ACCTG 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mimesis, Metaphor, Sarah Kane
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Literary Studies II - Defining Literature
Key terms:
− Aristotle’s concept of mimesis
− Horace’s concept of aesthetic experience
− Literature as subjective expression
− Literature as aesthetic object
− The media of literature: oral literature, written literature and audiovisual literature
− Genre
− Canon
− Periodisation
1. Introduction: “Heart to Heart” and “Baby”
− Breaks all the klishees about the organ “heart”
− Then metaphore “sounds like I want”
− Uses language in an interesting way – makes us
look at the heart in a new way
2. What is literature? Approaches and debates
→ Literature can be presented in different ways: Oral, written or Audio-Visual
→ Three different ways are presented with their pros and cons
a) Fictionality: literature and the representation of reality
− Literary texts have a more relaxed relationship to reality
− Fiction may be the opposite of fact but need not be the opposite of truth
− BUT complex issue so it will always be discussed what exactly literature is.
− Plato: Mimesis is the imitation of reality
− Aristotle: Literature dies not give us facts, but situations that could be truthful or might
have happened
Alle Bilder sind aus den Folien zur Vorlesung von Prof. Boehm
Historicize Fiction: look at the historical contexts
Example: Robinson Crusoe
Today: seen as novel
He himself presented it as if it was an Autobiography
→ People were not interested in Novels. At that time, the tern was not yet developed
→ Terms, codes and conventions shape how people think about fictionality change over time
Example: the castle of Otranto, a gothic story plays with the boundaries between fact and
fiction
Example: The Autobiography of Alica B. Toklaas: Gertrude Stein writes the Autobiography
of her partner about their relationship → What Genre?
But What about
Autobiography
Travel Literature
Essays
→ They sit on the border between fact and fiction: Hybrid Genres, it follows that they have to
be identified by other aspects
b) Literature as a non-pragmatic discourse
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers
From T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” (1922)
→ Literature has a lot of communication on feelings and pictures. It doesn`t just give
instructions. It therefore is an artform: beautiful and artistic
Example:
VS.
Example:
A travel literature
Is very descriptive with many
adjectives. It creates a very vivid
picture and that`s what the author
wants to
→ Literature
A Travel guide
Gives very practical information
for you to plan your own trip
→ Not literature
Alice in Wonderland:
Written elegantly artistic and
beautifully
→ Literature
The second World War – a
Military history
Supposed to be fact based
→ Not Literature
Document Summary
The media of literature: oral literature, written literature and audiovisual literature. Periodisation: introduction: heart to heart and baby . Breaks all the klishees about the organ heart . Literature can be presented in different ways: oral, written or audio-visual. Three different ways are presented with their pros and cons: fictionality: literature and the representation of reality. Literary texts have a more relaxed relationship to reality. Fiction may be the opposite of fact but need not be the opposite of truth. But complex issue so it will always be discussed what exactly literature is. Plato: mimesis is the imitation of reality. Aristotle: literature dies not give us facts, but situations that could be truthful or might have happened. He himself presented it as if it was an autobiography. At that time, the tern was not yet developed. Terms, codes and conventions shape how people think about fictionality change over time.
