Theory 2 Flashcards
1
Q
What two aspects of a lute song effectively ground the musical phrase structure?
A
- poetic metre
- stanzaic form
- they both constitute a repetitive structure
2
Q
How do the music and words of a lute song work in harmony?
A
- music can respond to the emotive dimensions of the semantic content
3
Q
What kind of latency might we say a piece of drama has?
A
a latent performativity
4
Q
How can a piece of drama be opened to music through the integration of forms?
A
Other forms can be nested within a dramatic text
5
Q
What is a libretti?
A
A libretti is a script which supports musical expression
6
Q
If people are having an argument in a text - what questions should you ask yourself?
A
- are they importing certain ideas?
- which difference does it make when abstract ideas are discussed in person, does it make them more grounded?
- how does the way that the individuals in a text argue prove their view?
7
Q
What is the likeliest way that you will need to begin a conclusion? and why?
A
More likely you need to begin saying ‘text 1 and text 2 contrast in their discussion of…’ because it is already implicit that they share a common concern
8
Q
What is the golden rule when there seems to be an indeterminacy/ complication in what an author is saying?
A
- do not presume to know how the individual is taking the complication or giving their two cents on the issue - look at what they have said and do not infer more
9
Q
Consider the senses, list them and their adjectives
A
Touch, sight, smell, hear, taste - tactile, visual, olfactory, aural, gustatory
10
Q
Why should we be careful about using the word ‘scene’?
A
It can close down questions about the nature of whatever experience an individual is having - ie. is it a vision, interaction, occurrence?
11
Q
When approaching your second extract, what is one of the first comparative questions you should be asking? Where is the easiest starting point to answer this?
A
What has changed between these two extracts? The easiest to identify is if the mode of address has changed ie. have we gone from the perspective of an individual and shifted into an argument/ discussion ie. a shared or communal arena?
12
Q
What are the four key signs of irony?
A
- if a different style/ tone is used than the expected one
- understatements
- cynicism
- hyperbole
13
Q
When someone is having an experience, what are the questions you should be asking?
A
- how do they attempt to process it?
- do they try to structure it?
- does the experience seem to overtake them or does it feel uncontrollable?
14
Q
What is a good way of identifying where the focus and attention rests in a text?
A
Identify the turning point ie. a line/ moment of change
- identify where the attention is drawn
- don’t worry about covering the whole piece, it is far more important to hone in on a key moment or the crux
15
Q
How would you characterise a Beckett sentence typically?
A
- sentences that can be straight-forward and semantically dense
16
Q
When a sentence is both straight-forward and semantically dense what effect can this have?
A
- they can become unsettling
- they are surprisingly resistant to a single interpretation
17
Q
Sounds can be associated with denotation. What key phrase summarises this?
A
Some sounds have ‘recognisably stronger semantic associations’
18
Q
Give an example of sounds that exist on the indeterminate boundary of sound and language
A
‘ow’ and ‘ouch’
19
Q
Why do ‘ow’ and ‘ouch’ complicate the idea of language’s musicality?
A
they have direct associations without direct denotative ‘sense’
20
Q
When you have a sound like ‘oh’ - what happens?
A
You have several ‘sonic possibilities jostling for attention’
21
Q
What does Hortus conclusus mean?
A
enclosed garden
22
Q
Who did Hortus conclusus refer to in Medieval and Renaissance poetry and what significance did this have?
A
title of the Virgin Mary
- derives from the Song of Songs
- represented Mary’s closed-off womb ie. untouched and protected from sin
23
Q
List some of the emblematic objects associated with the Immaculate Conception
A
- enclosed garden
- tall cedar
- well of living waters
- olive tree
- fountain in the garden
- rosebush
24
Q
In what 13th century allegorical dream vision poem was the setting of the garden as a place of seduction, erotic pursuit and love making introduced?
A
Roman de la Rose
25
What was a typical courtly love trope that arose as a result of the Roman de la Rose?
sensual indulgence in a garden was the typical courtly love trope ie. in Roman de la Rose there is the 'Garden of Pleasure'
26
If someone is spying on someone else what might you say they are?
voyeuristic
27
Who was Charon and what significance does the obol coin have?
the obol was the coin placed on the mouth of a person before burial to give Charon so he would sail them across the Styx
28
Give some connotations of the colour blue
- sky and sea
- depth and stability
- trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, heaven
- calming effect
29
What are additional questions that can often supplement the question?
- is this the right word to use in reference to what is occurring here?
- how do we understand this word?
- how are you defining it and how do others define it?
30
Is a preface always written under the actual name of a speaker?
- no
- think of the ironic distance between Shelley and his preface in Alastor or in a more extreme case the paradoxical paratext of Martin Scriblerius
31
What kind of voices are present in a work?
'authorial voice'
'character's voice'
'narrator's voice'
32
What was so special about a unicorn horn?
it was thought to render poison harmless
33
What animal is linked with Venus?
a rabbit
34
What significance does a palm often have?
victory over death and fruit bearing Christian life
35
What kind of twist does the fountain of youth often get?
An erotic twist
36
How would you summarise the historical relationship between verbal and visual modes?
scholarship has historically thought there to be
| competition between the verbal and the visual modes, vying for artistic supremacy
37
How has scholarship shifted its view of the competition between verbal and the visual modes?
Dynamics between the modes have since, however, been thought of as an exchange or encounter
38
How do you feel about paragonal discourse surrounding ekphrasis?
that paragonal discourse limits ekphrastic study, to the extent that it has choked a scholarly
discourse focusing on how one mode can enhance the experience of the other
39
How might the verbal mode support the visual mode?
- the versatility of poetry might provide a wider conceptual landscape that it is profitable to approach a piece of visual art with
- the artistry of a piece of visual art might be acknowledged but then enhanced
40
Why should we hesitate before talking about the 'scene' of a painting?
- because we might want to talk about both the 'bordered image and the extended image as it exists beyond the frame'
41
How might we phrase a particular initial discussion of something?
initial exposition of the nature of "suffering, etc."
42
How might we phrase something being given additional respect with age?
is given elevated importance by the respect of age
43
How might we discuss/ look for relationships between ideas?
'x is elevated above y'
'x is given precedence above y'
'x is contrasted to y'
'author strikes/ establishes the distinction between x and y'
44
When a writer lifts figures out of their two-dimensional state in a painting, what becomes enhanced?
enhances a
| viewer’s ability to empathise and imaginatively engage with them
45
If you want to push analysis further with the pondering over a metaphor, what do you want to say?
If the 'x' are a further metaphor for 'y'
46
What did Icarus suffer from?
- ambition
| - a hubristic inability to conceptualise failure/ limitations
47
What might a painting be doing?
prompting us towards an inward reflection on the nature of our viewership
48
When thinking about how a text draws your attention to one part or one theme and obfuscates another - what tools would you use?
- consider the tone, is it at odds with the content, is it designed to overlay or obscure the textual meaning with a particular atmosphere
- consider the syntax, what is emphasised? where does the rhythm lie?
49
Why might 'stasis' be an insufficient way of speaking about a painting?
- consider whether that is complicated in some way ie. whether there is a strange/ complicated form of stasis, whether an image is full of movement etc.
50
Due to the static nature of a painting, what can it only depict?
static nature of a visual representation means it can only depict a suspended moment in time
51
Instead of a paragonal framework between visual and verbal modes, how might we now discuss them?
- ekphrasis scholarship discusses the visual and verbal modes in dialogue, having an encounter, or perhaps in collaboration
52
Why does Krieger argue that poetry is favoured in the paragonal framework of visual and verb modes?
- poetry can incorporate the visual aspects of painting through language ie. like recreating spatial stasis and the illusion of organised simultaneity
53
How might you argue against Fowler's idea that our experience of visual artworks is a process: an act of ‘reading’ that unfolds in time?
* the gaze around a picture is spatial, and is not bound by a definitive structure - whereas poetry must be read in a linear fashion
- *the way the mind builds the images are much more temporally complex than in a picture though
54
How does Stephen Cheeke argue that the poem supplements the painting?
Stephen Cheeke - the poem knows something or tells something that had been held back by the silent image.
55
Why might we have to rethink the idea that we get a completely unmediated view of a picture/ piece of visual artwork?
- we are being influenced both by general scanning habits and by particular cues in the picture acting on our attention
56
How can a piece of music create a spatial effect?
distances can be evoked by volumes, heights by tones and pitches etc.
57
How might we say that the female gaze contrasts to the male gaze?
- the female gaze achieves a more holistic, well-rounded view, instead of an anatomised dissection of form etc.
58
What problem does Felski see with the theological way we treat literature?
- we treat literature as in a sacred realm, different and distract from the one that readers inhabit
- we become distanced from the uses of literature to its readers
- how we identify with characters, or how we get aesthetic pleasure etc.
59
What is the key idea of James Phelan in 'Teaching Narrative as Rhetoric: The Example of Time's Arrow'?
Phelan’s key idea: teach narrative as rhetoric
60
Why is it fitting that we teach narrative as rhetoric?
- narrative is focused on an act of telling, with designs on an audience
- while numerous individual differences exist in our reading experiences, so does considerable overlap
- when readers have overlapping experiences, they are experiencing the effects of those designs
61
Phelan believes that there are two sets of audiences that receive a text - what two are these?
- flesh-and-blood, ‘us’ subjective reader
| - ‘authorial audience’, the hypothetical reader for whom the narrative is designed
62
Give an example in which James Phelan's distinction between textual and readerly dynamics becomes useful?
Narratives with a surprise ending, for example, are governed mutually by textual and readerly dynamics:
- the aim is to shock the authorial audience (readerly dynamics)
BUT:
- the surprise arises from the text itself (textual dynamics)
63
When we consider ethics within a text, what layers of ethical implications might we consider?
ethics of the told = the ethical judgements we make about the characters and their interactions
ethics of the telling = the ethical judgements and values that we detect underlying how the narrative is communicated
ie. the reader might find something out about the ethical state of a character, but the narrator of the text himself might also find something out about the ethical state of a character - more destabilising across the text
64
In Freud's 1914 work 'Remembering, repeating and working through' he coins the term 'abreaction' - what does it mean?
the expression and consequent release of a previously repressed emotion (achieved by reliving the experience ie. through hypnosis or suggestion)
65
What are the three restrictions to the process of abreaction according to Freud?
1. the patient is resistant to unlocking the forgotten circumstance (if there was no resistance then the circumstance would be remembered without difficulty)
2. connections to the memory have to be uncovered from the childhood, might have been forgotten or non-conscious (dreams might uncover the deeply buried memories)
3. without ‘remembering’, there is a repetition of the actions but towards the psychoanalyst
66
In Freud's 1914 work 'Remembering, repeating and working through' he coins the term 'transference' - what does it mean?
part of the compulsion to repeat, acted towards the psychoanalyst
67
As part of the transference process, the resistance is overcome - what is then possible according to Freud?
the memories can be awakened and ‘remembered’
68
What does pace have to do with the overcoming of resistance in Freudian terms?
resistance has to be identified and then the patient is allowed to work through at their own pace
69
In Freud's 1920-1922 work ‘Beyond the pleasure principle’, what is effect of unpleasure and how must it be relieved?
‘unpleasure’ creates a tension that then must be relieved by the release of pleasure (this excitable tension must be kept to a minimum)
70
Why should the pleasure principle become the reality principle?
the pleasure principle can be dangerous if over-indulged and the reality principle allows for a degree of toleration of the unpleasure
71
How might a patient deal with traumatic neurosis according to Freud and how might this relate to the Fort Da game?
in dreams etc., the patient is brought back to situations of their trauma to aid healing
Fort/ Da game - the child has to rehearse the renunciation of the instinctual satisfaction that must be endured when the mother leaves
(his rehearsal put him in an active position instead of passive tolerance)
72
What is the relationship between repression and the pleasure principle?
repression is caused by the pleasure principle, that resists the reliving of the unpleasant experiences - there must be an appeal to the reality principle in this case
73
What kind of resistance to psychoanalysis does Freud identify in his 1925 work, ‘The Resistances to psychoanalysis’?
psychoanalysis causes difficult emotions for people, similar to that caused by the discoveries of Darwin (who stripped down the barrier between men and beasts)
"psychological blow to men's narcissism"
74
How does Freud define the concept 'sublimation'?
psychologically repressed material is elevated into a 'grander’ or more ‘noble’ form ie. sexual urges sublimated into deep longing or intense religious experience
75
In psychoanalytic terms, what purpose do dreams serve?
dreams are safety valves through which repressed fears, desires, feelings are given an outlet to the conscious mind
76
In psychoanalytic terms, when dreams provide an outlet for repressed fears, desires, feelings what is this called, give a definition?
‘dream work’ - real events/ desires are transformed into dream images
77
What are the two aspects of dream work?
displacement - one person/ event is represented by another created by association
condensation - a number of people/ events/ meanings are combined and represented as a single image in the dream
78
In psychoanalytic terms, what is the imago?
the imago is an unconscious prototype
| it governs how the subject apprehends others
79
In psychoanalytic terms, how was the imago formed?
it is based on the earliest intersubjective relations with family members (on one hand, and the child’s specific relations on another)
80
How is the imago linked to repression?
inn neurosis (through regression), it provokes the return of an old relationship/ form of relationship
81
What is the difference between jouissance and the pleasure principle?
difference between jouissance and the pleasure principle, jouissance goes beyond the pleasure principle - it is a partial drive that attempts to go beyond any inhibitions to pleasure
82
Why does jouissance eventually become a painful principle?
because there is a limit to the pleasure one can bear
83
Regarding pleasure - why does Jameson decry capitalist society?
for ruining sensual enjoyment
84
Jouissance is the way the subject unconsciously represents its ‘real, true’ substance to itself. What has extracted a subject's ‘real, true’ substance from itself?
extracted over time via language, reason, social dictates - and thus no human subject could ever really have ‘it’
85
What does Freud believe we must do in order to be socially/ culturally cohesive?
we need to resist the satisfaction of our drives
86
How does Lacan's perspective on jouissance differ to Freud's?
Lacan sees drives, like pleasure and specifically jouissance, as something that takes on a chimerical, shimmering quality beyond the borders of life
87
How has jouissance been linguistically eradicated from the population?
People have been turned into 'bodies without organs’ - created (and controlled) more by language than by sensation etc.
88
When jouissance returns to the unconscious where will its effects occur?
when jouissance returns to the unconscious, it occurs in the erogenous zones of the body
89
Give a definition of systrophe
The device of ‘piling up’ a number of attributes and images of a person or thing, often in a series of figurative or similative phrases, without giving a literal description
90
Instead of the word 'use' or 'used' what else might we say?
Deployed
91
What does a crescent moon symbolise?
Recalls the crescent moon as a diadem by the Goddess Diana (virgin goddess of childbirth and women)
92
What kinds of fertility rites might we recognise?
Dances of wooing, dances around a maypole, dances of choosing a partner
93
Who described the seven deadly sins riding animals?
Matthias Farinator - a carmelite from Vienna
| - in a 14th c. moral treatise called 'Lumen Animae'
94
In which period of time was there a link between lovemaking and water?
In the late Medieval mind
95
What was the religious significance of the peacock?
The flesh of the peacock was believed not to decay after death, it became a symbol of immortality that is adopted into Christianity
96
What did the owl symbolise in Medieval times?
The symbol of owls featured in Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights' and in medieval Psalters, it represented the Devil and his works - they lurk in the darkness, much like sinners blind to the light
- they represent mourning and desolation
97
What does referential language refer to?
Referential language is the simple, exact, and neutral language often used by scientists (usually opposed to the emotive language of literature designed to effect feeling)
98
What does the term 'Rabelaisian' mean?
It refers to the exuberant, humorous and shamelessly bawdy writing
99
How did Lacan's 1957 work 'The insistence of the letter’ shift how we thought about the unconscious?
shifts to centralise the unconscious as the ‘kernel of our being’
100
How does Lacan's 1957 work 'The insistence of the letter’ reverse Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”?
shifts to centralise the unconscious as the ‘kernel of our being’ ie. “I am where I think not”
101
If there are a lot of a textual feature in a text what might we say?
We might say the text is 'frenetically peppered with italics etc.'
102
What other terms might describe a distressed tone of a text?
Hysterical or perplexed
103
Give a definition of cultural chauvinism
If there is a prejudice for your own culture
104
On the either side of a semi colon/ pause in the text what might we have?
Sonic echoes
105
When you're thinking about line length, what should you be considering?
- chiasmus
- balance
- inbalance, ie. might have one clause and the other that is half the length
106
What does it mean to be 'in want of'?
it does not mean something requested by the person, it means something that the thing is in need of or is necessitated ie. a text might be 'in want of criticism'
107
What was the original pastoral elegy? What was the story?
It was the 'Lament for Daphnis' in Theocritus' 'Idylls' - they described nature mourning the death of Daphnis the shepherd murdered by Aphrodite because of his faithful love for a nymph)
108
Which other poems were modelled on Theocritus' 'Lament for Daphnis'?
- 'Adonis' of Bion
- 'Bion' of Moschus
- 'Lycidas' in Milton
- 'Adonais' by Shelley
- 'Thyrsis' by Arnold
109
What are the tropes of a pastoral elegy?
- lament of all nature
- procession of mourners
- contrast between the fixity of death and the reawakening of spring
- idea that the dead poet is immortal
110
What kind of access into the text does an omniscient narrator have?
has the power to inhabit the mind, body, and feelings of the protagonist
111
How would we recognise free indirect discourse?
when the voice is both the character's and the narrator's
112
In Ancient Greek culture, what did rhapsody mean?
a rhapsody was an epic poem performed by a minstrel who stitched his performance together out of remembered fragments
113
In contemporary culture, what does rhapsody mean? (the descriptive term would be rhapsodic)
it now refers to a wild outpouring of emotion, usually broken into different fragments - feeling spills out and controls the form eg. 1917 Eliot's 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night'
114
What is a problem play? What are examples of early problem plays?
a play which explores a specific sociological problem (Ibsen's many plays about opportunities for women ie. The Doll's House are early problem plays)
115
What is a picaresque novel?
a kind of novel which recounts the adventures of a likeable rogue:
- usually a simple plot
- episodic in structure
- the hero goes through a series of adventures
116
If you wanted to comment about a character etc. having an obsession what might you say?
you might say 'adduce a monomaniacal dwelling on the problem'/ might say the mind of the persona is stuck in a groove
117
What kind of effect do the two repeated lines of the villanelle have?
they join in a powerful crescendo
118
What are the two folds of the villanelle (because it is two-fold)?
1. there is a relationship between the two repeating lines - the entire poem oscillates between them
- the greater the semantic gap then the greater the sense of dislocation/ fragmentation
2. the haunting obsessional quality of the form means that the subject is both in control and out of control
- the subject still heads towards a resolution but this may only be a pretended conclusion
119
What is the effect of zeugma?
it is a mode of speech which creates a quick, conflates expression - the expression collapses in on itself for ease of articulation
120
Who was a key user of zeugma?
Alexander Pope's 'Essay on Man' eg. 'And now a bubble burst, and now a world'
121
Why did Pope/ other authors use zeugma?
he aims to show the disjunction between the two implicated objects
- he aims to demonstrate his own poetic measure, control and rationality
- the scale difference jumps out - often used as a means of inflation/ implicating the ideas
122
Pope often modulates between scales - what kind of themes does he often modulate between and give an example?
between the important/ political and the trivial eg. Rape of the Lock (use of bathetic effect) 'I Does sometimes Counsel take and sometimes Tea' (this is an example of two different registers collapsing together)
123
When you feel that there might be a hint of another writer or something what is a good phrase?
we might talk of 'traces' that are present
124
What are the two types of chiasmus? (what are the general effects of chiasmus?)
- in a structural sense there can be a cross ie. 'all for one and one for all'
- crossing sounds ie. 'in xanadu did kubla kahn'
- creates order/ balance
- creates something affirming and comfortable
125
If there is frequent chiasmus in a passage what is the effect?
- we lose the kind of pause of stasis and balance that should be created, because the passage swiftly moves onto the next phase of the chiasmus
- we might speak about entrapment in some sense - something kind of hopeless and despairing
126
If there is a certain influence/ presence arrives into the film/ the text how can you describe that?
'slowly [the presence of mankind] drips into the [film..]'
127
What question are we asking in ecocriticism?
we are asking questions of human-environmental interaction and ecological destruction
128
As opposed to more shocking, destructive or aggressive scenes of environmental destruction what scenes can also indicate the damaging human effect on the environment?
Something might have a lack-lustre or weak 'moral' approach
129
If you think there is the possibility for a double meaning but you're not sure what could you say?
"in keeping with the [suggestiveness of Wordsworth's language] there is a case for seeing [...]"
130
If you want to introduce an ecocritical approach, what would it say?
"we could take an eco-inflected approach"
131
When you hear a certain word and there is the inflection of another word, how could you introduce that?
"in [Wordsworth's 'sallied', the word 'sullied'] might also be heard"
132
Give a definition of colonialism
The imperialist expansion of Europe into the rest of the world during the last four hundred years in which a dominant imperium or centre carried on a relationship of control and influence over its margins or colonies
133
What is the third word we might accompany with 'difference' and 'other'?
alterity
134
What are two good questions to ask when you approach a question?
- what questions are they trying to get me to answer as part of this question?
- and are they as simple as one first thinks?
135
If something is particularly perplexing what might we say?
- we might say it has a 'sumptuous difficulty' or we might get lost in an 'abyss of interpretations'
136
If we want to discuss a postcolonial viewpoint how might we comment on that?
"[x] adopts an ethnocentric or Eurocentric perspective..."
("the East as the exotic 'Other' which is the contrasting foil to his own pursuits and concerns - all of which the poem presents as normative")
137
We might say a novel is 'marked' or...?
'marks the novel as centrally engaged with'
138
Give a definition of physiognomy
is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance
139
How do we reference our own reading of the text?
"as we observe in our reading of the opening to [...]"
140
When someone speaks back or responds to someone else's idea what might we say?
might say someone is 'riffing' on an idea
141
When an idea is traced through a verse or poem, how might we write this?
a verse/ prose might trace a 'movement of thought'
142
If two or more images of intimacy link, how might we phrase this?
'weave a sturdy web of intimacy'
143
When discussing a threshold, what is a way to discuss a threshold that is described as hospitable?
- it might be one that does not 'intimidate us by its majesty'
144
When a nostalgic image occurs in a text (ie. 'the home of other days has become a great image of lost intimacy') - what might we say?
we might say there is a 'sort of musical chord [that] would sound in the soul of the reader'
145
When there is a word that seems to linger around between two meanings etc., how might we describe this?
we might say a word 'hovers' between two meanings
146
What is another antiquated form of saying 'woe is me'?
'well away'
147
Why can 'Oh' be a sign of apostrophe? (and yet is not an apostrophe itself)
It is a vocalic calling (a sigh) - it is an exaggerated address
148
When the voice of the poem appears trapped or stuck in a loop what might we say?
the voice of the poem is lost in a circuit of [eg. impossibility of address]
149
if a poem has a deep concern with something how might we describe it?
Described as a "dense meditation on [x]"
150
If there is a lag/ misunderstanding in communication what might we say?
something might not be right in the 'circuit of communication'
151
If a poem has two voices included in it we might say it...?
'stages two voices'
152
How might we describe the phrase 'woe is me'?
- it is so simple and monosyllabic
| - as an apostrophe, it is both very high style but also very reflective and introspective
153
Why does it become impossible to distinguish between a 'high' voice of style and a 'low' voice of banality?
- a high voice is not necessarily artificial because when we are moved it is natural for us to speak in a more stylized way
- in the same way, simple, evocative language can be full of meaning (even if it doesn't lend itself to melodrama)
154
Even if a piece may try to be humble, how does a rhyme or poetic style affect it?
- we know it is still written with erudition etc.
155
What equivalence to listening does Angela Leighton make in her work 'Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature'?
listening is speaking
156
On the back of Leighton's equivalence that 'listening is speaking', how does she define good poetry?
good poetry encourages an authentic listening
157
What kind of sameness does Leighton draw between sound outside the mind and inside the mind?
when we read a good poem, we are listening to it, and thus speaking those sounds aloud in our minds - sounds resonate in the brain just as we hear sounds externally
158
When we listen to a poem and hear its sounds in the mind, what is internally imbued?
certain ‘atmospheric qualities’
159
In a poem, says Leighton, when we read 'knocking' do we actually hear a knocking?
No - what we hear and experience is the function of a knocking ie. the emotional resonance of what the knocking evokes
160
Why might (in your opinion) the sound patterns of language open the diversity of experiences of a poem?
- because there are certain semantic associations that words have, but there is more a diversity of associations with sounds and thus they can be experienced in a more diverse range of ways
161
What does Leighton mean in her discussion of self-reflexiveness?
self-reflexiveness is her idea of the need for us to hear how we are listening ie. it is then that we can begin to make the differentiations between what feels like the audible ‘point’ and the sounds that feel like erring distractions
162
Why does Leighton describe poems as 'rooms'?
poems as ‘rooms’ etc. create echoes of sounds, and haunting presences
163
Define ploce
emphatic repetition of a word with particular reference to its special significance eg. a wife who was a wife indeed
164
Define epistrophe
repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect (such as Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people")
- opposite to anaphora
165
Define epizeuxis
a literary or rhetorical device that appeals to or invokes the reader’s or listener’s emotions through the repetition of words or phrases in quick succession, as in “Threaten me all you want, I won’t do it. I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!”
166
Define paronomasia
The pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect
167
Gerard Manley Hopkins made a distinction between reading 'with the eyes' and 'reading with the ears' - what is the distinction?
‘with the eyes’ can be a quick scan for meaning, whereas ‘with the ears’ takes a sensory reorientation and attention to rhythmic effects and combinations
168
Why is 'listening with the ear' not solely a description of 'a sense-perception alert to real noises'?
- because the ear can tune into sounds that would usually be inaudible
- can also register the function of a sound rather than registering/ recreating the sound itself
- can also create its own sounds or infer sound from the rhythms of the poem itself
- when we're reading, we don't hear anything but the ear collects, records, recalls and imagines sound
169
Why is silence an illusion to Angela Leighton's mind?
it is only the narrowness of the human capability that provides the illusion of silence
170
How does the 'ear write' according to Angela Leighton?
- the way the ‘ear writes’ is that it summons tone of voice from word/ phrase and enacts the ghostly activity of calling/ conjuring up speech heard in infinite layers of usage
- when we read we have to use our imagination and interpretive faculties to imagine these intonations
171
Why might we describe Lucian Freud's portrait 'Interior with Plant, Reflection Listening (Self-Portrait)' uncanny (as referenced in Angelia Leighton's work)?
- the imaginary cry/ call has no visible origin, making it mysteriously compelling
- neither the canvas itself nor the still life that it depicts produce sound
- raises our awareness of the uncertainty around sound ie. what kind of roar of noise would the world have if we were not protected by its inaudibility
172
How does Angela Leighton describe what the silent base of the printed page asks a reader to do?
- it continually asks to be "voiced"
173
When one reads a poem silently and hears all of the sounds of a poem, are they always in conjunction with one another/ are we only given one option?
No - options remain audible, and might overlay or even jostle with one another
174
What types of noises foes Angela Leighton identify in a poem?
- sounds of words
- sounds that are indicated within the poem and need to be ‘heard’ in the imagination
(ie. requires an imaginative extension of hearing)
- undercurrent murmur of other texts at work (in quotation or allusion/ just in chance similarities of language itself)
175
How might we address the fact that poem has a face-value meaning and then transition into its deeper meaning?
"at face value... the poem [etc.], however, on further examination..."
176
How does Angela Leighton characterise the 'door' in Robert Frost's comment that 'the best place to get an abstract sense of sound.. is from behind a door'?
"the door/ doors are the blocking devices to easy meaning"
177
What is the threshold of audibility and what lies beyond according to Angela Leighton?
- sounds too high or too low or too far away for human detection
- beyond it lies the "huge, unheard sound shadow of noises outside our range"
178
How does Roland Barthes link space, time, and listening?
(listening is primarily an evaluative sense)
listening is the sense from which space and time can be evaluated eg. the house is a symphony of familiar noises through which we appropriate it as space
- there is a degree of audio-pollution which everyone can relate to - which is corrupting the way in which we interact with our environments - we cannot make spaces intelligible to ourselves through our means of selection
179
How does Barthes link territory, threat, and sound? What is the result of this?
sound is a means of defining secure territory and threat/ security and defense
ie. revealing danger or promising a satisfaction of need
the ear functions both as a receptacle of all the sounds it can grasp, and yet also must filter and prioritise
180
To Barthes, how can sound/ rhythm be a means of covert communication?
listening, but then also application of meaning in the creation of symbolism
- not just listening out for something, but concealing meaning within sound ie. rhythmic mimicry
181
What is the poetic balance struck between sounds to Barthes' mind?
- poetically there has to be a balance struck between foregrounded sound and background sound
182
What are the three stages of listening to Barthes' mind?
1. alert - the primal (survival/ defense etc.)
2. deciphering/ decoding (the beginning of the human) - interpretation of certain signs
3. inter-subjective listening
183
How does Barthes define psychoanalysis in his essay 'Listening'?
- psychoanalysis is the interaction between a speaking unconscious and the listening of the understanding psychoanalyst
184
Who describes synecdoche as dark and duplicitous? Why? and what examples does he give to support his view?
George Puttenham, the arte of english poesie 1589
- it offers a secondary imagined meaning that accompanies what is being explicitly said
- ie. ‘town of Antwerpe is famished’ really meaning the people of the town
- gives a more coy example in the ‘may I unlace your petticoat’, because this has the ulterior meaning of ‘may I lie with you tonight’
185
What links does Puttenham make between beastliness and cultivation in his 1589 arte of english poesie?
- if poets are those who have civilised those who are ‘wild and beastly’, and with sweet and cultivated speeches have raised them into civilised life, their figures of language must be eloquent and beautiful
186
Considering that hearing often has a memorised location of its origins, what impact does this have in contrast to sight?
it slips easily into a more distant apprehension, memory, or sometimes even imagination of a sound
187
What did Robert Frost say about the word 'oh' that links reading and listening?
Robert Frost:
- the written word ‘oh’ looks identical to the eye
- and yet has a spectrum of sounds and sense depending on the length and emphasis of its voicing
188
To Robert Frost's mind, for example, what happens when we read the word 'oh'?
- why does this happen?
we first read ‘oh’ silently, and have the different sonic possibilities jostling for attention
- sound often does not have an automatic denotative meaning (sounds like alarms/ ambulances are closer to the 'sounds as warnings' associations that Barthes highlights)
ie. associated with a sign, we come up with a range of connotations and must return to the sense of the poem (ie. the linguistic aspects), in order to make that selection
189
When we pay attention to the sounds of a poem, why might a definitive selection/interpretation not be reached?
each reading raises the ghost of a different voice, tone, rhythm, stress, and so arrives at a different distant destination of meaning
190
Why does Barthes highlight rhythm as particularly important in the history of sound?
- take a stab at a quote that encompasses this
listening ceases to be purely supervisory ie. listening for something coming (prey, danger, desire) and becomes creative
move from the sound that is possible and moves to what is the secret
secret = concealed in reality, that which can only reach human consciousness via a code (this is at the point that an association is made, and meaning is associated)
"Listening is henceforth linked … to a hermeneutics: to listen is to adopt an attitude of decoding what is obscure, blurred, or mute, in order to make available to the consciousness the “underside” of meaning…"
191
What link is made between jouissance and Marxism?
- Lacan introduced the concept of ‘surplus-enjoyment’ (as inspired by Marx’s surplus value)
- instead of the surplus value that was absorbed by the property-owning classes, the labourers take ownership of their enjoyment and pleasure and use it to squash alienating structures
192
How did Freud believe art could manage jouissance?
- it could escape conscious moral rejection and unconscious repression
- art permitted the satisfaction of the drive in a sublimated/ sublime form
193
What original thought underpins art's management of jouissance?
- derives from Kant’s aesthetic delight - enjoyment without practical, economic, or moral purposiveness
194
How might one's relationship to their own jouissance breed envy in society?
- to maintain a social existence, one must privatise their jouissance
- this prohibited contact with your own jouissance manifests itself externally and thus, when one looks to others and sees them seemingly enjoying their ‘food, music and sex’ in ways you feel forbidden to - this breeds resentment
195
What role does the superego have in regulating jouissance?
"The Superego represents that point in the unconscious where society enters into the subject and where the subject enters into society and skews the subject’s relation to sexual enjoyment."
