Shirley Jackson and 'The Lottery'

In response to questions about the "meaning" of the story, she wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle (July 22, 1948):

"Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

Check out this website for much more to add to your thinking on Shirley Jackson. http://northbennington.org/jackson.html

Excerpts from: NY Times OBITUARY http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1214.html

Shirley Jackson, Author of Horror Classic, Dies Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt., Aug. 9-- Domesticity and the Macabre Shirley Jackson wrote in two styles. She could describe the delights and turmoils of ordinary domestic life with detached hilarity; and she could, with cryptic symbolism, write a tenebrous horror story in the Gothic mold in which abnormal behavior seemed perilously ordinary. In either genre, she wrote with remarkable tautness and economy of style, and her choice of words and phrases was unerring in building a story's mood. Of all Miss Jackson's eerie and gruesome fantasies, "The Lottery," published in The New Yorker magazine, was the best known and most baffling to readers. The dark and sinister story, opening on a quiet note, describes with mounting suspense, an annual village lottery to select a ritual victim to be put to death by stoning. The excitement is all in the selection of the woman's name from slips of paper in a black box. The stoning itself is dispassionately cold-blooded. The magazine received hundreds of letters, virtually all of them demanding to know what the tale meant. Housework Came First Was the stoning a parable of institutionalized fury? Was it an exposition of the cruelty of conformity? Was it a statement of the fundamental baseness of man? Or was it just a good chiller? No one could say for certain. But other stories and novels of a similar kind gave the impression that Miss Jackson was at bottom a moralist who was saying that cruel and lustful conduct is not far below the surface in those who count themselves normal and respectable, and that society can act with inquisitorial torture against individuals it finds odd. The harmless eccentric, Miss Jackson appeared to say, could be damned and killed with the ferocity usually reserved for overt social enemies...

Lessons 12-8-11 CLICK ON THIS LINK TO FIND YOUR ACTIVITIES FOR THIS WEEK FOR THE LOTTERY

How to read a film

Some suggestions on "how to read a film" Goldberg https://faculty.washington.edu/mlg/students/readafilm.htm

The film critic Christian Metz has written "A film is difficult to explain because it is easy to understand." We are used to sitting back in the dark and viewing a film uncritically; indeed, most Hollywood films are constructed to render “invisible” the carefully constructed nature of the medium. Further, because a film is constructed of visual, aural, and linguistic components that are manipulated in numerous ways, it is a challenge to take apart the totality of the film experience and to interpret how that experience was assembled.

Below you will find brief explanations of ways to analyze the language of film. While this list is not comprehensive, it does contain a lot of information. If film interpretation is new to you, you will not be able to keep track of all these elements while viewing the film—this is an acquired skill. Concentrate at first on a few things that seem to offer the most opportunity for critical reading.

If viewing the film only once, try to take notes in shorthand while watching the film. Arrows can be used to note camera angle and camera movement; quick sketches can be used to note shot composition and elements of mise-en-scene. As soon as possible after viewing the film, write out your impressions of the film, noting the most important elements. If you will be writing on the film and will be seeing it again, take minimal notes the first time through (although do note important scenes you will want to return to) but still maintain a critical distance.

When analyzing a film as a historical document, keep in mind the film's contemporary audiences or authors. Your own personal reaction to the film may serve as a starting point, but you need to convert these impressions into historical analysis—how are you different and similar to the historical audiences/authors? What has changed and what has stayed the same? Remember too the technological changes that have taken place, and keep in mind what audiences would have expected, and how film makers used the technology at their disposal. It is especially important to consider substantial changes in the manner of presentation if you will only be watching the film on a television. Also, be aware that most Hollywood films made after the early 1950s have an "aspect ratio" (height and width ratio) different from television screens. Most video tapes of these films have been altered by the "pan and scan" method which dramatically changes elements such as shot composition and camera movement. Video tapes that are "widescreen" preserve the correct aspect ratio. Most DVDs now come in both "standard" (altered) or "widescreen" (check the writing on the disk) or only in the correct aspect ratio, and most laser disks use the correct aspect ratio. If possible, find a format that has not altered the aspect ratio.

MEANING

• Themes/tropes—The broad ideas and allusions (themes) that are established by repetition of technical and linguistic means (tropes) throughout the film (such as alienation, power and control, transcendence through romantic achievement, etc.)
• Intent/Message—Sometimes, as with a film like JFK (the Kennedy assassination was the result of a massive government conspiracy) or Wayne's World (adolescence is a goofy time that provides plenty of laughs), this is obvious. (Just because the message is obvious, doesn't mean that the film is simple, or that there is not a contradictory subtext). Sometimes, however, the filmmakers aren't sure of their message, or the intended message becomes clouded along the way. At other times, the filmmakers (principally the producer, director, actors and actresses) are at odds over the intent. At other times, the film makers intend one message and many in the audience interpret the film differently.)
• Metaphor and metonymy/symbolism—Similar to literary interpretation, only consider all aspects of the film—linguistic, visual, aural. Metaphors are elements that represent something different from their explicit meaning (for example, the rose petals in American Beauty). Metonyms are elements that are similar or the same (for example, in the final scene of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad represents the lonely battle of activists and Ma represents the resilience of "the people"; or when a part of the whole—such as a close-up of a woman's leg—represents women as sexual objects). Metaphors and metonyms only gain relevance if they are repeated in significant ways or connected with the larger meaning of the film. (Avoid simplistic equations such as the white table symbolizes A; the high angle shot of a character symbolized B).
• Subtext—The often numerous messages a film conveys beneath the surface; sometimes intended, often unintended, and sometimes conveying a different or contradictory message than the intended message. Look especially for ironies, contradictions, interesting juxtapositions, or if something initially doesn't seem to “make sense.” Subtext is usually developed through the use of figurative elements like metaphor and metonymy.

BASIC ELEMENTS

• Title/opening credits—Titles are chosen carefully—consider alternatives and why this title was chosen; consider ambiguities in the title (“His Girl Friday,” a film with a strong, independent female protagonist). The opening credits establish a tone, and often are used to foreshadow events, themes, or metaphors—pay careful attention from the beginning.
• Story/Plot/Narrative—The narrative provides the basic structure by which a feature film is understood. (Most documentaries also have narratives.) The narrative consists of the story and the plot. The story consists of all of the information conveyed by the film (either directly or by inference) assembled in chronological order to communicate the overall sense of what occurred in the film. The diegesis is the entire world of the story. A film's diegesis may have a different logic than the "real" world, but as long as their is proper motivation (see below) it will make sense to the viewer. Diegetic elements are found explicitly or implicitly in the world of the story; non- or extra-diegetic elements (the soundtrack, the title, a voice-over, an audience's expectations of a star's persona) are outside the story. The plot provides the cause and effect relations that cue the audience and create suspense, surprise, and fulfill expectations. While dialogue provides a good deal of information, pay attention to all the other audio and visual clues that convey information about the narrative.. In considering the narrative structure, note whether the film follows a standard chronological narrative or not and how time is used. What are the key moments and how are they established? What are the climaxes and anticlimaxes? How far ahead is the audience in understanding what is happening to the characters than the characters themselves are? What propels the story forward? What is the pace of the narrative? How do earlier parts of the narrative set up later parts? Where are the key emotive moments when the audience is frightened, enraged, enraptured, feeling vindicated, etc., and how has the narrative helped to establish these feelings? Note when there is a change of knowledge (when characters or the audience become aware of new information) which shifts the hierarchy of knowledge (the relative amount of knowledge characters and the audience have). Does the narrative have a coherent unity, or does it leave the audience feeling unfulfilled or confused? (Sometimes the latter is the mark of an unsuccessful film; sometimes its either an intentional effect to challenge the easy "Hollywood ending" or else the result of the mixed intentions of the various authors.)
• Motivation—"Justification given in the film for the presence of an element. This may appeal to the viewer's knowledge of the real world, to genre conventions, to narrative causality, or to a stylistic pattern within the film." (Bordwell, Thompson) Failure to provide proper motivation challenges the sense of "cinematic realism" in a film. (If a character's personal motivation is explained in a film as a reason for his/her action, that falls under "narrative causality." Do not confuse character motivation as revealed through narrative with your own expectations you bring to the film. Characters are not real people, and do not make choices outside of what is conveyed narratively.) Hollywood films tend to stress perfectly motivated narratives so that every element has a purpose. Discovering the underlying motivation of the narrative often helps explain why audience expectations are fulfilled (or if poorly motivated, unfulfilled.) For example, in the Western Unforgiven, the close-up, eerily lighted shot of Morgan Freeman's/Ned's scars from whipping by Gene Hackman/Little Bill motivates Clint Eastwood's/William Money's slaughter of Hackman and various townsfolk. The shot thus cues the audience's desire for revenge through violence (note the metonymic symbolism of the scarred black body and the whip), despite the supposedly anti-violent theme of the film. Extended definition: click here.
• Motif—The repetition of an element in ways that acquire symbolic meaning for the element. An motif can be a technical feature (a shot angle, a lighting set up), a sound or piece of dialogue or music, or an object.
• Parallelism—Two or more scenes that are similar to each other but which gain meaning because of their differences.
• Characterization—Who are the central characters? How are minor characters used? Are characters thinly or fully drawn, and why? Who in the audience is meant to relate to which characters, and what sort of emotion (fear, pleasure, anxiety) are audience members meant to feel because of this identification? Is there a clear or ambivalent hero or villain? What values do the characters represent, and do they change during the film? Are the characters meant to play a particular “type” and do they play against type at any time?
• Point of view—Is the film in general told from a particular character's point of view, or is it “objective”? Is the film's perspective primarily intellectual or emotional, visionary or “realistic”? Within the film, is a particular shot viewed from a character's point of view ("subjective shot"), and how does the camera technically reinforce the point of view? Who is the audience meant to be focusing on at a particular moment?

MISE-EN-SCENE—Everything going on within the frame outside of editing and sound

• Setting and sets—is the scene shot in a studio sound stage or “on location”? How is the setting integrated into the action, both the larger background and particular props? How is the setting used in composing the shot (verticals and horizantals, windows and doors, the ever popular slats of shades, mirrors, etc.)? How do particular settings (vast mountain ranges, cluttered urban setting) function as signs in order to convey narrative and ideological information? How are colors used?
• Acting style—more obviously mannered (“classical”); intense and psychologically driven (“method”); less affectations and more “natural”? Do particular actors have their own recognizable style or type, and how do the filmmakers use the audience's expectations, either by reaffirming or challenging these expectations? What expectations do "stars" bring to their roles? Do they fulfill or challenge these expectations (playing against type)?
• Costumes (or lack thereof)—note contrasts between characters, changes within film; use of colors. This also includes physiques, hair styles, etc.
• Lighting— Key Light: main lighting, usually placed at a 45 degree angle between camera and subject. Fill Light: Auxiliary lights, usually from the side of the subject, that softens or eliminates shadows and illuminates areas not covered by the Key Light. High Key Lighting is when all the lights are on (typical of musicals and comedies); Low Key Lighting is when one or more of the fill lighting is eliminated, creating more opportunity for shadows. High contrast lighting refers to sharp contrast between light and dark; low contrast refers to shades of gray. Hard lighting creates a harsh light; soft lighting creates a muted, usually more forgiving lighting. "Hard" characters often get hard lighting, and visa versa. Highlighting or spotlighting: pencil-thin beams of light used to illuminate certain parts of a subject, often eyes or other facial features. Backlighting: placing the main source of light behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directing the light toward the camera. Toplighting: lighting from above. Lighting and camera angle are the key means of creating shadows and shadings in black and white films, which are important elements of the overall mise en scene when conveying meaning. All of the above terms are bipolar, when in fact many lighting setups lie somewhere in between.
• Diffuser/Filter: A gelatin plate that is placed in front of light to change the effect. (Whether to cast a shadow or soften the light, for instance.)

CINEMATOGRAPHY—The camera work that records the mise-en-scene between edits. Each shot represents many choices made by the film makers. Why have they made these choices? What do these choices represent?

• Tone—bright, sharp colors; grainy and black and white: hazy? If black and white when color was available, why would the film makers make this choice?
• Film speed—slow or fast motion used? film speed reversed?
• Camera Angle—The angle at which the camera is pointed at the subject: low (shot from below), high (shot from above), or eye-level (includes extreme low and high angle shots). This creates the angle of vision—the point of view—for the audience, and is often used to establish character's level of power and control (high angle shots can make character seem diminished), but there are many other uses as well.
• Tracking, Panning, and Tilt—Tracking shot moves the camera either sideways or in and out. The camera can be mounted on a "dolly," "handheld" to create a jerkier effect, mounted on a crane and moved in all directions within a limited range, or in a helicopter, train, car, plane, etc. for other effects. Panning swings the camera horizontally, tilt swigs it vertically. These effects are often used simultaneously.
• Angle of View/lens—The angle of the shot created by the lens. A wide angle lens presents broad views of subjects, and makes possible a large depth of field (many planes of action) as well as a deep focus shot. A normal lens (35 mm) can only focus on one plane at a time. A telephoto lens has a very narrow angle of views which acts like a telescope to focus faraway subjects and flattens the view.
• Focus—"Shallow focus" uses sharp focus on the characters or things in one area of the shot and soft (blurred) focus in the rest. "Deep focus" brings out the detail in all areas of the shot. "Focus In" gradually "zooms" in on the subject, "focus out" gradually "zooms" out (these are known as “focus pulls”). Rack focus is an extremely fast focus pull that changes focus from one image/character to another by changing the focus to a different plane.
• Shot distance—Full shot, three-quarters shot, mid- or half-shot, close-up and extreme close-up for shots of bodies; (extreme) long-shot, mid-shot, (extreme) close-up to describe more general. Can be used to create sense of isolation (extreme long shot of character in a desert) or great pain, anger or joy (extreme close-up of character's face). Choice of lens (see above) can create strange effects (wide angle close up extends and distorts image at the edges, like a funhouse mirror; telephoto lens used in long shots flatten distances and putting background out of focus.
• Frame—the border that contains the image. Can be “open” (with characters moving in and out); “moving” (using focus, tracking, panning); “canted” (at odd angles, unbalanced shot composition).
• Shot composition—The relation of the elements of mise-en-scene to the frame. Small frames used with close-ups can create sense of claustrophobia, often enhanced by the set (low ceilings, numerous props and furnishings) and lighting. The set can also be used to frame the shot in other ways (lamps, flags, etc. on either side; a bed out-of-focus at the bottom of the frame) as can characters (as signs of intimidation, marginality, support, etc.) These types of shots are unbalanced. Look also for shots that are perfectly symmetrical.

MONTAGE—Editing (“cuts”) within scenes and in the film in general, creating continuities and discontinuities, juxtapositions, and narrative structure. The standard Hollywood practice is to make cuts “invisible,” and thus they are often difficult to pick up within a scene. "Montage" is also the term used for a series of quick cuts from a variety of locations that cohere narratively or thematically (the baptism scene in The Godfather I is a good example). "Accelerated montage" is what it sounds like (the prison escape scene in His Girl Friday).

• Editing pace—within a sequence, from long takes (the opening credits of The Graduate) to “accelerated montage” (the chase scene of Bullit); within the film in general, to establish overall tone. Since the “natural” state of a Hollywood film movement, long takes coupled with a still camera can be used to increase intensity of a shot, make the audience uncomfortable, etc.
• Establishing shot—Initial shot in a scene that establishes location, characters, and purpose of the scene.
• Shot/counter shot—standard device used during dialogue between two characters; often starts with a “two-shot” of the two characters, then moves back and forth. Combined with camera angle, shot distance, and pace to establish point of view. Note when this standard device is not used, and for what purpose. Note when the person speaking is not viewed, or only back is viewed.
• Reaction shot—Quick cut to pick up character's reaction to an event. Lack of reaction shot when it seems logical should be noted.
• Jump Cut—A cut that occurs within a scene (rather than between scenes) that removes part of a shot. This shot is often done for effect by making the cut obvious and disrupting the invisible editing of Hollywood style.
• Freeze Frame—A freeze shot, which is achieved by printing a single frame many times in succession to give the illusion of a still photograph.
• Crosscutting—A shot inserted in a scene to show action happening elsewhere at the same time.
• Cutaway—A cut within a shot to a location that links the action of the shot and condenses time (for example, a reaction shot of a woman watching a man climb some stairs, cutting out a flight in between the shots).
• Match Cut—A cut in which two shots are linked by visual, aural, or metaphorical parallelism.
• Scenes—An end of a scene is usually marked by a number of possible devices, including fade-ins and fade-outs (which may include a quick cut or a fade to black—note the length of time the blackout is maintained, which often implies significance of preceding scene, or else a long passage of time); wipe (a line moves across the screen, usually used in older films); dissolve (a new shot briefly superimposed on an old shot), often used to express continuity or connections (for example, the “stump scene” in Shane).
• Sequence—A series of scenes that fit together narratively or representationally
• Accelerated montage—a series of quick cuts that relate a variety of shots from different locations into a coherent story or

SOUND—Sometimes non-dialogue sound is the hardest element to pick out and analyze, yet is often extremely important and subject to just as much of the film makers focus as other elements. Note how sound is used—to underscore emotions, to alert the audience to an upcoming event, as an ironic counterpoint, etc. Carefully created and edited sounds (including the use of silences) creates a rich aural images the same way that mise en scene, shot composition, and montage create visual images. Note that sound is both part of the mise-en-scene and is a separate category of editing (since the audio track is separate from the video track).

• Dialogue—Is it overlapping, mumbled, very soft or loud?
• Sound effects—both the effects themselves (a doorbell ringing) and the manipulation of the sound (stereo effects which move sounds across the sound spectrum, or balance sounds on one side or the other; filtering and manipulating sounds).
• Score—the background music used throughout the film. The score often maintains and manipulates a similar theme at various times (especially in older films), and is often used in relation to the narrative structure. Particular motifs or themes may be used in relation to particular characters.
• Sound Bridge—Connects scenes or sequences by a sound that continues through the visual transition.
• Direct sound refers to sound that is recorded at the time the scene is shot (usually dialogue, although audio inserts are possible. All audio inserts would be post-synchronous sound.).
• Postsychronous sound refers to sound that is recorded and placed on the film audio track after the scene is shot (virtually all scores). Most non-dialogue sounds are inserted after production (for example, footsteps), as well as a fair amount of dialogue that is either inserted when characters are not shown speaking onscreen, or simply pasted over sections that the are deemed to need improvement.
• Diegetic sound is heard within the film's diegesis (dialogue, a shot from a gun on screen).
• Off-screen sound appears within the film's diegesis but not within the frame (extending off-screen space).
• Non-diegetic sound is heard outside of the film's diegesis (such as film scores and voice-overs). A pop song that seems to be part of a the soundtrack but is found to be coming from, say, a car radio, is a diagetic sound and is an element worth noting.
• Simultaneous sound is heard at the same time the action happens on screen.
• Non-simultaneous sound is heard before or after the action happens on-screen.

Citation: Prof. Michael Goldberg https://faculty.washington.edu/mlg/students/readafilm.htm

For links to definitions used in film theory, CLICK HERE.

List of Essential Film Terms from Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, CLICK HERE.

Bibliography:

• David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art, 6th Ed. (McGraw-Hill)
• Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Revised Edition (Oxford U. Press: 1981).
• Stephen Prince, Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film
• Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing About Film. Second Edition (HarperCollins: 1994)

Ideas and Concepts Slaughterhouse Five Post Reading

1. Does the novel depict reality or even truth, or is it a work of fiction?
2. Can literature fully depict the cruelty of reality?
3. What is the effect of the repetition of “he says” in the novel?
4. How many narrators are there? How does Vonnegut use narrative perspective?
5. What is the effect of the black humor/irony of the novel?
6. How and why is foreshadowing used in the novel?
7. ‘Evaluate uses of repetition in the novel.
8. Discuss the subtitle of the novel.
9. Does Billy really travel in time? Are the Tralfamadorians real?
10. What does the novel want to teach us?

Themes and notes on literary elements in Slaughterhouse Five

Themes

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who is "unstuck" in time. The two central events Billy keeps returning to are his abduction by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and his time as a prisoner of war during World War II, during which he witnesses the Allied firebombing of the German city of Dresden.

Alienation and Loneliness

Alienation may be defined as, among other things, an inability to make connections with other individuals and with society as a whole. In this sense, Billy Pilgrim is a profoundly alienated individual. He is unable to connect in a literal sense, as his being "unstuck in time" prevents him from building the continuous set of experiences which form a person's relationships with others. While Billy's situation is literal in the sense of being a science fiction device—he is "literally" travelling through time—it also serves as a metaphor for the sense of alienation and dislocation which follows the experience of catastrophic violence (World War II) and which is, for Vonnegut and many other modern writers, a fact of life for humanity in the twentieth century. It is appropriate that what is arguably the closest relationship Billy has in the novel is with the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, another deeply alienated individual: "he and Billy were dealing with similar crises in similar ways. They had both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in the war."

Free Will versus Fate

One of the most important themes of Slaughterhouse-Five is that of free will, or, more precisely, its absence. This concept is articulated through the philosophy of the Tralfamadorians, for whom time is not a linear progression of events, but a constant condition: "All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist." All beings exist in each moment of time like "bugs in amber," a fact that nothing can alter. "Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." What happens, happens. "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." Accordingly, the Tralfamadorians advise Billy "to concentrate on the happy moments of life, and to ignore the unhappy ones."

Apathy and Passivity

Apathy and passivity are natural responses to the idea that events are beyond our control. Throughout Slaughterhouse- Five Billy Pilgrim does not act so much as he is acted upon. If he is not captured by the Germans, he is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians. Only later in life, when Billy tries to tell the world about his abduction by the Tralfamadorians, does he initiate action, and even that may be seen as a kind of response to his predetermined fate. Other characters may try to varying degrees to initiate actions, but seldom to any avail. As Vonnegut notes in Chapter Eight, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces."

Death

Given the absence of free will and the inevitability of events, there is little reason to be overly concerned about death. The Tralfamadorian response to death is, "So it goes," and Vonnegut repeats this phrase at every point in the novel where someone, or something, dies. Billy Pilgrim, in his travels through time, "has seen his own death many times" and is unconcerned because he knows he will always exist in the past.

Patriotism

The world as depicted in Slaughterhouse-Five is a world in which patriotism twists into nationalism and militarism and becomes an excuse for acts of violence and mass destruction. Those who claim to be patriots, such as "Wild Bob," the American prisoner of war who gives speeches to imaginary troops, or Bertrand Copeland Rumfoord, an Air Force historian who defends the Dresden raid, are deluded at best and malevolent at worst. More realistic is the reaction of the German soldiers in Dresden to the American prisoners: "There was nothing to be afraid of. Here were more crippled human beings, more fools like themselves."

War and Peace

Slaughterhouse-Five deals with many different themes, but it is most of all a novel about the horrors of war. For Vonnegut, war is not an enterprise of glory and heroism, but an uncontrolled catastrophe for all involved, and anyone who seeks glory and heroism in war is deluded. Although World War II is regarded by most as a justified conflict which defeated the genocidal regime of Nazi Germany, Vonnegut sees only victims on all sides, from the American soldier executed by the Germans for looting to the 135,000 German civilians killed in the Allied firebombing of Dresden. The horrors of the war are so overwhelming that Vonnegut doubts his ability to write about them. Speaking directly in the first chapter, he says of the novel, "It is so short and jumbled and jangled... because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." The only response to the nightmare of war is a profound alienation and distancing, made literal by Billy Pilgrim's being "unstuck in time." Appropriately, Billy's condition offers the most striking image of peace in the novel, as he becomes unstuck in time while watching a war movie on television and sees it backwards:

The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.... The steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals... [which] were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

Science and Technology

Although Slaughterhouse-Five does not deal as directly with issues of science and technology as do other Vonnegut novels such as Player Piano and Cat's Cradle , the limitations of technology remain an important theme. The destruction of World War II would not have been possible without "advances" in technology (the long-range bombers that destroyed Dresden; the poison gas used on concentration camp inmates). And the extraordinarily advanced technology of the Tralfamadorians not only cannot prevent the end of the Universe, but actually causes it: "'We [Tralfamadorians] blow it up, experimenting with new fuels for our flying saucers."

Construction

Structure

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Slaughterhouse-Five's technique is its unusual structure. The novel's protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, has come "unstuck in time"; at any point in his life, he may find himself suddenly at another point in his past or future. Billy's time travel begins early on during the major experience of his life—his capture by German soldiers during World War II and subsequent witnessing of the Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany. Both the centrality of this event and its radically alienating effect on the rest of Billy's life are represented by the novel's structure. Billy's experiences as a prisoner of war are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continually interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life, both past and future. In this way, the novel's structure highlights both the centrality of Billy's war experiences to his life, as well as the profound dislocation and alienation he feels after the war.

Point of View

Another unusual aspect of Slaughterhouse-Five is its use of point of view. Rather than employing a conventional third-person "narrative voice," the novel is narrated by the author himself. The first chapter consists of Vonnegut discussing the difficulties he had in writing the novel, and Vonnegut himself appears onstage as a character several times later in the novel. Instead of obscuring the autobiographical elements of the novel, Vonnegut makes them explicit; instead of presenting his novel as a self-contained creative work, he makes it clear that it is an imperfect and incomplete attempt to come to terms with an overwhelming event. In a sentence directed to his publisher, Vonnegut says of the novel, "It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre."

Symbolism

Slaughterhouse-Five is, among other things,  a post modernist hybrid work of science fiction, historical, autobiography and fiction. As such, both Billy Pilgrim's travels through time and his abduction by aliens are presented as literal events. However, as in the best science fiction, these literal events also have symbolic significance. Billy's being "unstuck in time" is both a literal event and a metaphor for the sense of profound dislocation and alienation felt by the survivors of war, while the aliens from the planet Tralfamadore provide a vehicle for Vonnegut's speculations on fate and free will.

Motif: What else is the refrain “So it goes”, if not the interior trauma loop of a damaged man trying to recount his experience in the age of acceptable civilian losses? Vonnegut accentuated his fatalism to the point of breathtaking casualness in part to undermine it.

Style

Style—the way an author arranges his or her words, sentences, and paragraphs into prose—is one of the most difficult aspects of literature to analyze. However, it should be noted that Slaughterhouse-Five is written in a very distinctive style. In describing overwhelming, horrible, and often inexplicable events, Vonnegut deliberately uses a very simple, straightforward prose style. He often describes complex events in the language one might use to explain something to a child, as in this description of Billy Pilgrim being marched to a German prison camp:

A motion-picture camera was set up at the border—to record the fabulous victory. Two civilians in bear-skin coats were leaning on the camera when Billy and Weary came by. They had run out of film hours ago.

One of them singled out Billy's face for a moment, then focused at infinity again. There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity. There was a battle there. People were dying there. So it goes.

In writing this way, Vonnegut forces the reader to confront the fundamental horror and absurdity of war head-on, with no embellishments, as if his readers were seeing it clearly for the first time.

Black Humor

Black humor refers to an author's deliberate use of humor in describing what would ordinarily be considered a situation too violent, grim, or tragic to laugh at. In so doing, the author is able to convey not merely the tragedy, but also the absurdity, of an event. Vonnegut uses black humor throughout Slaughterhouse- Five, both in small details (the description of the half-crazed Billy Pilgrim, after the Battle of the Bulge, as a "filthy flamingo") and in larger plot elements (Billy's attempts to publicize his encounters with the Tralfamadorians), to reinforce the idea that the horrors of war are not only tragic, but inexplicable and absurd.

Source Citation

"Themes and Construction: Slaughterhouse-Five." EXPLORING Novels. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Document URL

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=2dae626fe8ddf59ec0532dd5328e6f47&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ2111500054&source=Bookmark&u=lawr16325&jsid=f49011c95f0ce222bab2bca8a7703e6a

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article988723.ece

Definition of Postmodern Literature

Definition of Postmodern literature

Postmodern literature is a form of literature which is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-reference. Postmodern authors tend to reject outright meaning in their novels, stories and poems, and instead highlight and celebrate the possibility of multiple meanings, or a complete lack of meaning, within a single literary work. Postmodern literature also often rejects the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' forms of art and literature, as well as the distinctions between different genres and forms of writing and storytelling.

Here are some examples of stylistic techniques that are often used in Postmodern literature:

.    Pastiche: The taking of various ideas from previous writings and literary styles and pasting them together to make new styles.

.    Intertextuality : The acknowledgment of previous literary works within another literary work.

.    Metafiction: The act of writing about writing or making readers aware of the fictionality of the very fiction their reading.

.    Temporal Distortion: The use of non-linear timelines and narrative techniques in a story.

.    Minimalism: The use of characters and events which are decidedly common and non-exceptional characters.

.    Maximalism: Disorganized, lengthy, highly detailed and writing.

.    Magical Realism: The introduction of impossible or unrealistic events into a narrative that is otherwise realistic.

.    Faction: The mixing of actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what is factual and what is fictional.

.    Reader Involvement: Often through direct address to the reader and the open acknowledgment of the fictional nature of the events being described.

.    Many critics and scholars find it best to define Postmodern literature against the popular literary style that came before it: Modernism. In many ways, Postmodern literary styles and ideas serve to dispute, reverse, mock and reject the principles of Modernist literature. For example, instead of following the standard Modernist literary quest for meaning in a chaotic world, Postmodern literature tends to eschew, often playfully, the very possibility of meaning. The Postmodern novel, story or poem is often presented as a parody of the Modernist literary quest for meaning.

Source: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/postmodernism-in-literature-definition-lesson-quiz.html#lesson

Symbolism and Imagery in Slaughterhouse Five

Symbolism, Imagery

A lot of the imagery in Slaughterhouse-Five repeats across sections and in different contexts. For example, the narrator describes his own breath when he is drunk as "mustard gas and roses"  – which is what his dog, Sandy, specifically does not smell like ). This is also the odor of the corpses at Dresden a couple days after the firebombing, which Billy Pilgrim discovers as he digs through the rubble of the city in Chapter 10. This repetition of description serves to connect the "Billy Pilgrim" portion of the novel with the narrator's own personal memories and experiences.

Other examples of repetition of imagery include descriptions of characters "nestled like spoons": Billy and the hobo/private in the prison boxcar, Billy and his wife Valencia (72), and the American soldiers on the floor of the shed in the British compound all nestle like spoons as they sleep.

There is also Billy's "ivory and blue" (72-75) bare feet as he walks barefoot through his Ilium, New York home, the "blue and ivory claw"  of his cold hand clinging to the vent in his boxcar on the way to a German POW center, and the "blue and ivory" (80) feet of the dead hobo lying outside the train that will take Billy to Dresden.

The repetition of these phrases – mustard gas and roses, nestled like spoons, and blue and ivory – demonstrates that no part of this story is isolated from any other. Each section, as brief as it may be, fits into a larger consideration of wartime and its aftermath.

Revision on Motif vs Theme vs Topic

What is a motif?

This is the simplest one to define. A motif is a real concrete element of the text that actually appears written down on the page. Motifs are repeated again and again throughout a text and through this repetition they begin to symbolize bigger ideas. Remember this idea of bigger ideas because it is important when understanding the relationship between motifs, topics and themes.

What can be a motif?

Basically anything that’s repeated in a text. Most often, however, motifs are repeated images, actions, phrases or objects.

What is a topic?

This is the confusing one because we often use the term THEME when actually we really want to be talking about is a TOPIC. We have already seen that motifs can be used to suggest or symbolise bigger ideas. Essentially those bigger ideas are what we call a topic. If you had to sum up in one or two words what a text is ‘about’ or what the main issues it is dealing with are then those would be the topics of the text

What can be a topic?

Topics are the big ideas that a text is about. Often these can be expressed very simply in just one or two words. Because of this, they are inevitably very high level and general and don’t go into very much detail. It is this lack of detail that is important because this is what distinguishes a TOPIC from a THEME: THEME’S have more detail.

Some examples?

Examples of topics are easy to come up with – they are the things that we would normally call themes. For example:

The role of women

The constructed nature of social roles

Appearance vs. reality

Freedom

Dictatorship

Social control

Love

Loneliness

You should easily be able to add to this list based on discussions we have had in class about 1984

What is a theme?

It is the term THEME that we most often misuse. We have seen that when we usually talk about THEMES what we are actually talking about is TOPICS. So, what is a theme? If a TOPIC is a very general big idea of what a text is ‘about’ then a THEME is a much more detailed development of exactly what the text says about that big idea.

A theme often expresses the writer’s perspective on some aspect of human life. It is meant to be true of people outside the story in the real world. A theme is not quite the same as the moral of a story (if there is one) because the moral tells us what the world should be like whereas the theme tells us what the world is actually like.

Cited: http://mrhoyesibwebsite.com

An example of level 5-6 essay using 4 levels of Essay Writing

Narrative in Film

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/gramtv.html

NARRATIVE in Film 

Narrative is the art of storytelling, something we all do every day. It is an important part of our lives and something that we value highly. When we watch a film or TV or read we are receiving narratives.

We are going to look at narratives in Film & Broadcast Fiction although there are narratives in ads. and news items.

The narrative begins with the opening of the film or TV drama.

We are used to watching TV and films and getting meanings out of them and working out the plot or story is a key way we do this.

Plot and Story.

In Media Studies there is a difference between the meaning of plot and story.

The plot is what is present (visibly & audibly) in the film and in the order in which you get it.

 E.G. Lord Pasta is found dead. Detective Bolognese is called in to investigate. She discovers the murderer was his nephew Douggie Spaggs who was next in line for the title and inheritance.

The story is all the things that happen in the narrative, both the ones that we see in the film and the ones we infer or are referred to. The story includes things that we can assume are happening (like eating and sleeping) which are not shown because they would be boring as part of the plot. It might include things we only find out later, such as Norman’s mental condition in Psycho.

E.G. Douggie Spaggs is short of money and kills his uncle to inherit but is caught by Bolognese of the Yard.

The plot of a thriller might include things in the wrong order – it might include flashbacks for example – and yet we try and work out the ‘solution’. We can only use the evidence in the plot. We would feel cheated if parts of the story were suddenly revealed at the very end that we couldn’t have possibly guessed.

The story of Pulp Fiction would be the film reassembled in the right order.

Think about:

·      Do we (as viewers) know more that the characters in the film or the same? (About some things, irrelevant to the plot, we obviously know a lot less.)

·      In a thriller or detective story, do we know who did it or are we working at the same pace as the detective? Do we try to get to the solution before Morse/Frost/Rebus/Poirot? Do we use the clues in the plot to work out who did it or media conventions? (e.g. the murderer is always the least likely suspect)

·      Give examples of dramatic irony.

·      How is suspense built up in a plot?

·      What is the effect of flashbacks on the building of suspense?

The Voice.

Another part of the construction of narratives involves the ‘voice’ telling the story.

A first-person narration will use “I” as the voice of the teller. Such a narrative cannot give the reader access to events that “I” could not have seen or been told. In a film or TV narrative they will need a voice-over to tell the story from a personal point of view.

A third-person or impersonal narrative is a story which seems to be written by God/Goddess. This is common in film or TV narratives where events seem to be unfolding before us.

·      Blade Runner was made in two different versions – with a voice-over and without (The Director’s Cut) Do you know why?

Narrative theories suggest that stories (in whatever media) share certain features (but particular media tell stories in different ways.)

Narrative theory 1: Propp

Propp looked at folk tales and saw some structures they shared in common. He found 8 character roles and 31 functions that move the story along.

The 8 character roles can also be types of action because they are not the sort of roles which appear in the cast list. One character in the film or play can occupy several of his character roles or types of action. They are:

1.     The villain

2.     The hero (not always good but always carries the story along, the central character and not always male)

3.     The donor (who provides an object with some special property)

4.     The helper (who helps the hero)

5.     The princess (the reward for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes)

6.     Her father (who rewards the hero)

7.     The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way)

8.     The false hero

The 31 functions include events such as:

The hero is prohibited from doing something

The villain learns something about the victim

The villain is punished, etc.

·      Does this work for your favourite film? A Bond Movie? A news story? Star Wars?

Narrative Theory 2: Todorov

Todorov also saw underlying structures to narratives.

He argued that stories all begin in “equilibrium” when all forces are in balance.

This is disrupted by a problem to cause “disequilibrium”. Then more events take place before a “new equilibrium” is established.

Many film makers today don’t bother setting up the normal world in order to disrupt it with a problem (a killer shark, etc.) and go straight for the problem and disequilibrium. However, there will always be a sense in the film of what life was like before the problem came along and therefore what the characters can return to if they can only sort the problem out.

·      Does this work for your favourite film? A Bond Movie? A news story? Fatal Attraction? Jaws?

Narrative Theory 3: Barthes

Barthes suggested that narrative works with different codes which the reader tries to make sense of. The most obvious is the use of enigma codes. These are little puzzles which the audience needs to solve throughout the plot. This makes us work but gives us pleasure when we solve them correctly. The plot might need the solving a big enigma code but there will be little ones along the way.

Narrative Theory 4: Lévi-Strauss

He argued that all meaning-making, not just narratives, depend on binary oppositions – a conflict between two sides/qualities which are opposites.

E.G. Westerns where there can be many binary oppositions such as:

Cowboys	Indians
settlers	natives
Christian	Pagan
domestic	savage
weak	strong
garden	wilderness
The law	outlaws
helpless	dangerous
clothed	naked
whites	redskins
telegraph	smoke signals

Ads. also use binary oppositions such as spots/Clearasil

Dirty/Persil, Daz/Brand X, young/old, dandruff/Head & Shoulders, etc.

Myths use binary oppositions all the time such as God/Devil, Good/Evil.

·      Make a grid, as above, for Sci-Fi films

Narrative Theory 5: Syd Field

Syd is a practicing screenwriter and his theory is more of a piece of advice for potential film makers. He is interested in the way one thing leads to another or causality. As you watch a film you should see a structure of events develop as things lead to other things.

Field says a typical Hollywood film can be separated into three separate dramatic sections or acts.

Act 1 is the setup. The first 10 mins is very important to grab the audience. If they like it in the first 10 mins they are unlikely to change their minds later. The film maker should show the audience who the main character is and why they should care what happens to him/her. They should see what style and genre the film is going to use. The next 20 mins show the audience the nature of the problem the hero has to face or this can be left to plot point 1.

Act 2 is the confrontation. The longest act shows us the hero in more and more extreme problem situations. He/she is helpless against the opposing forces. There may be a mid-point where they start to turn things around but not until plot-point 2 will they realise the way to succeed…

Act 3 is the resolution. The hero wins out (often by confronting the opposing forces on their own territory)

Where Act 1 becomes Act 2 and Act 2 becomes Act 3 there is a plot point – a particularly important piece of the plot which turns around the lives of the characters, change their relationships and alter the tone of the film. Films often have a number of plot points like these but Field points to two major ones between the acts and a less important one in the middle of the film.

·      Does this work for your favourite film? A Bond Movie? Speed? Fatal Attraction?

Narrative Theory 6: Stanley Kubrick

Director of Dr Strangelove, The Shining, 2001, and others had the theory that all you needed for a captivating narrative was seven Non-Submersible Units. These were scenes, images, actions, sounds or a combination of these that created a strong impression on the audience that they couldn’t ignore, shrug off or forget.

This is similar to the claim of a script writer of The Avengers that he thought of ten really good scenes and then found a plot that would link them up!

(Kubrick won lots of Oscars and got bums on seats and is viewed as a very important director if not an artist, so maybe he should be taken more seriously!)