Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry ENG401
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Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry ENG401 ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 1 Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU Table of Contents Lesson 1…………………………………………………………………………… 3 Introduction to Literature Lesson 2…………………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction to Short Story Lesson 3 ……………………………………………………………………………18 O.Henry Lesson 4…………………………………………………………………………….31 Oscar Wilde Lesson 5…………………………………………………………………………….48 Guy de Maupassant Lesson 6…………………………………………………………………………….65 Edgar Allan Poe Lesson 7…………………………………………………………………………….77 Mark Twain Lesson 8…………………………………………………………………………….98 Katherine Mansfield Lesson 9……………………………………………………………………………120 Introduction to Poetry Lesson 10…………………………………………………………………………..132 William Blake Lesson 11…………………………………………………………………………..143 William Wordsworth Lesson 12…………………………………………………………………………..152 John Keats Lesson 13…………………………………………………………………………..162 P.B. Shelley Lesson 14…………………………………………………………………………..172 Robert Browning Lesson 15…………………………………………………………………………...180 Robert Frost ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 2 Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU Lesson 1 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE Literature is defined as: ‘Written works, e.g. fiction, poetry, drama, and criticism that are recognized as having important or permanent artistic value are referred to as literature.’ Or ‘The body of written works of a culture, language, people, or period of time is called literature.’ Literature perhaps started with man discovering his ability to create. When this happened, he realized that he could not only express his emotions in writing but in the process convey messages of importance to society carefully hidden in beautiful words. He decided that he could play with words to entertain people who would read them. In the olden days, distance was of course a problem and so maintaining a history of world literature was impossible. The flip side is that we have a wide range of literature to read from. People in different parts of the world, using different languages and writing in different periods of time tackled literature differently. This has left us with books and creations that enrich our society, our heritage as a race and us. Even the most voracious reader can never hope to read all the books out there. Literature and writing, though obviously connected, are not synonymous. Every piece of writing is not literature. The definition of literature is mainly personal and scholars have a disagreement regarding when written record-keeping became more like "literature". Another important fact to consider is that the historical development of literature was not even-paced across the globe. The main hurdle in creating a uniform world history of literature is the disappearance of many texts over the millennia, either intentionally, by accident, or by the total vanishing of the originating culture. The earliest forms of English literature, like the earliest forms of other national literatures, have perished. Literature includes both written and spoken material. On a broader level, ‘Literature’ includes anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but most commonly the term refers to works of the creative imagination, i.e. poetry, drama, prose and novel. Literature is almost similar to art, what is true in painting is true in literature. ‘A novel is not an imitation or an exact copy of life as we live it; it is rather a selection of characters and events drawn from reading, observation, and experience, and woven into an entirely new story.’ (p.20, How to Study English Literature by T. Sharper Knowlson) Ezra Pound says, "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 3 Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU The above statement from Pound tells us that great literature leaves us with some meaning. Meaning to what? To life. Thus literature gives answers to our questions about life. It tells us that in the journey of life, only we are not the fighters. There are millions out there striving like us to carry on with the flow of life; feeling different shades of life; enjoying life in its fullest and suffering the deepest of miseries. Literature helps us identify with others in the globe, strengthens and unites us with the rest of mankind. Reading Literature books gives us maturity and may solve the unsolved mysteries of life. Literature helps us create an interest in life as we see it. It helps us experience life in all its colors and vastness. In our journey of exploring different literary texts, we meet different interesting characters that teach us many things; alleviate our sorrows; elevate our spirit at different levels. Humanity in all its shades is encompassed in literature: sorrows, happiness, wars, birth, death etc. Literature enriches personal experiences and adds wisdom to even ordinary events. Literary texts can even revolutionize our life by helping us grow through our literary journey and enabling us to see everyday events in a new light. Literature portrays a culture more elaborately than historical or cultural artifacts do because it deals directly with language and people. The author’s message is interpreted differently by different people. The decoding of the text varies according to use of different literary theories using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or any other approach. Whatever critical standard we use for critical analysis of the literary texts, an artistic quality to the works always remains. Literature is never confined to a single culture or country. It speaks to us regardless of our race, culture or country. English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literary works in English by writers not just from England but also from other countries. The famous writer Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, and Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. Despite the variety of authors of English literature, the works of William Shakespeare remain paramount in all literary circles. Literature has two major aspects, one is of simple enjoyment and aesthetic appeal to the senses, and other is of analysis and exact description of the prevailing condition of society in general and man in particular. So, studying literature with these two aspects provides us an opportunity to experience entirely new worlds. Like when a song appeals to the ear or a noble book to the heart, we discover a new world for the moment, at least, a completely new world which is very different from our own world and it seems that we are in a place of dreams and magic. Every time we read literature, we gain something from it that we did not have before. Even reading the same text at different stages in our life offers us meanings we missed the first time. Literature is a true and beautiful expression of life; it is the written record of a person’s thoughts, emotions, feelings and experiences which would never fade. ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 4 Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU Some of the major genres of English Literature are as under: 1. Poetry 2. Drama 3. Novel 4. Prose Poetry The term poetry is hard to define but we can say that poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience, expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language and evokes an emotional response. Poetry mostly employs meter and rhyme, but this is not necessary. Poetry is an old form and has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. Poetry includes whatsoever of painting can be made visible to the mind’s eye, and whatsoever of music can be conveyed by sound and proportion without singing or instrumentation. Prose Prose is distinguished from poetry because of its complete lack of any metrical structure and variety of rhythm and has a closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech. Drama Drama is a prose or verse composition, especially one that tells a serious story, intended for representation by actors who mimic the characters and perform the dialogues and actions of the written narrative. A drama is the imitation of a complete action, adapted to the sympathetic attention of man, developed in a succession of continuously interesting and continuously related incidents, acted and expressed by means of speech and the symbols, actualities, and conditions of life. Novel A novel is a fictional prose narrative of significant length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters. Why do we study Literature? 1. Literature always reflects human ideas, beliefs, and societies. 2. Literature helps us to discover ordinary human ways of understanding life. 3. While reading literature, we explore significant differences and this allows us to even experience perspectives of those separated from us by time and social barriers. 4. Getting to know the human psyche would help us discover pride in our own culture, gain respect for others, and be humble. 5. We find different human responses and reactions in poems, essays, diaries, narratives, and in the characters of narratives. Exposure to such varied responses helps us gain a greater knowledge of the human psyche and at the same time, we ©Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 5 Introduction to Literature: Short Story and Poetry VU are familiarized with a greater knowledge of ourselves and our own responses because we surely compare our lives to those in literature. 6. We learn about the good and evil forces; experience the injustices prevalent in this world and it cultivates a sense of wisdom in us. Good literature assists us in becoming a better person. 7. Literature provides us with a worldview of things and gives us a mature perspective of things. 8. Literature serves as an entertainment .It also introduces us to the literary figures, movements and multi-dimensional characters.