Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Language

Change: The narrative shifts from multiple characters in the prologue to focusing on one main character. There's also a change in the narrator, moving from first person to a third-person omniscient perspective. The tower is a key symbol representing the protagonist. Purpose: To reflect a family's history through fragmented perspectives, mirroring life's broken nature. The story is pieced together from these fragments. Topic: The story of a nuclear family, from its growth to its eventual collapse. Structure: The narrative is closed, consisting of three parts and 52 chapters.

Part 1: Approach

This section introduces the main characters and their relationships in a realistic manner. It begins with an epigraph. Several characters harbor a secret,... Continue reading "Family Saga: Structure, Characters, and Narrative Shifts" »

Galdós tells the adventures of the beautiful and poor girl Isidora Rufete, who, because of the lies told by her father, believes she belongs to a noble family and starts a lawsuit to obtain recognition of her rights. Her conviction makes her develop a noble, aristocratic pride that leads her to drop out of what could have been a modest life, more or less happy. She rejects a boyfriend who is a doctor with a good future career, is unable to work, acquires very expensive habits, and falls for a ruined marquis who will bring money and continually impregnate her with a son she will never want to recognize.

So as not to relent in her aspirations, and while litigation is pending, she is forced to bail herself out by becoming the mistress of men in... Continue reading "Isidora: Pride, Fall, and Society in Galdós' Novel" »

Asyndeton or Juxtaposition: Connecting without connectors.

Parataxis: Joining two clauses without a hierarchical relationship. Includes coordination and asyndetic sentence connection at the beginning, middle, or end of the second clause.

Hypotaxis: Joining two clauses with a hierarchical relationship.

Pseudo-Coordination (Greenbaum and Quirk 1997): Coordinating conjunctions with an idiomatic sense. Intensification, Continuation/Repetition, Different Classes (Identical Coordination Elements), Quantity.

Cohesion II: Lexical Mechanisms

A. Iteration

Repetition (can include structural variations), Synonymy, Hyponymy, General Word

B. Semantic Associations Between Words

1. Opposition (Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics)
   1. Complementary: male/female,

Properties of Linguistic Signs

Linguistic signs possess several key properties:

• Arbitrariness: The relationship between the signifier (the form of the sign) and the signified (the concept it represents) is conventional, not natural.
• Discontinuity: Linguistic signs are distinct units, separate from one another.
• Linearity: In spoken language, sounds are produced sequentially, one after another, forming a chain in time as they reach the receiver.
• Immutability: From an individual speaker's perspective at a given time, the link between signifier and signified is fixed and cannot be easily changed by the individual. (Note: Language itself is mutable and changes over time within the community).

The Linguistic Sign and Its Components

A sign consists of distinct... Continue reading "Linguistic Signs, Literary Terms, and Medieval Spanish Poetics" »

Key Metaphors in The House of Bernarda Alba

The Liberating Power of Water

The metaphor used in this work is water as a liberator. In the same way that a thirsty person leaves their current place to search for water, we hope that Bernarda's daughters will be released from the prison in which they are held and can be free. This simile is found mainly in the words of Adela – the youngest and most dreaming of the five sisters – repeatedly.

Shooting Stars: A Fleeting Escape

We also find the desire for freedom symbolized by the shooting stars that appear at the end of the play. Tired of spending all eternity held in the same place, they decide to move, even if it means burning out. It is again Adela who introduces us to this dream of escape.

Color

Understanding Baudelaire's "The Albatross"

Charles Baudelaire's poem "The Albatross" offers a profound symbolic exploration of the Romantic poet's place in society. This analysis delves into the poem's structure, its key metaphors, and the poignant comparison between the majestic albatross and the alienated artist.

First Stanza: Introduction of Elements

Two key elements are introduced: the seafaring people and the albatross. The sailors, after spending long periods at sea, become bored and capture albatrosses for amusement. The birds do not threaten or provoke the sailors into capturing them; they simply accompany the ships. The albatross symbolizes the Romantic poet, while the seafaring people symbolize society. Baudelaire uses the bird to symbolize... Continue reading "Baudelaire's "The Albatross": Poetic Symbolism and Social Critique" »

Spanish Post-War Novels: 1940s to 1970s

Novels of the 1940s: Tremendismo and Existentialism

Important novels of the 1940s include The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela (1942) and Nada by Carmen Laforet (1945).

The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942)

• Most representative of the tremendista novel, vividly portraying the extreme inhumanity and violence of rural Spain, and ultimately, the human condition.
• In his narrative, Cela combines elements of:
  • Picaresque novel: Narrative told in the first person.
  • Naturalism: The supposed determinism governing the protagonist and the detailed description of reality.
  • Esperpento (Valle-Inclán): Exaggeration and the animalization of characters.

Pascual Duarte: Sentenced to death, he tries to justify his crimes... Continue reading "Spanish Post-War Novels: Literary Movements and Key Works" »