Table de matières
Table de matières
This chapter is going to discuss the available literature on thematic study and satire according to different authors who have ever been concerned by one or another of the two aspects. And our comments will be added so as to show the link between our study and the said literature. The key concepts that are going to be looked at are: thematic study and satire with its related elements.
I.1. THEMATIC STUDY
Thematic study is the study of different ideas and message conveyed through the actions, reactions and interactions of the novel’s characters. A theme on the other hand is the central idea which is repeated in the novel standing for four areas of human experience said Freytag Gustav (1895:65): the nature of humanity, the nature of society; the nature of human kind’s relationship to the world and the nature of our ethic responsibility.
Hence we may briefly understand a theme as a comment that a work makes on human condition or situation. At this point writers of literature always use the same themes in their novel, but in different ways and try to adjust them in their actual realities to express their point of view concerning the situation of the society they are living.
That is why Kelly Griffith mentions that “most of writers refer their studies to the previous themes of literature which have been conveyed in different ways”.
Speaking about a theme, it is oblivious that, sometimes a theme is never stated in a literary work, it can be alluded to, which means that it can be mentioned in an indirect way.
Moreover, the experience of the main character in the course of a literary work gives us an idea about it theme. In the same way SCHEUB (1975:76) shows that theme is never stated, it is often revealed action through the working out of conflict of this surface plot. He adds that themes are grasped when they are studied in groups since some other themes use to come from the main ones.
There are two types of themes that appear in a literary work, i.e. major and minor theme. For console MBILIZE (2013-2014 p 26) A major theme is just an idea that a writer can repeat several times in his work, making it most significant idea of his narrative. In the course of analysis it is constant that a minor theme derives from the major theme referring to an idea that appears immediately in the novel.
For Freytag, G (1895:59), discussed a theme and subject as essential terms for which we encounter in our writing and they play a unique role in our narrative.
A writer chooses a subject of his event and a theme for his personal opinion. Thus, a theme is the central idea, or the perception conveyed through the writing while a subject is a topic treated or presented in the writing. A subject explains what the story is about, whereas themes on the other hand explain why the story is written.
Hence we may comprehend that a theme as a subject being main idea in a talk or in a piece of writing either in a work of art or in piece of writing.
For this point Freytag Gustav (1895:79) viewed a theme as what the work says about the subject, and he adjusted that a subject is what the work is about.
There are several ways though which a writer presents themes in a literary work. A writer may express a theme through the feelings of his /her main character about the subject he has chosen to write about.
LEECH,G.N( 1981:89) adds that a writer presents his / her themes through thoughts and conversations of diverse devices involved in the narrative. Moreover, the experience of the main character in the story gives us an idea about its theme. Finally, the actions and events taking place in a fiction narrative are consequential in determining the author’s themes.
Theme is an aspect of a story that binds together various essential elements of a narrative. It is a truth that exhibits universality and stands true for people of all the community. Then theme gives reader better understanding of the main character’s conflicts, experiences, discoveries and emotion as they are derived from them.
In the same reality, Justin Mulamba (2006-2007 p 35) shows that with themes, a novelist tries to offer his / her readers an insight into how the world or how he, or she values or views the human life conditions
Satire is piece of writing that stands for ones mockery or contempt’s the weakness and the wrong doings of people in their environment. Then satire is a persuasive work that relies on ridiculing and persuading while it amuses.
Speaking about satire, Beryl Lutrim (2004:42) views it as a sharp strong wit within sarcasm used to highlight a human or social burlesque in community.
Thus the satirists aim at changing the situation, and entertaining through humors and irony which allow them to express themselves in a way that would normally be constructed as libelous
In our understanding, satire may be heard in general as a way of criticizing a person, or institution in which humor and irony are principally applied to show their faults, immorality, or weakness.
In this way satire is defined by scholars as one of the figurative languages that a writer uses in order to convey in an indirect ways his opinion to the public. In this case a novelist prefers better to express their idea using within diverse devices to criticize the state of the nation and the people of the country.
As such, it is worth mentioning that the aim of satire may be various. Regarding to François Mauria (1985. p 75) a novelist or satirist may desire to reform social conduct that ridicules a person, enemy or denounces everything in mankind that he finds distasteful. The tone with which the satirist launches his attacks can range from that of light humor to scotching sarcasm, or the tone range from light impersonal mockery to bitter cruel ridicule.
In both, verse and prose, satire is a means of criticism or criticizing manners, education, politics and religion. In his, “The Power and The Glory” Graham Green satirizes, the hypocrisy, unfaithfulness and corruption of pilgrims and catholic church in the United States of America; while James Ngugi Wathi’ongo satirizes in “Decolonizing The Mind” leadership and politicians as being the main source of crimes, massacre, and misery in contemporary Africa.
There are however satirical undertones in irony since situational irony is used to expose hypocrisy and injustice in mates, in human beings, and there for to try to eradicate in them by mockery the bearer of such behavior.
Here after, we are going to focus much on humor and irony the two Being important elements focused on by satire, according to Harris (1990:29) International Journal of English Literature(I.J.E.L.) vol.3, 20august 1990.
Irony is one of the figure of speech which human beings use to express their feelings and thoughts in a sidelong way. It aims at making visible the constant between what is and what ought to be, between reality and appearance, the difference between reality and truth.
It may be said that irony is also the use of words in speech that say the opposite of what you really mean, often as joke and with a tone or voice that shows it.
The oxford dictionary of advanced learners (2006:795) proves that, irony is the amusing or strange aspect of a state that is very different from what you expect. Thus many scholars and specialist of literature have attempted to define irony though out their writings.
In this way David Biloke (2002:2003 p.30) sees irony in its original sense as a dissimilation or pretence especially in reference to the ignorance feigned by
Socrates as his means to confuse an adversary. From this, originates the primitive sense of irony nowadays called Socratic one.
These definitions show clearly that irony is related to human expression. The writer expresses the meaning of words by opposing what is written to what is meant, the speaker opposes what is said to what is actually happening. Here we may resume that, irony appears as an intelligent manner of expressing things or meaning by a language of opposite tendencies.
For this point Mushamuka (2008-2009 : 55) proves that irony in its use cannot be separated from verbal expression, hence it exists only by words or speech in oral or writing speech.
Therefore one has to be careful in both cases in order to identify the signals that convey irony; as in ironic speech, an ironist will be analyzed through his gestures, like the rising of shoulders, the opening of the mouth, the expression of the face which are smiling and twinkling. In writing the reader needs to pay attention to punctuations, repetitions of some sentences and the description of an action in the context. Irony is a way of expressing ideas in a language that needs somebody to think a lot as the words are opposed to their meanings.
Irony being a physiological and psychological phenomenon is always in the mind of a person who uses it. That is why it is used to convey the state or the mental disposition of its user.
In the analysis of Paula fox’s The Slave Dancer, irony is conveyed in terms of the author’s way of expressing her thoughts through out of characters’ actions and interactions
There are so many kinds of irony, but four are common in literature. There are verbal irony, dramatic irony, situational irony and attitudinal irony.
This is the main common form of irony, it is a statement that says one thing but actually means something else. It can be identified though words, when the writer or the speaker says the contrary of what he really means.
Regarding to this point David Biloko rubasha (2001: 49) verbal Irony is defined as figurative language in which the words are sometimes intended to express an impression different from their literal meaning.
Shakespeare (1901: 38) in his “Tr agedy of Mack” argues that it is often verbal irony, the irony the dramatist or novelist putting into the mouth of a character remarks with the audience with their fuller knowledge of the fact can interpret.
From my understanding, verbal irony may be understood when words are used in contrast i.e. they are adjusted in speech or in writing contrary to their lexical meaning; generally they are connotatively used rather than denotatively.
It is a situation in which the reader or that audience perceives some things that they believe to be true, but the audience knows to be false. Speaking about this irony Barbara (1962.42) shows that dramatic irony occurs only when the reader posses knowledge that the characters do not have. Here the reader has possibilities to predict the outcome or solution. This irony can be easily achieved in stories that use privileged narrator whose bread perspective permits him to give the reader more information than the characters possess. Hence the reader has then a better position to predict the conclusion
In this kind of irony the writer creates a character who thinks that reality is what he expects it to be whereas it is something else. The character may believe for example to be a model for the society whereas in practical reality, he is the opposite. Such, is a case of one man who after having lived a broad since childhood, comes back home, kills his father and marries his mother by mistake.
A bout attitudinal irony, Griffith (1982:93) observes a frequent example of attitudinal irony in literature is the naïve character who thinks that every one is the upright and that everything will turnout for the best when in fact the people’s needs are constantly corrupt and things that happen to them are destructive and painful
In this form of irony, the situation is different from that common sense indicates it is, will be, ought to be or should be. This is simply a circumstance in which the outcome is unexpected or in appropriate. In this case, the writer shows the discrepancy between the expected results of an action that someone we expect to be upright should be the most repulsive of scoundrel. Here, for this situation we may speak about incongruity when things such these kinds of behavior do not fit for the people who perform them. Here two things which do not fit:
Authors often use situational irony to expose hypocrisy and injustice. Situational irony results from what most people expect, whereas attitudinal irony results from what one person expects. Paula Laurence ( 1976: 205) speaks about situational irony he argues that it is often the most important kind for the story reality or between expectation and fulfillment.
Discussing this irony, Mr. M.C Barbar (1962:39) distinguished other sub-categories of irony depending to whether this society develops negatively or positively to what the character is performing. When the society develops negatively we can have:
The satirical aspect is sympathy, there is still identification of the writer and the public or society with the character who fails. Story and criticism. Barabara( 1962: 60)
There is a tragic irony when sympathetic character fails and the audience or society is disappointed by his failure. So, it results in a unhappy ending; Barbara (1962:42)
It is more persuasive than the accumulated effects of the various forms of irony. To communicate this vision, the writer uses the doublenes of irony; recognizing that things are not what they seen to be and that expectations are being forever stymied. Thus when the society develops positively on what the character can perform J.B. Priestley (1960. 90) distinguishes the following irony.
Briefly speaking, the number of irony depends on the people that use it. Here, villager’s use of irony is different from town people’s, fish men’s from scientists’ freemen’s irony is different from slaves’.
Humor is the quality of something that makes it funny or amusing, the ability to laugh at things that are amusing. Speaking about humor WEBSTER (2002 :161) argues that “the ability to appreciate what is funny, or any of the four fluids of the body (blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile) that were thought to determine temperature”
Humor is also the state of one’s feeling or mind at a particular time. For instance when a student comes to get his positive results, he feels in a good humor. But a bad humor can be when he fails. Hence, we may say that humor is also psychological and physiological; it is always expressed either in writing or in speech ; that is may Justin Nzibula (2007-2008 p 35) sees it as a figurative language used like irony to convey personal thoughts, ideas or feelings in an amusing way.
In this paper humor is a literary phenomenon since it is used in writing. In facts, writers use humor in their wards of arts to express their thoughts in amusing their readers trying to get them involved in the narrative. Readers also are interested in a humorous work of art which provides them with amusement than a serious one.
When the writer or speaker’s intention using humor is taken into account, we identify several means of expressing that humor. There are several kinds of humor according to, WWW.daily writing tips. Com a……,but we cannot reveal all of them in this research paper due to the fact that this is not our first purpose. However, in order to prepare the way.
For the analysis of the narrative, we are going to focus on some generalities related to the concept “humor ». Here after are the most common kinds of humor.
Humor is verbal when it is expressed through the speech of a person who intends to amuse or to convey fun and mirth to her or this audience. This humor is most of time applied for entertaining the amusement among people themselves. From this humor derived which Mark NICHOL (2004:P18) called comic humor.
He reviewed a comic humor as the ability of using gestures or speech to amuse others or make them to laugh. A comic humor is then a spoken event that makes people to laugh at a character whose event’s impact is negative.
In situational humor, actions take place or are performed in the way that People cannot prevent themselves from laughing or being amused. For kitambala (1982 :P40) sees it as a succeeding of a person in amusing the audience thanks to his techniques of using actions ; here the spectators understand all what he does through his humorous gestures, he or she becomes sympathetic to them. Children use these kinds of humor in order to amuse one another.
C.TRAGIC HUMOR
Humor is tragic when a sympathetic character is subject to some negative humorous situations. From time to time however, a humorist dramatizes a tragic situation by mingling humor with literature, by trying to make it somehow amusing.
Example of such a humor is that of “JEANNE d’ARC”
Of France, she, who after having helped to conquer the land of her forefathers she is captured and burnt, instead of being being crowned queen of France.
For this sort of humor a sympathetic character can perform humorous actions and at a certain moments undergoes them. An example of paradoxical humor is that the state of Israel which according to the story in the bible was powerful and imposing itself towards other nations every time, it was in good relationship with its GOD. However, Israel was dominated by its neighboring countries every time it was bad relationship with its God.
For Mark Nichol (2000-2001: 78) humor is satirical when an antipathetic character is lead to his failure ; in such situation he or she is undergoing bad humors performance that have a negative impact on him. Such a kind of humor is when a writer creates a situation in which he needs the society or the audience to feel a kind of satisfaction by the failure of antipathetic character. An example from the bible (1samuel 17:1-50) is the story of Goliath who challenged Jews in the battle. He is tremendously story but he is defeated by a young child named David. Yet this young boy killed him by a small stone.
It is necessary to say that the ability to amuse is somehow in born and belongs to some lucky people. In indeed, not everybody is able to amuse others. The ability of using humor results in the well being of the consciousness and the quietness of the soul.
(Source.www. daily writing tips com a…)
This chapter on review of literature on thematic study and satirical aspects has provided the definitions of key concepts related to theme and satire by linking them to some other scholars’ views. It has given us more details about previous literature on themes and satire by defining them literally. In addition, thematic study and satire is a very important literary device to apply in order to grasp the message conveyed by a writer of a novel, shot story, movie or any other narrative. The following chapter will be for thematic study in Paula fox’s The Slave Dancer.
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