Introduction to Literature 32260 Dr. Nabil Alawi

1. Introduction to Literature 32260Dr. NabilAlawi

2. Literary Genres • Fiction • Ancient: Fables, Tales • Modern: Novels & Short Stories • Poetry • Drama • Biography and Autobiography • The Essay

3. A Fable • The Oak and the Reeds A VERY LARGE OAK was uprooted by the wind and thrown across a stream. It fell among some Reeds, which it thus addressed: "I wonder how you, who are so light and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strong winds." They replied, "You fight and contend with the wind, and consequently you are destroyed; while we on the contrary bend before the least breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken, and escape." Stoop to conquer.

4. Fiction • Ancient: Fables, Tales • Not Realistic • No details • Quick and simple plots • Nonhuman characters • They aim at a quick and simple moral (lesson)

5. Modern Fiction (Men in The Sun) • It was not too uncomfortable riding on the back of the huge lorry. Although the sun was pouring its inferno down on them without any respite, the breeze that they felt because of the lorry’s speed lessened the intensity of the heat. Abu Qais had climbed up on top with Marwan, and they sat side by side on the edge of the tank. They had drawn lots, and it was Assad’s turn to sit beside the driver-----------

6. Modern Fiction • Novels & Short Stories • Verisimilitude: Realistic (life-like) presentation of events • Real (human characters) • Minute details • Not reality but an illusion of reality • Modern fiction is the genre of the Middle Class. The Industrial Revolution created the Middle Class and the novel became the new form of literature which represented the difficulties encountering Middle Class people.

7. History, Biography/Autobiography & Fiction • History: an objective presentation of reality • Biography/Autobiography: a subjective presentation of reality. • Fiction: An illusion of reality.

8. Assignments for Research and Discussion • Find a fable to read to your classmates • Find a long quotation from a short story or a novel that you know • Find a quotation from an autobiography or a biography • Try to remember the content of today’s lecture so that you engage in a discussion next time • Make a list of the elements of fiction that you know

9. Elements of Fiction • Plot • Characters • Narrator’s Point of view • Symbolism • Atmosphere • Language • Style • Irony • Time and Place • Themes

10. Plot • Plot: A plot in fiction is the arrangement of events in a story. It has an exposition, a conflict (complication of events and a conclusion), and a resolution. Plots differ with reference to the above arrangements. For example: there are stories which do not have a climax or a resolution. The arrangement of the parts of the plot is the writer’s choice

11. Characters • There are Flat and Round characters. • A Round character: a major character (usually the protagonist) who experiences change. • A Flat character: a minor character

12. Narrator Narrator’s point of view: First Person Third Person: A Narrator can also be: Omniscient Partially omniscient Objective Dramatic

13. The Stream of Consciousness Technique • One modern and sophisticated technique of narration is the Stream of Consciousness Technique. • In the S of C techniques the writer introduces to us a narrator who oscillates between past, present and future in a haphazard manner; without attention to the chronological sequence of events • Some critics describe the S of C techniques as “human mind at work”; human mind is not rhythmic in its perception of things

14. Aesthetic Distance • We need to be aware of the difference between the author and the writer: they are not the same. • The aesthetic distance is the distance that the writer maintains between himself and the narrator. • Students usually confuse the narrator with the writer. In fiction the author does not appear in the story or the novel. It is the narrator who tells the story.

15. Narrator/Author • What if the narrator is the same as the Author? • The work then becomes an autobiography and not fiction.

16. Symbolism • There are conventional symbols: symbols that are used by many writers and that are known to almost all people. The Dove: a symbol of Peace • There are private symbols that are used by one writer in one work of literature • Symbols are naturally known to allow for different interpretations.

17. Atmosphere • The atmosphere of the story is generally created by the author and it contributes to the meaning of the story. An atmosphere can be described as dark, sunny, gloomy, rainy, silent, boisterous ---etc. • A protagonist who initiates a journey at night may be seen as a fearless adventurer or a gloomy ignorant mishap

18. Language • The language of a story or a novel may be one of the concerns of the critic. The language of a story may be described as slang, standard, difficult, poetic, prosaic ---etc. • The language of a story may not be described as difficult if we, as foreign readers, find very many new words. This reality may be attributed to our language proficiency and not the difficulty of the language of the story

19. Style • Style is the way the writer presents his/her story • The style of a story can be described as lucid, boring, tense, complicated, sophisticated ---etc. • A writer may choose at certain episodes to use long sentences; short sentences at other episodes.

20. Time and Place • Writers usually locate their stories within a specific time and place • Awareness of the time and place of a story illuminates our perception • A story located in London during the post World War era may inform our reading of that story.

21. Irony • The simple definition of irony entails saying something and meaning just the opposite of what is said. • The whole story or parts of it can be ironic. • If one says “I love having four exams in one day), s/he certainly means the opposite of what s/he says.

22. Themes • The theme of the story is the message that the writer aims at conveying to us. • The message that the writer intends to convey to us may not be the same message that we find. This reality is referred to as the intentional fallacy. • A writer may intend to present to us the negative consequences of prejudice and we as readers may find the same work a terrible source of prejudice.