Notes Jan 24- Feb 4

Novels, Allegories, and Narrative Pattern

Lecture Summary: Medievalism and Allegory

• Allegory: type of extended metaphor in which objects and persons within a ext represent meanings that lie outside the text.
• Medieval Allegory: 
• hallmark of medieval literature
• characters personified abstract qualities (envy, truth, or gluttony) or events like death.
• Everyman: 
• main character represents all of humankind- Everyman figure- character is unnamed and or given vague and general personal characteristics
• setting- mythic or has fairy tale quality
• type of Medieval drama- morality play
• Moralities employed allegory to dramatize the moral struggle Christianity envisions universal in every individual.
• The Divine Comedy:
• allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife
• led through three realms of dead
• Dante represents ordinary person who seeks salvation and finds that reason is both a help and a hindance

The Novel

• What makes a novel?
• not applied to extended prose pieces written before the 18th centurey
• always fiction, but not alway prose
• under 50,000 words- "novella"
• doesn't imply a certain structure
• always contain narrative- may be non-traditional (like stream-of-consciousness)
• only works with enduring literary merit (not really a part of the definition)
• Common Types of Novels
• Prose Romance
• set in historical past 
• plot emphasizes adventure and a non realistic atmosphere
• characters: sharply drawn as villains or heroes, masters or victims
• Novel of Incident
• focuses on what the protagonist will do next and how the story will turn out
• Novel of Character
• focuses on protagonist's motives, how he/she will turn out
• Novel of Manners
• defines social mores of a specific group
• Epistolary Novel
• first person narrative
• form of letters, journals, or diaries
• Picaresque Novel
• adventures of an eccentric or disreputable hero in episodic form 
• Historical Novel
• set in a period earlier than that of the writing
• Regional Novel
• habits, speech, and folklore of a particular geographical section
• Bildungsroman
• novel of growth- development of the protagonist's mind, spirit, and character from childhood to adulthood
• Roman a clef
• imaginary events with real people disguised as fictional characters
• Roman-fleuve
• common theme or range of characters that stretch across a number of novels.
• Sociological
• problems and injustices of society, making moral judgments and offering resolution
• Stream of Consciousness
• total range of thoughts, memories, in uninterrupted, endless flow
• Gothic
• desolate setting and mysterious events
• atmosphere of terror
• Gothic Romance
• stormy love relationship
• violent, brooding atmosphere
• Satirical 
• reveals human folly and vices through wit
• hope for reform

Heart of Darkness Discussion day 1

• 2 women knitting black wool
• dark humor
• racist, hair of african people, does Conrad/narrator get it?
• dark humor, irony
• Time period?
• start of modernism
• universal truth, suffering
• allegory cave reference
• Kurtz- God/ Jesus figure?
• part English and part French
• does everything- music, painting, etc.
• represents Europe colonization of Africa- negative