CU-BA-Eng-SEM-V-English literature-V-Second Draft

Germany. The pioneer and prime exponent of the 18th-century French melodrama with its music, singing, and spectacular effects was Guilbert de Pixérécourt. His Coelina, ou l’enfant de mystère (1800) was translated as A Tale of Mystery (1802) by Thomas Holcroft and established the new genre in England. It was not utterly new to England, however; the restrictions of the Licensing Act of 1737 had been habitually evaded by combining drama with music, singing, and dancing. Another prominent dramatist whose melodrama influenced other countries was the German August von Kotzebue. His Menschenhass und Reue (1789) became tremendously popular in England as The Stranger (1798); he also provided the original of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Pizarro (1799). In the early 19th century, melodrama spread throughout the European theatre; in Russia the authorities welcomed it as diverting attention from more serious issues. During the 19th century, music and singing were gradually eliminated. As technical developments in the theatre made greater realism possible, more emphasis was given to the spectacular—e.g., snowstorms, shipwrecks, battles, train wrecks, conflagrations, earthquakes, and horse races. Among the best known and most representative of the melodramas popular in England and the United States are The Octoroon (1859) and The Colleen Bawn (1860), both by Dion Boucicault. More sensational were The Poor of New York (1857), London by Night (1844), and Under the Gaslight (1867). The realistic staging and the social evils touched upon, however perfunctorily and sentimentally, anticipated the later theatre of the Naturalists. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. With the growing sophistication of the theatre in the early 20th century, the theatrical melodrama declined in popularity. It was a vigorous form, though, in motion picture adventure serials until the advent of sound. The exaggerated gestures, dramatic chases, emotional scenes, simple flat characters, and impossible situations were later revived and parodied. Melodrama makes up a good part of contemporary television drama. 6.3 THE VICTORIAN AGE AND TRAGEDY Queen Victoria's reign, from 1837 until her death in 1901, was a period of peace, prosperity and growth for Britain. The end of the era saw Britain established as a major industrial power with a global Empire, ruling over a quarter of the world's population. The Victorian Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere - from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth and location. It was a complex and often contradictory time that saw great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. During Victoria’s reign the theatre continued to attract large audiences, but there was a significant increase in mass popular entertainment, in keeping with the changing mood of the 151 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

times. Although Victorian social classes were very clearly defined, reflecting the sharp divisions that existed between rich and poor, a good deal of popular Victorian entertainment appealed to everyone regardless of their social position. Some forms of nineteenth century popular entertainment  Magicians, illusionists, hypnotists and spiritualists were popular attractions in theatres and exhibition halls  ‘Freak shows’ featured human beings with disabilities or physical abnormalities  Waxworks, especially Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, featured lifelike replicas of current murderers after their executions. From 1888 Jack the Ripper was a very popular exhibit  Penny gaffs were the back rooms of public houses where singers entertained the audience and admission cost one penny. They were rarely frequented by the upper classes but were hugely popular with the working poor  Music Halls were more comfortable small scale theatres with a bar and a variety of entertainments such as acrobats, trapeze artists, black-face minstrels or can- can dancers  Circuses toured throughout the country with collections of performing animals along with acrobats, clowns and other novelty acts. The first famous circus proprietor, George Sanger, produced shows in Astley’s Amphitheatre in London  London Zoo in Regent’s Park was opened in 1828 and was famous for its rattlesnakes and giraffes. In 1849 there were nearly 170,000 visitors  Comic opera, especially works by Gilbert and Sullivan, produced by Richard D’Oyley Carte, was very popular at the Savoy Theatre  Street artists were found in cites and at fairs. They included: Punch and Judy routines; puppet shows; street acrobats; conjurors; fire-eaters and sword- swallowers; stilt walkers; contortionists; ballad singers and musicians  Pleasure gardens had been popular in the eighteenth century and the most famous of these, at Vauxhall, remained open until 1859. Cremorne Gardens opened in Chelsea in the 1840s and proved very popular because of its use of gas lighting and spectacular firework displays. The Conventions of Melodrama  A new style of theatre Melodrama is a genre of drama that exaggerates plot and characters with the intention of appealing to the emotions. The form developed in France and Germany and consisted of short 152 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment. The intense emotions of the actors were underpinned by the music and performed in an extravagant theatrical style. Melodrama became popular in England in the early part of the nineteenth century, developing its unique style from the sentimental dramas of the eighteenth century. The first English melodrama was A Tale of Mystery (1802) written by Thomas Holcroft and based on a French work Coelina, ou l’Enfant de Mystère (1800) by French playwright Guilbert de Pixérécourt.  Characters were always stereotypical and usually included an aristocratic villain, a wronged maiden and a noble hero. They enacted a plot that featured sensational incidents, before an ending in which virtue triumphed over vice.  Acting styles Acting styles for melodrama were taken from classical and contemporary drama. Codified gestures were used to convey certain emotions and the acting style was very presentational, with the actors facing out to the audience. Facial expressions and voice were exaggerated and a well-received speech might be replayed several times before the action of the play moved on. Another convention of the genre was to have the actors ‘freeze’ on stage to create a dramatic tableau at certain moments of heightened emotion. The actors would group in a series of striking poses which were held for a time to intensify the emotional impact on the audience and emphasise relationships between the characters on stage. The formula All melodramas were simplistic and written to a strict formula: Good was always threatened by evil Usually but not always, good triumphed over evil in the end No matter how desperate the situation, there was usually a happy ending Horror and mystery were central elements in every story Heroes and heroines were always placed in situations of extreme danger Heroines were always pure and virtuous Heroes were always brave Villains were always evil, wicked, vicious and immoral Success was always snatched at the last moment from the jaws of defeat The audience was expected to experience extreme emotion. The categories 153 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Although ‘melodrama’ is now used as a common term for the genre, Victorian playwrights and theatre managers used a simpler form of description. Plays were described and advertised as ‘dramas’, ‘nautical dramas’, ‘dramatic romances’, ‘domestic dramas’, ‘temperance dramas’ or simply just ‘plays’. Whatever the description, these works tended to fall into several different categories, each with its own particular style, content and theme:  Gothic and supernatural stories featured ghosts, vampires and grotesque themes  Military and nautical stories featured not only patriotic heroism and bravery, but also the horror of conflict and war  Domestic dramas were popular with audiences of the time and often dealt with serious moral issues such as adultery, illegitimacy, the evils of gambling / drink and the battle between the sexes  Sensational plays were often based on notorious criminals and their crimes.  There were also many works which did not fall into any recognisable category or combined one or more of the above styles.  Whatever the category or description, Victorian melodrama was consistent in its reflection of everyday life. The genre worked because it was rooted in reality and what audiences saw on the stage reflected situations, social issues, emotions and experiences that were totally recognisable. In that sense, they were forerunners of modern television soap operas. Nineteenth Century Playwrights and Works Edward Fitzball (1792 -1873) Fitzball was a prolific and popular Victorian melodramatist who enjoyed a successful London career lasting for twenty five years. Staging Fitzball's plays earned a reputation for being elaborately staged. He is reputed to have invented back projection, using a light set on a backstage track to project a shadow onto cotton gauze downstage, so that the shadow of the object increased as the light moved further back from the object. The stage set for his most famous play, The Murder at the Roadside Inn (1827), was a cross-section of a building, exposing four rooms with simultaneous and overlapping action sequences in each. Career Fitzball specialised in military and nautical melodrama but also wrote domestic, supernatural and sensational works, as well as opera libretti, burlettas, tragedies, comedies, farces and popular songs. 154 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Fitzball wrote for at least twenty five theatres and produced about 170 melodramas: From 1828 he wrote for Covent Garden From 1830 - 1838 for outdoor performances in Vauxhall Gardens From 1835 to 1838 he was resident dramatist and reader at Covent Garden He then became reader at Drury Lane in 1838. Fitzball also adapted novels by Sir Walter Scott and James Fennimore Cooper for the stage and throughout his life wrote verse and popular songs, his most famous being My Pretty Plays Fitzball’s first West End play was The Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber (1820), a domestic crime melodrama. The play was a resounding success, featuring murder, robbery, torture, mistaken identity, villainy and remorse The Floating Beacon; or Norwegian Wreckers (1824) was a nautical melodrama that reunited a mother, Mariette, the Woman of the Beacon, with her young sailor son Frederic, a supposed orphan. The moment of revelation at the end of the play, is typical of the genre: Mariette: My child, my child! I am thy wretched mother! Frederic: Thou — thou — heaven's blessings on thee, dearest, — dearest mother! Mariette: Providence, this one moment of delight, amply repays me sixteen years of suffering! Frederic: They approach! We will die in each other's arms! Flying Dutchman; or the Phantom Ship: a Nautical Drama, in three acts (1826) was a very popular supernatural melodrama about a haunted ship whose sailors are doomed to sail the seas forever as a penance for crimes they have committed Jonathan Bradford, or Murder at the Roadside Inn (1833) was one of Fitzball’s biggest successes and combined elements of domestic and sensational melodrama. In the following extract, Bradford, the innkeeper of the title, has been condemned to death for a murder he did not commit. Now he is being visited in prison for the final time by his loyal wife Ann and their two children: Ann: How shall I tell it them – how will they understand? Home! Where is their home? No mother’s voice. No father’s admonition! Outcasts – abject – branded with the name of infamy. Shunned – degraded! Oh, my children, my children! What will become of them? (wringing her hands) The overblown style of Victorian melodrama is evident in the dialogue and the stage direction. Douglas Jerrold 155 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Jerrold began to write plays in 1827 and, as resident playwright at the Coburg Theatre, quickly established himself as a notable melodramatist with two plays in particular: Fifteen Years of a Drunkard’s Life (1828) and Black-eyed Susan (1829). Career After a very short career in the Navy, Jerrold trained as a printer and later became a journalist and theatre critic. In June 1841 Douglas Jerrold joined with fellow journalists Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, and John Leech to form Punch Magazine, for which he wrote political and humorous articles. The magazine remained in print until its final edition was published in 2002. Jerrold also contributed to other journals and worked as a sub-editor on the Daily News for his friend Charles Dickens, the novelist. The plays Fifteen Years of a Drunkard’s Life (1828) is considered to be the prototype of temperance dramas. Many people in Victorian society were concerned about alcohol abuse and temperance societies tried to encourage abstinence among those who drank to excess. Jerrold’s play was the first stage production to identify the characteristics of the stage drunkard and was a harsh condemnation of the evils of drink in both the lower and middle classes. The play’s two main characters - Vernon, a middle class man of means and Copsewood, a struggling farmer - are drunkards and both meet an unhappy fate. In a drunken stupor, Vernon gambles away his money before murdering his wife and dying himself. Copsewood commits many crimes under the influence of alcohol, loses the family farm and condemns his family to ruin. At the end of the play he is publicly disgraced and led off to prison. Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs (1829) is a nautical melodrama which used a serious plot with comic sub-plots to examine the forces of good and evil; innocence and corruption; poverty and wealth. The story involved a sailor, returning to England from the Napoleonic Wars to find his wife tormented by her crooked uncle and the drunken captain of the hero’s ship. Attempting to save his wife results in a court-martial for attacking a senior officer. The play praised the patriotic British sailor and criticised the harsh rules of the Navy. Gilbert and Sullivan used elements of the story in their comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore (1878). Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn One of the most significant domestic melodramas of the early part of the nineteenth century did not have a specific author, but was a devised piece based on a real crime. This had been committed in 1827 by William Corder, who murdered his lover, a young woman called Maria Marten and buried her body in the Red Barn in Polestead, Suffolk. Corder fled the scene and although he sent Maria’s family letters claiming she was in good health, her body was later discovered buried in the barn after her stepmother claimed she had dreamt about the murder. Corder was tracked down in London, where he had married and 156 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

started a new life. He was brought back to Suffolk, and, after a well-publicised trial, found guilty of murder. He was hanged in Bury St. Edmunds in 1828 where a huge crowd witnessed the execution. The story provoked numerous articles in the newspapers as well as songs and plays. The case was a national sensation and fit-up companies, often called ‘portable theatres’, performed versions of the story in the penny gaffs, halls and fairgrounds up and down the country. There was no standard text of the play but actors knew a wide repertoire of speeches from a wide range of plays and could adapt, improvise and invent within their given characters. As actors moved from company to company they took the better bits with them and gradually certain additions became part of the traditional structure. By 1840 the play was being performed in provincial and outer-London theatres and it remained one of the most popular melodramas of Victorian times. Adaptations of Popular Works Of Fiction Many popular novels were adapted for the stage during the Victorian era and a number of them were very successfully transformed into melodramatic plays. Some of the most noteworthy were:  Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a novel about the evils of slavery by American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and was hugely admired by abolitionists. The book was adapted for the stage in 1852 and opened at London's Adelphi Theatre after its American première  East Lynne (1861) was a domestic melodrama featuring marital infidelity and betrayal together with the most famous line in melodrama:  Dead! Dead! And never called me mother!  The novel was written by Ellen Wood and dealt with themes which were of very real concern for the mid-Victorian middle class, in a society in which female personality was dominated and governed by masculine will  Trilby (1895) a sensational play adapted from a novel by George du Maurier about a young opera singer who is seduced and hypnotised by a sinister older man called Svengali. The work inspired a later novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LeRoux and was the inspiration for Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical of the same name  The Prisoner of Zenda (1896) was an adaptation of a novel by Anthony Hope, telling the story of an English gentleman on holiday in the fictional country of Ruritania, forced to impersonate the King and be crowned in a fake coronation. The play opened in New York in 1895 and transferred a year later to London’s West End 157 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 A Tale of Two Cities was staged in 1899. Charles Dickens was an amateur actor as well as the Victorian period’s best known novelist. A Tale of Two Cities is the story of a man who sacrifices his own life so that his rival may have the woman they both love. The novel was adapted for the stage forty six times. 6.4 NINETEENTH CENTURY THEATRES The growth of theatres The popularity of attending the theatre, plus the increasing population of London and other major cities in Victorian times, led to a change in the law with regard to permission to open theatres. The Regulation of Theatres Act was passed in 1843 and led to the opening of many new theatres, as well as other venues such as concert halls and music halls. By the end of the century theatres and other performance venues had been built in every major city in the country. In London existing theatres had been modernised and increased in size: Covent Garden and Drury Lane, for example, both had auditoriums that could seat three thousand people. By 1900 there were sixty other theatres, as well as forty music halls, in the capital alone. Staging Victorian audiences loved excitement and large scale productions and a fashion developed for staging ‘spectaculars’ which showcased the very latest developments in Victorian stage technology. Bruce 'Sensation' Smith of Drury Lane Theatre was one of the greatest set designers of the age and was responsible for some of the most spectacular theatre sets in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. He worked for and with some of the greatest names in live entertainment, including Gilbert and Sullivan, Anna Pavlova, Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. Smith’s designs and special effects for productions of The Whip and Ben Hur included a train crash; a chariot race and the running of the Two Thousand Guineas horse race using real horses on stage. As the century progressed, realistic and convincing scenic design, together with the development of elaborate stage machinery, meant that not only melodrama, but all types of theatrical productions could include theatrical spectacle. Trapdoors and lifts, flying scenery, pyrotechnics and water effects meant that productions could feature spectacular events such as shipwrecks, battles, fires, earthquakes and horse races. All the stage machinery around, above and below the stage was hidden behind the proscenium arch, which conveniently also hid all the stagehands. The stage itself was hollow and housed removable panels, slots, lifts, 'scruto' (slatted rolling surfaces) and hand-operated and hydraulic trapdoor machinery. 158 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

There were huge advances in stage lighting, from oil to gas in 1817, followed by limelight in 1837 and finally electric light, in the form of arc lamps from 1848 then filament lamps from 1881. This meant that actors could perform within the scenery, upstage of the proscenium arch, while the auditorium was completely blacked out. Lighting was developed so that images could be projected from magic lanterns and translucent gauzes could be back-lit. Smoke effects, coloured light and flares added to the scenic spectacle. Melodrama was the product of a major social change in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution produced a much bigger middle class which was morally and socially conservative and an artisan working class whose lives were often monotonous. Both sections of society craved an excitement that also reinforced their moral beliefs and melodrama, whether in the form of novels or stage plays about good overcoming evil, virtue overcoming vice or right triumphing over wrong, met that need. In Britain, melodrama became the most popular kind of theatrical entertainment for most of the nineteenth century, a period when more people went to the theatre than at any time in history. Despite the decline in the popularity of melodrama on stage by the end of the century, its influence continued to be immense. It certainly had a significant influence on the development of early silent films and its techniques persist today in cinema, television, fiction, and theatre. 6.5 SHORT STORY ORIGINS The evolution of the short story first began before humans could write. To aid in constructing and memorizing tales, the early storyteller often relied on stock phrases, fixed rhythms, and rhyme. Consequently, many of the oldest narratives in the world, such as the ancient Babylonian tale the Epic of Gilgamesh, are in verse. Indeed, most major stories from the ancient Middle East were in verse: “The War of the Gods,” “The Story of Adapa” (both Babylonian), “The Heavenly Bow,” and “The King Who Forgot” (both Canaanite). Those tales were inscribed in cuneiform on clay during the 2nd millennium BCE. From Egypt to India The earliest tales extant from Egypt were composed on papyrus at a comparable date. The ancient Egyptians seem to have written their narratives largely in prose, apparently reserving verse for their religious hymns and working songs. One of the earliest surviving Egyptian tales, “The Shipwrecked Sailor” (c. 2000 BCE), is clearly intended to be a consoling and inspiring story to reassure its aristocratic audience that apparent misfortune can in the end become good fortune. Also recorded during the 12th dynasty were the success story of the exile Sinuhe and the moralizing tale called “King Cheops [Khufu] and the Magicians.” The provocative and profusely detailed story “The Tale of Two Brothers” (or “Anpu and Bata”) was written down during the New Kingdom, probably around 1250 BCE. Of all the early 159 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Egyptian tales, most of which are baldly didactic, this story is perhaps the richest in folk motifs and the most intricate in plot. The earliest tales from India are not as old as those from Egypt and the Middle East. The Brahmanas (c. 900–700 BCE) function mostly as theological appendixes to the Vedas, but a few are composed as short instructional parables. Perhaps more interesting as stories are the later tales in the Pali language, the Jatakas. Although these tales have a religious frame that attempts to recast them as Buddhist ethical teachings, their actual concern is generally with secular behaviour and practical wisdom. Another, nearly contemporaneous collection of Indian tales, the Panchatantra (c. 100 BCE–500 CE), has been one of the world’s most- popular books. This anthology of amusing and moralistic animal tales, akin to those of “Aesop” in Greece, was translated into Middle Persian in the 6th century; into Arabic in the 8th century; and into Hebrew, Greek, and Latin soon thereafter. Sir Thomas North’s English translation appeared in 1570. Another noteworthy collection is Kathasaritsagara (“Ocean of Rivers of Stories”), a series of tales assembled and recounted in narrative verse in the 11th century by the Sanskrit writer Somadeva. Most of those tales come from much older material, and they vary from the fantastic story of a transformed swan to a more probable tale of a loyal but misunderstood servant. PANCHATANTRA Illustration of a Panchatantra fable, about a bird who is outwitted by a crab; from an 1888 edition published as The Earliest English Version of the Fables of Bidpai, \"The Moral Philosophy of Doni\" translated (1570) from the Italian of Anton Francesco Doni by Sir Thomas North. During the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries BCE, the sophisticated narratives that are now a part of the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha were first written down. The book of Tobit displays an unprecedented sense of ironic humour; Judith creates an unrelenting and suspenseful tension as it builds to its bloody climax; the story of Susanna, the most compact and least fantastic in the Apocrypha, develops a three-sided conflict involving the innocent beauty of Susanna, the lechery of the elders, and the triumphant wisdom of Daniel. The books of Ruth, Esther, and Jonah hardly need mentioning to those familiar with biblical literature: they may well be among the most-famous stories in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Nearly all of the ancient tales, whether from Israel, India, Egypt, or the Middle East, were fundamentally didactic. Some of those ancient stories preached by presenting an ideal for readers to imitate. Others tagged with a “moral” were more direct. Most stories, however, preached by illustrating the success and joy that was available to the “good” individual and by conveying a sense of the terror and misery that was in store for the wayward. The Greeks The early Greeks contributed greatly to the scope and art of short fiction. As in India, the moralizing animal fable was a common form; many of these tales were collected as Aesop’s 160 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

fables, the first known collection of which dates to the 4th century BCE. Brief mythological stories of the gods’ adventures in love and war were also popular in the pre-Attic age. Apollodorus of Athens compiled a handbook of epitomes, or abstracts, of those tales around the 2nd century BCE, but the tales themselves are no longer extant in their original form. They appear, though somewhat transformed, in the longer poetical works of Hesiod, Homer, and the tragedians. Short tales found their way into long prose forms as well, as in Hellanicus’s Persika (5th century BCE, extant only in fragments). Herodotus, the “father of history,” saw himself as a maker and reciter of logoi (things for telling, tales). His long History is interspersed with such fictionalized digressions as the stories of Polycrates and his emerald ring, of Candaules’ attractive wife, and of Rhampsinitus’s stolen treasure. Xenophon’s philosophical history, the Cyropaedia (4th century BCE), contains the story of the soldier Abradates and his lovely and loyal wife Panthea, perhaps the first Western love story. The Cyropaedia also contains other narrative interpolations: the story of Pheraules, who freely gave away his wealth; the tale of Gobryas’s murdered son; and various anecdotes describing the life of the Persian soldier. Moreover, the Greeks are usually credited with originating the romance, a long form of prose fiction with stylized plots of love, catastrophe, and reunion. The early Greek romances frequently took shape as a series of short tales. The Love Romances of Parthenius of Nicaea, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, is a collection of 36 prose stories of unhappy lovers. The Milesian Tales (no longer extant) was an extremely popular collection of erotic and ribald stories composed by Aristides of Miletus in the 2nd century BCE and translated almost immediately into Latin. As the variety of these short narratives suggests, the Greeks were less insistent than earlier cultures that short fiction be predominantly didactic. By comparison the contribution of the Romans to short narrative was small. Ovid’s long poem, Metamorphoses, is basically a reshaping of over 100 short, popular tales into a thematic pattern. The other major fictional narratives to come out of Rome are novel-length works by Gaius Petronius Arbiter (Satyricon, 1st century CE) and Lucius Apuleius (The Golden Ass, 2nd century CE). Like Ovid those men used potential short story material as episodes within a larger whole. The Roman love of rhetoric, it seems, encouraged the development of longer and more comprehensive forms of expression. Regardless, the trend away from didacticism inaugurated by the Greeks was not reversed. FORMS OF SHORT STORIES The middle Ages in Europe was a time of the proliferation, though not necessarily the refinement, of short narratives. The short tale became an important means of diversion and amusement. From the medieval era to the Renaissance, various cultures adopted short fiction for their own purposes. Even the aggressive, grim spirit of the invading Germanic barbarians was amenable to expression in short prose. The myths and 161 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

sagas extant in Scandinavia and Iceland indicate the kinds of bleak and violent tales the invaders took with them into southern Europe. In contrast, the romantic imagination and high spirits of the Celts remained manifest in their tales. Wherever they appeared—in Ireland, Wales, or Brittany—stories steeped in magic and splendour also appeared. This spirit, easily recognized in such Irish mythological tales as Longes mac n-Uislenn (probably 9th-century), infused the chivalric romances that developed somewhat later on the Continent. The romances usually addressed one of three “Matters”: the “Matter of Britain” (stories of King Arthur and his knights), the “Matter of France” (the Charlemagne cycle), or the “Matter of Rome” (stories out of antiquity, such as those of Pyramus and Thisbe and of Paris and Helen). Many, but not all, of the romances are too long to be considered short stories. Two of the most-influential contributors of short material to the “Matter of Britain” in the 12th century were Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France. The latter was gifted as a creator of the short narrative poems known as the Breton lays. Only occasionally did a popular short romance like Aucassin and Nicolette (13th century) fail to address any of the three Matters. Also widely respected was the exemplum, a short didactic tale usually intended to dramatize or otherwise inspire model behaviour. Of all the exempla, the best known in the 11th and 12th centuries were the lives of the saints, some 200 of which are extant. The Gesta Romanorum (“Deeds of the Romans”) offered skeletal plots of exempla that preachers could expand into moralistic stories for use in their sermons. Among the common people of the late Middle Ages there appeared a literary movement counter to that of the romance and exemplum. Displaying a preference for common sense, secular humour, and sensuality, this movement accounted in a large way for the practical-minded animals in beast fables, the coarse and “merry” jestbooks, and the ribald fabliaux. All were important as short narratives, but perhaps the most intriguing of the three are the fabliaux. First appearing around the middle of the 12th century, fabliaux remained popular for 200 years, attracting the attention of Boccaccio and Chaucer. Some 160 fabliaux are extant, all in verse. Often, the medieval storyteller—regardless of the kind of tale he preferred—relied on a framing circumstance that made possible the juxtaposition of several stories, each of them relatively autonomous. Since there was little emphasis on organic unity, most storytellers preferred a flexible format, one that allowed tales to be added or removed at random with little change in effect. Such a format is found in The Seven Sages of Rome, a collection of stories so popular that nearly every European country had its own translation. The framing circumstance in The Seven Sages involves a prince condemned to death; his advocates (the seven sages) relate a new story each day, thereby delaying the execution until his innocence is made known. This technique is clearly similar to that of The Thousand and One Nights, components of which can be dated to as early as the 8th century but which was not translated as a single collection in Europe until the 18th century. The majority of the stories in The 162 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Thousand and One Nights are framed by the story of Scheherazade. Records indicate that the basis of this framing story was a medieval Persian collection, Hazār afsāna (“Thousand Romances,” no longer extant). In both the Persian and Arabian versions of the frame, the clever Scheherazade avoids death by telling her king-husband a thousand stories. Though the framing device is identical in both versions, the original Persian stories within the frame were replaced or drastically altered as the collection was adapted by Arab writers during the Mamlūk period (1250–1517 CE). REFINEMENT In Europe, short narrative received its most refined treatment in the Middle Ages from Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio. The versatility Chaucer displays in The Canterbury Tales (1387–1400) reflects the versatility of the age. In “The Miller’s Tale” he artistically combines two fabliaux; in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” he draws upon material common to beast fables; in “The Pardoner’s Tale” he creates a brilliantly revealing sermon, complete with a narrative exemplum. This short list hardly exhausts the catalogue of forms Chaucer experimented with. By relating tale to teller and by exploiting relationships among the various tellers, Chaucer endowed The Canterbury Tales with a unique, dramatic vitality. Boccaccio’s genius, geared more toward narrative than drama, is of a different sort. Where Chaucer reveals a character through actions and assertions, Boccaccio seems more interested in stories as pieces of action. With Boccaccio, the characters telling the stories, and usually the characters within, are of subordinate interest. Like Chaucer, Boccaccio frames his well- wrought tales in a metaphoric context. The trip to the shrine at Canterbury provides a meaningful backdrop against which Chaucer juxtaposes his earthy and pious characters. The frame of the Decameron (from the Greek deka, 10, and hēmera, day) has relevance as well: during the height of the Black Plague in Florence, Italy, 10 people meet and agree to amuse and divert each other by telling 10 stories each. Behind every story, in effect, is the inescapable presence of the Black Death. The Decameron, likely written between 1349 and 1353, is fashioned out of a variety of sources, including fabliaux, exempla, and short romances. SPREADING POPULARITY Immediately popular, the Decameron produced imitations nearly everywhere in western Europe. In Italy alone, there appeared at least 50 writers of novelle (as short narratives were called) after Boccaccio. Learning from the success and artistry of Boccaccio and, to a lesser degree, his contemporary Franco Sacchetti, Italian writers for three centuries kept the Western world supplied with short narratives. Sacchetti was no mere imitator of Boccaccio. More of a frank and unadorned realist, he wrote—or planned to write—300 stories (200 of the Trecentonovelle [“300 Short Stories”] are extant) dealing in a rather anecdotal way with ordinary Florentine life. Two other well-known narrative writers of the 14th century, 163 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Giovanni Fiorentino and Giovanni Sercambi, freely acknowledged their imitation of Boccaccio. In the 15th century Masuccio Salernitano’s collection of 50 stories, Il novellino (1475), attracted much attention. Though verbosity often substitutes for eloquence in Masuccio’s stories, they are witty and lively tales of lovers and clerics. With Masuccio the popularity of short stories was just beginning to spread. Almost every Italian in the 16th century, it has been suggested, tried his hand at novelle. Matteo Bandello, the most influential and prolific writer, attempted nearly everything from brief histories and anecdotes to short romances, but he was most interested in tales of deception. Various other kinds of stories appeared. Agnolo Firenzuolo’s popular Ragionamenti diamore (“The Reasoning of Love”) is characterized by a graceful style unique in tales of ribaldry; Anton Francesco Doni included several tales of surprise and irony in his miscellany, I marmi (“The Marbles”); and Gianfrancesco Straparola experimented with common folktales and with dialects in his collection, Le piacevoli notti (“The Pleasant Nights”). In the early 17th century, Giambattista Basile attempted to infuse stock situations (often of the fairy-tale type, such as that of Puss in Boots) with realistic details. The result was often remarkable—a tale of hags or princes with very real motives and feelings. Perhaps it is the amusing and diverting nature of Basile’s collection of 50 stories that has reminded readers of Boccaccio. Or, it may be his use of a frame similar to that in the Decameron. Whatever the reason, Basile’s Cunto de li cunti (1634; The Story of Stories) is traditionally linked with Boccaccio and referred to as The Pentamerone (“The Five Days”). Basile’s similarities to Boccaccio suggest that in the 300 years between them the short story may have gained repute and circulation, but its basic shape and effect hardly changed. This pattern was repeated in France, though the impetus provided by Boccaccio was not felt until the 15th century. A collection of 100 racy anecdotes, Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, “The Hundred New Short Stories” (c. 1460), outwardly resembles the Decameron. Margaret of Angoulême’s Heptaméron (1558–59; “The Seven Days”), an unfinished collection of 72 amorous tales, admits a similar indebtedness. In the early 17th century Béroalde de Verville placed his own Rabelaisian tales within a banquet frame in a collection called Le Moyen de parvenir, “The Way of Succeeding” (c. 1610). Showing great narrative skill, Béroalde’s stories are still very much in the tradition of Boccaccio; as a collection of framed stories, their main intent is to amuse and divert the reader. As the most influential nation in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain contributed to the proliferation of short prose fiction. Especially noteworthy are: Don Juan Manuel’s collection of lively exempla Libro de los enxiemplos del conde Lucanor et de Patronio (1328–35), which antedates the Decameron; the anonymous story “The Abencerraje,” which was interpolated into a pastoral novel of 1559; and, most importantly, Miguel de Cervantes’ experimental Novelas ejemplares (1613; “Exemplary Novels”). Cervantes’ short fictions vary in style and seriousness, but their single concern is 164 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

clear: to explore the nature of man’s secular existence. This focus was somewhat new for short fiction, heretofore either didactic or escapist. Despite the presence of these and other popular collections, short narrative in Spain was eventually overshadowed by a new form that began to emerge in the 16th century—the novel. Like the earlier Romans, the Spanish writers of the early Renaissance often incorporated short story material as episodes in a larger whole. DECLINE OF SHORT FICTION The 17th and 18th centuries mark the temporary decline of short fiction in the West. The causes of this phenomenon are many: the emergence of the novel; the failure of the Boccaccio tradition to produce in three centuries much more than variations or imitations of older, well-worn material; and a renaissant fascination with drama and poetry, the superior forms of classical antiquity. Another cause for the disappearance of major works of short fiction is suggested by the growing preference for journalistic sketches. The increasing awareness of other lands and the growing interest in social conditions (accommodated by a publication boom) produced a plethora of descriptive and biographical sketches. Although these journalistic elements later were incorporated in the fictional short story, for the time being fact held sway over the imagination. Travel books, criminal biographies, social description, sermons, and essays occupied the market. Only occasionally did a serious story find its way into print, and then it was usually a production of an established writer like Voltaire or Joseph Addison. Perhaps the decline is clearest in England, where the short story had its least secure foothold. It took little to obscure the faint tradition established in the 16th and 17th centuries by the popular jestbooks, by the Palace of Pleasure (an anthology of stories, mostly European), and by the few rough stories written by Englishmen (e.g., Barnabe Rich’s Farewell to Military Profession, 1581). During the Middle Ages short fiction had become primarily an amusing and diverting medium. The Renaissance and Enlightenment, however, made different demands of the form. The awakening concern with secular issues called for a new attention to actual conditions. Simply, the diverting stories were no longer relevant or viable. At first only the journalists and pamphleteers responded to the new demand. Short fiction disappeared, in effect, because it did not respond. When it did shake off its escapist trappings in the 19th century, it reappeared as the “modern short story.” This was a new stage in the evolution of short fiction, one in which the short form undertook a new seriousness and gained a new vitality and respect. THE 19TH CENTURY The modern short story emerged almost simultaneously in Germany, the United States, France, and Russia. In Germany there had been relatively little difference between the stories of the late 18th century and those in the older tradition of Boccaccio. In 165 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1795 Goethe contributed a set of stories to Friedrich Schiller’s journal, Die Horen, that were obviously created with the Decameron in mind. Significantly, Goethe did not call them “short stories” (Novellen) although the term was available to him. Rather, he thought of them as “entertainments” for German travelers (Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten). Friedrich Schlegel’s early discussion of the short narrative form, appearing soon after Goethe’s “entertainments,” also focused on Boccaccio (Nachrichten von den poetischen Werken des G. Boccaccio, 1801). But a new type of short fiction was near at hand—a type that accepted some of the realistic properties of popular journalism. In 1827, 32 years after publishing his own “entertainments,” Goethe commented on the difference between the newly emergent story and the older kind. “What is a short story,” he asked, “but an event which, though unheard of, has occurred? Many a work which passes in Germany under the title ‘short story’ is not a short story at all, but merely a tale or what else you would like to call it.” Two influential critics, Christoph Wieland and Friedrich Schleiermacher, also argued that a short story properly concerned itself with events that actually happened or could happen. A short story, for them, had to be realistic. Perhaps sensitive to this qualification, Heinrich von Kleist and E.T.A. Hoffmann called their short works on fabulous themes “tales” (Erzählungen). Somewhat like Poe, Kleist created an expression of human problems, partly metaphysical and partly psychological, by dramatizing humankind’s confrontations with a fantastic, chaotic world. Hoffmann’s intriguing tales of exotic places and of supernatural phenomena were very likely his most influential. Another important writer, Ludwig Tieck, explicitly rejected realism as the definitive element in a short story. As he noted in his preface to the 1829 collection of his works and as he demonstrated in his stories, Tieck envisioned the short story as primarily a matter of intensity and ironic inversion. A story did not have to be realistic in any outward sense, he claimed, so long as the chain of consequences was “entirely in keeping with character and circumstances.” By allowing the writer to pursue an inner, and perhaps bizarre, reality and order, Tieck and the others kept the modern story open to nonjournalistic techniques. In the United States, the short story, as in Germany, evolved in two strains. On the one hand there appeared the realistic story that sought objectively to deal with seemingly real places, events, or persons. The regionalist stories of the second half of the 19th century (including those by George W. Cable, Bret Harte, Sarah Orne Jewett) are of this kind. On the other hand, there developed the impressionist story, a tale shaped and given meaning by the consciousness and psychological attitudes of the narrator. Predicated upon this element of subjectivity, these stories seem less objective and are less realistic in the outward sense. Of this sort are Poe’s tales in which the hallucinations of a central character or narrator provide the details and facts of the story. Like the narrators in “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) and “The Imp of the Perverse” (1845), the narrator of “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) so distorts and transforms what he sees that the reader cannot hope to look objectively at the 166 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

scene. Looking through an intermediary’s eyes, the reader can see only the narrator’s impressions of the scene. Some writers contributed to the development of both types of story. Washington Irving wrote several realistic sketches (The Sketch Book, 1819–20; The Alhambra, 1832) in which he carefully recorded appearances and actions. Irving also wrote stories in which the details were taken not from ostensible reality but from within a character’s mind. Much of the substance of “The Stout Gentleman” (1821), for example, is reshaped and recharged by the narrator’s fertile imagination; “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) draws upon the symbolic surreality of Rip’s dreams. MODERN SHORT STORIES The short prose of Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates that neither type of modern story, however, has exclusive rights to the use of symbol. On a few occasions, as in “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” (1832), Hawthorne’s stories are about symbolic events as they are viewed subjectively by the central character. Hawthorne’s greater gift, however, was for creating scenes, persons, and events that strike the reader as being actual historical facts and also as being rich in symbolic import. “Endicott and the Red Cross” (1837) may seem little more than a photographic sketch of a tableau out of history (the 17th-century Puritan leader cuts the red cross of St. George out of the colonial flag, the first act of rebellion against England), but the details are symbols of an underground of conflicting values and ideologies. Several American writers, from Poe to Henry James, were interested in the “impressionist” story that focuses on the impressions registered by events on the characters’ minds, rather than the objective reality of the events themselves. In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” (1856) the narrator is a man who unintentionally reveals his own moral weaknesses through his telling of the story of Bartleby. Mark Twain’s tales of animals (“The Celebrated Jumping Frog,” 1865; “The Story of Old Ram,” 1872; “Baker’s Blue Jay Yarn,” 1879), all impressionist stories, distort ostensible reality in a way that reflects on the men who are speaking. Ambrose Bierce’s famous “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1891) is another example of this type of story in which the reader sees a mind at work—distorting, fabricating, and fantasizing—rather than an objective picture of actuality. In contrast, William Dean Howells usually sought an objectifying aesthetic distance. Though Howells was as interested in human psychology and behaviour as any of the impressionist writers, he did not want his details filtered through a biassed, and thus distorting, narrator. Impressionism, he felt, gave license for falsifications; in the hands of many writers of his day, it did in fact result in sentimental romanticizing. But in other hands the impressionist technique could subtly delineate human responses. Henry James was such a writer. Throughout his prefaces to the New York edition of his works, the use of an interpreting “central intelligence” is constantly emphasized. “Again and again, on review,” James observes, “the shorter things in especial that I have 167 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

gathered into [the Edition] have ranged themselves not as my own impersonal account of the affair in hand, but as my account of somebody’s impression of it.” This use of a central intelligence, who is the “impersonal author’s concrete deputy or delegate” in the story, allows James all the advantages of impressionism and, simultaneously, the freedom and mobility common to stories narrated by a disembodied voice. RESPECT FOR THE STORY In at least one way, 19th-century America resembled 16th-century Italy: there was an abundance of second- and third-rate short stories. And, yet, respect for the form grew substantially, and most of the great artists of the century were actively participating in its development. The seriousness with which many writers and readers regarded the short story is perhaps most clearly evident in the amount and kind of critical attention it received. James, Howells, Harte, Twain, Melville, and Hawthorne all discussed it as an art form, usually offering valuable insights, though sometimes shedding more light on their own work than on the art as a whole. But the foremost American critic of the short story was Edgar Allan Poe. Himself a creator of influential impressionist techniques, Poe believed that the definitive characteristic of the short story was its unity of effect. “A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale,” Poe wrote in his review of Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales in 1842. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents—he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the out-bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design. Poe’s polemic primarily concerns craftsmanship and artistic integrity; it hardly prescribes limits on subject matter or dictates technique. As such, Poe’s thesis leaves the story form open to experimentation and to growth while it demands that the form show evidence of artistic diligence and seriousness. FRENCH WRITERS The new respect for the short story was also evident in France, as Henry James observed, “when [in 1844 Prosper] Mérimée, with his handful of little stories, was elected to the French Academy.” As illustrated by “Columbia” (1841) or “Carmen” (1845), which gained additional fame as an opera, Mérimée’s stories are masterpieces of detached and dry observation, though the subject matter itself is often emotionally charged. Nineteenth-century France produced short stories as various as 19th-century America—although the impressionist tale was generally less common in France. (It is as if, not having an outstanding impressionist storyteller themselves, the French adopted Poe, who was being ignored by the critics in his own country.) The two major French impressionist writers were Charles Nodier, 168 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

who experimented with symbolic fantasies, and Gérard de Nerval, whose collection Les Filles du feu (1854; “Daughters of Fire”) grew out of recollections of his childhood. Artists primarily known for their work in other forms also attempted the short story—novelists like Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert and poets like Alfred de Vigny and Théophile Gautier. One of the most interesting writers of 19th-century France is Alphonse Daudet, whose stories reflect the spectrum of interest and techniques of the entire century. His earliest and most popular stories (Lettres de mon moulin, 1866; “Letters from My Mill”) create a romantic, picturesque fantasy; his stories of the Franco-Prussian War (Les Contes du Lundi, 1873; “Monday Tales”) are more objectively realistic, and the sociological concern of his last works betrays his increasing interest in naturalistic determinism. The greatest French storywriter, by far, is Guy de Maupassant, a master of the objective short story. Basically, Maupassant’s stories are anecdotes that capture a revealing moment in the lives of middle class citizens. This crucial moment is typically recounted in a well-plotted design, though perhaps in some stories like “Boule de suif” (1880; “Ball of Tallow”) and “The Necklace” (1881) the plot is too contrived, the reversing irony too neat, and the artifice too apparent. In other stories, like “The House of Madame Tellier” (1881), Maupassant’s easy and fluid prose captures the innocence and the corruption of human behaviour. RUSSIAN WRITERS During the first two decades of the 19th century in Russia, fable writing became a fad. By all accounts the most widely read fabulist was Ivan Krylov whose stories borrowed heavily from Aesop, La Fontaine, and various Germanic sources. If Krylov’s tales made short prose popular in Russia, the stories of the revered poet Aleksandr Pushkin gained serious attention for the form. Somewhat like Mérimée in France (who was one of the first to translate Pushkin into French), Pushkin cultivated a detached, rather classical style for his stories of emotional conflicts (“The Queen of Spades,” 1834). Also very popular and respected was Mikhail Lermontov’s “novel,” A Hero of Our Time (1840), which actually consists of five stories that are more or less related. But it is Nikolay Gogol who stands at the headwaters of the Russian short story; Fyodor Dostoyevsky noted that all Russian short story writers “emerged from Gogol’s overcoat,” a punning allusion to the master’s best known story. In a manner all his own, Gogol was developing impressionist techniques in Russia simultaneously with Poe in America. Gogol published his Arabesques (1835) five years before Poe collected some of his tales under a similar title. Like those of Poe, Gogol’s tales of hallucination, confusing reality and dream, are among his best stories (“Nevsky Prospect” and “Diary of a Madman,” both 1835). The single most influential story in the first half of the 19th century in Russia was undoubtedly Gogol’s “The Overcoat” (1842). Blending elements of realism (natural details from the 169 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

characters’ daily lives) with elements of fantasy (the central character returns as a ghost), Gogol’s story seems to anticipate both the impressionism of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground (1864) and the realism of Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886). Ivan Turgenev appears, at first glance, antithetical to Gogol. In A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) Turgenev’s simple use of language, his calm pace, and his restraint clearly differentiate him from Gogol. But like Gogol, Turgenev was more interested in capturing qualities of people and places than in building elaborate plots. A remaining difference between the two Russians, however, tends to make Turgenev more acceptable to present-day readers: Turgenev studiously avoided anything artificial. Though he may have brought into his realistic scenes a tale of a ghost (“Bezhin Meadow,” 1852), he did not attempt to bring in a ghost (as Gogol had done in “The Overcoat”). In effect, Turgenev’s allegiance was wholly to detached observation. Developing some of the interests of Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky experimented with the impressionist story. The early story “White Nights” (1848), for example, is a “Tale of Love from the Reminiscence of a Dreamer” as the subtitle states; the title of one of his last stories, “The Dream of the Ridiculous Man” (1877), also echoes Poe and Gogol. Though haring Dostoyevsky’s interest in human motives, Leo Tolstoy used vastly different techniques. He usually sought psychological veracity through a more detached and, presumably, objective narrator (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, 1886; “The Kreutzer Sonata,” 1891). Perhaps somewhat perplexed by Tolstoy’s nonimpressionist means of capturing and delineating psychological impressions, Henry James pronounced Tolstoy the masterhand of the disconnection of method from matter. The Russian master of the objective story was Anton Chekhov. No other storywriter so consistently as Chekhov turned out first-rate works. Though often compared to Maupassant, Chekhov is much less interested in constructing a well-plotted story; nothing much actually happens in Chekhov’s stories, though much is revealed about his characters and the quality of their lives. While Maupassant focuses on event, Chekhov keeps his eye on character. Stories like “The Grasshopper” (1892), “The Darling” (1898), and “In the Ravine” (1900)—to name only three—all reveal Chekhov’s perception, his compassion, and his subtle humour and irony. One critic says of Chekhov that he is no moralist—he simply says “you live badly, ladies and gentlemen,” but his smile has the indulgence of a very wise man. THE 20TH CENTURY In the first half of the 20th century the appeal of the short story continued to grow. Literally hundreds of writers—including, as it seems, nearly every major dramatist, poet, and novelist—published thousands of excellent stories. William Faulkner suggested that writers often try their hand at poetry, find it too difficult, go on to the next most demanding form, the short story, fail at that, and only then settle for the novel. In the 20th century Germany, France, Russia, and the U.S. lost what had once appeared to be their exclusive domination of 170 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the form. Innovative and commanding writers emerged in places that had previously exerted little influence on the genre: Sicily, for example, produced Luigi Pirandello; Prague, Franz Kafka; Japan, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke; Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges. Literary journals with international circulation, such as Ford Madox Ford’s Transatlantic Review, Scribner’s Magazine, and Harriet Weaver’s Egoist, provided a steady and prime exposure for young writers. As the familiarity with it increased, the short story form itself became more varied and complex. The fundamental means of structuring a story underwent a significant change. The overwhelming or unique event that usually informed the 19th-century story fell out of favour with the storywriter of the early 20th century, who grew more interested in subtle actions and unspectacular events. Sherwood Anderson, one of the most influential U.S. writers of the early 20th century, observed that the common belief in his day was that stories had to be built around a plot, a notion that, in Anderson’s opinion, appeared to poison all storytelling. His own aim was to achieve form, not plot, although form was more elusive and difficult. The record of the short story in the 20th century is dominated by this increased sensitivity to—and experimentation with—form. Although the popular writers of the century (like O. Henry in the U.S. and Paul Morand in France) may have continued to structure stories according to plot, the greater artists turned elsewhere for structure, frequently eliciting the response from cursory readers that “nothing happens in these stories.” Narratives like Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” (1933) may seem to have no structure at all, so little physical action develops; but stories of this kind are actually structured around a psychological, rather than physical, conflict. In several of Hemingway’s stories (as in many by D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and others), physical action and event are unimportant except insofar as the actions reveal the psychological underpinnings of the story. Stories came to be structured, also, in accordance with an underlying archetypal model: the specific plot and characters are important insofar as they allude to a traditional plot or figure, or to patterns that have recurred with wide implications in the history of mankind. Katherine Anne Porter’s “Flowering Judas” (1930), for example, echoes and ironically inverts the traditional Christian legend. Still other stories are formed by means of motif, usually a thematic repetition of an image or detail that represents the dominant idea of the story. “The Dead,” the final story in James Joyce’s Dubliners (1914), builds from a casual mention of death and snow early in the story to a culminating paragraph that links them in a profound vision. Seldom, of course, is the specific structure of one story appropriate for a different story. Faulkner, for example, used the traditional pattern of the knightly quest (in an ironic way) for his story “Was,” but for “Barn Burning” he relied on a psychologically organic form to reveal the story of young Sarty Snopes. No single form provided the 20th-century writer with the answer to structural problems. As the primary structuring agent, spectacular and suspenseful action was rather universally ejected around midcentury since motion pictures and television could present it much more 171 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

vividly. As the periodicals that had supplied escapist stories to mass audiences declined, the short story became the favoured form of a smaller but intellectually more demanding readership. Borges, for example, attracted an international following with his Ficciones, stories that involved the reader in dazzling displays of erudition and imagination, unlike anything previously encountered in the genre. Similarly, the American Donald Barthelme’s composition consisted of bits and pieces of, e.g., television commercials, political speeches, literary allusions, eavesdropped conversations, graphic symbols, dialogue from Hollywood movies—all interspersed with his own original prose in a manner that defied easy comprehension and yet compelled the full attention of the reader. The short story also lent itself to the rhetoric of student protest in the 1960s and was found in a bewildering variety of mixed-media forms in the “underground” press that publicized this life style throughout the world. In his deep concern with such a fundamental matter as form, the 20th-century writer unwittingly affirmed the maturation and popularity of the genre; only a secure and valued (not to mention flexible) genre could withstand and, moreover, encourage such experimentation. WRITING A SHORT STORY –GUIDELINES When it came to giving advice to writers, Kurt Vonnegut was never dull. He once tried to warn people away from using semicolons by characterizing them as “transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.” And, in a master’s thesis rejected by The University of Chicago, he made the tantalizing argument that “stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper, and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads.” In this brief video, Vonnegut offers eight essential tips on how to write a short story:  Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.  Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.  Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.  Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action.  Start as close to the end as possible.  Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of.  Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.  Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, 172 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. 6.6 EPIC Defination of Epic \"epic, long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds. .... Literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written compositions. The prime examples of the oral epic are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.\" It is imperative to know about the etymology of the word epic. The word epic has been derived a Greek word epikos, which means a word, song or speech. An epic is well-defined as a long story in verse dwelling upon an important theme in a most elegant style and language. According to Webster’s New World dictionary, “epic is a long narrative poem in a dignified style about the deeds of a traditional or historical hero or heroes; typically a poem like Iliad or the Odyssey with certain formal characteristics.” An epic is absolutely much like a ballad pretty much in all its features, however just one thing that differentiates epic from a ballad is its length. An epic is a long narrative in verse, while ballad is a short story in verse. Characteristics of an Epic  The first and foremost characteristic of an epic is its bulky size . An epic is an extensive and prolonged narrative in verse. Usually, every single epic has been broken down in to multiple books. For example, Homer’s epics are divided into twenty four books .Similarly, John Milton’s Paradise Lost has been divided into twelve books.  Another essential feature of an epic is the fact that it dwells upon the achievements of a historical or traditional hero, or a person of national or international significance. Every epic extolls the valour, deeds, bravery, character and personality of a person, who is having incredible physical and mental traits.  Exaggeration is also an important part of an epic. The poet uses hyperbole to reveal the prowess of a hero. He doesn’t think twice to use exaggeration to make an impression on the audience.  Supernaturalism is a must-have feature of an every epic. Without having to use supernatural elements, no epic would certainly produce awe and wonder. There are certainly gods, demons, angels, fairies, and use of supernatural forces like natural catastrophes in every epic. Milton’s Paradise Lost, Homer’s Iliad, Beowulf and Spenser’s Faerie Queen are replete with supernatural elements.  Morality is a key characteristic of an epic. The poet’s foremost purpose in writing an epic is to give a moral lesson to his readers. For instance, Johan Milton’s Paradise Lost is a perfect example in this regard. The poet wants to justify the ways of God to man through the story of Adam. This is the most didactic theme of the epic. 173 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 The theme of each epic is sublime, elegant and having universal significance. It may not be an insignificant theme, which is only limited to the personality or the locality of the poet. It deals with the entire humanity .Thus; John Milton’s Paradise Lost is a great example in this regard. The theme of this epic is certainly of great importance and deals with entire humanity. It’s them is to justify the ways of God to man.  Invocation to the Muse is another important quality of an epic. The poet, at the very beginning of the epic, seeks the help of the Muse while writing his epic. Look at the beginning lines of the Iliad, Odyssey and Paradise Lost.  The diction of every epic is lofty, grand and elegant. No trivial, common or colloquial language is used in epic. The poet tries to use sublime words to describe the events.  Use of Epic Simile is another feature of an epic. Epic simile is a far-fetched comparison between two objects, which runs through many lines to describe the valour, bravery and gigantic stature of the hero. It is also called Homeric simile. 6.7 TYPES OF EPIC Folk Epic Folk epic is an ancient epic, which was originally in oral form. With the passage of time, one author or many authors tried to preserve them in the form of writing. Thus, nobody happens to know about the exact authorship of the folk epics. The folk epic is different from the art epic or literary epic in the simplest sense that the former is based on a particular mythology, while the latter is based on the ideas of the author. In art epic, the poet invents the story, while the folk epic is the product of the mythology of the locality. The folk epic is basically in oral form, while the art or literary epic is in written form. The author of the literary epic is a well-known personality, while the author of the folk epic may be a common man. William Henry Hudson says in An Introduction to the Study of Literature: “The epic of growth is fresh, spontaneous, racy, the epic of art is learned, antiquarian, bookish, imitative. Its specifically ‘literary’ qualities-its erudition, its echoes, reminiscences, and borrowings- are indeed, as the Aeneid and Paradise Lost will suffice to prove, among its most interesting characteristics for a cultured reader.” Beowulf 174 Lo! the Spear-Danes’ glory through splendid achievements The folk-kings’ former fame we have heard of, How princes displayed then their prowess-in-battle. Oft Scyld the Scefing from scathers in numbers CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

From many a people their mead-benches tore. Since first he found him friendless and wretched, The earl had had terror: comfort he got for it, Waxed ’neath the welkin, world-honor gained, Till all his neighbors o’er sea were compelled to Bow to his bidding and bring him their tribute: An excellent atheling! After was borne him A son and heir, young in his dwelling, Whom God-Father sent to solace the people. Literary Epic Literary epic is usually known as art epic. It is an epic, which imitates the conventions of the folk epic, but gives it a written shape. It is absolutely opposite to the folk epic. They were written unlike the folk epics, which came all the way down to us through oral tradition. The literary epics tend to be more polished, coherent, and compact in structure and style when contrasted with the folk epics. Literary epics are the result of the genius of the poet. That is why; they have great significance from literary point of view. William Henry Hudson says in An Introduction to the Study of Literature: “The literary epic naturally resembles the primitive epic, on which it is ultimately based, in various fundamental characteristics. Its subject-matter is of the old heroic and mythical kind; it makes free use of supernatural; it follows the same structural plan and reproduces many traditional details of composition; while, greatly it necessarily differs in style, it often adopts the formulas, fixed epithets, and stereo typed phrases and locutions, which are among the marked feature of the early type.\" Paradise Lost 175 OF MAN’S first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (Paradise Lost by John Milton) 6.8 INDIAN EPICS, RAMAYANA, MAHABHARATA THE STORY OF RAMAYANA And just to let you know what you are in for, here is a very brief summary of the Ramayana, the adventures of lord Rama. Rama is the son of King Dasaratha, but he is also an incarnation of the god Vishnu, born in human form to do battle with the demon lord Ravana. Ravana had obtained divine protection against other demons, and even against the gods - but because he scorned the world of animals and men, he had not asked for protection from them. Therefore, Vishnu was incarnated as a human being in order to put a stop to Ravana. King Dasaratha has three other sons besides Rama.There is Lakshmana, who is devoted to Rama. There is Bharata, the son of Dasaratha's pretty young wife Kaikeyi, and there is Satrughna, who is as devoted to Bharata as Lakshmana is to Rama. When Dasaratha grows old, he decides to name Rama as his successor. Queen Kaikeyi, however, is outraged. She manages to compel Dasaratha to name their son Bharata as his successor instead, and to send Rama into exile in the forest. Rama agrees to go into exile, and he is accompanied by his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. When their exile is nearly over, Sita is abducted by the evil Ravana who carries her off to Lanka city (on the island of Sri Lanka). Rama and Lakshmana follow in pursuit, and they are aided by the monkey lord, Hanuman, who is absolutely devoted to Rama. After many difficulties and dangers, Rama finally confronts Ravana and defeats him in battle. What happens after that is a matter of some dispute in the different versions of the Ramayana. Did Rama accept Sita back into his household? Or did he send her away because she had been in the possession of another male? You will see different versions of the ending of the story in the books that you will read for this class. A Digression About Time: In historical terms, the events of the Ramayana precede the events of the Mahabharata. The time periods of Hindu mythology are called \"yugas\", and the world as we know it goes through a cycle of four yugas. Sometimes these four yugas are compared 176 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

to a cow standing on four legs. In the \"Best Age,\" the Krita Yuga, the cow is standing on all four legs. In the next age, the Treta Yuga, or \"Age of Three,\" the cow is standing on only three legs and is slightly teetering: the world is slightly corrupted. In the next age, the \"Age of Two,\" or Dwapara Yuga, there is only half as much righteousness in the world as there used to be, like a cow standing on only two legs. This is followed by the worst age, the Kali Yuga, where there is only one-fourth of the world's original righteousness remaining. The world has become extremely corrupt and utterly unstable. The cow is standing on just one leg. The events of the Ramayana take place in the Treta Yuga, when the world is only somewhat corrupted. The events of the Mahabharata take place much later, at the end of the Dwapara Yuga, the \"Age of Two,\" when the world is far more grim and corrupt than in Rama's times. The violent and tragic events at the end of the Mahabharata mark the end of the Dwapara Yuga and the beginning of the Kali Yuga, the worst age. We are living in the Kali Yuga, in case you were wondering... THE STORY OF MAHABHARATA So one way you can look at the Mahabharata is as an explanation for how our world, the world of the Kali Yuga, came into being, and all the things that went wrong in the world before. The Ramayana has its share of suffering and even betrayal, but nothing to match the relentless hatred and vengeance that drives so many of the events in the Mahabharata, which culminates in the Battle of Kurukshetra when two bands of brothers, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the sons of two brothers and so cousins to one another, fight each other to death, brutally and cruelly, until the entire race is almost wiped out.The five sons of Pandu, the Pandavas, are the heroes of the story. The eldest is Yudhishthira, the King. Next is Bhima, an enormously strong fighter with equally enormous appetites. After Bhima is Arjuna, the greatest of the warriors, and the companion of Krishna. The last two are twins, Nakula and Sahadeva. These five brothers share one wife, Draupadi (she became the wife of all five of them by accident, as you will learn). Their enemies are the Kauravas, who are the sons of Pandu's brother, Dhritarashtra. Although Dhritarashtra is still alive, he cannot manage to restrain his son Duryodhana, whose resentment of his cousins, the Pandavas, is relentless and absolute. Duryodhana arranges for his maternal uncle to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice, and Yudhishthira gambles everything away, even himself. The Pandavas have to go into exile, but when they return they engage the Kauravas in battle. Krishna fights on the side of the Pandavas, and serves as Arjuna's charioteer. The famous \"Song of the Lord,\" or Bhagavad-Gita, is actually a book within the Mahabharata. When Arjuna faces his cousins on the field of battle, he despairs and sinks down, unable to fight. The Bhagavad-Gita contains the words that Krishna spoke to Arjuna at that moment.The Pandavas do win the battle. Duryodhana is killed, and the Kaurava armies are wiped out. But it is hardly a happy ending. Yudhishthira becomes king, but the world is forever changed by the battle's violence. If you are familiar with the Iliad, you might remember how that epic ends with the funeral of the Trojan hero Hector, a 177 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

moment which is utterly bleak and sad. The same is true for the Mahabharata. There are many truths that are learned in the end, but the victory, such as it is, comes at a terrible price. 6.9 ILIAD VS ODYSSEY: A TALE OF TWO EPICS While the Iliad vs Odyssey question is related and even considered sequential by some, there are various subtle and not-so-subtle differences. For example, The Iliad is more liberal with its mixing of the paranormal and fantasy and the mundane. The gods seem to take a much more active role in the Iliad’s events, while they are less involved with mortal affairs in The Odyssey. That’s not to say the gods don’t involve themselves in the events of The Odyssey. What Is the Difference Between The Iliad and The Odyssey? One of the first things to understand when you begin reading Homer’s epics is how is The Iliad related to The Odyssey? In the simplest terms, The Odyssey is considered a sort of sequel to The Iliad. Both epics consist of 24 books and revolve around a specific time during a much larger event. Clearly, the Trojan War, and everything leading up to it, was a much larger story than the events contained in The Iliad. Odysseus’ journey to return to his home of Ithaca was also a much larger story than is told in The Odyssey. In each book, Homer encapsulated a portion of the events to make a point and present a particular view of the storyline. Between the two, however, there are some significant differences. While fantastical elements are a part of both stories, with gods appearing frequently and mythical beasts such as nymphs, cyclops, and giants taking part in the action, there is a shift in the Odyssey’s retelling. In The Iliad, the gods take an active role, interfering with Human affairs, carrying messages, and even joining the battling. At one point, Athena drives a chariot into battle and several gods are wounded in the fighting. In The Odyssey, the gods take a much less involved approach. They don’t participate in the events. Although they do intervene a time or two, they do not directly interfere except when Hermes carries a message to Calypso, informing her that she must release Odysseus so that he may continue his journey. 1. Character Perspectives in The Iliad and The Odyssey One big difference between Iliad and Odyssey that is frequently overlooked is the difference in the way the story is told. While The Iliad tells the story in a third-person omniscient narrative, The Odyssey is presented differently from the points of view of many characters. 178 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Odyssey is also written in the third person, but it is not from the omniscient narrator. In books IX through XII, Odysseus becomes the narrator, relating his own tales. The choice of narration is a small point, but it colors the entire focus of both pieces of work. The Iliad is an overreaching tale that touches upon the arcs of several plot lines. The main plot line was the story of Achilles and his hubris. Another arc is the fate of Troy. The gods’ interference and involvement are other themes, as is the human characters’ efforts to circumvent their will and win the battles. Odysseus: A Man Who Spans the Epics Odysseus first appears in The Iliad when the Greek Palamedes remind him of his obligation under Tyndareus’ Oath. Following Odysseus’ own advice, the Spartan King, Tyndareus, made each of Helen’s suitors swear an oath. They would respect the union of Helen and the suitor she chose and pledge to defend the marriage. Knowing he would not return from the war for 20 years if he went, Odysseus attempted to pretend insanity. He hitched a goat and an ox together to his plow and sowed his fields with salt. Palamedes placed his infant son, Telemachus, in front of the plow, forcing Odysseus to reveal his sanity by turning aside. Odysseus plays an advisory role through most of the Trojan war. He is a skilled warrior but also a wise leader. When it was foretold that if Rhesus’ horses drank from the river Scamander, Troy would not be taken. Odysseus partnered with Diomedes to slip into the Trojan camp and kill the horses, preventing the prophecy’s realization. Although the incident is not related until the Odyssey, Odysseus conceived of the plan to build the giant wooden horse and trick the Trojans into taking it into their City, bringing about the final defeat. 2. A Tale of War and a Journey It is impossible to complete a study of the differences in the Odyssey vs. Iliad without discussing each of the epics’ overreaching themes. The Iliad is the tale of a portion of the Trojan War. It takes place largely within one area, and the conflict is between the individuals making up two main adversaries- the Acheans and the Trojans. It is an epic story of war and battle and conflict, and the challenges facing the characters within the framework of those conflicts. The Iliad is a tale of Man vs Man, as the two armies battle over the fate of not only the city but of the woman for whose love a foolish young prince was willing to start a war. By contrast, The Odyssey is the story of one man and his epic journey to return to his beloved home. Standing in his way are not armies, but rather the gods, nature and fate. 179 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The recurring theme of fate runs through the entire epic. Odysseus cannot escape the prophecy that was made before he even entered the war- that it would be 20 years before he would return. Though the war ended after 10 years, it took him another decade to return to Ithaca, as he ran the gamut of challenges, losing men and ships along the way, until he returned battered and alone. When he reached his home, there was a final obstacle to pass. His beloved wife, Penelope, had been rejecting suitors during his time away. He needed to prove his identity and defeat those who would have stolen his throne in his absence. While The Iliad is an epic tale of war and battle, The Odyssey is the story of a journey, a hero’s heroic effort to return to his home. 3. Gods and Cyclops and Mortals In both The Odyssey and The Iliad, the gods and other fantastic beasts feature large in the tales. However, there is a big difference between them. In The Iliad, the gods are front and center, partaking in action directly as the story unfolds. Zeus himself is joined by Athena, Hera, Poseidon, and Hermes, all of whom support the Greeks. Meanwhile, the Trojans have their own immortal lineup in Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis and Leto. Each of the gods has personal reasons for their choices. Athena and Hera were insulted by the Trojan prince, Paris. He was selected as a judge between Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, and chose Aphrodite, accepting her bribe of the love of the most beautiful woman in the world- Helen of Sparta. In fact, Aphrodite intervenes when Paris becomes involved in a duel with Menelaus, Helen’s first husband. In Book 4, Hera convinced Zeus to promise that Troy will be defeated. Throughout the following books, the gods appear or are involved in every chapter, with scenes of the gods arguing over their involvement and the outcomes part of nearly every book. In Odyssey, the gods are a bit more removed. Their intervention is related only through Odysseus’ storytelling, but they are also far less directly involved. Although Odysseus faces several mortal perils and loses both men and ships, suffering tragedy after tragedy, the gods rarely intervene directly, either in his fortune or misfortune. There are prophecies surrounding Odysseus’ journey and the pitfalls he will face, but it is very little in the way of direct intervention. Unlike Hector, Paris, and Achilles, Odysseus is largely on his own. 4. Multitudes vs One Man’s Story 180 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The differences between The Iliad and The Odyssey are many, nearly as many as the multitude of characters in the Iliad’s storyline. In every chapter, another major player joins the ranks until the main characters’ list stretches to nearly 50 mortals and immortals. The Odyssey, by comparison, has a cast of roughly half as many characters. Odysseus is the sole focus in the Odyssey, while the focus in the Iliad shifts depending upon the point in the story. While it focuses upon a few major story arcs, the Iliad’s story is truly the story of two nations and the balancing of the fates in the hands of fickle gods and goddesses. By contrast, the Odyssey is the story of a single man and his journey to return home to his beloved homeland and family. The focus remains largely on Odysseus as he relates the tale to the King of the Phaeacians. Once the King has heard his tale, he offers Odysseus safe passage back to his own country so that he can win back Penelope and his kingdom. 5. Epic Characterization and Storytelling Techniques  Achilles, one of the primary Iliad characters and the focus of much of the epic’s trajectory, is described by allusions to his physical attributes. He is referred to as “swift-footed,” “lion-hearted,” and “like to the gods.” Achilles is an impulsive actor who seeks power, glory, and flashy attention-grabbing behavior over steady and wise choices. According to the prophecy made about him, Achilles chose to join the war, gain honor and glory, and live a brief life.  Odysseus, on the other hand, is telling the story about his own journey. Therefore, the language and presentation are very different. He avoids obvious praise of his own physical prowess. Instead, the stories are presented in a way that shines the best light of perspective upon him and his actions as he faced each challenge. Always, Odysseus is presented as the wise guide, leading his men through their perils. When there are failure and loss, it is never the fault of Odysseus. It is the fickle men and their misdeeds or mistakes that cause their own demise. In one case, it is the greater strength of the enemy, the Laestrygonians, a race of giants, bring about the destruction of most of his fleet. Odysseus’ clever planning in holding back with one ship saves him and the remaining men from the terrible fate of the rest of his crew. Always, he is the tragic hero, never fully responsible for his own fate. 6. Timeless Timelines – 10 Years vs 20 Years Ironically, the events described in The Iliad span roughly 10 years. 181 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

From the time Paris kidnaps Helen and sails with her to Troy to the eventual downfall of his City and Helen’s retrieval by her husband spans a mere 10 years. By contrast, Odysseus’ journey takes 20 years. When he leaves to enter the war, his son is a mere infant. His story spans both the war and the 10-year journey home. Combined, Odysseus’ story spans both epics and 20 years. Though the war spans 10 years, the story of The Iliad barely covers a few months of the war. While The Iliad primarily focuses on Achilles’ journey and downfall, the Odyssey follows Odysseus’ journey from the time he begins the trip back to Ithaca and remains with him as he travels back across the oceans, facing unimaginable perils, to return to his homeland. 7. Tragedy vs Hope – Diverging Plot Lines The Iliad is primarily a tragedy. A story of war, of hubris and destruction, of greed and pride, and of death. The Iliad is an example of Fate at work, as prophecies are carried out in many lives. There is some question whether it is truly fate or their own hubris and arrogance that brings about the Heroes’ deaths in the Iliad. In particular, Achilles had several chances to turn away from his own foolish pride and arrogance and live a long and happy life. In his injured pride over Briseis, his grief and fury over the death of Patroclus, and his hubris in the treatment of Hector’s body, he chose his own path, a glory-filled but brief life. Odysseus knew when he set out that he was fated not to return to Ithaca for 20 years. He tried to avoid being inducted into the war, but without success. Once he was at war, he nonetheless stayed the course and became the primary advisor and counselor. By contrast, Achilles threw a toddler-worthy temper tantrum, retreating to his tent and refusing to fight after his war-prize, Briseis, was taken from him. Achilles was fated to die, but Odysseus would go on and gain what he wanted most: his family and his kingdom. Endings While The Iliad finished soon after the death of Hector, an event that Homer felt was the closing of the story arc, Odysseus’ story completes with his final reclaiming of his kingdom, making his story one of hope. The Iliad is a tragedy fueled by the pride and foolishness of the actors. From the first decision by Paris’ parents to abandon him in the wilderness to him taking Helen from her homeland, the entire poem is one bad decision after another. Patroclus takes advantage of having access to Achilles’ armor, and his glory-seeking action leads to his death. Achilles’ desire for vengeance drives him to mistreat Hector’s body. Eventually, this leads to his death, which takes place after the close of the poem. Hector’s 182 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

death ends The Iliad, indicating that the epic’s tone is the hopelessness of fate in conjunction with the pride of mortals. By contrast, Odysseus, though he faces misfortunes, maintains his calm demeanor and makes judicious decisions. In this way, he can make his way home and gain his ultimate goal of regaining his family and kingdom. The two stories compare and contrast a series of decisions by the characters and tell the story of Human experiences, both good and bad, driven by our own choices. 6.10 NOVELLA Novella, short and well-structured narrative, often realistic and satiric in tone, that influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. Originating in Italy during the Middle Ages, the novella was based on local events that were humorous, political, or amorous in nature; the individual tales often were gathered into collections along with anecdotes, legends, and romantic tales. Writers such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti, and Matteo Bandello later developed the novella into a psychologically subtle and highly structured short tale, often using a frame story to unify the tales around a common theme. Geoffrey Chaucer introduced the novella to England with The Canterbury Tales. During the Elizabethan period, William Shakespeare and other playwrights extracted dramatic plots from the Italian novella. The realistic content and form of these tales influenced the development of the English novel in the 18th century and the short story in the 19th century. The novella flourished in Germany, where it is known as the Novelle, in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries in the works of writers such as Heinrich von Kleist, Gerhart Hauptmann, J.W. von Goethe, Thomas Mann, and Franz Kafka. As in Boccaccio’s Decameron, the prototype of the form, German Novellen are often encompassed within a frame story based on a catastrophic event (such as plague, war, or flood), either real or imaginary. The individual tales are related by various reporter- narrators to divert the audience from the misfortune they are experiencing. Characterized by brevity, self-contained plots that end on a note of irony, a literate and facile style, restraint of emotion, and objective rather than subjective presentation, these tales were a major stimulant to the development of the modern short story in Germany. The Novelle also survived as a unique form, although unity of mood and style often replaced the traditional unity of action; the importance of the frame was diminished, as was the necessity for maintaining absolute objectivity. Examples of works considered to be novellas, rather than novels or short stories, are Leo Tolstoy’s Smert Ivana Ilicha (The Death of Ivan Ilich), Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Zapiski iz podpolya (Notes from the Underground), Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Henry James’s “The Aspern Papers.” 183 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Difference between Novella and Novel Novellas have less pages and words than that of novels. The more obvious difference is that novellas have fewer subplots and conflicts than full length novels. The main narrative of a novella resembles with a straight line and does not use complicated and indirect plot lines, back stories, and multiple points of views. Unlike novels, novellas usually do not have chapters. It is mostly concerned with emotional and personal development of the character rather than dealing with a larger social sphere and events that usually takes place in one place or location. EXAMPLES OF NOVELLA IN LITERATURE Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness is a strictly controlled novella, with a classic status, describing a story of late nineteenth century about imperialistic and colonialist process. This novella focuses on the search of the central character, Kurtz, who goes too far for exploitation of the natives for the sake of an ivory trade. Conrad’s readers plunge deeper into the horror of darkness to see what happened after the invasion of the Europeans. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Turn of the Screw is a good example of a classic novella. It is, in fact, a ghost story that challenges an easy interpretation. The story is about a governess living in a remote house, taking care of two kids, who are horrified by former dead employees. However, no one knows the truth. The story is filled with complexities such as its central issue is the reliability of the narrator, who tells this story. This story can be said a self-conscious and subtle exploration of a traditional horrible domestic theme about Victorian culture, drenched in social and sexual unease. Billy Budd by Herman Melville Billy Bud is a novella that tells the story of a tragic incident happens at sea. This is an adaptation from a true occurrence. The story is a parable relating good and evil, nautical recasting of Fall, a reflection on political governance and justice, and finding reality of three persons trapped in a dangerous triangle. Billy is an innocent and handsome, Claggart a cruel tormentor, and third one is Captain Vere, who needs to judge the conflict going on between them. The author has interpreted this narrative in Biblical terms, used Christian allegory, and represented male homosexual desires and what mechanisms are to be chosen to prohibit this desire. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann Death in Venice is a wonderful classic novella. It is an amazingly condensed story about the relationship between life and art and life and death. Venice sets background of this story. It is based on a renowned German writer, who is following unusual routines, falling for a young lad, and getting trapped in a slight downward twist of indulgence. The construction of this 184 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

novella follows the framework of Greek tragedy in which author has used unity of form, motives and themes superbly. Seize the Day by Saul Bellow This narrative concentrates on one man, Tommy Wilhelm, and just one day of his life. He is a fading charmer, separated from his family, who starts reckoning and feels scared. Although he is in his forties, he retains boyish impetuousness, which brings him to the brink of havoc. During the course of a climatic day, Tommy reviews all his past mistakes. Some people consider it a short story. However, if looked in depth, it shows a strong sense of unity. Function of Novella Novellas are the richest and most rewarding forms of literary genres, because this genre allows an extended development of characters and themes than a short story does, without making detailed structural demands of a complete book. Thus, a novella provides a detailed and intense exploration of the topic, providing both the complete focus of a short story and a broad scope of a novel. Since novellas have ideal short length, they are considered a perfect source for silver screen and film adaptations. 6.11 POSTMODERNISM What Is Postmodern Literature? Postmodern literature is a literary movement that eschews absolute meaning and instead emphasizes play, fragmentation, metafiction, and intertextuality. The literary movement rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a reaction to modernist literature’s quest for meaning in light of the significant human rights violations of World War II. Common examples of postmodern literature include Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Literary theorists that crystalized postmodernity in literature include Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Jorge Luis Borges, Fredric Jameson, Michel Foucault, and Jean-François Lyotard. What Are the Origins of Postmodern Literature? Postmodern literature’s precursor, modernist (or modern) literature, emphasized a quest for meaning, suggesting the author as an enlightenment-style creator of order and mourning the chaotic world—examples include James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. However, after the series of human rights violations that occurred during and after World War II (including the Holocaust, the atomic bombings of Japan, and Japanese internment in the US), writers began to feel as if meaning was an impossible quest, and that the only way to move forward was to embrace meaninglessness fully. 185 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Thus, postmodern literature rejected (or built upon) many of the tenants of modernism, including shunning meaning, intensifying and celebrating fragmentation and disorder, and initiating a major shift in literary tradition. 5 Characteristics of Postmodern Literature Postmodern literature builds on the following core ideas:  Embrace of randomness. Postmodern works reject the idea of absolute meaning and instead embrace randomness and disorder. Postmodern novels often employ unreliable narrators to further muddy the waters with extreme subjectivity and prevent readers from finding meaning during the story.  Playfulness. While modernist writers mourned the loss of order, postmodern writers revel in it, often using tools like black humor, wordplay, irony, and other techniques of playfulness to dizzy readers and muddle the story.  Fragmentation. Postmodernist literature took modernism’s fragmentation and expanded on it, moving literary works more toward collage-style forms, temporal distortion, and significant jumps in character and place.  Metafiction. Postmodern literature emphasized meaninglessness and play. Postmodern writers began to experiment with more meta elements in their novels and short stories, drawing attention to their work’s artifice and reminding readers that the author isn’t an authority figure.  Intertextuality. As a form of collage-style writing, many postmodern authors wrote their work overtly in dialogue with other texts. The techniques they employed included pastiche (or imitating other authors’ styles) and the combination of high and low culture (writing that tackles subjects that were previously considered inappropriate for literature). Post Modernisim And Its Theory Postmodernism broadly refers to a socio-cultural and literary theory, and a shift in perspective that has manifested in a variety of disciplines including the social sciences, art, architecture, literature, fashion, communications, and technology. It is generally agreed that the postmodern shift in perception began sometime back in the late 1950s, and is probably still continuing. Postmodernism can be associated with the power shifts and dehumanization of the post-Second World War era and the onslaught of consumer capitalism. The very term Postmodernism implies a relation to Modernism. Modernism was an earlier aesthetic movement which was in vogue in the early decades of the twentieth century. It has often been said that Postmodernism is at once a continuation of and a break away from the Modernist stance. 186 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Postmodernism shares many of the features of Modernism. Both schools reject the rigid boundaries between high and low art. Postmodernism even goes a. step further and deliberately mixes low art with high art, the past with the future, or one genre with another. Such mixing of different, incongruous elements illustrates Postmodernism’s use of lighthearted parody, which was also used by Modernism. Both these schools also employed pastiche, which is the imitation of another’s style. Parody and pastiche serve to highlight the self-reflexivity of Modernist and Postmodernist works, which means that parody and pastiche serve to remind the reader that the work is not “real” but fictional, constructed. Modernist and Postmodernist works are also fragmented and do not easily, directly convey a solid meaning. That is, these works are consciously ambiguous and give way to multiple interpretations. The individual or subject depicted in these works is often decentred, without a central meaning or goal in life, and dehumanized, often losing individual characteristics and becoming merely the representative of an age or civilization, like Tiresias in The Waste Land. In short, Modernism and Postmodernism give voice to the insecurities, disorientation and fragmentation of the 20th century western world. The western world, in the 20th century, began to experience this deep sense of security because it progressively lost its colonies in the Third World, worn apart by two major World Wars and found its intellectual and social foundations shaking under the impact of new social theories an developments such as Marxism and Postcolonial global migrations, new technologies and the power shift from Europe to the United States. Though both Modernism and Postmodernism employ fragmentation , discontinuity and decentredness in theme and technique, the basic dissimilarity between the two schools is hidden in this very aspect. Modernism projects the fragmentation and decentredness of contemporary world as tragic. It laments the loss of the unity and centre of life and suggests that works of art can provide the unity, coherence, continuity and meaning that is lost in modern life. Thus Eliot laments that the modern world is an infertile wasteland, and the fragmentation, incoherence, of this world is effected in the structure of the poem. However, The Waste Land tries to recapture the lost meaning and organic unity by turning to Eastern cultures, and in the use of Tiresias as protagonist In Postmodernism, fragmentation and disorientation is no longer tragic. Postmodernism on the other hand celebrates fragmentation. It considers fragmentation and decentredness as the only possible way of existence, and does not try to escape from these conditions. This is where Postmodernism meets Poststructuralism —both Postmodernism and Poststructuralism recognize and accept that it is not possible to have a coherent centre. In Derridean terms, the centre is constantly moving towards the periphery and the periphery constantly moving towards the centre. In other words, the centre, which is the seat of power, is never entirely powerful. It is continually becoming powerless, while the powerless periphery continually tries to acquire power. As a result, it can be argued that there is never a centre, or that there are always multiple centres. This postponement of the centre acquiring 187 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

power or retaining its position is what Derrida called differance. In Postmodernism’s celebration of fragmentation, there is thus an underlying belief in differance, a belief that unity, meaning, coherence is continually postponed. The Postmodernist disbelief in coherence and unity points to another basic distinction between Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism believes that coherence and unity is possible, thus emphasizing the importance of rationality and order. The basic assumption of Modernism seems to be that more rationality leads to more order, which leads a society to function better. To establish the primacy of Order, Modernism constantly creates the concept of Disorder in its depiction of the other—which includes the non-white, non-male, non- heterosexual, non-adult, non-rational and so on. In other words, to establish the superiority of Order, Modernism creates the impression- that all marginal, peripheral, communities such as the non-white, non-male etc. are contaminated by Disorder. Postmodernism, however, goes to the other extreme. It does not say that some parts of the society illustrate Order, and that other parts illustrate Disorder. Postmodernism, in its criticism of the binary opposition, cynically even suggests that everything is Disorder. 6.12 TYPES OF LITERATURE –NON FICTION Literature: it's a big term that encompasses just about every type of written word. It may be overwhelming to think about all the different types of literature, but there are actually two main groups all literature can be categorized under. These two categories are fiction and nonfiction. Fiction includes all written works that are invented or made-up by the author. This includes novels, short stories, and poems. Nonfiction, then, comprises of the written works based on real events. In this way, literature that is nonfiction can help us understand our world. Let's look closer at the characteristics and examples of nonfiction. Characteristics of Non-Fiction There are several important traits of all nonfiction works. Most importantly, nonfiction writing must involve real people, places, and events. The stories told in nonfiction works must be true. If something in the story is made-up, then it falls under fiction. Nonfiction must also contain facts, which are information that can be proved to be true. With this in mind, a writer can select and organize the facts in a number of ways in order to accomplish his purpose. Some facts can be omitted, and others can be shown in a specific light, but overall, facts must be present in the written work. Most nonfiction works also have a similar author's purpose, which is the reason the author writes. Most nonfiction is written to express or to inform. If the author's purpose is to express, the concepts expressed are always based on true, real-life situations. Because of this, one could argue all nonfiction serves to inform the reader, as well. 188 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Nonfiction novel, story of actual people and actual events told with the dramatic techniques of a novel. The American writer Truman Capote claimed to have invented this genre with his book In Cold Blood (1965). A true story of the brutal murder of a Kansas farm family, the book was based on six years of exacting research and interviews with neighbours and friends of the victims and the two captured murderers. The story is told from the points of view of different “characters,” and the author attempts not to intrude his own comments or distort fact. Critics pointed out earlier precedents for this type of journalistic novel, such as John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946), an account of the World War II atomic bombing of the Japanese city told through the histories of six survivors. Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song (1979) is another notable example of the genre. 6.13 SUMMARY  Writing is a form of human communication by means of a set of visible marks that are related, by convention, to some particular structural level of language.  This definition highlights the fact that writing is in principle the representation of language rather than a direct representation of thought and the fact that spoken language has a number of levels of structure, including sentences, words, syllables, and phonemes (the smallest units of speech used to distinguish one word or morpheme from another), any one of which a writing system can “map onto” or represent.  Indeed, the history of writing is in part a matter of the discovery and representation of these structural levels of spoken language in the attempt to construct an efficient, general, and economical writing system capable of serving a range of socially valuable functions.  Literacy is a matter of competence with a writing system and with the specialized functions that written language serves in a particular society.  Writing is merely one, albeit the most important, means of communicating by visible signs. Gestures—such as a raised hand for greeting or a wink for intimate agreement—are visible signs, but they are not writing in that they do not transcribe a linguistic form. Pictures, similarly, may represent events but do not represent language and hence are not a form of writing.  But the boundary between pictures and writing becomes less clear when pictures are used conventionally to convey particular meanings.  In order to distinguish pictures from pictorial signs, it is necessary to notice that language has two primary levels of structure, which the French linguist André Martinet referred to as the “double articulation” of language: the meaning structures on one hand and the sound patterns on the other. 189 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

6.14 KEYWORDS  Postmodernism –it is a broad movement that developed in the mid-to-late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism. The term has been more generally applied to describe a historical era said to follow after modernity and the tendencies of this era.  Deconstruction –It is an approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was originated by the philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), who defined the term variously throughout his career.  Epics - is a large body of work that can be broken down into a number of smaller stories, or sometimes called “Issues” in Jira. Epics often encompass multiple teams, on multiple projects, and can even be tracked on multiple boards. Epics are almost always delivered over a set of sprints.  Melodrama - a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.  Modernism – It is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernist innovations included abstract art, the stream-of-consciousness novel, montage cinema, atonal and twelve-tone music, and divisionist painting. 6.15 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1 Define Elizabethan tragedy ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State the principles of Tragedies by Shakespeare. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 6.16 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions 190 Short Questions 1. What is melodrama? 2. Define short story and its types. 3. Explain the different types of epics. 4. How is novella different from novel? 5. Explain the importance of post –literature. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Long Questions 1. How are the Illiad and Odessey different from each other? 2. Describe Post-modernisim and its effects. 3. Explain the importance of the epics in India. 4. Explain the importance of tragedy during the time of Victorian age. 5. Explain the melodrama and theatre of 19th Century. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. The --------------------------------was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere. a. Victorian Age b. Elizabethan age c. Age of Chaucer d. Pre raphalite age 2. The evolution of --------------------------------------first began before humans could write. a. the short story b. epics c. Drama d. Epilogues 3. The word epic has been derived a -------------------------------word epikos, which means a word, song or speech. a. mandarine b. Roman c. Latin d. Greek 4. -----------------------------, short and well-structured narrative, often realistic and satiric in tone a. Novella b. Epic c. Tragedy d. Melodrama 5. ------------------------------, in Western theatre, sentimental drama with an improbable plot that concerns the vicissitudes suffered by the virtuous 191 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

a. Epic b. Melodrama c. Novella d. Satire Answers 1-a, 2-a, 3-d, 4-a, 5-b 6.17 REFERENCES References book  Margaret Drabble (Ed.) The Oxford Companion To English Literature, 6th Ed., Rev. (2006).  John Buxton And Norman Davis (Eds.)The Oxford History Of English Literature, 15 Vol. (1945–90),  Jonathan Bate (Ed.)The Oxford English Literary History (2002– ).  Lionel Stevenson The English Novel (1960, Reprinted 1978); Peter Conrad, Cassell’s History Of English Literature (2003);  Carl Woodring And James Shapiro (Eds.) The Columbia History Of British Poetry (1994).  R.D. Fulk And Christopher M. Cain, A History Of Old English Literature (2002)  David Aers,  Community, Gender, And Individual Identity: English Writing, 1360– 1430 (1988); Piero Boitani,  English Medieval Narrative In The Thirteenth And Fourteenth Centuries (1982; Originally Published In Italian, 1980); Nancy Mason Bradbury,  Writing Aloud: Storytelling In Late Medieval England (1998); J.A. Burrow,  The Ages Of Man: A Study In Medieval Writing And Thought (1986); Ruth Evans And Lesley Johnson (Eds.),  The Novel Today: A Critical Guide To The British Novel, 1970–1989 (1990); D.J. Taylor,  After The War: The Novel And English Society Since 1945 (1993); Martin Booth,  British Poetry 1964 To 1984 (1985); Neil Corcoran 192 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)