Professional Writing Service http://StudyHub.vip/Analysis-Of-The-Literary-Elements-And-F 👈

1. Analysis of the Literary Elements and Figures in Woody Allen’s
The Kugelmass Episode (1977)
Woody Allen has been recognized as one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers;
however, not many people know that the Brooklyn native director has also found
success in short story writing. Below you’ll find a personal literary analysis of one
his most noticeable works: The Kugelmass Episode.
1) Exposition​: For “The Kugelmass Episode” (from now on ‘TKE’) to be fully
understood, Allen doesn’t seem to consider necessary to read Gustave
Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856) to understand the satire and the irony
that this short story provides by mocking the mentioned novel, and so he
writes a summary of the novel’s plot.
2) Plot​: CCNY Social Sciences Professor Sidney Kugelmass finds himself in a
big problem, since he starts having an affair with literary character Emma
Bovary, the main character in Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary; and
cannot get her back to the novel because of technical malfunctions shown in
the travelling box.
But in the end, everything settles and she manages to come back to
the book. Afterwards, Kugelmass wants to have another affair and, in an
attempt to go inside a paperback copy of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint,
he ends up in a copy of “Remedial Spanish”, and is chased for the rest of his
life by the “big and hairy” (Allen, 1977) irregular verb that is “tener” (to have).
3) Setting​: ​The story takes place between New York during the 1970’s and
Yonville, a small 19​th​
century French rural village.
4) Characters​:
4.1) ​Main Characters​:
4.1.1) ​Protagonists​: ​Sidney Kugelmass.
4.1.2) ​Round Character​: ​Emma Bovary.
4.1.3) ​Flat Character​:​ The Great Persky.
4.2) ​Minor Characters​:
4.2.1)​ Daphne Kugelmass.

2. 4.2.2)​ Flo, who appears as an anaphoric reference in the plot.
4.2.3)​ Prof. Fivish Kopkind (Kugelmass’ colleague)
5) Type of Narrator​: ​The narrator of this story is in third person – omniscient,
because it is not identified in the story, yet at the same time it does know
everything about each character in the plot – their feelings, emotions and
thoughts.
6) Figurative Language​:​ There’s​ both parody and satire in this story​:
6.1) ​Irony​: The definition of irony, according to The Merriam­Webster
dictionary is “the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really
think, especially in order to be funny” (The Merriam­Webster Dictionary)
The ironic representation in TKE is shown when Kugelmass thinks he
has been thrown into a copy of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, but
instead gets into a copy of “Remedial Spanish”; and so his expectations of
what was going to happen changes radically.
6.2) ​Parody​: ​Allen makes fun out of serious situations, like human necessity
and infidelity. In this case, he makes fun out of the previous explained
themes by mocking them in Kugelmass and Bovary´s relationship.
6.3) ​Satire​: The use of satire, that is “the act of mocking at someone else’s
misfortune”, is also shown but in very specific situations in this short story,
like in the beginning, when Kugelmass complains to his analyst on him not
giving the former’s enough support on his idea of having an affair, telling him
that what he needs “is an analyst not a magician” (Marcus, 1995)
Paradoxically, satire is also applied when Kugelmass complains with
Persky about him not being able to solve Kugelmass’s anxiety issues and so
Persky answers him by telling him that he’s “a magician, not an analyst”
(Marcus, 1995)
6.4) ​Anachronism​: The use of anachronisms is shown through the whole
plot, since Allen plays with the inconsistencies of time and place, which is a
factor that might confuse the reader.

3. 6.4.1) ​Intertextuality​: As a matter of fact, the use of anachronisms in this
story creates a form of intertextuality, which Chandler defines as “the
'influences' of writers on each other” (Chandler, 2014, p. 1), and so it is
manifested every time that Kugelmass gets inside the travelling box to
appear later in another time (the 19​th
century) and another place (in this
case France).
7) Imagery​: There are two main parts in this short story in which imagery is
shown:
7.1) When Persky pulls out his old travelling box: “Persky reappeared
pushing before him a large object on squeaky rollerskate wheels. He
removed some old silk handkerchiefs that were lying on its top and blew
away a bit of dust. It was a cheap looking Chinese cabinet, badly lacquered”
(Marcus, 1995)
With this description, the reader might be able to create a mental picture of
an old and rusty Chinese box.
7.2) The other mental picture might be represented when Allen describes
how Emma Bovary’s bedroom looks like when Kugelmass arrives: “At the
same moment, he appeared in the bedroom of Charles and Emma Bovary’s
house at Yonville. Before him was a beautiful woman, standing alone with
her back turned to him as she folded some linen” (Marcus, 1995)
In this, case, the author is not only mentioning in which part of the house
Kugelmass appears, but also describing what was Emma Bovary doing
when he showed up.
8) A small biography on Woody Allen​: As a way to contextualise this story, a
short biography on Woody Allen has to be analyzed as well:
He was born in Brooklyn in 1935 by the name of Allen Stewart
Konigsberg. From a very young age he was attracted to writing and
producing his own movies and so, by the time he was 15, he changed his
name to Woody Allen. In the early 1950’s he went to NYU where he, just like
Kugelmass, flunked English. Afterwards, he attended the City College of
New York, where he also flunked out.

4. In 1965, Allen wrote and starred in his first film, "What’s New,
Pussycat?" The following year he made his directorial debut with "What’s
Up, Tiger Lily?" and wrote a Broadway play, "Don’t Drink the Water." Around
this time he became a regular contributor of humorous fiction and essays to
The New Yorker and other publications.
He rose to fame with the 1969 release of "Take the Money and Run",
a spoof of gangster movies that he wrote, starred in, and directed. In 1977,
Allen won an Oscar for "Annie Hall", which was hailed as one of the first
truly intelligent and complex American comedies. That same year, ‘‘The
Kugelmass Episode’’ appeared in the May edition of The New Yorker. The
story won an O. Henry Award the following year and was published in his
third and final prose collection. Allen currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife
Soon Yi­Previn and their two adoptive daughters.
Bibliographic References​:
Chandler, D. (2014, July 03). ​Semiotics for Begginers: Intertextuality​. Retrieved
from Visual Memory UK:
http://visual­memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem09.html.
Marcus, S. (1995). ​A World Of Fiction: Twenty Timeless Short Stories. Retrieved
from Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/stream/worldoffictiontw00marc#page/n2/mode/1up.
The Merriam­Webster Dictionary. (s.f.). ​Definition of 'irony'​. Obtenido de
Merriam­Webster: http://www.merriam­webster.com/dictionary/irony.