A Study in Style

1. Literature: Reading to Write Chapter 4 A Study in Style

2. What is it? • Style is the “dress” worn by literature; it’s what helps a work make a statement to the world. • Style in literature consists of many elements: • Syntax: how sentences, dialog, or verses are arranged • Diction: how the author chooses words • Tone: how the work conveys emotion • Everything you're already familiar with (imagery, symbols, metaphors, critical tools) • Style is another way we as readers can consider to interpret the meaning of a story.

3. How do we use it? • Take a look at the passages on pages 102-103; this is a comparison or William Faulkner’s and Earnest Hemingway’s styles. • The two authors have very distinct styles; look at them. • LRW pages 102-103 • How are the two different in terms of style?

4. Faulkner • Faulkner's passage is considerably longer than Hemingway's; Faulkner is more wordy, so we might say his syntax and diction are more complex. • Faulkner layers (or piles on) clauses in his writing, where Hemingway uses compound sentences. This is a simpler style. Some might say Faulkner is too wordy. • Each author's style reflects the content they focus on in their stories; Faulkner is concerned with psychology, so his passage flows like consciousness. Hemingway is concerned with observation, so he's a bit more technical and journalistic in style. • Notice that we're still separating the “parts” of the story to interpret how these parts add up to create meaning for the whole.

5. Why focus on style? • Good literature should be able to reflect on its theme in the style it utilizes. • Many authors make conscious choices in the words they choose to use, the diction they employ, and the format of their dialog. • Style could even be a theme iteself.

6. …but wait, there’s more! • So, as we continue, remember that analysis is separating the parts to discover it's true meaning; look at the relationship of the parts and how they form the whole. • When we interpret WHAT it means, we need to then interpret HOW it means (this is where discussing the parts comes in).

8. When we talk about what a text means, we need to determine how it's conveyed. • Is it in what the text is about? (don't summarize) Is it in what, where, and when it happens? • Or is it found in the characters,the speaker's identity, the attitude of the author? • Is it found in what is said and how it was said?

9. Formalist Criticism • You should be vaguely familiar with formalism (New Criticism). • This is a tool used to examine style in isolation. Here we ignore biography and history. • We engage in close reading to study the language, syntax, structure, and tone of a story. We then discover how meaning is achieved. We might also look at diction, irony, paradox, metaphor, and symbols.

10. Realism • Realism reflects those ideas, instances, and events that are true to life. • Realism should seem as if it it has or could actually happen. • It's gritty, raw; it's truth.

11. Dialog • Dialog offers readers more than just a way to get to know our protagonist; it's a strategic tool used to create voice in a story. • It reveals emotion, beliefs, attitudes, and commentary on ideas present (often the theme) in the work. • This is how a writer “shows” instead of “tells”.

12. Tim O'Brien“The Things They Carried” • Tim O'Brien is a contemporary American author from Minnesota. • He is one of many postmodern authors that has successfully blurred the lines between realism and fiction (verisimilitude), yet his work remains quite real and raw. • He writes primarily about the Vietnam War, and he is most famous for his short story collection, The Things They Carried. This collection is semi-autobiographical and is based in much of his time fighting in the war (he served a year).

13. He served in the 3rd Platoon, Company A, 5th Battalion, 23rd Infantry division; he was in a division that contained a unit involved with the My Lai Massacre. • He became very disillusioned with the war and in his Vietnam and Me, he compares the: • American search for U.S. MIA/POWs in Vietnam with the reality of the Vietnamese war dead, he calls the American perspective "A perverse and outrageous double standard. What if things were reversed? What if the Vietnamese were to ask us, or to require us, to locate and identify each of their own MIAs? Numbers alone make it impossible: 100,000 is a conservative estimate. Maybe double that. Maybe triple. From my own sliver of experience — one year at war, one set of eyes — I can testify to the lasting anonymity of a great many Vietnamese dead." • In a nutshell, he believes America just doesn't care about what it did and the amount of lives lost. We're oblivious to the “reality” and “truth” of the event.