ENGL 3413: World Literature

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 13: The Night Chant, Proust, Kafka

Revised 11-23-09

“The Twentieth Century”

Extra-credit reading (on assignment sheet for last week): Read and respond to this or any other unassigned chapters of historical and literary background. Some of the most important characteristics of the 20^th century in world literature are as follows:

• Continuation of realism, esp. psychological realism, with an emphasis on Freudian psychoanalysis and the unconscious (or subconscious) mind
• Criticism of the sense of absolute certainty that 19^th-century writers had about their own values. For example, in The Death of Iván Ilyich, written in the late 19^th century, Tolstoy seems to be absolutely sure of the values that should be embraced, whereas Proust’s and Kafka’s works in the early 20^th century do not suggest a clear set of values.
• Pessimism about the prospects for human happiness. The shocking devastation of World War I (1914-18) was a turning point toward pessimism.
• The philosophy of existentialism, which holds that because “existence precedes essence” life is “absurd” (irrational) and has no meaning except what an individual creates. Theatre of the absurd puts existentialism on stage. Extra-credit reading: From the reserve drawer in the library, read and respond to the article “A Primer of Existentialism,” which clearly explains this philosophy.
• Experimentation with language

The Night Chant

The Night Chant, also known as Nightway (short for “night-way chant”), is the product of centuries of the oral tradition of Navaho ceremonialism.

1. What other works studied in this class come from the oral tradition rather than literary composition? (The comprehensive part of the final exam will contain questions like this.)
2. Extra-credit listening: Listen and respond to a clip of The Night Chant in performance at http://video.yahoo.com/watch/225583.

The Night Chant is a long lyric poem.

3. What is a lyric poem? What other lyric poems have we studied in this class?

The Night Chant is a liturgy, a prescribed form of public worship. Many groups within Judaism and Christianity (such as Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and many Lutheran churches) use liturgy.

4. How many days does it take to perform The Night Chant in its entirety? On which day is the portion of The Night Chant in your textbook performed?
5. The portion of The Night Chant in your textbook is a prayer addressed to whom?
6. In the public performance of The Night Chant, what is the role of the chanter? What is the role of the patient? Who is the thunderbird?

The liturgy of The Night Chant contains litany, a ritualistic prayer of petition (asking a deity for something).

7. What is the primary purpose of The Night Chant?
8. What specific petitions are made of the deity in the portion of The Night Chant in your textbook?

Find examples of each of the following language devices in The Night Chant:

9. Repetition of words, phrases, lines, and/or groups of lines
10. Parallelism: stating ideas of equal importance in similar grammatical forms (usually involving repetition)
11. Antithesis: using parallel structures for contrasting ideas

Structure of The Night Chant

Use the following outline to help you follow the structure and content of this poem:

Lines 1-13: description of the home of the god

Lines 14-35: direct invocation of the god

Lines 36-59: list of personal needs and the god’s services

Lines 60-90: general requests for rain and crops, ending with a communal blessing

Lines 91-96: prayer for a personal zone of protection

Finishing song

* * *

Marcel Proust

1. Where did Proust (rhymes with “boost”) live? In what language did he write?
2. What was unusual about Proust’s life? What health problems did he suffer, and how did they affect his life?

Background for Remembrance of Things Past

1. A more literal English translation of the title is In Search of Lost Time. How is this translation of the title appropriate to the book? (See especially the end of the required reading.)
2. How many individual novels make up the novel sequence Remembrance of Things Past?
3. How and where does Swann’s Way fit into this novel sequence? What is the meaning of this title?
4. What is the definition of “overture”? How and where does the assigned chapter entitled “Overture” fit into Remembrance of Things Past?
5. Proust is known for his experimental techniques of storytelling. Explain how Proust in Remembrance of Things Past departs from tradition in his handling of each of the following elements:
1. Characterization
2. Narration (To be discussed in class: stream of consciousness.)
3. Time
4. Structure

Remembrance of Things Past

“Overture” can be divided into the following sections:

1. Memories of waking up at night (2679-84t): The speaker, a man named Marcel (based on but not identical to the writer), looks back to his boyhood, when his family would visit their summer home at Combray, France.
1. When the narrator says, “I myself was the immediate subject of my book” (2679m), he is alluding to the preface to Montaigne’s Essays (“To the Reader”): “Thus, reader, I am myself the [subject] matter of my book . . .” (1506b). What does Montaigne mean by this quotation? What does the narrator of Remembrance of Things Past mean?
2. What memories does the narrator have of his nights in Combray?
3. What universal emotions and situations are contained in these memories? In what ways can you relate to them?
2. Life in Combray (2684-86): The narrator recalls other memories of his family at Combray.
1. What is a “magic lantern” (2684)? Who reads stories to Marcel? Summarize the story about Golo. What effect does this story have on the impressionable boy?
2. To which family member does Marcel have the closest emotional ties? How can you tell?
3. What is his grandmother Bathilde’s favorite after-dinner activity? What interrupts her? Which family member likes to torment her? How? How does Marcel react?
3. Desire for mother’s good-night kiss: 2687-2710(m): The narrator recalls his favorite evening ritual at Combray and, in particular, one evening when this ritual is interrupted.
1. What is this favorite good-night ritual? How is it usually carried out?
2. Who is Charles Swann? Why is he the family’s most frequent visitor? (“M. Swann” means “Monsieur Swann” or “Mr. Swann.”)
3. What do we learn about Swann’s father and mother?
4. What do we learn about Swann’s double life? What “almost secret existence” (2690, last paragraph) does Swann lead?
5. On the particular evening that the narrator recounts, how does Swann’s presence interfere with Marcel’s favorite ritual?
6. What extraordinary measures does Marcel take to continue the ritual? Do you think his feelings and actions are normal or pathological? How does his mother respond to the boy’s attempts?
7. What is the climax of this scene? When do the mother and son finally meet? What surprising decision does the father make (2705)? Why? How does the boy feel about this experience? How do the mother and son spend their extra time together?
4. Discussion of memory (2710m-13): Based on his own experiences of recovering lost memories, the narrator explains his understanding of the nature of memory.
1. Although he doesn’t use these terms, what is the difference between voluntary memory and involuntary memory (2711m, paragraph beginning “And so it is”)?
2. What experience does he relate about eating a madeleine with tea? What is a madeleine? What unanswered question does this experience create?
3. How does he finally get an answer to this question? What childhood memory comes back to him? What senses does Proust believe are most effective in evoking memories? Extra-credit research: Does scientific research support Proust’s ideas about the role of particular senses in triggering memories?

* * *

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was written in 1912, just before World War I, and published in 1915. By genre this prose fiction narrative is a novelette or novella, longer than most short stories but shorter than a novel. Unlike most short stories but like many other novelettes, this story is divided into numbered chapters or sections.

1. What other novelette have we studied in this class?
2. What is the setting of The Metamorphosis? In what time period does it take place? In what country, part of the world, and/or city does the story take place? What hints in the story reveal the time and place? Is this a realistic contemporary setting? If so, what objective details of contemporary life (in the time the story was written) are present?
3. Is the plot (what happens in the story) realistic? Why or why not? What particular aspects of the plot make it realistic or nonrealistic?
4. What definition does your college dictionary give for “Kafkaesque”? By this definition, is The Metamorphosis Kafkaesque? What succinct description of Kafka’s style does the textbook provide (2748, first new paragraph, first sentence)?
5. What is the point of view of this story? Who is the narrator? Whose thoughts does the narrator reveal? Why does Kafka use this point of view?
6. Read the story’s first paragraph (2749). How would you describe the narrator’s tone or attitude toward the events he relates? Does he find the events shocking? Does Gregor?
7. Do you find anything humorous in the story? If so, what in particular is humorous, and what is the tone of the humor? What is black humor? What is the grotesque? How does the grotesque contribute to black humor in The Metamorphosis?

The events of the story are a good indicator of Gregor’s relationships and activities even before his metamorphosis.

8. Gregor’s relationships at work
1. Why is Gregor working at this particular job? What happens to his earnings?
2. Evaluate Gregor as an employee. Does he work hard? Is he reliable? Does he make a significant contribution to the company? How can you tell?
3. How does Gregor feel that he is treated at work? Is he appreciated?
4. Why does the manager come to Gregor’s house on the first morning of the story? What does this visit indicate about Gregor’s importance to the company? What does this visit indicate about the manager’s usual treatment Gregor? When he’s trying to get Gregor to come out of his room, what accusation does the manager make against Gregor (2755t)? Is this accusation true? How can you tell?
9. Gregor’s relationships at home
1. What percentage of the family’s financial support has Gregor been providing for the past five years? How honest have his parents been with him about their financial situation? Has his father been unable to work?
2. While he is working, how much appreciation has Gregor apparently received from his family members? How do they treat him when he fails to get up on time on the first morning of the story?
3. Why, according to the story, does Gregor lock all the doors to his bedroom? What additional reasons might explain his doing this?
4. What kind of treatment does Gregor receive from his father in the story? Today, what label might we use for his father’s parenting style?

(1) Why does Gregor go back into his room at the end of chapter 1? What objects does his father use? What might each of these objects symbolize? Today, what label do we give to the kind of abuse Gregor receives from his father on this occasion?

(2) Why does Gregor go back into his room at the end of chapter 2? What object does his father use? What effect does this object have on Gregor? Today, what label do we give to the kind of abuse Gregor receives on this occasion?

5. What kind of relationship does Gregor have with his mother? Today, what label might we use for her parenting style?

(1) How much contact does Gregor have with his mother in the story? What does this suggest about her relationship with Gregor before his metamorphosis?

(2) Under what circumstances does she see Gregor in chapter 2? What is she trying to accomplish on this occasion? What does Gregor do to stop her? How does she react when she sees him?

6. What kind of treatment does Gregor receive from his sister Grete?

(1) What does she do for him throughout most of the story? How is her relationship with Gregor different from that of the parents?

(2) How and why does his relationship with his sister change? Why does Gregor come out into the living room in chapter 3? Why does Gregor immediately go back into his bedroom? How is this treatment even more hurtful than his father’s treatment at the end of chapters 1 and 2?

7. At the end of the story, what do Gregor’s family members reveal about their feelings toward the apartment he selected and in which they have been living?
9. Gregor’s low self-esteem
1. Why might Gregor have had a low opinion of himself before his metamorphosis?
2. How do Gregor and his family members react to the fact that Gregor has become an insect? Are they surprised? Do they find it impossible to believe? Do they get medical help? How do the answers to these questions relate to Gregor’s self-esteem?

Title of The Metamorphosis

1. What is the definition of “metamorphosis”? How does this definition relate to Gregor’s situation?
2. What previously assigned work has a similar title? Who is the author of that work? What is its genre? How does the title relate to the content of that work?
3. Beyond Gregor’s obvious metamorphosis, what other metamorphoses occur in this story?
1. In what ways does Gregor’s father undergo a metamorphosis?
2. In what ways does Gregor’s mother undergo a metamorphosis?
3. In what ways does Gregor’s sister undergo a metamorphosis? (Don’t overlook the story’s last sentence.)
4. At the end of the story, what are the multiple reasons that the family members feel optimistic?

Interpretations of The Metamorphosis

1. Literal interpretation: Why is it not possible to interpret this story literally?
2. Psychological interpretations: Questions 8-10 under “Kafka’s The Metamorphosis” (above) suggest one psychological interpretation: A child who is neglected, unappreciated, and/or abused will develop low self-esteem; and if he thinks he’s just a “pest,” he will eventually turn into one. An unwanted, monstrous insect in an isolated bedroom can be compared to an unwanted family member, whether an infant, disabled, or elderly, who can understand but not clearly communicate. A common psychological interpretation is the Freudian interpretation. Freud believed that early childhood experience, especially the relationship with one’s father and mother, has a tremendous impact on adult personality, behavior, self-esteem, and happiness.
1. What does the story suggest may have been Gregor’s early childhood experience and his relationship with his parents?
2. How might this experience and relationship have affected Gregor’s self-esteem and brought about his metamorphosis?
3. Autobiographical interpretation: When Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, he was a German-speaking, nonpracticing Jew living in Prague, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (later the capital of Czechoslovakia and now of the Czech Republic). He had an emotionally distant mother and an authoritarian father who made his son feel inadequate and unsuccessful. He never married, and he lived with his parents for most of his adult life.
1. What other relevant details about Kafka’s life can you find in the textbook or in extra-credit research?
2. How might Gregor’s experiences in The Metamorphosis reflect Kafka’s own life?
4. Existentialist interpretation: Although the philosophy of existentialism was not named until after World War II, Kafka’s philosophy of life seems to be existentialist. Explain how each of the following tenets of existentialism is reflected in The Metamorphosis:
1. “Existence precedes essence”: Life has no objective meaning; one must create subjective meaning through self-actualization.
2. Absurdity (irrationality) of the human condition: Life can’t be rationally understood.
3. Alienation of the individual: Every person is ultimately isolated from

(1) God (because, in most forms of existentialism, there is no God)

(2) nature (because nature is indifferent to human suffering)

(3) other humans

(4) himself or herself

4. Nihilism (derived from the Latin word “nothing”): Nothing remains to give life value or meaning.
4. Other interpretations
1. What other interpretations of The Metamorphosis occur to you?
2. Extra-credit research: Find other interpretations of the story.

Extra-credit reading: From the reserve drawer in the library, read the article “A Primer of Existentialism,” which explains the tenets of existentialism, and write a response that relates the article to The Metamorphosis.