I.

WHAT IS (IS NOT) LITERATURE, LITERARY STUDIES

Literature – general definition
1) Broader: literature = everything printed, written or spoken intended to read, seen or listened to by
people
2) Restrictive: there are many of them:
 creative works in the form of poetry, fiction, and drama
 texts in which language is used in unique fashion

1. elitist (Modernist) approach stresses the “great works” of literature

2. ”mediocre” approach operates with the term mainstream literature
3. democratic/pluralistic (postmodernist) approach –
Aims of literary study:
- ”reading literacy” = show how literature transforms the everyday into the poetic, (how to comprehend,
interprete)
- literary terminology = show how to translate our experience of literature into academic, intellectual
terms
- show the way language is used creative/poetic language
Functions of literature:
a) cognitive understanding things b) didactic provide learning, c) entertaining escape from reality
d)aesthetic -feelings

II. LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE

language = material as well as a material
Denotation - the primary meaning,scientific language
Connotation - extended meaning, association, additional meaning as a result
Choice of words in a literary work
(artistic pragmatism; short stories – the choice is random)
literary work – 2 basic approaches:
1) aesthetic – a product = work of art
2) creative – a process of writing ≠ a work of art

III. CATEGORIES OF WORDS

Synonyms - words with the same denotation but different connotation (fast food ≠ quick food)
Homonyms - the same form or sound but the meaning is different
Pure: mine-mine Homophones: + sound, spelling - Homographs or heteronyms: + spelling, pronunciation -
Antonyms – words with opposite or contrary meanings,also based on connotation:
Oxymoron – combination of 2 antonyms or words with contrastive meanings  2 contradictory statements
put together to create a special effect, e.g. old news, terribly beautiful, random order, public secret, inside
out (skrz naskrz)

PRIMARY CONNOTATIVE:
a) affective words b) figures

A. AFFECTIVE WORDS
– affect our emotions, emotional connotation
1) evocative words - evoke certain atmosphere: social, cultural
a) functional dialects:
 social dialects
colloquialisms (telly, cool) – hovorové výrazy
slang – typically the language of certain group: professional, student…
jargon – to make language understandable, intelligible for who are involved (layer’s)
argot - vulgarisms, obscenities; in contemporary literature
neologisms – by polysemy: word gets new meaning bonnet, robot blends brunch, nonsense, loan words:
foreign l.
- special case = barbarisms
Archaisms regional dialects/varieties

2) evaluative words – positive or negative

 familiar words – father, chick, friend, made, bro
 pejorative words – neger, poof (a homosexual)
 diminutives – certain suffixes: dad  daddy,
 augmentatives – opposite of diminutives, zesilující slova
B. FIGURES 1) FIGURES OF SPEECH = TROPES
 1) image visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, kinetic, static tied images  free images
 2) epithet adjective a) non-figurative, b) figurative c) transferred: very original, avoiding clichés
 3) simile comparison, LIKE and AS
 4) metaphor -does not compare but substitutes on the basis of some similarity dead metaphor (=
faded)
2kinds: simple m. : the leaves were raining  extended m.: more complex
 1) personification- inhuman object are given typical human attributes
 2) metonymy = a figure of contiguity something stands for something else, the connection is
factional
a) cause for effect – using person who caused the effect b) container for the contain(ed) The kettle is boiling
c) material for the product: wood = a guitar d) place of origin for thing: White House announced. He drank 2
Pilzners
 3)synecdoche part stands for whole (sometimes considered a kind of metonymy) – fast wheels

Other types of figures of speech:

 hyperbole (=overstatement)deliberate exaggeration to draw attention, I’m the biggest liar in the world
 litotes (=understatement) assert (tvrdí) the idea by denying the opposite, it’s not bad, not very clever
 euphemisma use of mild/more pleasant expressions, She passed away. He relieved himself (go to pee)
 irony opposite of what we mean, intonation 3kinds: verbal, situational or dramatic
Sarcasm – bitter/harsh, but it’s still positive, to win ticket to Titanic
Cynicism – to distract – distractive nihilistic purposes
 periphrasis to say as little as possible using many words,
 symbol – metaphor or image, refers to something abstract or general meaning¨
 myth - (McDonald’s family restaurant)
 allegory symbol made into story a)character represents features b)teach a lesson c)it stands for
something else
- special kind = parable – realistic people, basic level of the story + parable
(podobenství/přirovnání/alegorie)

2) FIGURES OF SOUND
- based on musical devices, word’s sound
 euphony – pleasant sound, vowel’s sound, tries to be pleasantly sounding
 cacophony – deliberately unpleasant sound, emphasis on something, was avoided before 19 th century
 rhyme – repetition of the similar sounds at the end of words, In poetry - different rhyme patterns =
rhyme schemes
 rhythm –/ (stressed),  (unstressed) can be regular, irregular or completely loose (free verse)
 alliteration (head rhyme, front rhyme, initial rhyme)
 assonance = vocalic rhyme, the same vowels of the sounds. he was brave yet pale, the rain in Spain,
hot dog
 consonance = consonant rhyme, at the end of the word or in the middle: time and tide, fit as a fiddle
 onomatopoeia - imitate sounds of animals, of noises barbarian – (bar bar bar) human (murmur, yawn)
RHETORICAL FIGURES
based on the difference between the grammatical form of the statement and the meaning of the statement
a) rhetorical question – supposed to be answered, unanswered by audience, the speaker wants the
answer
b) rhetorical answer - by the speaker, sometimes it doesn’t help with the problem”, to draw attention of
audience
c) antithesis –contrasted words are used for purpose of emphasis He is too black for Heaven and too
white for Hell.
d) paradox –two mutually exclusive words, result is illogical,
e) allusion (narážka) – reference/quotation of some other text/historical events/art

3) SYNTACTIC FIGURES
– characterized by a change in the normal syntactic procedures/structures, based on changes in syntax
 inversion – inverted word order in a sentence, focused on to put on foreground
 asyndeton – no conjunctions, economy: faster, more efficient
 polysyndeton – filling in more conjunctions
 zeugma - one word (adj) controls 2 or more different words in different meanings in
– imperfect variety = syllepsis - one of the two meanings is wrong→ 1 connection is literal and one is
metaphorical
 ellipsis – deliberate omission (leaving out) of a part of a sentence, meaning isn’t altered
 FIGURES OF REPETITION:
1) simple repetition = repetition without any variations, the same thing is being repeated
a) epizeuxis – 2words repeated in a row
b) anaphora – at the beginning of SENTENCES!
c) epiphora –at the endings of sentences, or at the endings of lines in the poem:
d) palilogy – 2 words, no change of meaning loved the sea, the sea that brought him happiness...
2) incremental repetition = repetition that undergoes changes increasing repetition
a) tautology – 2 meanings, - the same thing is repeated in different words, synonymic repetition
b) climax – different synonymic words are repeated in increasing order of importance
c) anticlimax – suddenly starts as a climax and then goes down, for comic purposes/ironic twist
3) modifying repetition = words dont change but meaning is modified, more metaphorical meaning+
refrain – in songs

IV. COMPOSITION OF THE LITERARY WORK

= arrangement of the individual smallest elements in the overall structure of the work
1. thematic composition – corresponds with the theme of the story
2. stylistic composition - refers to the actual use, further subdivided:
a) vertical composition – examines the direct speech of the characters, author, narrator
b) horizontal composition – division of the literary work; sentenses, clauses, paragrahs, chapters…lines,
stanzas, cansas
prose - vertical level – lang is more important that the formal division
poetry - horizontal level – on the contrary
STRUCTURE OF AN EPIC WORK (A STORY)
main components = action, characters, narrator/narration, time, subject matter (thematic aspect of the
story)

 ACTION – everything that’s happening,- conflict = the ”problem” in the story which triggers (spouští)
the action;
1.) person vs. person 2.) person vs. society 3.) person vs. himself 4.) person vs. nature 5.) person vs. fate
A. action (děj) – account of events a) chronological b) retrospective c) combined
B. plot – the way how the action of the story is presented
a)exposition – introduction b)rising action – conflicts appear c)climax–highest point: 1. dramatic – the
highest tension 2. technical c. – turning d)falling action – preparing to its ending, 5.resolution –
satisfactory conclusion OP/CL

 CHARACTER
- characterization: descriptions, documentary-like, through a dialogue; in drama through monologues,
action thinking
- protagonist – positive values, usually the main character
 antagonist – negatively connoted character
- anti-hero – the main protagonist, comic fiction, we sympathized with him
- major/minor characters – according to the importance of their function
- round character – developed, realistic character, resembles the human being, 3D
 flat character (type) – any development in character, slightly realistic
+ stock character (stereotypical) – no development, 1 dimension, not realistic, predictable (allegories,
fairy-tales),

 NARRATION the way the story is told, presented – several kinds:

a) 3RD person narration – by an outsider
omniscient narrator (vševědoucí vypravěč) seeing it all, knows everything, gives us what we need
limited omniscience the narrator narrates through the sight of one protagonist
editorial omniscience narrator tells the story and at the same time comments it, like editor
dramatic narration most of the action is presented by dialogues, monologues
b) 1ST person narration by a participant, may be minor or majour
camera eye technique through the eyes of one character, seemingly objective account what is
happening
innocent eye by a child, animal (Alice in Wonderland?)
epistolary form a letter communication between characters, diary entrance
c) 2ND person narration quite rare, almost impossible to use it though the whole work
stream of consciousness or inner monologue - mental process of the characters: feelings, hopes,
memories

 TIME OF THE STORY

- chronological account of the story – frequently used, the easiest way of narration, 18 th-19th century
- causal relationships: cause  effect – developed in 19th century - E.A.Poe – no psychological explanation
- juxtaposition of time sequences – taking 2 different things and placing them together
- time inversions (flash-backs, flash-aheads/flash-forwards) – since 20th century + combinations
time of the narration (time of the plot) - much longer in Mrs. Dalloway
 time of the action (time of the story) – physical time

 THEMATIC COMPOSITION – how the theme is expressed, relationship between narration and the
meaning
motifs – the smallest thematic units dynamic (epic, open), He cut her head off..static (lyrical, descriptive),
It is dark...
leitmotif – repetitively used motif (Mrs. Dalloway – flowers),dominant motif throughout the strory
foreshadowing – suggests something that might possibly happen in the story
free motifs – accidentally in the story without any connection in the story- postponing the action,
intensifying the tension
combinations of individual motifs – can fit into one another or don’t have to
- cento – not a whole work, taking quotations, nonsensical way - for comics purposes
- collage – into the text there’re inserting quotations from other texts
- montage – borrowing from some other kinds of media – essays, songs, newspapers…
episode – individual motives are combined and create the episode, episodes + motifs = plot/story
story  plot – how the event is presented in the story
 SUBJECT MATTER - what the story is about  theme – idea behind the story- wider, abstract meaning,
more general
tone or mode , the mood of a literara work, writer’s attitude to the story, characters, consequences and
readers; how he/she feels about them – can be ironic, sarcastic

THE COMPOSITION OF POETRY

Graphical Appearance - based on lines, stanzas, books, cantos,- horizontal and vertical composition
+ rhythm and rhyme- changing (alternation of) stressed/unstressed syllables in the poem
- metre (measure, foot)

PROSODIC SYSTEMS:
1) Quantitative prosody: lines have equal length (časoměrný)
2) Accentual prosody: 4accented syllables in a line, the number of unstressed isn’t fixed (Tónický systém)
3) Syllabic prosody: (Sylabický systém) each line should have the same number of syllables
4) Accentual-syllabic prosody: (Sylabotónický)-important: the number of syllables, stressed and
unstressed syllables

ENGLISH VERSE FORMS

the basic unit of rhytm is metrical foot - 1 stressed syllable + 1 or more unstressed organized in different
order
- 4 main types of foot + one rare:
1) IAMBIC weak, strong, weak, U/U/U/ The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, whole Shakespeare
in it
2) TROCHAIC strong, weak, strong /U/U/U/ natural for Czech In the forest of the night.
3) ANAPEAST weak, weak, strong UU/UU/UU/UU/ limerics With a turf on my breast, and a stone on my
head.
4) DACTYLIC – strong, weak, weak /UU/UU Into the valley of death
5) SPONDEE – two strong in a row /U/U/ / e.g. And the horses stopped still.

Blank verse 5 strong, 5 weak in a line, iambic pentamater, regular rhytm, NO RHYME
Free verse no rhyme + no rhytm

RHYMES
We distinguish between perfect rhyme (also rich or true rhyme) - an identical rhyming sound in identical
rhyming stresses and special near rhymes (also partial or approximate rhymes):
1) spelling rhyme (eye or sight rhyme): love – move - the same spelling but different pronunciation
2) imperfect rhyme: spot – parrot jednoslabičné + dvojslabičné slovo
3) unaccented rhyme: - no stresses on the rhyming syllables
4) half-rhyme: cover – shovel, the first syllables rhyme, the second half not
5) assonant rhyme: bite – strike, eye – sight, view - grew - identical vowel sound, - different sound of
consonants
6) consonant rhyme: gate – mat, one – stone, plan – unknown, compeers – dares - identical consonant
sound
Length of rhymes:
masculine - pain – rain, Ann – can, leaves – receives - more simple, monosyllabic, major in English poetry
feminine: weary – dreary two syllables, the 1st syllable is stressed
Internal rhyme – the rhyme is inside the line

COUPLET - tetrameter: U/ U/ U/ U/ Had we but world enough and time

HEROIC COUPLET with iambic pentameter: U/ U/ U/ U/ U/ A little learning is a dangerous thing:
STANZA (sloka) / U / U / U / Tiger! tiger! burning bright

Enjambement (přesah)- originally each line should have content an idea - idea is in more lines without
comma
Caesura (//) - a break or pause usually in the middle of the rhyme, - indicated with double slash

V. GENRES
- groups of literary works which share common characteristics
Genology – the study of genres
- Aristotle in Poetics distinguished high genres – tragedy, poetry, in 18th century novel was low genre – for ordinary
 lyric, epic, lyric-epic and dramatic genres:
1. Lyric genres (Básnictví)
- lyric principle: plotlessness and atemporality - duration of time isn’t important
 the song – mostly with verse
 the ode –celebration of gods, people, nature, abstract,a song of celebration with serious and dignified tone
 the elegy originally a song/poem of mourning the death person (in Greek), now about mortality
 the psalm usually a mourning poem with religious matter/tone,→ testaments – don’t have to be necessarily biblical
 the haiku developed in Japan, captures 1 impression of 1 moment → evoke the attention of the images →
connections between images → ellipses, images, expression of one single motive, very minimalistic
Traditional haiku: 17 syllables, arranged in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables (IMAGISM –Pound, in images)
 the sonnet -14lines 1 idea + conclusion,Italy,Renaissance: originator: Francesco Petrarca,14 th century, 16th century
En
3 kinds of sonnets:
the Italian (Petrarcan) sonnet ABBA ABBA(intro), CCD CCD (conclusion)-Thomas Wyatt 1stdeclaration of love
the English (Shakespearean) sonnet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (3perspectives, +conclusion)Shakespeare made it
popular
the Spenserian sonnet Edmund Spencer subdivided into: abab-bcbc-cdcd-ee, A rhyme pattern is different
 the limerick 1846 in England,absurd nonsense poem very popular in Britain, 5 lines: aabba, anapest: UU/

LYRIC IN SHORT PROSE - usually without plot, time is not important

 the epigram - originally an inscription, - short saying about present life
 the aphorism (”proverbs of intellectuals”) should contain some wisdom about life, - logical message
 the maxim - contains some general true about life, - it is almost didactic
 the proverb- anonymous origin, often metaphorical, - true of wisdom, serious in tone, = gnomes (or gnomic
genres, statements)

2. Lyric-epic genres
 the ballad long, epic story narrated in verse,passages evoke atmosphere, unkwn origin,hist events in
supernatural bcg
 the idyll picture from Greek idealized story of happy innocence,shepherds singing,dancing,popular in
Antique and Re
 paean (chvalozpěv) the most lyrical, song of rejoicing and celebrating, based on a short story

3. Epic (narrative) genres

 I) major eg: the epic, the novel II)intermediate novella, short story, myth, legendIII) minor fairy-tale,
fable, anecdote

I) MAJOR EPIC GENRES

 the epic or heroic epic (epos) long narrative poem, no rhyme,serious,depict deeds of God, semi-gods,
human heroes
classical e. – gods influence human’s action, mediaeval e. Human has supernatural abilities,
modern epic – developed in Romantic period (18th-19th century),- no God, no supernatural elements
the novel or realistic novel in Britain at the beginning of 18th century, 50.000 words or more, with actions
of 1person
1)picaresque novel satirize the society and the character,Don Quijote, rogue =person who doesn’t fit but
people like him
2)epistolary novel mid 18th century, written in letters, Not much action, just a description, psychological
insig
3) adventurous novel1719 – Robinson Crusoe
4) historical novel 18th-19th century, W. Scott → modern historical: combination of real, fictitious and
ordinary people
5) philosophical novel combination of factitious narration and philosophical ideas, direct / indirect
forms,Sartre, Camus
6) proletarian novel 1930s – connected with economical crises, Social criticism of bad position of working
class people
7) workin clas in Britain in 1950s-1960s,no social protest,working class people in wc environment using wc
l. vulgarisms
8) the novel of soil 1 specific geographic region
9) biographical or autobiographical novel oscelates between fact and fiction, based on person´s life;
10) Bildungsroman (education novel) – coming off age novel, development innocent -> experience
11) the problem novel or sociological novel problems in the society in that time, can be quite
moralistic and didactic
12) gothic novel 18-19th – Romantic period, usually takes place in medieval times, supernatural elements→
horror novel
13) campus novel/english novel/ university novel students and teachers–solving personal and
academic problem,fun
14) psychological novel focuses on psychological motivation and explanation of characters, no mental
processes
15) experimental novel experiments with time and content, we put the novel and cut it and it makes the
sense
16) magic realistic novel there are introduced some magic elements, Salman Rushdie
17) colonial novelin the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century, written from the perspective of
British colonists
18) post-colonial novel by people born in colonies, moved away,1960s,70s,80s 1st generation of who left
the colonies
19) multicultural novel written by people whose ancestors came from other countries
20) anti-novel changes the tradition of genre,based on some central character, no action, people treated
as things
21) utopian –perfect society, antiutopia – starts as utopia -> An. Farm, DIS – negative 1984
22) science fiction novel set to the future, connected with some technological inventions (moving in a
space)
23) fantasy novel originally a children genre, Alic.inW, made up world exists beyond our reality,escapist-
magic elements
24) detective novels, graphic novels (comics)
25) postmodernist Novel
POSTMODERNIST NOVEL
Genre mixture - combine genre: traditional genre + lower genre → some kind of higher genre
Subjective narration(s) - you can’t trust any narrator → an unreliable narrator
De-centered/marginalised perspective→ we get many perspectives
Mixing up the fictitious and the factual- real events + made-up events or characters
Intertextuality some other texts are used within your text in order to say something about your story;
James Joyce Uly
Metafiction – writing about writing → writing becomes a theme (Atonement)
Fragmentationhuman experience is being fragmented - the story is broken into pieces → method od film
making (Knoflí
Time inversions e.g. cycling the time – things are happening again and again (Marquez)
Pluralisation plurality of approaches, we should have a lot of experience to make a picture about it
Relativisation relativisation of a certain aspect of life, depends on a context (European x Asian culture),
thing are relative
Parody, pastiche, collage, Parasitic, satirical, take the original story and make some new inversion of it,
uses combining
New understanding of history, all history is subjective deals with ordinary people who weren’t in power,
or unimportant
Focus on the irrational (In 17th, 18th, 19th centuries – rationalism is the most important approach)

- post-modern literature: we can’t understand the world as a whole → irrational aspect of human lives →
emphasizes on intuition, spiritual things…
Graphic devices sometimes missing pages (mám si domyslet, co tam chybí),graphic experiments

II) INTERMEDIATE EPIC GENRES

fabliau: humorous, almost vulgar story → to satirize social institutions and characters, medieval genres
written in verse
exemplum: shows how people should behave, medieval genres written in verse
 the novelette the longest, a shorter than novel (10.000-40.000 w), less complicated than a novel -
fewer episodes
 the short story - (1/20.00-10.000 words), 1-3 characters
 the legend originally a biblical – events of lives of saints, later folks → Robin Hood, tales about a distant
past
 the myth a story belonging to a specific culture recounting supernatural or paradoxical events designed
to reflect that culture’s view of world, created so that people had explanations to some events, not only
the rational explanation
- metaphorical and metonymical

III) MINOR EPIC GENRES - usually less than 1.000 words

 the fable (bajka) moral lesson comm.wisdon – quite obvious, not hidden like in allegory, An, F, Ezop,
stated some sms
 the parable from the Bible, characters life-like, (X allegory-represent characters), to teach moral, not
obvious mssg
 Fairy tale anonymous x modern Chrst. + prchrs.elements, naive,unknown place, happy endings,
heroes, num-3,7,9)
 the anecdote – the shortest of eg, funny unexpected situation, absurd or paradoxical conclusion,

+ several transitional genres – the essay, book-review, biographies, non-fiction, etc.,- primary aim is a
message
- utilitian literature:
the pamphlet,the speech, the lecture
4. Dramatic genres
actors assume roles before the audience -works intended to be performed (theatre, radio, television)->
dramatic dialogue
monologue – actor is talking to himself and addressing to somebody else, soliloquy (samomluva) “be or not
to be” (Hamlet)

dramatic composition exposition -> rising action -> climax -> falling action -> catastrophe
- acts consisting of scenes
the unities of: time (1day), place (1location),action (connected to 1plotline
subdivided into tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, subdivisions: melodrama, farce, pantomime, mime, and
various film genres

liturgical drama (13th - 15th miracle plays – about lives of saints mystery plays (special kind = passion
plays)Bibl. events
morality plays – developed in 15th century, allegorical, good and evil fighted, qualities: Shame, Last, Greed,
based on Bible¨

TRAGEDY–not meant pessimistic,1hero dies-general meaning,to stir up emotions,followed by catharsis –

emotions clean up
features of tragedy: stories known, male actors 4-6, horrible scenes mentioned, 3 unities, NO
comic,supern, noble char.
Shakespearean trag.:no3unities,tragic+comic,not religious,ordinary@more@developed characters,no
supern.blankverse
COMEDY celebrates or satirizes kinds: sentimental, of manners,of intrigue,of situations,the farce, the
burlesque
TRAGICOMEDY 16th – 17th century in France, starts as a tragedy, ends as a comedy, – supernatural or magic
elements
conversional comedies – aphorisms, paradoxes (– The Importance of Being Earnest
screen-plays
theatre of the absurd no linearity, development, circles in the story, no way-out,doesn’t make
sense,monologues,
Operas serious and noble, musical equivalent of tragedies, librettos – texts of operas
Comic operas /operettas - shorter than operas and more comical, emphasis on music and singing
musicals first half of 20th century, originally comical,West Side Story – more tragical
melodrama originally a serious story inspired by ancient story,exaggerates plot and characters in order to
appeal to emotions, story put into more exotic story, the first consumer version of musical, some elements
are in recent musicals