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EDGAR ALLAN POE-THE TELL-TALE HEART

------ American Renaissance (flourishing American letters and literature),
19 th Century (around 1830)
a movement that would develop a unique American literary style to
distinguish American literature from British literature
------editor, poet, short story writer, critic, lecturer
------introduced the British horror story, the gothic genre in American
literature, along with the detective story, science fiction and literary
criticism
-----Most often associated with the American Renaissance movement-: Ralpf
Waldo Emerson, N. Hawthrone, H. Melville, Walt WHITMAN
The Tell Tale Heart
---------UNNAMED narrator, addressing directly to the reader
-the narrative themes may reflect somehow the authors struggle in his
real life
-Poe uses an economical style to provide a study of paranoia and mental
deterioration
-----------the narrative: contains lot of details regarding murderers
obsessions(thumping sound, the olds man eye, the heartbeat),
psychological contradictions, mental deterioration, paranoia-unable to
distinguish between real and imagined sounds, paradox(people harm
sometimes the ones they love), hypersensitivity of the characters-a proof
of ,,sanity, not a symptom of madness.

Edgar Allan Poe brought about several changes in the literary style of
his time period. Poe, as a writer, poet, editor and a critical writer influenced not
only American literature, but he also had an impact on international
literature. He was one of the first writers to develop the genre of both detective
fiction and horror. Stories like The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, The
Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as poems like the
Raven set him apart from other writes of his time. Many anthologies credit him
as the "architect" of the modern short story. He was also one of the first critics
to focus primarily on the effect of the style and of the structure in a literary work ; as
such, he has been seen as a forerunner to the "art for art's sake"

movement. Poes style still impacts writers today. "Nearly every important
American writer after Poe shows signs of influence, especially when working in the
gothic mode or with grotesque humor. The French, Italians, and writers in Spanish
and Portuguese in the Americas acknowledge and demonstrate their debts to Poe in
technique and vision." Steven King, Clive Barker and others have followed in the
footsteps of Poe. The genre of horror is bigger today than ever and Edgar Allan Poe
was at the forefront of this style of writing.

Poe had a very strong influence on Charles Baudelaire, who translated much of Poe's
work into English. Baudelaire, whose best-known work is the collection of poems titled Les
Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil) actually idolized Poe. The French appreciated Poe more than the
Americans. Poe's work in French translation influenced many French writers and subsequently
influenced Russian writers like Dostoyevsky, whose novel Crime and Punishment shows the
strong influence of Poe. Poe was noted for focusing on the dark side of human nature. He is
known as the father of the detective novel, and had a direct influence on Arthur Conan Doyle,
creator of Sherlock Holmes. Since then there have been countless thousands of detective novels
published all over the world, as well as horror tales. Famous writers who follow in Poe's and
Doyle's footsteps are Agatha Christie, George Simenon, and Erle Stanley Gardner. Poe was one
of the first authors to write science-fiction stories and might be called the "father of sciencefiction." He has also been called "the father of the modern short story." American and English
writers were indirectly influenced by Poe via the French.
He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States
and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest
practitioners of the short story. Many of his works are generally considered part of
the dark romanticism genre, a literary reaction to transcendentalism which Poe
strongly disliked.
Poe's best known fiction works are Gothic,
appease the public taste.

a genre that he followed to

literary theories: He disliked didacticism and allegory.

20TH Century---- E. M. FORSTER (1879-1970)-British, A Passage to India

---a difficult writer to classify, an Edwardian modernist; he criticized Victorian
middle class mores in formally traditional novels
---1914-1918the World War I
---the end of Victorian period
---1918women get right to vote
---divides his time between working as a journalist and writing short stories and
novels
---observational fiction (social critic)
---passionate of India, of its people; British government had been officially ruling
India from 1858; Britains control over India was complete>>>>> Indians vs Anglo
Indians (colonists)
---Forester was an advocate for tolerance
---describes in his literary works the chaos of modern human experience (similar to
modernists James Joyce-Ulysses and Virginia Woolf-Mrs. Dalloway)
---Foresters style is marked by his sympathy for his characters, his ability to see
more than one side of an argument or story, and his fondness for simple, symbolic
tales
--A passage to India---a traditional social and political novel, unconcerned with the
technical innovation of some of his contemporaries (T.S. Eliot); a deeply symbolic,
mystical book, that examines the nature of colonial rule
---narrator: unnamed 3rd person narrator, omniscient, attuned both to the physical
world and the inner states of the characters
----tense: immediate past

TIPS FOR LITERATURE

16TH Century -17th Century --- William Shakespeare(1564-1616)---poet and
playwright, the Bard of Avon
#Renaissance of British literature; a revolution in almost every aspect of life; the
Renaissance in Italy arrived in backwaters like England;
#Elizabethan age (1558-1603)
#Elizabethan drama/literature
#The central figures of the Elizabethan canon are Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip
Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson.
#Jacobean period (1603-1625)----Shakespeares career continued during the reign
of King James I AND in the early 17th century wrote the so-called problem plays
and tragedies
17th Century-18th Century---Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe(1660-1731)
#Neoclassicism--- a movement that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and
culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome; coincided with the 18th century Age of
Enlightenment; it is the opposed counterpart of Romanticism
#disasters of 17th Century: a recurrence of the plague and the Great Fire of London
1666.
#Defoe was Presbyterian (religion)follows the protestant values all his life despite
discrimination and persecution
#taste for travel
#stylistically was a great innovator
#used the simple, direct, fact-based style of the middle-classes, which became the
new standard for the English novel

#detached auto-biography and chronological plot (Robinson Crusoe)

17th century-18th century ---Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Gullivers Travels

#Neoclassicism
#18th century-an age of libertinism, enlightenment reason and romanticism
#disgusted by the political life he creates satires>>>>greatest prose satirist in the
English language (a master of 2 styles of satire: the Horatian and the Juvenalian
styles)
#the satire as a social mirror
#writes anonymously or under pseudonyms
#1st person point of view, omniscient narrator, the story is being told from the
perspective of the main character.
19th Century, John Keats, Poems
#Romanticism ---a movement that espoused the sanctity of emotion and
imagination, and privileged the beauty of the natural world (relevant themes: the
beauty of nature, the relation between imagination and creativity, the response of
the passions to beauty and suffering, and the transience of human life in time)
#breaks the sonnet form-1816#guides the reader to the essence of things, the new concepts : Beauty and Truth
#human soul vs the whole world we are forced to live in; reflections on human
identity
#uses paradox and ambiguity figures of speech (Ode on a Grecian Urn) ,,heard
melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter

#inner conflicts: the ideal/the real, mortal/immortal, dream/reality, life/death

#contemp. with Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelly

18th -19th Century, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

#Romanticism, precedes Realism-Realist novel, prefigures the Victorian literature
#Regency Period-the control assumed by Prince of Wales;
#Age of Empire fashion
# Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)
#wrote behind a door anonymously; criticizes the assumptions and prejudices of
upper-class England; satirizes snobs
#narrator : 3rd person, omniscient-has knowledge of all times, people, places and
events; each character is referred to by the narrator as he or she or they, not
I, you, we
19th Century---Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, David Copperfield
# Victorian Age( great social changes, social class was no longer entirely dependent
on the circumstances of ones birth; people moved from the country to the city in
search of greater economic opportunity) ; Britain's 'Golden Years.'.
# Characterized by a spirit of libertarianism, as people felt they were free. Taxes
were very low, and government restrictions were minimal. There were still problem
areas, such as occasional riots, especially those motivated by anti-Catholicism.
Society was still ruled by the aristocracy and the gentry, which controlled high
government offices, both houses of Parliament, the church, and the military.
#The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from
20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace,

prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence for Britain; focus on the
highly moralistic, straitlaced language and behaviour of Victorian morality.
#Realism----writers depict everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of
using a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation; rigidities and limitations of
Victorian realism
#contemp.: Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy
#David C.-detached autobiography, 1st person limiting his view point on what he
sees in his youth and his attitude at that time; Great Expectations-bildungsroman,
Pip narrates the story many years after the events of the novel took place( Pip-the
narrator and Pip-the character, the voice telling the story and the person acting it)

19th Century, Lewis Caroll (1832-1898), Alices Adventures in Wonderland

# Victorianism
#Realism
#a lecturer in mathematics, unusual appearance (physical deformities, partial
deafness), strict religious beliefs, amateur photographer
#linguistic humor and witty wordplay in his stories
#combines sophisticated logic with social satire and pure fantasy; describes a world
ruled by imagination and fantasy vs Alices world ruled by clear, logical and
consistent features; ALICE has confidence in her social position, education and the
Victorian virtue of good manners; the characters broke the Victorian code of
behavior
#narrator: anonymous and does not use many words in the story; 3 rd person point
of view, occasionally in the 1st and 2nd person

19th Century, Walt Whitman (1918-1892), Leaves of Grass

---major American poet, follows the American Romantic movement
---a school teacher
---Ralph Waldo Emerson influenced him in creating these poems
---The Civil War, a major event in Whitmans career, stirring both his imagination
and his sensibility and making him a dresser of spiritual wounds as well as of
physical ones as he worked as a volunteer in hospitals
--- Lincoln's assassination (1865)-marked also Whitman
--- Whitman was a being of paradoxes. His dual nature, a profound spirituality
combined with an equally profound animality, puzzled even his admirers.
--- His poetry shows the impact of the romantic idealism which reached its zenith in
the years before the Civil War and also shows something of the scientific realism
which dominated the literary scene after 1865. Whitman harmonizes this
romanticism and realism to achieve a true representation of the spirit of America
--- the growth of science and technology in his time affected Whitman deeply, and
he responded positively to the idea of progress and evolution
--- Whitman visualized the role of a poet as a seer, as a prophetic genius; Whitman's
ideal poet is a singer of the self; he also understands the relation between self and
the larger realities of the social and political world and of the spiritual universe. He
intuitively comprehends the great mysteries of life birth, death and resurrection
and plays the part of a priest and a prophet for mankind.

--- Whitman believed that poetry should be spoken, not written, and this basic
criterion governed the concept and form of his poetry; A line of his verse, if scanned
in the routine way, seems like a prose sentence; Whitman's fondness for trochaic
movement rather than iambic; the language is simple and the poems are often
composed in "free verse." He didnt use rhyme.
Themes: The self- the complete self is both physical and spiritual; The self is
man's individual identity, his distinct quality and being, which is different from the
selves of other men, although it can identify with them; "I" is universal, a part of the
Divine; The Body and the Soul-- the body is as sacred and as spiritual as the soul;
Nature -shares the Romantic poet's relationship with nature. To him, as to Emerson,
nature is divine and an emblem of God. The universe is not dead matter, but full of
life and meaning; Time- one who realizes that the past, present, and future are "not
disjoined, but joined," that they are all stages in a continuous flow and cannot be
considered as separate and distinct. These modem ideas of time have given rise
to new techniques of literary expression for example, the stream-ofconsciousness viewpoint; Cosmic Consciousness- The cosmos is God and God is
the cosmos; death and decay are unreal. This cosmic consciousness is, indeed, one
aspect of Whitman's mysticism.; Mysticism- is an experience that has a spiritual
meaning which is not apparent to the senses nor to the intellect. Thus mysticism, an
insight into the real nature of man, God, and the universe, is attained through one's
intuition; Transcendentalism- which originated with German philosophers, became a
powerful movement in New England between 1815 and 1836. It implied that the
true reality is the spirit and that it lies beyond the reach or realm of the senses.;
Personalism-- Whitman used the term "personalism" to indicate the fusion of the
individual with the community in an ideal democracy. He believed that every man at
the time of his birth receives an identity, and this identity is his "soul." Man's
personality craves immortality because it desires to follow the personality of God.
Democracy- Whitman had a deep faith in democracy because this political form of
government respects the individual. He thought that the genius of the United States
is best expressed in the common people, not in its executive branch or legislature,
or in its churches or law courts. A leaf of grass, to Whitman, is as important as the
heavenly motion of the stars. Whitman loves America, its panoramic scenery and its
processional view of diverse, democratically inclined people. His idea of social and
political democracy that all men are equal before the law and have equal rights
is harmonized with his concept of spiritual democracy that people have
immense possibilities and a measureless wealth of latent power for spiritual
attainment.
---he published eight editions of Leaves of Grass

END OF 19th Century-beginning of 20th Century--James Joyce (British),

Ulysses and The Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man
---literary movement: Modernism
---A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man:

main character: Stephen Dedalus, a boy growing up in Ireland at the

end of 19th century
wants to live a life devoted to art of writing
a strict religious adept of Catholic faith
physical desires vs catholic morality
finds out that the love and desire of beauty should not be a source of
shame
decides to live Ireland and escape from all restrictions imposed by his
family, nation and religion
like the mythical DAEDALUS, he hopes to build himself wings on which
he can fly above all obstacles and achieve a life as an artist

---Stephan-Joyces alter ego

---mythical influences (greek mythology)
---bildungsroman, 3rd person narrator (limited omniscient) and from
chapter 5 we distinguish 1st person narrative

--- Joyce was a pioneer of the stream of consciousness technique, which is a style of
writing in which the narrator relates everything that happens in the main
characters mind as it occurs
--- the proximity of the narrator to Stephen this is a majorly limited
"omniscient" narrator; We never get to see inside other characters heads;
instead, we see them the way Stephen does. The voice knows what Stephens
thinking and feeling, but it isnt identifiable as Stephen. That is, until the Great
Narrative Shift of Chapter Five. All of a sudden, we actually do get a glimpse of
Stephen as related by Stephen. The final section of the book, which is composed of
Stephens diary entries, is narrated in the first person by you-know-who. This is
super important; through this shift in narration, we see Stephen finally stepping up
to take control of his life (and his story) after his decision to leave home.
--- Finally, its quite well known for being one of the first real Modernist novels.
Joyce, along with Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound, among others, was
known for really getting the whole Modernism ball rolling, in response to the Realist
style prevalent in the 19th century
--- Free indirect discourse is a narrative style that combines traditional thirdperson narrative with insights into a characters mind that resemble the first person.
For example, we often "hear" Stephens thoughts mediated by the narrator, and one
instance can be found immediately following Stephens confession in Chapter Three;
Its this style that allows Joyce to retain some distance from his character while also
revealing his innermost workings to us.
Ulysses

NARRATOR: 3rd person omniscient, the freedom to zoom out, to stray from
one mind to another, to re-focus from a different perspective
depicts the events during 24h period in the life of his protagonist, Leopold
Bloom
Leopold Bloom-a middle aged jew, working as an advertisement canvasser;
he is Joyces Ulysses; his wife Molly has an affair with her co-worker Blazes B.;
he is a jewish outsider in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic society
Has two emotional crises(the breakdown of his male familyfather and son
and the infidelity of his wife)that lead Bloom to feel lonely and powerless
On the other side, the second major character Stephan Dedalus, a
schoolteacher feels guilty because he has separated from the Catholic Church
and refuse to pray at his mother deathbed despite her pleading
Molly is seen for most of the novel trough others peoples eyes, but in the end
she has her own monologue, where she confess that Bloom was being
unfaithful in his on ways and complicit in the temporary breakdown of their
marriage

Stephans artistic talent is still unrealized, hes disappointed and moody;

fascinated by Hamlet
The quest of paternity theme
The home usurped
The remorse of conscience

Molly represents Ulyssess wife, Penelope. Homers Odyssey has 18 episodes and
Ulysses maintains the same number of episodes.

Modernist techniques: interior monologue used extensively(stream of

consciousness) --through this technique, a characters personality, his past, his relations,
problems and present status and condition are easily exposed to the readers , shifts narrative
style with each new episode of the novel, multiple narratives, life in a modern
metropolis; disrupted plot-flashbacks and hints about the future.
Ulysses was released in the same year as T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland (1922). In
the way that Eliot's poem is treated as the modernist poem, Ulysses is generally
regarded as the modernist novel.
Well, historically, modernism is usually linked with the First World War and the
rise of industrialization. The flipside, however, was that modernist artists tended to
feel that art had become stale and clichd, and they sought different styles and
artistic modes to express their ideas.