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Literary Criticism: Introduction

Literary Criticism: Introduction. Nature and Gender, Text and Context 2003F 9/18. Outline. Themes: Nature & Gender; Starting Questions Methods: Text and Context Three Literary Examples of 19 th Century England Wordsworth’s “ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ”

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Literary Criticism: Introduction

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  1. Literary Criticism: Introduction Nature and Gender, Text and Context 2003F 9/18

  2. Outline • Themes: Nature & Gender; Starting Questions • Methods: Text and Context • Three Literary Examples of 19th Century England • Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” • Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” • C. Rossetti’s “Song” • About Literary Criticism and our Course • Starting Questions 2 • Extrinsic and Intrinsic Approaches; • Framework • What we have done today

  3. Starting Questions (1) What do YOU think?

  4. What do you think • About the following images and music? • (1) Earth + “Sedona Spirit”(Sedona in Arizona: features the wonder of what Native Americans consider the spiritual vortex of the Southwest and absolutely sublime red rock formations ) • (2) Lotus + “To The Rising Sun” • (Sources: ppt files, unknown, from email circulation; music from Heat: Summer Nights–’a relaxation sampler with nature sounds’)

  5. What do you think -- About the following statements? • Human nature is part of “Nature.” • In Wilderness lies the preservation of the world. • 自然就是美 • 蕾黛絲-真水胸罩：我愛大自然 大自然篇(阿雅)  • 貴夫人-生機調理-自然飲食篇 – 和自然越MATCH, 生機就會VERY MUCH. • LP333優酪乳 可調整體質，輕鬆面對大自然

  6. Nature . . . • As Signs: “Nature,”“wilderness” and the “natural” have always been human constructions. We tend to romanticize nature so that “the natural” become the signs that sell. • As Commodities: Nature is not landscape, definitely not picaresque landscapes which get to be sold to us as commodities. (In Taiwan, unless you are very strong and experienced mountaineers, it takes money to get close to ‘nature’ as beautiful landscapes.) • As Products: Anthropocentric views of nature, in a sense, are inevitable. In arts, as in business and industrial worlds, we use and exploit nature, but the difference is that what we produce is ‘usu.’ our ideas and ideals.

  7. Nature . . . (2) • How literature and culture ‘codify’ nature and relate humans to nature is one of the focuses of our class. • As our living environment: There is, indeed, ‘nature’ beyond human language. How we approach, know, ‘preserve’ and live with it is a never ending lesson to learn.

  8. What do you think -- • About the following statements? • Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus. • 「女性大腦中聯繫左半腦和右半腦的胼胝體(note:橫向連絡兩個大腦半球的主要神經束)﹐不但體積比男性的大﹐結構也比較紮實﹐亦即女性左半腦和右半腦的溝通比男性『更容易、也更頻繁．』」（source: 《誰》245﹚ • Marriage and children kill creativity in men(in science, arts and even in crime.) Psychological factor: the competitive edge among young men to fight for glory and gain the attention of women. That craving drives the all-important male hormone, testosterone. Biological: After a man settles down, the testosterone (睪丸酮 ) level falls, as does his creative output. (source: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s900147.htm; http://www.ftwr.net/archives/000170.html )

  9. What do you think -- • About the following statements? • 女性在網路使用上的行為已越男性! 根據創市際研究報告顯示，台灣 7月份網友的男女比例是54比46，女性網友的使用行為無論是在停留時間、使用次數及瀏覽網頁數方面都比男性為高。 • 女性網友最喜歡造訪購物中心類型網站，其次為時尚美容類型網站、旅遊觀光類及生活購物類等。 • 男性喜好的順序則分別是購物中心類型網站、旅遊觀光類、時尚美容類型網站及生活購物類等。 • 創市際總經理朱怡靜表示，男女在消費行為上無論是在實體或虛擬世界中，都有一定的差異性。 • (source: http://news.yam.com/cna/fn/news/200309/200309170135.html )

  10. Gender Differences are . . . • social constructs or natural? For me, they are social constructs. Moreover, these social constructs can be limiting to a lot of women now and in history. (As you will see in the examples of 19th women and female artists.) • Indeed physically males and females are different, but their differences are only in degree but not in kind. (Even physical differences can be changed.) For instance, women also have testosterone in them. • The study of corpus callosum (胼胝體) turned out to be based on only 9 males and five females (in 1982; 《誰》245). • “Biologism”– to use biological differences to justify social inequalities in race, gender and class.

  11. What do you think -- About this painting? And this

  12. What do you think -- About this painting? And this

  13. And this … Artist:Samuel Tindall Title:Ophelia on the Cam River Composed: July 1997 Identifying Data: Dr. Tindall snapped this shot of Ophelia from the intersection of Carlyle and Chesterton Streets, next to the Cam River, in front of Jesus Green, Cambridge.

  14. Text and Context Or intrinsic and extrinsic approaches:In our class, we both examine the texts closely, and contextualize them in different ways.

  15. Text Example I: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Questions for close reading: • What’s the poem about? Pay attention to the change of tenses. • How does the speaker convey his ideas? Look for ‘patterns’ and variation. • Meter – iambic mostly, except • Repetition of soft explosives (e.g. ‘t’ ‘p’), which alternates with hard explosives (d, g); • Repetion of words –daffodils, they, saw, dance, gaze, etc.

  16. Text Example I: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Possible interpretation: Thesis statement: The poem describes and embodies the working of a poet’s imagination, which first describes his action and the daffodils metaphorically, and then presents his ‘mental’ dancing with the flowers. The description is actually all an embodiment of the poet’s imagination, since we don’t really get to see the flowers described physically, and, at the end, their appearance in the poet’s mind is actually a disappearance.

  17. Text & Context Example I: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” 1. Wordsworth in history –revolutionary spirits; setting up a poetic tradition and discipline in the age of capitalism; his emphasis on nature, ordinary language and poetic imagination. • W. Wordsworth & his sister Dorothy. "daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing"

  18. Text & Context Example I: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” 3. The parodies – what do they convey? “The Wordsworths”– • Their toiling through the countryside revealed; • Wordsworth’s appropriation of the flowers; Stop bothering us!

  19. Daffodil Poems “The New, Fast, Automatic Daffodils” Lines from the original poem juxtaposed with commercial language, so that “the free spirits” of the original gets to be made possible only by the machine and money. e.g. vacant and pensive mood calculative; The bliss of solitude or romance

  20. Text --Example II: “She Walks in Beauty” • Questions for close analysis: • 1. What are the similes and images used to describe this lady? • 2. How is the lady characterized and described? How do the sound effects (e.g. open vowels, "r" "l" and "m" sounds) help convey the meanings? • 3. Does the fact that the actual lady is in mourning and is Byron's cousin affect your picture of her?

  21. Text --Example II: “She Walks in Beauty” • 1. The lady is compared to and associated with skies, light and night. • 2.Although her eyes, cheeks, dress and her walk are described, they actually show her mellowness, grace and inner beauty, all of which supported by the long sentences (some enjambed lines) and mellifluous sounds. • 3.Meter: iambic, occasional trochaic feet (‘meet’ in line 4) and some spondaic (e.g. “One shade more, one ray less. . . “)

  22. Context: Byron’s Life • A clip • Byron was a victim of his own contradictory personality - he loved to pursue women but, once captured, he longed to leave them. Paradoxically, he could not rest easy without their complete adoration.  • e.g. Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb– • . . . became lovers and, through much of April and May 1812, shocked London with their affair. Byron had wooed her passionately for two months and then ignored her. • 1812 He also told her to go to Ireland [to join her husband] for both their sakes. She did so however unwillingly; but this was the effective end of their relationship. But they continued to write, perhaps because he feared another hysterical outburst. • 1813 He tried to avoid her at all cost. (source: http://englishhistory.net/byron/lclamb.html )

  23. Context: Byron’s Life • The poem’s immediate context – • One evening [James Wedderburn] Webster dragged him against his will to a party at Lady Sitwell's, where they saw Byron's cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Wilmot, in mourning with spangles on her dress. The next day he wrote a gemlike lyric about her. • Does the poem present a pure love for a pure woman? Or Byron’s bold assumption of knowing her completely?

  24. Text --Example III: “When I am Dead, My Dearest” • A reading; • Questions for close analysis: • Is the speaker definitely a woman? • What do you think about the speaker in this poem? Is she sad about her death? What does the repetition of her negative statement mean?

  25. Text & Context Example III : Christina Rossetti Below: Paintings & a caricature by D. G. Rossetti; above: her photo source: 1) http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/crit.97/C_Rossetti/Christina.htm 2) http://www.sfu.ca/~okeefe/The%20Hall%20of%20Mirrors/ealleyn.html )

  26. Text & Context Example III : Christina Rossetti paintings of D. G. Rossetti Study of the figure of the Virgin "Ecce Ancilla Domini"

  27. Example IV “Song” in Context --Romantized • 當我死去的時候　親愛　你別為我唱悲傷的歌 我墳上不必安插薔薇　也無須濃蔭的柏樹 讓蓋著我的青青的草　淋著雨也沾著露珠 假如你願意請記著我　要是你甘心忘了我 • 在悠久的昏幕中遺忘　陽光不升起也不消翳 我也許　也許我還記得你 我也許把你忘記 啦... 我在見不到地面的清蔭　覺不到雨露的甜蜜 我再聽不到夜鶯的歌喉　在黑夜裡頭傾吐悲啼 在悠久的墳墓中迷惘　陽光不升起也不消翳 我也許　也許我還記得你　我也許把你忘記 • 歌(電影『閃亮的日子』插曲) 作詞：徐志摩/羅大佑　作曲：羅大佑

  28. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) • The PRB held the haughty belief that the only true great art came from before the 16th century Italian painter, Raphael (hence the society's name). Raphael represented high renaissance, a time when painters, instead of letting their subjects dictate their qualities to the artist, would manipulate the subject into their own ideal of beauty. Thus, all realism was lost. The PRB, with full spirit, denounced this art of idealization, and led the way to produce works based onreal landscapes and real models, and paid intense attention to accuracy of detail and color.(source:http://www.nouveaunet.com/prbpassion/ )

  29. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) • Subject matters from medieval tales, bible stories, classical mythology, and nature. Using bright colors on a white background, the artists were able to achieve great depth and brilliance. • Though claiming to present ‘Truth’ in physical details, they ,with their interest in women and medievalism, are the late Romantics who fall for mythologizing or idealizing their ideas.

  30. Starting Questions (2) What do YOU think?

  31. Starting Questions (2):Which of the following questions do you ask of a literary work? • Is Darcy (in Pride and Prejudice) proud? Will Elizabeth and Darcy have a happy life after they get married? • Who is Lucy of Wordsworth’s Lucy poems? • What do the ironies in “My Last Duchess” mean? Is it a dramatic monologue? How is it an example of dramatic monologue? • What are the representative works of Victorian England?

  32. Starting Questions: Which of the following questions do you ask of a literary work? • Do I like The Great Gatsby? Is it meaningful to me? Is it more meaningful if Gatsby is a real person? • What is Lyrical Ballads’ publishing history? Are there different manuscripts? • What kind of person is Hardy? What does he look like? Is he a vegetarian? What is his racial, class background and his sexual orientation?

  33. yellow -intrinsic, brown-extrinsic; red– questions with problematic assumptions. • Is Darcy (in Pride and Prejudice) proud?Will Elizabeth and Darcy have a happy life after they get married? • Who is Lucy of Wordsworth’s Lucy poems? • What do the ironies in “My Last Duchess” mean?Is it a dramatic monologue?How is it an example of dramatic monologue? • What are the representative works of Victorian England?

  34. yellow -intrinsic, brown-extrinsic; red– questions with problematic assumptions. • Do I like The Great Gatsby?Is it a great literary work?Is it better than Forrest Gump?How is it related to Forrest Gump?Is Gatsby is a real person? • What is Lyrical Ballads’ publishing history? Are there different manuscripts? • What kind of person is Hardy?What does he look like? Is he a vegetarian?What is his racial, class background and his sexual orientation?

  35. Text and Context or Extrinsic and Intrinsic Approaches • Intrinsic Approach: New Criticism, Close Reading • Extrinsic Approach: • Tradition: manuscript studies, history of ideas; • Contemporary: placing the text in a certain context with the help of some theories. (or using some theoretical framework.)

  36. How to position a text in its contexts? 社會、歷史 Political Unconscious 社會機構 印刷、出版者／ 行銷者 作者／父母 讀者 The Unconscious Text // Self

  37. Our course’s approaches Feminism & EcocriticismContext: Patriarchal Society & Ecology Poststructuralism Context: Social Discourses (Languages) and Capitalism Structuralism Context: language, signs History & Society Text (New Criticism) Author Reader

  38. What is it about? Do you like it? Why? What else does it mean from a certain perspective or in some context(s)? 由賞析到批評理論: a Hermeneutic Circle 閱讀、了解 欣賞 分析、詮釋 What does it mean? And how? 文學批評 理論化 How are its meanings produced?

  39. New Criticism on Poetry • 1. Pay close attention to the text’s diction its meanings (connotation and denotation) and even its etymological roots. • 2. Study the poetic elements closely. e.g.詩律（prosody）、比喻語言（明喻、暗喻、擬人法、頓呼法） • 3. Search for structure and patterns; e.g. oppositions in the text (paradox, ambiguity, irony) • 4. From Parts to an Organic Wholeness

  40. Different Kinds of Contexts -- Author’s context or socio-historical context -- Reader’s context (different views, ours or the other critics’); -- the text’s context (publication/reception history; influences, parodies and adaptations, e.g. “Song”)

  41. Work Cited • 《誰背叛了女性主義》

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