Eagleton &
Vendler and Graff
Vendler and Graff
How does Eagleton define literature?
Essentially he defines literature as a semi-fluent social construct dependent on historical context, namely contemporary social ideologies and systems of power that dictate trends in relevancy and value-judgement.
Define sign, signifier, and signified
Sign - combination of signifier and signified
Signifier - the sound image, letters/morphemes that refer to signified
Signified - the thought image, conveyed by the signifier
Define Burke's terministic screens
reflection/selection/deflection of reality
From Fish: "A poem is not discovered, it is ____"
"Made", meaning the reader makes a text into a poem by reading it as such.
Give one example of a definition of literature that Eagleton gives and then refutes
1. Formalism - "Literature is a kind of writing which (...) represents an 'organized violence committed on ordinary speech'. Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech." This definition is flawed because it requires a "standard everyday" language that can then be refuted, and there are works that are considered "literature" that use "plain" speech.
2. Content - "Literature, then, we might say, is 'non-pragmatic' discourse: unlike biology textbooks (...) it serves no immediate practical purpose, but is to be taken as referring to a general state of affairs." The problem with this is "that literature cannot in fact be 'objectively' defined. It leaves the definition of literature up to how somebody decides to read, not to the nature of what is written."
3. Value Judgements - "By and large people term 'literature' writing which they think is good. (...) not necessarily in the sense that writing has to be 'fine' to be literary, but that it has to be of the kind that is judged fine." This definition makes literature an entirely subjective science, anything could be or not be literature based on entirely arbitrary reasons. "Value-judgements are notoriously variable," and change over time.
Explain what is meant by "difference without positive terms"
Explain how concepts are formed according to Nietzsche.
Nerve stimulus ->(metaphor)-> Image
Image ->(metaphor)-> Word
Word ->(immediately)-> Concept
[Concept ->(combine into)-> Order]
According to Fish, are poems subjective or objective?
Trick question, neither term is good. Not totally subjective, because not up to just one person, not objective because is determined by people. Interpretive communities determine how you see things.
"The drive to the formation of ____ is the fundamental human drive"
Metaphor; but not in a "literary" level, a deeper sense of metaphor. Metaphor as transfer of something across form, from ideas to words, any form of the verb "to be" (am/is/are/was)
Who does Bloom believe are the two authors who comprise the Western Canon, and why?
Shakespeare and Dante, because everyone else "is what they have absorbed and what absorbs them."
Vendler asks us to remember our “innocent first encounter” with literature, while Graff says there is no such thing, and that all encounters are "mediated." What does Graff mean?
Vendler argues that there is an innocent experience that is not yet contaminated by discourse. Graff argues that discourse is important and that all literature is mediated by the reader's own experience, there is no experience of literature that occurs in a total vacuum, you will always be influenced by factors in your life.
What is the difference between misunderstanding in the Representative Model versus Saussure's Model?
Representative - human error at any step
Saussure - all communication is misunderstanding with small enough differences
Explain the difference between Nietzsche's "Rational" human and "Intuitive" human.
Rational - takes concepts seriously
Intuitive - plays with concepts
Bloom talks about the "School of resentment" (comprised of feminists, African American theorists, etc) named because they "resent aesthetic values." Why would they resent "great literature?"
Because they focus more on the topic and the analysis, and believe the point of a work is the meaning and political messages of it. Aesthetic values, like appreciation of technical values, are laid by the wayside and are seen as masks for racist/sexist/etc values (because aesthetic writing has always been by and for white men).
Give an argument either in favor of or against Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize win. Defend your position using one of the readings from class.
*give a good argument and back it up with something*
What is the relationship between the signifier and the signified
Nothing. The relationship is arbitrary and conventional, meaning there is nothing that ties them together except the fact that societally we say it does.