HS204: Introduction to Literature

HS204: Introduction to Literature Instructors: V.Sarma (Poetry), N. Talwar (Drama 1), M. Malshe (Drama 2) and S. Shastri (Short Fiction) Aims of the class: appreciate, evaluate texts, understand literary devices/ language, read critically

Administrative information • Course in-charge: N. Talwar • Evaluation: Quiz (4x5=20), Mid and EndSem each (2x20=40) • Attendance: Proxy (lowering of letter grade), surprise quiz • Texts: Xerox the handout for poetry, read the required poems ahead of class • Course webpage: www.hss.iitb.ac.in/classnotes.htm; Link HS204 • Lecture schedule (see handout)

Basic questions about Literature • What is literature, anyway? • Why study literature? • How do you study literature? • Is there literature that's worth studying and literature that isn't? How do we make the distinction? • How does one critically think about and read literature?

What is literature? • Literature is literally “acquaintance with letters” (Latin littera meaning “an individual written character/letter”). The term has come to identify a collection of texts. As a proper noun it refers to a whole body of literary work • We are concerned more with imaginative or creative writing. The kind of writing that is not real. • A text is a creation of the poet/author/dramatist available to an audience and meant to create an impact – intellectual and emotional • Words are the literary artist’s tools. Literature is verbal art.

Why study literature? • We study literature because it enriches us; for wisdom, for entertainment, for an understanding of diverse human experiences. • We study literature because it is profound, beautiful and moving. • We study literature because it is an excellent way to sharpen your close reading skills, enable critical thinking, and refine our general sense of art appreciation.

How do we study literature? • There are many critical ways to approach a text including the formalist, biographical, historical, textual, psychological, mythological, sociological, deconstructionist, feminist, or reader-response, semiotic etc. • Formalist critics focus on the formal elements of a text. They examine the relationship between form and meaning, emphasizing how a work is arranged. This kind of close reading pays special attention to diction, figures of speech, plot, characterization, narrative technique, rhyme schemes, metre etc. Formalists look at how these elements work together to give shape to a work while contributing to its meaning. Information that goes beyond the text - biography, history, politics, economics, and so on - are regarded as extrinsic.

Theories of literature • Imitative theory Aristotle (384-322BC Poetics), mimesis, recreation, representation; art refines nature, learn about nature • Expressive Theory Artist expresses his/her feelings • Affective theory Work of art arouses emotion in / affects the reader

What is good literature and what is bad literature? Lasting impression Fleeting Stretches the imagination, complex Formulaic, simple Aesthetically pleasing, artistic Ordinary, no real aesthetic value Message traverses culture and Immediate value, no time permanence Accepted into the ‘canon’ Not on the list

Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare-1 To works, however, of which the excellence is not absolute and definite, but gradual and comparative; to works not raised upon principles demonstrative and scientifick, but appealing wholly to observation and experience, no other test can be applied than length of duration and continuance of esteem. What mankind have long possessed they have often examined and compared, and if they persist to value the possession, it is because frequent comparisons have confirmed opinion in its favour. As among the works of nature no man can properly call a river deep or a mountain

Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare-2 high, without the knowledge of many mountains and many rivers; so in the productions of genius, nothing can be stiled excellent till it has been compared with other works of the same kind. Demonstration immediately displays its power, and has nothing to hope or fear from the flux of years; but works tentative and experimental must be estimated by their proportion to the general and collective ability of man, as it is discovered in a long succession of endeavours. Of the first building that was raised, it might be with certainty determined that it was round or square, but whether it was

Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare-3 spacious or lofty must have been referred to time. The Pythagorean scale of numbers was at once discovered to be perfect; but the poems of Homer we yet know not to transcend the common limits of human intelligence, but by remarking, that nation after nation, and century after century, has been able to do little more than transpose his incidents, new name his characters, and paraphrase his sentiments.

Critically thinking about and reading literature • ANALYZE: What does the passage mean, literally? • INTERPRET: What does it mean figuratively? How do you read it and what suggests that this is a valid interpretation? • QUESTION: What problems are suggested by the reading? What philosophical question(s) does the reading inspire? • SYNTHESIZE: How does this reading compare or contrast in content/form with what you've read before? • EVALUATE: The writing. What criteria do you use to establish this judgment? What defines a first rate poem, play, story etc?

Example: from The Elder Edda, "Words of the High One" The coward believes he will live foreverIf he holds back in the battle.But in old age he shall have no peaceThough spears have spared his limbs. Cattle die, kindred die,Every man is mortal:But I know one thing that never dies,The glory of the great deed. (The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. 13th century.)

Elder Edda -2 • ANALYZE, LITERAL MEANING (paraphrase): This excerpt tells us that only cowards would think to save their own lives rather than fight the battle to the end. But surviving thus, the coward will not have any piece of mind; he'll be tormented right into old age. It's better to die, since every living thing is mortal anyway. But the great deed is immortal. So, it's better to die in battle and possibly achieve great deeds rather than preserve mortal life.

Elder Edda - 3 • INTERPRET, SYMBOLIC MEANING The battle may be symbolic of life itself. Just living life may be a battle but, this poet tells us, only cowards choose to turn their back on it. If we let life pass us by and not seize the moment then we'll have nothing in old age but regrets. Better to perform the ‘great deeds’ without fear of loss. Life and death also equated with success and failure, loving and losing, sadness and happiness etc. • QUESTION What are ‘great deeds’? Personally, culturally, historically?

Elder Edda-4 • SYNTHESIZE (excerpt from Homer’s The Iliad, Book IX) Of possessions cattle and fat sheep are things to be had for the lifting,and tripods can be won, and the tawny high heads of horses,but a man's life cannot come back again, it cannot be liftednor captured again by force, once it has crossed the teeth's barrier.For my mother Thetis the goddess of the silver feet tells meI carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death. Either,if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans,my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting;but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers,the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long lifeleft for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly.And this would be my counsel to others also, to sail backhome again… (Achilles’ response to Odysseus) • EVALUATE

HS204: Introduction to Literature