Literature – Week 4
Humanities G125
Rasmussen
Objectives
• Begin to identify literary works that can be described
as classics and masterpieces.
• Analyze elements of literature as history.
• Compare specific characteristics of The Epic of
Gilgamesh and the Iliad.
• Outline distinctive qualities and types of poetry
including lyrical poetry, the sonnet, the haiku, religious
poetry, and modern poetry.
• Point to literary and contextual elements that enhance
the quality of fiction.
Terms to know
• BC = Before Christ
• BCE = Before the Common Era (still ending with
the birth of Christ)
• AD = Anno Domini, which means “in the year of
our Lord” AD starts with the birth of Christ.
• CE = Common Era (same as AD)
• Common misconception that AD stands for “After
the Death”, but that would mean that Christ was
born one year and died the next.
Classics/Masterpieces
• Definition: a work that has outlived it’s time
and continues to be relevant.
• A Masterpiece is a work that in style,
execution, and resonance far exceeds what
other writers were doing at the same time. A
masterpiece can always stand on it’s own no
matter how many years have passed.
• A classic can be restricted by time and context
Examples:
• James Fenimore Cooper—The Leather
Stocking Tales – classic
• Mark Twain—Adventures of Huck Fin—
Masterpiece
Literature as History
• Many stories establish and identity and a
history. In many cases, the two are
inseparable.
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Epic
• Definition: a genre that can be found in the
literary heritage of most early societies.
• A long narrative poem recounting the actions
and adventures of a hero who exemplifies
strength, courage, and cunning, but not
necessarily moral virtue—because society at
that time was most concerned about safety
and survival – think Maslow’s Hierarchy
Gilgamesh
• Is an epic
• About a tyranical king who lived 4000 years ago
• Scholars believe the poem is based on a real king
from the city of Uruk in 2750 BCE
• Gilgamesh is challenged by Enkidu. Gilgamesh
represents aggression and Enkidu represents
kindness. Enkidu loses—again, the focus is on
survival.
The Iliad
• Considered a masterpiece
• By Homer sometime between 1200 and 850
BCE
• Poem gives a national, unified, identity to
Greece. Greece at the time was made up of
many warring tribes and a common story was
meant to bring them together.
Poetry
• Lyrical Poetry—sung
• Sonnets – English and Italian – both 14 lines
• English – 6, 6, 2
• Italian –12, 2
• End with a couplet – which usually is very
meaningful.
• Modern Love Sonnet
Terms of Poetry
• Meter—measurement of words/lines in
syllables—stresses and unstresses.
• Rhyme /scheme—end of the line rhyming
patterns -- ABBA
• Metaphor – something is something else
• Conceit – extended association between two
dissimilar things.
Haiku
• Japanese– seventeen syllables over three lines
with a 5-7-5 pattern. Expresses a sudden
intuitive insight.
• Consider me
As one who loved poetry
And persimmons.
• - Shiki
Sample Haiku
• From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon-beholders.
• - Bashō
• The wren
Earns his living
Noiselessly.
• - Issa
Poets/Poetry
• Emily Dickenson—beginnings of modernism
•
•
•
•
Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality
Novels
• First novel in the world, probably The Tale of
the Genji, written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu
over 1000 years ago.
• The Mahabharata from India 400 BCE – 400 CE
• King Arthur stories (5th and 6th Centuries)
• Don Quixote (1612-1615) (pronounced Kee-hotee)
Novel in America
• Europe didn’t think that any worthwhile art
could come out of America.
• Washington Irving— “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow” and “Rip VanWinkle”
• Mark Twain soon followed and received
recognition
• F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway
Current
• Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan born writer who
now lives in the US, has written three very
good novels, including
• Kite Runner
• A Thousand Splendid Suns
Reader Response
• Context
• Reader
Meaning
Text
My Papa’s Walz
My Papa’s Waltz by
Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death;
Such waltzing was not easy
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Reader Response
• Close reading
• Thomas C. Foster: First page Love Medicine
by Louise Erdrich
Ernest Hemingway
• Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
• In our time -- vignettes
Tim O’Brien
• Tim O’Brien Tells a True War Story -- video
• The Things They Carried
Isabelle Allende
• Tales of Passion –videoyoutube
• The House of the Spirits
Amy Tan
• Finding Meaning Through Writing
• “This is what I know for sure is true. . .”
On Writing
• The Writing Spirit
• Jerry Seinfeld on writing
• Writers on Writing