CHAPTER FIVE: Epistolary Novels And Mimetic Devices
We have seen how the use of mimetic devices contributed to Still Alice and Turn of Mind. In Chapter FIVE I explore the possibility of using Facebook, (a twenty first century mode of communication), as a mimetic device to augment conventional prose fiction. In this chapter I want to show how mimetic devices such as letters, bank statements and reports have already been used in epistolary fiction so that I can consider their use as models for my own work.
I touch briefly on the history of the use of mimetic devices in the epistolary novel and go on to discuss how mimetic devices in So Much For That , House Mother Normal and Flowers for Algernon allow us to hear different voices and create texture. In SMFT chapters are headed with a bank statement showing how illness drains people’s savings. In HMN, each character is preceded by a clinical report which includes their cognitive ability. FFA uses a diary or “progris report” to tell the story. I discuss how these mimetic devices contribute to the story.
In the 18th century, letter writing took on great importance as a new mode of communication. (Studying the Novel 2001) In Pamela by Richardson, letters between Pamela and her family are used to tell the story of Pamela’s resistance to seduction by her employer. The reader is puzzled by the sudden cessation of Pamela’s family’s replies to her letters, only to find that this is because Pamela’s employer has insisted on
The last literary device Eugenia Collier exercises to deepen her sensation of despair and disgrace is diction. Collier influences her words to carve her emotions into the reader, one can sense the feelings of puzzlement and the irascibleness it evokes. For instance, in this quote the reader can grasp Eugenia’s voice through her use of eloquent words “ I indeed lost my mind, for all the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled in me and burst - the great need for my mother who was never there, the hopelessness of our poverty and degradation, the bewilderment of being neither child nor woman and yet both at once, the fear unleashed by my father’s tears. And theses feelings combined in one great impulse toward destruction.” This quotes reveals the emotions the author choice to seal
This paper will be a unique interpretation coupled with an analysis of rhetoric in A Thousand Acre’s by Jane Smiley. This non-fiction novel is told in third person omniscient and is focused on the point of view of one of the main characters, Ginny Cook. A Thousand Acres was a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear; set on a large farm and small town in Iowa. This setting is important to the plot because it is more realistic compared to a far away mystical land that is detached from its audience. Smiley uses various rhetorical and literary techniques within her book to engage readers while still keeping to the basic storyline previously written by Shakespeare. Smiley’s use of language positively aids the imagery and emotions seen
Fay Weldon’s ‘Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen’ (1984) through the form of an epistolic novel, serves to enrich a heightened understanding of the contemporary issues of Jane Austen’s cultural context. In doing so, the responder is inspired to adopt a more holistic appreciation of the roles of women inherent in Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813). Due to the examination of the shift of attitudes and values between the Regency era and the 1980s, the reader comes to better understanding of the conventions of marriage for a women and the role education had in increasing one’s marriage prospects. Weldon’s critical discussion of these issues transforms a modern responder’s understanding of the role of a woman during the 19th century.
Step 1 Prewriting: The Guildsmen were a group of men a part of a labor union. The carpenter, the weaver, the haberdasher, the dyer, and the carpet maker all traveled together due to their similar trades. They did this so they could increase the prices of their good. These men were all very successful in their respective trades. The men dressed in very fancy attire. The Guildsmen were also very proud of how well they treated their wives.
In “The Birthmark”, the relationships and behaviors of the characters play a significant role in the story by revealing more than the story itself does . Through the character’ different actions, characteristics, and behaviors, Nathaniel Hawthorne gives a deeper insight into his life, such as revealing his worldview to his readers, and also gives insight into a more relevant story. Hawthorne’s transcendentalist worldview is conveyed through Aylmer’s and Georgiana’s obsessions, Aylmer’s manipulation of nature, and the birthmark.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the representatives of the Dark Romanticism genre. The cultural and literal context, stylistic features and main themes of the Hawthorne’s short story The Birthmark will be discussed in this essay.
Jane Austen is well known as a novelist for her satirical representation of female characters in late Georgian society. During this period, novel writing and reading was still a controversial topic, and as such was incorporated in her book Northanger Abbey (1817), which has at its core a young female protagonist obsessed with novels. We can clearly interpret Northanger Abbey as Austen’s satirical response to the social conventions decrying novel reading, as she uses an intrusive narrator and more subtle supplementary techniques to comment on and satirize the debate surrounding novels.
When historians and common people alike look back at the Second World War, one person stands out among all of the people who had a part, Adolf Hitler. His atrocities and crimes are well documented across the world but one question which has many people puzzled is, why did the people of Germany support Hitler and his Nazi regime? Also how much were the German people to blame for the events that occurred during the National Socialist Party’s regime? Were they just to blame as Hitler himself or did they have no fault in what was going on? According to Gotz Aly and his book, Hitler's Beneficiaries, the answerz to the former question is simpler that one might think. According to Aly, Hitler simply brought his peoples consent.
In the short allegory “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a newly-wed couple becomes consumed by the existence of a small birthmark on the wife’s face. When the wife, Georgiana, allows her husband Aylmer, a scientist, to remove the birthmark, both realize that Georgiana will inevitably sacrifice her life for the sake of its removal. As the story progresses, so does the confliction of the newlyweds as they realize exactly what the birthmark symbolized to and for each other. Hawthorne’s hallmark use of symbolism also provides a ‘perfect’ glimpse into the mindset of two themes of psychological conflictions: perfectionism and codependency. Hawthorne seems to share this story as a possible moral of the hidden pathos we place upon the ones we love, and the invisible marks or standards we place upon ourselves for the ones we love.
The novel, ‘The Invisible Hero’ by Elizabeth Fensham uses many stylistic features. Authors purposefully use stylistic devices to show the theme of Heroes and Villians. Some of these include the usage of Journal entries, structure and point of view. These are seen many times through out the novel to explore the theme of heroes and villains. The use of diary entries shows us sides of characters that we would not have seen if there had not been diary entries. This can be seen when Charlie tells macca Sam and Phil that he confessed t there having burn the paper bags resulting, indirectly, in Phil’s nan’s burns.
Letters play a very important role in ‘Pride and Prejudice’. They can tie the story together because letters provide information which we would not have found out from the dialogue between the characters. We can also find out extra background information which can help with the reader’s understanding of characters, the plot and the novel in general. Letters can reveal character’s personalities and how they feel about the other characters in the novel, for example Miss Bingley’s feelings about Jane. Letters are used as a dramatic device in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to further the plot, link the story and to inform the readers of the character’s personalities.
Authors use literary as devices such irony, foreshadowing,or flashbacks to help develop the theme of a story. Novels such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, use these literary devices to elaborate on and support one common theme. Even short stories such as “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury use literary devices to make their stories and plots more interesting and to develop their themes. Literary devices are an important part of writing and an essential part of any plot, story, or theme.
At first reading, Ian McEwan’s Atonement seems to be a modernist novel that owes much of its stylistic techniques to classic novels by authors such as Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen. That is, until the first-time reader turns a page to discover the epilogue entitled “London, 1999” and has this illusion shattered by the revelation that in fact Parts One, Two, and Three were penned by none other than the 77-year-old Briony Tallis. This epilogue, and what it divulges about the events we have just read, turns the book into a metafiction. A close rereading of the book turns up multiple references to the fact that it is in fact a manuscript written by the elderly Briony. McEwan’s metafictional
Austen has set out to save the rising art form of the novel. In this address to the reader she glorifies what a novel should be: the unrestrained expression of words conveying the wide range of raw human emotion. This veneration of the novel is necessary to the development of Catherine's fiction-loving character as it justifies the narrator's right to remain fond of this flawed heroine.
Transcripts Throughout my high school career, I am very proud of the grades I have received. Keeping up my grades has not always been too much of a struggle for me. Most of the time, I can comprehend quickly and easily. There were many nights where I had to spend my time studying for a test or writing an essay, but eventually they were well worth the time spent because my grade point average has been a 3.5 and above.