The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge

The quest consists of 5 things

A. quester B. place to go C. a stated reason

to go there D. challenges and

trials en route E. the real reason

to go there

A. Whenever people eat or drink together it is communion• -sharing of the peace• -particular about who we eat with• -community• -shared experience

bond, drugs, ritual, tradition• Failed is a bad sign

-don't harm the mouth that feeds you

Sex and Evil Vampirism

• -selfishness• -exploitation• -refusal to respect the autonomy of other people• -using people to get what we want• -our desires over someone else

Literary Ghosts• -lessons, morals, warnings

Ghosts and Vampires are never only about Ghosts and Vampires• -not only visible• -psychosocial imbalance• -dysfunction of something

-pattern recognition -learning to look -literature grows out of literature There is no such thing as a wholly

original work of literature -stories cannot be written in a vacuum There is only one story

• -mythos Literature Makes Comparisons, parallels -intertextuality-the ongoing interaction

between stories Nothing ever changes -using other stories gives topical

resonance

-makes authors smart and gives them authority

a. Romeo and Juliet

b. Ten Things I Hate About You

c. She's the Man d. O e. Hamlet g. Macbeth

-every step about the loss of innocence is really someone's private reenactment of the fall from

grace -proves everything is ages old -the great tribulations to which human

beings are subject to are all detailed in scripture

-gives modern stories the power of accumulated myth

-archetypal a. The Flood b. Moses c. The Messiah d. Miraculous Birth

-most drawing power -lost -loss of control -hopelessness, helplessness -temptation -fend for themselves -belongs to the one big story -why use this parallel?

• -because of how much it covers the human experience

-myth is a body of story that matters

-aren't we all descended from Gods?

-legendary heroes are normal

-no form of dysfunctional family or personal disintegration of character for which there is not

a Greek or Roman archetype

-myths are an explanation for natural phenomena

-potential for greatness resides in all of us• a. Icarus• b. Prometheus

THESE ARE THE 4 GREAT STRUGGLES OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Homer -need to protect the family Hector -determination to remain

faithful and to have faith Penelope -the struggle to return

home Odysseus -maintain one's dignity

• Archilles

Due Wednesday 100 points Pick a myth that attempts to explain an element of nature or

reasoning for behavior. You may also choose a creation myth. In a response essay, you will analyze the following elements

of your myth: A. what does it attempt to explain B. Brief synopsis of the myth C. How/Why do the gods intervene? D. Literary Devices

• Symbols, motifs, themes, allusions, conflictsE. You will need to look up another culture’s explanation of

your topic and go through steps A-D with that one and then analyze how they are similar and if there are any repeating archetypes and signs of intextuality.

-water/floods -wate is trying to reclaim us -pulling down our improvements -big eraser that destroys buut also allows a brand new start It is used as a. plot device b. atmospherics c. misery d. democratic -falls on the just and unjust alike -it's clean -paradox clean coming down but mud created when it lands -cleansing characters symbolically -transformation -stain is removed -restorative -Spring, new growth, return to the Green World -rain and literal ailments it causes -Spring means revival, renewal, new awakenings

Fisher King Figure -hero as a fixer -something in society is

broken and a hero emerges to put things right

-agricultural fertility is important to sustain life

a. wastelands to restore to fertility therefore need rain therefore what does the absence of rain mean

-rainbows -divine promise -fog -confusion/can't see clearly -snow -same as rain

ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER

IN A BOOK

Violence -most personal and intimate act between humans a. can be cultural and societal, symbolic, thematic,

biblical, Shakespearean, romantic, allegorical b. it is a means beyond mere mayhem Two Categories 1. specific injury that authors cause characters to

visit on one another or themselves 2. narrative violence that cause characters harm in

general plot advancement thematic development -What is the motive? -What does it represent thematically? -What mythic death does it resemble? -Why this violence and not some other? -What is the motive?

SYMBOLIC POLITICAL

sure it is -cannot be reduced to

meaning just one thing Allegory -if a symbol stands for

one thing it is an allegory

-one for one basis -convey a certain

message -actions can be

symbolic

-meant to change society -addresses the rights of

persons and the wrongs of those in power

-nearly all writing is political on some level

-part of the social problem or part of the solution

-the social and political milieu out of which the writer creates to help us to

understand the work

Why? The writer wants to express a specific theme• Make a parallel to deepen the comparison,

the sacrifice, their redemption, a miracle, or just to be ironic

Culture is influenced by its dominant religious systems• These values and principles of those

religions will inform the work

Human beings cannot fly• 1. a superhero• 2. a ski jumper• 3. crazy• 4. fictional• 5. a circus act• 6. suspended on wires• 7. an angel• 8. heavily symbolic

-uninhibited -freedom -defy gravity then you can

defy laws

In Myths -flying Africans -Quetzalcatl the

Aztec God who looks like a snake with wings

-Icarus -angels -dragons -witches

FLIGHT IS FREEDOM• -of soul/spirit• -unbound by earthly

cares• -escape• -journey• -return home/soul

ascends to heaven

but . . . Irony Trumps Everything• -reversal of the expectations

of flight and freedom -caged -enslaved -trapped -burdened (Peter Pan)

-or chooses not to fly -reduction of power -crash and burn (and then

maybe live would be symbolic of a rebirth)

-thrilled by flying but fearful of falling

There is an ugly rumor circulating that English professors have dirty minds• Phallic Images• Yonic Images

-depending on the society/censorship sex does not have to look like sex

-sexuality may be encoded in their reading, while writers are learning that they can encode sexuality into their writing

the actual act is very plain forward

-when they are writing about other things it really means sex, and when they write about sex, they really mean something else. If they write about sex and mean strictly sex it is called pornography.

-the sexiest thing a writer can do is show everything but the sex

-about exploring a character's personality• -is really about• pleasure, sacrifice, submission,

rebellion. resignation, supplication, domination,

• enlightenment, power

To drown or not to drown has profound plot implications

Many writes have meet their deaths in water

Tossing characters in the river• Wish fulfillment• Exorcism of primal fear• Exploration of the possible and not just• A solution to messy plot difficulties

What does the character do?• The after is symbolic

Rescued Swim out Rise up and walk Driftwood just appears

Luck

The character should have died, but didn’t• Rebirth and baptism

through the medium of water The old identity dies Being born is painful

Symbolic• Submersion=Baptis

m Have to be ready to

receive it Cleansing

The flood

• Suicide=Choosing Exerting control in a

society that has taken control away from them

So. . .when they actually drown?• They die• Serves its own

purpose Character revelation Thematic development

of violence Failure Guilt Plot complication Denouement

-is setting, but it's also psychology, attitude, finance, industry, anything that place

can forge in the people who live there -create mood,atmosphere,tone -can alo define or even develep a

character -only by leaving home, and travelling to

his real home can he find his real self -geography can be a character

General Rule When writers send characters south, it's so they can run

amok The Sublime Landscape -the dramatic and breathtaking vista-has been idealized,

sometimes to the point of cliche -mountains, overgrown vegetation, large mansions as opposed to The Places Where We Call Home -the flat or gently rolling ground, farm land, water, non-

threatening IN THIS WAY THE GEOGRAPHY BECOMES NOT ONLY A WAY

BY WHICH THE AUTHOR EXPRESSES HIS PSYCHE BUT ALSO A CONVEYER OF THEME

Why did Jack go up the hill? -what goes up must come down and things go up and go

down a hill Down -swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, people, Up -snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, the gods it's place and space and shape that bring us to ideas and

psychology and history and dynamism.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day

Thou art more lovely and more temperate

Now is the winter of our discontent/made glorious summer by this son of York

Fear no more the heat o' th' sun/Nor the furious winter's rages

Spring-childhood and youth

Summer-adulthood, romance, fulfillment, passion

Autumn-decline, middle age, tiredness, harvest,

Winter-old age, resentment, death

Pastoral Elegy-written for a

young man who died much too young

-typically he is a shepherd from his pasture at the height of Spring or Summer and instead of rejoicing there is mourning

The human experience Stories are the explanation of us and

the world or us in the world Intertextuality Archetype

Quasimodo Frankenstein Oedipus Grendel Harry Potter -these are all character who are as famous for their shape

as for their behavior -their shapes tell us something about them or other people

in the story -in real life, when people have any physical mark or

imperfection it means nothing thematically but in physical imperfections are understood to always be

symbolic All myths and fairytales that hero is marked in some way -scars, one fatal spot, a shorter leg, birthmark

-Romanticism gave us the notion of the dual nature, that in each of us, no matter how well made a monstrous Other exists.

-Concept of Duality/Dopplegangers• a. The Prince and the Pauper• b. The Picture of Dorian Gray• c. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde• d. Beauty and the Beast

So, if a writer brings up a physical problem or handicap or deficiency, he means something by it.

-usually can divine things "see things from the other world"

-can see the truth of what's actually happened

-most famous is Tiresias "the blind seer" -Every move, every statement by or

about a blind character has to accommodate

the lack of sight; notice, to behave differently, if only in subtle ways

In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, more more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease.

the heart is the symbolic repository of emotion, the center of emotion within the body

when we fall in love, we feel it in our hearts and when we lose love we feel heartbroken

when overwhelmed by strong emotions, we feel our hearts are full to bursting

the writer uses heart ailments as a kind of shorthand for the character

-uses it as a social metaphor -the afflicted character can have nay number of problems

for which heart disease provides a suitable emblem: bad love, loneliness, cruelty, cowardice, lack of

determination for something seriously amiss at the heart of things -emphasis is on the character's humanity -if heart trouble shows up in a novel or play, start looking for

the significance -if we see that characters have difficulties of the heart, don't

be surprised when emotional trouble becomes the physical ailment

-need to ask what is their condition telling us about their character

-paralysis physical, moral, social, spiritual,

intellectual, political There are certain principles

governing the use of disease in works of literature:

1. Not all diseases are created equal• TB is better than Choleria• Syphillis is moral corruption

but not grade A literary diseases/devices

2. It should be picturesque• TB is sexy

3. It should be mysterious in origin

4. It should have strong symbolic or metaphorical possibilities

makes a statement about the victim of the disease

. . .and the winner is Tuberculosis

-the skin becomes pale, the eyes sunken in and dark

-anyone could get it, it would wipe out entire families

-love and tenderness gave the disease to all

-metaphorical wasting away/frailty physically and emotionally

-joined cancer in dominating the literary imagination

i.e Moulan Rouge

runner up is The Plague -individual suffering -societal devastation -damage to crops and

people/whole cities -Oedipus -biblical punishment/wrath -the confrontations with

devastation -the randomness -the despair

3rd place-Malaria aka Roman Fever

-actually translates into "bad air"

gossip, hositle public, frantic, FINE

then comes Inherited Diseases

-symbolizes bad parenting/dysfunctional family

-Syphilis

4th place-AIDS -has a wasting quality -questions of morality -spreads easily and

mutates -can lie dormant and then

be brought out everyone could be a carrier -100% mortality rate -young people, gay people,

artsy people -tragic and despair, but

courageous and resilient and compassion

-political

HOW -how does the character react to others -how did they get the disease -how do they deal with their illness -how to they let others take care of them -how does the character accept or deny death?morality? All symbolize -randomness of fate -harshness of life -unknowability of the mind and of God -can say whatever the author needs it to say

Last-Chance-For-Change how they work -the character, usually old, has experienced a number of

opportunities to grow, reform, to get it right- but never has -is presented with one last chance to educate himself in this

most important area -the reason why they are older is because his time for

growth and learning is running out -time is the imperative, a sense of urgency permeates -the situation itself is compelling -can this person be saved? -at the end of the day, these stories are about salvation and

redemption -if they can't be saved this last time, then they never will

Irony Trumps Everything A sign is something that signifies a

message. The signifier doesn’t have to be used in the planned way. Its meaning can be deflected from the expected meaning,

The Ironic Mode• Characters who possess a lower degree of

autonomy, self-determination, or free will than ourselves