Sem 2 Exam

go back

Literary Theories

Structuralism

• Predominantly concerned with perceptions and description of structures
• Claims nature of element in any given situation has no significiance by itself, and is in fact determined by all the other elemetns involved in the situation
• the full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part (Hawkes, p. 11.)
• Semiotics is the science of signs
• Semiology proposes that a great diversity of our human action and productions all convey “shared” meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analysed as signs which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems
• Key terms
  • Binary opposition
  • Mythemes
  • Sign vs symbol
  • Structuralist narratology
• tldr:
  • Strucutralsim is a way of understanding culture and meaning in the arts by relating the individual piece of art to something larger
  • Comes from a branch of flanguage study called strcutural linguistics
  • Structuralism is explciiclty anti-individual
  • About a shared structure of meaning

Reader response theory

• nah i ain’t writing all that down it’s too long :sob:

Queer theory

• Questioning established norms
• Stereotypes as social constructs: propaganda is determined by society to be right/normal
• Critiquing powerful institutions
• Exploration of LGBTQ+ life
• Challenging binaries: gender is fluid

What texts to do????

• Top Girls
• M Butterfly
• The Hollow Men
• god america i??????? probably not but maybe
• not grapes of wrath :sob:

Values and Attitudes

Thesis statement: Top Girls endorses my belief that the patriarchy has a detrimental effect on society, by highlighting the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, by criticising the patriarchal representation of feminine values, and by showcasing the need to share and validate women’s stories.

Paragraph 1

Churchill highlights the internalised misogyny in bourgeois feminism that dehumanises women, a core value of the patriarchy

Dialogue

• bourgeois feminism: acceptance of the idea of the patriarchy, and the integration of women into society as well, given those slight effects
  • it took until end of 1970s for this to become a visible and effective tendency. one that is massively overloaded with problems
  • Unseen effects of patriarchal society on women
  • Poisoned ideas and infected minds of women to not criticise the patriarchy, perhaps even idolise it
  • accept the patriarchy as part of everyday life
• Nijo fails to see that she has been violated, due to the internalised misogyny present within her social system
• The lack of humanity within her speech represents the objectification of herself. It’s as if her story is being told without emotion, and she’s indifferent to it Marlene: Are you saying he raped you? Nijo: No, of course not, Marlene, I belonged to him, it was what I was brought up for from a baby.

Tone

• Joan was killed for being a woman in a traditionally male role
• Joan herself doesn’t see how cruelly she was treated, just for being a woman
• Again, this indifference is brought up
• Conveys Joan’s indifference to her death, which speaks to her dehumanisation of herself Joan: They took me by the feet and dragged me out of town and stoned me to death…I don’t really remember

both cases demonstrate objectivism

Paragraph 2: Rejection of Patriarchal Representation of a woman

Churchill criticises the subservient woman, a prevalent attitude in a patriarchal society

• Mrs Kidd comes to see Marlene, as her husband (Howard) is ill and refusing to go to work
• Howard’s ego is so bruised by the fact that he has been passed over for a promotion, which was then given to a woman, that he is physically ill, and literally cannot imagine returning to work in an environment in which he is even in title alone beholden to a woman.
• Contrasts the patriarchal ideal wife’s (Mrs Kidd) nature as meek, submissive and in service to her husband as opposed to Marlene’s controversial “carpe diem” attitude and blunt dialogue
  • Mrs Kidd’s dialogue illustrates her meek nature, and her devotion towards her husband
    • She doesn’t want Howard’s image to be hurt, she came on a personal basis
  • This is compared to Marlene’s straightforward, blunt personality, demonstrated by her confrontational dialogue

Marlene: Are you suggesting I give up the job to him then? Mrs Kidd: It had crossed my mind…I’m not asking…You mustn’t tell him I came. He’s very proud.

Rebels against patriarchal idea that a woman should be subservient to a man

• Mrs. Kidd represents the effect of internalised misogyny, creating fractures and fissures in relationships with other women.
• Marlene represents Churchill’s rejection of this internalised misogyny, and a call for society to acknowledge it
• The dialogue illustrates the clash between these 2 ideals
• Mrs Kidd’s tries to insult Marlene about her lack of a husband, whereas Marlene rejects this, showing that she does not need a man to define her strength and happiness
  • “Ballbreaker” refers to someone who is not married, so the fact that this is an insult is reflective of traditional values of a woman
  • From “ball and chain”, a phrase for marriage i.e. jail, i.e. criminal, i.e. bound in service to a man
• Furthermore, Marlene demonstrates her independence of a partner and rejection of the patriarchal values, through her prioritisation of work in her work-life balance.
• “Piss off” is an informal colloquialism that is usually not associated with femininity, and thus serves to break stereotypical representations of women
• High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards hegemony ideals such as traditional marriage
  • High modality language that shows the strength of Marlenes distaste towards the idea that she has to get married and have a family which portrays dominant values of hegemony and a traditional family in a negative way
• Rejects hegemony ideals

Mrs Kidd: You’re one of those ballbreakers/…You’ll end up lonely and miserable Marlene: I’m sorry, but I do have some work to do. Marlene: Would you please piss off?

Women’s Stories/Suppression of free speech

Churchill conveys the need to share and validate women’s stories that is swept under the rug by the patriarchal society that is so frequent in postmodern literature. Realistic conversational dialogue (realism)

• In Act One, a conversation is held in a restaurant between Marlene and various women who lived under the patriarchy in the past
• Very frequently interrupt each other
• Show this through “forward slashes”
• This use of dramatic dialogue illustrates Churchill’s choice to imbue her characters with the desire to make themselves heard speaks to her thematic preoccupation with the necessity of sharing and validating women’s stories. Joan: And next day he was ill, / I was so annoyed with him, all the time I was
• Over the course of the act, the conversations the women hold aren’t necessarily related to each other.
• Linked to disorder and chaos that is prevalent in postmodern theatre
• Further supports notion that they want to be heard Nijo: Misery in this life and worse in the next, all because of me.

Language conventions

Poem: The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot Question: context: stuff abt loss of faith after ww1. 1st para: loss of faith 2nd para: way to regain faith 3rd: lack of salvation due to lack of faith

• Biblical Allusions: Loss/Lack of faith
  • “Stone images” and “supplication”
  • “fading star”
  • “Thine is the kingdom” references a Biblical Hymn, with the lyrics, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, amen.” To summarise, God is the ruler of everything in the universe. However, this line is italicised, implying that the line is given by an external voice. This external voice could potentially be related to God, as they know the Bible and can quote from it. Conversely, the speaker cannot; they try and fail, with “Thine is the…thine is the…”, representing their disconnection to God.
• Symbolism: Regaining faith
  • To further illustrate their lack of connection to God, the “hollow men” are described as blind, and “sightless”, with sight being a symbol of faith, and thus they are losing their faith. They can restore their “eyes”, i.e. faith, through a “multifoliate rose”. The rose is a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and thus the speaker is saying that to restore their faith, or “sight”, they need the Virgin Mary’s help.
  • Restoring their sight leads them to ”death’s twilight kingdom”, which symbolises heaven, and links to the common Catholic belief where rejection of God, leads to hell. This further supports the notion of having their “sight” restored, to save them from hell.
• Metonym: Lack of salvation (for darkness from lack of faith)
  • The Shadow mentioned in the poem could also be interfering with the persona’s ability to relate to God. The Shadow interferes with notions such as “idea and reality”, and “motion and act”. In essence, it is dividing cause and effect, and seems to be tied to negative emotions, as increasingly nihilistic statements start to appear, as can be seen through the repetition of “this is the way the world ends”.
  • The persona views the Shadow as invincible; the poem ends with the world seemingly ending “not with a bang but a whimper”, suggesting an inevitability to this end, which, in a religious context, is not unlike Judgement Day.
  • As the Shadow separates cause and effect, the world seemingly fades. However, the aforementioned allusions remind the reader that God can reset everything, i.e.  Make everything right, and perhaps provide the Hollow Men salvation, through a higher purpose. However, since the poem states that the world has already ended, the persona acknowledges their failure and has given up on trying to follow God, but still reminisces of their past religion.
  • Reminiscent of judgement day, i.e. they know they can save themselves from judgement day, but refuse to, in order to atone for their sins