Literary genre Flashcards
Narrative point of view
perspective from which the story is told and is vital for engaging story-telling
E - 1st person point of view = access to inner thoughts and emotions of protagonist. Physcological immediacy allows writer to confidentially confide in the reader. Seen as Tara shares embarrassment of socialising as a teenager as she says “if I had nothing to say, at least Annie did”
LB - 3rd person POV- allows camera to dwell on obstacles faced by secondary characters such as Larry’s challenges with depression and unemployment - seen as Larry sits at the table alone
Phic - Brain Friel manages to skilfully straddle in between both.
Visual imagery for setting
Lb - camerawork to subtly enhance the setting - cinematic montages how Marion and Christine driving through the landscape of Sacramento
E - Westover uses evocative attention to detail and sensitivity as she describes the crops as “corps de ballet’” however she uses prose rather than camerawork. Anthropomorphises Bucks peak
Phic - Friel fails to establish clear setting however he does use Gar private to evoke the sights and visual illustration of Ballybeg “ the land of the curlew and snipe”
Music to evoke setting
Lb - Gerwig uses music to preempt thematic preoccupations such as departure of Christine from Sacramento which the “eve of parting” by John Hartford as it says “pregnant with your leaving”
Phic - music used to foreshadow departure of Gar as he continuously sings “Philadelphia Here I come” a rendition of Al Johnson’s “California Here I Come”
Also acts as character development as he fantasises of simultaneously playing first violin and conducting an orchestra
E - Tara shares same love of music as she remembers sittiing in Tyler’s room listening to CD’s as it reminds her of something to do with study, discipline and collaboration”
Symbolism
embody certain attitudes
E - grandmothers cream shoes to symbolise her meticulous obsession with “unassailable respectability”
Phic - SB’s clothing becomes equally synonymous with respectability and his image as a “responsible, respectable citizen”as Friel describes him as wearing “a hat, a good dark suit, collar and tie and black apron”
Kate doogans TV set symbol of wealth
LB - Jenna Waltons tanning bed symbolises wealth to Christine
Intertext
E - 3 parts based on Isiaih Berlin’s liberty
Negative liberty
Positive liberty
liberty. Also displayed Bob Marleys “redemption song” as he sings “free from mental slavery”
Lb - Christine performs “Rolling Along” by Stephen Sondheim who abandons her friends for a life of culture and artistic success identical to Tara who leave Julie for NY
Phic - Friel makes reference to Edmond Burkes who says “it is now 16 or 17 years since I saw the Queen of France, the dauphins of Versailles”
A warning to for himself not to glamorise the past or be blinded by a romantic version of history
Ending
LB - Tara seems to learn to appreciate her mother - phone call
Phic - antithesis as Gar and SB’s difficulties are compounded
E - In between as she resolves relation with some of her family such as her Aunt but not her parents.
Climax
LB - communications between Christine and her mother break down completely - We see this a sMarion is doing the washing and refused to even utter a word to Christine “Talk to me”. Starts to use real name which begins the growth t the epiphany at the end
E - Tara’s relationship with parents reaches breaking point. leads to conceive of her own identity in new terms. She embarks on a “hectic form of forgetting” in Paris. Turning point occurs when she confronts her parents about Shawns abuse which results in him killing their dog and treating to hire a hit-man. Her parents do not believe her.
New identity
PHIC - Gar pleading to his father “Swrewballs, say something! say something father”. . Asks of blue boat the answer is the reason for their breakdown.
narrative structure
fill in context or back- story of the narrative, while also generating intrigue.
E - uses secondary narrators or anecdotes such as “grandmother-over-the-town” speaks of the enslavement of the apache women. Contextualise her experience as a woman in rural Idaho.
Also used to show that the character is not utterly constrained by the environment as we see. her father rescues a wild owl and allows him to heal in their kitchen. Eventually he has to free the owl although not fully healed.Like Tara herself “he didn’t belong” in captivity
PHIC - Scenes with Kate Doogan
