World Literature Elements

• Summary of key elements, figures of speech, introduction, and a timeline of world literature.

Elements of Poetry

• Persona refers to the speaker within the literary work.
• Tone is the attitude conveyed by the voice in the literature, influencing the mood through word choice and descriptions.
• Mood constitutes the setting of the literature, shaping the atmosphere.
• Imagery involves appealing to the five senses to intensify the impact of words and establish a particular mood.
• Types of imagery include:
• Visual: appeals to sight
• Auditory: appeals to hearing
• Olfactory: appeals to smell
• Gustatory: appeals to taste
• Tactile: appeals to touch
• Rhythm is created by the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats or syllables.
• Syllables are units of rhythm:
• Stressed syllables (S) receive more emphasis.
• Unstressed syllables (US) receive less emphasis.
• Common patterns:
  • Iamb: US/S
  • Trochee: S/US
  • Spondee: S/S
  • Dactyl: S/US/US
  • Anapest: US/US/S
• A stanza is a group of lines forming a division in a poem.
• Types of stanzas:
• Couplet: 2-line stanza
• Tercet: 3-line stanza
• Quatrain: 4-line stanza
• Cinquain: 5-line stanza
• Sestet: 6-line stanza
• Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds.
• Theme is the main idea or underlying message of the poem.

Figures of Speech

• Simile makes a comparison using "like" or "as."
• Metaphor makes a direct comparison without using "like" or "as."
• Personification gives human characteristics to inanimate objects
• Synecdoche uses a part to represent the whole.
• Example: "I got new wheels" (referring to a car).
• Metonymy replaces the name of an object with a related word.
• Example: "I was riding shotgun" (referring to the front seat of the car).
• Hyperbole involves exaggeration.
• Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a cow."
• Understatement downplays the reality of a situation.
• Example: "I don't like your little games" (said in response to something serious).
• Paradox presents something that seems contradictory.
• Example: "I never heard silence quite this loud."
• Oxymoron combines contradictory terms.
• Example: "Jumbo shrimp."
• Allusion references a well-known person, place, or event.
• Example: Kendrick says "Sometimes you gotta pop out and show."

Intro to World Literature

• Literature is body of written work
• Originated from the Latin word "Litaritura/Litteratura," which means "writing formed with letters".
• World literature encompasses all books and writing, regardless of origin, according to Europeans.
• Literature originated in the Southern Region of Mesopotamia, also known as Sumer.
• Early literary works often served a religious purpose known as didactic.
• Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE), a high priestess of Ur, is recognized as the first author, who composed hymns dedicated to the Sumerian goddess Inanna.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2150 BCE) stands as one of the earliest known literary works.
• The purpose of literature:
• Offers entertainment by transporting us to different worlds or real-life scenarios.
• Serves as a tool for education and learning.
• Provides Social Commentary, reflecting on societal issues.
• Facilitates Self-Discovery by learning about personal values.
• Establishes Emotional Connection by evoking empathy and fostering connection.

Timeline of Literature

• There are eight major periods of literature.

• 1st Period: Classical Period/Golden Age

• Emphasizes common sense and clarity.

• Focuses on epics and prose.

• Notable authors and works:

• Homer: Iliad and Odyssey

• Aristotle: Poetics

• Ovid: Metamorphoses

• 2nd Period: Medieval Period (aka the Dark Age)

• Focuses on art and history.

• Literature centers on the lives of saints and prayers due to the religious context.

• Allegory is prominent, using hidden meanings.

• Notable authors and works:

• Digenis Acritas (anonymous Greek author)

• Beowulf (anonymous Anglo-Saxon author)

• Cantigas de Santa Maria (Galician authors)

• Authors remained anonymous due to religious persecution

• 3rd Period: Renaissance (aka The Rebirth)

• Focuses on Greek classical values and art

• Started with Martin Luther's opposition to the Church in the 16th century.

• Religion was still prominent, but not the primary focus, leading to the exploration of new ideas.

• Notable authors and works:

• Shakespeare: Hamlet

• Petrarch: Canzoniere

• Boccaccio : Decameron

• Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quixote

• 4th Period: Enlightenment Period (aka Neoclassical Period, aka: New Classical)

• Emphasizes common sense, order, accuracy, and structure.

• Focuses on conservatism, self-control, grammar, and etymology

• Notable authors and works:

• Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

• Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

• John Milton: Paradise Lost

• John Dryden: To my lord chancellor and marriage a la mode

• 5th Period: Romantic Period (aka Romanticism)

• Not focused on love Six Characteristics of Romanticism:

• Focuses on nature and spirituality

• Isolation and Melancholy

• Interest in the common man

• Idealization of women

• Personification and Pathetic Fallacy

• Emotion and Imagination

• Authors in the period:

• John Keats

• William Wordsworth - The Prelude

• Percy Bysshe Shelly

• Mary Shelley

• 6th Period: Victorian Period & 19th Century, Era of Realism

• Focuses on daily life and practical problems, talks about realistic problems

• Age of Doubt and Contradictory faiths and philosophies

• Idealistic Age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the Age.

• Social issues

• Authors in this period:

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Robert Browning

• Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities

• 7th Period: Modern Period (aka Period of Experimentation)

• Talks about Experimentation and Individualism, which Started with the 20th Century

• Supposed to talk about Surrealism, Stream off Consciousness, Symbolism, and Expressionism

• Authors in the period are:

• David Herbert Lawrence, Sons and Lovers

• James Joyce, Ulysses

• Thomas Stearns Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

• 8th Period, Post Modern Period, aka Period of Metafiction

• Explores beyond the earth, like out of this world like unicorns, focuses on unusual forms of artistic expression, like abstract art

• Talks about the sadness and the meaninglessness after World War 2

• Distinction between high and low culture; they mix genres in a single work such as Romantic Comedy

• Linked Philosophical and Psychological questions

• Authors in this period are:

• John Barth - The Literature of Exhaustion

• Samuel Beckett - Theatre of the Absurd

• Italo Calvino - If on a winter’s night a traveler