Characterization Lecture Notes
Characterization
…and Poetry
For this unit, we will explore characterization. Characters, of course, are most readily identifiable in short stories and novels. Often, however, we find characters in poetry. Do be careful, though, the speaker of a poem, him/herself, could be a character rather than the author him or herself. Indeed, we never want to mistake the voice in the poem as the writer him/herself. Instead, we refer to the speaker of a poem as a persona.
As part of this unit’s readings, Paul Laurence Dunbar offers a persona within his poem “We Wear the Mask.”
…and the blending of genres
You will also find Jamaica Kincaid’s (20th C. Antiguan author) work, “Girl.” Is “Girl” a short story? a vignette? a poem? The abstract for Reem Ahmad Rabea and Nusaiba Adel Almahameed’s article “Genre Crossing in Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’: From Short Fiction to Poetry” explains the difficulty of categorizing this brief work into a standard genre of poetry or short story:
The structure as well as the poetic language of ‘Girl’ make it an unconventional piece of writing falling between two literary categories and so hard to classify. ‘Girl’ apparently violates rules and transgresses conventions by being both poetic and going beyond the traditional fictional structure of a short story. The paper argues that ‘Girl’ is an unconventional piece of literature that crosses the borders of a short story to poetry.
In “Girl” Kincaid offers two characters, a dominant character–most likely a mother–who chastises a young woman and the young woman–most likely the daughter– who speaks back (in italics) to the mother.
…and Plays
We will also talk about the importance of setting, place, and personal space as it relates to character. Certainly, we will see the importance of place in Henrik Ibsens play A Doll House. Indeed, the symbolic nature of the plays title as it relates to the characters (dolls/playthings) is of great significance.
Part of the setting is also the time in which the work takes place. This weeks selection stays in the late 19th century but crosses the ocean to Norway, showing us the same restrictions placed on American women also placed on Norwegian women.
While setting is very important to this play, I chose, instead, to cover it under characterization as we examine the main character, Nora, whose character is transformed from child-like to strong woman. Listen to the change in how Nora speaks and how other characters speak to her as the play progresses. Note key passages consistent with the child-like Nora and passages consistent with the strong-willed Nora (both from Nora and from others). Look at individual words used by different characters in different situations.
There are different types of characters you will find in literature. Some are static characters, flat characters who never change, individuals whose presence are meant as a foil for the main character or to help the main character in his/her journey. Other characters are round, characters who change, evolve, grow, develop. In A Doll’s House, examine the characters to see which characters are round and which are flat. Pay particular attention to the tone of voice the characters use as the play progresses–do they change or stay the same? Does the characters’ language break down or become clearer, more intelligent?
To understand character better, be sure to read the opening section in Chapter 28 on character in your literature textbook. You should be able to examine the characters in the play better, knowing the vocabulary associated with character: monologue, dialogue, formal vs. informal language, plain and elaborate language, tone, and irony. With a play, stage directions, indeed, can help us better understand what is happening. Do notice, however, the brevity of the stage directions. Instead, it is largely the words the characters speak by which we interpret the characters. Without a narrator, how do we know what a character is saying is true? How do we get inside a characters head? Can we fully understand what motivates a character?
With this play, knowing the characters becomes increasingly difficult as we begin to see the truth of Paul Dunbar’s poem in the characters, as masquerade enters the picture. Who is the true character, the character behind the mask or the masked character? What is a true character?
Finally, you want to be sure to read the information in your textbook about Ibsen and the cultural context of the play, Norway in the 19th Century. Given what you read therein, you should consider how daring a writer was Ibsen, how radical his work.
I hope you enjoy this weeks texts.
…and TedTalks
In addition to your literary readings, for this first week of unit two, I have chosen a selection of TedTalks discussing character. Watch each one. Notice there is a version where you can both watch and follow the transcript simultaneously.
Click on this first video, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
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