ReadingLiterature Closely. Explication

Transcription

1 ReadingLiterature Closely Explication

2 What is literature? Is literature a collection of work embodying eternal truths and eternal beauty? Or is all literature just marks on paper or sounds in the air, which the audience turns into something with meaning? And different audiences will construct different meanings out of what they see or hear?

3 Literature & Form Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. - Thomas Gray Again and again writers find something in their experience, or see something in the life around them, that seems so important they cannot bear to let it pass into oblivion. There must never come a time, the writer feels, when people do not know about this. -Lady Murasaki, Tale of Genji

4 Literature & Form In other words, literature is both about substance (the profound experience being transmitted) and shape (the form that transmission takes). Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. What is being told and the way it s being told

5 Proverbs A proverb is a short, pithy saying in widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical wisdom. Fortune favors the bold. What does this mean? Why do we transmit this information in this form, rather than stating its literal meaning?

6 A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Look before you leap. Procrastination is the thief of time. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

7 Darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes but it cannot hide love from the soul. -Khalil Gibran Love Letters in the Sand: The Love Poems of Khalil Gibran What is the literal meaning of this poem? How does the poem illustrate both shape and substance, meaning and form?

8 Close Reading; or, Reading in Slow Motion Looking and listening with special alertness, slowly, without rushing or feeling impatient if a work puzzles us at first. We re so intrigued or moved by the words that we slow down in our reading, lingering over verbal details and vivid images. We want to return to a poem, or to a key section of a story or scene in a play, to articulate-- slow motion style--where its power over us lies.

9 Close or slow-motion reading can help you understand and enjoy a work that at first seems strange or obscure. It s examining a piece of literature with care and intensity. Remember Nabokov: The best temperament for a reader to have, or to develop, is a combination of the artistic and the scientific one.

10 If a would-be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience of an artist s passion and a scientist s patience he will hardly enjoy great literature. Almost always, when we understand a work better, we enjoy it more.

11 Explication An explication moves from beginning to end of a work, if the work is short, or a section of a work, if the work is longer. It is a sustained, meticulous, thorough, systematic examination of the text. It leads to greater understanding (and is the foundation of your analysis of the text).

12 One should notice and fondle details. -Vladimir Nabokov Explication......means literally an unfolding or spreading out...a line-by-line or episode-by-episode commentary on what is going on in the text...a commentary that reveals your sense of the meaning of the work and its structure

13 We ask questions... the meanings of words the implications of metaphors and images what s the speaker s tone of voice (as it begins, develops, changes) how the work is put together how it s organized to prompt our response how it begins what happens next...and so on, to the end.

14 Harlem What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

15 Musee de Beaux Arts Suppose the first two lines read: The old masters were never wrong about suffering. They understood its human position well. What (besides the rhymes) would change or be lost? HW: Explicate the poem. Start at its beginning and work through to the end, using the techniques discussed in class and in your textbook.

16 One should notice and fondle details. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. If a would-be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience of an artist s passion and a scientist s patience he will hardly enjoy great literature. A book of fiction appeals first of all to the mind. A major writer combines these three storyteller, teacher, enchanter but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer. The three facets of the great writer magic, story, lesson are prone to blend in one impression of unified and unique radiance. The best temperament for a reader to have, or to develop, is a combination of the artistic and the scientific one. It seems to me that a good formula to test the quality of a novel is, in the long run, a merging of the precision of poetry and the intuition of science. Then with a pleasure which is both sensual and intellectual we shall watch the artist build his castle of cards and watch the castle of cards become a castle of beautiful steel and glass.