Preview

Literary Masterpieces

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
713 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Literary Masterpieces
Literary Masterpieces
Adrienne Johnson
University of Phoenix
December 09, 2013

A literary masterpiece is a piece of work that can withstand the test of time. What this means is that a particular piece of literary work can still be able to provoke a person’s thoughts and capture the interest of the readers all throughout the years that have passed, despite everything that goes on in the world around us and all of the current events that have and will take place. The topics and themes of these literary works will always hold true to their original purpose that was intended by the author and yet they will still connect with the people, as they originally did. For the purpose of this paper, I will explain what I expect literary masterpieces to be, I will explain the qualities that I expect them to have prior to completing the English 106 course, the experiences that I have personally had with literary masterpieces, as well as the contexts in which these experiences have taken place.
I expect literary masterpieces to be written in an old fashion style. The reason that I expect this is because literary masterpieces are something that can withstand periods of time, therefore they were written at a much earlier time, and most likely the way that one speaks and writes at that time will differ from the way that people speak and write in today’s day and age. Although I expect some literary masterpieces to be dull and even painful, simply because they were written at a time that I am not necessarily familiar with an cannot relate too, I also expect them to be somewhat pleasant and beautiful, because after all, these literary masterpieces were written at a much earlier date but are still able to provoke our thoughts and capture the interest of the people today. Therefore this must mean that the literary masterpieces are pleasant and maybe even considered to be fun.
Throughout all of my high school years, and even in the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    6) “Most professional students of literature learn to take in the foreground detail while seeing the detail reveals. Like the symbolic imagination, this is a function of being able to distance oneself from the story, to look beyond the purely affective level of plot, drama, characters. Experience has proved to them that life and books fall into similar patterns. Nor is this skill exclusive to English professors.” pg.4…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Classic novels

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A classic book is a well-known book that is passed down generations and is usually, a classic will hold a depth that no one can hope to understand. Classic books create a strong statement towards history and culture, that still holds truth even long after. These books transcend the basic notions of a good book. A classic book has characteristics and themes that people enjoy reading even years from its original publishing.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Coming in to a new class can be a daunting experience, especially when one does not know what to expect. It can also be an exciting experience, especially when one has a special fondness for the subject being taught. As a psychology major, ENG/106 is not a required class. As a bibliophile, there was no question that I would use the need to fulfill an elective requirement as a reasonable excuse to take this class. There are many preconceived notions around the study of literary masterpieces, and some people have a hard time pushing past the bitter memories of stuffy high school English teachers and 30 page book reports on Crime and Punishment to be worked on over summer vacation. I am lucky enough to have had a wonderful experience with the classics, and my expectations for ENG/106 come from a place of fondness, respect, and genuine awe. With that being said, there is more to understanding literary masterpieces than simply enjoying a good read; one should also recognize the preconceived notions that often come with the subject, as well as have an understanding of why literary masterpieces are important and how they influence modern society.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The element of the book that I will be exploring today is; the setting and cultural assumptions underpinning the novel. Representation of one character from the novel. An overview on the main issues presented in the text and the relevance to students. A connection of one major issue in relation to our 21st century contemporary world. And lastly the effects of the textual features of the texts, eg language, imagery, gaps and silences, visuals, and structural elements.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The short Essay, An Experiment in Criticism, by C.S. Lewis brings to light many new perspectives to how people read and experience literature. Throughout the essay Lewis works to give the message that; how good a book is doesn’t depend on the quality of writing but on the reader. He begins by defining two types of readers- the “literary” and the “non-literary”- which he uses through the rest of his essay to categorize different traits for treating literature.…

    • 78 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Literary representations are to be valued as they arise from a personal and intense artistic response to a particular context expressed in language, both considered and evocative. Therefore these representations not only reflect the values of their time but are of value for all times.…

    • 1878 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The entire semester defining what Literature is has being the course’s quest. Literature is always changing; its definition has developed and changed from time to time. To find an exact definition of what is literature, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There have been several attempts to decipher this puzzle, in “What Is an Author” written by Michael Foucault, he emphasizes on the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work. The author's name holds considerable power and serves as an anchor for interpreting a text. And “On the Sublime” written by Longinus, the writer states that the sublime implies that man can, in emotions and in language, transcend the limits of the human condition. This research paper consists in identifying the elements of literature by comparing two major pieces of work. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that with the advent of science, natural questioning is not only futile, but dangerous. In attempting to discover the mysteries of life, Frankenstein assumes that he can act as God. He disrupts the natural order, and chaos ensues. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne explores the nature of imagination and reality in this mysterious story by allowing the reader to actively question the reality of the night's events. He combines a multitude of elements into it creating a sense of mystery. The short story follows Goodman Brown’s journey resulting in his loss of faith. Literature allows the reader to feel, experience, and inhabit a character or place. It goes beyond the scope of everyday fiction, reaches new insights and allows the writer to reason with the audience.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The relationship between history and literary work is often questioned. There are four main models that have been devised to explain this. The first regards a piece literary work as universal and belonging to no time period. The model states that historical context has no significance in literary texts, and that both should remain autonomous from each other. Critics are concerned with literary texts being artefacts in themselves that surpass the possibilities of a particular time, thus the idea of specific historical context is dismissed. R.S. Crane supports this view and in an essay said history is part of “the general history of culture” whereas literature should be “imaginative works considered with respect to those qualities which can truly be said to be timeless… quite apart from any knowledge of their origin or historical affiliation” (Crane, Ronald. 1967. ‘History versus Criticism in the study of literature’, in The idea of the Humanities and Other Essays Critical and Historical, Vol.2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press). In short, this model centres around the basis that a literary work should be judged on its, as Crane said, ‘timeless qualities’ for example the quality of its linguistic features and other aspects that give a work literary merits.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Oscar Wilde once said, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I am here today to speak to you about a contentious topic. The question for debate is the definition of a classic and who shall decide which works deserve this highly esteemed title. The canonical value of a work can be decided at the hands of an elite range of high culture intellectuals. This exclusive few can deny the quality of a work, or confer the novels value. Lexically, this guarantee of high aesthetic quality serves a contract that redeems in the authoritative list that ensures the novels value is recognized as a timeless classic for many generations to come. The natural question is then to ask ourselves if the truths conveyed throughout the work have been silenced or marginalized, and to what extent the author has made to produce the whole truth. The novel I will critique and look more…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    There are many works of literature, but out of all those, only few earn the title of a masterpiece. Various works have been carried through time and remain as some of the best piece of work. These pieces of literature are more than a good read. The pages contain excellent literary technique, exquisite revelation of its culture, a brilliant use of illusion versus reality, a universal appeal to time and place, and impeccably suits its own age. Therefore, scholars applaud Muliére for his timeless work of Tartuffe which for centuries has been considered to be one literature's finest masterpieces.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Italo Calvino

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages

    That’s one of the most acrimonious, endless and irresolvable discussions in the literary world. Possibly the most eloquent attention of this question is Italo Calvino’s essay, “why study the classics?” in which he defines a classic as “a book that has never finished saying what it has to say,” amongst a listing of other qualities. however as wondrous as that sounds, it is able to also describe a few books we read today —,” as an example books that maximum of our contemporaries would deem too recent for classic repute. I also love Calvino’s attempt to seize the creative exceptional of a notable literary work “a book that takes the form of an equivalent to the universe, on a degree with the historical talismans” but suspect that the subsequent is greater accurate: “the classics are the books that come down to us bearing upon them the lines of readings previous to ours, and bringing in their wake the lines they themselves have left on traditions or cultures they have surpassed thru.”…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare’s writing has become an entity unto itself; it is a living well of creativity that assured that the Bard’s spirit was not extinguished at his death (Tate). For this reason, one can undoubtedly say that Shakespeare’s plays have a timeless quality; in other words, his plays are still relevant and appreciated today even though they were written ages ago. The timelessness of his plays is created by the universal themes, skilful characterizations and language that he uses in them.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Literary masterpieces are known to withstand the test of time. The passing of years, government movements, and the changing of ideas as the world grows older literary masterpieces still strive on. Literary masterpieces come in all forms; semantics, poetry (literary form), Short stories, and literature (Translations). Literary Masterpieces need an indivisible translation; even then they are still hard to understand. “Their sheer integrity and value should be protected from any unnecessarychanges in their shape and meaning (Brajerska-Mazur, A. (2005).”Literary masterpieces speak of not only have explicit events that have befallen to a single character. Literary masterpieces all possess a magnificent prose, a figurative character, a mythic description, a mythic structure, and specificity. Literary Masterpieces also will form a character based on beliefs, creating a character that are resounding and dimensional. These characters that are created for literary masterpieces also are memorable and have clearly defined heroic qualities.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    When considering beauty and aesthetics within the poems; “Sonnet 130” and ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’, it may seem impossible to think of the poems as beautiful when they include such vulgarity and distaste towards the women within them; Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady’ and Swift’s work of fiction ‘Corinna’. However, the poems are written and presented beautifully, and may be considered well deserved of their place within the canon of English Literature. The worth and value of texts within the canon of English literature “… are generally characterised by complexity of plot, structure, language and ideas.” Despite the ugliness in the poems, the way the poems are written and the complexity of them, still leave the poems as classic texts to be enjoyed and appreciated. The use of metaphors, similes and the complexity of the story within both makes them eligible for the canon of English literature, showing that a poem can still be considered beautiful for the way it…

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Masterpieces ought to have a muse. A muse doesn’t always need to be a beautiful woman femme fatale, either, as popular belief might suggest. It simply must be an inspiration; a child with a watering can for Renoir, a quarrel with a woman for Ray Charles. Inspiration can be everywhere, so why not in words? Literature can be- and often is- a grande muse for people. One of the most popular ways literature embraces it’s splendid inspirationalism is through the big screen, the movies.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays