EN 2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Hot 8 Brass Band, Literary Theory, Narratology
2 Jul 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Since the medieval period we have understood that language can have multiple interpretations and texts can be understood differently, but that doesn"t necessarily make them art. So what does: here, we have all but one of the lines replaced by instruments and the remaining line, love will tear us apart has certainly a variety of possible interpretations. Thus the written word (one) represents a physical space (the room behind the door) but also the metre of a song - something extremely abstract. Hot 8 brass band"s version of joy division"s song doesn"t tell us how to read it, but it does open out questions about language and meaning, about authorship and identity, about genre and gender. And this is what literary theory does: it helps us figure out which questions to ask to deepen our understanding, and it gives us ways to articulate our answers. If so, how: these are just suggestions.
