1. Watch:
2. Read:
What do you think
of the narrator? (Blog or FB)
3. Read Feminist approaches:
Example of feminist
analysis:
Answer: how can feminist studies enrich the understanding of literature?
(FB of blog)
Since literature is a mean to expresse what you feel or criticize, women could see in litarature a way to stick up for thier rights and also why not to take the baton in some cases men are not able to carry out with the duties assigned so women might be the ones that have to face these issues and show what they are good to. Furthermore socially, politically, among others are fields in which feminist studies can enrich literature adquiring the goal to inspire others to do what has to be done and stop going behind the men actions. Litearature plus feminism personally is a lethal gun that with clear-headed great achievements might be seen by many withnesses.
ReplyDeleteBe careful with punctuation and spelling.
DeleteThe Narrator Analysis
ReplyDelete“The Overcoat short story by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, has an omniscient narrator. This is because “the narrator is not a character in the story, but he knows the thought and feelings of all the characters in the story(Douglas College Learning Centre). For example, in this line: “He gave no thought to his clothes”. Also, this narrator gives a “suspenseful tone to the story”(Douglas College Learning Centre). For instances, in these lines “Ascending the staircase which led to Petrovitch's room -- which staircase was all soaked with dish-water, and reeked with the smell of spirits which affects the eyes, and is an inevitable adjunct to all dark stairways in St. Petersburg houses -- ascending the stairs, Akakiy Akakievitch pondered how much Petrovitch would ask, and mentally resolved not to give more than two rubles. The door was open; for the mistress, in cooking some fish, had raised such a smoke in the kitchen that not even the beetles were visible”. Likewise, this is an omniscient narrator because he uses the third person pronouns such as “she, he and they”. For instances, Vasilievich wrote: “They turned to another page and found Pavsikakhiy and Vakhtisiy”. Similarly, it would be said that he is an intrusive narrator; since, he is commenting and evaluating things in the short story. (Elements of the Short Story Part One). For example, in these lines “We have mentioned it in order that the reader might see for himself that it was a case of necessity, and that it was utterly impossible to give him any other name” (Vasilievich). In short, this narrator explains very important things and details that nobody else known.
Good points.
DeleteThe narrator on this short story ( The Overcoat) is omniscient because the author talks is third person, and he knows the feelings or thoughts of the characters. Some examples of this: "Akakiy Akakievitch had felt for some time that his back and shoulders suffered with peculiar poignancy, in spite of the fact that he tried to traverse the distance with all possible speed. He began finally to wonder whether the fault did not lie in his cloak. He examined it thoroughly at home, and discovered that in two places, namely, on the back and shoulders, it had become thin as gauze: the cloth was worn to such a degree that he could see through it, and the lining had fallen into pieces.". As you can see on this small part of the story, the narrator knows what the main character is feeling, and wondering, also you can see how he use words like he or she to refer to the other characters.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this: " is omniscient because the author talks is third person."
DeleteFeminist studies enrich the understanding of literature in the way women were involved in literature at all. For example, “many of the early writings of U.S. feminist philosophers arose from attempts to grapple with issues that emerged from the women's movement: the identification of the nature of sexism and the underlying causes of the oppression of women, questions of how to best obtain emancipation for women — e.g., equal rights within the current political and social structure vs. revolutionary changes of that structure, the issue of ‘woman's nature,’ philosophical analyses of the morality of abortion, and so on”.(Tuana,2011). Therefore, it is evident that many important writings in literature were inspired by history about women oppression, and events that happened at that time. Also, feminist studies arose organizations that were the beginning of important literature for the world. For instances, “in response to the sexism of the profession, U.S. feminist philosophers organized the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) in 1972.[3] The emergence of SWIP is a third component in the swift rise in contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. SWIP was founded to promote and support women in philosophy. After a decade of meetings, U.S. SWIP members decided to launch an academic journal, Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Hypatia was set up “to provide a forum for dialogue on the philosophical issues raised by the women's liberation movement” and published feminist philosophical work committed “to understanding and ending the sexist oppression of women, and a sense of the relevance of philosophy to the task.” (Tuana, 2011).
ReplyDeleteReferences
Tuana, Nancy, "Approaches to Feminism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring2011Edition),EdwardN.Zalta (ed.). Retrieved on February 17th, 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/feminism-approaches/>.
Good points, thanks.
DeleteIn this short story I think the narrator uses colloquial manner in the sense that the way he explains and gives details are the ones no body knows about it. Likewise, I highly believe that this an omniscient narrator because he uses the third person singular a lot .Here is an example taken from the reading : " “They turned to another page and found Pavsikakhiy and Vakhtisiy.” In here we can actually see how he uses the third person singular plus the "they" a lot. On the other hand we can actually see how this narrator knows the feelings and the thoughts of all of the characters by showing appreciation by the characters example: "and shoulders suffered with peculiar poignancy."
ReplyDeleteRicardo Aguilar
What does colloqualism has to do with it?
DeleteWhen analyzing the narrator from the short story "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, we can determine that there is an all-knowing third-person narrating the story. This narrator, which is known as omniscient, has a complete or unlimited knowledge and understanding of characters and it can perceive all the events that happen in the story. As example taken from the reading is the following: “His mother, the wife of a Government official and a very fine woman, made all due arrangements for having the child baptized. She was lying on the bed opposite the door; on her right stood the godfather, Ivan Ivanovitch Eroshkin, a most estimable man, who served as presiding officer of the senate, while the godmother, Anna Semenovna Byelobrushkova, the wife of an officer of the quarter, and a woman of rare virtues”. From that example we can notice how the narrator knows about the environment, names, virtues, and profession of the characters.
ReplyDeleteJuan Gabriel Zuñiga Segura
Good points, thanks.
DeleteFeminist studies can enrich the understanding of literature a lot, if we look back to the medieval period, and the renaissance we would realize that the best writers and playwrights were the ones who based their poems and perceptions about women. Many of these writers were actually inspired by women's oppression and women's rights to make them arise from the women's movement as well. As a result of these works based on women's perspectives like Shakespeare in literature when he writes mostly about " his mistress is nothing like the sun" in the renaissance period, it clearly shows how women were influential for the best playwrights that have existed in the history; therefore, thanks to the feminist liberation movement that has arisen in the last decade, women have had a bigger recognition and a better performance in global level and literature has been witness of this becoming in a more relevant topic to write about every day and beyond.
ReplyDeleteRicardo Aguilar
Be careful. Many of the things you mention is exactly why feminism arose. Women do not want to be jusy the inspiration for poets. Not all women want to identify with romantic ideals in literature. The struggle was mostly on woman's part so that their writing could be taken seriously. Please, re-read the article on Feminism so you understand the point. This answer lacks deepth.
DeleteReferences:
ReplyDeleteMary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792
Shakespeare, William. nothing like the sun.
Ricardo Aguilar
It has enrich literature in the way that literature is a way to express yourself and show your points of view through the history, and also it has been use to criticize certain topics like feminisn. In old books you can see what was the women's role and thanks to revolutions, hard workers, and really smart women everything has changed and literature has contributed on that. It is really common to see readings poems and short stories that talk about the physical aspect of women, that is one point the women has been always tagged, another one is how smart are they, and through the history we can see that joan of arch, penelope, Queen Elizabeth and some others, they are examples of great women that many people have write about them and they affect literature in a positive way..
ReplyDeleteWhat is "it" at the beginning of your sentence? I don't understand what you mean with: and also it has been use to criticize certain topics like feminisn.
DeleteBe careful with grammar.
After to read the short story "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, is easier to identify that the kind of narrator is the Third Person Narrator, as my classmates said before. This kind of narrator is not part of the story ; and he or she knows every single detail of the characters in story ,It is known as omniscient. A example of that in the reading is "His family name was Bashmatchkin. This name is evidently derived from "bashmak" (shoe); but when, at what time, and in what manner, is not known. His father and grandfather, and all the Bashmatchkins, always wore boots, which only had new heels two or three times a year. His name was Akakiy Akakievitch. It may strike the reader as rather singular and far-fetched, but he may rest assured that it was by no means far-fetched, and that the circumstances were such that it would have been impossible to give him any other(p.1)".It sentence describes the knowledge that the narrator has about this family.
ReplyDeleteOther aspect that is important to comment is that this kind of narrator is intrusive because he or she can comment and evaluate the actions or events of the story
"To tell the truth, it was a little hard for him at first to accustom himself to these deprivations; but he got used to them at length, after a fashion, and all went smoothly".
As a conclusion this reading show the reader a narrator who knows each detail of the development of story its characters,places and feelings expressed there.
When I read the Overcoat story, I realized that the kind of narrator presented through the story is Omniscient since this style of narrator knows how other characters are and their significance into the story. For example in the following phrase, it shows the narrator” Akakiy Akakievitch was born, if my memory fails me not, in the evening of the 23rd of March. His mother, the wife of a Government official and a very fine woman, made all due arrangements for having the child baptized”. Here the narrator has full access to the events and dialogue occurring in the narrative, rendering his or her account the most complete and accurate. This all-knowing, all-seeing narrator type jumps from scene to scene, following characters throughout a story and assessing the progress of the narrative.(George,2008).
ReplyDeleteAbout how feminist point enriches the literature, I can say that women help to give literature a different point of view. Though the different books such as The Superior Excellence of Women Over Men, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Women Who Go To College, Arthur Gilman (1888) show us the feminist goals of defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. Feminist literature often identifies women's roles in contrast to men's roles as unequal to men's in status, privilege and but also the way of telling and expressinf the feelings such as love, sadness, respect, and freedom . Also feminist describes us the most beautiful and creative part of the literature. As Esther Lomardi says “Some of the most important works of feminist literature have also been controversial and banned--for their concepts of awakenings to new ways of thinking, feeling, and being (2014).
Good points.
DeleteFeminist studies cover different areas like women roles; perception, oppression, culture, and even psychological analysis, that way, feminist studies enrich the understanding of literature. When having a better knowledge of literature, we can analyze better the writing performed by a woman, or when it is dedicated to a woman. For example, women rights and nature have always being part of poems, stories, and novels. This is an example of the influence of women through writing, and from there, different point of view and perceptions are developed. The following paragraph also mentions the influence between women and literature: “Because the widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century, the arena of British and American literature was once largely male dominated: the role of women was most often to inspire rather than to create. Since then, however, the literary contributions of women have become increasingly important. More and more women have become storytellers, poets and prophets, the authors of dreams and ideas--the voices to whom we listen" (SILS, 1994). Feminist studies not only enrich the understanding of literature, but they also allow us reconsider how important are women in literature.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Women and Literature
School Of Information and Library Science
http://www.ibiblio.org/cheryb/women/wlit.html
Juan Gabriel Zuñiga Segura
it is ok to use outside sources, but most of the ideas and the writing has to come from you.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn this short story (The Overcoat by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol) the narrator is omniscient because he knows everything about the characters what they feel, think and do.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator talks in third person, here there’s an example of it; “He examined it thoroughly at home, and discovered that in two places, namely, on the back and shoulders, it had become thin as gauze…”
“To tell the truth, it was a little hard for him at first to accustom himself to these deprivations; but he got used to them at length, after a fashion, and all went smoothly. He even got used to being hungry in the evening, but he made up for it by treating himself, so to say, in spirit, by bearing ever in mind the idea of his future cloak.” This is another example of the knowledge of the narrator. He knows how the character feels in each situation presented in the whole short story.
“This caused him so much toil that he broke into perspiration, rubbed his forehead, and finally said, "No, give me rather something to copy." After that they let him copy on forever.” Here there is an example of how the narrator knows how the characters feel.
Yes, good comments.
DeleteAnalyzing the narrator in the story it seems that the narrator is omniscient. It knows everything about the characters how they think, how they are, and what they feel. The speaker uses third person singular and he describes everything that is surrounding the characters like if he was there watching the whole environment. Moreover, this kind of narrator because of his knowledge created a good scenario trying to get the reader inside the story.
ReplyDeleteSince people began to create literature, most of the authors were men. They standardized their point of view, and people began to learn in that way. As soon as women were allowed to have the same rights as men, they started to be part of literature massively. We can notice that women introduced their thoughts in poems, novels and stories. Some aspects that they enrich literature are that women see more details; they take care of the little things, most of the critics mentioned on the literature by women have the purpose to see life completely equal.
When I read and watched “Hamlet” in high school, I remember that in that period of time women could not act in a play. If there was a female role in the play, it would be represented by a man. How come! A man is going to represent a woman???? It means that since many years ago even artists and writer have defined the role of “women”. What I love of reading feminists novel o poems, it’s that they say what we don’t want to hear. There are many things that for our chauvinistic society are a crime to tell. That’s why the achievement of equal right between women and men has taken so long to be accomplished. Men do not want to accept that women are equal as they are. The rules that we have to follow are the problem. I want to restate the point number four of the Feminist Criticism (1960s-present) “While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our gender (masculine or feminine).” When it’s mentioned that culture determines our gender; actually society determines gender as well as gender roles. I hate when people say that women are sexual objects, weak, housewives, secretaries, teachers, and so on. First at all, without women we won’t be here. And then “women” have been for many years the perfect muse to inspire the best poems in the poetic world. There are thousands of poems about Penelope, Princesses, Mother Teresa, and Venus and so on. It means that the role of a woman in a poem is significant. Thanks for the feminism waves, people are getting aware of their power in the world as writers, singers, doctors, leaders, presidents, muses…
ReplyDeleteVery true, the struggle continues.
DeleteOver time literary works are often based on themes related to the role of women in society, these writings shows how women have been historically excluded, especially in decision-making. That is why when the women were allowed to develop the same activities as men, they started to make the decisions to participated in the creation of a new era of literary works when the paper of a woman can be represented for a woman instead a man like in the past. For that kind of things were that male characters were dominant over the female character.
ReplyDeleteThat is why we can say the feminist studies enrich the understanding of literature because that kind of research or studies help us as a writer to identify the treatment the woman receive in the last centuary and how it contributes every single day to change that wrong behaviour of the humanity mentally in front of this topic. . This change has been difficult to understand in a chauvinistic society but the modern authors have make their best effort to change their mentally in the moment to write
Changes still continue to occur. use more specific vocabulary. What do you mean by "wrong behaviour"?
DeleteWhat do you think of the narrator?
ReplyDeleteThere are some readings or stories that are easy to talk about; they are easy to understand and/or analyze from different perspectives such as the plot or the narrator, but that is not the case of “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol. At first, it can be thought that the narrator is omniscient since s/he seems to know everything that is happening around; though, as you read deeper and deeper into the story you will notice how some information is not managed by the narrator, this can be exemplified with the following lines: “It was -- it is difficult to say precisely on what day, but probably the most glorious one in Akakiy Akakievitch's life, when Petrovitch at length brought home the cloak.” or “Unfortunately, little is known of her beyond the fact that Petrovitch has a wife, who wears a cap and a dress; but cannot lay claim to beauty, at least, no one but the soldiers of the guard even looked under her cap when they met her.” In those two different extracts from the story it is noticed how the narrator does not master all the information related with other characters besides Akakiy Akakievitch.
Furthermore, the use of certain words such as appeared or seemed demonstrate the lack of certainty on thoughts or feelings of other characters: “But now it appeared that Petrovitch was in a sober condition, and therefore rough, taciturn, and inclined to demand, Satan only knows what price.”
Consequently, it would be accurate to say that the narrator of “The Overcoat” is more likely to be a limited omniscient narrator as s/he is acquainted with limited information about secondary characters at the same time that s/he knows everything about other more important characters.
How can feminist studies enrich the understanding of literature?
ReplyDeleteAs every single thing in this life, literature can never have only one side; there is not one absolute truth. Literature would never be of such importance if it was not able to be used as a mean to express opposite or complementary opinions or points of view. For instance, nowadays we can learn more about the kind of life women had back in time, how they were treated, and what their thoughts were. Part of the empowerment of women is due to the freedom and wisdom acquired by reading, learning and writing.
Literature is a mean to understand history, to spread the word, to grow personally and as a whole, and as I said before it only seems fair to have both parts of the story, so that the real history can be told and reconstructed in a more realistic way; therefore, literature can also be understood since the reader has a more clear background in which both counterparts were able to share the same scenario. Moreover, it can help us get acquainted with the changes literature might have suffered along the years, and why they happened in the way they did, and so forth.