Part I, Question 2

Modernism had its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America. The Modernist movement is evidentiated by experimentation, by exploring and externalizing one's inquietations and curiosity, and by the realization that knowledge is not a absolute thing. The main concern of the Modernist authors was society itself - they wanted to break free from the ideals and norms of the Victorian society imposed. Virginia Woolf, for example, a avidly engaged member of the Feminist Movement, said in her speech, Professions for Women (1931), that the first step that women should take to take a stand in society was to get rid of the lingering presence of the ghost called "The Angel in the House" (a reference to Coventry Patmore's poem that goes by the same name, published in 1854, in which he glorifies the personification of the tender, selfless, obedient, "perfect" woman) and only after that they would be free to be themselves. Another concern of the authors of this literary school was religion, specially the ideal of irrefutable truth that the institution carries with it. Taking Woolf as an example one more time, we can observe, in her various works, how she feels towards religion. She was accused of being anti-Semite (even though she was married to a Jewish man) because she would often describe her Jewish characters as being physically disgusting, along with stereotypical characteristics. We can also see atheist content in her works, which was a big deal at that time. In To The Lighthouse (1927), for example, the characters Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay question the existence of a god. One theme that is evident in the Modernist works that was one of the reasons the whole Movement came into existence is the World War I. with the outbreak of WWI, the authors took this as a opportunity to create more contemptuous works, reflecting the overwhelming sense of deception, molding, this way, the strongest characteristics of the Modernist Literature: the criticism towards society.

Part II

Poetry and Existence is a literary technique that consists in, basically, questioning one's own existence, discuss the essence of being. Said technique can be easily observed in Virginia Woolf's works. When we talk about Literature, everyone knows that Woolf is in a league of her own. Her innovative works are known to be experimental, using the technique of Stream of Consciousness and another psychological as well as emotional aspects to explore the elements of her stories. Woolf's narrative may seem uneventful and ordinary at first, but the banality of the events can be disrupted by a character's sudden wave of consciousness at any giving moment, sometimes ever so subtly. We can observe that, for example, in one of her short stories, Happiness. The story starts off with Stuart Elton, the main character of the narrative, having a moment of bliss, an avalanche of emotions, a feeling of true, euphoric happiness, just by the flick of a withe thread that was in his pants. He was so incredibly happy that not even Mrs. Sutton, the woman he was talking to when it happened, with her nonsense talk and envious ways, could take him out of that ecstasy. We can perceive that the story flows by a stream of consciousness, in which the character is taken by his own mental process, leading from one state of mind to another (his moment of bliss/his talk to Mrs. Sutton).

Part III, Question 3

Epiphany, by its definition, means a moment of awakening, a comprehension on the matter by sudden, insightful realization. A rebirth, if you will. Joyce, considered to be one of the main authors to put such aspect in evidence in his works, defines the moment of Epiphany as when the "soul of the commonest object (...) seems to us radiant. The object achieves it epiphany." (Stephen Hero, 1904)1. In Literature, a state of Epiphany is used as a tool to emphasize character growth or even to indicate plot development, given that Epiphany is not an exclusive aspect of characters (as in self-realization), but it can be also used to imply enlightenment on a determined situation. As it was said before, James Joyce is known to apply this literary technique, which was previously considered to be a term of religious nature (as in the appearance of / the contact with the divine), in his works. He intended to bring in this sense of renewal into everyday life through literature. The element of Epiphany would appear by the end of his stories, in its climax, to indicate that the character had the sudden illumination (s)he didn't have at the beginning of the story. We can identify the use of this technique in almost all of his works, such as Araby, first published in 1941 in a collection of short stories entitled Dubliners. Araby tells the story of a boy who falls in love with his sister's friend, but fails to buy her a gift from the Araby bazaar, which she can't go due religious reasons. Throughout the story, we can perceive a few events that take the character to his moment Epiphany: the first, platonic love of the teenager boy; his sexual awakening; and finally, the loss of innocence, all leading to the final moment of clarity. The crucial moment on the story that leads to the boy's Epiphany is when he finally arrives at the bazaar, and he sees that it is not that magical, exotic place he ha had in mind - "nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness", and the lady of one of the few open stalls didn't give him a fair treatment, so the illusion he had towards Araby is gone and all was left was him, standing in the dark. With that, he realized that, just like Araby, the love he had for Mangan's sister was nothing more than a illusion, driven by his own vanity.

extracted from http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/Epiphany.htm

References

<http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/Epiphany.htm> accessed in March 1st <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_literature> accessed in March 1st <http://faithandglobalization.yale.edu/node/966> accessed in March 2nd <http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~nelic/boletim8-9/wladimirgarcia.htm> accessed in March 2nd