'Human reality' and metanarratives

[priyanka.jatan]

Hello, two questions here:
1) ELI5: the meaning of 'human reality' in the literary sense,
2) Is Arthur Miller's play The Crucible classified as a metanarrative considering of its allusion to the Salem Witch Trials/ McCarthyism? And is Robert Egger's film The Witch classified too due to its relative historical accuracy to 17th century-Puritan New England and reference to the Salem Witch Trials?

Much appreciated.

[angewina_naguen]

Hello, two questions here:
1) ELI5: the meaning of 'human reality' in the literary sense,
2) Is Arthur Miller's play The Crucible classified as a metanarrative considering of its allusion to the Salem Witch Trials/ McCarthyism? And is Robert Egger's film The Witch classified too due to its relative historical accuracy to 17th century-Puritan New England and reference to the Salem Witch Trials?

Much appreciated.

Hey, priyanka.jatan!

Could you perhaps elaborate more on what your first question is? More specifically, what does ELI5 stand for?

As for your second question, I think it'd be safer to classify The Crucible as an allegory since it uses a different historical setting and narrative in order to reflect the composer's immediate context. I wouldn't consider The Witch an allegory but you could similarly look at how it alludes to historical events as means of representing current concerns and understandings of the human experience. Let me know if this helps!

Angelina 

[angewina_naguen]

Thanks for your clarification, Angelina!

And ELI5 is just an abbreviation for 'Explain Like I'm 5' in the sense of "could you please explain this simply?"

Hey again!

I really need to catch up with acronyms like that  And not a problem at all! When we think about reality from a literary POV, we often look at the ways in which our perceptions of what is real and not in our world being constructed, fabricated, manipulated and/or adjusted through language. When we add the word "human" to the front of it, the question we want to ask ourselves is does our understanding of reality, and truth which ties in quite closely with it, also help us to better understand what being human is all about?

More than often, reality is a really complicated force to deal with, especially when you have narratives that question what is real and the truth. If we use The Crucible as an example, misguidances, manipulation and persuasion are key aspects of the text that challenge the existence of a single truth or reality. Abigail as a character actively fuels the witch hysteria in the society which distorts the collective's perceptions on what is real and not. What we learn as audiences from this is that to be human is to be at the centre of a network of realities and constantly trying to sort out what is the truth and it is this self-awareness that shapes our understanding of self, others and the world. Despite this being a slightly difficult concept to explain, I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any further questions 

Angelina