Literary Criticism

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Literary Criticism

• Class 4

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The Aspern Papers (1)

• Published in 1888, The Aspern Papers is a
  novelette by Henry James that originates from the
  later stages of his first great period of
  writing. It concerns an American editor who is
  greatly enamoured with the works of the early
  nineteenth century Romantic poet Jeffery Aspern.
  We follow him to Venice where he seeks the love
  letters that Aspern wrote to his mistress, Miss
  Bordereau (or Juliana as he had called her). The
  editor takes on a pseudonym to protect his
  identity from her, and finds her living in
  poverty alienated from the world with her niece.
  He is accepted as their lodger since Bordereau
  wishes to protect the future of Miss Tina (the
  niece). http//www.bibliomania.com/0/0/28/59/frame
  set.html

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The Aspern Papers (2)

• In time he explains his peculiar mission to Miss
  Tina. As Bordereau begins to deteriorate due to a
  serious illness he leaps at the opportunity and
  rifles through her desk only to be surprised by
  the lady herself before she suffers a relapse.
  What follows is a sad case of the blackmail of a
  heart as the old lady dies and Miss Tinas love
  for him becomes clear and she says she could only
  give the letters to a relative? In the end much
  falls prey of the doomed unrequited love but
  maturity and restraint hold sway in the end.
• http//www.bibliomania.com/0/0/28/59/frameset.html
  

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The Aspern Papers (3)

• A more elaborate summary
• http//mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b53m991523h
  aspern,papers

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Structuralist Reading (1)

• Binary oppositions Consider how characters
  represent opposed values or qualities. The
  narrator and Juliana hold different conceptions
  of art, for example.

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Structuralist Reading (2)

• Propps morphology Could the tale be seen as a
  version of the fairy tale Propp describes?

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Structuralist Reading (3)

• Semiotics Observe how signs work in the story.
  For example, the narrator is characters with
  signs of detective fiction, tourism, romance, and
  of military conquest.

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Structuralist Reading (4)

• Semiotics misunderstanding caused by using
  different codes in communication.
• Tina vs. the narrator
• Juliana vs. the narrator

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Structuralist Reading (5)

• Semiotics the Aspern papers as a sign.
• The irretrievability of the past
• America when it was young
• Venice before crowds of tourists came
• What they signify for Juliana and the narrator
  respectively
• Ryan, Michael. Literary Theory A Practical
  Introduction. Oxford Blackwell, 1999. 33.

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• Narratology

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Narratology

• A branch of structuralism
• Definition
• the study of narrative structures (Barry 322)

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Basic Distinction
Story Fabula Histoire Plot/Discourse Sjuzhet recit
The what of a narrative The how of a narrative
Chronology Causality
The king died, and then the queen died. The king died, and then the queen died of grief.
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Three main characters

• Aristotle
• Vladimir Propp
• Gérard Genette

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Aristotle

• The hamartia tragic flaw
• The anagnorisis recognition (of the flaw)
• The peripeteia a reversal of fortune
  (consequence of the flaw)

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Food for thought

• Could we find the three elements in The Aspern
  Papers? ??????

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Vladimir Propp

• 1895-1970
• The Morphology of the Folktale (1928)
• Morphology
• the study of forms

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Vladimir Propp

• Propps work is often considered to mark the
  birth of modern narratology and the structural
  analysis of narrative (Prince 37).

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Propp Functions

• Definition the fundamental components of the
  underlying structure of any (Russian) fairy
  tale. (Prince 36)

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Propp Functions

• Claimed that all folktales he studied are
  constructed by selecting a few items from a
  repertoire of 31 functions (Barry 227).

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Propp Functions

• Asserted that the functions always occur in the
  order listed (Barry 228)

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Propp Role

• Propp isolated 7 dramatis personae, or basic
  functional roles, each corresponding to a certain
  sphere of action, or a typical set of functions.

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Propp Roles

• The villain
• The donor (provider)
• The helper
• The princess (a sought-for person) and her father
• The dispatcher
• The hero (seeker or victim)
• The false hero

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Propp Roles

• One character may play more than one of these
  roles in any given tale (e.g., villain may also
  be false hero, donor may also be dispatcher) or
  one role may employ several characters (multiple
  villains, for instance . . . (Scholes 65).

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Food for thought

• Identify the functions and roles in The Hunchback
  of Notre Dame, or The Aspern Papers.

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A Derivative

• Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
  Princeton, NJ Princeton UP, 1949.

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Joseph Campbell

• The standard path of the mythological adventure
  of the hero is a magnification of the formula
  represented in the rites of passage
  separationinitiationreturn which might be
  named the nuclear unit of the monomyth (Campbell
  30).

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Joseph Campbell

• A hero ventures forth from the world of common
  day into a region of supernatural wonder
  fabulous forces are there encountered and a
  decisive victory is won the hero comes back from
  this mysterious adventure with the power to
  bestow boons on his fellow man (Campbell 30).

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Campbells Monomyth (1)

• Departure
• (or separation)
• Initiation
• Return

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Campbells Monomyth (1)

• I. Departure (or separation)
• 1. The Call to Adventure (or the signs of the
  vocation of the hero)
• 2. Refusal of the Call (or the folly of the
  flight from the god)
• 3. Supernatural Aid
• 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
• 5. The Belly of the Whale (or the passage into
  the realm of night)

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Campbells Monomyth (2)

• II. Initiation
• 1. The Road of Trials (or the dangerous aspect of
  the gods)
• 2. The Meeting with the Goddess (or the bliss of
  infancy regained)
• 3. Woman as the Temptress (or the realization and
  agony of Oedipus)
• 4. Atonement with the Father
• 5. Apotheosis (deification)
• 6. The Ultimate Boon

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Campbells Monomyth (3)

• III. Return (or reintegration with society)
• 1. Refusal of the Return (or the world denied)
• 2. The Magic Flight (or the escape of Prometheus)
• 3. Rescue from Without
• 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold (or the
  return to the world of common day
• 5. Master of the Two Worlds
• 6. Freedom to Live (or the nature and function of
  the ultimate boon)

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Food for thought

• Does Campbells monomyth exist in ????? or The
  Aspern Papers?

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Potential problems Character

• Phelan, James. Reading People, Reading Plots.
  Chicago U of Chicago P, 1989.
• Argument characters can be multichromatic . . .
  it is a literary element composed of three
  components (3).

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Components of Character

• (1) Synthetic Characters are language
  constructs.
• (2) Mimetic Characters as individuals.
  Characters are images of possible people.
• (3) Thematic Characters as representative
  entities. A character is often taken as a
  representative figure that stands for a class.
• 
  (Phelan 2-3)

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Group activity

• Discuss these components in??? (???????), Miss
  Tina or the narrator in The Aspern Papers.

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Food for Thought

• Which component is underscored in structuralism?
  Which is more likely to be neglected?

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• Gérard Genette

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Gérard Genette

• Narrative Discourse. 1972. Trans. Jane E. Lewin.
  Itaca, NY Cornell UP, 1980.
• Narrative Discourse Revisited. 1983. Trans. Jane
  E. Lewin. Itaca, NY Cornell UP, 1988.
• ??? III?, ????????, ????, 2003

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Genette

• 1. Is the basic narrative mode mimetic or
  diegetic?
• 2. How is the narrative focalized?
• 3. Who is telling the story?
• 4. How is time handled in the story?
• 5. How is the story packaged?
• 6. How are speech and thought represented?
  (Barry 231-39)

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Genette (1) Mode
Mimetic Diegetic
Showing Staging a scene Slow motion Telling Summarizing Fastforward
What is done and said is staged for the reader, creating the illusion that we are seeing and hearing things for ourselves. A rapid summary of a long sequence of events, but all taking place off-stage, as it were.
(Barry 231-32)
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Genette (1) Mode
Mimetic Diegetic
???????,????????,?????????,???????,??????????????????????????,??????????????,??????,????????Ray-Ban???????????????????????? ??????,??????????????????????,??????????????? ????, ????????, ????????????????? ??????, ??, ????????????????????? ??????!??????? ???,??,????? ?????????????? (??? ????? ??? 76-77) ???????????,??????????????????,????,????,??????????????,???????,???,?????????????????,??????????????,?????????????????,????? ????,????. . . .????,??????,??????,??????????,????????????,??????????? (??? ????? ??? 93)
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Genette (2) Focalization
(viewpoint or perspective)
External focalization The viewpoint is outside the character depicted. (observable to a witness of the event)
Internal focalization What the character think and feel. (inaccessible to a witness)
Zero focalization Omniscient narration The narrated is presented in . . . a nonlocatable, indeterminable perceptual or conceptual position (Prince 103)
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Genette (2) Focalization
(viewpoint or perspective)
External focalization ????????????????????,??????????????????????,?????,??????????,??????????????!?????????!? ??????,??????,????????? ??????????????????????????????????,?????????,????????????????? (??? ??????? ???? 110)
Internal focalization ?????????????,????????????????????? (??? ??????? 173) ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????,?????????????????????????,????????????,?????????????(??? ??????? 175)
Zero focalization ????,???????????,?????????????????????????????????,????????????????????? ?(??? ??????? 185)
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Genette (3) Voice
authorial persona (covert) (effaced) A mere telling medium which strives for neutrality and transparency. Ex. ????????Ceremony A mere telling medium which strives for neutrality and transparency. Ex. ????????Ceremony
character-narrator (overt) (intrusive) (dramatized) Hetero- diegetic The narrator is a character outside the story s/he narrates. Ex. Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby
character-narrator (overt) (intrusive) (dramatized) Homo- diegetic The narrator is a character in the story s/he tells. Ex. The Oval Portrait, The Aspern Papers, Heart of Darkness
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Genette (4) Order
Analepsis Back-take Flashback ?????,??????????????,??????,??????,?????????,???????????????,??????????????????,?????????????????????????????,???,???????????????????,???????, ????????????, ?????????????????, ?????, ?????, ???????????, ????????? (??? ???? ??? 315)
Prolepsis Fore-take Anticipation ?????????????,????????????,???????????,?????????????????,??????????,????????,?????,???????????????? (?? ????? ????? 107)
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Genette (5) Story Levels
Frame narratives Single-ended The frame is not returned to at the end of the embedded. (e.g. The Turn of the Screw)
Frame narratives Double-ended The frame is re-introduced at the end of the embedded. (e.g. Heart of Darkness)
Frame narratives Intrusive (an alienation device) The embedded is occasionally interrupted to revert to the frame. (e.g. Heart of Darkness)
Embedded narratives Or the meta-narrative, a narrative within the narrative. Its the main story. (e.g. individual tales of The Canterbury Tales.) Or the meta-narrative, a narrative within the narrative. Its the main story. (e.g. individual tales of The Canterbury Tales.)
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Genette (6) Speech
Direct Speech Tagged ??????????????????????????????? (182)
Direct Speech Untagged ???????????? ?????? ?????????? ?????? (181)
Direct Speech Selectively tagged ???????????????,???????????????????,?????????????,????????(183)
Indirect Speech Tagged indirect speech ?????????????????????????,?????????? (183)
Indirect Speech Free indirect speech ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????,????????????? (177)
(??? ??????? )
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Free Indirect Discourse

• FID narrated monologue
• pensée avec
• FID is often taken to contain mixed within it
  markers of two voices (a narrators and a
  characters).

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Free Indirect Discourse

• Definition the technique for rendering a
  characters thought in his own idiom while
  maintaining the third-person reference and the
  basic tense of narration (Cohn 100).

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Free Indirect Discourse

• FID is often marked by such contextual features
  (1) general markers of colloquialism (such as
  ejaculations, lexical fillers) (2) more specific
  markers of a group or class to which a character
  belongs (3) a characters personal idiom (4)
  markers of social-role relationships (Prince
  35-36).

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Example 1

• Direct discourse
• Tom said, Gosh, I am tired.
• (2) Indirect discourse
• Tom said that he was tired.
• (3) Free indirect discourse
• Gosh, he was tired.
• 
  (Fludernik 74)

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Example 2

• She Lily started up and looked forth on the
  passing streets. Gerty!they were nearing Gertys
  corner. If only she could reach there before this
  laboring anguish burst from her breast to her
  lipsif only she could feel the hold of Gertys
  arms while she shook in the ague-fit of fear that
  was coming upon her!
• (The House of Mirth I, xiii Wharton 1962 173)
• (quoted in Fludernik 78)

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Example 3

• The trader was not shocked nor amazed . . . .
  He had seen Death many times . . . and so he only
  swore that the gal was a baggage, and that he was
  devilish unlucky, and that, if things went on in
  this way, he should not make a cent on the trip.
• (Uncle Toms
  Cabin, xii Stowe 1981 130)
• (quoted in
  Fludernik 116)

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Recommended References on Free Indirect Discourse

• http//osf1.gmu.edu/dkaufman/narrative.htm
• http//www.ualberta.ca/dmiall/ShortStory/Mansfiel
  d-Woolf.htm
• http//www.literaryencyclopedia.com/php/stopics.ph
  p?rectrueUID444

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Joined-Up Narratology
Aristotle Theme
Propp Plot
Genette Narration
Barthes Readers de-coding
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References

• Cohn, Dorrit. Transparent Minds. Princeton, NJ
  Princeton UP, 1978.
• Fludernik, Monika. The Fictions of Language and
  the Languages of Fiction. London Routledge,
  1993.
• Prince, Gerald. Dictionary of Narratology.
  Lincoln U of Nebraska P, 1987.
• Scholes, Robert. Structuralism in Literature.
  New Haven Yale UP, 1974.

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• The End