Commentary Writing Guidelines and FAQ Dr Hannes Opelz Dr Alexandra Lukes

What is a commentary? A piece of prose writing …based on the close reading of a short text such as: a poem a passage of dramatic or narrative fiction …producing a detailed account of the passage / poem in question, in terms of context (where applicable), content, and form …presenting your findings in an organised and clearly structured way

Preliminaries Read the passage / poem carefully Make sure you have understood all the vocabulary and that you have grasped the literal sense of all the sentences in the text If the text is an extract from a longer work, make sure you have read the entire work

Main Elements Introduction Main section Conclusion

Introduction Context If the passage is an extract rather than a complete work (like a poem) you must situate it briefly in relation to the text as a whole This part should be kept as concise as possible: it only serves to provide a context for your detailed analysis Give a brief summary of Content and Form Content State concisely what the passage is about: what happens in it and what changes occur as it develops Form State concisely how the text conveys its content: note briefly the most important structural aspects only (narrative techniques for prose, verse form for poetry).

Main section Essential part of the exercise Analyse in detail the relationship between form AND content Read ‘interrogatively’: ask what effects the text is creating and how it is creating them Structure your observations either by: proceeding line by line (typically if a poem), or identifying and concentrating on particularly important moments

Things to avoid Don’t lose sight of the ‘big picture’: as well as looking at details, look out for the general structural features such as parallels, contrasts, repetition, variation, etc. Avoid gratuitous description: don’t just give a catalogue of recognisable technical features (such as alliteration, metaphor, etc.) – you must be able to identify the effects or meanings these technical features produce Avoid paraphrase, i.e. simply recounting the story without analysis (Remember: your reader knows the story, too; the reader is more interested in how the story is told, how it functions.) Refrain from giving personal impressions (unfiltered feelings, hasty opinions): your analysis must be firmly rooted in the words on the page Avoid generalisations about the work or the author

Conclusion Take a step back and summarise your findings: How themes or character or plot are developed and how formal techniques are deployed Where applicable, note which aspects of the extract’s form and content link it to the text as a whole

Sample Prose Passage Camus, L’étranger (1942) Aujourd’hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. J’ai reçu un télégramme de l’asile: « Mère décédée. Enterrement demain. Sentiments distingués. » Cela ne veut rien dire. C’était peut-être hier. L’asile de vieillards est à Marengo, à quatre-vingts kilomètres d’Alger. Je prendrai l’autobus à deux heures et j’arriverai dans l’après-midi. Ainsi je pourrai veiller et je rentrerai demain soir. J’ai demandé deux jours de congé à mon patron et il ne pouvait pas me les refuser avec une excuse pareille. Mais il n’avait pas l’air content. Je lui ai même dit: « Ce n’est pas de ma faute. » Il n’a pas répondu. J’ai pensé alors que je n’aurais pas dû lui dire cela. En somme, je n’avais pas à m’excuser. C’était plutôt à lui de me présenter ses condoléances. Mais il le fera sans doute demain après-midi, quand il me verra en deuil. Pour le moment, c’est un peu comme si maman n’était pas morte. Après l’enterrement, au contraire, ce sera une affaire classée et tout aura revêtu une allure plus officielle.

Context Where does the passage come from? What leads up to it? This is the opening passage of Camus’s L’étranger Having read the text might help you bring out certain elements of the passage in question. For instance: the relationship between emotion and lack thereof how the character is seen from the perspective of others (tension between the personal and the social) how this allows us to arrive at different interpretations of the title, etc.

Content What is this passage about? Basic content: The narrator receives a telegram from the old people’s home where his mother was, stating that she has died What themes does the passage explore? Death and grief ‘mort’, ‘deuil’, ‘condoléances’, ‘comme si maman n’était pas morte’ Time (here, put into question) ‘aujourdhui…ou peut-être hier’ Self, perception, and others ‘quand il me verra en deuil’ Possible link with the title, L’étranger

Form How does the passage convey its meaning? Structure Two paragraphs Short paragraph stating mother’s death: ask yourself why it is short (the paragraph itself is written in telegraphic style). What does this say about his emotional responses to the death of a close relative? (personal dimension) Long paragraph relating failed conversation with boss: ask yourself why this paragraph is longer. What does this say about his perception of himself in his relationship with others? (social dimension) Is there a change between them? (progression? status quo?) ‘maman est morte’ ‘comme si maman n’était pas morte’

Form (cont’d) Narrative form Narrator: Who is telling the story? ‘Je’ What is the status of this first-person narrator? What generic question does its use raise? Is he a reliable narrator? Is his perspective omniscient or limited? Narrative techniques: How is the narrator telling the story? Presence of direct speech and indirect (reported) speech and first-person narration Impersonal telegram: ‘Mère décédée. Enterrement demain…’ leads to little or no reaction ‘Cela ne veut rien dire’ Personal direct and indirect speech: ‘Je lui ai même dit: « Ce n’est pas de ma faute.»’ produces no dialogue, lack of communication: ‘Il n’a pas répondu’ First-person narration: ‘J’ai pensé alors que je n’aurais pas dû lui dire cela’ questions the limits of communication

Form (cont’d) Language and style Short, simple sentences, lack of subordinate clauses addition, accumulation, lack of self-reflection – possible reaction to shock or indifference Accessible vocabulary: ‘maman est morte’ Lack of description, neutral register Suggests lack of emotion, engagement, commitment: ‘Ce sera une affaire classée’ Tone What attitude do the words of the speaker (narrator or speaking character) convey? Possible tension between content (death of mother) and form (lack of emotion) Facts: ‘maman est morte’ Emotion and destabilization: ‘je ne sais pas’, ‘cela ne veut rien dire’, ‘c’était peut-être hier’ Focuses on the boss’s reaction, rather than on his personal feelings

Sample Poem Gérard de Nerval: ‘Vers dorés’ (1854) Eh quoi! tout est sensible! Pythagore Homme, libre penseur! te crois-tu seul pensant Dans ce monde où la vie éclate en toute chose? Des forces que tu tiens ta liberté dispose, Mais de tous tes conseils l'univers est absent. Respecte dans la bête un esprit agissant: Chaque fleur est une âme à la Nature éclose; Un mystère d'amour dans le métal repose; « Tout est sensible ! » Et tout sur ton être est puissant. Crains dans le mur aveugle, un regard qui t'épie: A la matière même un verbe est attaché... Ne la fais pas servir à quelque usage impie! Souvent dans l'être obscur habite un Dieu caché; Et comme un oeil naissant couvert par ses paupières, Un pur esprit s'accroît sous l'écorce des pierres!

Content and Form What is the poem about AND how is the poem’s theme articulated? It is even more impossible to paraphrase a poem than a piece of prose because its meaning is a direct function not only of its words but also of its form and its range of stylistic devices But we can give a first overview of what the poem is ‘about’: the relationship between man, nature, and the universe Think not only about what the poem does but also what it is (e.g. a love-song, a lament, a celebration, an address, etc.). This can be mentioned in your introductory remarks Here, it is an address/appeal from the poet to mankind / the reader: “Homme, libre penseur!”

Content and Form (cont’d) Verse form and structure Sonnet (14 lines) divided into 4 stanzas – traditional form addressing a traditional content (i.e. man’s place in the universe) How does this influence the development of the ideas in the poem? ‘homme…seul être pensant’ (l.1) to ‘un pur esprit…l’écorce des pierres’ (l.14) – from man as a thinking being to nature as living spirit ‘respecte’ (l.5) – ‘crains’ (l.9) – from internal reflection to external apprehension Epigraph Pythagoras – moral maxim ‘Eh quoi! Tout est sensible!’ – exclamations (appeal, call) Intertext: ‘Tout est sensible!’ (l.8) – repetition Meter and rhyme scheme (generally, in poetry, regularity is the norm. Irregularities will highlight points of interest) Rhymes can produce powerful connections or oppositions: ‘pensant…absent’ – thought and absence (man’s rationality is put into question) ‘agissant…puissant’ – action and power (value the force and power of nature)

Content and Form (cont’d) Vocabulary Abstract (‘penseur’, ‘force’, ‘liberté’…) and concrete (‘fleur’, ‘bête’, ‘métal’, ‘mur’…) tension between reason and nature, mind and body, man and animals Title: poetics and world-view ‘vers dorés’: ‘à la matière même un verbe est attaché’ (l.10) – connection between the material (world) and the abstract form of language Word combinations and oppositions ‘Penseur…pensant’ – ‘vie…chose’ (connects thought, life, and matter) ‘bête…esprit’ – ‘âme…Nature’ (endows nature with human characteristics) ‘mur aveugle…regard’, ‘paupières…pierres’ (connects inert matter with human vision) ‘matière…verbe’ (content and form)

Content and Form (cont’d) Figures of speech / rhetorical devices: Personification: ‘Chaque fleur est une âme à la Nature éclose’ (l.6): nature is alive and blooming ‘le mur aveugle’ (l.9): matter (the wall) is a seeing being Simile: ‘comme un oeil naissant couvert par ses paupières / un pur esprit…’ (l.13): comparison creates secrecy that calls for revelation Repetitions: ‘Tout est sensible!’ – epigraph and in quotation marks in the body of the poem: who is speaking? (through the poet’s verse the thinker’s language reveals the language of Nature)

Content and Form (cont’d) Imagery: Abstract notions are enclosed within concrete images to reveal the concreteness (materiality) of these notions and thus of the spiritual world ‘fleur’ encloses the spiritual life of ‘Nature’ ‘métal’ encloses ‘mystère d’amour’ ‘mur’ encloses the ‘regard’ ‘matière’ encloses the ‘verbe’ ‘paupières’ encloses the ‘oeil naissant’ ‘pierre’ encloses the ‘esprit’

Notes Most of the information used above is taken from the ‘JF Guidelines to Essay and Commentary Writing’ which is available on Blackboard under ‘JF Texts 2013– 2014’ at: Consult the Narrative and Poetry glossaries included in the JF Texts Critical Anthology HT to use the appropriate analytical vocabulary, also available on Blackboard You can find past exam papers at the following address: