Friday, February 18, 2011

Core Concepts: 2.07-2.17

Heart of Darkness

  • Post-colonialism novella 
  • Alludes to Dante's Inferno and Garden of Eden
    • Jungle - Eden, Congo - Hell
  • Frameshift narrative: story told within a story
  • 3 phases of womanhood


    • Maiden - "the intended"
    • Mother - aunt
    • Crone - old knitting women
      • Knitting black wool: African hair: company exploits Africans for profit
  • Russian: dressed in motley - jester
  • African woman: earth mother; embodiment of Congo

Chinua Achebe Essay: don't remember much, sorry.

Apocalypse NowHeart of Darkness in Vietnam

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Core Concepts: 1.31-2.04

Medieval Literature
  • Written in Middle Ages( 500-1500 CE)
  • No specific author, secular texts
Allegory 
  • "Extended metaphor" - represent things in real life
  • Characters: too stupid to live

Everyman: Main character represents all humansDante's Inferno (Dante): 


  • epic poem
  • allegory
  • Dante: everyman
  • 3 circles of Hell, 7 circles in Purgatory, 9 circles of Paradise


Archetypal Criticism

  • Based on archetypes. Have to "get" them.
Mythological Criticism 
  • Something that is repeated with the same meaning

Structure of these is a bunch of circles - see handout
Romance (top): hero ends successfully
Tragedy (right): hero ends up stuck somewhere
Irony (bottom): things bad, possibly getting better
Comedy (left): getting better, ends well
Novel: prose, complex, long
Novella: prose, longer than short story but shorter than novel (Heart of Darkness)