1. Chapter 4
Literature

2. Classics and Masterpieces
Classics-have outlived their time and continue to be relevant.
May be remade into modern versions
Sons of Anarchy (Hamlet)
10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew)
Masterpieces- a work that in style, execution, and resonance far exceeds what other writers were doing at the same time
Many classics are masterpieces, but they don’t have to be

3. The First Epic: Gilgamesh
Epic-long narrative poem recounting the actions and adventures of a hero (not necessarily moral)
Gilgamesh-tyrannical king who intimidated even the gods so they created a compassionate counterpart for him (Enkidu)
The 2 heros wrestle, resulting in a tie. Enkidu eventually dies but Gilgamesh lives on…some interpret it as aggressiveness outlasting kindness

4. The Iliad
Accounts for the 10 year duration of the conflict between Greece and Troy.
Achilles
Trojan Horse
Helen of Troy
Unique because it shows not only the glory of Greece but the tragedy of the losing side.
Can be categorized as a tragedy because of the story of Hector, the Trojan hero. His ambition is his fatal flaw.

5. Iliad as a Masterpiece
Established the fundamental principle- real life is not a simple struggle between good and evil.
Internal conflict of Hector makes it a great tragedy

6. Poetry Lyrical Poetry-sung to accompany a lyre Popular with Romans
Written about pleasurable pursuits of life-good food, wine, expressed personal feelings (unrequited love)
Sonnet-14 line poetic form
Popular in Italy during the Renaissance
Iambic pentameter
Petrarch is the most famous, wrote to his married love, Laura
Unrequited love

7. Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Extraordinary vocabulary
Genius lies in his ability to merge form and content into a unified whole

8. Poetry Devices
Metaphors
Conceits
An abstract is explained in terms of something that is visual and concrete
Ex. Juliette is the sun
Special kind of metaphor, elaborate and extended associations between 2 dissimilar things
Ex. Your Spouse and God

9. Haiku Detestable crow! Today alone you please me-
Black against the snow.
short poem in which the writer captures a thought or image captured from nature.
Springs from the Buddhist tradition

10. Forms
Religious Poetry
Premodernism
The urge to communicate and sing the praises of a deity is an early component of the humanities
Some fear “modern” poetry will be too hard to understand.
Emily Dickinson is on the threshold of modern poetry, influenced by both lyrical and modern

11. Poetry of Our Time Can be read and reread, studied
Most modern poets prefer their work not be analyzed or translated into prose, loses its meaning

12. The Novel Essentially a long narrative
First “official” novel was The Tale of Genji
Romances-french stories of knights, bravery and love affairs
Word “novel” comes from Latin meaning new and unfamiliar

13. Early Western Novels First Western novel was Don Quixote by Cervantes
English novels were presented as true stories of adventurers, such as Gulllivers Travels by Jonathan Swift and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Alonso Quixana is an older gentleman who lives in La Mancha, in the Spanish countryside. He has read many of the books of chivalry and as a result, he has lost his wits, and he decides to roam the country as a knight-errant named Don Quixote de La Mancha. 

14. Washington Irving “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
James Fennimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans
Nathanial Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter
Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Ernest Hemmingway The Old Man and the Sea
The Novel in America
American writers were slow to gain respect and recognition from readers in other countries.
Eventually they earned the respect of their international peers

15. The Coming-of-Age Novel
Huckleberry Finn
The Catcher in the Rye
The Member of the Wedding
The Coming-of-Age Novel
Influenced by Freud’s unveiling of the inner world as well as the growth of the new science of developmental psychology, authors started a new genre of literature centered on the early stages of youthful consciousness.

16. The Short Story-An American Invention
Magazine Fiction
Epiphany
Printed pieces of short fiction that could be read in one sitting.
Edgar Allen Poe
The sudden insight into life or human nature which short stories often give us
“The Lottery”

17. The Short Story Today
Literary trend today is the zeitgeist of our age: there is no overarching theory that applies to people and their cultures the world over