...Experiment in Modernist Fiction Modernism is a current which defines everything that is new in matters of art, literature or music. The main focus of our interest is modernist literature which is a subdivision of modernism and begins during the early stages of the 20th century, being seen in opposition to the traditional values promoted until the first World War. Many branches develop during this period (psychology, philosophy, political institutions etc.) and the realism of the earlier times is now rejected and replaced by the idea that everything is relative. Things take a new shift and the absolute truths vanish, leaving room for multiple interpretations and personalized opinions which are presented now, in writing. But how can one define something that has no clear conclusion? An element of this sort cannot have a finality, therefore, it is understood according to one’s personal background and experience. Modernist literature will always raise serious issues concerning the purpose and form of literature, questioning its former aspects. What are the reasons for writing a novel and what should a novel consist of? For example, the notion of “novel” becomes ambiguous in the mind of Virginia Woolf, who declared after writing “Mrs. Dalloway” that “I’m glad to be quit this time of writing a novel, and hope never to be accused of it again.” Next to Virginia Woolf which is believed to be one of the greatest modern authors, the faithful readers come across names like James Joyce...
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...ASSIGNMENT MODERNIST SHORT STORY Submitted By: Steffy Johnson 11/PELA/026 INTRODUCTION Modernist literature is the literary expression of the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism. Modernistic art and literature normally revolved around the idea of individualism, mistrust of institutions mainly government and religion, and the disbelief of any absolute truths. Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s. Modernist literature addressed to aesthetic problems and can be viewed largely in terms of its formal, stylistic and semantic movement away from Romanticism, examining subject matter that is traditionally mundane. It often features a marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorian literature. It attempted to move from the bonds of Realist literature and to introduce concepts such as disjointed timelines. Modernism as a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society. Furthermore, an early attention to the object as freestanding became in later Modernism a preoccupation with form. Modernist writers were more acutely conscious of the objectivity of their surroundings. The most prominent modernist authors are: T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, Knut Hamsun, Gertrude Stein, Mikhail Bulgakov, MarcelProust, John Steinbeck...
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...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
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...governed by God's will, and that each person and thing in this world had a specific use. 3 MODERNISM was a cultural movement which rebelled against Victorian colonization views. VICTORIANS saw the world as neatly divided between ‘civilized’ and ‘savage’ peoples. The civilized were those from industrialized nations, cash-based economies, Protestant Christian traditions, and patriarchal societies; the savage were those from agrarian or huntergatherer tribes, barter-based economies, pagan or totemistic traditions, and matriarchal (or at least unmanly societies). 4 MODERNISTS weighed humanism over nationalism and argued for cultural relativism. MODERNISTS emphasized the ways in which humans were part of and responsible to nature. MODERNISTS argued for multiple ways of looking at the world and blurred the Victorian dichotomies by presenting antiheroes and other uncategorizable characters. MODERNISTS challenged the idea...
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...Q3: Characterization in To the Lighthouse is presented in terms of multiple perspectives. Elaborate on this statement demonstrating the influence of this method of presenting on characterization in the novel and significance of the modernist style of writing which emphasizes the alternation between consciousnesses of character. To the Lighthouse is considered as one of Virginia Woolf most famous novels. The story deals with the Ramsay family experiences while staying at their home in Cornwall. In To the Lighthouse novel, the main concern is within Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts and emotions. The narrator in the novel introduces to us a very different world than the one we’re living in: the world inside somebody else’s head. Woolf chose to write this novel in a very strange and complex way using unfamiliar techniques. This unique technique of writing was achieved with the use of the multiple perspective and the stream of consciousness techniques. Each character in the novel is presented through multiple perspectives. Thus, the readers cannot decide on a single interpretation or agree on the same analysis for each character. Mrs. Ramsay. For example, is a charmingly good woman with good personality, yet she is concerned with the other characters’ lives and ends up interfering in them a lot. She also cares for everybody, considering her own thoughts and ignoring others’, and this is clear when she advises Lily to marry William Banke, an old friend of the Ramsay family. This shows...
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...Bergson came up with theories, which opposed the idea of time as an objective reality. According to them, time is never objective because it always depends on private experience of an individual. They claimed that time, like human consciousness, cannot be seen as linear, moving from one moment to the next, because time in human mind changes constatntly. It moves without any logic or reason from present to past and future. Simply, in our mind past, present and future can be experienced at the same moment. In his theory of duration, Henri Bergson explains that there are two times: private, or internal time, which is the real authentic time, and standard, public or clock time, which is, in fact, a mere social, artificial construct.[1] Modernist writers, such as James Joyce or Virginia Woolf were fascinated by the theories of time, which influenced greatly their works. In Mrs Dalloway, (1925), which may be considered 'the first important work of the literary period initiated by Ulysses'[2], Woolf is concerned with both, public and private time. In Mrs Dalloway, the public, or the clock time, is represented by the striking of Big Ben, the symbol of England and the precise time. The striking of the hours is repeated throughout the novel as a reminder of time, which restricts the lives of the characters, reminding them constantly of the time and their life passing, of their mortality. Clarsissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh are in their middle ages, period of lives, when they tend...
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...Modernism was a transition time period that introduced a new perspective on a bigger picture. In the late 19th century cultures began to change causing the era of modernism to arise. The bigger perspective was based solely upon government and the different view points people had. In "Chicago" by Carl Sanburg, the poem expresses how everything in life is so routine and expected. "They tell me you are wicked and I believe them... They tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes" (Sanburg 733). Everything seems so uniform and modernism is the complete opposite. Modernism breaks the rules that are set to express creativity and passion within work. The movement is inspired by the power of government that established such a routine, that now the people...
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...with war even in modern times. Wallace Stevens’ poem, “The Death of a Soldier” portrays that death as instant and dispassionate for the falling Soldier; he metaphorically compares it to the season of autumn because leaves falls from the tree branches with discomfiture. Just as the Soldier falls in battle field, the leaf in autumn falls swiftly without any memorials because nobody mourns. Wallace stated that “As in a season of autumn. The soldier falls. He does not become a three-day personage, imposing his separation, calling for pomp.” This declaration echoes that no expectation of memorial is mandatory when a Soldier dies during his patriotic act of fighting for his country instead they are quickly forgotten. His view as a modernist poet about the life and death of a soldier is metaphysical in meaning since he believes that death is not in any way a life event that is celebrated for or by any fallen Soldier. William Faulkner’s poem “Two Soldier” relatively regarded war as though inevitable gives the opportunity for one to show his dedication and patriotism towards his own country but when one dies fighting for his country, he is forgotten because war victims (Soldier(s) has no glory attach to death. He also depicted two brothers (Pete and the narrator) who loved each other so much that nothing will separate them but when the older brother Pete...
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...THE WASTE LAND In brief, The Waste Land is a 433-line modernist poem by T. S Eliot published in 1922. It has been called “one of the most important poems of the 20th century.” Despite the poem’s obscurity which it shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its elegiac but intimidating summoning up of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures has made the poem to be a familiar touchstone of modern literature. The poem has been written in five parts. The five parts of The Waste Land are titled “The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water”, and “What the Thunder Said”. The Waste Land is an allusive and complex poem. As such, it is subject to a variety of interpretations, and no two critics agree completely on its meaning. It may be interpreted on three levels: the person, the society, and the human race. The personal interpretation seeks to reveal Eliot's feelings and intentions in writing the poem. At the society level, a critic looks for the meaning of the poem in relation to the society for which it was written. Finally, the human level extends the societal level to include all human societies past, present, and future (Thompson, 1963). The question of literary value is complex. We must distinguish, first of all, between the importance of literature in our lives and the importance of any specific text. Literature defines and creates our world. In poems, plays, novels...
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...January 1923) was a well-known modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. When she was 19 Katherine left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom, where she became friends with modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. Her first published stories appeared in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls' High School magazine (the family returned to Wellington proper in 1898), in 1898 and 1899. In 1902 she became in love of a cellist, Arnold Trowell, although the feelings were largely unanswered. Mansfield herself was an accomplished cellist, having received lessons from Trowell's father. Mansfield wrote in her journals of feeling disturbed in New Zealand, and of how she had become disillusioned because of the repression of the Māori people. Maori characters are often portrayed in a sympathetic or positive light in her later stories, such as "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped”. In 1903 she moved to London, where she attended Queen's College along with her sisters. Mansfield recommenced playing the cello, an occupation that she believed she would take up professionally, but she also began contributing to the college newspaper with such dedication that she eventually became its editor. She met fellow writer Ida Baker (also known as Lesley Moore), a South African, at the college, and they became lifelong friends. Certainly, her writing meditates on themes and emotional...
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...if they need to conform to society's norms to fit in. However, other people feel as if they can express their individuality as they please and are very blatant about it through their actions. Someone could say Gertrude Stein was different with her writing. Everyone in her time conformed to how people thought literature should have been. Then, here came Gertrude Stein with her own way to write. Some people did not agree with her writing, but she did not let that hamper her. She continued to do it the way she wanted to. Gertrude is known to be influential and notable by her works, writing, and people that she in influenced. Gertrude...
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...Virginia Woolf was an essayist, novelist, publisher, critique, especially famous for her novels and feminist writings. She is considered to be one of the leading figures of modernist literature of the twentieth century. “The Russian Point of View” is Virginia Woolf’s most outstanding essay devoted to Russian literature. Within the essay, Woolf shares her point of view on three Russian writers: Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. Woolf opens her essay by foregrounding the problem of understanding Russian literature. Language is the largest and most obvious obstacle. While reading translation, we read a text that is fundamentally different from the original. The translators have to face lots of difficulties. They must be skilled enough to translate cultural aspects, humour and other delicate elements. They must know something about the country, its traditions. Woolf points out that the reader cannot blindly depend upon the work of translators. According to the Woolf's point of view, difficulties in understanding Russian literature appear not only due to the barrier of language, but because of cultural difference. Then the author speaks about Chekhov's works. Chekhov is recognized for his originality. On the one hand, he wrote about ordinary events and the relationship of people in small towns and villages. On the other hand, Chekhov’s unusual plots attract many readers. Chekhov’s plots generally lack resolution. He wanted his works to ask the reader questions, not to provide answers...
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...William Carlos Williams’s, Spring and All is very intriguing. I am not quite sure about what to make of this work as of yet, but so far, I like it a lot. Williams’s writing style is very refreshing. As a modernist poet, he seems to write exactly what he feels without fearing criticism from others. His work is ordered and very simplistic. He does not seem to be taken up with the use of long and complicated words like that of Pound or Eliot. His words are more short, beautiful and filled with simple and crisply described images. Williams from what I am observing seems to be inventing a new style of writing poetry. A style that does not consist of using elaborate words or references to history in order to make its point, but rather one that requires an individual using or having their imagination stimulated when reading his work. He places great emphasis on the imagination because he explains that in the imagination the author and the reader become one. He says in one of his proses that, “The imagination, intoxicated by prohibitions, rises to drunken heights to destroy the world. Let it rage, let it kill. The imagination is supreme. To it all our works forever, from the remotest part to the farthest future, have been, are and will be dedicated,” and I think that Williams’s in this quote is trying to explain that our imaginations are like our own personal historical databases and reference center so when we read a work we must not be bombarded with references to the past but rather...
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...post-structuralist theory, changed this relationship. With the passing of writing, the refinement amongst high and popular culture was no more extended reasonable, and the field of request moved from literary into Cultural Studies. In this work, Anthony Easthope contends this new train must locate a methodological agreement for its examination of authoritative and famous writings. Through a point by point feedback of contending speculations (British cultural studies, New Historicism, cultural materialism) he demonstrates...
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...How to Write a Compare/Contrast Essay Compare and contrast essays are the other big essay types in academic writing. These essays will follow a specific question and are fairly easy to complete. There are several ways to write this type of essay. The most important thing to remember is structure. Many wonderful essays fall victim to the woes of bad structure, making any ingenuity to fall by the wayside. Go over the rules on how to write a general essay, and then structure your compare/contrast essay in one of the following two formats: 1. Introduction 2. Your introduction — like the five-paragraph-essay, should open generally (with a quotation, anecdote, generalization), and lead into the thesis statement. 3. Topic 1 4. This next portion of your essay (which may consist of one paragraph or several) should cover only the first topic of the comparison and contrast. Compare/Contrast essays take two topics and illustrate how they are similar and dissimilar. Do not mention topic 2 in this first portion. 5. Topic 2 6. This next portion of your essay (which may also consist of one or more paragraphs) should cover the second of the two topics. Do not discuss Topic 1 in this section. Since you have already gone into great detail about it, you may allude to Topic 1 briefly; however, do not analyze Topic 1 in this section. This portion of the paper is to discuss Topic 2 in great detail. 7. Topics 1 and 2 Together 8. Now that you have analyzed both Topic 1 and Topic 2 independently...
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