Transcript Text Analysis and History

Text Analysis and History
Session Four: Imagery
Agenda
 The prose fiction module
 An introduction to imagery, symbol and
related concepts in an historical context
 Group work: imagery and symbolism in ”A
White Heron”
 Group presentations and general discussion
The prose fiction module
 Motif and theme
 Story and plot, character and
characterisation
 Point of view
 Imagery
 General summary: Toni Morrison, ”Recitatif”
 Evaluation: Essay assignment (for the
portfolio)
Imagery, symbol and related
concepts in the context of history:
Imagery
1. Broadest def.:
All the objects and
qualities of sense
perception
1. Literal descriptions
2. Allusions
3. The vehicles of similes
and metaphors
1. = motif
2. Broad def.:
Specific descriptions of
visible objects and
scenes
2. = motif
3. Narrow def.:
Figurative language –
the vehicles of
metaphors and similes
(= 1.3)
An Example: Imagery – broad
senses
 ”Charlie Stove waited until he heard his mother snore
before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution
and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was
irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his
mother’s room. But now all the windows were dark. A
search-light passed across the sky, lighting the banks of
cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking
enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie
Stowe could hear behind his mother’s snores the beating
of the waves. A draught through the crack in the windowframe stirred his night-shirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened.”
(Graham Greene, ”I Spy”, p. 534)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.): narrow
senses, simile and metaphor




Simile – a statement of similarity: like
Metaphor – a statement of identity
The tenor – the subject
The vehicle – the metaphorical term itself
 My love is like a red, red rose (Robert
Burns)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
simile and metaphor
 He smiled like an open piano (Graham
Greene)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
simile and metaphor
 There’s a lipstick sunset smeared across the
August sky (John Hiatt)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
simile and metaphor
 Let us go, then, you and I when the evening
is spread out against the sky like a patient
etherised upon a table (T.S. Eliot, ”The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)
An Example: simile
 When the door had closed Charlie Stowe tiptoed upstairs
and got into bed. He wondered why his father had left the
house again so late at night and who the strangers were.
Surprise and awe kept him for a little while awake. It was
as if a familiar photograph had stepped from the frame to
reproach him with neglect. He remembered how his father
had held tight to his collar and fortified himself with
proverbs, and he thought for the first time that, while his
mother was boisterous and kindly, his father was very like
himself, doing things in the dark which frightened him.”
(Graham Green, ”I Spy”, p. 537)
William Blake, ”The Sick Rose”
(1794): literal or metaphorical rose?
 O Rose, thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
 Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
William Blake, ”The Sick Rose”
(1794)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
symbol
 Public symbols (cultural specific signification
and value)
 Private symbols (writer specific signification
and value, ie used consistently by a
particular writer)
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
symbol
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
symbol
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
symbol
Imagery, symbol and … (cont.):
symbol
James Joyce, ”The Dead”
 He stood still in the gloom of the hall, trying to
catch the air that the voice was singing and gazing
up at his wife. There was grace and mystery in her
attitude as if she were a symbol of something. He
asked himself what is a woman standing on the
stairs in the shadow, listening to distant music, a
symbol of. If he were a painter, he would paint her
in that attitude. Her blue felt hat would show off the
bronze of her hair against the darkness and the
dark panels of her skirt would show off the light
ones. (p. 2192)
Private symbolism
W.B. Yeats, ”The Second Coming” (1920)
 Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!
 […]
T.S. Eliot, ”The Hippopotamus”
(1917)
 1The broad-backed hippopotamus
2 Rests on his belly in the mud;
3 Although he seems so firm to us
4 He is merely flesh and blood.
5
6
7
8

Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.
T.S. Eliot, ”The Hippopotamus”
(1917)
 9 The hippo's feeble steps may err
10 In compassing material ends,
11 While the True Church need never stir
12 To gather in its dividends.
 13
14
15
16

The 'potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.
T.S. Eliot, ”The Hippopotamus”
(1917)
 17
18
19
20
At mating time the hippo's voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.
 21
22
23
24
The hippopotamus's day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way -The Church can sleep and feed at once.
T.S. Eliot, ”The Hippopotamus”
(1917)
 25
26
27
28
I saw the 'potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.
 29
30
31
32
Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.
 33
34
35
36
He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr'd virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.
Group work: imagery and symbolism
in ”A White Heron”
 What does the white heron signify and
symbolise? Find examples.
 What is the thematic function of the white
heron. What thematic hypotheses does it
allow us to make?
 Identify other images and symbols in ”The
White Heron”
 How do they help to produce the theme(s)?