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An Introduction to Literary StudiesAn Introduction to Literary Studies provides the beginner with anaccessible and comprehensive survey of literature. Systematicallytaking in theory, genre and literary history, Klarer provides easy-tounderstand descriptions of a variety of approaches to texts. Thisinvaluable guide includes sections on: fictionpoetrydramafilmcovering: a range of theoretical approaches an extensive glossary of major literary and cinematic terms guidelines for writing research papers.Mario Klarer is Associate Professor of English and AmericanStudies at the University of Innsbruck.

An Introduction toLiterary StudiesMario KlarerLONDON AND NEW YORK

Published 1998 (3rd revised edition) by WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft, Darmstadt as Einführung in die anglistischamerikanistische Literaturwissenschaft 1998 WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft, DarmstadtFirst published in English 1999 by Routledge11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EESimultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis GroupThis edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis orRoutledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go towww.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” 1999 RoutledgeAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproducedor utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publishers.British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book isavailable from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataKlarer, Mario, 1962–[Einführung in die anglistisch-amerikanistische Literaturwissenschaft.English]An introduction to literary studies/Mario Klarer.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.1. English literature—History andcriticism—Theory, etc. 2. Americanliterature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. I. Title.PR21.K5213 1999820.9–dc21 99–25771CIPISBN 0-203-97841-2 Master e-book ISBNISBN 0-415-21169-7 (hbk)ISBN 0-415-21170-0 (pbk)

For Bernadette, Johanna and Moritz

ContentsPreliminary remarksviiiAcknowledgmentsx1What is literature, what is a text?11Genre, text type and discourse32Primary and secondary sources42Major genres in textual studies91Fiction92Poetry273Drama424Film543Periods of English Literatures654Theoretical approaches to literature731Text-oriented approaches762Author-oriented approaches883Reader-oriented approaches894Context-oriented approaches915Literary critique or evaluation975Where and how to find secondary literature1016How to write a scholarly paper1077Suggestions for further reading1198Glossary of literary and cinematographic terms129Notes149Author and title index151Subject index159

Preliminary remarksThis concise introduction provides a general survey of variousaspects of textual studies for college students who intend tospecialize in English or American literature and want to acquire abasic familiarity with the entire field. The book targets both theEuropean and American college market: it is not only designed forbeginners in the European system, where students have tospecialize in one or two disciplines upon entering university, but italso meets the requirements for American undergraduates whohave opted for a major in English and need an introduction to themore scholarly aspects of literary studies, one which goes beyondfreshman Introduction to Literature courses. It therefore serves asa textbook for Introduction to English Literature classes at allmajor European universities or advanced undergraduate English(honors) courses in the USA and as an independent study guide. Itssimple language and accessible style make the book equally apt forEnglish native speakers as well as students of English Literaturewhose native language is other than English.Unlike most of the existing American textbooks geared towardfreshman Introduction to Literature courses, which emphasize thefirst-hand reading of primary texts, this book targets a slightlymore advanced audience interested in the scholarly aspects ofliterature. The book does not include entire literary texts, butrather draws on a number of very short excerpts to illustrate majorissues of literary studies as an academic discipline.An Introduction deals with questions concerning the nature of“literature” and “text,” discusses the three major textual genres,as well as film and its terminology, gives an overview of the mostimportant periods of Literatures in English, and raises issues ofliterary theory. A separate section explains basic research andcomposition techniques pertinent for the beginner. An extensive

viiglossary of the major literary and cinematic terms gives easy andquick access to terminological information and also serves as ameans to test one’s knowledge when preparing for exams.In order to meet the expectations of contemporary textualstudies, major emphasis is placed on the accessibility of literarytheory for beginners. All major schools and approaches, includingthe latest developments, are presented with reference to concretetextual examples. Film is integrated as a fourth genre alongsidefiction, poetry and drama to highlight the interdependence ofliterature and film in both artistic production and scholarlyinquiry. The chapters on basic research and compositiontechniques explain today’s standard computational facilities such asthe online use of the MLA International Bibliography as well asthe most important rules of the MLA Style Sheet and guidelines forresearch papers.The book owes a great deal to my interaction with students inthe Introduction to Literature classes which I taught at theAmerican Studies and Comparative Literature Departments of theUniversity of Innsbruck. I also owe thanks for suggestions andcritical comments to friends and colleagues, including Sonja Bahn,Gudrun M.Grabher, Monika Messner, Wolfgang Koch and ElliottSchreiber. Large parts of the book were written during an ErwinSchrödinger Fellowship at the Getty Center for the History of Artand the Humanities in Santa Monica from 1992 to 1994. TheEnglish translation was completed at the National HumanitiesCenter in North Carolina during a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1995/96. I am particularly indebted to a number of friends for readingthe manuscript. Monika Fludernik, J.Paul Hunter, UlrichC.Knoepflmacher, Christian Mair, Steven Marcus and DevinStewart have been very generous in their advice. My biggest thanksgo to my companion Bernadette Rangger for critically discussingevery chapter of the book from its earliest stages to its finalversion, f’or having been with me during all these years and forhaving made these years a wonderful time.

Acknowledgments‘Stop All the Clocks’ on p. 32 from W.H.Auden: Collected Poemsby W.H.Auden, edited by Edward Mendelson. Copyright 1940and renewed 1968 by W.H.Auden. Reprinted by permission ofRandom House, Inc.Part of ‘In a Station of the Metro’ on p. 35 by Ezra Pound, fromPersonae. Copyright 1926 by Ezra Pound. Reprinted bypermission of New Directions Publishing Corp.‘l(a’ on p. 37 is reprinted from Complete Poems 1904–1962, byE.E.Cummings, edited by George J.Firmage, by permission ofW.W.Norton. Copyright 1991 by the Trustees for theE.E.Cummings Trust and George James Firmage.

Chapter 1What is literature, what is a text?Look up the term literature in any current encyclopedia and youwill be struck by the vagueness of its usage as well as an inevitablelack of substance in the attempts to define it. In most cases,literature is referred to as the entirety of written expression, withthe restriction that not every written document can be categorizedas literature in the more exact sense of the word. The definitions,therefore, usually include additional adjectives such as “aesthetic”or “artistic” to distinguish literary works from texts of everydayuse such as telephone books, newspapers, legal documents andscholarly writings.Etymologically, the Latin word “litteratura” is derived from“littera” (letter), which is the smallest element of alphabeticalwriting. The word text is related to “textile” and can be translatedas “fabric”: just as single threads form a fabric, so words andsentences form a meaningful and coherent text. The origins of thetwo central terms are, therefore, not of great help in definingliterature or text. It is more enlightening to look at literature or textas cultural and historical phenomena and to investigate theconditions of their production and reception.Underlying literary production is certainly the human wish toleave behind a trace of oneself through creative expression, whichwill exist detached from the individual and, therefore, outlast itscreator. The earliest manifestations of this creative wish areprehistoric paintings in caves, which hold “encoded” informationin the form of visual signs. This visual component inevitablyremains closely connected to literature throughout its varioushistorical and social manifestations. In some periods, however, thepictorial dimension is pushed into the background and is hardlynoticeable.

2 WHAT IS LITERATURE, WHAT IS A TEXT?Not only the visual—writing is always pictorial—but also theacoustic element, the spoken word, is an integral part of literature,for the alphabet translates spoken words into signs. Before writingdeveloped as a system of signs, whether pictographs or alphabets,“texts” were passed on orally. This predecessor of literaryexpression, called “oral poetry,” consisted of texts stored in a bard’sor minstrel’s memory which could be recited upon demand. It isassumed that most of the early classical and Old English epics wereproduced in this tradition and only later preserved in written form.This oral component, which runs counter to the modern way ofthinking about texts, has been revived in our century through themedium of radio and other sound carriers. Audio-literature andthe lyrics of songs display the acoustic features of literaryphenomena.The visual in literary texts, as well as the oral dimension, hasbeen pushed into the background in the course of history. While inthe Middle Ages the visual component of writing was highlyprivileged in such forms as richly decorated handwrittenmanuscripts, the arrival of the modern age—along with theinvention of the printing press—made the visual element disappearor reduced it to a few illustrations in the text. “Pure” writingbecame more and more stylized as an abstract medium devoid oftraces of material or physical elements. The medieval union ofword and picture, in which both components of the text formed asingle, harmonious entity and even partly overlapped, slowlydisappeared. This modern “iconoclasm” not only restricts thevisual dimensions of texts but also sees writing as a medium whichcan function with little connection to the acoustic element oflanguage.It is only in drama that the union between the spoken word andvisual expression survives in a traditional literary genre, althoughthis feature is not always immediately noticeable. Drama, which is—traditionally and without hesitation—viewed as literature,combines the acoustic and the visual elements, which are usuallyclassified as non-literary. Even more obviously than in drama, thesymbiosis of word and image culminates in film. This youngmedium is particularly interesting for textual studies, since wordand picture are recorded and, as in a book, can be looked up atany time. Methods of literary and textual criticism are, therefore,frequently applied to the cinema and acoustic media. Computerhypertexts and networks such as the Internet are the latest hybrids