Literary Terms

Assignment Paper-E-C-203

Topic- Literary Terms

Dabhi Ashvin P

M.A. Part – 1

SEM- II

Roll No -06

Year – 2010-11

Department of English

Submitted to Dr. Dilip Barad

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University

Ø Introduction:-

          There are many literary terms. We can easily some theory with the help of the literary terms. If we have some idea regarding literary terms, we can easily study literary theory. Here let’s discuss about three important terms (1) Archetype (2) Rasa Theory (3) Diaspora. First we will discuss about the term Archetype.

(1)  Archetype:-

Ø What is Archetype Criticism?

         In literary criticism the term Archetype denotes recurrent narratives designs, character types, themes, images and patterns of action. which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature as well as in myths, dreams and even social rituals. An important antecedent of the literary theory of the archetype was the treatment of myth by a group of comparative anthropologists at Cambridge University. A more important antecedent was the depth psychology of Carl G. Jung, who applied “primordial images”. At the last we can say that ‘Archetype’ means, typical specimen or original model. In other way something that serves the model or other things of the same type.

        Archetypal literary criticism was given driving force by Maud Bodkin’s Archetypal patterns in poetry and to go on well especially during the 1950s and 1960s. There were some other prominent practitioners of various modes of archetypal criticism. There were G. Wilson Knight, Robert Graves, Philip Wheelwright, Richard Chase and Joseph Campbell. These critics tended to emphasize the happen of mythical patterns in literature. They also emphasized on the assumption that myths are closest to the elemental archetype than the artful to work with hands of sophisticated writers.

        The death/rebirth theme was often said to be the archetype of archetypes and was held to be grounded in the cycle of the seasons and the organic cycle of human life. This type of archetype it was claimed that it happen in primitive rituals of the king who is annually sacrificed in widespread myths of gods who die to be reborn. The other archetypal traced in literature were the journey underground, the heavenly ascent, the search, the paradise/heads dichotomy, the promethean rebel hero the scapegoat, the earth goddess and the fatal woman.

        Northrop Frye’s work breaks from both Frazer and Jung in such a way. He has created different world of nature into archetypal forms that serves to satisfy enduring human desires and needs. In this literary universe four radical mythos that is correspondent to the four seasons in the cycle of the natural world, are incorporated in the four major genres of comedy (spring), romance (summer), tragedy (autumn), and satire (winter).

(1) Spring (comedy):-

        The dawn, spring and birth phase. Myths of the birth of the hero, of revival and resurrection, of creation and of the defeat of the powers of darkness, winter and death. Here we can take example of Jesus Christ.

(2)Summer (Romance):-

        Romance and summer are paired together because summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar and the romance genre culminates with some sort of triumph, usually a marriage.

(3)Autumn (tragedy):-

     The sunset, autumn and death phase. Myths of fall, of the dying god, of violent death and sacrifice and of the isolation of the hero. It is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar which parallels the tragedy genre because it is known for the “fall. Here we can take example of the fall of man (hero) Adam and Eve.

(4)Winter (satire):-

The satire is the dark genre. It is a disillusioned and mocking from of the three other genres.

Ø The context of a genre determines how a symbol of image is to be interpreted. Frye outlines five different spheres in his schema:

(1) in the comic vision the human world is representative of wish-fulfillment and being community centered. In contrast, the tragic human world is of isolation, tyranny and the fallen hero.

(2) Animals in the comedic genres are docile and pastoral, while animals are predatory and hunters in the tragic. Here we can put example of sheep and wolves.in the old man there is shark is predatory animal.

(3) For the realm of vegetation, the comedic is pastoral but also represented by gardens, parks, roses and lotuses. As for the tragic, vegetation is of a wild forest or as being barren. Here we can put example of pastoral background (country life) v/s city life conflict in ‘As you like it’.

(4)  Cities temples or precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm is noted for being a desert.

(5) The water realms is represented by rivers in the comedic with the tragic the seas and especially floods.

E.g. the last scene from the film ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’.

Ø Some examples of archetypes in literature:-   

(A)Characters:-

 (1) Hero: - The courageous figure. A one who is running in and saving days.

       E.g. Hamlet, Macbeth, Tom Jones

(2) The Scapegoat: - The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything.

       E.g. Tom Jones

(3) The outcast: - The outcast just that he/she has been cast out of society or has left it on a voluntary basis.

        E.g. Pandavas, Ram-Sita and Laxman, Sugreve

(4) The star-crossed lovers: - This is the young couple joined but unexpectedly parted by fate.

       E.g.  Romeo and Juliet from “Romeo and Juliet” Heath cliff and Catherine from “Wuthering Heights”.

(B)Symbol:-

(1) The quest: - Here the characters are searching for something.

     E.g. Search for Sita, Nal-Damyanti, and Savitri for Satyakam’s life.

(2) Water :- water is a symbol of life, cleaning and rebirth. It is strong life force.

(3) Rivers: - Death and rebirth, the flowing of time into eternity.

(4) Rising Sun: - birth, creation

(5) Setting sun: - Death

(6) Colors: - Red is for blood, sacrifice and passion. Green is for growth, hope, fertility. Blue is for highly positive, secure, purity. Black is for darkness, evil, melancholy, chaos. White is for light, purity, innocence. Yellow is for enlightenment, wisdom.

(2)RASA THEORY:-

        The rasa theory originates with Bharata in Natyasashtra. It claims that object or meaning that is sought to be conveyed in literary compositions is in the Nature of an emotional effect of diverse human experience on man’s mind and heart. It is possible, Bharata demonstrates, to enumerate the whole range of emotions, or states of being born of experience and to analyze the structure of those emotions in on man’s being. The theory thus becomes in effect a theory of literary experience which is strongly rooted in the empirical human reality.

There are eight rhetorical sentiments (Rasa) recognized in drama and dramatic representation is named as follows: - the Erotic, comic, pathetic, furious, Heroic, Terrible, Odious, and Marvelous. In these there are four main Rasa which are the sources of origin of these sentiments: these are as follows: the Erotic, the Furious, the Heroic and Odious. After these eight Rasa, three Rasas Bhakti, Shanti and Vatsalya are added in them.

Ø The colors:-

         The Erotic sentiment is light-green, the comic is described as white, pathetic is grey, the fearful is described as red, Heroic is to be known as Yellow red, the terrible as black, the odious on the contrary is blue and the Marvelous is Yellow.

Ø The Deities :-

        The Erotic has Vishnu as its presiding deity, the deity of the comic is pramatha, the deity of the furious is Rudra, and the pathetic has Yama as its deity. The deity of the odious is Mahakala, the terrible has Kala as the god, the heroic the god Mahendra and marvelous has Brahma as its deity.

(3)Diaspora:-

         The term Diaspora means home sickness. Most early discussions of Diaspora were firmly rooted in a conceptual ‘home land’. They were concerned with a paradigmatic case or a small number of care cases. The paradigmatic case was, of course, the Jewish Diaspora and some dictionary definitions of Diaspora until recently did not simply illustrate but defined the word with reverence to that case.

         The initial expansion of the use of the phrase extended it to other similar cases, such as the American and Greek Diasporas. More recently, it has been applied to emigrant groups that continue their involvement in their homeland from overseas, such as the category of long-distance nationalists identified by Benedict Anderson. Brubaker notes that Albanians, Hindu, Indian, Irish, Kashmiri, Kurds, Tamils, Palestinians have been conceptualized as Diasporas in this sense. Furthermore and social migrants who maintain emotional and socialites with a homeland” have also been described as Diasporas.

We can take example of the poem “Leaving India” by Rachana Joshi, in this poem we can see Diasporic feelings.