🎻Intro to Humanities Unit 4 – Literature and Storytelling Traditions

Key Concepts and Terms

• Narrative the representation of a sequence of events, often structured with a beginning, middle, and end
• Plot the sequence of events in a story that create a sense of causality and progression
  • Exposition introduces the setting, characters, and initial conflict
  • Rising action develops the conflict and builds tension
  • Climax the turning point or moment of greatest tension in the story
  • Falling action events that occur as a result of the climax, leading to the resolution
  • Resolution the conclusion of the story where conflicts are resolved and loose ends are tied up
• Character a person, animal, or entity in a story with specific traits, motivations, and roles in the plot
  • Protagonist the main character who drives the story forward and often undergoes change or growth
  • Antagonist the character or force that opposes the protagonist and creates conflict
• Setting the time, place, and social context in which a story takes place, often influencing characters and events
• Theme the central idea, message, or insight about life that a story explores or conveys
• Symbol an object, character, or event that represents abstract ideas or concepts beyond its literal meaning
• Motif a recurring element (image, idea, or structure) that develops the theme or creates a pattern in the story

Historical Context

• Oral traditions the earliest form of storytelling, passed down through generations by word of mouth before the advent of writing
  • Myths stories that explain natural phenomena, cultural practices, or the origins of the world and humanity (Greek myths, creation stories)
  • Legends stories about heroic figures or extraordinary events, often based on some historical truth but embellished over time (King Arthur, Robin Hood)
  • Folktales stories that convey the values, customs, and beliefs of a particular culture, often with moral lessons (Aesop's fables, African folktales)
• Epic poetry long narrative poems that recount the adventures and heroic deeds of legendary or historical figures (Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Beowulf)
• Medieval literature works produced in Europe during the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries), often reflecting religious themes and chivalric ideals (Dante's Divine Comedy, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales)
• Renaissance literature works produced in Europe during the Renaissance (14th to 17th centuries), characterized by a revival of classical learning and a focus on humanism (Shakespeare's plays, Cervantes' Don Quixote)
• Enlightenment literature works produced during the Age of Enlightenment (18th century), emphasizing reason, individualism, and social critique (Voltaire's Candide, Swift's Gulliver's Travels)
• Romanticism a literary movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that emphasized emotion, imagination, and the beauty of nature (Wordsworth's poetry, Goethe's Faust)
• Realism a literary movement of the 19th century that sought to depict life and society accurately, without idealization or romanticization (Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)

Major Literary Movements

• Modernism a literary movement of the early 20th century that broke with traditional forms and techniques, often exploring the fragmentation and alienation of modern life
  • Stream of consciousness a narrative technique that presents a character's thoughts and perceptions in a continuous, unstructured flow (James Joyce's Ulysses, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway)
  • Experimentation with form and language writers sought to create new modes of expression that reflected the complexities of the modern world (T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons)
• Postmodernism a literary movement that emerged in the mid-20th century, characterized by skepticism towards grand narratives, blurring of high and low culture, and self-reflexivity
  • Metafiction fiction that self-consciously addresses its own fictional nature and the process of storytelling (John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler)
  • Intertextuality the referencing or incorporation of other texts within a work, often to comment on or subvert their meanings (Jorge Luis Borges' short stories, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose)
• Magical Realism a literary style that incorporates fantastical or mythical elements into otherwise realistic settings and narratives, often to explore social or political realities (Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children)
• Postcolonial Literature works that address the experiences and legacies of colonialism, often by writers from formerly colonized nations (Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things)
• Contemporary Literature works produced in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, encompassing a wide range of styles, themes, and cultural perspectives (Toni Morrison's Beloved, Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore)

Influential Authors and Works

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) the most widely known and influential writer in the English language, known for his plays and sonnets that explore the depths of human nature and experience (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello)
• Jane Austen (1775-1817) an English novelist known for her wit, social commentary, and insight into the lives of women in the early 19th century (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) a Russian novelist and philosopher known for his complex characters and exploration of existential and moral questions (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from Underground)
• Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) an English modernist writer known for her innovative narrative techniques and feminist themes (To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One's Own)
• Franz Kafka (1883-1924) a Czech writer known for his surreal and enigmatic stories that explore themes of alienation, bureaucracy, and the absurdity of modern life (The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle)
• James Joyce (1882-1941) an Irish modernist writer known for his experimental use of language and stream of consciousness technique (Ulysses, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
• Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) a Colombian writer and a key figure in the Latin American Boom, known for his magical realist novels that blend history, myth, and political commentary (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera)

Storytelling Techniques and Elements

• Point of view the perspective from which a story is told, influencing how events and characters are perceived and understood
  • First-person narration the story is told from the perspective of a character using "I" or "we" (J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye)
  • Third-person narration the story is told from an outside perspective, using "he," "she," or "they" (Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace)
    • Omniscient narration the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of all characters
    • Limited narration the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of only one or a few characters
• Dialogue the conversations between characters that reveal their personalities, relationships, and conflicts
  • Direct dialogue the exact words spoken by characters, enclosed in quotation marks
  • Indirect dialogue a summary or paraphrase of what characters say, without quotation marks
• Flashback a scene that interrupts the chronological order of the narrative to depict events from the past, often to provide context or reveal character motivations (Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier)
• Foreshadowing hints or clues that suggest future events in the story, creating suspense or preparing readers for the outcome (Shirley Jackson's The Lottery)
• Irony a discrepancy between what is said or expected and what actually happens, often used for humorous or tragic effect
  • Verbal irony a character says one thing but means the opposite (sarcasm)
  • Situational irony a situation turns out differently than expected, often in a way that is contrary to the characters' intentions
  • Dramatic irony the audience knows more than the characters, creating a sense of anticipation or tension
• Metaphor a comparison between two unlike things, often to highlight a shared quality or to create a new understanding (William Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage" monologue)
• Allegory a story in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract ideas or moral principles (George Orwell's Animal Farm as an allegory for the Russian Revolution)

Cultural Significance and Themes

• Literature as a reflection of society stories often capture the values, beliefs, and conflicts of the cultures in which they are produced, providing insight into different historical periods and social contexts
  • Social commentary writers use their works to critique or satirize aspects of society, such as inequality, corruption, or conformity (Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World)
  • Cultural identity literature can explore and affirm the experiences and perspectives of marginalized or underrepresented groups, contributing to the development of cultural pride and solidarity (Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club)
• Universal themes despite differences in time, place, and culture, many stories explore common aspects of the human experience that resonate across borders
  • Love and relationships the joys, challenges, and complexities of romantic, familial, and platonic bonds (Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera)
  • Coming of age the process of growth, self-discovery, and the transition from childhood to adulthood (J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus)
  • Good vs. evil the struggle between moral forces and the consequences of individual and societal choices (John Milton's Paradise Lost, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings)
  • The human condition the fundamental aspects of existence, such as mortality, identity, purpose, and the search for meaning (Albert Camus' The Stranger, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot)
• Literature as a vehicle for empathy and understanding by immersing readers in the lives and perspectives of diverse characters, stories can foster empathy, challenge stereotypes, and promote understanding across differences (Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah)
• The power of storytelling literature demonstrates the enduring human impulse to create, share, and find meaning in stories, highlighting the role of narrative in shaping individual and collective identities (Scheherazade's tales in One Thousand and One Nights, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried)

Analysis and Interpretation Methods

• Close reading a method of literary analysis that involves careful, detailed examination of a text's language, structure, and themes to uncover its meanings and effects
  • Attention to diction analyzing the connotations, tone, and implications of word choice (Ernest Hemingway's use of simple, direct language in his short stories)
  • Analysis of figurative language examining the use and significance of metaphors, similes, and other literary devices (William Shakespeare's use of extended metaphors in his sonnets)
  • Examination of narrative structure considering how the arrangement of events, pacing, and point of view shape the reader's experience and understanding (Toni Morrison's use of nonlinear narrative in Beloved)
• Historical and cultural context considering how a work reflects and responds to the social, political, and artistic conditions of its time and place
  • Biographical analysis examining how an author's life experiences, beliefs, and influences shape their work (Virginia Woolf's feminist themes and the impact of her personal struggles on her writing)
  • New Historicism a critical approach that examines literature as a product of its historical and cultural context, often focusing on issues of power, ideology, and marginalized voices (studying Shakespeare's plays in relation to Elizabethan politics and social hierarchies)
• Reader-response criticism a critical approach that emphasizes the role of the reader in creating meaning, recognizing that individual experiences, beliefs, and contexts shape interpretation
  • Transactional theory the idea that meaning emerges from the interaction between the text and the reader, rather than residing solely in the text itself (Louise Rosenblatt's Literature as Exploration)
  • Interpretive communities the notion that readers' interpretations are influenced by the shared assumptions, values, and strategies of the social groups to which they belong (Stanley Fish's Is There a Text in This Class?)
• Intertextual analysis examining how a work relates to, draws upon, or subverts other texts, genres, or cultural traditions
  • Allusion identifying and interpreting references to other works, myths, or historical events within a text (James Joyce's use of Homeric parallels in Ulysses)
  • Genre studies considering how a work adheres to or deviates from the conventions and expectations of its genre (Angela Carter's feminist retellings of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber)
• Psychological analysis applying concepts from psychology to interpret characters' motivations, behaviors, and relationships
  • Freudian analysis examining the role of the unconscious, repression, and childhood experiences in shaping characters' actions and desires (Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams applied to Hamlet)
  • Jungian archetypes identifying recurring character types, symbols, and narrative patterns that reflect universal aspects of the human psyche (the hero's journey in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

Modern Adaptations and Relevance

• Retellings and reimaginings contemporary authors often draw upon classic stories, myths, or fairy tales, updating them for modern audiences or exploring them from new perspectives
  • Feminist retellings stories that challenge traditional gender roles and give voice to female characters (Madeline Miller's Circe, Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad)
  • Postcolonial retellings stories that subvert or critique the colonial assumptions of canonical texts (Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea as a prequel to Jane Eyre)
  • Modernizations stories that transpose classic tales to contemporary settings or adapt them to new media (Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, the Hogarth Shakespeare series)
• Intertextual references and allusions modern works often engage with literary tradition through references, quotations, or structural parallels, inviting readers to consider the ongoing dialogue between texts
  • Epigraphs quotations or passages at the beginning of a work that establish its themes, tone, or literary influences (Junot Díaz's use of epigraphs in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
  • Metafictional allusions self-conscious references to other works or to the process of writing and reading (Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, which features a literary detective who enters the world of books)
• Adaptation across media the translation of literary works into other forms, such as film, television, theater, or graphic novels, which can introduce stories to new audiences and offer fresh interpretations
  • Film adaptations the challenges and opportunities of translating a literary work into a visual medium (Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Greta Gerwig's Little Women)
  • Graphic novel adaptations the use of sequential art to reimagine and enhance classic stories (Gareth Hinds' adaptations of Shakespeare and classic literature)
• The enduring power of storytelling the continuing relevance and resonance of literature in the modern world, as stories continue to shape our understanding of ourselves, our societies, and our place in the world
  • Literature as a means of empathy and connection stories that foster understanding and bridge differences in an increasingly globalized and diverse world (Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun)
  • Literature as a catalyst for social change works that raise awareness, challenge injustice, and inspire action on contemporary issues (Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give, Louise Erdrich's The Round House)
  • The role of storytelling in the digital age the impact of new technologies and platforms on the creation, dissemination, and consumption of stories (social media as a storytelling tool, the rise of digital literature and interactive fiction)