passage the author enters the level of his characters (post-modern novels). So there is a questioning on the perception of reality.
• Ex. The Truman Show (questioning reality)
• Ex. Elon Musk thinks that our reality is just a simulation
• “I” is introducing the author in the narration. However, is this I of the author or the narrator? Even if the “I” is of the author, he is projecting himself in the narration, so he is a fiction “I”. Even an autobiography is fictional because you can introduce what you want in it. In fact, the author is in the narrative. His voice enters the fictional world to clarify the positions of the ontological structures and to declare his fictionality.

The connection between fiction and reality is always present and is underlined by the fact that the author now finds himself in the narrative, and before he was outside. The consciousness of the difference between outside and inside is important because it points out that the hope of the Victorian age of creating an authoritarian voice is now no longer important.

The author in the phrases seems to declare that he is entering the book in a symbolic way thanks to the literary devices.

Role of the reader

The chapter analyses the different levels of time:

• Now of the moment (1969) which was when the novel was written
• Now of the story (Victorian period)
• Now the moment of reading

The author introduces the distance between writing and reading and he focuses the attention on the distance between the author and the reader: the book has different interpretations and it depends on the time and place the reader is reading the book.

During the Victorian age, the reader was a passive reader. He accepted what in the text was offered and how it was offered.

The post-modern reader is an active reader; in fact, the reader is called to make hypotheses about the meaning of the text. In making implicit connections and filling in the gaps.

• Ex. “what you will” calls the critique of the reader. Reader response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses its attention on the reader and his critiques.

Features of the school

• They consider that literature is a performing art and that every chapter of reading is a performance.
• Literary text has no final meaning or values, no final interpretation, final meanings are created by the direction of the reader and the text. BUT Walfer Iser assured that the text in part controls the act of interpretation even if in it there are gaps.
• “perhaps it is only a game…” makes us understand that the readers must challenge themselves to try to understand some parts of the text, which are typical of the post-modern novels.

In the texts, two authors are quoted:

• Rob Grillet who moved from modernism to post-modernism, from structuralism to a post-structuralism way of seeing a poem. These are two critique movements.
• Structuralism: the function of the critiques is to decipher the meaning of the text.
• Post structuralism: plurality of meaning, and impossibility of the critique to decipher this meaning.
• Roland Barthes who talked about the death of the author.

Real connection of fiction

In many passages, the voice of the narrator and the characters enters in conflict. The character of Sarah has a particular life not influenced by the author. In this passage, Sarah is challenging the author; this is called theological activity that opens the text to various interpretations. Anti-theological implies the idea of death of the author.

In the passage on one hand, the author seems to deny the existence of God, but on the other hand, he still evokes his definitions. This idea can be explained by the definition of meta narrative: he is trying to destroy the idea of God but at the same time, he is forced to use it to explain his condition.

Victorian age (1837-1901)

The Victorian age is the period of Queen Victoria’s reign. During this era in Great Britain, there were progress, expansion and mobility.

Progress (scientific and technological innovation)

During this period there was an optimistic point of view of progress, but it also preoccupied society, which was conscious of the fact that there were different changes in every aspect of life. In fact, there was a development of circulating libraries, greater cities, increasing population, development in culture, mapping of other lands, commercial expansion, technological communication, and the expansion of government. All these aspects seem wonderful but thanks to literature, we know that the Victorian age society suffered from anxiety in a symbolic way. For example, Dickens expressed this idea thanks to fog, prison, contagious that evoked the idea of disease that can spread among society. This idea produced a preoccupation with interiority, the self, and a need to explore the inner self.

During the Victorian age, we had many scientific activities thanks to the cheaper access to printed material, science as a profession, government support for scientific studies, and greater literary notes. Scientific theories of Darwin were important such as the idea of natural selection and the survival of the fittest because they influenced the literary production of the 19th century. For example, “Time Machine” or “The Island of Mr. Monroe”.

Dickens for the first time rejects the idea of heredity as a factor which influences our formation of the self. In Oliver Twist he stressed the idea that we are only influenced by the environment we live in.

Darwin’s ideas also influenced Herbert Spencer who in his work “The Social Organism” applies the idea of the survival of the fittest to society and politics, giving birth to social darwinism (the stronger one will survive and get more powerful while the weaker one will disappear or die).

Thomas Henry was interested in science who wrote “The Two Culture Debate” in which there is a debate between men of literature and men of science.

• T.H Huxley
• Mr. Arnorld C.P
• Snow Lavis

They aren’t against literature, but they underline the importance of scientific education, while the other two underline the importance of literature and critique utilitarianism.

The Great Exhibition 1851

Is the world's first fair organised by Prince Albert. Its function was to show off the industry of technological innovation and to show England's great power. The structure was made of glass and metal to show Great Britain’s power.

Mobility (Opening of railways, telephones, and telegraphs)

The opening of railways permitted circulation in the country but also changed the perception of Victorian age people. People before used to look at things slowly, but now they look out of a train and looked at objects for a small amount of time, so they perceived reality in a different way, like in a film, and in fact, mirrors the creation of a movie.

With the creation of railways and the change in people perception also literature changes influenced by these factors. Enjrenstein was a famous director and wrote “Dickens Graffiti and the Film Today” where he talks about Dickens using parallel intercutting of scenes, a technique mostly used in cinema.

Parallel intercutting: two or more scenes of a movie are placed at the same time and they are intercut. It created suspense and is extremely useful because during the Victorian age because literature was published weekly or monthly (reason why sometimes there are subplots that disappear).

Railways were also connected with imperialism and colonialism:

• Imperialism: act of exploring territories that are outside your country boundaries for a variety of motives.
• Colonialism: involves the settling of territories and the reformation of the social structure, government, culture with the excuse of giving a civilisation to all non-European countries. (keeping white men burden)

Post colonialism studies: academic field of research where it is analysed the politics of knowledge, which is at the basis of colonialism and neo colonialism. Analysing the how and why of an imperialistic representation of the coloniser and the colonised. Edward Said wrote the book Orientalism that is at the base of post colonialism. He analyses the connotation of the word orientalism and he denounces the idea of orientalism, which is false and created by the oriental world, it is a misrepresentation of the middle east in general that represented as opposite east and west.

Society is based on a dichotomy like man and woman, active and passive etc.

• East west
• Irrational rational active passive

In the 20th century, the west feminised the east in order to control it because submission of women was popular.

• Homi Bhabha. His field of focus centres on the concepts of hybridization, mimicry and ambivalence, understanding that there exists a fluidity within cultural identities and borders – within colonizer – colonized interactions as well as the post-imperial world. He argued against Said’s concept of binary opposition, adopting a more deconstructionist approach that contested that the world was possessed of a cultural complexity that defied binary opposition.
• Franz Fanon, a psychoanalyst wrote Black Skin, White Masks where he focuses on the opposition between black people in a white world analysing also the psychoanalyst parts.
• Gayatri Spivack, focuses on the idea of double subordination of women.

During the Victorian age there was a great improvement in communication and number of people, also the literary market developed giving birth to mass literature, in fact at the end of this century the word best seller is coined. The triple decker volume is the way books during Victorian age were published, in order to solve economic problems. In this period born the idea of moving libraries.

Serialisation can be considered a key moment in the history of reading. Pickwick Papers written by Dickens were thanks to serialisation was affordable and a wider number of people could read it. Serialisation creates a new wave of literature and a new way of reading.

• Now every chapter must have a meaning and must be interesting, and according to some critiques serial literature shares some characteristics like the need of no closure, subplots, presentation of political issues.
• In addition, the experience of the reader changes because they read the book in a long period with gaps between every chapter. Also, the reader can make some choices like he has a sort of importance: for example, in 1895 the author of Sherlock Holmes kills him but the response of the audience was so negative that the author resurrects him.

Romance vs novel

Characters:

• Romance: is usually considered as the literary genre that existed before the novel. In romance, usually the characters are important members of the society belonging to a middle class. The character usually remains the same through the story and they are usually flat that is to say they only have one characteristic.
• Novel: is the genre of the 18th century and as characters, we have middle class people and sometimes is present an evolution.

Settings:

• Romance usually is vague and magnificent like castles.
• Novel has to be chronologically in order, time continuum must be measured by a clock or a calendar.

Plot:

• In Romance the plot it’s like a dream, usually there are no climax.
• In Novel there is usually a climax and elements linked to meaningful elements.

Language:

• In romance we can find the use of high languages with symbolism and difficult words.
• In novel the simple language is also used a direct with no symbolism or metaphors.

Tone:

• Romance - one type of tone through all romance. There is a use of emotion that are ideal.
• Novel uses tone that are real and change depending on what happens.

In Anatomy of Criticism (1957) Northrop Frye worked on the differences between literary criticism and literature and considered literary criticism an independent thing. According to him, the most important distinction between Romance and Novel is the idea of the characterization of the characters.

He sets down a series of elements:

• In romance we do not have real people, but psychological archetypes (soul and shadows are reflected in the hero, hero and the villain).
• Certain elements of the characters are released in the romance, which makes it naturally a more evolutionary form than the novel, because the novel does not work with the interiority, but with the social mask and the social position.

In Anatomy of Criticism Northrop Frye avails himself of Archetypes Literary Criticism (1934); it is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myth and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images and character types in literary work.