The Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature

249 Pages·2010·1.45 MB·English

The Edinburgh Introduction to
Studying English Literature
The Edinburgh
Edited by Dermot Cavanagh, Alan Gillis, Michelle Keown,
James Loxley and Randall Stevenson
Introduction to Studying
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Edited by
Cover image:
World of booksby Viorika Prikhodko Photography © iStockphoto
Cover design: Dermot Cavanagh, Alan Gillis, Michelle Keown,
www.hayesdesign.co.uk
ISBN: 978-0-7486-4025-6
James Loxley and Randall Stevenson
Edinburgh University Press E
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22 George Square,Edinburgh,EH8 9LF in
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ISBN 978 0 7486 4025 6 h
THE EDINBURGH
INTRODUCTION TO
STUDYING ENGLISH
LITERATURE
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THE EDINBURGH
INTRODUCTION TO
STUDYING ENGLISH
LITERATURE
Edited by Dermot Cavanagh, Alan Gillis,
Michelle Keown, James Loxley and
Randall Stevenson
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© in this edition Edinburgh University Press, 2010
© in the individual contributions is retained by the authors
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11/13 pt Monotype Bembo
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4026 3 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4025 6 (paperback)
The right of Dermot Cavanagh, Alan Gillis,
Michelle Keown, James Loxley and Randall Stevenson
to be identifi ed as editors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Preface vii
Section I – Introductory 1
1 What is Literature? 3
Alex Thomson
2 English Literary Studies: Origins and Nature 16
Robert Irvine
3 Kinds of Literature 25
David Salter
Section II – Poetry 35
4 Poetry: An Introduction 37
Alan Gillis
5 Metre and Rhythm 47
Lee Spinks
6 Verse Forms 57
Penny Fielding
7 Poetic Imagery 67
Sarah M. Dunnigan
8 Poetry and History 78
Greg Walker
9 Vernacular Poetry 88
Colin Nicholson
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vi Contents
Section III – Narrative 99
10 Genre and Form: The Short Story 101
Kenneth Millard
11 Narrative Language 110
Keith Hughes
12 Narrative Structure and Technique 120
Randall Stevenson
13 Constructing Character 129
Rajorshi Chakraborti
14 Narrative, Society and History 139
Aaron Kelly
15 Life Writing 148
Laura Marcus
Section IV – Drama 159
16 Introducing Drama 161
Roger Savage
17 Text and Performance 171
Olga Taxidou
18 Tragedy 180
Simon Malpas
19 Comedy 189
Jonathan Wild
20 History and Politics 199
Dermot Cavanagh
21 Sex, Gender and Performance 208
Suzanne Trill
Works Cited 220
Notes on Contributors 229
Index 234
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Preface
Reading literature off ers us diverse and abiding pleasures and can be reward-
ing in a great variety of ways. Such pleasures, though, can be enhanced,
sustained and deepened by the critical study of literature, and such study can
be an absorbing, challenging and enriching experience in itself. This book
aims to open the door to such experience and to give a glimpse of its rewards.
Expert, thorough, up to date and easy to follow, the chapters which follow
provide a straightforward and eff ective pathway towards increasing your
enjoyment and broadening your understanding of literature. Anyone wishing
to become a more insightful and informed reader will fi nd practical and lasting
guidance throughout these pages. If you are studying literature formally as part
of a course or for a degree, this book will also impart the skills and knowledge
required to begin a more advanced programme of study.
One reason literature matters is its longevity as a practice and an art form. In
this book, we have drawn on a wide variety of examples from diff erent periods.
This is because the serious study of literature demands historical awareness: lit-
erature has changed over the centuries, and will probably change again; unsur-
prisingly, what is understood or defi ned as literature has changed as well. All of
the literary examples are drawn from easily accessible sources, either standard
and familiar editions or widely-available anthologies such as those published
by Norton and Longman. You will fi nd a list of all the primary literary works
to which our contributors refer in the ‘Works Cited’ section at the end of the
book, along with all the secondary literary and critical material each chapter
uses. We have not assumed that you have read these works previously, and the
contributors take care to explain the kind of texts they are discussing and their
key concerns. The same applies to the secondary material they mention.
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viii Preface
The chapters of this book do not need to be read in sequence, and you
may fi nd it more useful to read particular chapters or sections in an order that
suits your own needs. The book aims to provide you with a comprehensive
understanding of the forms and techniques literature uses and the variety of
ways in which it can be interpreted. This means that the essays do use specifi c
and specialist terminology to defi ne particular critical approaches and literary
techniques. These are explained by each contributor as they arise in discus-
sion; later chapters may refer back to these defi nitions and indicate where each
term fi rst occurs. However, if you fi nd a particular term or idea puzzling, the
Index will point you towards the page or pages where it is fi rst explained and
to any subsequent uses or elucidation. At the end of each chapter you will
fi nd a list of ‘Next Steps’, indicating critical works that our contributors judge
to be good places to continue your own reading and research in a particular
area.
All of the contributors to this collection teach or have taught in the
University of Edinburgh’s English Literature department – an outstanding
and long-e stablished department that celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2012.
They share extensive experience of introducing students to the joys and
demands of studying literature, and this has been crucial both to the way in
which the individual chapters have been written and to the overall design of
the volume. In this respect, the editors and contributors would especially like
to thank successive cohorts of fi rst- and second-y ear students of English and
Scottish literature at Edinburgh whose acute questioning has required us to
refl ect on the fundamentals of our discipline and to think carefully about how
to explain them to an intelligent and enquiring audience. The idea for the col-
lection was fi rst broached by Jackie Jones at Edinburgh University Press, and
we are grateful to her for this fruitful suggestion and to her and all at the Press
for their subsequent support.
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Section I – Introductory
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