Tuesday, March 6

Drama and History

Comedy
ideas, manner, farce, low comedy
based on irony, lets audience feel superior (though supposed to acknowledge similarities)
individual made to conform

Tragedy
individual keeps integrity (usually his downfall)
Arthur Miller's Tragedy and the Common Man- common man, not just kings, the center of tragedy
flaw being stubbornness (as with other tragedy)

Northrop Frye's circle relating the two, along with romance and irony, is especially relevant

Critical lenses to be aware of:
Formalists- very aware that literature is just words on a page, tries to avoid context from the author's life, the author's intent, historical context, and the like
New Historicism- they look at cultural and historical context
Feminism- concerned with gender roles
Marxism- they keep marxist themes in mind: class, money, power
Post Colonialism- examine imperialism and the interaction of culture between societies
Myth/ Archetype- they think about motifs, cultural (archetypes) or otherwise- Northrop Frye again

2 comments:

  1. You definitely hit on all of the topics here! However, I might have seperated Critical Lenses from Drama. Also,I would use bullets or headlines, because without that everything blurs together and becomes disjointed. In addition, even though you mention enough topics, you don't expound upon them. Many topics are summarized inadequately in two words. Even changing "just words on a page" to "these critics believe we should only look at the words on the page" would make things clearer. You also tend to list topics--like Frye's circle, or comedy terms---without actually saying what that is or explaining why it's relevant. That being said, this definitely covers the topics--and many I forgot!

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  2. I think I would add a short synopsis of the eras here. Although we did not spend a lot of time on the eras presentations, I think that information is useful in analyzing works and would fit nicely in with this information.

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