ModelBALit, Różne EBOOK 340 szt
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Uniwersytet Łódzki
Wydział Filologiczny
Instytut Anglistyki
Jakub Krzywicki
280170
„Forma jest funkcją” – rola kompozycji w powieści „Grendel”
Johna Gardnera
Praca licencjacka napisana
w Katedrze Dramatu i Dawnej
Literatury Angielskiej
pod kierunkiem
dr Magdaleny Cieślak
Łódź 2010
University of Łódź
Faculty of Philology
Institute of English Studies
Jakub Krzywicki
“Form is function” – the role of composition
in John Gardner's
Grendel
BA Thesis written in
The Department of Studies in Drama
and pre-1800 English Literature
supervised by dr Magdalena Cieślak
Łódź 2010
Table of contents
1. Introduction................................................................................................. 1
2. Chapter I ''Chaos''........................................................................................ 3
1.1 ''Beowulf''.............................................................................................. 4
1.2 ''Grendel''............................................................................................. 10
3. Chapter II ''Order''......................................................................................17
4. Conclusions............................................................................................... 25
5. Works cited............................................................................................... 27
6. Summary................................................................................................... 29
Introduction
Post-structuralism is a 20
th
century literary theory that essentially advocates the
relevance of sceptical and distanced attitude towards any forms of literary systems and
patterns. It is often associated, joined and even identified with the theory of
intertextuality established by Julia Kristeva,
and the concept of deconstruction
formulated by Jacques Derrida.
Originating from the reviving 60's, the broadly-defined post-structuralist attitude
opposes and subverts the school of structuralism, whose ideas began to be considered
by many as anachronistic and stagnant. In general, structuralists considered language as
a static and isolated phenomenon that can be successfully systematised and
consequently utilised as an accurate reflection of reality and as a medium of
communication. Post-structuralists undermine those confident convictions. Following
the existential idea of inevitability of individual perspective they conclude that language
is capable of neither transmitting unambiguous information nor communicating
meaning between its users.
People tend to perceive reality through naming its elements. It is impossible to
think of something that cannot be defined at least in a very general way. The abstract
concept – the Platonic ''form'' – remains in the memory and becomes ''activated'' each
time the senses capture a corresponding element of reality. It means that the more
objects one can define, the larger and richer his or her world is, and that, assuming there
are virtually no two human beings with identical lexicon, everyone lives in his or her
own distinct world. Such a situation practically excludes the presence of any efficiently
working system or pattern of communicating.
On the other hand, it should be emphasised that post-structuralism has been
1
The term ''intertextuality'' was originally coined by Michail Bachtin. In 1968, Kristeva borrowed it and
adapted the meaning to her new idea.
1
formulated as an alternative to the formerly predominant tenets of the school of
structuralism. Anna Burzynska briefly characterises the general assumption of the
movement, pointing out that:
the prefix ''post'' is a typical element of definitions referring to a specific kind of
currents of thought. It denotes those movements that advocate revision and critical
attitude towards the traditionally-acclaimed assumptions and paradigms.[...] Such
movements usually emerge when people start to feel unsatisfied with the existing
tradition and find it inadequate for their intellectual needs. (336)
As long as the ideas of post-structuralism stem form the preceding notions of
structuralism in terms of subject of considerations, it should be underlined that there is
basically no relation of exclusion between them. Structuralism is not ''destroyed'' by the
new wave of thought but is rather ''deconstructed'' by it. It is accompanied by a critical
alternative – post-structuralism – as the significance of the prefix ''post'' not only
suggests chronological sequence – substituting the word ''after'', but also reveals the
subject matter – standing for the word ''about'' (Burzynska 336). The two notions thus
seem to coexist inseparably and balance each other, constituting
sui generis
contradictory dichotomy.
Such relations and mechanisms shall be traced, investigated and analysed on the
basis of John Champlin Gardner’s parallel novel –
Grendel
,
an intricate masterpiece of
literature featuring and juxtaposing metafictional, deconstructive and intertextual
qualities with the systematic regularity of its compositional structure.
2
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