Theory 3 Flashcards
1
Q
What did Fiona Sampson write?
A
The Meaning of ‘Meaning’
2
Q
What is a great way to cover your back when a topic is very complex and there are a lot of questions to cover?
A
“These series of posited questions are fraught with complications, and often where we draw the dividing lines between [these terms] is complicated. [AUTHOR] offers one interpretation…”
3
Q
How does Fiona Sampson draw the dividing lines when it comes to sense and meaning?
A
She associates sense with rational, common sense comprehension ie. the rational explanation we grasp from language
4
Q
Aside from Sampson’s link between sense and rational, common sense comprehension, how else can sense blend with meaning?
A
sense also blends with the connotative, affective aspects of language that we feel we should grasp too
5
Q
Sound and music has no meaning - true or false
A
False: sound and music has meaning but it works primarily through the affective mode rather than through denotation
6
Q
What conclusion do we draw when we find that music and sound can have meaning?
A
One can achieve meaning from a work of literature or piece of music and yet may lack sense of it
7
Q
If you have a piece of work that is weird, doesn’t make much sense, we can’t really build comprehensible images, how might we describe this?
A
“We struggle to ‘make sense’ of the piece due to her surrealist style association and manipulation of images”
8
Q
Instead of saying ‘pay attention’, what might we say?
A
‘attend’
9
Q
What does Sampson suggest we do in order to let the rhythmic musicality of a piece of writing emerge?
A
- we have to attend to the ‘tacit’ experiential response that we are having to the work
10
Q
Though it is usually what we attend to as a secondary impulse, what would push the sound of a poem to come to the fore?
A
- if the meaning of the work and the connotations of its language/ images are made inaccessible to us
11
Q
How would you describe the difference between a sound like ‘what’ or ‘mercy’ and ‘ow’ or ‘ouch’?
A
- some of the sounds have recognisably stronger semantic associations, especially as some are words in their own right
- the latter sounds prompt questions about how we use an underlying layer of sound that has become integrated into language at an indeterminate boundary between sound and language - they have certain direct associations without reaching the direct denotative semantic sense of words
12
Q
Which scholars might you throw in when discussing something like “the phenomenology of sound” and you want to say ‘…that has been revisited by a number of scholars’/ ‘ ‘…that has been revisited repeatedly by scholars’?
A
Angela Leighton, Don Ihde, Robert Frost
13
Q
Who describe an ‘auditory imagination’ and how might we describe what goes on in there?
A
- we have layers of language and sound in our thought patterns
- sound occupies that ghostly realm of summoning in one’s mind
- sounds proliferate in the imagination
14
Q
Having discovered that sense and meaning can act independently, what else can/ should we consider?
A
- how they rely upon one another
15
Q
What does the proliferation of sounds and the multiplicity of their connotative associations make us do?
A
- turn back to the language and grapple with the sense of the words themselves
16
Q
Instead of saying ‘the poet’s aim is [xyz]’ what might we say that does not seem to imply that we know the poet’s aim?
A
‘this extract has us reflect [think/ reconsider/ interrogate/ reimagine/ ponder/ reanalyse] on our relationship to…’
17
Q
Give an example of how the musicality/ rhythms of language might actually worth with and support the sense of the work?
A
(ie. if we are supposed to achieve a clear, complete comprehension of something, the syntax will be slow, explanatory, measured - unlike if we are supposed to be zipping through a landscape and absorbing objects, the syntax will be at pace, potentially jumbled etc.)
18
Q
What did Edward Said say about Western music and how it creates its own meaning?
A
it creates its own meaning by giving itself a series of technical terms and engages in a series of high-minded discussions etc.
ie. because the technical requirements imposed by musical analysis are so severe, it becomes a form of social discourse that constructs social meaning
and music exists in a social context, and it elaborates the ideas of authority and social hierarchy that are directly connected to the dominant establishment that it belongs to and that presides over the work
19
Q
In 1958, who coined the term ‘tacit knowledge’ to designate certain kinds of experiential knowledge?
A
Michael Polanyi
20
Q
Define tacit knowledge as it was used by Michael Polanyi in 1958?
A
- the skills, ideas, and experience that people have, but are not codified and may not be easily expressed (might not necessarily be able to articulate it, or even be aware of all the dimensions)
people are often not aware that they have this knowledge
to transfer it requires extensive person contact, regular interaction, and trust
language is thought to be tacit knowledge in itself
21
Q
What supporting points do you have for the argument that the meaning of language is not purely semantic?
A
the meaning of a poem (as with music) can be the feeling or atmosphere it evokes
- OR might be the kind of form/ rhyme it uses - ie. ‘the way it tells it’, the particularity of having these words in this order
22
Q
Even when music does not evoke a particular emotion, what supporting points does Fiona Sampson make for the argument that it is still something non-arbitrary and thus has meaning?
A
- it coheres in a recognisable form, creating patterns and pleasurable sensation
- to recognise this restores the kind of agency that music has, and thus we begin to see how the musical form might entail the textual
23
Q
Give examples of the two types of crime that notables artists/ directors/ authors have been involved in
A
- targeted attacks (like those of Roman Polanski and Woody Allen)
- diffuse criticism/ hatred ie. Eliot’s anti-semitism/ Heidegger’s foray into Nazism
24
Q
If a point of theory appears to have an idea/ concept/ mode of speech lying behind it, what might we say?
A
“[Apostrophe] lies implicitly in the work”
25
If there is a use of 'banal repetition' what might we find it?
we might find it 'disconcerting'
26
How do you introduce context?
"the context of these writers may go some way to [glossing the rhythms] that the two poems express"
27
Define and provide examples of a prepositional phrase?
- phrase with preposition, object, any words that modify the object ie. by, at, for, in, on, under
- 'after the fight'
- 'behind the scenes'
- 'between the girls'
28
If a poem was suggesting a heaviness of motion, how might the verb be presented?
- a verb might be laboured or separated by the mis en page
29
If a particular scene reminds you of a certain time/ place etc. how might you describe that?
"the scene is immediately redolent of urban America"
eg. "life-sapping burdens of domesticity"
30
When thinking about syntax, how might we break up our understanding?
- think about 'syntactical units' ie. clauses/ phrases that cohere and track them
31
If a certain technique dominates a piece ie. syntactic choices, how many examples should you support it with?
- 3/4
| - show how different elements of that have accumulated to produce a certain effect
32
When thinking about the juncture between sound and sense - consider that the sense of a poem can also be literally what it is saying, especially in a poem with an argument. Give an example and what we should then look out for
eg. Pope's Essay on Man - if the argument is then grounded in a form, consider what effect this has
- if the argument is about man's weakness and then framed in impressive and unwinding couplets then this is a contradiction
33
How might we address a contradiction between sound and sense in, for example, the case of Alexander Pope?
"Pope's total mastery of form, heard most keenly in a perfect management of sound, betray this very sentiment"
34
How might you describe how the 'tension' of a poem
TO BE FILLED IN
35
Define antistrophe
Antistrophe (Ancient Greek: ἀντιστροφή, "a turning back") is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west
36
Define anadiplosis
the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence
37
Define epanalepsis
the repetition of the initial part of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence
38
Define antanaclasis
the literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeated, but in two different senses.[2] Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans
39
Define synoeciosis
figure of speech in which contrary terms are use in conjunction
40
Define 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.
41
Give a definition and examples of deictic expressions
a word or phrase that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking (such as this, that, these, those, now, then, here)
42
Define antimetabole
the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order; for example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know". It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus
43
In a Freudian reading, why would the loss of a lover/ loss of love be considered a potentially traumatic moment?
in some form, it enacts the loss of the mother as rehearsed in the Fort-Da game
44
When an analyst works with a patient, what are they attempting to recognise?
the resistances in the patient's mind to their memories/ trauma
45
What does an analyst attempt to uncover from the patient's mind?
certain though-connections which have to be uncovered from childhood
46
In Freud's work 'Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through', what word dominates the piece?
abreaction
47
Define abreaction
the expression and consequent release of a previously repressed emotion, achieved through reliving the experience that caused it (typically through hypnosis or suggestion)
48
What is transference?
When the patient begins to act out what is forgotten and repressed in their relationship with the analyst
- it is a form of resistance
49
What is the impact of transference?
patient yields to the compulsion to repeat, which replaces the impulsion to remember
- repetition replaces remembering
(might affect the other aspects of his life also)
in the transferential model - the session of psychoanalysis is a theatre in which patients re-enacts conflicts of their early history
- feelings are transferred onto the neutral analyst
(if transference becomes too intense, the mental armory defends against progress)
50
When the psychoanalyst is trying to bring memories into the present, what might be a response from the patient?
- there is a necessity to make temporary aggravations
- resistance might turn this on its head and luxuriate in the symptoms of the illness ie. ‘look! repression was necessary!”
51
What is the physician aiming towards when the patient is stepping through their processes of transference and resistance?
physician is aiming towards reproduction in the psychical field (remembering)
52
What is the physician's main instrument for turning repetition into remembering?
main instrument for turning repetition/ re-enactment into remembering = handling of transference
ie. re-enactment of the traumatic memory as its effects have been transferred onto the analyst and then success comes when converting re-enactment into accepted memory
53
How can the handling of transference become the main instrument for turning repetition into remembering?
transference is given as a playground for the compulsion to repeat
- gives all symptoms a new transference meaning (replaces ordinary neurosis with ‘transference-neurosis’)
via. repetitive reactions comes the awakening of memories after the resistance is overcome
54
Ultimately, how is a patient's resistance overcome?
by identifying it and allowing time for the patient to work through it
55
In what book by Lionel Trilling does the chapter 'Freud and Literature' appear?
The Liberal Imagination
56
Outline the Freudian understanding of the ID, ego, and superego
in the ego psychology model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual desires; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic agent that mediates, between the instinctual desires of the id and the critical super-ego
57
Provide some more description of the distinction between the ego and the ID
Ego can be described as effective, utilitarian
Id can be described as anarchic and self-indulgent
58
What kind of critical license does psychoanalysis provide critics with?
- psychoanalysis offers license for us to read literature with a lively sense of latent and ambiguous meanings
59
How might a psychoanalyst and a literary critic differ?
- for literary critics - not about exposing secret shame and limiting meanings, but sympathising with the writer and increasing possible significances
60
What is the relationship of psychoanalysis to rationalism?
Freudian theory - shares anti-rationalism with Romanticism, but also militantly rationalist
- in fact, the rationalistic element is foremost
- aim of psychoanalysis is to control the ‘night side’ of life
61
How did Freud link literature/ art and dreams?
Called art (with contempt): “an illusion in contrast to reality”
- it is harmless, however, because art never claims to be anything other than illusion
- shares characteristics of the dream - Freud calls the element of distortion a “sort of inner dishonesty”
62
Why does Freud express a distrust or a dissatisfaction with illusion?
- psychoanalytical therapy deals with illusion
ie. if a patient has anxiety, the therapy aims to train the patient in proper ways of coping with this reality (the stable reality)
63
What are Freud's two ways of coping with reality?
1. practical, effective, positive way
- way of the conscious self, ego independent of superego and organising the ID
2. ‘the fictional way’
- instead of doing something to external reality, the individual does something to his affective states
- eg. daydreaming, providing desire in imagining satisfaction
CHECK THE MEANING OF THIS SECOND POINT
64
What is the difference between illusion as it occurs in art as opposed to how it occurs in fantasises?
- the difference between art and dreams then is that the poet is in command of his fantasy, whereas the neurotic is possessed by his fantasy
65
What was the first moment that Freud associated dreams with the return to trauma?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
Freud believed that dreams were the fulfilment of a wish until WW1 soldiers dreamt of shell-shock victims
dreams returned them to traumatic moments with no clear pleasure to be had
66
What aspect of the Fort Da game does the 'compulsion to repeat' relate to?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
‘compulsion to repeat’
| - compared to the ‘demonic’ element of his nephew’s game that overrides pleasure principle
67
From the basis that we all have a 'compulsion to repeat', what does Freud conclude?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
he uncovers a death drive that he pits against the life drive
68
What is the interaction of the pleasure principle and the death drive?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
"the pleasure principle, which aims for ‘constancy’ or equilibrium within the organism, is hijacked by the instincts of destruction..."
[which crave the final constancy of death, the chill repose of inorganic matter]
69
How does Maud Ellman link Freud and Oedipus?
- both him and Freud are implicated in the discoveries they make
"Oedipus and Freud both show that interpretation necessarily invokes the dreams of the interpreter, implicating the reader in the secrets of the text"
70
How can the literary text and the analytic patient be fruitfully linked?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
"The literary text, like the analytic patient, provides the terms of its interpretation, and the reader has to learn to wrestle with this idiom rather than replace it with prepacked theories"
71
What is the primary technique of dreaming according to Freud?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
Freud identifies ‘dramatisation’ as the primary technique of dreaming
72
In what ways does 'dramatisation' enable dreams to conduct "a hallucinatory fulfilment of a wish"?
(This is what Freud believed dreams were before he analysed the cases of WW1 soldiers experiencing dreams of shell-shock victims)
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
- desires are replaced by embodiments
| - theatre gives form to internal dramaturgy of the mind
73
In what sense is dramatisation designed to hide us from ourselves?
(Maud Ellman
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism)
- interpreter is needed to discern words encoded in pictographic script of dreams
74
In what work does Freud discuss the Pleasure Principle?
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
75
In what situation is there a production of pleasure?
when there is an unpleasurable tension that leads to an outcome lowering tension
76
G.T Fechner believes all conscious impulses have some relation to pleasure or unpleasure - what does this also mean to his mind?
"...[they too have a] psycho-physical relation to conditions of stability and instability”
77
What prevents the pleasure principle?
1. pleasure principle becomes reality principle
| 2. repressed instincts becoming unpleasure
78
Why must the pleasure principle become the reality principle?
- the pleasure principle is a primary method of working of the mental apparatus - and yet is inefficient and highly dangerous
- repression is based on the pleasure principle
- seeking to avoid the unpleasure produced by liberation of the repressed
- HOWEVER: we want to learn to tolerate the unpleasure by appealing to the reality principle
79
What is the function of the pleasure principle becoming the reality principle?
- does not abandon commitment to pleasure, but enables the temporary toleration of unpleasure
80
What urges can often overcome the reality principle?
- the pleasure of sexual instincts often succeed in overcoming the reality principle
81
By what judgement of the ego does the process of repression take place?
- as ego develops into more highly composite organisations, some parts are deemed incompatible with the remaining ones which form the ego
82
What occurs when repressed material (that has been deemed incompatible with the formation of the ego) subsequently emerges?
- these are then repressed, but if they subsequently succeed, they can be felt by the ego as unpleasure
83
What other circumstances might potentially prevent the dominance of the pleasure principle?
perception of pressure from unsatisfied instincts, perception of external danger
84
What two cases might cause the development of a 'traumatic neurosis'?
1. factor of surprise/ fright
| 2. a wound/ injury inflicted
85
Why do traumatic neuroses take the patient back to the situation of their trauma in dreams?
it is wrong to say that dreams take a sufferer back to that bad place, would be more in line w their nature to heal
86
Though it is in the nature of the traumatic neuroses to attempt to heal when taking the patient back to the situation of their trauma in dreams, why do we observe that it can have the opposition effect?
Maybe...
1. the function of dreaming has had its purpose hindered
2. the ego has masochistic trends
87
Describe the principle of what function the Fort Da game served?
- the game was a rehearsal of the renunciation of instinctual satisfaction that had to be endured when his mother left him
88
Why did both the departure and return have to be enacted?
- departure had to be enacted as necessary preliminary to joyful return
89
Explain the two theories that try to explain why the Fort Da game was played
1. he was in a passive position and now by rehearsal he can adopt an active position
(whether pleasurable or not, the instinct is over mastery)
2. act of revenge against his mother for leaving
- repetition brought a yield of pleasure
90
What are the dominating themes of play, as exemplified by the Fort Da game?
- making themselves master of situations in their lives
- wanting to emulate grown-up experiences
- revenging themselves of an unpleasurable life experience by inflicting it on a friend
91
Why does transference essentially take place?
Because the analyst is trying to make conscious what is unconscious and this is not completely attainable.
Thus - a patient cannot entirely construct from memory, and thus must repeat repressed material as contemporary experience
92
Is repetition welcomed by the physician?
To an extent but the physician is always trying to force the channel of memory and limit repetition
93
Why does the physician attempt to force the channel of memory and limit repetition?
- attempt is to get the patient to re-experience some portion of forgotten life but retain aloofness
- to recognise what appears to be reality is only a reflection of forgotten past
94
How will the unconscious be relieved of its struggle?
it desires the relief of pressure via forcing way into consciousness or discharge via real action
95
When did Freud write 'The Uncanny'?
1919
96
What are some repeating themes that link things we might find 'uncanny'?
- the effacing of the boundary between imagination and reality
- suspecting that there is some force inside of us that we cannot control/ are not privy to
- evidence of forces beyond our control
- anything that reminds us of the repetition-compulsion psychology that exists in our unconscious
97
What feelings constitute the ‘uncanny'?
- familiarity and unfamiliarity
| - a feeling of return (ie. helpless cyclicality)
98
What are some of the theories that explain what creates the feeling of the ‘uncanny’?
- the experience of that which has undergone repression and then emerged from it (especially in the case of repressed infantile complexes eg. the castration-complex)
- an occurrence which appears to satisfy an old set of beliefs which primitive forefathers once believed and which we realise that we seek to confirm at any given chance (ie. magic/ witchcraft)
99
How do the feelings of familiarity and unfamiliarity work in relation to the uncanny?
the uncanny occurs when the mind attempts to process an unfamiliar situation with recourse to what about the situation is familiar and thus makes a connection that was unexpected or unprepared for
100
What did Schelling say on the topic of the unheimlich?
“‘Unheimlich’ is the name for everything that ought to have remained . . . hidden and secret and has become visible” - Schelling
101
How does the uncanny relate to the unconscious and repression?
uncanny is the experience of that which has returned to the consciousness but has undergone a process of estrangement through repression
102
Who flagged up the relationship between familiarity and unfamiliarity when it came to the experience of the uncanny?
Jentsch - achieved recognition of the relationship between the novel/ unfamiliar and the uncanny but no further
103
Who flags up the role of uncertainty as part of the uncanny?
Hoffman argues that we maintain uncertainty throughout (if we are in a real-world or a fantasy one)
- ie. consider the Sandman
104
Offer an example of the uncanny by Jentsch that also seems to drag from Hoffman's point that the uncanny involves an aspect of uncertainty?
“doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate”
105
How can Jentsch's connection of the uncanny to ‘intellectual uncertainty' (ie. consider the sandman story) be undermined?
this is a case where there is a superior concept of uncanniness in the concept of having your eyes stolen which supersedes the uncertainty of reality etc.
106
Define defamiliarisation
the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different
- that aspect which differentiates between ordinary usage and poetic usage of language, and imparts uniqueness to a literary work
107
From what school of thought was the concept defamiliarisation?
Russian Formalists
108
In what work and by whom was the concept 'defamiliarisation' coined?
Viktor Shklovsky in his 'Art as Technique'
109
What is the primary aim of literature as it is understood through the defamiliarisation technique?
to foreground its linguistics as they disrupt the modes of ordinary linguistic discourse
110
When was the concept of defamiliarisation first introduced?
Romantic critic Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria (1817), but it was conceived in terms of subject matter and in novelty of expression
111
How did the Formalists shift the concept of defamiliarisation?
they considered the usage of formal linguistic devices in poetry, such as rhyme, metre, metaphor, image and symbol
112
What is the effect of defamiliarisation?
- our habitual perceptions are refreshed
| - it renders objects more perceptible
113
Which concept could we consider in allegiance with defamiliarisation?
Brecht's alienation
114
How does Joseph Conrad summarise the aim of the novelist?
“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power
of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before
all, to make you see!”
115
What is an excellent word to describe 'likeness to reality'?
verisimilitude
116
Define delayed decoding
- puts the reader in the position of being an immediate witness in each step of the process whereby the semantic gap between the sensations aroused in the individual by an object or event, and their actual cause or meaning, was closed in their consciousness
117
Define ratiocination
the process of exact thinking// a reasoned train of thought
118
Define 'bracketing the referent' and describe why/ how Saussure uses it
- the deliberate exclusion from a formal communication model of any direct reference to an object, idea, or event in the world
- His signified is not to be identified directly with a referent but is a concept in the mind - not a thing but the notion of a thing
(*concept of how we perceive referents?)
119
Why conceptualised the Object Relations Theory?
Melanie Klein
120
Though object relations theory is a variation of psychoanalytic theory, how do they differ?
Klein places less emphasis on biologically based drives (such as the id) and more importance on consistent patterns of interpersonal relationships.
121
Instead of sexual pleasure, what do object relations theorists see as the prime motivation of human behavior and in personality development?
- human contact and the need to form relationships
122
Instead of objects meaning 'inanimate objects', what are the 'objects' in ORT?
- significant others
- a part of a person, such as a mother's breast
- the mental representations of significant others
123
What did Klein analyse about how children use activities such as drawing/ play?
The children, she believed, projected their anxieties about the part-objects of their parents – the breast, the penis, the unborn babies in the mother’s stomach – onto their toys and drawings. They would act out their own aggressive phantasies but also their desire for reparation through play
124
How might you describe the sonnet?
the epitome of the perfect poetic form
125
If a sonnet has 14 lines we consider it perfect. What might we consider it if this alters?
- perfection turns to raggedness and incompletion
126
If someone's syntax seemed ungrounded or unstable how might we describe it?
"lack of clear anchorage in [x's] syntax"
127
If the construction of the poem is confused and the character's thoughts are equally confused, how could we describe this?
the poetic construction is mimetic of the character's thought
128
If a work breaks canonical, aesthetic norms how we might describe this?
an 'assault on canonical, aesthetic norms'
129
When can creativity become uncomfortable?
when it is boundless
130
What kind of effect can the use of fragments have?
when used in excess they can convey a mounting mood of oppression (very relevant for Verity Spott's work)
131
If there is a word isolated in a work, what should we be thinking about?
what does this mean? if it is a word like 'landlocked', for example, then it is itself landlocked and thus it is 'self-referential'
132
Are sounds in poems always rhythmical?
no - they can be entirely non-rhythmical. for example, they can be called monotonous when they're accumulating sounds like the /d/ phoneme eg. in 'dragged down' etc.
- they might also be aggressive
- or they could be nauseating ie. 'skimming the skin'
133
When should you pay particular attention to the metre of some lines?
when they are set apart
134
What do you have to consider about iambic pentameter?
it is an archaic form
135
How might you introduce a contextually relevant point?
'the context of these two writers may so some way to glossing the rhythms that the two poems express'
136
Define a prepositional phrase - give examples
phrase with a preposition (any words that modify the object) and object
eg. by, at, for, in, on, under
137
If a verb is laboured or separated by the mis en page, what might this suggest?
might suggest a heaviness of motion
138
If a scene/ passage feels suddenly very typical of a certain time etc., what might you say?
'the scene is immediately redolent of urban America'
