Question

Define, explain, and provide specific, useful examples for the term (in medias res) and (Sturm and Drang)

Answer 1

In Medias Res

In Medias Res is a latin phrase meaning "in the midst of things". It is used as a literary term to describe when a story opens with the character already in the middle of thinds-whether it is a high octane car chase or a group of friends discovery of a dead body, this narratuve technique captures the audience's attention, bringing them front and center into the fray.

Examples of In Medias Res

In medias res is seen in various forms of entertainment media- literature, television, movies,video games- a begining that sets up intrigue is a story that will keep audiences watching. Some notable examples of in medias res are:

• Homer's narrative poem The lliad. Within the first lines, the reader is dropped directly into the ongoing events of the Trojen War, seeing the action unfold between the warring Greeks and Trojans. There is kianappinf,bribery, plagues, and death, all contained within the initial first scenes.
• When Homer's eic poem The Odyssey begins, we are already 10 year post-Trojan War. The main character, Odysseus, is being held captive by the goddess Calypso, while a gang of suitors back in his homeland has set its sights on Odysseus's wife, Penelope. After the exciting setup draws the audience in and gives them a preview of what's to come, the rest of the story unfolds, leading us through the events that landed our characters where they are now. Exposition is delivered via s series of flashbacks, providing necessary backstory and important storyline details along the way.
• Dante Alighieri's narrative poem The Divine Comedy. Starting the protagonist off in the middle of a dark wood with no explanation for how he got there or why, the reader, sharing in the confusion, immediately feels for this character, and wants him to find answers. This creates an emotional investment for the audience, who will continue to read in hopes that the hero figures out how to escape his current predicament.
• In medias res is pften used outside of literature, in television and film. For example, in the opening scene of Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad,viewers are thrust into the unforgiving New Mexico landscape with the soon-to-be infamous Walter White (inexplicably in only his underwear) as he hastily drives an RV through the desert. When it comes to a stop, he hurries out of the vehicle, throws on his shirt, and by the time we reach the end of the cold open, he is pointing his gun at the sound of approaching sirens. That is a high-adrenaline opening that hooks an audience, and keeps them interested even through the not-so-exciting parts, in anticipation of finding out how that initial titular moment came to be, and what's going to happen at the end of the story.

Sturm und Drang

Sturm und Drang, German literary movement of the late 18th century that exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment cult of Rationalism. Goethe and Schiller began their careers as prominent members of the movement.

The exponents of the Sturm und Drang were profoundly influenced by the thought of Rousseau and Johann Georg Hamann, who held that the basic varieties of existence were to be apprehended through faith and the experience of the senses.The young writers also were influenced by the works of the English poet Edward Yound, the pseudo-epic poetry of James Macpherson's "Ossian", and the recently translated work of Shakespeare.

Sturm und Drang was intimately associated with the young Geothe. While a student at Strasbourg, he made the acquaintance of Johann Gottfried Von Herder, a former pupil of Hamann, who interested him im Gothic architecture, German folk songs, and Shakespeare. Inspired by Herder's ideas, Goethe embarked upon a period of extraordinary creativity. In 1773 he published a play based upon the 16th century German knight, Gotz von Berlichingen, and collaborated with Herder and others on the pamphlet "von deutscher Art and Kunst", which was a kind of manifesto for the Sturm and Drang. His novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther), which epitomised the spirit of the movement, made him world famous and inspired a host of imitators.

The dramaric literature of the Sturm und Drang was its most characteristic product. Indeed, the very name of the movement was borrowed from a play by Freidrich von Klinger, who had been inspired by the desire to present on the stage figures of the Shakespearean grandeur, subordinating structural considerations to character and rejecting the conventions of French Neoclassicism, which had been imported by the critic Johann Christop von Gottsched. Within the production of Die Rauber (1781; The Robbers ) by Schiller, the drama of the Sturm und Drang entered a new phase.

Self-discipline was not a tenet of the Sturm und Drang, and the movement soon exhausted itself. Its two most gifted representatives, Geothe and Schiller, went on to produce great works that formed the body and soul of German classical literature.