Unit 1: Rise of English as a Discipline
The literary methodology created by and associated with New Critics
Close Reading
the thorough and nuanced analysis of a literary text, with particular emphasis on the interrelationships among its constituent elements (allusions, images, sound effects, etc.). Also referred to as explication.
Close reading
Who wrote Gawain and the Green Knight?
The Pearl Poet
Carpe diem
seize the day!
“A recurrent, unifying element in an artistic work, such as an image, symbol, character type, action, idea, object, or phrase”
What is a motif?
“(1) The concluding section of a work. (2) A
speech that comes at the end of a play, often
requesting the appreciation of the audience
and kind reviews from critics.”
epilogue
The more or less regular rhythmic pattern
of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.
meter
a brief imaginative and melodic poem characterized by
the fervent but structured expression of the personal
thoughts and emotions of a single, first-
person speaker.
lyric
Identify and define the two fallacies New Critics avoid at all costs
Intentional and affective fallacy
A term that has been used at different times to refer to
a variety of fictional works involving some combination
of the following: high adventure, thwarted love,
mysterious circumstances, arduous quests, and
improbably triumphs.
romance
From the Italian word for “little song,” a lyric poem that typically consists of fourteen lines (usually printed as a single stanza) and that typically follows one of several conventional rhyme schemes. Sonnets may address a range of issues or themes, but love, the original subject of the sonnet, is perhaps still the most common.”
sonnet
A long and formal narrative poem written in an elevated style that recounts the adventures of a hero of almost mythic proportions who often embodies the traits of a nation or people.
epic
“giving a face to” or, a synonym for personification
Prosopopoeia
"the bond that links the
two rivals is as intense and potent as the
bond that links either of the rivals to the
beloved: that the bonds of “rivalry” and “love,”
differently as they are experienced, are
equally powerful and in many sense
equivalent."
Identify the author & text, explain the significance of the excerpt
Eve Sedgwick, Between Men
Explains the significance of the erotic triangle
Latin for “in the middle of things,” and it means starting a story in the middle of the action and explaining crucial events that occurred before the narrative begins through analepsis or flashbacks.
in medias res
Identify and describe two common themes in the Arthurian tradition
English Tradition: macho, martial, focused
on Arthur
Continental tradition: courtly intrigue, fin
amour, power of lady
catalogues the physical attributes of a subject, usually female.... Blazon compares parts of the female body to jewels, celestial bodies, natural phenomenon, and other beautiful or rare objects.
blazon
the evocation in a narrative of
scenes or events that took place at an earlier
point in the story
AND
the evocation in a narrative of
scenes or events that take place at a later
point in the story
Analepsis / Prolepsis
“The power to narrate, or to block other
narratives from forming and emerging, is very
important to culture and imperialism, and
constitutes one of the main connections
between them”.
(Identify work & author, and the significance of the quote, including any key literary devices/terms)
Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said
Speaks of the post-colonial importance placed on the agency of storytelling as a tool of resistance, and a primary means for national identity creation
I’ the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic,
Would I admit; no name of magistrate,
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty—”
The Tempest, Shakespeare
Evokes Sir Thomas More's concept of Utopia; speaks to the idea of the island as colonial fodder
A term that began to be used, with considerable
variation, in the latter half of the twentieth century...to refer to a period beginning around the latter half of the fifteenth century in Western Europe and extending to some point between the mid- seventeenth century and the end of the eighteenth century.
Early modern
“’I’m not here to idle in your hall this evening.
But because your acclaim is so loudly chorused,
and your castle and brotherhood are called the best,
the strongest men to ever mount the saddle,
the worthiest knights ever known to the world,
both in competition and true combat,
and since courtesy, so it’s said, is championed here,
I’m intrigued, and attracted to your door at this time”
Identify the text, author, and speaker, and describe the importance of this passage, including any key terms and stylistic devices
Gawain, the pearl poet, the green knight,
alliterative verse, chivalry, competition, Arthurian tradition
What's the difference between plot and story?
The story is what happens in a novel or short
story, and the plot is how that story is told.
In a play, a monologue delivered by
a character while alone on stage that reveals
inner thoughts, emotions, or other information
that the audience needs to know.
soliloquy
Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased take my daughter: but
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow: but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
Identify the author, text, and speaker. Explain the significance of the excerpt
Exemplifies the commodification of virginity, and thus women
A renewal of interest in many areas of human
endeavor, such as history, science, and
philosophy. Specifically, the impact on European culture by Byzantine scholars and texts after the 1453 Fall of Constantinople to the Turkish forces.
humanism
the literary, especially poetic, representation of or response to a visual work of art, such as a painting or
sculpture... may involve description or
analysis of the work itself or may focus on the writer’s
encounter with and experience of the work.
Ekphrasis
“a part of a thing represents its
whole”
Synecdoche
The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touched
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely ordered that there is no soul—
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard’st cry, which thou saw’st sink. Sit down, For thou must now know farther.
(Identify work & author, and the significance of the quote, including any key literary devices/terms)
The Tempest, Shakespeare
Introduces Prospero's sense of power: his control of natural forces, and his identity as Duke of Milan. Stage 1 of Freytag's pyramid, explaining the inciting incident of the play.
"The place of drawing the boundary between
the sexual and the not-sexual, like the place
of drawing the boundary between the realms
of the two genders, is variable, but is not
arbitrary”.
Identify author & text, explain significance of the excerpt
Eve Sedgwick, Between Men
Establishes homosocial/homoerotic behaviors as two ends of a spectrum
Explain the significance of the pentangle on Gawain's shield
“flawless in his five senses” (640)
“five fingers” (641)
“five wounds Christ received” (643)
"five joys” of Mary (646)
“friendship,” ”fraternity,” “purity,” “politeness,”
“pity” (652-654)
“That green silk girdle truly suited Sir Gawain/
...But our man bore the belt not merely for its
beauty,/...but to save his skin when presenting
himself,/without shield or sword, to the fatal
swing of/the axe” (2035-2042).
Identify the text & author, describe the significance of the passage
Gawain, the pearl poet
chivalry/breach in chivalry
Identify and Describe a key controversy within New Criticism
Inclusive or elitist: formal analysis can be inclusive regardless of outside knowledge, but also excludes those outside of formal education
Affective or Pathetic fallacy: How important are the author's intentions? The reader's background?
Give one example of a post-colonial reading of The Tempest
Prospero's treatment and characterization of Caliban
Identify the five stages of Freytag's Pyramid and describe their use
1) The introduction (containing an “inciting
moment” or “force”)
2) Rising action
3) Climax
4) Falling action
5) Catastrophe
Gustav Freytag’s conception of the structure of a typical five-act play, esp. Shakespeare’s
Identify three trends that account for the shift from the middle ages to modernity
1) the Protestant Reformation;
2) Renaissance humanism imported to England;
3) the growth of print culture and literacy; publication of the English Bible
4) urbanization;
5) emerging capitalism, leading to greater geographical and social mobility, as well as colonization
6) the rise of the monarchial court as the conceptual center of the English nation
7) the rise of acting companies and professional theatre
8) the Scientific Revolution.
Happy ye leaves when as those lily hands,
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might,
Shall handle you and hold in love's soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,
Written with tears in heart's close-bleeding book.
And happy rhymes bath'd in the sacred brook,
Of Helicon whence she derived is,
When ye behold that Angel's blessed look,
My soul's long-lacked food, my heaven's bliss.
Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.
Edmund Spenser’s Sonnet 1 from his Amoretti
Praise of the lady, misery of the lover, Introduction of a series of sonnets, immortality in print
“I was ignorant. I was near age fourteen. The sky is
just about the size of my ignorance.”
(Identify work & author, and the significance of the quote, including any key literary devices/terms)
"Saint Marie", Louise Erdrich
Analepsis: signifies character growth and loss of ignorance/innocence in a coming-of-age narrative. Exemplifies the reliance of COA on the past / temporal differences.
"In any male-dominated society, there is a
special relationship between male
homosocial (including homosexual) desire
and the structures for maintaining and
transmitting patriarchal power”
Identifies the social reproduction of toxic masculinity and compulsive heterosexuality
I must eat my dinner.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me
Water with berries in't, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island.
Identify the passage. How would a post-colonial critic evaluate this text?
Tempest, act 1 scene 2, Caliban speaking
Speaks of Caliban's place as the "native", discusses the exploitation of both native knowledge and native resources by preventing Caliban from full access to the island
“I am the weakest of your warriors and feeblest of wit;
loss of my life would be least lamented.
Were I not your nephew my life would mean nothing;
to be born of your blood is my body’s only claim.
Such a foolish affair is unfitting for a king,
so being first to come forward, it should fall to me” (354- 359).
Identify the text, speaker, author, and describe the importance of the passage
Gawain, pearl poet, Gawain speaking
chivalry, competition, (false) humility
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
John Donne, “Death, be not proud”
metaphysical poetry, familiarity with death, scientific advancement (humanism)
Name 2 factors that contributed to the rise of English as a discipline
- John Hopkins University (1876) founded as a research university
- "Civilizing mission" of colonization and the English Education Act of 1835
- Post WWII New Critical school giving credence to English as a "scientific" discipline
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Robert Herrick “To the Virgins, to Make Much of
Time”
carpe diem poem
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Identify the author and title of the poem, Describe its significance, including historical context
John Donne, “Batter my heart, three-person'd God”
(Holy Sonnet 14)
unity between holiness and vulgarity, emphasis on experience, conflict between Catholicism & Protestantism - an attempt to involve the whole person in worship of God in the absence of orthodox traditions/rituals