1) What is English Literary Studies? What is Literature?

What could textual signals for fictionality be?

"Once upon a time" Representations of thought processes monological speech, etc.

Definition of Analysis

focus on the form and structure of text

Terry Eagleton's approach to literature

literature as a reflection of ideology (ideology = "those modes of feeling, valuing, perceiving and believing which have some kind of relation to the maintenance and reproduction of social power"). For example, if society does not accept certain people, they won't be main characters in literary texts. (prominent British literary theorist, critic)

What is by Lack of pragmatic function meant?

+does not serve a specific purpose and gives no directions for action. The argument is that literature does not need to have any specific purpose; it's 'art for art's sake' (credo of Aestheticism, a 19th century artistic movement). While literary texts may not have been written for a specific purpose, such as to instruct the reader in how to cook chicken, they usually still have several functions (whether the author intends it or not): entertainment, education (didactic function), criticism, aesthetic (literature as art) etc. The function of a text depends on the individual reader ; the reader helps to construct the meaning

What is meant by aesthetic illusion?

Aesthetic illusion is a basically pleasurable mental state that emerges during the reception of many representational texts, artifacts or performances.

What does a field of study as English Literary Studies deals with?

As a field of study English Literary Studies deals with: • Analysis and interpretation of literary texts • Literature as a symbolic and social system • Development of theories, methods, models of textual analysis • History of literature in the English language

Example of poem for erudite audience?

T. S. Elliot "the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Who had this approach to literature (literature as a reflection of ideology) ?

Terry Eagleton

What is meant by the Pragmatic function of a text?

Texts written and used for specific purpose (e.g. cookbook, gardening, etc.)

What are the different aspect that need to be considered when dealing with English Literary Studies?

• Environmental/Cultural context of a book written in English • Cultural diversity as a reason for having an English and an American Literary Studies department at university; specialisation by country: Ireland, USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. • Immigration background, class differences and regional differences. Example: Joseph Conrad (Polish) is considered a representative of English literature because he lived in England, wrote in the English language, and published in Britain (e.g. The Heart of Darkness)

What is literature? (broad definition)

•Broad definition: ALL written artefacts of a culture (problem: excludes oral/visual storytelling traditions)

What is literature? (narrow definition)

•Narrow definitions: the search for 'literariness'; a quality intrinsic to literature which you cannot find in other texts o No consensus about any of these theories

What is meant by Descriptive approaches?

'Literature is A but not B.' - attempts at defining by contrast

Relationship between literature and reality

('mimesis' vs. 'poeisis') Greek o Mimesis: imitation of reality o Poeisis = the making of reality; literature creates independent models of reality with specifically literary tools

Definition of Interpretation

(an explanation or opinion of what something means) the interpretation of a text based on a thorough analysis

What are the central criteria in defining literature, provided by descriptive approaches?(LIST)

1) Fictionality 2)Specialised language 3)Lack of pragmatic function 4) Ambiguity

Waht is difficult in defining what literature is?

Attempts at definitions are made difficult by the fact that what we understand as 'literature' changes over time (definitions depend on cultural context). As a result, nowadays critics avoid normative definitions of literature (high-brow vs. low-brow); these are based on value judgements which don't hold up to objective analysis.

What is English Literary Studies?

English Literary Studies typically encompasses literature in the English language, regardless of the country of publication and the author's origin. ( We need to define what we mean by 'English'. To claim that English Literary Studies deals only with the literature of England would be extremely restrictive. Instead, we need to take a more open stance)

What are defining factors in a large number of definitions of English Literary Studies?

TEXTUALITY & FICTIONALITY

What is by Fictionality meant?

Fcitionality is the quality of being fictional. Characteristic of creative works, whose content is imagined and is not necessarily based on fact. It describes imaginary events and people.

Etimology fictionality

Fictionality (from lat. 'fingere' to make up)

Definition of Fictionality

Fictionality is not a feature of the text itself, but rather a set of social conventions or consensually recognised rules concerning how certain texts should be approached.

What is by Ambiguity meant?

Mehrdeutigkeit' (different interpretations of the same text) • literary text more open to interpretation than non-literary texts • human factor to interpretation • transmission of meaning through different means and on various levels open to interpretation, different people, different interpretation, various meanings and levels.

What is by Specialised language meant?

The specialized language is a vector of specialized knowledge, but sometimes it contains units from the common language. The specialized languages are different from the common languages, regarding their usage and the information they convey. -artifical language, markers of specialised language. It estranges, it brings us closer to the experience that the text wants to convey. -different from normal language; difficult to read. Erudite (well educated) audience. EXAMPLE_ Poetry is often marked by a conspicuous shape (line breaks, stanzas), a dense structure (thematically and linguistically), rhetorical devices, etc. • Example T.S. Elliot "The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Modernist poem (for erudite audience) • Example Haiku (computer algorithm organized text as a haiku from news article)

How did Roman Jakobson describe literature?

as "organized violence committed on ordinary speech"

What is meant by Didactic function of Literature?

educational informative literature (...for dummier, Biblie, Torah..)

Mimesis:

imitation of reality (considers literature's relationship to reality to be grounded in its imitation of the real world)-the modern view, however, is that it does not merely imitate, they are in dynamic interplay.

Definition of Literary canon

selection of books by institutions of power (such as university)

What is meant by "the 'willing suspension of disbelief'?

termed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: to allow yourself to be drawn into a fictional world and accept its rules and whatever happens in it, while at the same time being fully aware of the fictional nature of it all. This is tied to the aesthetic illusion.

Poeisis

the making of reality; literature creates independent models of reality with specifically literary tools

What is Russian Formalism?

was an influential school of literary criticism in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s, which revolutionized literary criticism ( early 20th century); "Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language: DEFAMILIARISATION • Russian Formalists are the first to draw attention to the materiality of texts • Russian Formalism = the application of linguistics to the study of literature; content as a motivation for form "Literary discourse estranges or alienates ordinary speech, but in doing so, paradoxically, brings us into a fuller, more intimate possession of experience" - Terry Eagleton.

Conclusion on the definition of Literature

we have seen no matter which kind of definition there are always exceptions. Nothing is really intrinsic to literature. Our expectations determine if we see a literature or not. Culturally imposed, formed. Ambiguity and uncertainty..the nature of literature. We have seen that no matter which defining aspect of literature we are approaching, there are always exceptions to the rule. We have seen that stylistically, news reports and literary writing, for example, may overlap, that our expectations determine whether we see a text as literary or not and that these expectations are culturally informed. Ultimately, we find that there's a certain ambiguity and uncertainty that undercuts the most basic premise of the study of literature, namely the nature of literature itself. We have to wonder where this uncertainty stems from. Why is it that we are unable to completely define that which is so fundamental to our field of study?