January 29, 2007
Oh, Melville
"As he thus responded, Captain Delano again glanced at Don Benito, but the latter's eyes were averted; while abruptly and awkwardly shifting the subject, he made some peevish allusion to the calm, and then, without apology, once more, with his attendant, withdrew to the opposite bulwarks, where the whispering was resumed."
When I read these lines, I thought they described the relationship between the two seaman. Delano is wanting to help, but Don Benito doesn't care for his attempt and leaves Delano wiht little or no information. When Delano goes to other sailors to find the story out, Cereno abruptly interupts like there is something that is not allowed to be public.
This came after Benito questioned Delano's approval of his seaman going on midnight fishing parties and not being well armed.
Cereno is a strange man who is very nervous at all times and aloof. Delano is seen as a patient, forgiving man that figures out that Cereno is both sick and perhaps a little mentally troubled due to all his problems with his ship and crew.
This line gave me a funny feeling about Benito's servant; however, earlier he said he trusted his servant, Babo.
As I read on, I also found another line that also showed the feelings towards one another.
"There was a difference between the idea of Don Benito's darkly preordaining Captain Delano's fate, and Captain Delano's lightly arranging Don Benito's."
It seems that Benito dislikes Delano's presence on his ship and is stirring up a lot more trouble with his crew. To me, Delano wants to help Benito all he can, but this is troublesome because he can never hold a steady conversation due to his illness and his servant constantly pulling him away.
Posted by Denamarie at 12:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 28, 2007
What is Literature?
"The Formalists started out be seeing the literary work as a more or less arbirtraray assemblage of 'devices', and only later came to see these devices as interrelated elements or 'functions' within a total textual system."
To the Formalists, the application of linguistics to the study of literature was essential. They passed over the 'content' and studied far into the 'form'. The content was the motivation of form. This then helps explain why the Formalists started out seeing literary works with an assembly of devices and then finally seeing that the devices intertwined with functions within the story.
Devices were the content of the of stories; however, the functions of the devices help build the form within the piece of literature.
Earlier in the reading, the author came up with an idea that maybe "literature is not whether it is fiction or 'imaginative', but because of the language in peculiar ways." The Formalists were not necessarily out to define literature, but 'literariness'. Literariness is the special uses of language that could be found not only in literary texts but also in many places outside them. Special uses of language could be rhythm, syntax, rhyme, metaphor, similie and well as narrative techniques. These special usages of language also help define the form of the literary text.
It seems that the language, form, devices and literariness all come together to to show how the Formalists went from content to form and devices to device interrelated with function.
Posted by Denamarie at 3:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 27, 2007
Tradition and the Individual Talent
"The emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living."
I chose these lines because they are very intense and passionate about this subject; however, i am a bit confused on whether I completely understand what Eliot is trying to say. T.S. Eliot speaks strongly about a poet having emotion that is impersonal, that is lacking human emotion. I am not entirely sure if Eliot is saying that poets need to step away from their own personal emotions to write a great piece of poetry or that they need to be aware that if their personal emotions are in the poem it will allow for a reader to understand why they wrote a certain piece due to the poet's past.
Eliot also goes on to say that the poet needs to understand that his work is essential and that if his own emotions go into what he is writing then he is not entirely committing himself to the work.
The last line is very deep and hard to make of. If anyone would like to take a shot at it, it would really help me as well.
Posted by Denamarie at 6:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
AESTHETICS
Aesthetics is known as the study of beauty in nature and the arts. This term is relevant to literary criticism because it looks at the relationship between the beauty and the truth. The two main parts of aestheticism are the philosophical approach that allows for questions relating to nature or definition of beauty as well as the psychological approach that looks into the perception, origins, and effects of beauty. The branch of philosophy deals a lot with the nature and expression of beauty, as in the fine arts; while, the psychological aspect looks at the readers response to the beauty and artistic experiences within the literature. In literary aesthetics, the study of effect shows the deep structures of reading and receiving literary works. These effects may be grouped by their types of writing and the relationship that the reader assumes with time.
I think the philosophical and psychological aspects of this type of criticism is very interesting and makes the critic really delve into the story.
Posted by Denamarie at 2:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
General Introduction
"...forms of criticism that orient toward "reality" or "life as experienced outside of art" are at once the most venerable and the most popular. Because they are chiefly concerned with measuring the accuracy or "truth" of the characters and actions presented in literature, these approaches are traditionally labeled "mimetic"."
After reading the entire general introduction, I skimmed over it again and found myself reading this line over again. This line seems to describe my whole life of reading literature. I need to know the truth about the story as well as how it relates to the real world or. The mimetic criticism assumes literary works to be reflections or representations of life and the world in general. I think that everyone likes to read stories that they can relate to and see how they dealt with the problem at hand.
The story must be true and portray the subject matter to an art form. I enjoyed this quote because of the truth and reality that is a part of the mimetic criticism. I like to over analyze everything in stories and make sure it is based upon something reliable and relatable to life. If a story is parallel to the real world, I am more interested when reading it then I would if I read something that is false about life and the world.
Posted by Denamarie at 1:36 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack