ESSAY CEMETERY

This is written upon the celebration of the 82 nd July 4 th in 1858. July 4 th is a celebration of liberty that transcends time and space. It is the second most important holiday after Passover. The fourth of July, as a story of liberty, is a second Passover, a second redemption of mankind, as it is a release from slavery to freedom. The exodus is similarly a first declaration of independence. These two events form a history. In fact, the American Revolution is "the ultimate result of biblical theories", that is, a product of the bible and the exodus. The doctrines (of America and the Bible, I suppose) will ultimately revolutionize all nations. Their effect is registered all over the world, with population growth and increasing civil rights everywhere. Soon liberty, equality and justice will vanquish monarchies and other forms of non-democratic government and conquer the world. There is one God, "one law and one judgment" and in celebrating the 4 th

Tomashevsky, Boris. "Thematics."   Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays . Comp. Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1965. 62-95. Print. About Tomashevsky Tomashevsky is a Formalist. (From Wikipedia: In literary theory , formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. The formalist approach reduces the importance of a text’s historical, biographical, and cultural context.) Introduction to Tomashevsky's Approach The introduction to “Thematics” by Tomashevsky states that Tomashevsky’s essay is a proposal of how to analyze a narrative. A narrative must have a theme and enlist the readers’ emotions. Tomashevsky makes a distinction between Plot and Story. Tomashevsky deals with many aspects of narrative, including motif and how to distinguish between those which are and aren’t necessary to the action. He explores the parts  of narratives and their purpose. “The motif-

Chatman, Seymour Benjamin. "Introduction."   Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film . Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1978. 15-21. Print. Seymour Chatman Different famous personalities have tried to analyze what makes a narrative. Emphasis is put on Aristotle's Poetics .  Fairy and folk tales had relatively simple plots and structures; modern narratives are more complex. Dictionary definition of poetics: literary criticism treating of the nature and laws of poetry. =literary theory Literary structuralistic theorists/poeticians deal not with evaluating  a poem but with defining, analyzing, categorizing it. Poetics, as Todorov states, should strive not to provide a mere description of the work, but to go outside of the constraints of the work in order to draw conclusions about it, and go beyond it. Literary theory is a study of the nature of literature. Works of literature often are of mixed genres, and are never perfect representation of the

Todorov, Tzvetan.  "Chapter 3: The Uncanny and the Marvelous . "   The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre . 24-57. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975. Print. The evanescence of the fantastic genre means that a work may change genre mid-reading. The first part constitutes the marvelous or uncanny- the reader thinks there is either a natural or supernatural explanation to the events. The second part is the fantastic genre, in which the reader hesitates over his explanation of the events. The part that follows the decision contains a shift – there reader realizes his primary explanation of the events was wrong, and the genre shift again to either marvelous or uncanny- the opposite from the first part. Texts which are unresolved are fantastic in their entirety. The transition between genres is not sharp. If a story begins as uncanny, it will transition through fantastic-uncanny and fantastic-marvelous before becoming marvelous. The fantastic-uncanny is "the su

Todorov, Tzvetan.  "Chapter 2: The Fantastic . "   The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre . 24-57. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975. Print. The fantastic is a genre that exists while in the work of literature there is uncertainty as to whether an event is caused by natural or supernatural sources. Once the reader has chosen one explanation or another the work transitions into the fantastic’s sister genres: “the uncanny (supernatural)” or “the marvelous (hard to believe but governed by rules of reality)”. The fantastic is characteristic of a situation, normally involving characters in the “real world”, where there is a simple realistic explanation for what is happening, but this explanation conflicts with the protagonist’s feeling that the supernatural explanation is the correct one. Many times in the genre, the sense of uncertainty builds up over time. Supernatural events are juxtaposed with natural emotions, or natural behavior until the protagonist’s judg

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

THEMES  The struggle of writing Experiences in writing Limitations for woman writers The taboos for woman writers Men's constraints on women The definition of woman The profession of writing Other professions for women The future of women as professionals KEY WORDS Books Women Man Angel in the House Pen Ink Experience Profession Virginia Woolf

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

Woolf, Virginia. "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown."  Essentials of the Theory of Fiction . Ed. Michael J. Hoffman and Patrick D. Murphy. Durham: Duke UP, 1996. 21-34. Google Books . Web. 15 June 2012. This is an essay by Virginia Woolf, originally a speech she made it seems. Its tone is rather informal. Summary Writing an essay is tough. There is a notion of a character which haunts the writer until he is compelled to begin writing. It is crucial for the novelist to be obsessed with character. She ascribes ultimate importance to convincing characterization- that that is, in fact, the purpose of novels. The essay will explore: What "real" character means What "character" means Why young novelists fail to create characters We all "read characters". Woolf claims human character changed around 1910. There was a shift in human relations, a sort of liberation, around this time, which was reflected in all areas of life. Arnold

Ricoeur, Paul. "Narrative Time."   Narrative Dynamics: Essays on Time, Plot, Closure, and Frames . Ed. Brian Richardson. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2002. 35-45. Print. 1. Presuppositions Narrativity and temporality are closely related. Language refers constantly to temporality, and temporality is necessary for narrative. Time is not, in regards to narrative, simply a linear succession of moments. On a superficial level, time is that "within" which events take place. On a deeper level, time is historicality- emphasis placed on the weight of the past. Plot is the "intelligible whole that governs a succession of events in any story". As such the plot is characterized by temporal complexity. 2. What occurs happens "in" time We will present an analysis of time and an analysis of narrativity, and relate them. Time must be considered by what happens "in" it. Time is subjective, according to the importance we attribute to the e

Gerard Genette is a French structuralist. Genette suggests approaching narrative as though it is a discourse (a discussion, or dissertation on a topic). He discusses time in relation to narrative in terms of order, duration and frequency of events within the narrative. Order In most works of literature the order in which events are related in the text is different from the chronological succession of events. Instead there are flashbacks or flash forwards. The story may go back and forth between relating events chronologically or achronologically.  Anachronisms may be repetitive if the event has already been related in the narrative, or completive if they fill in an earlier blanks in the narrative ( recalls ) or later blanks in the narrative ( announcements ). These anachronisms are used to enhance or create meaning in the narrative or foreshadow occurrences. There are variations on these, retrospections within anticipations etc. There are also achronic events, whic

The term chronotope indicates the relationship between time and space as expressed in literature. It is a term borrowed from Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Just as it is in physics, in literature too time and space are inseparable, and one cannot be described independently of the other. Indicators are used to describe the position in time and space within the narrative. We may regard the narrative as plottable on the axes of time and space. The chronotope can be said to define the genre of a piece. Different genres have characteristic chronotopes. We cannot directly and simply recognize the historical background upon which every text draws because chronotopes from different time periods became intertwined and co-influential. Thus it may be difficult to strictly define the genre of a text based on the structure of its chronotope. A work's relationship with reality can be deduced from the chronotope as well. The Chronotope of the Road Time and space as are tight