Week 5: Words, Words, Words - The Impact Of Literature Humanities 101: Week 5: Words, Words, Words - The Impact Of Literature

Art of Story-Telling Story-telling is embedded in our DNA. Genres Poems Novels Short Stories Classics Masterpieces - Canon

Literature as History “Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” ~Herodotus - “The Histories”

Search for Identity Basic Question of Life - “Who Am I?” Connection to History because who we are as individuals is what connects us to our humanity.

Epic Tales Narrative Poem The earliest civilization categorized legendary roles Epic of Gilgamesh Story of strength, vitality, and endurance.

The Iliad

Homer Authored both the Iliad and the Odyssey sometime between 900-700 BC. Homer: “hostage” came from the Ionian region of Greece. Rhapsodes: class of bards

Homeric Epics The oral tradition in story telling followed a formula know as conventions. These conventions became the standard for the Western Literary canon.

The Conventions Invocation of the gods In medias res = Flashbacks Epic similes Metrical Structure - Meter Stock epithets ‘the pale gold goddess Aphrodite’

Tragic connection Rich cultural development as seen in the great myths. Establishes core values and morality Humanization = to be great is to be tragic Hector vs. Achilles

Poetry Lyric Poetry cultivated the arts and humanities. Poems that could be sung and accompanied with a lyre. Ode - rhythmic poem often about romance and love.

Ode to the west wind Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:   Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:   What if my leaves are falling like its own? The tumult of thy mighty harmonies   Will take from both a deep autumnal tone, Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,   My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,   Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth; And, by the incantation of this verse,   Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!   Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Sonnet A fourteen-line poem that mirrors the classical ode Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet octet followed by sestet = abba abba cdcdcd Shakespearian or English Sonnet three quatrains followed by a couplet = abab cdcd efef gg

The World Is Too Much With Us William Wordsworth, 1770 - 1850 The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I’d rather be A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Sonnet 73 - William Shakespeare That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

A novel idea Novels developed out of medieval romances, the idea was something new and not tied to the structure and form of poetry. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote Henry Fielding - Tom Jones

Coming of Age Bildungsroman - coming of age story. Shows man growing and learning through experience. What ‘coming of age’ stories do you remember reading?

Short Story Epiphany - sudden insight into life or human nature Zeitgeist - general outlook Iceberg Effect - reveals only the tip of the iceberg.

Araby & Hills Like White Elephants Identify the elements of literature. What do you see in these short stories? What are the characters like? Heroic? Romantic? What is the theme of each story?