(2016 final exam assignment) Sample Student Final Exam Essays 2016 Essay 1. Define "genre" + examples

LITR 4370 Tragedy  Model Assignments

Michael Bradshaw

Kvothe: The Adventures of a Tragic Hero (fantasy)

In my midterm, I quoted Dr. White that the classifications of genre “amount to a contract with the audience” and used The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss as an example of the fantasy genre, but I fear I may have been too broad in my assessment of the novels. While categorized as fantasy, The Name of the Wind, and The Wise Man’s Fear both have some of the trappings of romance and tragedy, again underscoring Dr. White’s assertion that “Genre is not a box in which to put a work of art but a yardstick to measure it by.”

The “subject” genre can be loosely defined as the broadest description of a genre i.e. the section of the bookstore a novel would be located. In this case, The Kingkiller Chronicle would fall into the fantasy genre. The main characteristic of the fantasy genre is that it is… well fantastic. There is always an element of the other, be it the existence of magic, the supernatural, or some other thing that differs from our own world. In this regard, The Kingkiller Chronicle fits the fantasy mold.  There is magic that allows a person to command the wind, or use a drop of another’s blood to boil them from the inside out. Beings as old as time, beautiful and terrible to behold, exist in another realm, able to pass into the mortal realm when the moon is full. On a moonless night, a mortal may wander the woods, only to find themselves in Fae. Said Felurian, one of these ageless beings to Kvothe, the protagonist of the story ““I do this so you cannot help but hear. A wise man views a moonless night with fear.” (WMF)

          As fantasy,The Kingkiller Chronicle is set a world in a more “primitive” time than our own, yet whose own past hearkens back to a time of greater civilization.  There are swords older than recorded history with edges keen enough to cut a hair. There are great roads, the likes of which can no longer be built, spanning the countryside. There are “ancient, mammoth pieces of architecture scattered throughout the world, so old and solidly built that they have become part of the landscape, not a soul wondering who built them or why,” (NOTW). There are also many things from ancient times that have been lost so long ago that they have become legend. Kilvin, the Master Artificer at the University for example, looked to recreate an “ever-burning lamp”. “Among the Cealdar, there are legends of ever-burning lamps. I believe that such a thing was once within the scope of our craft. Ten years I have been looking,” (NOTW).

Another common trait of fantasy is a nostalgia for the past and a disdain for modern civilization. While Rothfuss’s novels often have the educated Kvothe learn from those with no formal schooling, these people are the exception. Most people outside of the University Kvothe attends treat him with suspicion and superstition. Along with this nostalgia of the past, the fantasy genre often places great importance on bloodlines, with its heroes springing from noble houses. Arguably the most famous example of this would be Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Rothfuss inverts this trope with Kvothe. He is Edema Ruh, a nomadic people, who usually make their living as traveling performers. They are looked upon as the lowest class of people, and Kvothe is often hindered by this perception.

          Subject genre paints with a broad brush. For the details, one must look at the narrative genre. The Kingkiller Chronicle is a fantasy in its broadest sense, but despite Kvothe’s declaration that “This is no comedy… this is not a dashing romance. This is no fable where folk come back from the dead. It’s not a rousing epic meant to stir the blood,” (WMF) the series does have heavy elements of romance. The Kvothe of the past was on a journey. His goal was to find information about the Chandrian, the ancient creatures who killed his family because “Someone’s parents have been singing entirely the wrong sort of songs," (NOTW) and their enemies, the Amyr. His journey took him to the University where he desired to learn the name of the wind. However, his journey was nowhere near a straight line. “If this were some tavern tale, all half-truth and senseless adventure, I would tell you how my time at the University was spent with a purity of dedication. I would learn the ever-changing name of the wind, ride out, and gain my revenge on the Chandrian… But while that might make for an entertaining story, it would not be the truth,” (NOTW).

The last way to define genre is the formal genre, or how the story is being told to the audience. In this I find The Kingkiller Chronicle to be a rarity if not wholly unique among its fantasy peers. The novels begin with the traditional omniscient narrator, then switches to a first person perspective as Kvothe tells his story to Chronicler. The narration switches back to third person omniscient as Kvothe breaks away from telling his story to tend to his inn or when he is interrupted by Chronicler and Bast. This leads the audience to ask some very pointed question. Is Kvothe a reliable narrator? Kvothe claims to wish for the truth to be known, and does reveal some embarrassing stories about himself, but the audience can never be sure if he is being completely honest. It makes for some very intriguing theories about what Kvothe has done to become the broken man he is today.

                     “We all know what kind of story this is,” (WMF). In Kvothe’s own words he spells out that the ending of The Kingkiller Chronicle will not be a happy one. If the Kingkiller Chronicle can be classified as a romance, then all signs seem to point to it being a tragic romance. Though it is unfinished, it has all the makings of a tragedy. Kvothe is found in hiding under an assumed name in a remote town as far from anything as it could be. The story of Kvothe is told to Chronicler by the man who lived it, but that man is now Kote, a humble innkeeper in the middle of Newarre.  He is assumed dead, and his exploits are slowly turning into legend.

 The narrator of this story is a broken man, whose actions have pulled the world into chaos. “All of this is my fault. The scrael, the war. All my fault. The reader comes into the last scenes of a tragedy. Something terrible has happened, and the reader is the only one who doesn’t know what it was. The stories told about Kvothe are the stuff of legend, but the man we find is a shadow of himself. His powers seem to have been stripped away, although how or by whom, has yet to be revealed. When he is alone, a silence weighs down upon him. “It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die,” (NOTW & WMF).

There is even a tree used as a symbol of tragedy as with Desire Under the Elms, although in keeping with its fantasy roots, there is a malevolent Fae creature in the tree who can see the future called the Cthaeh. Kvothe’s student Bast, a denizen of the Fae himself laments, “In our plays, if the Cthaeh’s tree is shown in the distance in the backdrop, you know the story is going to be the worst kind of tragedy. It’s put there so the audience will know everything will go terribly wrong in the end,” (WMF). It seems that everything has gone terribly wrong, and the reader is looking in on the aftermath. We are left waiting for answers until the final book of the trilogy is released.

Kvothe has all the makings of the Byronic hero of tragic romance. He is haunted by loss and seems to be waiting for death. In his reminiscence, he portrays himself as brilliant but rash, which often gets him into trouble. One of his friends remarks, “I swear I’ve never met a man who has your knack for lack of social grace. If you weren’t naturally charming someone would have stabbed you by now,” to which Kvothe replies, “You’re assuming.” Kvothe’s hamartia, or tragic flaw, is his pride. He feels that he must accomplish his tasks on his own or that he can resolve his own problems, a trait which more often than not makes things harder for him. The trilogy is as yet unfinished; all signs point to it ending in tragedy. However, as Chronicler points out. “It’s not over if you’re still here. It’s not a tragedy if you’re still alive,” (WMF).

          The Kingkiller Chronicle is most definitely a fantasy series at its core. It is also a romance, and can even be considered a tragedy, especially if the third novel delivers an expected conclusion. However, it’s the amalgamation of all of its parts, coupled with its narrative structure that makes it unique among its sword and sorcery brethren.