ENGL 40761 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: David Antin, Promiscuity, The Talented Tenth
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++Stein 2
• annotated bibliography due 2/28
o five essays or book chapters that will support your argument
o 2-3 sentences as to how it will help you
o paragraph with thesis and arguments that will support thesis
Melanctha
• novella
• how is it similar to “objects” and the portraits?
o sentences are declarative
o repetition
o Melanctha is very now and present (characteristic of Stein)
o lack of resolution
▪ Is a resolution necessary?
• David Antin
o Couldn’t see why Pound or Eliot were modern because Stein was the only one
interested in language and what it could do
o Tried to see how story and narrative related to one another
▪ Said a story is something that happens (i.e. newspaper), narrative is
something different because it involves understanding a character has
desires and must undergo transformation (need motivations, desire, how
character changes in relation)
• Is Melanctha a narrative?
o Other characters transform around her
▪ She serves as a catalyst for others to change (Jeff & Rose)
• Stein redefines writing and literary terms
o Defamiliarize everything
• How does repetition function?
o Restate key ideas
▪ Melanctha’s father and how he is angry, brutish, and very black.
o Like epic epithet?
▪ Ironic to the character
▪ Repetition of characterizes includes something different so that it stands
out; sets up expectations of the character but then new features come in
o Helps reinforce unchanging nature
▪ Subtle shifts do occur in repetition
▪ Characters become somewhat self-aware
o As you read this and see what happens to characters (especially Jeff) is there
something about this constant repetition about how they are and see things--is
there something more real about how they experience relationships than normal
narratives?
▪ Possibly inorganic
• When you meet someone you tend to have ideas about the person
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