Introduction - 7 april 2025
Storytelling
★ Telling stories: making connections, remembering the past, imagining the future;
★ Analyzing stories: analyzing cultural ways to make sense of the world;
★ Telling stories about stories: recognizing tropes, drawing intertextual connections, making
analysis relevant.
Lisabetta da Messina
★ Text → plot, style, genre, medium, themes, characters, tropes;
★ Context → author, time, place, economic, social, political;
★ Intertext → quotations, cross referencing, retellings, mediatization.
What’s the story?
★ What happens?
★ What is the atmosphere? → genre?
★ How is it written? → literary style
★ What are important themes, tropes, objects, characters?
Definition of the Canon
★ A canon refers to a collection of texts, objects, or artworks considered important and
representative of a particular culture;
★ Examples:
○ European literary canon: a set of books representing European literature.
○ French cinematic canon: key films representing French cinema.
○ The criteria for inclusion are often vague or unspoken. Members of a culture may share a
general sense of what belongs in the canon, even without formal reasoning.
Historical Origin of the Term
★ Originally from church law: A text is canonical if deemed sacred and part of an authorized
religious collection.
★ Broader modern use: Canonization is the process by which works gain cultural importance, often
through scholarly or popular recognition.
Prescriptive Nature of the Canon
★ The canon can serve as a guide for what newcomers should learn or read.
★ Example: Canon of the Netherlands – a curated list of important texts, events, and people for
education.
★ Canons are enforced culturally through:
★ Reading lists
★ Rankings of "best" works
★ Cultural anxiety over declining familiarity with certain works
,The Canon in Practice
★ Most cultural canons are informal, but their influence is widespread.
★ Internalization: Many people adopt canonical values without realizing it.
★ Cultural examples include:
○ Lists like “201 books one should read before dying”
○ Classical music collections
○ Headlines about concerns over schools dropping canonical authors like Shakespeare
Criticism of the Canon
★ Critiques:
○ Reductive: Oversimplifies and narrows culture.
○ Assumes universality: Implies a shared cultural standard where none may exist.
★ However, canons can also have emancipatory potential:
○ Alternative canons can uplift underrepresented voices and histories.
○ Can help marginalized groups assert cultural identity.
Case Study: Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey
★ Sayers wrote during the “Golden Age” of detective fiction (early 20th century).
★ She was one of few financially independent women authors at the time.
★ Key question: Is Sayers’ work part of the European canon?
★ Consider historical, literary, and cultural significance.
★ Weigh the influence of genre, gender, and national context.
Canon vs. Heritage
★ Heritagization: Recognizing something as heritage implies historical value and a need to preserve
it.
★ Canonization: Elevates a work as essential cultural knowledge.
★ Increasingly, the European canon itself is treated as heritage—valuable historically, but not
always seen as relevant or living culture.
, STORYTELLING
Lecture 1 - 9 april 2025
Questions for Interpreting a Text
★ To begin understanding a poem or narrative, consider:
○ What kind of text is this?
○ Analyze its style and genre.
○ How would you summarize or describe it to someone else?
★ What is the context of this text?
○ Who wrote it, when, and where?
○ Consider what kind of person the author might have been.
★ How would you interpret the text?
○ What is its main message?
○ What ideas or emotions is it trying to communicate?
Why Stories Matter
★ What do stories do?
○ Help us understand the world and connect events or emotions.
○ Are used to remember the past and imagine the future.
○ Are cultural tools for understanding social norms, beliefs, values, and behaviors.
○ Act as frameworks to make sense of experiences like suffering, illness, or injustice.
Case Study: Lisabetta da Messina (from Boccaccio's Decameron)
★ Textual Analysis
○ Central symbol: the basil pot
○ Interpretations:
■ Love endures beyond death
■ Mourning as a form of care
■ Obsession and madness
■ Cultural mourning rituals
★ Context
○ Part of The Decameron, written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the 14th century.
○ Set during the plague; group of 10 young people isolate themselves and tell stories (early
example of quarantine literature).
○ Reflects a world where social class affected who could escape disease.
★ Intertextuality
○ Draws on classical sources (e.g. Ovid), folk tales, and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
○ Inspired later retellings:
■ John Keats’ poem
■ Romantic paintings by artists like Waterhouse
■ Pasolini’s film adaptation
■ Modern reinterpretations, like a Netflix series during recent quarantine periods
, Stories and Suffering
★ Stories help explain suffering across history. Examples include:
○ Jean de La Fontaine’s Fable: "The Animals Sick of the Plague"
■ 17th-century fable using animals to critique social injustice.
■ Structure: moral fable with satire, ending in a clear maxim.
■ Themes:
● Injustice in the judicial system (the weak are punished, the strong are
excused).
● Reinforces prevailing religious beliefs (e.g. plague as punishment for
sin), while questioning fairness.
○ Moral: "Thus human courts acquit the strong, / And doom the weak, as therefore wrong."
Literary Genre Comparison
Genre Features
Fable Uses animals;clear moral; often satirical
Fairy tale Implicit moral; conformity to social norms
Naturalism Focus on realism and determinism; reflects harsh
social realities.
Example of Naturalism: Las medias rojas by Emilia Pardo Bazán
★ Context: Spanish, late 19th to early 20th century.
★ Style: Naturalist – portrays grim realities with scientific observation.
★ Plot: Story about a young woman’s hope, followed by violent loss of opportunity.
★ Themes:
○ Determinism (fate is unchangeable)
○ Gender roles and domestic violence
○ Migration and poverty
★ Links to journalism and social realism of the time.
Storytelling
★ Telling stories: making connections, remembering the past, imagining the future;
★ Analyzing stories: analyzing cultural ways to make sense of the world;
★ Telling stories about stories: recognizing tropes, drawing intertextual connections, making
analysis relevant.
Lisabetta da Messina
★ Text → plot, style, genre, medium, themes, characters, tropes;
★ Context → author, time, place, economic, social, political;
★ Intertext → quotations, cross referencing, retellings, mediatization.
What’s the story?
★ What happens?
★ What is the atmosphere? → genre?
★ How is it written? → literary style
★ What are important themes, tropes, objects, characters?
Definition of the Canon
★ A canon refers to a collection of texts, objects, or artworks considered important and
representative of a particular culture;
★ Examples:
○ European literary canon: a set of books representing European literature.
○ French cinematic canon: key films representing French cinema.
○ The criteria for inclusion are often vague or unspoken. Members of a culture may share a
general sense of what belongs in the canon, even without formal reasoning.
Historical Origin of the Term
★ Originally from church law: A text is canonical if deemed sacred and part of an authorized
religious collection.
★ Broader modern use: Canonization is the process by which works gain cultural importance, often
through scholarly or popular recognition.
Prescriptive Nature of the Canon
★ The canon can serve as a guide for what newcomers should learn or read.
★ Example: Canon of the Netherlands – a curated list of important texts, events, and people for
education.
★ Canons are enforced culturally through:
★ Reading lists
★ Rankings of "best" works
★ Cultural anxiety over declining familiarity with certain works
,The Canon in Practice
★ Most cultural canons are informal, but their influence is widespread.
★ Internalization: Many people adopt canonical values without realizing it.
★ Cultural examples include:
○ Lists like “201 books one should read before dying”
○ Classical music collections
○ Headlines about concerns over schools dropping canonical authors like Shakespeare
Criticism of the Canon
★ Critiques:
○ Reductive: Oversimplifies and narrows culture.
○ Assumes universality: Implies a shared cultural standard where none may exist.
★ However, canons can also have emancipatory potential:
○ Alternative canons can uplift underrepresented voices and histories.
○ Can help marginalized groups assert cultural identity.
Case Study: Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey
★ Sayers wrote during the “Golden Age” of detective fiction (early 20th century).
★ She was one of few financially independent women authors at the time.
★ Key question: Is Sayers’ work part of the European canon?
★ Consider historical, literary, and cultural significance.
★ Weigh the influence of genre, gender, and national context.
Canon vs. Heritage
★ Heritagization: Recognizing something as heritage implies historical value and a need to preserve
it.
★ Canonization: Elevates a work as essential cultural knowledge.
★ Increasingly, the European canon itself is treated as heritage—valuable historically, but not
always seen as relevant or living culture.
, STORYTELLING
Lecture 1 - 9 april 2025
Questions for Interpreting a Text
★ To begin understanding a poem or narrative, consider:
○ What kind of text is this?
○ Analyze its style and genre.
○ How would you summarize or describe it to someone else?
★ What is the context of this text?
○ Who wrote it, when, and where?
○ Consider what kind of person the author might have been.
★ How would you interpret the text?
○ What is its main message?
○ What ideas or emotions is it trying to communicate?
Why Stories Matter
★ What do stories do?
○ Help us understand the world and connect events or emotions.
○ Are used to remember the past and imagine the future.
○ Are cultural tools for understanding social norms, beliefs, values, and behaviors.
○ Act as frameworks to make sense of experiences like suffering, illness, or injustice.
Case Study: Lisabetta da Messina (from Boccaccio's Decameron)
★ Textual Analysis
○ Central symbol: the basil pot
○ Interpretations:
■ Love endures beyond death
■ Mourning as a form of care
■ Obsession and madness
■ Cultural mourning rituals
★ Context
○ Part of The Decameron, written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the 14th century.
○ Set during the plague; group of 10 young people isolate themselves and tell stories (early
example of quarantine literature).
○ Reflects a world where social class affected who could escape disease.
★ Intertextuality
○ Draws on classical sources (e.g. Ovid), folk tales, and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
○ Inspired later retellings:
■ John Keats’ poem
■ Romantic paintings by artists like Waterhouse
■ Pasolini’s film adaptation
■ Modern reinterpretations, like a Netflix series during recent quarantine periods
, Stories and Suffering
★ Stories help explain suffering across history. Examples include:
○ Jean de La Fontaine’s Fable: "The Animals Sick of the Plague"
■ 17th-century fable using animals to critique social injustice.
■ Structure: moral fable with satire, ending in a clear maxim.
■ Themes:
● Injustice in the judicial system (the weak are punished, the strong are
excused).
● Reinforces prevailing religious beliefs (e.g. plague as punishment for
sin), while questioning fairness.
○ Moral: "Thus human courts acquit the strong, / And doom the weak, as therefore wrong."
Literary Genre Comparison
Genre Features
Fable Uses animals;clear moral; often satirical
Fairy tale Implicit moral; conformity to social norms
Naturalism Focus on realism and determinism; reflects harsh
social realities.
Example of Naturalism: Las medias rojas by Emilia Pardo Bazán
★ Context: Spanish, late 19th to early 20th century.
★ Style: Naturalist – portrays grim realities with scientific observation.
★ Plot: Story about a young woman’s hope, followed by violent loss of opportunity.
★ Themes:
○ Determinism (fate is unchangeable)
○ Gender roles and domestic violence
○ Migration and poverty
★ Links to journalism and social realism of the time.
