Film Analysis and Poetry Techniques Quiz

Reading Texts as Literature

• Various factors influence how a text is perceived as literature, including genre labels and critical discussions.
• Literature is often recognized through unusual language or structure.

Interaction with Texts

• Literature offers an escape from reality, fostering ambiguity and encouraging discussions.
• Interpretations are subjective but should be supported by arguments, secondary literature, and discussions.

Discussing Literature as Scholars

• Personal opinions are valid but must be supported by reasoning and textual evidence.
• Respectful communication is essential.
• The goal is to develop informed positions based on primary and secondary literature.

Phillis Wheatley's Poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America"

• The poem explores religious conversion and racism.
• It provides a basis for exploring different approaches to meaning and interpretation.

Why Poetry?

• Poetry exists in all cultures, serving various purposes like ritual, emotional expression, or intellectual exploration.
• It is defined by heightened emotion, expressive language, using rhythm, rhyme, metaphor, and imagery that combine sound with ideas.

Analyzing Formal Features of Poetry

• Forms of poetry include sonnets, odes, and free verse.
• Meter and rhythm, commonly Iambic pentameter (five feet per line with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables), are important features in English poetry.

Reading Texts as Literature -continued

• Rhyme schemes in English sonnets often follow an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG structure.
• Figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, and personification, are used in poetry.
• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare explores the themes of beauty and immortality.
• Poems' structures such as 14 lines with three quatrains and a concluding couplet are examples of forms used in a sonnet.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld's Poem – "To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible"

• The poem was written around 1795, addressed to an unborn child.
• It reflects maternal anticipation and societal ideas about birth and creation.
• The poem's structure utilizes nine stanzas to symbolize the nine months of pregnancy.
• It incorporates imagery like "germ of new life" and "mysterious gate" to convey development and transition.
• The rhythm and rhyme scheme of iambic pentameter along with ABAB rhyme is employed to connect rhythm to a heartbeat.
• The tone is a mix of anticipation, urgency and affection.

Interpretation Challenges (of To a Little Invisible Being)

• The poem's speaker's identity is debated: is it the mother, a separate narrator, or both in shifting roles?
• The personal context of the poem being gifted to Frances Carr during her pregnancy adds a personal layer.

Understanding Metapoetic Elements

• The poem highlights the emotional and powerful aspect of poetry, which soothes the expectant mother, and metaphorically "motivates" the child's arrival.
• Poetic self-reflecting elements such as "charmed verse" and "lulling songs" are present.

Contextualizing Poetry

• Poetry is often influenced by historical background, identity, intertextuality (the relationship between texts).
• The analysis of Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s work is contextualized against Romanticism and proto-feminism.
• A brief history of African American poetry, highlighting Phillis Wheatley and Langston Hughes.
• Analysis of Barbauld’s work resonates with Romantic ideals like individualism, emotional depth, and rebellion against classical rules.

Phillis Wheatley & Langston Hughes

• Phillis Wheatley's poems, particularly "On Being Brought from Africa to America,” use traditional poetic forms to challenge slavery.
• Langston Hughes' work, prominent in the Harlem Renaissance, uses accessible language for African American identity and political inclusion.
• Langston Hughes' poem “I, Too” asserts equality and belonging through parallelism and metonymy.

Modern and Contemporary Poetry

• Amanda Gorman’s "The Hill We Climb” (2021) is an example of poetry as a unifying, political force in contemporary America.
• Gorman's poem reflects on challenges and aspirations of the nation.

Drama I: Edward II

• The play is a blend of a history play and tragedy.
• Key issues include Edward's problematic relationship with Gaveston, impacting his governance.
• The play questions legitimacy in royal government.

Communication on Stage (Edward II)

• Interactions between characters occur through dialogue, soliloquies, and non-verbal actions.
• The play's structure and communication involve a concept of "fourth wall" (between the audience and characters), involving an audience to engage with the performance.
• Actors' actions and audience awareness are key features of engagement.

Marlowe's Contributions (Edward II)

• The play emphasizes fluctuating characterizations and moral ambiguity.
• This allows the audience freedom to grapple with interpretation.

Heart of Darkness (Novel Analysis)

• The novel is a story within a story narrated by Marlow, focusing on his journey up the Congo River.
• Heart of Darkness takes a critical look at European colonialism.
• The novel explores the themes of colonialism, and the characters present symbolic complexity.
• It analyzes themes through narrative styles, characters, plots, and ideas present in the text and period.

Critique of Western Knowledge from Heart of Darkness

• Modernism in literature questions conventional understandings of morality, rationality, and objectivity, challenging Enlightenment ideals.
• Conrad's narrative is critical of the European self-image, and the “civilizing mission.”

Colonial Stereotypes from Heart of Darkness

• The novella uses metaphors and imagery to challenge or reinforce colonial stereotypes.
• Colonial ideologies and the nature of race appear throughout the narrative.
• Conrad explores the clash between the "civilizing" project and the realities of colonialism.
• Does Conrad succeed in undermining European superiority, or does he simply replace it with guilt-ridden self-reflection?
• Is Heart of Darkness a postcolonial novel before postcolonialism, or does it fail to move beyond the colonial gaze?

Film Analysis: Understanding Meaning

• Understanding intended vs. contextual meaning in films.
• Both consciously and unconsciously-created meaning are relevant in film analysis.

Key Film Techniques

• Cinematography (camera work), editing, art direction, and production design.
• Aspects like camera shots, editing, sound, plot, and visual/narrative style contribute to the analysis of any given film.
• Continuity editing and elliptical storytelling are highlighted techniques, using both realism and symbolic elements.

Case Study Ernestine and Kit (Analysis)

• How the film transforms a short story into a visual experience
• Differences in tone, pacing, and character presentation between the film and short story.

Film analysis techniques, overall

• Shot-by-shot analysis is used to uncover the meaning by analyzing choices in camera work, composition, editing, art direction, set design, lighting, and cinematography.
• The technique of continuity editing, which implies the film will smoothly transition from one scene to the next without breaks, is highlighted. - Elliptical storytelling is a narrative technique where a film can skip over some time or events in the story.
• Visual and narrative styles combine to create a complete meaning.

Oral Literature

• Oral literature is a spoken or performed art form utilizing words and language.
• Close examination of genres and style helps understanding.

Key Characters in Oral Narratives

• Various characters are used such as the tortoise, chameleon, ogre, elephant, lion, hare, spider, and hyena to illustrate different qualities and roles within oral narratives.

Oral Techniques and Style

• Repetition emphasizes memory and enhances a narrative's impact, and song integration blurs the line between narrative and melody.

Nightmare in Gray

• The story revolves around the protagonist waking up feeling rejuvenated and reflecting on his engagement to Susan and their visit to Susan's family home.
• The plot also describes a twist revelation regarding the protagonist's identity and an eventual realization of amnesia.
• Themes such as illusion, reality, and the passage of time are prevalent within the plot and are explored in conjunction with techniques like foreshadowing, and the use of irony.