Literary Criticism

1. Literary Criticism Class #2

2. The distinctive doctrine of structuralism: “the belief that the individual units of any system have meaning only by virtue of their relations to one another” • (Eagleton, Literary Theory, 94)

3. An example: • “a boy leaves home after quarrelling with his father, sets out on a walk through the forest in the heat of the day and falls down a deep pit.

4. The father comes out in search of his son, peers down the pit, but is unable to see him because of the darkness.

5. At that moment the sun has risen to a point directly overhead, illuminates the pit’s depths with its rays and allows the father to rescue his child.

6. After a joyous reconciliation, they return home together.” • (Eagleton, Literary Theory, 95)

7. sun high father high home revolt forest reconciliation middle middle boy low pit low

8. Structuralism “brackets off the actual contentof the story and concentrate entirely on the form.” • (Eagleton, Literary Theory, 95)

9. Narratology • A branch of structuralism • Definition: “the study of narrative structures” (Barry 322)

10. Basic Distinction

11. Vladimir Propp 普洛普 • 1895-1970 • The Morphology of the Folktale(1928) • Morphology = the study of forms (《當代》 93-94)

12. Vladimir Propp • “Propp’s work is often considered to mark the “birth of modern narratology and the structural analysis of narrative” (Prince 37).

13. Propp — “Functions” 功能 • Definition: “the fundamental components of the underlying structure of any (Russian) fairy tale.” (Prince 36)

14. Propp — “Functions” • Claimed that all folktales he studied are constructed by selecting a few items from a repertoire of 31 “functions”(Barry 227).

15. Propp — “Functions” • Asserted that “the functions always occur in the order listed” (Barry 228)

16. Propp – “Role” 角色 • Propp isolated 7 dramatis personae, or basic functional roles, each corresponding to a certain sphere of action (情節層次), or a typical set of functions.

17. Propp – Roles角色 • The villain 惡棍 • The donor (provider) 施予者 • The helper 幫手 • The princess 公主 (a sought-for person 受歡迎的人物) and her father 公主的父親 • The dispatcher 發送者 • The hero 英雄 (seeker 尋覓者 or victim 受害者) • The false hero 偽英雄

18. Propp – Roles • “One character may play more than one of these roles in any given tale (e.g., villain may also be false hero, donor may also be dispatcher); or one role may employ several characters (multiple villains, for instance . . .” (Scholes 65).

19. Food for thought • Identify the functions and roles in 〈武松打店〉and 《遍地梟雄》.

20. Roland Barthes

21. Publications • Writing Degree Zero (1953), Mythologies (1957), Criticism and Truth (1966), S/Z (1972), The Pleasure of the Text (1973), and The Rustle of Language (1984).

22. S/Z • 1970 • An analysis of Balzac’s story “Sarrasine” • Divided into 561 lexia (語片、閱讀單位) • 5 codes (符碼)

23. (1)The proairetic敘事的 code • the code of plot • provides indications of actions. • anticipation of an action’s resolution; any action initiated must be completed. • The cumulative actions constitute the plot events of the text.

24. Barthes’ example • Proairetic code: Barthes quotes "Sarrasine"-"'To be loved by her [Zambinella], or to die!' Such was the decree Sarrasine passed upon himself"-and "decodes" this as the following action: "'To decide'"-"to propose an alternative" (S/Z 117).

25. (2) The hermeneutic詮釋學的 code • Unanswered questions // puzzles // enigmas謎團which provide narrative suspense.

26. Barthes’ example • Hermeneutic code: "The title raises a question: What is Sarrasine? A noun? A name? A thing? A man? A woman?" (S/Z 17).

27. (3) The cultural文化的 / reference code • “examines the stock of social knowledge on which the work draws.”

28. Barthes’ example • Sarrasine discovers the truth about Zambinella after referring to him as a "she" while talking with the Roman Prince Chigi. "'Where are you from?'", the Prince asks him. "'Has there ever been a woman on the Roman stage? And don't you know about the creatures who sing female roles in the Papal States?'" This evokes the reference code, Barthes asserts: "History of music in the Papal States" (184).

29. (4) The semic 符號的/connotative 絃外之音code • The code of the person • Semes, sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute character. • "The proper noun surrounded by connotations."

30. Barthes’ example • The title "has an additional connotation, that of femininity, which will be obvious to any French-speaking person, since that language automatically takes the final 'e' as a specifically feminine linguistic property, particularly in the case of a proper name whose masculine form (Sarrazin) exists in French onomastics" (S/Z 17).

31. (5) The symbolic象徵的 code • consists of contrasts and pairings related to the most binary polarities —male and female, night and day, good and evil, life and art, and so on. (Barry 51)

32. Barthes’ example • Barthes quotes the lines recounting the engrossment of the narrator's companion in the painting of Adonis when she learns the model for it was a relative of Mme de Lanty. The narrator feels spurned: "I had the pain of seeing her rapt in the contemplation of this figure...Forgotten for a painting!" This evokes the symbolic code, Barthes concludes: "Marriage of the castrato (here, the union of the young woman and the castrato is euphorized: we know that the symbolic configuration is not subject to a diegetic development: what has exploded catastrophically can return peacefully united)" (S/Z 78). • http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/en5102week2.htm

33. Taken from 石計生 《社會學理論》三民, 2006, p. 420.

34. Roland Barthes • Mythologies 《神話學》 • Reference:http://orac.sund.ac.uk/~os0tmc/myth.htm

36. Language =denotation II. SIGNIFIED Myth =metalanguage =connotations =assumptions =ideology

37. 第一系統 語言層面 =字面意義 第二系統 神話層面 =超語言、後設語言 =言外之意 =視為當然的假設 =意識形態 II. 符旨 Taken from 石計生 《社會學理論》三民, 2006, p. 413.

38. http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/culture/myth3.htm

39. language Myth

40. Ideology • a socially constructed reality which is passed of as ‘natural’ • To discover “myth” is to demystify.

41. http://www.sund.ac.uk/~os0tmc/contem/women.htm

42. signifier Signied Saussure one on one 一頂帽子 Barthes one on many 一頂帽子 many to one 一塊石頭 March 汽車 倒了的花瓶 漫畫對話框 吞掉一隻象的蛇 Signied Taken from 石計生 《社會學理論》三民, 2006, p. 411.

43. Semiotics 記號學orSemiology 符號學 • Definition: the study of signs • “It links messages(in individual works or discourses) . . . to their respective codes, the larger system which permits individual expression—from langue to parole, that is.” (Guerin et al, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 244) • semiotics旨在研究符徵，而semiology則旨在研究符旨 (http://vc.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~jhchang/store-room/teach/crit7.htm)

44. Culture Study • Culture can be “read” like a language. • Culture “is made up of many structural networks” which “operate through ‘codes’ as a system of signs”(Barry 47).

45. A signifying system • “any organized and structured set of signs which carries cultural meanings”(Barry 47).

46. Two Examples

47. Skin Whitening Ads

48. “一白遮三醜，美白成為眾家美女對美的要求，該怎麼由黑反白呢﹖” • “「美白」真有那麼重要嗎？由美白市場每年持續增長的驚人消費數字即可看出端倪。楊志賢醫師說，在現今的社會中，「美白」對女性已不僅是感官上的美醜，擁有白淨無暇的肌膚，不但可以增加自我肯定與自信，甚至還可以改善人際關係與社會接受度，進而重視自身的價值以及創造出身心和諧的生活。” • (中華日報醫藥網《2005/06/07 18:14》) http://www.cdncare.com.tw/20050608/med/yybj/733700002005060718141546.htm

50. 俗話說：一瘦多婀娜、一白遮百醜，妳想由【黑美人】的稱呼、搖身一變為【白雪公主】的封號嗎？妳平常是否就為肌膚黯沉的問題而煩惱呢？愛美是人的天性、你是愛白還是愛黑呢？ 俗話說：一瘦多婀娜、一白遮百醜，妳想由【黑美人】的稱呼、搖身一變為【白雪公主】的封號嗎？妳平常是否就為肌膚黯沉的問題而煩惱呢？愛美是人的天性、你是愛白還是愛黑呢？  • http://myweb.hinet.net/home9/spa-girl/fat/05.htm