Heffernan's definition stems in part from his dissatisfaction with Murray Krieger's interpretation of ekphrasis 1 and Michael Davidson's ideas about the painterly poem.2 On Krieger, Heffernan writes: 'While Krieger's theory of ekphrasis seems to give this moribund term a new lease of life, it actually stretches ekphrasis to the breaking point . . . where it no longer serves to contain any particular body of literature and merely becomes a new name for formalism' (Museum, 2). And on Davidson he writes: 'Having replaced Krieger's ekphrastic principle with a diachronic polarity between classical and contemporary ekphrasis, he leaves us with no coherent sense of the synchronic mode that might contain them both' (Museum, 3). Furthermore, Heffernan …show more content…
J. T. Mitchell, on the other hand, argues that ekphrasis involves three phases: (i) the phase of ekphrastic indifference when the beholder comes to the 'commonsense perception that ekphrasis is impossible … a verbal representation cannot represent – that is, make present – its object in the same way a visual representation can' (152); (ii) the phase of ekphrastic hope when 'the impossibility of ekphrasis is overcome in imagination or metaphor, when we discover a "sense" in which language can do what so many writers have wanted it to do: "to make us see."' (152); and (iii) the phase of ekphrastic fear. 'This is the moment of resistance or counterdesire that occurs when we sense that the difference between the verbal and visual representation might collapse and the figurative, imaginary desire of ekphrasis might be realized literally and actually' (154). Mitchell's interpretation considerably broadens the scope for an understanding of ekphrasis as a process. He goes on to explain the goal of ekphrastic hope:
The central goal of ekphrastic hope might be called "the overcoming of otherness." Ekphrastic poetry is the genre in which texts encounter their own semiotic "others," those rival, alien modes of representation called the visual, graphic, plastic, or "spatial" arts. The "scientific" terms of this otherness are the familiar oppositions of semiotics: symbolic and iconic representation; conventional and natural signs; temporal and spatial modes; visual and aural
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties. In To Kill a Mockingbird, theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based off an author’s opinion about a subject. The theme innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols.
To play a buffoon well is one thing, and to show a serious side to that
With all the different types of literature we have in our world we also have a similar amount of interpretations of those pieces of literature. Each interpretation is as valid as another. Literature not only allows the writer to create a wonderful world and a story, it allows the reader to fully embrace the story and find meaning out of it. There are also many different types of literary criticisms. These criticisms are vehicles or guidelines for us to use to understand the reading in a very specific matter and really pinpoint the issues and overall theme of the story. This brings us to the Toni Morrison short story “Recitatif”. This short story encourages an African American or ethic criticism style of understanding it. The driving
Unlike Schönberg, his student Anton von Webern did not make many comments about the relationship between text and music in his works. His George-settings appear rather different to Schönberg’s in their relationship to the text. He was guided much more by declamatory and rhythmical aspects of the poetry than Schönberg.
Arts criticism is the verbal or written discourse about works and/or movements of fine art. To develop this criticism, one would need to evaluate the work of art, and then make a judgment call about it. But what exactly makes for great arts criticism? Surely an amateur freshman just starting out an arts criticism class can’t facilitate a discussion about a work of art to the same caliber as experts such as Noël Carrol and Edith Wharton. Despite living nearly a century apart, both provide similar insights on what arts criticism entails and should accomplish. However, because Carrol specifically outlines the operations of criticism, as well as the importance of making a value judgment, his perspective on arts criticism is a stronger and more educational perspective than Wharton’s.
The paper discusses the sound of the poem and how those certain words, said aloud, help to emphasize the meaning. Looking at the form of a poem in this way gave me a new way of looking at the text and finding the meaning. Personally, I have not had much familiarity looking at the sound of a text, but now see how the sound can be valuable when looking for the meaning of a text. I like to look at the imagery that is utilized in a text because I believe it works well in giving the reader a look into the text and bringing the text to life. What I have discovered reading about the formalist approach is to look at the overall form and how the text itself affects the meaning. Looking at the imagery and symbols helps me personally find the meaning in a text, so learning that the form of the text also can contribute to the meaning was
A metrical composition; a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination and poetic diction; contradistinguished from prose; as, the poems of Homer or of Milton. This is but one of Webster 's definitions of a poem. Using this definition of “poem,” this paper will compare and contrast three different poems written by three different poets; William Shakespeare 's Sonnets 116, George Herbert’s Easter Wings and Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Whoso List to Hunt.
In the crucible, I believe reputation and respect was interwoven in the term of the play the ‘‘crucible’’. Reputation and Respect can also be a theme or a thematic idea in the play, reputation is very essential in a town where social status is synonymously to ones competence to follow religious rules. Your standing is what enables you to live as one in a community where everyone is bound to rules and inevitable sequential instructions. Many characters for example, john proctor and reverend parris, base their action on the motive to protect their reputation which is only exclusive to them. People like reverend parris saw respect as what made them important or valuable in a town like Salem, this additionally imprinting to his character as a very conventional man.
The author skillfully uses literary techniques to convey his purpose of giving life to a man on an extraordinary path that led to his eventual demise and truthfully telling the somber story of Christopher McCandless. Krakauer enhances the story by using irony to establish Chris’s unique personality. The author also uses Characterization the give details about Chris’s lifestyle and his choices that affect his journey. Another literary element Krakauer uses is theme. The many themes in the story attract a diverse audience. Krakauer’s telling is world famous for being the truest, and most heart-felt account of Christopher McCandless’s life. The use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme help convey the authors purpose and enhance Into The Wild.
Post modernism is a very difficult concept to define. A French philosopher once defined post modernism as an "incredulity toward all meta narratives," which basically means a skeptical attitude toward all claims of absolute truth. Post modern writers use elements and techniques that provoke the reader to question their reading experience and scrutinize their own personal understanding of life and the values of their society. There are excellent examples of post modern writers using elements of post modern writing, such as irony, magic realism and fragmentation in the short stories read in Ms. Reynolds's English 4U class. The use of post modern elements in these short stories forces the reader to further their reading experience by going more in depth into the writing and figuring out how the story is significant to them and their view on the world.
Death of a Salesman was written in 1949 in the period of literary realism (Na). In this play, Miller also integrated naturalism and expressionism. Expressionism is seen in the work because Willy sees not only reality, but also his past and he sees his brother Ben who is dead (Hoeveler). Willy imagines that his death will cause his son to praise him because through the insurance policy, the family would receive a sum of money to provide for themselves, but in reality, Linda, Biff, and Happy, wish that he wouldn’t have done that. Miller wanted Death of a Salesman to imitate a Greek Tragedy. In most Greek and Shakespearean Tragedies, the tragedy begins because of a flaw of the protagonist and in the end, the protagonist either
In Anatomy of Criticism, author Northrop Frye writes of the low mimetic tragic hero and the society in which this hero is a victim. He introduces the concept of pathos saying it “is the study of the isolated mind, the story of how someone recognizably like ourselves is broken by a conflict between the inner and outer world, between imaginative reality and the sort of reality that is established by a social consensus” (Frye 39). The hero of Hannah W. Foster’s novel, The Coquette undoubtedly suffers the fate of these afore mentioned opposing ideals. In her inability to confine her imagination to the acceptable definitions of early American female social behavior, Eliza Wharton falls victim to the ambiguity of her society’s sentiments of women’s roles. Because she attempts to claim the freedom her society superficially advocates, she is condemned as a coquette and suffers the consequences of exercising an independent mind. Yet, Eliza does not stand alone in her position as a pathetic figure. Her lover, Major Sanford -- who is often considered the villain of the novel -- also is constrained by societal expectations and definitions of American men and their ambition. Though Sanford conveys an honest desire to make Eliza his wife, society encourages marriage as a connection in order to advance socially and to secure a fortune. Sanford, in contrast to Eliza, suffers as a result of adhering to social expectations of a male’s role. While Eliza suffers because she lives her life outside of her social categorization and Sanford falls because he attempts to maneuver and manipulate the system in which he lives, both are victims of an imperfect, developing, American society.
At first glance, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Lawrence Weschler’s Boggs: A Comedy of Values treat the issue of art’s function in converse ways. Wilde, the quintessential Aesthete, asserts that art should exist for the sake of beauty alone. Boggs, on the other hand, contends that art should serve a practical function: it should wake individuals from their sleepwalking by highlighting essential, overlooked aspects of society. Fascinatingly, neither Wilde nor Boggs firmly adheres to his ostensible artistic purpose. Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest, although it showcases certain Aesthetic elements, incisively critiques Victorian society. The play is not a functionless work of pure beauty. Conversely, Boggs’ project clearly serves an instructional function while it simultaneously revels in its own beauty. Moreover, Boggs himself is often uncertain of what his art represents and does. When placed side-by-side, The Importance of Being Earnest and Boggs queer the division between Aestheticism and Functionalism, suggesting that both schools are unattainable ideals. In doing so, the two texts elucidate a holistic conception of art that fuses aesthetic value to social critique. Aesthetic beauty coalesces with function.
For the canonical version of this critique, we have to go back to the ancient Greeks. In one of Plato’s great dialogues, the philosopher Socrates enters into a debate with Ion, a rhapsodist or reciter of poetry, and a great admirer of Homer in particular. At stake in the debate between these two is what the poet (and by extension the rhapsodist) knows, what knowledge they draw on for their art. As Socrates compels Ion to acknowledge, the poet does not know much of any thing at all: early on, he tells Ion, “not from art and knowledge comes your power to speak concerning Homer” (532c). If Ion’s rhapsodizing were an art, Socrates reasons, Ion would be able to speak just as passionately and eloquently on all poets. But Ion can speak authoritatively only about Homer. (“Art” might be understood here as synonymous with “craft,” or a practice with a clearly established set of rules...
Literature is a very powerful tool that is used to make a huge impact on society or in someone’s perspective. Literature comes in different forms and each literature form fits in a certain category or role to help understand the true meaning of it. From playwrights to short stories, each one has moral lesson, a message or a reflection of the author. I have witnessed the power of literature several times. Literature has moved teens to better being; it has motivated unfortunate people to fame, used as an educational process of teaching and most of all, entertainment. Back in the day, plays were on of the most famous forms of entertainment. Without television and radio present, plays served as a substitute to entertain certain groups of people like the royal family or just for the whole public. This was one way of making money by the actors and the authors that wrote the play. Also present during those times were the poem recitals. This is similar to a play but fewer people are present in the stage or sometimes solo performance. Today, Literature is still being used as a form of entertainment and educational intentions. Hollywood made a lot of money by revising the great masterpieces of famous authors such as “Rome and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. Also, they made movies out of hundreds of literary works for educational purposes and better understanding of the literature piece. Each form of literature has its own style. The style determines how it influences the audience to absorb the true meaning and moral of the story or poem. William Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin were truly persuasive while Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe mixed mystery and adventure to their works. The style touches the readers which really makes a good relationship from the reader to the author’s literary masterpieces.