Introduction to the Study of Cultures and Literatures in English

- Introduction to the Study of Cultures and Literatures in English
- Előszó
- Contents
- Part 1 What is English Studies?
  - 1. What is a university? A proseminary
  - 2. Paradigms and paradigm shifts
  - 3. What is English Studies? English as a university subject
  - 4. Ideology, criticism, history
  - 5. Registers of Culture
  - 6. Canon formation and alternative reading practices
- Part 2 Fields of English Studies. Language, Literature, Culture, and Critical Approaches
  - 1. Preliminary problems: definitions, scientific expectations
  - 2. Ontological problems: the way literature exists
    - Semiotics
    - Literary communication
    - Language and Critical Thinking
    - The Language of the Sciences and the Language of Literature
  - 3. Methodological problems: the way we understand texts
    - Meaning and context
    - The Process of Interpretation
  - 4. The Theory of Genres
    - Genres and Their Historical Changes
    - Genre-generating Factors and Historical Changes
  - 5. Poetry and Figurative Language
    - Exercise in Interpretation / 1
      - I First level of meaning
      - II Second level of meaning
      - III Third level of meaning
      - IV Fourth level of meaning
  - 6. Narrative Fiction
    - Exercise in Interpretation / 2
      - I First level of meaning
      - II Second level of meaning
      - III Third level of meaning
  - 7. Drama
    - Exercise in Interpretation / 3
      - I First level of meaning
      - II Second level of meaning
  - Self test I
  - 8. Literature, Culture, and the Reading Subject: An Overview of Major Trends in Literary and Cultural Theory
    - I Preliminaries
    - II Formal critical trends: from the authorial intention to the close reading of the text (1st shift)
    - III Contextual aproaches: from text to context
    - The critique of structuralism
  - Self test II
  - 9. Critical Literature Consulted and Recommended
  - 10. Appendix

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# II Second level of meaning

Just like the classical Greek tragedies, Yeats’s drama represents human fallibility, pride, tragic mistakes and the consequences the human being has to suffer because of the mistakes. It does so in a particularly tight dramatic structure and a masterful reversal in the line of action.

However, there is also another level of meaning to the play, which we will recognize if we think about the ritual origins of drama. We saw earlier on that tragedy developed from ancient fertility rituals, more exactly, from the ritual sacrifice. In the centre of this tragedy, we also have a ritual sacrifice, performed quite ritualistically, with repeated stabbings, by the Old Man. In this respect, with the ritualistic theme, the drama takes on a metadramatic aspect: it is a drama which is about dramatic issues and theatrical themes, since it is a tragedy about the ritual origins of tragedy. Purgatory is not only a tragedy about the pride and the suffering of the human being, but it is also a tragedy about tragedy: it is a highly intense metadrama.

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