Candide and Voltaire

Approaches to Literature

COMEDIC TECHNIQUES:

EXAGGERATION (hyperbole)

UNDERSTATE- MENT

—“sweating to death

--“It’s a bit wet out there.”

COMEDIC TECHNIQUES:

WARPED LOGIC

IMPROBABLE SITUATIONS

Harlan is funny. Harlan is a man. Men are funny.

--“equipping a submarine with a screen door”

satire

• a work that ridicules human foibles, vices and follies…

• that creates absurdity, challenges beliefs…

• GOAL: to improve human society inspire remodeling (raising), not

razing

Candide

• A picaresque novel…series of self-contained episodes

with a plot and climaxadventures and exotic travel set in

motion by an incident beyond the character’s control

like beads on a necklace

Candide

• technique of digression…

another character relates his/her own personal narrative

FOUR APPROACHES…

• Formalistic/ structural

• looks at the way a piece is organized and approached—the type of discourse and literary techniques used—Candide is a satire and uses those techniques

FOUR APPROACHES…

• Archetypal • looks for the universals and motifs in a work—in Candide look for the mentors he has and what each teaches him

FOUR APPROACHES…

• Socio-historic • sees the implications for the historic time and social milieu during which the piece was written—here it’s the idea of a utopia

FOUR APPROACHES…

• Reader-response

• asks how the piece resonates with you—your own feelings