For this portion of the project, Professor Ulmer defined Exact, in relation to literary style, as the feeling of emotional ambiance, or the overall atmosphere.
For Calvino, exactitude in literature is meant to consist of two elements:
1.) well-defined and well-calculated plan for the work
2.) evocation of clear, precise, and memorable images
Converging these two definitions, I found that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight once again had led me to the image of a character. In this case, it is Sir Gawain who is responsible for the exact (the emotional ambiance) in the narrative. It is his emotions that the reader identifies with and it is his struggles and tensions in the narrative that are supposed to be reflected in the reader. The simultaneous guilt and pleasure of kissing the lady of the castle and the building tension as he his desire and chivalry battle for dominance are felt by the reader, and they are lead by these emotional responses, which are dictated by the Green Knight and the lady (who are representations of Quick, because they create the pace of the narrative).According to the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table, Sir Gawain is Arthur’s nephew, and is respected as the most loyal,chivalrous, and courteous of the knights. This aura emanates from his character in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and his struggle to maintain chivalrous to all those who have offered him favors (Arthur, the lord, and the lady) exudes the stylistic exact that Professor Ulmer defined. 
However, the image of the kiss strikes me, in relation to Sir Gawain, strikes me as the most exact in the narrative. The kiss is, if we can allude back to Lupton and Phillips and their Graph Design book, a point. This point is a locus of power that sucks Sir Gawain in with pleasure and desire. The kiss challenges his knighthood more so than even the Green Knight. 
beyondliterature 