british lit 335 midterm Flashcards
Allied powers
France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, U.S. (after 1917)
central powers
Germany, Austria-Hungary, ottoman empire
Battle of the Somme
Huge battle July-nov 1916, nearly 20,000 british casualties on the first day. By the end, 400,000 british had died. Not much of a victory, though the germans had been pushed back in some places
epigraph
a quotation that appears on the title page of a book or as a heading to a chapter or poem
dramatic monologue
a poem that reveals a ‘soul in action’ through the speech of one character in a dramatic situation. The character is typically speaking to an identifiable but silent listener at a dramatic moment in the speaker’s life.
factors for rise of Modernism
- rapid changes in industry and tech
- scientific and social breakthroughs leading to epistemological debate
- World wars
- increasing interconnectedness across globe
- expanding middle class and mass consumer culture
- increased literacy
- increased advocacy for rights of workers, women, and colonized populations
- sense of break from the past
modernist movement dates
late 19th/early 20th centuries to mid 1940s
features of modernist literature
- experimentation with literary form (fragmentation, stream of consciousness, non-linear narrative, etc.)
- emphasis on subjectivity (perception, the subject, allusiveness, self-reflexivity, ambiguity, difficulty)
fragmentation
putting fragments from larger wholes together in a new piece or leaving connecting information out so we only have an impression of fragments
epistemology
branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Considers issues of the nature and source of knowledge.
self-reflexivity
when a text draws attention to its status as a text
Fisher King/grail legend
Framing legend for ‘burial of the dead.’ Fisher King’s death/impotence brought drought and desolation to the land
POV: third person
narrator is not a character. talks about characters as “he” “she” “they”
-third person limited: narrator is able to see into the mind of one character, and limits to what that character knows, feels, does
-third person omniscient: narrator knows everything
POV: first person
A character directly relates events/experiences that happened to them, using “I”.
focalizer
the focalizer is the primary consciousness of the story. The focalizer is not always the narrator
epiphany
a sudden, intuitive perception into the reality or essential meaning of something. common in Joyce’s narratives
angel in the house
Woolf. originally the name of a poem. became shorthand for the ideal of victorian womanhood.
the angel is pure, beautiful, sympathetic towards others, has no mind or wish of her own, selfless and sacrificial
analytic cubism
phase in cubist painting of George Braque and Picasso 1909-1912. broke down objects into small overlapping/intersecting facets/planes, each of which shows a different view of the object. sought to highlight the inadequacy of a single viewpoint.
motif
a recurring element that has a symbolic meaning
classical unities
3 rules for drama (tragedy) neoclassicists derived from Aristotle’s poetics:
1. unity of action: a tragedy should have one principal action
2. unity of place: a tragedy should take place in a single location
3. unity of time: a tragedy should take place over no more than 24 hours.
elegy
a sustained and formal poem setting forth meditations on death or another solemn theme. the meditation is often associated with the death of a particular person.
author, setting of “They”
Siegfried Sassoon. Written, set, and published during the war. Bishop vs soldiers.
author, setting of “on passing the new menin gate”
Siegfried Sassoon. written, set, and published after the war. Pointless memorial.
author, setting of “dulce et decorum est”
Wilfred Owen. Written towards end of war, set during, published after. Tear gas.
author, setting of “anthem for doomed youth”
Wilfred Owen, written and set during war. published after. Can’t help the dead or the grieving. funeral scene.
author, setting of “The Love song of J Alfred Prufrock”
TS Eliot. written and set before the war. published during. Insecure prufrock’s dramatic monologue. allusions to Hamlet, to his coy mistress, Lazarus, Dante’s inferno.
author, setting of “The waste land: the Burial of the Dead”
TS Eliot, written set and published after the war. Various perspectives all traumatized by the war. April the cruelest month. has the corpse bloomed?
author of “The Dead”
James Joyce. Family party. 3rd person limited. Gabriel Conroy = focalizer. Gretta Conroy tells Gabriel of Michael Furey.
author, setting of “To the lighthouse”
Virginia Woolf, published after the war, set before during and after. Mr + Mrs. Ramsey, Lily Briscoe, William Bankes, Cam Prue James Andrew, Charles Tansley.
author, setting of “Professions for women”
Virginia Woolf. published after the war. Angel in the house.
WWI dates
1914-1918
WWI causes
-rivalries between European imperial powers and treaties
-assassination of archduke Ferdinand 1914
wwI outcomes
-defeat of central powers
-over 8.5 million combat deaths
-6-13 million civilian deaths
-collapse of German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires
what was Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” ?
-a more glorified take on war. viewed deaths as honorable rather than tragic
what was Jessie Pope’s “Who’s for the game?”
propaganda that likened war to a game
About Sassoon
initially patriotic, joined the army and became an officer. became horrified by the realities of war, was sent to a special hospital where he later met Wilfred Owen.
About Owen
Was a lieutenant in the army. suffered from shell shock. met Sassoon at hospital. returned to the front lines and was killed just before the armistice.
about TS Eliot
born in St. Louis, went to Harvard and continued studies in Europe. Tough divorce with first wife, during which he wrote “Burial of the Dead”
about Joyce
from Dublin suburbs, Irish. Alcoholic father, started in expensive jesuit schools and then moved to cheaper schools. went to college for literature. Left Ireland after marrying and never returned, though his work remained focused on ireland/irish characters.
about Woolf
not formally educated, daughter of Victorian philosopher. Parents were models for Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey. member of Bloomsbury group. Bisexual. Died by suicide.
