Here are the reading and instructions for this assignment, I also attached important reading as well.
“With the grain” or “against the grain”…
The text talks about reading “with the grain” or “against the grain”. This brings up a very critical issue that is the base of literary criticism – how should we read a text?
Think about all the books and texts that you have read – that can include watching TV shows and movies too! When you read or watch, you are bringing your own psychoanalytic ideologies with you to the interpretation of the reading or watching. For example – the book “50 Shades of Grey” (and the movie) can be interpreted as anti-feminist – anti- a LOT of things. But they can also be viewed as a love story where a bad man is brought to true romance with the love of a nice girl. There are so many different ways of viewing the actions of the main characters.
Have you ever read a book or watched a movie and your opinion of it clashed with that of your friends or family? Think about some of the reasons that your opinion has been different from them? The reason is that, whether we like it or not, we bring our own background and experiences to everything we read or watch. We bring our opinions, societal expectations, cultural backgrounds, life experiences to everything and they influence our interpretation of the reading.
Elements of Fiction
As we begin our journey through literary lenses, we should do a quick dive into the elements of fiction. There are roughly 5-7 different elements, but we are going to focus on five of them to help our understanding of the motivations of our authors.
All fiction stories (which can be a book, a play, a movie, a reel, etc.) have an arc that you are already familiar with:
introduction of characters and setting
rising action of the plot
introduction of conflict
the climax (when the protagonist accepts their fate and changes the outcome for all)
the denouement which is the resulting action of the climax
Here’s a breakdown of each.
In this section will be begin looking at the five elements of fiction which make up the Dramatic Structure (also known as Freytag’s Structure). This is a way to map out a storyline that typically involves a classic literary trope – the hero’s journey.
The Hero’s Journey was made popular by Joseph Campbell in his book “A Hero with a Thousand Faces” in 1949 and drew on years of work by anthropologists and psychologists. His thesis is that: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (Campbell).
In the Dramatic Structure, our main character, or hero, moves from the known, the comfortable, the “everyman” existence, into the unknown, challenging, the “übermensch” existence. If you think of movie characters like Harry Potter, or Neo from The Matrix or the protagonist from any of the animated films that you love, you’ll realize that they all fall into the hero’s journey dramatic structure.
1. Characters
The first of our five is “Characters” – the people/things that move the plot along. Without characters, we have nothing – so a review in detail of this element of the structure is very important. Think about the books and stories that you love – what is it that kept you interested to read the entire story? If there’s a “flat” character, you are uninterested. But a dynamic character and their companions kept you reading/watching.
Classically, there are a couple of types of characters:
The “hero” or protagonist is the main character (and it can be a person, thing, entity, etc.). It’s very important to understand that the word “hero” doesn’t necessarily mean a good person doing good deeds with a cape or superpowers. The word “hero” came about in the 1600s as the chief character in a story. If you think about a lot of movies or books – sometimes the main character isn’t nice at all. How about Gru from “Despicable Me”? How about V in “V for Vendetta”?
The second character is the antagonist (anti-hero). This is the force against the protagonist. You have to have opposition, right? There has to be good to counteract evil; lightness to counteract darkness, etc.
The third type of character is the “sidekick” or “companions” and usually (not always) there are two – one with brains and one with braun (muscle). The main character cannot achieve what they need to without the sidekick or companions. If you think about Harry Potter – he had Hermione (the brains) and Ron (the muscle); how about Star Wars? Luke (the main character) had Princess Leia (the brains) and Han Solo (the muscle).
2. Setting
The setting is the time and place a story takes place. Why is that important? Well, think about reading a story which takes place before cell phones and the internet were invented. As a 21st century adult, you might question the actions of the characters if they don’t use a phone or a computer. It’s difficult to put yourself in the place of someone else in a different country, planet, or time period.
3. Plot
Plot is the action sequence – if a friend asked you what the book or movie was about, you’d typically reply by telling the plot. “First this happened, then this happened..” etc. It’s how the story unfolds and develops.
The plot encompasses a few characteristics:
Rising Action: The main character is in crisis and events leading up to facing the conflict begin to unfold. The story becomes complicated.
Introduction to Conflict: as the rising action builds, suddenly we are introduced to a conflict that will affect the characters and plot.
4. Climax
At the peak of the story, a major event occurs in which the main character faces a major enemy, fear, challenge, or other source of conflict. The main character must make a decision which changes the outcome for all – it’s when they meet and accept their fate.
5. Denouement/Resolution
The story begins to slow down and work towards its end, tying up loose ends towards the Resolution/Denouement: Also known as the denouement, the resolution is like a concluding paragraph that resolves any remaining issues and ends the story.
In a 500+ word response, please reflect on this week’s reading assignments, and explain whether we should go with the grain or against the grain given the psychoanalytical that we all bring to our opinions.
Please use two quotes from the assigned readings.
Please use MLA formatting.
This should be in your own words – I’m all about your opinion, rather than perfect sentence structure and wording. I just want YOUR OWN WORDS…
