LIT 101: Introduction to Literature
Learning Unit 4: Handout
FAQs
You are certainly not required to like our stories, but I do ask that you do a good job of complaining
about why you dislike them using course terms and concepts. In colloquial terms: enlightened bitching is
better than unschooled ranting. The official term is "an intelligent reading" or a "valid perspective," but
whatever works for you.
Antagonist and conflict
The hero or central character can certainly be opposed by multiple antagonists. For example, Batman is
opposed by the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, etc. Sometimes there is a main rival: Edward and
Jacob, in Twilight; Harry Potter and Voldemort. In our readings, Miss Emily Grierson is indeed at odds
with Homer, her father, the townspeople, the pharmacist. Usually, one of the opposing forces takes
precedence. I was happy to see that a few of you took the time to actually defend Miss Emily and her
actions, as she is indeed-perhaps unfairly-opposed by a number of antagonists (her family, her society
and its attitudes towards gender and class, a damned Yankee, to summarize those mentioned above. )
Objective/subjective points of view
A piece of literature typically contains a speaker who is speaking either in the first person, telling things
from his or her own perspective, or in the third person, telling things from the perspective of an
onlooker. Compare Soldier’s Home, with a 3rd person narrator, with A&P or How to Tell a True War
Story, where the action is filtered through a character who is involved in the events. Faulkner’s narrator
in Rose for Emily moves back and forth between 1st person and 3rd person-here a person from the
town is relating the incidents-some of which he witnessed, others he did not. This makes the work more
complex-some of you disliked the way the story rather joltingly moves around in time.
Plot v. Action
Action, as I use the term, refers to the chronological order of the events in a story. Plot is quite a distinct
concept—this term refers to how the author reveals the events, thus the use of flashbacks, flash
forwards, and action in the “present” Note how we begin with: Emily’s funeral; Krebs after the war;
O’Brien in the middle of the action—for an introductory course like ours, it is probably enough to be
aware and able to ask the questions. As one student wrote about Soldier’s Home: “I thought I was
missing a page.” Hemingway does defy our notions on how a story should be told, so…
Popular vs. Serious Literature
Or "Why all the extra stuff?" —I think a good place to start here is with the idea of expectations—
readers expect certain things from the texts they read. Generic expectations refers to the specific things
we expect from a certain type of literature—we expect superheros to be victorious and never die;
cowboys to meet at high noon; romance novels to have happy endings; Popular literature seeks to
satisfy the customer/reader by meeting expectations, while serious literature seeks to provoke a
response in the reader by defying expectations. Consider the shortest story in our unit—55 miles to the
Gas Pump—here, Annie Proulx breaks the mold we expect about the West. The virtues and code of the
frontier is deconstructed/taken apart by this three paragraph narrative. Note that Proulx’s story
“Brokeback Mountain” appeared in the same collection of short stories and also shockingly deconstructs
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LIT 101: Introduction to Literature
Learning Unit 4: Handout
our notions about the west and the typical cowboy. Louis L’Amour would stick to the script, and MEET
the expectations of his readers, while Proulx DEFIES the expectations and elicits a strong, often negative,
response.
To the point
Serious literature tends to ask as many questions as it resolves, where popular literature works to
resolve the action according to the type/genre the work belongs to.
Literary Analysis and Response
You are free to like/dislike any story, but be aware that serious literature presents a more multidimensional approach, so when O’Brien is seeking the “true” war story, he is also contrasting his
perspective with John Wayne, Rambo and other popular heros. His intrusive narrator disrupts the
narrative with frequent interjections and comments; and also jumbles the events in such a way that it is
hard to make sense of the action.
Short Story vs. Novel
A Short story is difficult to define, but you know one when you see one. Some popular definitions: “800
to 15,000 words?” A “brief, concentrated illumination or revelation of some facet of life.” Or, according
to Edgar Allan Poe, “A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his
thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or
single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents—he then combines such events as may
best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.” Note that the plot patterns we have explored
(triangle or pyramidal) apply more specifically to novels and books, the elemens of fiction are closely
related nonetheless.
Flashbacks
A reference to an event which took place prior to the beginning of a story or play. In Ernest
Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilamanjaro," the protagonist, Harry Street, has been injured on a hunt in
Africa. Dying, his mind becomes preoccupied with incidents in his past. In Soldier’s Home, Hemingway’s
references to Krebs wartime experiences are much more limited. In Rose for Emily, the flashbacks fill in
the missing details to provide a more rounded understanding of Emily’s behavior and motivations.
Why are these and other modern stories so strange?
Tortured Writer syndrome—not all authors are addicts, but Faulkner was indeed a raging alcoholic, as
was Hemingway, who killed himself. Poe was a drug addict. Two points: I think certain authors don’t
choose to write, they write because they can’t NOT write. Writing is an obsession, and it is often a
healthy release— “Scriptotherapy” is the term for this. According to one contemporary writer, “Brains
that are particularly overactive tend to run and run until they fall into into what computers do when
they lock up sometimes — create an infinite loop. The writer gets excited about a project. Then the
writer starts to write it. Then he (or "she" if she is lucky) starts to realize it's not as good on paper as it
was in their head. Then they start to doubt what they once thought was their God-given ability. Then
they either drink, get frustrated or go play Quake III. And those are the non-self-destructive writer types.
It's not that we like being alone and obsessive and tortured. If writing were as simple and methodical as
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LIT 101: Introduction to Literature
Learning Unit 4: Handout
working in fast food (and yes, I have done both as a living), we'd all be whipping out a novel every four
months. It certainly doesn't pay as well as fast food in most cases unless you're Michael Crichton or Tom
Clancy. But because it is a mental activity, one that relies on giving a portion over to your subconscious
in the fugue-like state that produces some of the best fiction, there is a certain amount of fear involved
going in.
© Kevin Cook and Indian Hills Community College
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