ENG215H1 Lecture Notes - Literary Realism, Close Reading, Intertextuality
Document Summary
Elaine showalter"s definition of a close reading (on blackboard - important for term): foundation of critical analysis - especially in relation to short stories: need to understand verbal, formal and structural elements of the words. Close reading is a deliberate attempt to detach from plot/story & pay attention to imagery, allusion, intertextuality, syntax and form. Under heading of realism: used to designate a recurrent mode in various eras and literary forms of representing life in literature: opposed to romantic fiction. Romance is for how life would be as we would have it. Realism, is obviously, a more realistic representation: realism represents life and the social world as it seems to the reader. Fredrick grove was devoted to the idea of realism to convince the reader that the narrative was based in real life and objective and believable: portrayed an idealized realistic and unsentimental view of prairie life.
