I bet you will agree that Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield is quite a departure from the other literature of the 18th Century that we have been studying. What then, is the main difference for the audience between fiction, poetry, drama and satire? How effective a genre is fiction for proposing ideas and themes?
Sorry for the late post. Did you notice?
6 comments:
Though tough to pinpoint a difference in the genres that really stands out, I think that fiction like The Vicar of Wakefield heavily relies on its purpose of entertaining. Fictional pieces have the same basic elements: plot, setting, point of view, etc. It's up to the author to determine how he'll spin it to 'entertain' you.
I do believe that fictional works can be extremely influential when proposing ideas. Creating fiction is an art, and people cling to that. If you propose an idea, make sense of it, and back it up with plenty of support, you win.
Goldsmith satirically speaks of human sentiment in The Vicar. Dr. Primrose deserves a medal or some sort of recognition for human kindness. What he underwent would have had us drowning like poor Sophia almost did. But instead, Goldsmith works up the climactic events so they can all fall together into perfection at the end. Appealing? Yes; but not really attainable. Thus, that's where I see fiction's effectiveness: creating a transparency between invention and reality.
So, I know this is late BUT thanksgiving made me forget to post. Blame the holiday!
All fiction is made to entertain. Yes, it can be used to slide in some little chunks of insight but for the most part fiction is just entertaining. Its made up characters doing made up things. The different genres makes little difference in audience. You could point out status, education, and other social differences but fiction entertains all of these so called "different" people.
When it comes to the effectiveness of fiction, I'd have to say it is very effective. There is nothing more effective than scamming people to read something they think is fun to make them believe in something new. It's like making a healthy but cool looking meal for a child. Fiction is the best camoflauge.
Martin,
I didn't think to take fiction as a fog to mix reality and the fairytale. I agree that fiction is a great veil but I never thought to think of it like you have.
I'm not sure exactly what the main difference between the four genres would be, but I definitely can see how a drama is quite different from fiction, poetry, and satire. The message of the drama truly needs to be portrayed by action. It was difficult for me to grasp all of the meanings of the plays that we read without discussing them in class. It would have been much easier to see the play acted out.
I think that fiction is very effective for proposing ideas and themes. It's pretty much one of the main avenues that authors use to make their voices heard.
Martin,
I totally agree with your entire post. It was very well written. I am too full to write anything else. haha.
Lacey, I like how you point out the 'differences' that you might see in the people of an audience. I do believe that this fiction we read helps the differing ones find something in common in order to better relate. We have been subject to issues regarding class, education, and other social aspects, but they can all be properly discussed in this entertainment that we both speak of.
Erin, I definitely agree with seeing fiction as an avenue—it most certainly is the vehicle for (discreet) public voice on the author’s behalf.
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