Module B Flashcards
1
Q
Textual Integrity
A
- Canonical status
- Unity of ideas and form
- Portrayal of universal themes
- Critical engagement
2
Q
Aesthetic and Imaginative Aspects
A
- Squalid and uncomfortable imagery
- Images of decay and fragmentation
- Dull and lifeless milieu
- Metaphorical representations of the world
3
Q
Intertextuality
A
- Prufrock: Epigraph of Dante’s Inferno suggests that modern world is an inescapable hell and is full of despair; Classical allusion to Michaelangelo; Allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet
- Rhapsody: Inclusion of French lines from Jules Laforgue; Prostitute mimics siren from Dante’s Purgatorio
- Hollow Men: Epigraph references Guy Fawkes and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; Parody of Mulberry Bush nursery rhyme; Biblical allusions; Inclusion of fragmented Lord’s Prayer
4
Q
Context
A
- Modernist 20th century
- Modernisation, urbanisation and technologisation of society
- Shift from (and disintegration of) traditionalism, religion and Romanticism
- Roaring 20s of rapid social and technological advancement
- Lack of certainty and security
- Post World War I dissillusionment
- Nihilist and pessimistic worldviews
- Modernist writing included ambiguity and fragmentation
5
Q
Purpose
A
- To find a new style of poetry for the modern era
- Communicate mundane nature of modern society
6
Q
Form
A
- Objective correlative: using events/objects/images to depict emotions and feelings
- No consistent rhythm or rhyme scheme
- Vers libre (freeverse)
- Prufrock: dramatic monologue, stream of consciousness, inconsistent meter with iambic pentameter and couplets, inconsistent rhyme, cyclical structure through repeated couplets, haphazard punctuation
- Preludes: short musical form, split into various interludes, lack of consistent rhyme, shifts between second and third person
- Rhapsody: piece of irregular form in music, stream of consciousness, irregular poetic structure with cascades of memories
- Hollow Men: quintipartite structure
- Journey of the Magi: dramatic monologue, tripartite structure (journey, arrival, reflection), paratactic syntax (short sentences in succession), extended metaphor for Eliot’s conversion to Anglicanism
7
Q
Audience and Significance
A
- Confronting and evokative poetry
- Resonates with all readers due to universal themes, despite different contexts
- Original interpretation of modernity
- Prufrock: orginally met with outrage
8
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Prufrock
“Streets …”
A
“Streets that follow like a tedious argument”
- Simile
- Parallels between urbanisation and human interaction
- Degradation of relationships
9
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Prufrock
“In the room …”
A
“In the room the women come and go, talking of Michaelangelo”
- Repetitive couplet
- Cyclical structure
- Classical allusion
10
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Prufrock
“[They …]”
A
- “[They will say: How his hair is growing thin!]”
- “[They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!]”
- Parentheses
- Interruption of stream of consciousness
11
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Hollow Men
“We are …”
A
“We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men”
- First person inclusive pronouns
- Paradox
- Metaphor
12
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Hollow Men
“Our dried …”
A
“Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless”
- Metaphor
13
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Hollow Men
“We grope …”
A
“We grope together and avoid speech”
- Metaphor
14
Q
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Prufrock
“I do not …”
A
“I do not think that they will sing to me”
- Pessimistic tone
- Mythical allusions
15
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Prufrock
“[They …]”
A
- “[They will say: How his hair is growing thin!]”
- “[They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!]”
- Parentheses
- Interruption of stream of consciousness
16
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Prufrock
“To prepare …”
A
“To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet”
- Illogical syntax
17
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Prufrock
“I am not …”
A
“I am not Prince Hamlet nor was meant to be”
- Allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet
- Connotations of cowardice and indecision
- Irony
18
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Preludes
“Other …”
A
“Other masquerades”
- Metaphor
19
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Preludes
“You tossed …”
A
“You tossed a blanket … You lay upon your back … You dozed”
- Anaphora
- Second person pronouns
20
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Preludes
“Muddy …”
A
- “Muddy feet”
- “One thinks of all the hands”
- Synecdoche
21
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Hollow Men
“We are …”
A
“We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men”
- First person inclusive pronouns
- Paradox
- Metaphor
22
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Hollow Men
“Shape without …”
A
“Shape without form, shade without colour”
- Paradox
- Binary oppositions
23
Q
Identity and the Masquerade - Hollow Men
“Rat’s coat …”
A
“Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves”
- Symbolism
- Connotations of decay and disease
24
Q
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“We are …”
A
“We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men”
- First person inclusive pronouns
- Paradox
- Metaphor
25
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“Remember us ...”
“Remember us - if at all - not as lost violent souls”
- Hyphens
- Metaphor
26
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“Here we go ...”
“Here we go round the prickly pear prickly pear prickly pear”
- Intertextuality to Mulberry nursery rhyme
- Parody
- Absurd metaphor
27
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“For Thine ...”
“For Thine is the Kingdom”
- Repetition of incomplete Lord’s Prayer
- Metaphor
28
Fragmented Spiritualism - Journey of the Magi
“Summer ...”
- “Summer palaces on slopes, the terraces and the silken girls bringing sherbet”
- “And the night-fires going out and the lack of shelters and the cities hostile”
- Anaphora
- Sibilance
- Contrast between former life of luxury and the spiritual journey
29
Fragmented Spiritualism - Journey of the Magi
“Such a ...”
- “Such a long journey … the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory”
- “Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, wet ... smelling of vegetation”
- Contrast between the bleak imagery of stanza one and natural imagery of stanza two
- Romantic interest in nature
- “dawn” inverts Modernist preoccupation with time by linking it to religion
30
Fragmented Spiritualism - Journey of the Magi
“Wanting their ...”
- “Wanting their liquor and women”
- “Three trees … white horse … wine-skins”
- Contrast between materialism of the first stanza and the biblical allusions of the second stanza
31
Fragmented Spiritualism - Journey of the Magi
“I should be ...”
“I should be glad of another death”
- Allusion to heaven
32
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“Lips that ...”
“Lips that would kiss form prayers to broken stones”
- Religious and blasphemous allusion
33
Time, Memory and Age - Prufrock
“[They will ...”
- “[They will say: How his hair is growing thin!]”
- “[They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!]”
- Parentheses
- Interruption of stream of consciousness
34
Time, Memory and Age - Prufrock
“I grow ...”
“I grow old … I grow old”
- Weary tone
- Repetition
35
Time, Memory and Age - Prufrock
“There will be ...”
- “There will be time”
- “Time for you”
- “Time for me”
- Repetition
- Temporal obsession
36
Time, Memory and Age - Rhapsody
“Twelve ...”
- “Twelve o’clock”
- “Half-past one”
- “Half-past two”
- “Half-past three”
- “Four o’clock”
- Temporal obsession
- Metaphor
37
Time, Memory and Age - Rhapsody
“The moon has ...”
“The moon has lost her memory”
- Personification
- Inversion of Romantic ideas regarding nature
38
Time, Memory and Age - Rhapsody
“Smells of ...”
“Smells of chestnuts … female smells in shuttered rooms and cigarettes in corridors”
- Suffocating and accumulating olfactory imagery
- Subverts traditional notions of memory
39
Time, Memory and Age - Preludes
“Six ...”
“Six o’clock”
- Temporal obsession
- Subverted allusion to traditional prayer time
40
Time, Memory and Age - Preludes
“The morning ...”
“The morning comes to consciousness”
- Personification
- Metaphor
41
Al Alvarez's quote
Eliot highlights “the disorder, the futility, the meaninglessness, the mystery of life and suffering”
42
George Knight's quote
Eliot “tells us the truth about ourselves in our present situation”
43
Time, Memory and Age - Rhapsody
“Street ...”
“Street lamp”
- Motif
- Symbol of transcendence and passing of time
44
Bleak Modernity - Prufrock
“I have measured ...”
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”
- Metaphor
45
Bleak Modernity - Prufrock
“When the evening ...”
“When the evening is spread against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table”
- Simile
46
Bleak Modernity - Preludes
“Sparrows ...”
“Sparrows in the gutters”
- Unnatural imagery
- Negative connotations
- Subverts Romantic ideals
47
Bleak Modernity - Preludes
“His soul ...”
“His soul stretched tight across the skies”
- Shift to third person pronouns
- Metaphor
- Allusion to God
48
Bleak Modernity - Preludes
“Wipe your hand ...”
“Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh”
- Absurd imagery
49
Bleak Modernity - Preludes
“The worlds revolve ...”
“The worlds revolve like ancient women”
- Simile
50
Bleak Modernity - Rhapsody
“As a madman ...”
“As a madman shakes a dead geranium”
- Absurd imagery
- Irony as geraniums represent stability and tranquillity, and are difficult to kill
51
Bleak Modernity - Rhapsody
“I could see ...”
“I could see nothing behind that child's eyes”
- Inverted metaphor
52
Bleak Modernity - Rhapsody
“A washed-out ...”
“A washed-out smallpox cracks her face”
- Personification
- Inversion of Romantic ideals
53
Bleak Modernity - Rhapsody
“Prepare ...”
“Prepare for life”
- Ironic inversion of the common practice of preparing for one's death
54
Bleak Modernity - Hollow Men
“Sunlight ...”
“Sunlight on a broken column”
- Symbolism of remnants of traditionalism
- Irony of sunlight as a symbol of hope shining on remnants of traditionalism
55
Bleak Modernity - Hollow Men
“Valley ...”
“Valley of dying stars”
- Allusion to Bible verse “valley of the shadow of death”
- Metaphor
56
Fragmented Spiritualism - Hollow Men
“... Life is ...”
“For Thine is, Life is, For Thine is the”
- Fragmented and incomplete syntax
- Metaphor
57
Bleak Modernity - Hollow Men
“Not with a ...”
“Not with a bang but with a whimper”
- Bathos
- Metaphor
58
Bleak Modernity - Journey of the Magi
“It was ...”
“It was (you might say) satisfactory”
- Parenthetical aside
- Anticlimax
- Situational irony
59
Fragmented Spiritualism - Journey of the Magi
“An alien ...”
“An alien people clutching their gods”
- Blasphemous allusion
60
Bleak Modernity - Journey of the Magi
“And the night-fires ...”
“And the night-fires going out and the lack of shelters and the cities hostile”
- Anaphora
61
Bleak Modernity - Preludes
“Gusty ...”
“Gusty shower wraps, the grimy scraps”
- Squalid imagery
62
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Rhapsody
“Regard that ...”
“Regard that woman who hesitates toward you”
- Personification of street lamp
- Irony that even the lamp can communicate yet people cannot
- Intertextuality to Dante's Purgatorio's siren
63
Alienation and Lack of Authentic Connections - Prufrock
“My morning ...”
“My morning coat ... my collar, my necktie, rich and modest”
- Symbolism
