(NARRATOLOGY) The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho

THEORY

NARRATOLOGY
-It refers to both the theory and the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect our perception.

-It looks at what narratives have in common and what makes one different from another.

-It is dedicated to the study of the logic, principles, and practices of narrative representation.

TITLE

THE WINNER STANDS ALONE BY PAULO COELHO

SYNOPSIS

Igor Malev has one thing on his mind - his ex-wife Ewa. He's handsome, rich, and effortlessly personable - but she left him for a successful fashion designer, a sting he's never recovered from. 

So he travels to the glamorous Cannes International Film Festival where they'll be appearing, intent on winning back her love. But Igor is a man of rare intensity and cold intelligence - and this is to be no ordinary reconciliation. For Igor made a promise to destroy whole worlds to get to his beloved. Now, the conflict between an individual evil force and society emerges as the novel unfolds, and as morality is derailed.

ANALYSIS

It's true that we are only living in one world and all of us are just equal. However, reality bites that we, people who are living in this world, made an invisible division between all of us.

I'd say that The Winner Stands Alone is one of my favorite novels of my favorite author, Paulo Coelho. 

I love the way he narrated and revealed the different kind of "sub worlds" we have~ from the entertainment world, world of politics and world of ordinary people who are also aspiring to go to the two worlds of fame (entertainment and politics). 

Actually entertainment and politics may both differ when it comes to how they revolve but the "advantages" and "benefits" it offer is quite the same. On the positive side, they both mean fame, money and power~ exact reason why many people are aspiring to go to these kinds of world. However, negative things were also pointed out. FAME. MONEY. POWER. Too much of it can destroy a person and can even turn him evil. Of course, it's not bad to aspire to become someone good by having these things but we should know our limits when it comes to this.  

I learned alot from this book and this also made me realized different things in different worlds.  

This book definitely deserves a PART 2!

I think the whole content of the story can justify what Narratology is all about.

(LOGOCENTRISM) Zathura

THEORY

LOGOCENTRISM

-It is structuralist method of analysis, especially of literary works, that focuses upon words and language to the exclusion of non-linguistic matters, such as an author's individuality or historical context.

-It is an excessive attention paid to the meanings of words or distinctions in their usage.

-The belief that everything stems from an underlying "source" or "logos".

TITLE

ZATHURA

SYNOPSIS

Brothers Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo) can never seem to get along with each other, or with their older teen-aged sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart). While staying at their divorced father's home while he is away at work and Lisa is asleep, the boys discover an old clockwork-driven space-themed board game called "Zathura" in the basement. The two begin to play the game, the goal to be the first to reach the final space named Zathura. During each turn, the game provides a card with instructions, but the two quickly realize the cards affect reality. They soon discover the house is floating on a small rock in outer space. Meanwhile, Lisa looks out the window, and believing it is merely dark, goes to shower for her date. When the boys try to warn Lisa about what has happened, they find she is frozen in cryonic sleep as a result of one of the cards. The brother realize that the only way to end the game and hopefully return to Earth is to reach the end space of Zathura.

As they continue to play, avoiding the dangers that the game's cards throw at them, the house comes under attack by a race of aliens called Zorgons. Another card brings aboard a stranded astronaut (Dax Shepard) who goes about eliminating the house's heat sources (during which Walter turns down the house's heating thermostat) and setting a couch on fire and pushing it outside into space to lure the Zorgons' ship away with its heat signature.

As the brothers' tension rises, Walter accuses Danny of cheating by moving a piece prematurely, but when Walter tries to correct it, the game reacts as if Walter was cheating and ejects him out of the house into the vacuum of space, but the Astronaut rescues him. On Walter's next turn, he receives a card that allows him to make a wish, and considers making a wish to make Danny go away. The Astronaut quickly warns him that he and his own brother had played the game years before, and he too had received the same card. He wished his brother away, but this caused him to be stuck in the game forever without a second player. The brothers agree to work together to finish the game quickly.

Lisa wakes from her stasis, and unaware of the current events, turns up the thermostat. This causes the Zorgons to return, anchoring their ships to the house. The four evacuate to the upper floor but realize they have left the game downstairs. Danny uses the house's dumbwaiter to sneak past the aliens and retrieve the game. Danny manages to get the game aboard one of the ships, but is caught by the Zorgons when he attempts to get back on the dumbwaiter. Walter uses a robot previously brought by an earlier turn to attack the Zorgons, and the aliens retreat. As the brothers continue to play the game, Walter receives another wish card; he uses it to bring back the Astronaut's brother, which turns out to be Danny. The Astronaut explains he is an older Walter from an alternate timeline. Danny and Walter touch their counterparts, causing them to disappear.

The Zorgons return to the house with a large fleet, intent on destroying it. Danny makes a final move to land on Zathura; in space, it is revealed that Zathura is a giant black hole that sucks up the Zorgon fleet and the house. The three children then find themselves in the house as it was before they started the game on Earth, just as their father arrives home and their mother comes to pick them up.

ANALYSIS

On this movie, the story gave more focused on the cards used by the two brothers that lead them to Zathura and made them experience the things beyond their imaginations. The card in the story served as the logo or source of the unbelievable things they saw. I think the card is can define how Logocentrism Theory existed on this movie.

(DARWINISM) The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins

THEORY

DARWINISM

-It is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

-It designates a distinctive form of evolutionary explanation for the history and diversity of life on earth.

TITLE

THE ANCESTOR'S TALE: A PILGRIMAGE TO THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 

BY RICHARD DAWKINS

SYNOSPSIS

The narrative is structured as a pilgrimage, with all modern animals following their own path through history to the origin of life. Humans meet their evolutionary cousins at rendezvous points along the way, the points at which the lineage diverged. At each point Dawkins attempts to infer, from molecular and fossil evidence, the probable form of the most recent common ancestor and describes the modern animals that join humanity's growing travelling party. This structure is inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The pilgrimage visits a total of 40 "rendezvous points" from rendezvous zero, the most recent common ancestor of all of humanity, to rendezvous 39, eubacteria, the ancestor of all surviving organisms. Though Dawkins is confident of the essential shape of this phylogenetic taxonomy, he enters caveats on a small number of branch points where a compelling weight of evidence had not been assembled at the time of writing.

At each rendezvous point, Dawkins recounts interesting tales concerning the cousin animals which are about to join the band of pilgrims. Every newly recruited species, genus or family has its own peculiar features, often ones that are relevant to human anatomy or otherwise interesting for humans. For instance, Dawkins discusses why the axolotl never needs to grow up, how newspecies come about, how hard it is to classify animals, and why our fish-like ancestors moved to the land. These peculiar features are studied and analyzed using a newly introduced tool or method from evolutionary biology, carefully woven into a tale to illustrate how the Darwinian theory of evolution explains all diversity in nature.

ANALYSIS

Dawkins didn't give a normal story of evolution but he took a journey backward, from the present time way back to the past to trace our ancestors. He believes that there's a strong need for us to be put in evolutionary perspectives as a humankind and there's got to be real progress as time passes by.

Reading this book is like reading an encyclopedia. It is not intended to convince everyone that evolution is existing yet it assumes that it really exists.

 The fact that the books is about a "reverse" evolution is an exact reason why this falls to Darwinism Theory of Literary Criticism.

(MYTHOLOGICAL/ ARCHETYPAL) The Dark Night

THEORY

MYTHOLOGICAL/ ARCHETYPAL

-It is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in a literary work.

TITLE

THE DARK NIGHT

SYNOPSIS

In Gotham City, The Joker and his accomplices rob a mob-owned bank. The accomplices kill each other off one by one in a sequence masterminded by the Joker, who escapes alone with all the money.

Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon decide to include the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, in their plan to eradicate the mob. Although Dent is dating Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne is impressed with his idealism and offers to throw him a fundraiser. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and The Chechen hold a videoconference with Lau, a Chinese accountant who has hidden their funds and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts the meeting, warning that Batman is unhindered by jurisdiction. He offers to kill Batman for half their money, but the mob bosses refuse, and Gambol puts a bounty on him. The Joker kills Gambol and takes control of his men. Batman captures Lau and delivers him back to Gotham to testify against the Joker and the mob.

The Joker announces that people will die each day unless Batman reveals his identity. He then kills Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trials. He also targets Dent at the fundraiser, but Bruce hides Dent. Gordon foils the Joker's assassination attempt on Mayor Garcia, apparently sacrificing himself in the process. Bruce plans to reveal his identity, but Dent instead names himself as Batman to protect the truth. Dent is taken into protective custody and pursued by the Joker across the city; Batman rushes to Dent's aid. Gordon, who faked his death, helps apprehend the Joker and is promoted to Commissioner.

That night, Dent and Rachel disappear. Batman interrogates the Joker and discovers that Dent and Rachel are held in two separate buildings filled with explosives. The Joker reveals their locations, and Batman goes to Rachel's, only to realize that the Joker has tricked him into finding Dent moments before both buildings explode, killing Rachel and scarring half of Dent's face. The Joker detonates a bomb in the police station and escapes with Lau.

Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces Batman's true identity and plans to reveal it. The Joker kills Lau and The Chechen, then threatens to bomb a hospital unless Reese is killed. Gordon and Bruce protect Reese, who changes his mind. The Joker visits Dent in the hospital and convinces him to seek revenge. The Joker then blows up the hospital and escapes with hostages.

Dent starts to go after people responsible for Rachel's death, deciding their fates by flipping a coin. He kills Maroni and a cop who had helped kidnap Rachel. It is revealed that the Joker rigged two ferries with explosives to escalate chaos; one ferry is full of citizens, the other full of prison inmates and guards. He then gives the passengers of each ferry the choice to blow the other up before midnight — otherwise, both ferries will explode. The passengers ultimately refuse.

Batman asks a reluctant Lucius Fox to use a city-wide tracking prototype device to find the Joker; Fox agrees, but says he will resign immediately afterward. The Joker dresses up hostages as his men, luring Gordon's SWAT team to strike them. Batman fights off the SWAT team and the Joker's men, then rescues the hostages. Batman apprehends the Joker, but the Joker gloats that he has won, as Gotham will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public. The SWAT team arrives to take the Joker into custody.

Dent lures Gordon to the building where Rachel died and holds Gordon's family hostage. Batman confronts Dent, who judges the fates of himself, Batman, and Gordon's son with three coin flips. He shoots Batman, spares himself, then flips again to determine the boy's fate. Batman, who is wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building, killing him and saving the boy. Batman then convinces Gordon to frame him for the murders so that Dent will remain a symbol of hope for the city. Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal and launches a manhunt for the Batman. Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter written by Rachel to Bruce announcing her engagement to Dent, and Fox watches the signal tracker self-destruct.

ANALYSIS

Heroes can't always be strong and brave. They got to have obstacle and challenges that could help them grow and become the best that they can be. 

On this movie,the main character is just a simple person yet occasional situations can turn him into a hero.

Given these situations, I think this movie provides specific example of Archetypes as well as Mythology.

(GENRE CRITICISM) Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

THEORY

GENRE CRITICISM

-Genre criticism is a method within rhetorical criticism for analysing speeches and writing according to the symbolic artifacts they contain.

-It is a critical approach, doctrine, or technique that emphasizes, in evaluating a work, the genre or medium in which it can be placed rather than seeing it entirely as an autonomous entity.

TITLE

ELEVEN MINUTES BY PAULO COELHO

SYNOPSIS

Maria, a young girl from a remote village of Brazil, with innocent brushes with love failures at an early adolescent stage and hatred for love goes to seek her fortune in Switzerland, only to find that reality is a lot harder than she expected. After working in a nightclub as a samba dancer for a brief period, she realizes that this is not what she wants. After a heated discussion with her manager one night, she storms out and begins to look for a career in modeling. After a long unsuccessful search for a position in that field, and as she starts running out of money, she engages herself for 1000 francs for "one night" with an Arab man. Delighted with the easy money and after compromising with her soul she lands in a brothel on Rue de Berne, the heart of Geneva's red-light district...

There she befriends Nyah who gives her advice on her "new profession" and after learning the tricks of the trade from Milan, the brothel owner, she enters the job with her body and mind shutting all doors for love and keeps her heart open only for her diary. Quickly she becomes quite successful and famous and her colleagues begin to envy her. Months pass and Maria grows into a professionally groomed prostitute who not only relaxes her clients' mind, but also calms their soul by talking to them about their problems.

Her world turns upside down when she meets Ralf, a young Swiss painter, who sees her "inner light". Maria falls in love with him immediately and begins to experience what true love is (according to the author, it is a sense of being for someone without actually possessing him/her). Maria is now torn between her sexual fantasies and true love for Ralf. Eventually she decides that it is time for her to leave Geneva with her memory of Ralf, because she realizes that they are worlds apart. But before leaving, she decides to rekindle the dead sexual fire in Ralf and learns from him about the nature of Sacred Sex, sex which is mingled with true love and which involves the giving up of one's soul for the loved one.

This book explores the sacred nature of sex. "Eleven minutes" describes the duration of sex. Also, it depicts two types of prostitution: prostitution for money and sacred prostitution. There are also direct references to sadomasochism.

The story is of Maria's journey to find what true love is by letting her own life guide her. She enters a life that leads her down the path of sexual awakening and almost leads to her self-destruction when she is introduced to all sides of sexual experience. When she has given up hope to find true love, she finds her true "inner light" and her everlasting true love.

ANALYSIS

Perhaps other people would mistakenly think that this book is merely about sex and prostitution just by knowing why it's entitled Eleven Minutes. So why is that so?
It is allegedly entitled Eleven Minutes because it's the duration of sex, and the main character here is a prostitute.

However, it's also been mentioned that Maria is in search of true love, therefore, this falls to romance.

Using the Genre Criticism, the book proved that there's no thing that can't be done in the name of love. Because for true love, everything is worth it. Just like what Ralf did to Maria. 

He accepted her wholeheartedly despite of her dark past. It doesn't matter what she is and where she's from. The only thing that matters is who she is that made him fall in love with her.

Love doesn't require anything. It's only the feeling that is the most important. 

A feeling for love that is real and genuine.

(CULTURAL STUDIES) Race Matters by Cornel West

THEORY

CULTURAL STUDIES
-It is an interdisciplinary method of studying the social power encrypted in texts, poetry, advertising images and even in actor's faces.

-It involve the use of all the methods of literary criticism.

-A primary goal of this type of criticism is to understand the nature of social power reflected within the text. Thus, a critic might explore the psychological, moral and political assumptions presumed in a given piece, and then deconstruct them to see what benefits individuals and social classes might gain from having these interpretations perceived as being true.

TITLE

RACE MATTERS BY CORNEL WEST

SYNOPSIS

Cornel West is at the forefront of thinking about race. In Race Matters, he addresses a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny. Bold in its thought and written with a redemptive passion grounded in the tradition of the African-American church, Race Matters is a book that is at once challenging and deeply healing. 

ANALYSIS

I can relate this book in Cultural Studies the way  Cornel West covers a lot of topics that affect African-American in terms of American culture. 

He has concerns in black community~from the discrimination and despair to the crisis of leadership. 

It is a book that must be read especially by white Americans. 

It deserves to have a review to see the progress that is going on the race-relations in America from the past until now. Although it was published years ago, it is still very relevant and essential as it talks about racism and how it affects all of us.

(NEOCLASSICISM) Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

THEORY

NEOCLASSICISM

- It represented a reaction against the optimistic, exuberant, and enthusiastic Renaissance view of man as a being fundamentally good and possessed of an infinite potential for spiritual and intellectual growth.

-It usually connotes narrower attitudes that are at once literary and social: a worldly-wise tempering of enthusiasm, a fondness for proved ways, a gentlemanly sense of propriety and balance.

TITLE

ITALIAN JOURNEY BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

SYNOPSIS/ CONTENT

"We are all pilgrims who seek Italy", Goethe wrote in a poem two years after his return to Germany from his almost two-year spell in the land he had long dreamed of. For Goethe, Italy was the warm passionate south as opposed to the dank cautious north; the place where the classical past was still alive, although in ruins; a sequence of landscapes, colours, trees, manners, cities, monuments he had so far seen only in his writing. He described himself as "the mortal enemy of mere words" or what he also called "empty names". He needed to fill the names with meaning and, as he rather strangely put it, "to discover myself in the objects I see", literally "to learn to know myself by or through the objects". He also writes of his old habit of "clinging to the objects", which pays off in the new location. He wanted to know that what he thought might be paradise actually existed, even if it wasn't entirely paradise, and even if he didn't in the end want to stay there.

While in Italy, Goethe aspired to witness and to breathe the conditions and milieu of a once highly — and in certain respects still — cultured area endowed with many significant works of art. Apart from the impetus to study the Mediterranean's natural qualities, he was first and foremost interested in the remains of classical antiquity and in contemporary art. During his stay in Assisi, he did not visit the famous Giotto frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, but only visited the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a converted Roman temple there. Many critics have questioned this strange choice. In Verona, where he enthusiastically commends the harmony and fine proportions of the city amphitheater; he asserts this is the first true piece of Classical art he has witnessed. Venice, too, holds treasures for his artistic education, and he soon becomes fascinated by the Italian style of living. After a very short stop in Florence, he arrives in Rome. It was here that he met several respected German artists, and made friends with Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein and notable Neoclassical painter, Angelica Kauffmann. Tischbein painted one of the most famous portraits of Goethe, Goethe in the Roman Campagna, and accompanied him to Naples. During the journey, the two later separated due to their "incompatible" interests. After leaving Rome and entering Palermo, Goethe searched for what he called "Urpflanze", a plant that would be the archetype of all plants.

In his journal, Goethe shows a marked interest in the geology of Europe's southern regions. He demonstrates a depth and breadth of knowledge in each subject. Most frequently, he pens descriptions of mineral and rock samples that he retrieves from the mountains, crags, and riverbeds of Italy. He also undertakes several dangerous hikes to the summit of Mount Vesuvius, where he catalogues the nature and qualities of various lava flows and tephra. He is similarly adept at recognizing species of plant and flora, which stimulate thought and research into his botanical theories.

While more credibility can be attributed to his scientific investigations, Goethe maintains a thoughtful and admiring interest in art. Using Palladio and Johann Joachim Winkelmann as touchstones for his artistic growth, Goethe expands his scope of thought in regards to Classical concepts of beauty and the characteristics of good architecture. Indeed, in his letters he periodically comments on the growth and good that Rome has caused in him. The profusion of high-quality objects of art proves critical in his transformation during these two years away from his hometown in Germany.

ANALYSIS

Goethe spent more time reviewing his art works rather than talking about his travel on this book. However, I can still say that this is a very informative and enjoyable book of quest that is full of wonderful observations about history and art.
I guess that's enough reason to classify this under Neoclassicism because it justified what it all takes for a literary piece to become Neoclassical.