February 13th

Welcome to Animal Farm! 
As I mentioned in class today, we will be focusing upon some very specific literary devices when reading this text.

Many of these devices are "end results"... the devices and plot within the text work to achieve these results. What this means is you have to take in a lot of the book and then step back to see these. 

1. Allegory: A story with two levels of meaning. The first level is the plot level. The second level is the symbolic/representative level. 
2. Symbols: A concrete object that has an abstract meaning. 

The difference between allegory and symbolism: An allegory uses symbols for building an overall symbolic meaning. It is the entire work functioning as a symbol. Symbolism is a single reference. 

3. Satire: a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or society by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies. (Think Saturday Night Live). 

4. Dystopian Literature: 
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions. 
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. 

5. Historical Context: The influence of a time period upon the author and his/her literary text. 

6. Theme: The universal message that a text projects. Most literary devices work to result in the work's theme(s). 

7. Motif: A recurrent image, idea, or symbol to help develop a theme in a text. 

For Tuesday: Do a close reading of Chapter 1 of Animal Farm. Close reading means.. thoroughly examine the text for its literary devices as you are building meaning. This is what we started in class on Monday. 

Read and take notes on slides 12-31 (Up to Lenin) on the PowerPoint.