FUNCTIONS OF POPULAR CULTURE

Therapeutic
Regulatory
Integrative
Aesthetic
Economy of narration
Reliance on dialogue
Compact composition
Concrete events and problems
Clear moral division (facilitating the readers identification with the
protagonist)
Highly expressive style
Plot favoring suspense and strong emotions
POPULAR LITERATURE includes those writings intended for the masses and those that
find favor with large audiences. It can be distinguished from artistic literature in that it is
designed primarily to entertain. Popular literature, unlike high literature, generally does not
seek a high degree of formal [] subtlety and is not intended to endure (E. Britannica).
The growth of popular literature has paralleled the spread of literacy through education and
has been facilitated by technological developments in printing. With the Industrial Revolution,
works of literature, which were previously produced for consumption by small, well-educated
elites, became accessible to large sections and even majorities of the members of a
population (E. Britannica).
Genre fictionalso known as popular fiction, is plot-driven fictional work written with the
intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already
familiar with that genre. Genre fiction is generally distinguished from literary fiction
(Wikipedia).
Literary fictioncomprises fictional works that hold literary merit; that is they involve
social commentary, or political criticism, or focus on the human condition. [] Literary
fiction is deliberately written in dialogue with existing works, created with the above aims in
mind and is focused more on themes that on plot, and it is common for literary fiction to be
taught and discussed in schools and universities (Wikipedia).
Literary fiction no text can be written without other world, texts; highlights esthetics, quite
often the information is withhold from the reader, intentional level of obscurity to involve the
reader; focused on characters, stylistic qualities are valued. Originality matters while in
popular fiction repeatability, do not aim to be escapist making the reader to think about
problems, detachment.
Popular fiction escape reality, large audience, to entertain, strong emotional involvement,
particular way of production, reception, distribution, commercialized production (team of
writers), reception isnt obligatory because it is for entertainment, confirm what people
believe in, groups of readers are created.
GENRE: definition genres can be best understood as diachronic and synchronic systems
underlying literary communication, repertoires of conventions, features, and possibilities to

which a text must refer a good way to understand genre is as a set of signals indicating
the expectations proper and appropriate to a particular text. It is part of the competence of the
implied reader to recognize these, and they are vitally important for an appropriate reading of
the text. A concrete reader may ignore them or be unaware of them, but then produces an
incompetent reading. (D. Malcolm, Border Crossings, p.89,90)
Refers to conventions, features that have important commune functions
All human communication is generic, using certain structures
Beginnings of written texts Once upon a time - you know what to expect
Genre can be understood as diachronic and synchronic system underlying literary
communication, repertoires of conventions, features, possibilities to which a text must
refer to
Diachronic from the historical POV
Synchronic what is happening at the moment
If the reader doesnt understand what the book is about, he or she will get frustrated
Recognition of the genre in the text shapes expectations that guide
Implied reader isnt a person, a perspective from which a text is completely
understood, assumes the ability to connect everything to anything, a way of which we
are meant to communicate
Genre expectations can be defined as a set of features which direct the readers
expectations
Not just any reader, but implied reader a textual construct, not a person
Part of *his* competence is to recognize these features and know what to expect from
a given text
Genre rules
A system of intersubjective rules; an abstract model
Sometimes genre is a group of texts
No text exactly repeats all rules of the genre
Genre what culturally is assumed (Genre competence developes as any other
competence- by experience- the more different features we aqquire through reading
the better we are able to recognise particular genres)
Language is a system that can be figure out through different developments, it is
intersubjective
Rarely used consciously
Realized in concrete texts but always with a difference
[] it makes the expressiveness of literary works possible. Their relation to
the genres they embody is not one of passive membership but active
modulation. Such modulation communicates (A. Fowler, Kinds of Literature,
p.20)
Genre historical change
Genres are historical phenomena and change in the course of time
Pressures of fashions, movements create literature
Dominant genre in an epoch
New features are introduced into a genre
Under the influence of a given historical period (feminism)
Because of the dominant genre in an epoch (Renaissance drama)
Because of some very popular text (Castle of Otranto)

Genre new variants

New genres are created
When many new features appear in a given genre
The perception of novelty dominates over the recognition of the old
pattern
A non-literary type of writing becomes a literary fact
A change often starts with one text which is then imitated
Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe (1726)
When Defoe published his book, the adventure genre didnt appear
Example: letters were not literary genre but it changed later Stephen King Carrie
Public has to become aware of new variants
Genre mixture
A given text always has features of more than one genre
These features may be remains of the past
Or they may be a reflection of a contemporary cultural and literary context
A text may have a clear generic dominant
Or relations between/ among different genres evoked in a text may be unresolved
Purposefully confusing the reader
It isnt possible a generically pure text
Text retains features that point out to other variants of genre
Sometimes there is not dominant genre so equal genres work together, sometimes it is
done purposely to confuse a reader
Genre fiction
Distinguished by a plot
Romance the most popular, focusing on obstacles (westerns), changeable
Not everything define corresponds to genre
POPULAR GENRES IN ARTISTIC LITERATURE
Literary authors are the luxury brands of the writing world, the Mercedes, the Harrods and
the Luis Vuitton of high culture. Genre writers are mid-range consumer brands, with an
equivalent status to Skoda (Damien Walter, Literature vs genre is a battle where both
sides lose The Guardian 12.11.2015)

1. A genre of great antiquity and endurance

2. Greek romance/ Hellenistic romance (1-4th c.)

Longus Daphnis and Chloe (2nd c.)

Heliodorus Aethiopica (3rd c.) love at a first sight motivated by beauty; separation,
long journey, adventures, reunion
Latin
Apileius Metamorphases, or the Golden Ass (2nd c.)
Magic, humor
Contains Cupid and Psyche embedded story

3. Chivalric romance

The most important narrative genre of the Middle Ages

A narrative about adventures of knights often involving quests, duels, tests

Extolling the code of chivalry

Often with a love plot (courtly love)
In an exotic setting of castles and dangerous forests
Sometimes involving supernatural characters and settings
A European genre replacing heroic epic
In the 13th c. a French poet Jean Bodel divided romance into 3 Matters (thematical
areas)
1) Matter of France (Charles the Great)
2) Matter of Rome (Alexander the Great)
3) Matter of Britain (King Arthur)
Arthurian romances about: King Arthur, round table knights, Gawain,
Lancelot, Galahad, Perceval, Arthurs tutor Merlin, the quest of the Holy Grail
First appearing in France: Chretien de Troyes
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Morte dArthur by sit Thomas Malory (1470)

4. Pastoral romance

Invented by the Italians

Based on Dahnis and Chloe
Sannazzaro Arcadia (1504)
Mentemayor Diana (1559) Spanish
Sir Philip Sidney Arcadia (1590)
Honore dUfree Astee (1607-27) French
(Pastoral- life described in idealistic and simplistic manner in contast to
complex deterioration of court life; usually life of shepherds; it took over some
motifs from Hellenistic romance, ie.motif of love, separation, and jurney; motif
of changed identity ie. baby stolen or abandoned, which was later brought up
by shepherds)

5. Gothic romance

Appears in the rationalist 18th c.

Contrast to classicism: interest in medieval architecture (ruins), in the irrational
supernatural, wild, mysterious
Horace Walpole (1717-1797) The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Motifs: found manuscript, mysterious manifestations
Setting: medieval Italy, old castle, labyrinthine, secret passages
Characters: distressed heroine, evil villain, mysterious strangers
Mysterious atmosphere, darkness, sensationalism, but also sentimental feelings
Other writers: Clara Reeve, Anne Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis
Romantic Gothic
Interest in the supernatural, immaginitive, strange, frightening
Mary Shelley (1797-1851) Frankenstein (1817)
Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824) Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
Gothic features also in historical fiction of Walter Scott: The Bridge of
Lammermoor (1819)
American: Edgar Allan Poe (11809-49) horror stories, eg. The Fall of the
House of Usher (1839)

In poetry: Coleridge Ancient Mariner, Christable, Keats La Belle

Dame Sans Merci, Shelley Lamia
VICTORIAN GOTHIC
Domestication and urban Gothic
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights (1847)
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre (1847)
Sheridan Le Fanu Uncle Silas (1864), In a Glass Darkly (1872) includes
Carmilla
R.L. Stevenson Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
Bram Stoker Dracula (1897)
Henry James The Turn of the Screw
Gothic developments
Crime fiction: detective story, thriller
Poe and Conan Doyle
Novels of sensation (Wilkie Collins)
Dickens
Horror fiction
Thriller
th
20 c. Gothic stories
M.R. James ghost stories
H.P. Lovecraft horror stories
New Gothic Romances (love stories with a supernatural twist) 1950s
Popularity of horror fiction and film
Stephen King
Even for teen and children
Thriller
Brit Grit: Ted Lewis (1970s &80s) bleak northern settings
Jacks Return Home (1970)
New Wave crime fiction since 1980s (British noir)
Use of concrete British settings, strong political themes, new social
tendencies analyzed
But also surreal and comic
Jeremy Cameron, Ken Bruen
Tartan noir: Ian Rankin
Irish noir: Benjamin Black

6. Crime fiction
Contexts
Motif of crime
The Book of Genesis includes the description of the murder 1st murder,
allegorically it points out the fact that every murder is of killing of the brother,
we are all the same human beings, killing another person is like killing your
kin/ relative
Crime and Punishment, Hamlet
The motif of crime and murder does not make the Bible or Hamlet a detective
story, crime genre. Hamlet is still a revenge tragedy and not a detective story.

However, there is a motif of detection he stages a play to observe the reaction

of his uncle and to be sure that he is the murderer, Hamlet didnt report his
uncle to the police because he was the king and there was no police.
Interest in criminals (18th c.)
Urbanization important aspect for the appearance of crime fiction, before
people lived in rural areas where there was a lot of crime but little investigation
because people knew each other so it wasnt very difficult to point out who did
something wrong, the investigation would be conducted on peoples
knowledge of other peoples characters, motivations. People were executed for
little things.
Establishment of metropolitan police (1928) there were much earlier attempts
to organize some kind of force that would deal with crime in Paris and Britain.
Only than when there was some kind of an official authority dealing with the
discovery of a crime, collecting evidences, apprehending possible criminals,
and trying to prove the case against the criminals that crime fiction or elements
of crime fiction started to appear in novels.
Before there was police people deal with problems themselves by
duels, torture until they confessed.
Moral debates 18th and 19th c. people started being interested why there is
crime, why people are moved to commit a crime. In 18th c. was believed that if
you gave education to people they will train their minds and they will not do
stupid things because they would see results, causes, understand more. It
wasnt proven to be completely true, but it wasnt a bad idea. In our world we
do have less crime, we live in increasingly safe society bad things are
happening but our awareness is growing, media is more interested in crime and
help to pass the information throughout the world. Our attitude has changed
we cannot beat a child but before parents had this ability and no one said a
thing about it.
Policemens memoirs (Vidoq French criminal)
Literary history
Newgate Calendar (from 1773) and Newgate novels 18th c. development
Newgate was a prison in London conducted executions of criminals
available to the public, it was a grant spectacle, people came with kids
Newgate Calendar was a popular publication issued to cover all the
instances of execution, describing the criminals and their crimes
Newgate novels which fictionalized the real criminals, writing up the
stories a bit or produced completely fictional accounts based on actual
stories or similar to them
They were not a detective fiction because there was nothing or very
little about how the crime was discovered, the readers attention was
focused on the atrocities of the crime
Gothic fiction (from 1760s) Edgar Alan Poe The Murders in the Rue
Morgue (1841), The Mystery of Marie Roget (1843) horrifying crimes,
rational attitude towards the crimes. Created a character Chevalier Dupins that
later was a blueprint for Sherlock Holms, so Dupins with his sidekick takes this
rational attitude analyzing everything ratial cenation emphasizing the role of
reason, finding patterns in scary, chaotic reality.
Gothic fiction contains elements of mystery which is resolved or not

 The figure of the gothic villain was close to later Byronic hero it is a
mysterious character, usually someone evil who wants to imprison
something or harm it, has a hidden agenda that is not immediately clear
from the beginning
Darkness, cemetery setting, disgust
Sensation novels Mary Elizabeth Braddon Lady Audleys Secret (1862);
Wilkie Collins Woman in White (1860) man falls in love with a girl and is
trying to find who wants to rob her, he is rationally trying to find what is
happening to her, The Moonstone (1868)
Dealt with secrets not murder, depriving someone of their money,
heritance
Modern sub-genres
Detective novel (whodonnit) since 1880s (British)
Hard-boiled detective novels (American) 1st part of the 20th c.
Thriller
Detective novels
Prior to WWI predominantly short story
Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories since 1887, fin de sicle
phenomena, the detective knows everything on every subject
Gilbert Keith Chesterton Father Brown stories 1911 a priest with a
nun are solving the crimes, catholic writer, film adaptation puts a lot
stress on entertainment value, there is a lot of humor; whereas stories
are not funny, are quite serious, written in a poetic prose, theological
and philosophical reflections, writing is very important and very
metaphorical full of symbolic motifs, concerned with spiritual aspects
R. Austin Freeman Dr Thorndyke, emphasizes the scientific bases
After WWI (Golden Age till WWII) mainly novels
Self-reflexive, metafictional, playing with conventions and rules
Detective has to evaluate the stories, the accounts with his own
observation, has to construct a complete image using bits and pieces
cozy security, limitation (considered as a draw back)
Agatha Christie country house murder, mystery (from 1920) problems
of the society from that time like country house, recoding the process
how people are being wiped out because the corruption was there
Murder on the Orient Express breaking rules, unconventional,
conventionally the detective is looking for the criminal and is
interviewing the witnesses but here all witnesses are murderers.
Criminal is supposed to go to jail, the police will enter and
criminal will be taken away he let the criminals free (all 12 of
them), he makes a decision not on the bases of understanding
why they did it but on moral ground, they convinced him that
they were right in doing it. Poirot is crushed by not doing what
he is supposed to do. They killed a person who was a criminal
(killed a child) that escaped a punishment. He kidnapped the
child, demanded ransom and killed it anyway. Corrupted court
released him; friends of the family formed a jury and killed him.
The narrator, the helper of Poirot is actually the murderer Th
Murder of Roger Ackroyd records everything very exactly but

missed 10 minutes of his narrative and when the detective

resolved the crime, Dr Sheppard said that he didnt lie only
didnt tell him what did he do during those 10 minutes.
Breaking the rules.
Policeman who is the murderer
Margaret Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh
Detective fiction after WWII
The clue-puzzle persists into the 21st c.
Changes of time and space settings
Peter Loveseys Victorian Detective Sergeant Cribb (1970)
Ellis Peters medieval Brother Cadfeal (1970-1990)
Alexander McCall Smiths African stories with Precious Ramotswe
Imitation of American hard-boiled stories from 1940s thriller
More realism: P.D. James, Ruth Rendell
Crime fiction in artistic lit
Hamlet
Macbeth
Crime and Punishment
Graham Greene (1904-1991) Brighton Rock (1938), The Heart of the Matter
(1948)
Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) Hawksmoor (1985)
Julian Barnes (b. 1946) Dan Kavanagh
John Banville (b. 1945) Benjamin Black
Mainstream
Crime fiction motifs and conventions in mainstream fiction
Peter Ackroyds Hawksmoor (1985)
Ian MacEwans The Innocent (1990)
Ian Banls Complicity (1993)
Mainstream writers as crime novels authors:
John Banville Benjamin Black
Julian Barnes Dan Kavanagh
Hard-boiled fiction
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler they oppose the idea of the artificial
rule driven type of British mystery because it is silly and doesnt have anything
to do with real life; wrote more realistic type of crime fiction which took place
in mean streets like full of crime districts. IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE: while
in British detective fiction a figure like Poirot cannot be beaten up, he is
untouchable. In hard-boiled detective stories the detective is very often
involved with gangsters, he is beaten up, in prison.
Social points are being raised although the adventure and the excitement is still
dominant
Female detectives
Police procedural
Serial killer novel
The detection was still the most important aspect

Leads to the development of a thriller which contains a riddle or a puzzle

connected with the past but most of the action is concerning the present like
chases, escapes, freeing someone, being beaten up, being in jail, running after
someone, looking for someone. The exciting action is taking the present of the
plot, but some developments need digging up something from the past

7. Horror
8. Love story
ROMANTIC FICTION very popular , many fictions from the past are being recycled/
republished like a love story. Why that happens? Because of the love story, adventure,
disregard of time etc.
SCIENCE FICTION IN ART. LIT.
Aldpus Huxley famous for the dystopian Brave New World (1932)
Island (1962) utopia
George Orwell Animal Farm (1945), 1984 (1949)
Doris Lessing (1919-2013)
Kazuo Ishiguro (b.1954) Never Let Me Go (2005)
Michel Faber (b. 1960) Under the Skin (2000), The Book of Strange New Things
(2014)
UNDER THE SKIN- fictional element, her planet was completely destroyed,
food is produced artificially, air is poisoned, living underground, social
segregation, feministic themes connected with female consciousness. Starts as
thriller, woman driving through Scotland searching for a specific men, picked
up a guy, she is an alien resembling a normal woman, she collects men because
she works for a farm that process men and butchers them after they grow huge
muscles, the meat is send to a different planet
David Mitchell (b. 1969) Cloud Atlas (2004) experimental novel, 6 thoughts
arranged in a mirror image
HEROIC FICTICTION Conan the Barbarian warrior, strong, heor, different settings,
focusing on the hero, all stories focus on the character, the world isnt so important, dream
world, element from the dream emerges to the reality sword, dream was to wake him up,
dream and magic are shocking but not entirely, world isnt fully established, civilization is
evil, civilization vs. barbarism, betrayal, prophercy, super human, references to mythological
myths
CONTEMPORARY FICTION rewriting old novels or stories, Emma in Love, Pride and
Prejudice and Zombies, Emma isnt a serious protagonist, is a negative character, deeply
ironic narrative, behaves wrongly, stupidity, personalities and love is important
PICARESQUE NOVEL from Spain, focuses on servant that is clever, dishonest, sneaky.
Satirical view of the world. Don quixote
GRAND THEMES OF FANTASY
1.
2.
3.
4.

Other worlds
Good vs. evil
Fantastical objects
Magic

5. Special characters
6. Social order and gender issues
7. Motif of a quest
FANTASY
Exomimetic genre- reality in the text is not comparable to reality of the reader's world
>>may be evoked by it through known patterns of reality, like gravitation,
geography(similar or the same) etc. but is not the same >reader enters the reality
which is written anew.
Historical development fantasy developed certain features: magic (nowadays it is
limited), semi-medieval reality
Star Wars science fiction, advanced technologically fantasy, Jedi Knights fighting
with swords
Motives: war, good vs. evil, quest (from chivalric romances), involves travelling so
that the reader gets to know the world
Paratextual materials maps, appendixes
Development of chivalric romances, Lord Dunsany and Tolkien
American: adventure stories in a strange setting The Princess of Mars 1912, short
stories by Smith; heroic fantasy adventures arent really connected, barbarian is the
hero like in Martins Game of Thrones
TOLKIEN
Exomimetic language the trilogy includes so much information about the
invented languages of this world, actual vocabularies, actual alphabets, that it
is quite possible to learn to write in the Elvish tongues for example
Hobbit in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit, space and time
subordinated to actions of characters, a map makes space autonomous,
descriptive names: Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, Lonely Mountain, as a genre
it is closer to a story or legend than to fantasy
The Lord of the Rings first fully exomimetic fantasy, time and space are
precisely described, creatures equal with people: elves, dwarves, Ents; struggle
between supernatural good and evil, modified quest motif only if good wins,
religious mythical elements
Quest motif journey to gain the goal and overcome the obstacles
Dualism good vs. evil
Partly influenced by chivalric romance social order, well-known marginal
figures, partly archaic language, quest motif, the feudal system, technological
development like in middle-ages
References to WWI and WWII
LE GUIN
A Wizard of Earthsea
Butterfly effect - is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small
change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences
in a later state.
Embracing the shadow Christian problem, acceptance of evil,
Taoism rule of equilibrium, dont over use it, balance between dark and light

MARTIN
Game of Thrones
Magical elements: animals, magic, creatures, different world than ours
Fantasy brought into a realistic world
Focalize narration of various characters
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a 2009 parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. It is a
mashup combining Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of
modern zombie fiction, crediting Austen as co-author. Grahame-Smith began with the original
text of Austen's novel, adding zombie and ninja elements while developing an overall plot line
for the new material; "you kill somebody off in Chapter 7, it has repercussions in Chapter
56".According to the author, the original text of the novel was well-suited for use as a zombie
horror story: You have this fiercely independent heroine, you have this dashing heroic
gentleman, you have a militia camped out for seemingly no reason whatsoever nearby, and
people are always walking here and there and taking carriage rides here and there . . . It was
just ripe for gore and senseless violence. From my perspective anyway.
PLOT: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes place in 19th century England where a zombie
virus has spread across the country, with the elderly composing a majority of the "stricken",
"sorry stricken", "un-dead", "unmentionables", or "zombies". The presence of the zombies
cause both subtle and significant differences from the original plot . For example: Messages
between houses are sometimes lost when the couriers are captured and eaten; characters
openly discuss and judge the zombie-fighting abilities of others and women weigh the pros
and cons of carrying a musket.
The beginning of the story introduces Miss Elizabeth Bennet, a young woman living with her
four sisters and parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet . Mr. Bennet trains his daughters in martial arts
and weapons training, molding them into a fearsome zombie-fighting army. Meanwhile, Mrs.
Bennet endeavors to obtain wealthy and high status husbands for her daughters. When the
wealthy and single Charles Bingley purchases Netherfield Park, a nearby estate, Mrs. Bennet
sees an opportunity to achieve her goal and sends her five daughters to a local ball where Mr.
Bingley is expected to make an appearance. At the ball, zombies attack the guests and amidst
the chaos Mr. Bingley and the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane make a connection. However not
all the Bennet daughters are as successful, as friction is presented between Elizabeth and Mr.
Bingley's closest friend/ zombie killer, Fitzwilliam Darcy.
As time passes, Mr. Bingley and Jane become closer acquainted, this companionship leaves
the Bennet girls confused when Mr. Bingley & Co. suddenly abandon Netherfield Park .
When the local militia arrives in town to exhume and destroy dead bodies, Elizabeth becomes
friendly with one of the soldiers, George Wickham, who tells Elizabeth that Darcy cheated
Wickham out of an inheritance.
Elizabeth's dislike of Darcy intensifies when she learns that Darcy plotted to separate Bingley
from her sister Jane. Elizabeth vows to avenge the slight to her family by killing Darcy, and
she is afforded that opportunity when he appears unannounced at the cottage where she is
visiting her newlywed friend Charlotte (who has been secretly bitten by a zombie and is
slowly turning into one herself). Before Elizabeth can fetch her katana and behead him, Darcy
surprises her by proposing marriage. The scene culminates in a vicious verbal and physical
fight, in which Darcy is wounded. He escapes with his life and writes a long letter to
Elizabeth explaining his actions. He separated Jane and Bingley out of fear that Jane had
contracted the "mysterious plague" and with regard to the allegedly wronged soldier

Wickham, Darcy explains that Wickham had attempted to elope with Darcy's younger sister to
take her considerable fortune this was the "inheritance" that Wickham had claimed.
Elizabeth realizes that she has judged Darcy too harshly and is humbled. Darcy realizes that
his arrogant nature encourages people to believe the rumors about him and resolves to act
more appropriately.
Elizabeth embarks on a trip around the country with her aunt and uncle, fighting zombies
along the way. At Pemberley she encounters Darcy, who repels a horde of zombies. Darcy's
changed attitude and manners impress Elizabeth and lead her to consider reconciling their
relationship; her hopes are dashed when her younger sister Lydia elopes to London with
Wickham. The Bennet family fears the worst but receive word that Wickham and Lydia have
married, following an "accident" that has rendered Wickham an incontinent quadriplegic.
After visiting the Bennets, the couple adjourns to Ireland. Elizabeth discovers that it was
Darcy who engineered the union, thus saving the Bennet family from ruin. Meanwhile, Mr.
Collins realizes his wife has turned into a zombie, and hangs himself after beheading and
burning her.
Darcy and Bingley return to the countryside, and Bingley resumes courting Jane. Elizabeth
hopes to renew her relationship with Darcy, but his aunt, the Lady Catherine, interferes,
insisting that her daughter Anne is a better match for her nephew. Lady Catherine challenges
Elizabeth to a fight to the death, intent on eliminating the competition, but Elizabeth defeats
her. Elizabeth spares Catherine's life. Darcy is touched by this gesture and returns to
Elizabeth. They cheerfully wipe out a dozen zombies, are married, and begin a long and
happy future together, insofar as the ever-present threat of zombie apocalypse permits it. In
other words, the writer Jane Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome class
boundaries and prejudices in the marriage.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (2010) is a parody novel by Steve
Hockensmith. It is a prequel to Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and
Zombies, focusing on "the early life and training of Elizabeth Bennet, heroine of the earlier
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as she strove to become a gifted zombie hunter, with some
mishaps in her early romantic encounters also included." Set four years before the events
described in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the novel takes place in an alternate universe
version of Regency era England where zombies are a well-known menace spawned by an
event known as The Troubles. After attending a funeral in which a zombie rises from his
coffin, Mr. Bennet decides that he must finally keep an old promise to train his five daughters
in the art of zombie-killing. To this end, he turns the family's greenhouse into a dojo and hires
young martial-arts expert Master Hawksworth to teach the girls. Meanwhile, a scientist named
Dr. Keckilpenny arrives in the area with the dream of studying and possibly domesticating the
zombies. As the zombie plague continues to spread across England, Hawksworth and
Keckilpenny compete for Elizabeth's affections while Mrs. Bennet plots to find suitably
wealthy suitors for both Elizabeth and her older sister Jane. In a bid to get reinforcements
against the plague, Jane becomes the bodyguard of Lord Lumpley, a fat, lazy nobleman with
low moral standards. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Keckilpenny capture a zombie for further
research.
The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb by Agatha Christie
Lady Willard consults Poirot. She is the widow of the famous Egyptologist, Sir John Willard.
He was the archaeologist on the excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh Men-her-Ra together
with an American financier, Mr Bleibner. Both men died within a fortnight of each other, Sir
John of heart failure and Mr Bleibner of blood poisoning. A few days later Mr Bleibner's
nephew, Rupert, shot himself and the press is full of stories of an Egyptian curse. Lady

Willard's son, Guy, has now gone out to Egypt to continue his father's work and she fears that
he will die next. To Hastings' surprise, Poirot states that he believes in the forces of
superstition and agrees to investigate. Poirot cables New York for details concerning Rupert
Bleibner. The young man was an itinerant in the south seas and borrowed enough money to
take him to Egypt. His uncle refused to advance him a penny, and the nephew returned to
New York, where he sank lower and lower and then shot himself, leaving a suicide note
saying that he was a leper and an outcast.
Poirot and Hastings travel to Egypt and join the expedition, only to find that there has been
another death in the party, that of an American by tetanus. As Poirot investigates the dig, he
feels the forces of evil at work. One night, an Arab servant delivers Poirot his cup of
chamomile tea. Hastings hears Poirot choking, after drinking the tea. He fetches the
expedition surgeon, Dr Ames. This is, however, a pretext to get the doctor into their tent
where Poirot orders Hastings to secure him. The doctor, however, quickly swallows a lethal
cyanide capsule. Poirot explains that Rupert was Bleibner's heir, and the doctor, secretly, must
have been Rupert's heir. Sir John died of natural causes. His death started superstitious
speculation. Everyone assumed that Rupert's friend in the camp was his uncle but that could
not have been the case as they argued so frequently. Despite having no money, Rupert
returned to New York, which shows that he did have an ally in the expedition. This was a false
ally the doctor, who told Rupert he had contracted leprosy in the south seas and it must be
part of the curse. (Rupert merely had a normal skin rash.) After Dr Ames killed his uncle,
Rupert believed himself cursed and shot himself. His note refers to the leprosy, which
everyone assumed was a metaphorical reference, not a real condition.
The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor by Agatha Christie
Poirot is asked by a friend, who is the director of the Northern Union Insurance Company, to
investigate the case of a middle-aged man who died of an internal haemorrhage just a few
weeks after insuring his life for fifty thousand pounds. There were rumours that Mr
Maltravers was in a difficult financial position and the suggestion has been made that he paid
the insurance premiums and then committed suicide for the benefit of his beautiful young
wife. Poirot and Hastings travel to Marsdon Manor in Essex where the dead man was found in
the grounds, with a small rook rifle by his side. They interview the widow and can find
nothing wrong. They are leaving when a young man, Captain Black, arrives. A gardener tells
Poirot that he visited the house the day before the death. Poirot interviews Black and by using
word association finds out that he knew of someone who committed suicide with a rook rifle
in East Africa when he was there.
Poirot figures out that this story, told at the dinner table the day before the tragedy, gave Mrs
Maltravers the idea of how to kill her husband by making him demonstrate to her how the
African farmer would have put the gun in his mouth. She then pulled the trigger. Mr
Maltravers is seen by a maid in the garden. She thinks that it is just a mistake, but then in the
living room a strange thing happens. The lights suddenly go out and Mrs Maltravers clasps
Poirot's hand. Mr Maltravers appears in the room, his index finger glowing and pointing at
Mrs Maltravers' hand, which is covered in his blood. Terrified, she confesses. Poirot explains
that he hired a man to impersonate Mr Maltravers and turn off the lights. When Mrs
Maltravers grabbed Poirot's hand, he put fake blood on hers. The man applied phosphorescent
to his finger to make it glow and pointed to the woman's hand, which was covered in fake
blood.
She Unnames them Le Guin

Genesis
If you're familiar with the Bible, you'll know that in Genesis 2:19-20, God creates the animals,
and Adam chooses their names: "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call
them: and whatsoever Adam would call every living creature, that was the name thereof. So
Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field." Then, as
Adam sleeps, God takes one of his ribs and forms a companion for Adam, who chooses her
name ("woman") just as he has chosen names for the animals. Le Guin's story reverses the
events described here, as Eve unnames the animals one by one.
Who Tells the Story?
Even though the story is very short, it's divided into two separate sections. The first section is
a third-person account explaining how the animals react to their unnaming. The second
section switches to first-person, and we realize that the story all along has been told by Eve
(though the name "Eve" is never used). In this section, Eve describes the effect of unnaming
the animals and narrates her own unnaming.
What's in a Name?
Eve clearly views names as a way to control and categorize others. In returning the names,
she rejects the uneven power relations of having Adam in charge of everything and
everybody.
So "She Unnames Them" is a defense of the right to self-determination. As Eve explains to
the cats, "the issue was precisely one of individual choice."
It is also a story about tearing down barriers. Names serve to emphasize the differences
between the animals, but without names, their similarities become more evident. Eve
explains:
"They seemed far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a
clear barrier."
Though the story focuses on the animals, Eve's own unnaming is ultimately more important.
The story is about power relations between men and women. The story rejects not just the
names, but also the subservient relationship indicated in Genesis, which portrays women as a
smaller part of men, given that they were formed from Adam's rib. Consider that Adam
declares, "She shall be called Woman,/Because she was taken out of Man" (Genesis 2:23).
Precision of Language
Much of Le Guin's language in this story is beautiful and evocative, often evoking the
characteristics of the animals as an antidote to simply using their names. For example, she
writes:
"The insects parted with their names in vast clouds and swarms of ephemeral syllables
buzzing and stinging and humming and flitting and crawling and tunneling away."
In this section, her language almost paints an image of the insects, forcing readers to look
closely and think about the insects, how they move, and how they sound.
And this is the point on which the story ends: that if we choose our words carefully, we'll have
to stop "taking it all for granted" and really consider the world -- and the beings -- around us.

Once Eve herself considers the world, she must necessarily leave Adam. Self-determination,
for her, is more than just choosing her name; it's choosing her life.
The fact that Adam doesn't listen to Eve and instead asks her when dinner will be might seem
a little clichd to 21st-century readers. But it still serves to represent the casual thoughtlessness
of "taking it all for granted" that the story, at every level, asks readers to work against. After
all, "unname" isn't even a word, so right from the beginning, Eve has been imagining a world
unlike the one we know.
She Unnames Them, about Adams naming of the animals and fictitiously depicts Eve
taking away the animals names. Though she views Eves exclusion from the job of naming as
an indication of undue power being given to men, central to The Earthsea Cycle is the ability
of people to use words that truly represent the things to which they refer. In the story, Eve
takes away the names of the animals in the Garden of Eden. As Adam has just recently given
the animals the names that Eve removes, she unnames them in conscious defiance of both
Adam and God. Eve apparently feels that she must unname the animals to be able to express
herself as a woman, and finds that once the animals do not have names, she feels much closer
to them. In a final act of personal liberation, Eve sheds her on name. The scene of Eves
giving Adam back the name that he gave her is replete with distinctions between the mother
tongue and the father tongue. Eve addresses Adam to return her name: You and your father
lent me thisgave it to me, actually. Its been really useful, but it doesnt exactly seem to fit
very well lately. But thanks very much! Its really been very useful These hesitant lines by
Eve are in part affected by her position in the gender hierarchy. She borders on being contrite
in returning her name because it was given to her in the first place. Her position of humility is
a manifestation of the mother tongue. Her words show an awareness of an audience, Adam,
and she does not privilege herself as the speaker over him as the listener. Her words here are
not cut and dry, and express more than her central point. Rather than speaking the least
amount of words to get her point across, she is bountiful in her expression. She is repetitive
and rhythmic, giving the feeling of liveliness. Adam, in contrast speaks from the perspective
of the father tongue. He replies to Eve, Put it down over there, O.K.? (4). His answer is
desperately short and succinct. Unlike Eve, whose words are repetitive and full of life, Adam
speaks only to communicate his central point and does not expand beyond that. His reply is an
imperative commanding Eve to put it down over there (emphasis added). He uses the
ambiguous references it and there as if he knows what he is referring to but does not
deem it necessary to make his signified meaning explicit. However, he obviously does not
know what it is referring to, because his reaction would likely have been much different if
he realized Eve was giving her name back. His inattention to his audience, Eve, reveals that
he privileges himself as speaker over her as listener. He speaks in the father tongue, which is
shown to no longer be an effective way of communicating in light of Eves unnaming. Eve
cannot communicate effectively with Adam now because she is no longer speaking using the
father tongue, which is structured by hierarchies. She understands that her new words must be
tentative at first because she is expressing things in a new way. Eve could not see the true
nature of life until she removed the names of the animals, and eventually herself. With
Adams names removed, she can clearly see that the hierarchies among typical binaries were
constructed by the father tongue. These binaries are actually formed by two coequal parts that
are connected by fear. She does not explain what the fear is, but apparently fear is the
response to understanding things as they truly are. Eves manner of expression then is
intrinsically tied to her perception of reality. The mother tongue in She Unnames Them is
not only represented by Eves disavowal of the father tongue, but also in the form of the short
story. Roughly the first half of She Unnames Them is all orientation clauses. This first half

is told by an omniscient narrator; whereas the second half of the story is told by Eve. The first
half gives a lengthy list of the garden creatures, explaining each of their reactions to being
unnamed. This listing of animals and responses could be removed and the story would still
make sense, but these orientation clauses are present for more than just providing a logical
background for the action. These clauses show a certain generosity towards the reader. They
do more than tell a story. They invite the reader to step into the mind of the author through the
effusion of detail.