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Introduction: literature and literary study
Literature: problem of definition. Everything in print – disregarding oral traditions, including
all kinds of writing, marginalising literature itself. Other position: ‘great books’ only,
introducing value judgements based on aesthetic concerns. Sometimes philosophers,
historians, theologians, moralists, politicians and even scientists are included. Best:
imaginative literature
Literature: creative activity, an art. Medium: language – a creation of man, charged with the
cultural heritage of a linguistic group. The nature of literature: different use of language (Ù
scientific language, everyday language). Literary language: expressive (tone and attitude),
ambiguous (memories, associations, etc), sound symbolism (metre, sound patterns); more
deliberate exploitation of the resources of language than in everyday use. Different
referentiality – the reference is to a world of fiction. Descriptive conception of literature:
organisation, personal expression, realisation and exploitation of the medium, lack of practical
purpose, fictionality – these distinguish literature from non-literature
The function of literature: ?. Horace: dulce and utile; ‘Poets wish either to instruct or to
delight or to combine the two’(Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism, p.68). Literature
presents experience – typical as well as particular experience. Others: it offers a kind of
knowledge (‘truth’ – systematic and publicly verifiable knowledge), or rather, it helps us
perceive what we see. Yet others: catharsis – to relieve us from the pressure of emotions; but:
does it relieve us from emotions or incite them? Many possible functions; the prime one:
fidelity to its own nature
Literary study: ‘if not precisely a science, a species of knowledge, or of learning’ (WellekWarren, Theory of Literature, p.15). Controversy: the nature of literature as art → the
problem of method. The nature of criticism: something of an art too, giving rise to the idea of
the critic as parasite. ‘Science of culture’ – presents the concrete and individual in reference to
a scheme of values (= culture). No universal laws – either trivial or false
The argument against criticism: the critic is a second-rate artist, criticism is a parasitic
activity. Other: criticism is artificial, public taste natural. An extreme position: art for art’s
sake – art as mystery, an initiation into a closed and privileged community
The argument for criticism: ‘A public that tries to do without criticism, and asserts that it
knows what it wants or likes, brutalises the arts and loses its cultural memory.’ (Frye,
Anatomy of Criticism, p.4).
Literary study translates the experience of literature into intellectual terms and assimilates it
into a coherent scheme. It uses methods employed by the natural sciences (analysis, synthesis,
deduction, induction) as well as its own valid methods (c.f. philosophy, history, theology –
these all have their own valid methods of knowing different from those of the natural
sciences). Literary study: general idea – not possible to study literature itself; possible to study
things about it. Literary theory, literary criticism, literary history. Literary theory: the study of
the principles of literature, its categories, criteria etc. Literary criticism: the interpretation of
concrete works of literature (NB: criticism implies nothing negative). Literary history: the
interpretation of works of literature in a chronological framework. Theory: universal terms;
the basis of criticism and literary history. Literary history: problem of point of view – present-
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day or historical. Literary criticism and literary history are closely connected: the critic needs
knowledge of literary history, the literary historian must be a critic as well
Suggested reading:
Wellek, R., Warren, A. Theory of Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 (1942); chapters
1-4, pp. 15-45
Frye, N. Anatomy of Criticism. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990 (1957); ‘Polemical
Introduction’, pp. 3-29
Bókay, A. Irodalomtudomány a modern és posztmodern korban. Budapest: Osiris, 1997;
‘Bevezetés – Az irodalomtudomány természete és szükségessége.’ pp. 13-23
(2) Elements of literature: rhythm and metre
Literature: divided into genres, categories – yet there are common elements. Rhythm: present
in most types of writing but most easily observed in poetry.
Rhythm: regular pattern of change; ‘the movement or sense of movement communicated by
the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables and by the duration of the syllables’
(Cuddon). Rhythm has a power of its own (→ lullabies, charms etc.), and it contributes to
meaning. Verse rhythm, prose rhythm – difference in the unit: the line (verse) and the
sentence (prose). Underlying idea: the human need for order, organisation. Our focus of
attention: verse rhythm; it is created by the use of metre
Metre: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse – in English. There are
different verse systems / types of versification: syllabic, quantitative, accentual. Syllabic:
based on the number of syllables per line; not natural in a Germanic language. Quantitative:
based on the duration of syllables (short and long syllables); possible but not natural –
imported from classical languages, only a few experimental examples in English. Accentual
(also called accentual syllabic): based upon stress, the alteration of stressed (heavy) and
unstressed (light) syllables; the most common in English poetry since the Renaissance
Rhythm in verse: considering the individual line – a separate entity on the printed page,
representing a pattern. Base – regular rhythmic pattern, independent of words, an abstract
pattern; metre – language shaped to suit the base (language = stressed and unstressed
syllables; => metre = the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables); modulation – departure
from the abstract pattern. The base must be dominant, esp. towards the end of the line. Line:
consists of metrical feet. Foot: unit of rhythm. Base feet: rising – iamb: x / (= a metrical foot
consisting of an unstressed (x) syllable followed by a stressed (/) one), anapaest: x x /; falling
– trochee: / x, dactyl: / x x. Feet used only in modulation: spondee: / /, pyrrhic: x x,
choriambus: / x x /
Stress patterns – three major factors determine the stress:
• Accent – the pattern of polysyllabic words (e.g. descending – x / x)
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Monosyllabic words: grammatical function and rhetorical accent / emphasis
(nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs have stronger stress than articles,
prepositions, particles and conjunctions)
‘metrical accent’ – the stress pattern of the line
Examples of lines:
iambic:
x
/ |
x
/|
x
/|x
/
|
x
/ |
‘I saw the sky descending black and white’
x
/
│
x
/
│
x
/
│
x
/
│
(R. Lowell)
x
/ │
’Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea.’
(Shakespeare)
anapaestic:
x
x
/| x
x
/|
x
x
/ |
x
x
/ |
‘There are many who say that a dog has his day.’
x
x
/ │ x
x
/ │ x
x
/ │
x
x
(D. Thomas)
/│
‘And the fiddler’s old tune and the shuffling of feet’
(W. Morris)
trochaic:
/
x | /
x| /
x|
/
x |
‘Let her live to earn her dinners.’
/
x │ /
x│ /
x │/
(J. M. Synge)
x │
/
x │
‘There they are, my fifty men and women’
(R. Browning)
dactylic:
/
x
x|
/
x
x |
‘Take her up tenderly.’
(T. Hood)
Example of modulation:
/
/ | x
/ |
x
/ |
x
/ |
‘Smart lad to slip betimes away.’
– a spondee as modulation, iambic line
Base foot: dominant but not the only kind in a poem – significant variations to reinforce
meaning. The importance of reading for sense
Some further examples:
/
/ │
/
/ │
/
/
│ x
/ │
x
/
│
‘Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death’ (Milton)
x
/│ x
/ │
x
/
│
x
/ │
x
/
│
‘When I do count the clock that tells the time’ (Shakespeare)
/
/ │
/
/ │ x /│x
/ │ x
/ │
‘Good strong thick stupefying incense smoke’
(R. Browning)
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Strong stress metres: only the strong stress counts, the number of unstressed syllables is
highly variable. Examples: Anglo-Saxon poetry, several Middle English poems, Coleridge:
Christabel, modern poetry
Lines: classified according to the number of feet contained; monometer (a line consisting of
one metrical foot), dimeter (2 feet), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6),
heptameter (7), octameter (8). The most common in English poetry: iambic pentameter. Endstopped line: concludes with a distinct syntactical pause; run-on line (enjambement): sense
carried over into the next line without a syntactic pause. Caesura: a marked pause within the
line (║)
Stanza: a group of lines of verse / grouping of a prescribed number of lines, usually with a
particular rhyme scheme, repeated as a unit of structure; other unit: paragraph (varying length
of units, no fixed number of lines). Most common types: couplet (a stanza consisting of two
lines), triplet (3) /tercet/, quatrain (4) /heroic – abab; ballad – abxb/, sestet (6), ocatve (8).
Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), free verse (no regular metre).
Suggested reading:
Wellek, R., Warren, A. Theory of Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 (1949); ch. 13:
‘Euphony, Rhythm, and Metre’ pp. 158-173
(3) Elements of literature: figurative language
‘Poetry – metre and metaphor.’ Literary language: expressive, ambiguous, sound symbolism;
more deliberate exploitation of the resources of language than in everyday use. Much of this
is present in everyday use though often without our awareness
Relationship with rhetoric: rhetoric: the art of speaking; persuasive and ornamental rhetoric;
in literature: ornamental rhetoric (?). Figurative language → departure from the standard
meaning of words or from the standard order of words. ‘Figures of thought’ or tropes –
change in meaning (figurative as opposed to literal meaning); ‘figures of speech’ or
‘rhetorical figures’, schemes – change in the order or position of words. There is no sharp
division between figures of speech and figures of thought (→ different treatment of them in
different critical writings)
Types: great variety – about 250 figures. The most common ones: allegory (abstract quality
personified), anaphora (repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive
clauses), epiphora (repetition of a word or groups of words at the end of successive clauses),
anticlimax (the last part of a sentence contains something of a lower class than the first),
apostrophe (addressing someone not directly present or listening, addressing a thing),
invocation (addressing a god or a muse to assist the poet in his work), kenning (a descriptive
phrase standing for the ordinary name for a thing; Anglo-Saxon lit.), metaphor (one thing is
expressed in terms of another), metonymy (the name or an attribute of a thing is substituted
for the thing itself), palindrome, onomatopoeia (vocal imitation of sound), prosopopoeia
(personification; human qualities are attributed to nonhuman agents), rhetorical question (a
question asked to achieve a stronger emphasis than a direct statement would give), simile
(explicit comparison with ‘as’ or ‘like’), synecdoche (the part stands for the whole or the
whole stands for the part), tautology (redundant words or ideas)
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Examples:
‘Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt’ry sooth the dull cold ear of Death?’
(Gray)
anaphora:
‘See it in your face. See it in your eyes.’
(Joyce)
epiphora:
‘Working away. Tearing away.’
(Joyce)
anticlimax:
‘Whence flow those Tears fast down thy blubber’d cheeks,
Like swoln Gutter, gushing through the Streets?’ (Fielding)
apostrophe:
‘Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!’
(Shelley)
invocation:
‘And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th’upright heart and pure,
Instruct me…’
(Milton)
kenning:
‘whale-road’
metaphor:
‘Eye, gazelle, delicate wanderer,
Drinker of horizon’s fluid line’
(Spender)
metonymy:
‘Sceptre and crown must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade’
(Shirley)
palindrome:
‘Madam I’m Adam’
onomatopoeia:
‘murmuring of innumerable bees’
(Tennyson)
prosopopoeia:
‘But Time did beckon to the flowers, and they
By noon most cunningly did steal away.’
(Herbert)
rhetorical question: ‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’
(Shelley)
simile:
‘a face like an old lemon’
(Conrad)
synecdoche:
‘Give us this day our daily bread’
tautology:
‘Our old ancient ancestors’
(Joyce)
allegory:
Literary images: synecdoche, metonymy, simile, metaphor, prosopopoeia, allegory.
Function: not (simply) ornamentation; used when language is felt to be insufficient to express
what is meant
Basis of imagery: sensation. ‘Signifier’ and ‘signified’; analogue and subject; vehicle
/pictorial image/ and tenor /general idea/. Classification: 1. Relationship between analogue
and subject: contiguity – synecdoche, metonymy; similarity – simile, metaphor, allegory,
prosopopoeia. 2. Sensory field: visual (majority), auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory
Some important ideas:
Metaphor: central area of research. Not only nouns – other word classes are also possible
(shady character, ‘golden daffodils’). Explicit metaphor (tenor and vehicle; cf. example
above), implicit metaphor (vehicle only – ‘golden daffodils’). Dead metaphor – not
recognised by native speakers any more. Mixed metaphors (e.g. ‘To be or not to be…’),
extended metaphors (‘Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep, / Curled blindly in
impenetrable sorrow.’ – Muir)
Allegory: two meanings. Image (abstract quality personified); narrative (a story with two
levels of meaning, surface and undersurface levels, correspondence between them in terms of
character, action and place). Allegory as narrative – J. Bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress (17th
century; Christian’s pilgrimage to the Celestial city)
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Symbol: not an image in the narrow sense of the word – only vehicle apparent, tenor: rather a
broad field of associations; cf. Blake: ‘The Sick Rose’. Symbol: ‘a word or a phrase that
signifies an object or event which in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference,
beyond itself.’ (M. H. Abrams); ‘An object which refers to another object but demands
attention also in its own right, as a presentation’ /Wellek-Warren/. Conventional/public
symbols – ‘the Cross’; private symbols → poetry (e.g. W. B. Yeats’s ‘tower’ or ‘Byzantium’)
Myth: an anonymously composed story of origins and destinies. The supernatural – the
natural, the divine – the human; a record of fundamental human experience. Use of myth in
Modernist literature (T.S. Eliot: ‘The Waste Land’, Joyce: Ulysses). Myth criticism – viewing
all works of literature as recurrences of archetypes and mythic formulas
Suggested reading:
Wellek, R., Warren, A. Theory of Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 (1949); ch. 15:
‘Image, Metaphor, Symbol, Myth’ pp. 186-211
W. Blake: ‘The Sick Rose’
O Rose, thou art sick.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
(4) Elements of literature: sound patterns
Literary language: sound symbolism utilised. Using the potential ‘musicality’ of language –
cf. Poe: ‘music … combined with a pleasurable idea.’ Devices of verbal music: alliteration,
assonance, consonance, rhyme
Alliteration: close repetition of identical speechsounds (mainly consonants) at the beginning
of words. The principal organising device in Anglo-Saxon poetry, later used only for special
stylistic effects.
Examples:
‘A wild cat, fur-fire in a bracken bush’ (Norman MacCaig)
‘When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush’ (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Assonance: close repetition of identical vowels between different consonants.
Example:
‘Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster child of silence and slow time’ (John Keats)
Consonance: close repetition of identical consonants with different vowels. More frequent
type: similar vowels followed by identical consonants → slant rhyme.
Examples:
‘‘Out of this house’ – said rider to reader,
‘Yours never will’ – said farer to fearer,
‘They’re looking for you’ – said hearer to horror,
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As he left them there, as he left them there.’ (W. H. Auden)
Rhyme: the identity of the last stressed vowel and of all the speech sounds following it. The
most common sound pattern. Aesthetic satisfaction (echoing sounds) and structural
importance (intensifying meaning, binding the verse together).
Examples:
‘There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies grow;
A heavenly paradise is that place
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.’ (Thomas Campion)
Types of rhyme: masculine (single stressed syllable), feminine (stressed syllable followed by
an unstressed syllable), single, double, triple, internal, end, perfect, slant / approximate /
suspended (similarity instead of identity), eye (identical spelling but different pronunciation)
Examples:
masculine: face - place
feminine: daughters - waters
triple: ‘But – Oh! ye lords and ladies intellectual
Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked you all?’ (Byron)
internal: ‘In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud’ (S. T. Coleridge)
slant: flower-fever (Dylan Thomas)
eye-rhyme: prove - love
Rhyme scheme: the sequence of rhymes represented by the letters of the alphabet. (Rhyme
scheme of the example by Campion: abab)
More examples:
rhyme, alliteration, assonance (as in low), assonance (as in round)
‘The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:
a
a
The Lotos blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone
b
Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone,
b
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is blown.’
b
(Alfred Lord Tennyson)
consonance, slant rhyme
‘The centuries will burn rich loads
With which we groaned,
Whose warmth shall lull their dreamy lids,
While songs are crooned.
But they will not dream of us poor lads,
Lost in the ground.’
(Wilfred Owen)
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John Keats: ‘Last Sonnet’
‘Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art –
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors – ’
‘No – yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To
for ever its soft
and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever – or else swoon to death.’
Alliterations: s, w, m, f, h, st, t
Assonances: /eι/, /u:/
Consonances:
, h*r
a
b
a
b
c
d
c
d
e
f
e
f
g
g
rhyme scheme