'Literary Genres" by Tzvetan Todorov - Chapter Summary

Written by

Todorov, Tzvetan. "Chapter 1: Literary Genres." The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. 24-57. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975. Print.

Tzvetan Todorov


“The Fantastic” is a name given to a kind of literature, to a literary genre.”
Genre is about examining a text in the context of many others belonging to the same genre, as opposed to analyzing a text in its own right. The definition of a genre is done by examining a limited number of texts belonging to this genre, formulating a theory of the genre, and modifying or rejecting it, as necessary, upon examination of new texts that belong to the same genre {biology analogy: the discovery of a mutant tiger doesn’t make us change the definition of the tiger as a species, whereas the discovery of an aberrant text may make us redefine the genre to which the text belongs}. A text which does not modify our idea of the genre or bring anything new to the literary table is categorized as pop literature, whereas it is a revolutionary text which will make literary history.
Just because a work of literature can be studied independently from a genre doesn’t mean we cannot study it within the context of a genre.
Every text takes something from texts which have preceded it, and at the same time adds something new. A new literary text may be viewed as both taking and giving to the genre to which it belongs. Poetics characterizes works according to deviations from the standard, and in order for it to do that, a standard (genre) must be defined.
Northrop Frye, a literary theorist, stated that the study of a work must be taken seriously, and without judging the work’s value. The assumption must be made that the work is a complete, coherent system and contains no “mistakes”. The work needs to be examined in the context of the time (possibly a long period of time) in which it was written. A work needs to be analyzed in reference to itself and the theoretical premises the author created.
Frye proposed different ways (1-) to categorize works of literature into genres (i,ii…):

In yellow- comments on categorization by Todorov

1.      Modes of fiction
Defined by the relationship between the hero and the reader or the hero and the laws of nature
i.                    Myth: hero>nature, hero>reader. Superiority “by nature”
ii.                  Fairy tale: hero>nature, hero>reader. Superiority “by degree (slightly superior)”
iii.                High mimetic genre: hero>reader “by degree” (no reference to nature)
iv.                 Low mimetic genre: hero=reader, hero=nature
v.                   Irony: hero<reader

Not comprehensive- other possible relationships. These should be called “theoretical genres”

2.      Verisimilitude (definition: appearance of truth)
i.                   Plausible
ii.                  Characters can do anything
3.      Tendencies of literature
i.                   Comedy
ii.                  Tragedy
4.      Archetypes
i.                   Romance
ii.                  Irony
iii.                 Comedy
iv.                 Tragedy
5.      Literary audience (genre)
i.                   Drama (to be performed)
ii.                  Lyric poetry (to be sung)
iii.                 Epic poetry (to be recited)
iv.                 Prose (to be read)
6.      .


2-4,6: These classifications seems arbitrary. Why these categories and not others?



Comments

Post a Comment

Hey friend! 🌈 I can't help with your assignments but maybe other readers can. Good luck! 🤞

Popular posts

"Professions for Women" by Virginia Woolf - Summary

Written by
Image
Virginia Woolf is addressing a group of women seeking employment in a workforce predominated by men. She speaks of the struggle present for all women writers, and that is to break out of the conventions society has for women- being pure, and conservative, and sycophantic towards men without a mind of their own. This is a mental barrier that she was able to break, with great difficulty, in order to incorporate her own voice into her writing. She was able to do so thanks to her financial independence, which allowed her to not depend on writing for a livelihood and allowed her to break conventions. Now that women will join the workforce, Woolf says that it is important to ask questions regarding what all of this implies, and how women are to behave once they are professionals, and to explore the individual voice that women will need to bring to their jobs. Virginia Woolf
Read more

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker - Summary

Written by
Image
Walker describes Jean Toomer's exploration of the Reconstruction South. Toomer found women sexually abused and lost, but who he saw to hold power, spirituality and beauty of which they were not aware. They were waiting for these unknowns to be made known. In the meantime they did not appreciate any aspects of life. These black women were artists whose creative forces were abandoned to the hardships of life. Black women who were able to create such as Phillis Wheatley and Zora Hurston had divided loyalties, between black and white cultures. They were raised in both and their art is not genuinely hers but confused due to this. Many have criticized Wheatley's poetry for glorifying white people but Walker understands that art for Phyllis was a soulful practice and it sustained her. This is not the end of the story, for the next generation of black women has survived. There is now the quest for black female identity. Society is not understanding of this strife. The quest
Read more

American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee - Summary

Written by
Image
Mukherjee calls America a myth. Mukherjee is a naturalized citizen and had to prove her worth to become one. She was born in Calcutta, India and never expected to naturalize, but to return home to marry the man her father picked for her. When she first arrived in Iowa for two years to study it was very homogeneous but now, 35 years later, it is so diverse that there's a cultural   or identity crisis regarding foreigners. In India this was unheard of, because classification matters above all and decrees precisely who each person is. Mukherjee herself was defined by her ancestry, caste and homeland. One day she spontaneously married her Canadian husband. For ten years she felt like an expatriate, and wrote a book that was an expression of this. After 14 years in Canada she decided to become an immigrant instead of an expatriate and moved to America with her family. Canada was hard because it was very racially exclusivist. America on the other hand held the appeal of its egalitari
Read more

"The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach" by Wolfgang Iser - Article Summary

Written by
Image
Iser, Wolfgang. "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach." The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1974. 274-94. Print. From Wikipedia: Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and analysis of the structures of  consciousness , and the  phenomena  which appear in acts of consciousness. Such reflection was to take place from a highly modified "first person" viewpoint, studying phenomena not as they appear to "my" consciousness, but to any consciousness whatsoever. Husserl believed that phenomenology could thus provide a firm basis for all human  knowledge , including scientific knowledge, and could establish philosophy as a "rigorous science" of measurable perception. SUMMARY I – The work of literature is text and the reader's response According to phenomenology, when co
Read more

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow by Richard Wright - Summary

Written by
Image
1 Young Richard's and the other black families lived behind the railroad tracks in Arkansas, their yards strewn with cinders. One day his gang got into a fight with white kids, who used broken bottles instead of cinders for the fight. Richard was injured, and instead of consoling him his mother admonishes him for fighting white boys and beats him until he is sick with fever. From that time on the lawns and trees become a symbol of white people, then a symbol of fear. They move to a different house in Mississippi, far from a black neighborhood. Richard gets his first job at an optical company. He is careful to be polite to the white men around him. When he carefully asks if they would teach him some of the trade like they had said they would, they become colder to Richard. Finally they bully him into leaving, accusing him of rudeness to them. 2 His second job is a porter at a clothing store. Richard's white boss and his son beat and rape a black woman for not
Read more

A Wife's Story by Bharati Mukherjee - Summary

Written by
Image
The narrator is an Indian female. She plans to write to playwright David Mamet about the content of his plays that are offensive to Indian women. His plays are also racist, portraying Indians as stingy and ugly. In India, she thinks, this would not have been accepted. She is at the play with Imre, a Hungarian refugee whose English is not very good. He is very protective of women. He is married with two children and is petitioning for their emigration. She too is married- her husband is in India. Imre does not understand why she is so upset and advises her to relax. He breaks into a dance, and since she is too embarrassed to dance in public she hugs him, taking him by surprise. She notes that her family members, educated in English facilities, would never do anything so silly. She mentions that her son has died. Her marriage was arranged. She feels light, almost free. She is in New York getting a Ph.D. in special ed. She has a small scholarship. She has a family history of beatin
Read more

A Journey by Edith Wharton - Summary

Written by
Image
Edith Wharton. Image source A female protagonist is on a train to New York at night when it's raining, watching the lights flash by in the darkness. She thinks how she and her husband, in the berth across from her, have become estranged. They used to be in sync but now he has grown petulant and slow. She used to be a schoolteacher, and after meeting him she felt her life had hope but now it felt hopeless again. She thinks back. Soon after their wedding he was prescribed rest cure which failed. They moved to Colorado where she felt despondent taking care of him and he was growing worse and changing and they grew apart gradually. Also nobody knew her or cared about her newlywed gifts of which she is proud. Sometimes she pitied him but mostly she was frightened. Finally the doctors gave them permission to go home. This meant he was dying but she sometimes forgot and grew excited about the trip. The train trip starts well but soon grows worse and people in the car pass ju
Read more

"Realism and the Novel Form" by Ian Watt - Chapter Summary

Written by
Image
Watt, Ian. "Chapter 1: Realism and the Novel Form."   The Rise of the Novel . Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970. Print. The literary form of novel appeared in the 18 th century among a group of writers who had very little in common- Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. However there must have been something prevalent in that era which led them to create this new form. The novel differs from previous work in that it is characterized by realism. Realism isn't to be defined as the opposite of idealism. Realism is the attempt at portrayal of all aspects of human experience. Realism lies in the manner in which life is represented. The novel is marked by the attempt to view life scientifically. The modern idea of realism is that which we perceive via our senses. In the middle ages it was universal ideas which were thought to be true reality. Descartes however hypothesized that reality is perceived by the individual and is not attached to previous ideas on reality. The develop
Read more

"A Model of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop - Summary

Written by
Image
God has made the world so that there are those who are less fortunate, and more fortunate. The reasons are: 1. To be in accord with the variability present in the natural world. Also, it is more satisfactory to gain followers of God secondhand, via a man messenger than directly by God accruing them.  2. The variation in the goodness of people gives God the opportunity to use his power to moderate vices, and support and endow with virtues.  3. Variety causes men to need one another and thus grow closer together. The difference in men is not because some are better than others but because this serves God and all God's men. People should show mercy and exercise justice toward one another, and be governed by the Laws of Nature (love thy neighbor as you love yourself) and Gospel (hospitality, as dictated by the Gospel). The following is in Q&A format: Men should help others in need. They should behave in this way because they care for one another as much as they ca
Read more

American Horse by Louise Erdrich - Summary

Written by
Image
Buddy and his half brother and his mother Albertine American Horse are in the woodshed, hiding from the cops. One of them is Officer Harmony, a tribal policeman who is tough on Native Americans. Buddy knows something horrible is coming, something metal from the sky with barbs and hooks, to kill them. He enjoys watching his mother sleep. His mother regrets her experiences with men but not Buddy. She hates men. Two policemen and a social worker Vicky Koob come. Buddy hugs his mother close and relishes the contact despite the fear. The brown dog barks at them viciously so one of the policemen draws his gun on him and it retreats. Uncle Lawrence, in strange garb, opens the door. Harmony tells him they have papers that allow them to take Buddy. The other officer, Brackett, warns Lawrence that they'll take him too if he doesn't cooperate. They handcuff him and start searching the house and shed. Koob is eager to find Buddy "to salvage him". She catalogues all of the
Read more