World Lit Test 1 Notes
o Worlds oldest stories
o Oral Tradition
o Culturally Important
o Reveal Human Experience
o Anonymous traditional story that explains a belief, custom, etc.
o tend to be about beginnings
o have archetypal patterns
o "the hero w/ a thousand faces"
o Quest = journey undertaken in search of something of value
o remarkable childhood
o noble parentage
o divine, although hero may not know it
o ordinary
o may have extraordinary gifts; e.g: kindness, patience
o has faced hardships
o aided by people
o magical being
+ Sidenote: Folktales have evolved from myths, while folktales include fairytales, legends, ghost stories, tall tales, and fables.
o supernatural elements
o good hearted common people who triumph over evil
o events in "3's"
o moral lesson shared
o characters live "happily ever after"
o Type of Hero: Mythic(noble parentage, super strength)
o Obstacles overcome: Lifts boulder, ties giant to tree, kills inkeeper who had been torturing people, and the minotaur
o Result: Stuck to bench in Hell
o expands the categories of the real so as to encompass myth, magic, and other extraordinary phenomena in Nature or experience which European realism excluded
o GGM - he blends reality and fantasy so that distinction between the two is erased
- Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
o Fantastic factors: Angels presence
+ However, this presence isn't questioned
o Realistic Factors: Setting(raining,flooding,crabs,smell,sick baby); hardships; lower class lifestyle; parasites(chicken eating parasites on wings)
o Myths- stories about beginnings. They probably originally had a religious purpose, for they attempt to explain mysteries that people regard as sacred; how the world was created, why people must eventually die, why the world is imperfect
o Folktales - Stories told by the common people. Most folktales are told for entertainment, although they may also teach values. Legends, tall tales, fables, and fairytales are all forms of folktales.
o Archetype - A pattern or model that serves as a basis for different, but related versions of a character, plot, or theme.
o Magical Realism - Combines incredible events with realistic details and relates them all in a matter of fact tone. It blurs the line between what seems "real" to the reader, and what seems imagined or "unreal" to the same reader.
o Fairytales - Contain: supernatural elements, good hearted common people who triumph over evil, contain events in "3's" (e.g. The Three Blind Mice), gives a moral lesson, and and ending in which ends in "happily ever after"
o Quest - Journey undertaken in search for something of value
o Metafiction - fiction that discusses, describes, or analyzes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction.
