Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Literary Theory and Methodology Session Two: Formalism

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Agenda  American Formalism: The New Criticism  European Formalism: Russian, Prague School  Bakhtin  Excercise

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Jakobson’s Six Factors of Verbal Communication context Addresser message addressee contact code

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Jakobson’s Six Functions of Verbal Communication Referential Emotive poetic conative phatic metalingual

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology American Formalism: The New Criticism  Literature is a special mode of language, offering a special mode of knowing and understanding of universally important aspects of life  The literary work is autonomous  The literary work consists of several levels forming a complex and unified whole  Irony, paradox, metaphor,

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology European Formalism: Russian, Prague School  Literature is a special kind of language opposed to everyday language  Literature is self-focused, drawing attention to itself; everyday language is information- focused, drawing attention to that which it is about  Literature is literary and art is artificial

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology European Formalism: Russian, Prague School  Literariness  Foregrounding  Defamiliarisation

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology René Magritte

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Craig Raine  ”A Martian Sends a Postcard Home (ll. 1-6) Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings and some are treasured for their markings – they cause the eyes to melt or the body to shriek without pain. I have never seen one fly, but sometimes they perch on the hand.

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Bakhtin  Heteroglossia  Carnival  Polyphony  Dialogism

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology James Joyce, ”The Dead” A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Jana Austen, Pride and Prejudice IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology William Blake What is it men in women do require The lineaments of Gratified Desire What is it women do in men require The lineaments of Gratified Desire  From the Notebook, 1793

Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and CultureLiterary Theory and Methodology Excercise  Find relevant concepts for thinking about the extract from Amis’ novel