Introduction to Literary Studies Session 3 Part I (Poetry I)

Summary

Highlights

• Learn what makes Shakespearean sonnets quintessentially poetic with their intricate structures. 🌟
• Explore how poetry differs from other literary forms with its concentrated subject matter and musicality. 🎶
• Delve into the concept of 'hyper structuring' in poetry and why it matters. 🔍
• Understand the communication model of poems, distinguishing between speakers and authors. 📜
• Discover poetry's deviation from ordinary language to create aesthetic, self-referential works. 🖊️

Key Takeaways

• Poetry is as old as literary history itself, with roots tracing back to genres identified by Aristotle. 📜
• Shakespearean sonnets serve as prime examples of poetry's complex structures, showcasing meter, rhyme, and powerful imagery. 📚
• Understanding poetry involves recognizing its unique communication levels: internal (the speaker and addressee) and external (author and reader). 🔍
• Poetry's hyper structuring sets it apart from everyday language through elaborate phonological, morphological, and syntactical elements. 🎭
• Every poem crafts a unique persona and voice, distinct from the author, adding depth to its interpretation. 🔖

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Literary Studies and Genre Overview The chapter 'Introduction to Literary Studies and Genre Overview' begins by diving into the genre of poetry. There is a specific focus on Shakespearean sonnets, prompting viewers to watch an introductory video on this topic through a provided link before proceeding with the session. This setup indicates a foundational approach to understanding poetry within the broader framework of literary studies.
• 00:30 - 03:00: Characteristics of Shakespearean Sonnets The chapter explores the characteristics of Shakespearean sonnets, highlighting their significance in the broader context of poetry. It emphasizes the thematic and structural aspects that define Shakespearean sonnets and contrasts these with the Petrarchan sonnet. Key discussions include the inherent qualities that define these sonnets, the poetic themes they explore, and their place in literary history. Additionally, the chapter encourages note-taking on these aspects to better understand the role of poetry within the sonnets.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Hyper Structuring in Poetry The chapter discusses the evolution of genre categorization, particularly in poetry. It highlights Aristotle's early categorization attempts, focusing on lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry.
• 06:00 - 09:00: Characteristics and Definitions of Poetry This chapter emphasizes the difficulty of defining poetry with a single, universal definition. Instead, it focuses on the concept of 'family resemblance' within the genre, where texts are connected by overlapping similarities rather than a common set of features. It acknowledges that scholars have proposed lists of typical characteristics over time, suggesting that while specific traits may frequently appear, no single characteristic applies to all poetry.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Communication in Poetry: Internal vs External The chapter titled 'Communication in Poetry: Internal vs External' discusses the unique structuring of poetry compared to other forms of text. It highlights that poems are marked by hyper structuring, meaning they are more complex and densely layered than everyday conversations or typical narrative texts. This complexity is especially evident at various levels, including the phonological level, which deals with sound elements. The text explains that such structuring is a common link in the dynamic of poetry, emphasizing the intricate and deliberate arrangement of poetic works.

Introduction to Literary Studies Session 3 Part I (Poetry I) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 introduction to literary studies session 3 poetry 1 so today we will look at a first Java in more detail and that genre is poetry if you have not done this yet before you go on with this video I would ask you to please click on the link and again the link that works you will find in this video's description and watch the following introduction to the Shakespearean sonnets the crash course
• 00:30 - 01:00 literature and while you're watching this please take notes concerning the following questions what characterizes the Shakespearean sonnet what significance does the topic of poetry itself have within the sonnets and what do we learn about the Petrarchan sonnet as you have already learned in session 2 about genre poetry is among the oldest genres in literary history you may
• 01:00 - 01:30 remember that when we looked at the model of genres derived from Aristotle's attempts to categorize genres his categories were lyric epic and dramatic poetry while Aristotle in his poetics spent some time defining epic and dramatic until the 18th century we do not have a uniform definition of lyric or a specific theorization of what lyric poetry encompasses as with literature
• 01:30 - 02:00 itself it is important to remember that there is no once-and-for-all definition we are back here to the matter of family resemblance texts in a genre are connected by a series of overlapping similarities but no one feature is necessarily common to all the texts there are nevertheless a number of scholars who over the years have come up with lists of typical characteristics
• 02:00 - 02:30 that text in the drama of poetry have in common Juden link is one of them and he considers poems to be characterized by their hyper structuring poems are hyper structured which means that these texts are more complex and densely structured than our daily conversations or average narrative texts and this heightened complexity appears on several levels first the phonological level this concerns aspects that a sound
• 02:30 - 03:00 meter rhythm and rhyme on the morphological level which concerns word formation the repetition of words on the syntactical level this means things like parallel structuring of sentences sentence parts or inversions and on the semantic level this concerns for example metaphors and other figures of speech if we look back at their Shakespearean
• 03:00 - 03:30 sonnet at Shakespeare sonnet 18 we see that the sonnet here is an example in which we find all those layers of hyper structuring we have a clear meter and rhyme scheme we have repetitions of words like summer which emphasize the centrality of the image we also have inversions such as and often is his gold
• 03:30 - 04:00 complexion dimm'd we have parallel structuring of sentences for example the final couplet and we have a number of figures of speech for example the metaphor of naming the Sun the eye of heaven so this sound it clearly checks all the boxes of a very complex and dense structure which you can link calls hyper structured of course we need to remember that a large number of poems will not fulfill all
• 04:00 - 04:30 these criteria or will not fulfill them to the same extent but most poems will fulfill a number of them another example of such a list of characteristics is given to us by a familiar set lumen another scholar and she came up with a different and more expansive list of criteria that can serve as a working definition of poetry says that homes are generally characterized by their relative brevity
• 04:30 - 05:00 as opposed to a play or a novel for example by a reduction condensation of their subject matter by a heightened subjectivity by their musicality this speaks to meter rhyme rhythm and then she also includes all the aspects of hyper structuring that your link has pointed out so all this amounts to a deviation from ordinary language and
• 05:00 - 05:30 heightened artificiality in a heightened aesthetic self referentiality and again we can easily say that sound at 18 fulfills all those criteria but other poems may fulfill only some of them but without ceasing to be poems therefore in the beginning of the session on genre I mentioned that generally we can think of literature as a form of communication and that's when we looked at this scheme here but every genre also has its own
• 05:30 - 06:00 specifics regarding how its communication works so here we are looking at the communication model for poetic texts and the first important thing to notice there are two different levels involved here there is the internal communication of the poem and the external communication of the poem and these two levels help us clarify why we should not conflate the author and
• 06:00 - 06:30 the Speaker of the poem so on the internal level of communication you have either an explicit Speaker of the poem or sometimes you have only a voice and then you have the explicit or implicit addressee of the poem what does that mean in the first line of sun at 18:00 for example shall I compare thee to a summers day we have an explicit speaker here we have somebody who says I shall I compare thee and we have an explicit
• 06:30 - 07:00 addressee the thee but the I the speaker should not be equate it with Shakespeare and the Z is not you the reader personally because both the author and you only exist on the level of external communication even if we assume that the author of a poem is writing down her or his personal thoughts in a poem on the level of internal communication we also regard
• 07:00 - 07:30 this as a persona of the author not the author herself or himself there are other poems that do not have a clear speaker or an explicit addressee if you look at this short example images poem by Ezra Pound here we only have two lines apart from the title in a station of the Metro the apparition of these faces in the crowd petals on a wet black bough we don't
• 07:30 - 08:00 have anyone here who explicitly says I or you but nevertheless we have a voice something that speaks these lines and we have an implicit addressee someone who perceives these lines whether the voice is only speaking to itself or someone else we don't know but this happens on the level of internal communication of the poem on the level of external
• 08:00 - 08:30 communication then we have the author in the reader and it is on this level that the awareness of composition and literary conventions resides Shakespeare crafts the sonnet and we perceive the metaphors and other figures of speech the meter the rhyme scheme etc and so as readers we interpret the poem by paying attention to both levels of the poem when we analyze it we pay attention to
• 08:30 - 09:00 the content and to the formal aspects of how the poem is crafted