AmLit2 - VinklerA Niki Kiegészített, Átdolgozott

American Literature 2
2016
Tth Nikolett
Modernism Introduction
-
Make it new! (Ezra Pound)

Ezra Pound: one of the most influential writers in American and European
culture
1910-1930
Modernity
-
late 19th cent.:Capitalism, free market; consumer society

industrialization
automobile industry, extreme growing in the number of cars distances
become smaller
liberal democracy: starts after the civil war
positive self-image of Western culture
secularism: a very religious culture (puritanism, evangelical movement
conservative movement) slowly turns into a secularized country >
decentralization
science/philosophy: huge trends in the thinking: rationalism, theres one
explanation to everything; emphasis on humanism
worldview of progress
3 narcissistic traumas
-
heliocentric cosmology (Copernicus) the Earth is revolving around the

Sun -> the Sun is the center
later turns out, that the Sun is not the center of the whole universe
Hubble: Solar system is just one of the billions of same systems
the humans are not the center of the world anymore
relativity theory of Einstein
- evolutionary theory (Darwin)
species evolve against Creation
Creationism: theory of Creation applied to the new information
evolution
USA: should evolution be taught in schools? as we go south, they
dont want it to be taught
human exceptionalism doesnt go well together with evolution
religious override of science- evolution is taught differently in some
schools
- psychoanalysis (Freud)
can be attributed to William James as well
the human mind, conceived as one whole, suddenly viewed as two
surface and the unconscious
unconscious: reveals itself through different symptoms
these traumas decentralize people
inexpressibility of the depth of humans
Eff ects on modernism
-
decentralization of human being

introduction of science as a new language, as a way to decode the
universe
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
universe: ultimately indescribable - the deeper you get the more

complicated it becomes
progress and technology
embrace of the NEW search for new verse forms, modes of expression
rejection of the OLD not rejection everything; new generation: rebellion
against the previous generation(s)
e.g.: Robert Frost sense of nostalgia
huge cities turning into metropolises e.g. NYC: skyscrapers built, and
demolished in 3 years
no romantic ruins
architectural ruin: no nostalgia, no romanticism, no romantic longing
building, developing and progress is extremely important, while everything
that is old should not be there
willingness to experiment
different ism-s; e.g. futurism, feminism, cubism, expressionism,
Dadaism, imagism, Vorticism, Constructivism, Bauhaus Manifestos
monolithic universe becomes fragmented
radical experiments
Modernism general features

-
dualism surface and depth

underneath the surface theres a hidden layer, which has to be
shown somehow
hidden, abstract structures
vertical structures: the images in the text are always
metaphorical
high modernism and radical modernism
poetry
radically different approaches result in different -ism-s
simultaneous canonization
relationship to Postmodernism: P-m. rejects high modernism,
embraces radical modernism
High Modernism
-
Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Frost

symbolic dualism
coherence (excerpt by Eliot) a poets mind always puts extremely
different things together in a new whole
indirection (excerpt by Auden) language can be used as a way of
symbol, you can describe things that are otherwise unsayable, metaphor
is a very basic formula
Eliots The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
o ontological uncertainty
o tries to explain transcendental transcendental and abstract issues
via metaphors
Radical Modernism
-
Rimbaud, the Imagists, Pound, Williams, Stein

direct presentation
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
anti-symbolist
values are immanent (they consist within limits) rather than transcendent
the surface has importance
metonymy as governing trope
the object is nothing else than the object
horizontal poetry (Imigism)
Modernist Poetry
Imagism - and what came before
-
precursors: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson (preciseness, shortness)
Imagism
-
School of Images
short-lived (1908-1917), but extremely influential
fundamental importance
united many important poets:
H.D., Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce,
Archibald McLeish, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, etc. (exam: Name 3
imagist poets!)
History
-
Poets Club (1908)

London
F.S. Flint, T.E. Hulme
against late Victorian poetic practices archaic themes; diction of
the Victorian poetry was too strict; poetic language was too
outloaded; rhyme used for rhymes sake; very few themes
discussing technical details
1909: Ezra Pound joins the movements
grand master of the age, very influential; dies in 1972 (last of the
Mohicans)
liked Chinese and Japanese poetry
in favor of fascism (was actually a Hitler supporter)
becomes the leader
1913
H.D, Imagiste
Anthologies:
Des Imagistes (1914)
Some Imagist Poets
after 1915: Pound leaves the movement (gets bored) > Amy Lowell
becomes the leader
introduces democratic practices ends as a movement after 1917
Principles (3+1)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Direct treatment
Economy of words
Free verse
Image: intellectual and emotional complex
Direct treatment
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
R. Adlington extract
not mimetic
no flourishing, just the point
defamiliarization
Pound: Paganinis, November 8;
William Carlos Williams: Young Sycamore presents a still image as a
moving object; dynamic poem, though presents a tree
Free Verse
-
Hulme: Lecture on Modern Poetry

not easy to use, you have to fit the innate rhythm that the image requires
Image: Intellectual and Emotional Complex

-
the precise point represented in the picture is linked to the complex

picture
image
like a Japanese haiku
verbal forms and visual forms how to put what you see into words
without being a description
how to put the essence of what he wants to say into as few words as
possible
Pounds words on the writing
Conclusion
image as center
poet as mediator of the familiar
defamiliarization: very inspiring
tremendous effect on 20th century poetry
early postmodernists: Olson, Creeley, Duncan
categorization
- nativist (those who didnt leave America - Frost) vs. international (Eliot
moved to GBR, British citizenship)
- popular (Frost seemingly simply, some say that he was a simple poet
for the simple people)
- elitist (Eliot poetry is an intellectual gain, you have to know 4-5
languages in order to understand poetry well)
- High (both Frost and Eliot) vs. Radical Modernists
Ezra Pound
- A Few Donts by an Imaginiste
A LIST OF DONTS for those beginning to write verses

pieces of advice
One good image is more valuable than an entire library of mediocre
descriptive text.
Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves
written a notable work.
3 rules by Mr. Flint
advice on language, rhythm and rhyme
no superfluous word, that does not reveal anything
do not retell verses that have been written, use own ideas
2016
Tth Nikolett
dont imagine poetry as easy and simple put effort in it

be influenced by great artists
use good ornament
learn candences in foreign language Saxon charms, Hebridean Folk Songs, verse
of Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe
use different verse forms, alliteration, rhymes, etc and take your time
dont be descriptive that is the job of a painter mainly
discover!
do not expect to be celebrated unless you achieved something
always resembles poets to musicians
harmony in poetry
Consider the definiteness of Dantes presentation, as compared with
Miltons rhetoric. Read as much of Wordsworth as does not seem too
unutterably dull.
go back to ancient poets Sappho, Catullus. etc, and Chaucer, Gautier
translation is a good training
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Life
New England poet

born in San Francisco urban surroundings BUT his poems are mostly set
in rural surroundings
Dathmouth College, Harvard didnt finish school
married Elinor Miriam White (1900)
constantly had to choose between poetry or normal jobs (financial
problems)
1912 1915: GBR (Glasgow, London) met Ezra Pound
- The Boys Will (1913): collection of poetry
1915: returns home Franconia, New Hampshire
growing success nationwide Poet Gloriet of the US
1961 Kennedy inaugural>The Gift Outright
personal tragedies (father died early, insane sister, 6 children but only 1
outlived Frost)
Poetry
Yankee pastoral
Humor, moralizing, ironic tone
image of Mr. Ordinary in every poem
America, New England as a setting
pictures from nature
democratic individualism
colloquial language
emotionally charged
poetry can easily be processed, easily readable and understandable; lyrical
popular poet, not an elitist
certain type of sadness is always present, along with wisdom general,
colloquial wisdoms
2016
Tth Nikolett
Poems:
Mending Wall
blank verse
central picture is a wall
rural picture
resistance, rules set up
wall serves as a barrier between the neighbours tradition, habit
segregation
boulders are everywhere in nature
2 types of people: builds walls that are unnecessary, and those that would
break them
scolds his neihgb. but mends the damage done by the hunters this way
he recreates the wall
there is need for walls elsewhere: to protect livestock
rules and laws are walls, justice is the process of wall mending
it is also a good excuse for him to interact with his neighb.
what seems antisocial can be sociable good fences make good neighbors
Mowing (1914)
=kaszls in Hungarian
sonnet: ABC ABD ECD GEH
sound of sense technique
first 8 lines: the sound of the scythe and then muse about the abstract
(heat and silence) or imaginary significance of the sound
last 6 lines: present an alternative interpretation, celebrating fact
idyllic picture
summer
scythe: symbol of death
He rejects the idea that the sound of the scythe it speaks of something
dreamlike or supernatural, concluding that reality of the work itself is
rewarding enough
both the repeated use of the term whisper and the swaying motion of
the meter in certain lines (such as Perhaps it was something/ Something
perhaps) provide a sense of the scythe moving back and forth as it cuts
the hay in the field.
uses the word whisper is significant because it personifies the scythe,
transforming it into a companion and working colleague for the
narrator rather than an inanimate farming tool
points out that truth and fact are far more significant than imaginative
fancies of gold and elves. In other words, his emphasis on reality the
lives and struggles of real people makes his poetry sweeter and
more effective than any traditional sonnet that narrates fairytale
lands
do we really need to analyze all poems?
The Road Not Taken (1916)
both are equally worn, neither of the roads is less traveled by
2016
Tth Nikolett
analogical landscape poem

- nature as allegory
- road as metaphor
Nietzshe
affirmation & subversion of the myth of autonomous selfhood
out-of-controlness
dilemma
feeling of regretting a choice later in life; no real possibility of choice, since
we dont know the outcome of our choice, the consequences of our
decisions
nexus of free will
remorse
Birches
nyrfk
one of his most anthologized works
inspired by another similar poem "Swinging on a Birch-tree" by American
poet Lucy Larcom and his own experience of swinging birch trees at his
childhood
blank verse, sound of sense
he act of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the hard
rationality or Truth of the adult world, if only for a moment
As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward heaven and a place
where his imagination can be free.
he also did this in his childhood
The narrator explains that climbing a birch is an opportunity to get away
from earth awhile / And then come back to it and begin over.
A swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the tree as he
climbs, but he is
able to reach beyond his normal life on the earth and reach for a higher
plane of existence.
regret: he can no longer find this peace of mind because he is an adult,
unable to leave his responsibilities
not even able to enjoy this view truth broke in
o forced to acknowledge the truth that they bend because of the
storm, not from a boy with all her matter of fact about the ice
storm
freedom of imagination, but he cannot avoid returning to the truth of the
world, to responsibilities
the poem moves between imagination and fact
Frost's agnostic side: where heaven is a fragile concept to him This
becomes clear when he says the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
balance, youth, spirituality, and natural world.
Out, out
title: from Machbeth, the is shocked to know the death of his wife (Out,
out-)
2016
Tth Nikolett
The buzz saw, although technically an inanimate object, is described as a

aware being "snarling" and "rattling" repeatedly, as well as "leaping" out
at the boy's hand in excitement.
innocence and passivity of the boy as Frost was forced to move back to
America due to war in Britain just a year before the poem was written a
critique to how warfare can force innocent, young boys to leave their
childhood behind, and ultimately be destroyed by circumstances created
by the 'responsible' adult
unpredictable, fragile life
shocking
shows how indifferent people are: And they, since they/Were not the one
dead, turned to their affairs
Dedication
at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, Frost intended to read

"Dedication," a poem he'd written for the occasion
the glare of sunlight reflecting off snow made it impossible and Frost
instead famously recited from memory his poem The Gift Outright.
reference to his razor-thin victory over Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
(The greatest vote a people ever cast, / So close yet sure to be abided
by.)
And it ends with a poignant hope that the new president would lead the
nation to the next Augustan age A golden age of poetry and power /
Of which this noondays the beginning hour.
patriotic poem
famous deeds, heroism
brings acknowledgement
no country can dominate the US
the Founding fathers are also mentioned
glory, homage to the country
hope-filled spirit of Camelot in Washington, D.C., said to characterize
Kennedys presidency during those early days
The gift outright
patriotic poem
sonnet, unusual with 16 lines
recited it at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20,
1961 instead of Dedication
Americas history as a nation from the time of the European colonists
Although the colonists owned the land, they could not draw a national
identity from it because they were still tied to England.
They eventually realized that they were denying their beliefs in freedom
and, by embracing the lessons of the land, were able to establish an
American identity.
2016
Tth Nikolett
In order to accept this gift of identity, the people had to commit many acts
of war and mark the land as their own, but the end result was a truly
American land.
discussion of the Revolutionary War and remorse that the battle over the
land caused so many deaths
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
one of the most influential poets of the 20th century

Nobel-prize winner (1948)
American or English? born in the US, moved to GBR, citizenship taken
Life
St. Louis, Missouri > prominent New England family (S. = Sterne (?) >
mothers maiden name)
Smith Academy, Harvard
Whitmanian tradition
1909-10: Sorbonne (Paris)
1911-14 > Harvard doctoral fellow (he finished it)
- Bertrand Russell
1914-15 > Oxford
- meets Pound
- 1915 marries Vivienne Haigh-Wood (she needs constant attention
various mental issues; separated in 1932, Vivienne was later placed in
an institution -> personal problems)
- stays in England
Most important works
1917 Prufrock and Other Observations

- Portrait of a Young Lady
- Rhapsody on a Windy Night
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
1922 The Waste Land

- Eliots writing, but Pound crossed out a lot of it
Poetry
elitist writes for the educated few, requires background info

wholism
impersonal theory: the poet is removed at distance, though the poet is a
narrator
objective correlative: you need a layer of objects, which later provides the
symbolism and evokes the emotions the poet wants to evoke
dissociation of sensibility: separation of thought and feelings
Prufrock
background: written in England, Eliot still in his 20-s

form: dramatic monologue- directed to the audience, impersonated I, the
we is the question
2016
Tth Nikolett
no clear definition of the audience Prufrock could be speaking to the

audience as well
epigraph taken from Dantes Divine Comedy: set in hell > program of the
poem
structure is also influenced by Dante, the Bible, Shakespeare, John Donne,
etc
conclusion: sonnet (Petrarchan), sestet; sonnet usually concludes in a
positive mode here: the poem ends in a pessimistic way
narration: stream of consciousness
On the surface, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" relays the thoughts
of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but
is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not - Wikipedia
themes
- love song
- alienation (miscommunication)
- growing old / mortality
- lost opportunities in life
- lack of spiritual progress
- unattained love
- weariness
- regret
- longing
- sexual frustration
intertextuality (Greek poetry, Shakespeare)
- I was not meant to be (Hamlet)
not a fully finished ending, hesitation, question
uses the object world as a link to the inwards
Oh, do not ask, What is it? overwhelming question
poem makes you want to dig deeper
audience is not evident another person or the reader?, or internal
monologue
going somewhere or not? or just playing through his mind
many believe that Prufrock is trying to tell a woman of his romantic
interest (images of a womans arm and clothing)
or: Prufrock is trying to express some deeper philosophical insight or
disillusionment with society, but fears rejection
meaningless existence?
aging and decay
It was considered pretty experimental at the time, and a lot of people
hated it
invites the listener to a journey
the city is probably London (fog, smoke, pools that stand in drains,
chimneys)
There will be time, there will be time; Do I dare? hesitation, nervous
his appearance is described: bald, thin arms and legs, his elegant clothes,
rich, modest
he is not that self-conscious
knows a lot of women, he is old
hesitation again: how should I begin, presume
2016
Tth Nikolett
many repetitions
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. a crab
I I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker- aging

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) he is growing old
hesitation, decay, blabla
I completely hate it.

The Waste Land 1922
lot of themes popped up in fiction at this time.

Eliot's finest
hard to process
compared to Ulysses
Pound as editor
He Do the Police in Different Voices (original title). Pound suggested
another title and crossed out one-third of the poem.
form > ironic quest romance
structure: a heap of broken images
- collage
- intertextuality
sources: Dante, Dickens, Frazer, Buddhism (thunder), Hinduism, Grail
legend (the fisher
king, wounded, infertile. his infertility is mirrored in the infertility of the
kingdom.)
- simultaneity
hailed instantly as a masterpiece
also met negative criticism
quest, romance, highly historical and ironic
interconnected episode... stimes follow each other without apparent
connection
technique of collage... broken images, fragments put together in a ctain
order
simultaneous of dream images that pop up in your consciousness, etc.
intertextuality: 37 works of art (reference)
5 parts
-
the burial of the dead

a game of chess
the fire sermon
death by water
what the thunder said
themes
-
birth, death, fertility, sterility

quest and futility of the quest
loss of hope, war
love gone away
dichotomies
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
hopelessness
imagery of the environment, wasteland, and also the poet Tiresias
Cumeaeon Sybil: omen, coming from mythology. modern version:
Madam Sosostris,
ezoteric
Lil: another female persona
also: figure of the female typist
a multitude of voices
later converted to christianism

Ash-Wednesday, etc.
became and English citizen, etc.
Eliot:
W.C. Williams (1883-1963)
William Carlos Williams

radical modernism and imagism
great affinity with painting
long career as a physician, general medicine
grandmother is English, father married a Puerto Rican woman
studied in Paris, also in a medical school in Leipzig, Germany, in
Pennsylvania as well
Ezra Pound was his friend
successful literary career
criticized
Style
observant, mimetic
also writes novels
details of what he sees
fresh and new form of poetry
strange
influenced by the visual arts
takes a picture and writes a poem inspired by the picture
radical modernism: as opposed to Eliot's symbolism, it favours the image, and

the
instance, the mediation of 1 complex image, condensed into 1 spatialtemporal moment

American and local values
late canonization
So Much Depends / The Red Wheelbarrow
brief, haiku like, free verse

focuses on the objective representation of objects
enjambment to slow the reader
it was simply titled "XXII"
2016
Tth Nikolett
This is Just to Say
like a note left on the kitchen table

metrically regular, so it has to be a poem this was said by the poet
himself
Landscape with the fall of Icarus
in response to the painting with the same title by Pieter Bruegel (he also
mentions the name of the painter in the poem)
the Greek tragedy of Icarus that flew too close to the Sun
not Icarus is in the center of the painting as we would expect, but a man
and a donkey, as he describes, Icarus can hardly be recognized, he is only
a splash in the water, but as the title suggests, the landscape is more
important that the fall of Ic.
The Great Figure
contrasting red-yellow
The poem slows down in the middle, as if to watch the fire truck pass.
We did not know that the truck was moving until now
the number is unnoticed in the heavy movement, surroundings, noises of
the truck
unheeded" means "neglected" or "ignored." No one is paying
attention to whatever it is that is moving (either the number or the
fire truck). At this point, we think it makes more sense for the
number to be "unheeded," because it is such a small part of the
truck. Few people would notice such a number, but everyone would
notice the truck
thus the figure is so great because he could notice it, otherwise it is
small and insignificant he cares for the details
Young Sycamore
appreciation of nature and his existence within it

fascination, finding beauty in nature
dynamic picture
but also some consider it a symbolist poem:
I could not find only tooooooo complicated summaries and analyses for
this one
By the Road to the Contagious Hospital
by the road: we can imagine the speaker travelling

looking at the landscape and describing it
contagious: sets a negative mood for the poem
he worked as a doctor: the poem can be written by personal experience
clouds: can be comforting and also suffocating
the environment is dead: muddy, wasteland, fallen, dry lifeless
dead flowers
spring approaches: life, means a change in state, renewal
2016
Tth Nikolett
birth: enter the new world naked, uncertain of all state of a newborn
the new plants, grass come back to life - awaken
the mood of the poem changes
Portrait of a Lady
comparing thighs to appletrees

frustration
writing a poem: thinking, get new thoughts, being distracted,
brainstorming, struggling and editing
Agh! expresses struggle
praising a womans beauty
Watteau + Fragonard: both French painters of baroque and rococo style
Woman Walking
about a beauty of a young women

described her appearance in small details
he has seen her before
Ive felt them (her hands) assumes an intimate relationship?
Portrait of a Woman in Bed
not clear who she is talking to the doctor?
It is the voice of the woman in bed that makes this poem, and she is a
tough character as she reveals herself, physically and otherwise. "I wont
work / and Ive got no cash. / What are you going to do/about it?" she
demands in the first few lines. She implies that she is a loose woman and
perhaps even comes on to the physician: "Lift the covers / if you want me .
. . ." and later, "Corsets / can go to the devil-- / and drawers along with
them-- / What do I care!"
The woman shifts subjects rapidly, between poverty and sexuality, hinting
that she might be pregnant again, writing off her two sons. At the end, she
delivers a proud challenge to the physician who has come to see her in the
abandoned house: "Try to help me / if you want trouble / or leave me
alone-- / that ends trouble. // The county physician / is a damned fool / and
you / can go to hell! // You could have closed the door / when you came
in; / do it when you go out. / Im tired."
Williams titled this work a portrait, but it might easily have been an
etching. The speaker limns her own image with a rapid-fire yet casual
spray of acid-tinged pronouncements, her pride and defiance never
wavering even though she appears to know that she is in tough straits. Her
name, Robitza, suggests possible ethnic or cultural gaps to go with the
socio-economic chasm between her and the doctor she taunts. By making
the poem a monologue rather than a dialogue, Williams may be suggesting
clues to his reactions: speechlessness, perhaps; maybe even a feeling that
2016
Tth Nikolett
he is overpowered; but certainly a measure of admiration and a willingness

to let someone down and out insist on keeping her dignity.
Danse Russe
personal thoughts
family is involved
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees the moon or dawn

what he does when he is alone in the night
the life he lives
outnumbered by women in the house: lonely
and it drives him a little crazy
emphasizes his isolation within his own household
describes the human nature to do things in private that in public would be
described as odd.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
son of a lawyer
educated at Harvard, New York Law School
spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance company
won the Purlitzer Prize for poetry
left NY to live at Hartford, where he remained for the rest of his life, wrote
poems there
he had a conflict with E. Hamingway Stevens broke his hand,
apparently from hitting Hemingway's jaw, and was repeatedly knocked to
the street by Hemingway.
suffered from stomach cancer
Poetry
first major publication was written at age 35

his poetry was highly influenced by the paintings of Paul Klee and Paul
Czanne
there are three distinguishable moods present in Stevens' long poems:
ecstasy, apathy, and reluctance between ecstasy and apathy
volume: Harmonium
meditative, philosophical
a poet of ideas
in Stevens's work "imagination" is not equivalent to consciousness nor
is "reality" equivalent to the world as it exists outside our minds
Reality is the product of the imagination as it shapes the world
The Man on the Dump
2016
Tth Nikolett
"Day creeps down. The moon is creeping up(1). time passing slowly,
dawn
"nightingale torture the ear, Pack the heart and scratch the mind (39-40).
the mood changes
ridiculing romanticism and symbolism. The attempts of humans to mimic

nature in art and freeze the cycle of life and death
Nothing is new, the freshness of night has been fresh a long time,
nothing is perfect. one grows to hate these things except on the dump
the usage of lists common, everyday objects contained on a dump, "The

wrapper on a can of pears/the cat in the paper bag, the corset, the box
giving the poem a simple natured feel.
To the bubbling of bassoons, realism triumphs. everything is shed and we

have lost the manufactured, Romantic associations. The moon comes up
as the moon / (all its images are in the dump) and you see / As a man
(not like an image of a man) / You see the moon rise in an empty sky.
Literally, the moons images (its reflection) are in the dump.
Simultaneously, its poetic metaphors are dead. Moon and man are
what they are, not a
Shelleyan metaphor.
NO IDEA ABOUT THIS ONE
Gubbinal
The term 'gubbinal' may derive from 'gubbin', referring here to someone
who takes the world to be ugly and the people sad
have it your way different perspectives
Hilda Doolittle H.D
1886-1961
modernist and feminist canon
all areas: prose, poetry, criticism, philosophy, film
expatriate, as opposed to Williams
England, Switzerland, Italy
avant-garde, imagist
born in Betlehem, Pennsylvania
moved to London
she was championed by Ezra Pound
the literary editor of the Egoist journal
married to Richard Aldington broke up
2016
Tth Nikolett
friends with Freud

bisexual
loneliness in her poetry
Oread
short poem
a Nymph was ordering up the sea
two images sea, forest
green color: forest and sea can also be green
imagist:
Rejecting the rhetorics of Late Romanticism and Victorianism

renewing language
extreme reduction
The Pool
haiku
again, the element of water/sea
bisexuality (I dont know how/why)
the poet may be asking if the other person feels alive
Reacting to the narrator's touch, the other person shudders like a fish that
has been caught and tagged.

The poet pulls near to her and asks: "Who are you?" and "Why have you
been labeled?" Covered by the net implies a lack of freedom.

The mention of the sea and net together evoke feelings of being trapped
under the conventions of society and the conflictedd thoughts that come
with the traditional roles women play

difficulty in understanding feelings
or:
Pool as Mirror
Doolittle's pool may be a mirror. The poet, who is bisexual, may be capturing her
inner self, "banded" to a gay-repressive society's idea of her legitimate being.
This interpretation increases the fearful tone; Doolittle is afraid to free herself.
Eurydice
written during the painful disintegration of her marriage to Richard

Aldington
The speaker, Eurydice, addresses Orpheus from the underworld; she is
filled with anger and resentment
feminist twist to the familiar myth, telling the woman's story through her
own voice
personal cry of rage and despair against an unfaithful husband
o who was once a poet, mentor
o who made her unhappy, rejected her
2016
Tth Nikolett
cries out against male oppression

She laments what she has lost: not, notably, him, but the very presence of
the living earth, listed in imagery of flowers and colors.
her blame is again directed at him in the fifth numbered section, where she
declares everything she has lost is due to his "arrogance" and
"ruthlessness."
repetitions, questions
rage and despair
Eurydice according to the book is the wife of Orpheus and through his song he
manages to win his wifes freedom from Hades when she dies and is sent there.
She could leave under one condition that he would not look at her until they both
left the underworld. However, he failed at keeping his promise. I believe the
author Hilda Doolittle is trying to allow the reader to see Eurydices side of the
story and see how she must suffer because of her husbands arrogance. Because
he cannot control looking back at Eurydice, she is sent back to the underworld
and is lost again. In the poem, Eurydice is explaining all of the things that
Orpheus has now taken from her again since she is sent back to Hades. She
explains, So you have swept me back, I who could have walked with the live
souls, about the earth, I who could have slept among the live flowers at last (p.
285, ln 1-5). She is heartbroken that she again must be away from the things she
loved in life. Orpheus has taken those things from her. She believes that she is
lost and forgotten and just when she is given a second chance, his arrogance and
ruthlessness has ruined her life. She could have been at peace but Orpheus took
her from the dead and then betrayed her. She ended up back in the underworld
without the things she yearned for in life. She was cut from flowers, the earth,
light, and human life. However, Eurydice would not give up her idea of life and
the things she had lost. She said, at least I have the flowers of myself, and my
thoughts, no god can take that; I have the fervor of myself for a presence and my
own spirit of light (p. 288, ln 124-128). She believed in making her own life
and light even in the darkness of the underworld. She believed that she had
more of both of these things in the underworld then Orpheus had in the real
world. She would not give up on her yearning for life.
believe that Hilda Doolittle wanted her poem to tell a story of a young women
betrayed by a man. She believed that the poem would represent her thoughts
and feelings that men are condemning, ruthless, and arrogant. This was shown
in Orpheus character in the poem. She gave a little hope to her female
character though showing that she could rise against the darkness and death.
She was sent back to the underworld but no god could take her thoughts,
feelings, and ideas of life, light, and nature. Doolittle showed power in her
female character making her fight back against her fate caused by a man. I was
inspired by Eurydices character in the poem and in the myth. Even in the old
Greek myth, women were being controlled by men. In the 20th century and
todays society, you can still see this fight between men and women. I agree
with the author in portraying Eurydice in a strong light. She controlled her own
afterlife and kept her thoughts about the beauty in her life before death. That
was an inspiring part of the story and I appreciated the character for it.
2016
Tth Nikolett
Modernist Prose
Overview
1. Background
2. General characteristics
3. WORKS:
- Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
- Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
- Djuna Barnes: Nightwood
- Faulkner: A Rose for Emily & The Sound and the Fury
Modernist Prose
start: 1920s
- jazz age (Fitzgerald) music, carpe diem mentality because of WWI
- movable feast (Hemingway) not a fix date
- lost generation (Gertrude Stein) car fixing; those who survived the
WWI had been traumatized
Background
industrialization huge wave, cities became industrial centers in the US,

e.g. Chicago, Detroit; faith in progress and science; paradigm to explain
everything about the world everything CAN be explained, if we dig deep
enough
popular culture publication of magazines and other cultural productions
quite easily (e.g. popular literature, science fiction magazines, detective
fiction, crime fiction, audiovisual revolution radio, movies)
technological modernization mass production
WWI strong counterforce to this positivist, linear progress in culture
information was very much available for the masses
war-novel, post-war novel
white-male modernism (e.g. Hemingway, Fitzgerald; reaction mainly to the
historical events of the era, war) vs. female and African-American
modernism (marginalized modernism; social reaction as well suffragette
movement, feminism)
Great American Epic

WCW, The Great American Novel (1923)
Stein, The Making of Americans (1925)
Dreiser, An American Tragedy (1925)
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Faulkners Yoknapatawpha saga
Dos Passos, U.S.A. sequence
twin roots
change in self-perception of US identity (1910s 1950s)
melting pot idea: envisions as a [bowl], in which different components
make up a new whole; salad bawl or pizza idea: different components
make up a new thing, but the components are still visible
2016
Tth Nikolett
General Characteristics
experimentalism form; relies on the European tradition of fragmented

narration
consciousness, sub/unconscious
disrupted chronology upset timescale, temporality of the narrative is
broken
changes in narration technique viewpoint characters, instead of
omniscient narrators, corrupted, unreliable narrators; the information is
subjective; were trapped in the narrators point of view; stream of
consciousness
different modes of aesthetic ordering: use of archetypes in an ironic way,
they are only schemes and stereotypes; variation of motives and symbols;
rhythm becomes prominent in prose; special form space is a metaphor of
the internal workings of the mind
blurring distinctions > not clear distinctions
- reality: question of the boundary between the real worls and the
subjective world
- fiction nonfiction
- fiction autobiography
roman a clef: important type of novel around this age, autobiography
written as fiction
taboo issues: explicit sexuality, horror WWI; war loses its characteristic as
something uplifting
Djuna Barnes
1892-1982
lesbian fiction
modernist
Nightwood
1936
explicit homosexuality between women
gothic prose style
unusual form of narrative
metafiction
praised by TS Eliot
Robin Vote, Nora Flood
Eu
Baron Felix Volkbein introduced to her by Dr Matthew OConnor
seeks Robins hand in marriage, to emulate the traditions in Eu nobility,
helps Robin to feel secure
Guido their son, disabled
Robin realizes that she does not wish to carry on this life moves to the
USA
romantic relationship with Nora F., move to Paris together
seek security in their relationship, cannot remain in peace because of
Robins personality
She feels driven by the conflicts of "love and anonymity", and spends her
nights away from home, having flings with strangers while Nora waits
nervously for her lover's return
2016
Tth Nikolett
Jenny Petherbridge widow steals R away from N

N turns to Oconnor, to recover from the loss of R
R and J fruitless
she continues to wander
they both return to the US
While camping in the woods, Nora discovers Robin kneeling before an altar
in an abandoned church.
In the ambiguous scene, Nora attempts to enter only to accidentally fall
unconscious.
Robin frolics on the floor with Nora's dog, mimicking its bestial actions,
before finally falling asleep
Robin:
serves as a source of fascination for the other characters

wanders, does not know what makes her happy
depression
like an androgynous creature
Felix:
pretends to be a baron
driven by desire to maintain the ideals of the old world
Nora:
salon keeper
second lover
unable to control Robin
continues to search for satisfaction after Robin leaves her
unable to settle down, as well
Matthew:
transsexual, pretends to be a doctor

native to SF
soldier in WWI
ironic cynicism, self-pity
based on Dan Mahoney
O'Connor also elevates the novel to metafiction, as he frequently discusses
the nature of narratives, acting as both the narrator and the pseudo-author
of the text
Jenny:
4 times a widow
lost the ability to know what she wants from life
steals happiness from others in order to get it for herself
depression
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
iconic figure of modernism

write, poet, art collector, mentor
moved to Paris
2016
Tth Nikolett
innovation, experimentation
she bought works from unknown artists (Picasso, Chagall, Dal) to
support them
meeting place for artists center of intellectual life
sensitive and receptive towards improvisation and experimentation
writers gave her their works in process, she evaluated them (Hemingway,
Fitzgerald, etc.)
A rose is a rose is a rose.
WORKS:
- Q.E.D. (1903; publ. after her death) autobiographical work, details
about her private life (lesbian)
- Three Life (1905-06): 3 womens stories, 3 independent stories
- The Making of Americans (1912)
- Tender Buttons (1914)
she survived WWII in Paris
Three Lives
1909
3 stories The Good Anna, Melanctha, The Gentle Lena
independent of each other
all set in a fictional town, Bridgepoint, In Baltimore
The Good Anna
Anna Federner
a servant of "solid lower middle-class south german stock
happy life as a housekeeper for miss Mathilda
her difficulties with unreliable under servants and "stray dogs and cats"
She loves her "regular dogs": Baby, an old, blind, terrier; "bad Peter," loud
and cowardly; and "the fluffy little Rags."
the undisputed authority in the household
five years with Miss Mathilda
four under servants: Lizzie, Molly, Katy, and Sallie
iron hand
Miss M. is also concerned because Anna is always giving away money, and
tries to protect her from her many poor friends
background
brother a baker
Miss Mary Wadsmith
given a green parrot
blabla
operated and dies
Melanctha
distinctions and blending of race, sex, gender, and female health
form of repetition to portray characters
bitter experience with love
daughter of a black father, mixed-race mother
goes on a quest for knowledge and power, as she is dissatisfied with her
role in the world
thirst for wisdom
2016
Tth Nikolett
self-discovery
thoughts of suicide
love affairs, sex
in despair
abandonment of her close friend, Rose
broken, ill
death from tubercolosis
The gentle Lena
servant girl
married to Herman Kreder, son of german immigrants
extraordinary passivity (both)
3 children, passive, distant
Neither Lena nor the baby survives her fourth pregnancy
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
novelist, short story writer, journalist

strong influence on the 20th century fiction
won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954
served in Italy in WWI
lived in Paris
went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive
plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining
life.
most public writer
- actively worked on writing his own mythology
- close relationship between life & works his life is explicitly put into
his works
his mother wanted to have a girl, she raised him as a girl for many years >
image of a macho; he wanted to be a Man
iceberg theory: when you see his public personality, you only see the top
of the iceberg
heavy drinker, depression
paranoia, hears voices, goes to shock therapy, but it didnt help
he committed suicide (just like his father)
he was forgotten and despised for many years, mostly by feminist critics
WORKS:
Novels:
-
The Sun Also Rises (1926)

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Short stories:
-
Indian Camp (1924)

Hills like White Elephants (1927)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936)
2016
Tth Nikolett
STYLE
economy of words (only as many words as absolutely possible),

understatement
Iceberg Theory > ellipsis (omission) (Death in the Afternoon)
blank: certain types of information are not present, because they are
left out on purpose and they have to be filled by the readers, not
because theyre not important
Hemingway writes like this, the reader has to find out a lot of things
MAJOR THEMES
himself; hes trying to reconstruct himself

war and loss he was a soldier, he also participated in the Spanish Civil
War
memory and remembering
love and death
THE SUN ALSO RISES (1926)
novel of character, rather than event; the novels trying to grasp post-war
Americans in Europe
protagonists:
Jake Barnes; due to a WWI injury hes impotent (not known if its
psychological or physical injury) purposelessness;
Lady Brett Ashley: sexually emancipated woman, love interest of many
characters in the novel dangerous to the shield of male characters
embodies the sexual freedom of the 1920s
bobbed hair
set in Pamplona
themes: drifting, impotence
the story:
Robert Cohn Jakes friend, American expatriate, not a veteran, rich,

Jewish writer
Frances Clyne: Roberts controlling gf
Jake: works as a journalist in Paris
Robert tries to convince him to go with him to South America refuses
go to a dance club: meet Lady Brett Ashley
o divorced, love of Jakes life
o free-spirited, independent woman
o selfish at times
o met during WWI, treated Jake with a wound
o no relationship because she wont give up on sex
Brett plans to marry Mike Campbell heavy drinking Scottish veteran
Brett leaves for San Sebastian in Spain easier for them to be apart
weeks later:
Bill Gorton, one of Jakes friends, war veteran, arrives in Paris -> makes
plans to leave for Spain, to Pamplona, where they run into Brett, with her
fianc
2016
Tth Nikolett
Bill and Jake travel to the Spanish countryside and check into a small, rural
inn. They spend five pleasant days fishing, drinking, and playing cards.
Eventually, Jake receives a letter from Mike. He writes that he and Brett will
be arriving in Pamplona shortly.
fiesta begins
bullfight Pedro Romeo Brett likes it, interested in the boy, spend the
night together by the help of Jake
Mike, Bill drunk
insults Cohn attacks mike and jake, knocks them out
When Jake returns to the hotel, he finds Cohn lying face down on his bed
and crying. Cohn begs Jakes forgiveness, and Jake reluctantly grants it.
The next day, Jake learns from Bill and Mike that the night before Cohn also
beat up Romero when he discovered the bullfighter with Brett; Cohn later
begged Romero to shake hands with him, but Romero refused.
Brett breaks up with Romero: that she would ruin him and his career. She
announces that she now wants to return to Mike. Jake books tickets for
them to leave Madrid. As they ride in a taxi through the Spanish capital,
Brett laments that she and Jake could have had a wonderful time together
omg, it was boring as hell

Extras
received mixed reviews

the characters are based on real people of Hemingway's circle, and the
action is based on real events
caf society: young American expatriates in Paris (An expatriate (often
shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing, as an
immigrant, in a country other than that of their citizenship.)
Spain was Hemingways fav European country

unhappy characters: Very often, their merrymaking is joyless and driven by
alcohol.
weakened masculinity
being insecure in manliness
destructive force of sexuality tears friendships apart, undermining honor,
love, etc
HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS (1927)
a conversation between lovers

about a woman who is about to have an abortion and the two going
separate ways then
dialogue of going under a procedure, which the man supports, the woman
has her doubts it is abortion, although it is never explicitly said
one of the very few instances in Hemingways work, where the male
character is the negative and the female character is the positive
no conclusion, stops at a point, where a decision is seemingly made, but
we dont know for sure
Setting:
2016
Tth Nikolett
set: at a train station to highlight the fact that the relationship between
the American man and the girl is at a crossroads
in the middle of a desolate valley, the station isnt a final destination but
merely a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid.
white hills and barren valley life vs. death, fertility, sterility
- ICEBERG theory: Hemingway stripps everything but the bare essentials from
his stories and novels, leaving readers to find out the meaning, the essentials on
their own
-
Iceberg: only the tip can be seen, a great mass of ice hides beneath the
surface
must interpret body language, dialogue,
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
celebrity of the Jazz Age & roaring twenties

fiction & autobiography intertwined (Zelda Sayre)
alcohol was the cause of his early death
went to Princeton, started to date with Zelda, daughter of a court judge
comes from a wealthy ? family
1st trip to Europe: 1921 (Paris) 1920: marries Zelda
no financial success, because he makes and also spends lot of money
Hollywood: 1927, screenplays, not successful
difficult relationship with Zelda, love and hatred, she produces an
autobiography
he believes she used parts of his new book in her work
nervous breakdowns of Zelda, she spends the end of her life in a mental
institution, dies in a fire
1940: he drinks himself to death
resurrection: 1945-1950
Works:
This Side of Paradise (1920)

The Beautiful and the Damned (1922)
The Great Gatsby (1924)
flapper: woman in the 1920s, independent, emancipated, morally
ambiguous character Daisy in this book, his wife in reality
Tender Is The Night (1932)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Plot:
Great American Novel Fitzgerald intended this to be the greatest

American novel ever
T.S. Eliot: In fact, it seems to me to be the first step American fiction has
taken since Henry James
intention of Fitzgerald:
- intricately patterned and consciously artistic novel
- Valley of Ashes > nod to Eliots Waste Land
2016
Tth Nikolett
Nich Carraway
- after 1922
- just moved from the Midwest to West Egg (fictional city), Long Island seeks
his fortune as a bond salesman
- visit his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom
- professional golfer, Jordan Baker
- they live privilidged lives, luxury, money, etc
- Nick: modest, grounded lifestyle
- When Nick returns home that evening, he notices his neighbor, Gatsby,
mysteriously standing in the dark and stretching his arms toward the water, and
a solitary green light across the Sound.
- Tom: adulterer
- His mistress: Myrtle Wilson middle class woman, husband runs a garage, gas
station, etc in a rundown area
- drunken afternoon together
- M. and Tom fighting over Daisy, rage, T breaks M-s nose
- Nick turns his attention to his neighbor, who hosts weekly parties for the rich
and fashionable
- invites Nick to his parties (strange, because he is an outsider)
- G. remains apart from his guests, observer, more like a participant
- As the party winds down, Gatsby takes Jordan aside to speak privately. Although
the reader isn't specifically told what they discuss, Jordan is greatly amazed by
what she's learned
- G and N become friends

- J and N begin to see each other on a regular basis
- On that same day, while having tea with Jordan Baker, Nick learns the amazing
story that Gatsby told her the night of his party. Gatsby, it appears, is in love with
Daisy Buchanan. They met years earlier when he was in the army but could not
be together because he did not yet have the means to support her. In the
intervening years, Gatsby made his fortune, all with the goal of winning Daisy
back. He bought his house so that he would be across the Sound from her and
hosted the elaborate parties in the hopes that she would notice.
2016
Tth Nikolett
- Gatsby asks Nick to invite Daisy to his little house where Gatsby will show up
unannounced
- G. is a hopeless romantic, every detail is perfect in the house

- first nervous, but then they loose up
- N feels as an outsider
- flashback here: the story of G.

- James Gatz, changed his name at 17
- Dan Cody his mentor
- he went 3 times around the continent
- left the past behind
- entrepreneur
Moving back to the present, we discover that Daisy and Tom will attend one of
Gatsby's parties. Tom, of course, spends his time chasing women, while Daisy
and Gatsby sneak over to Nick's yard for a moment's privacy while Nick,
accomplice in the affair, keeps guard. After the Buchanans leave, Gatsby tells
Nick of his secret desire: to recapture the past. Gatsby, the idealistic dreamer,
firmly believes the past can be recaptured in its entirety. Gatsby then goes on to
tell what it is about his past with Daisy that has made such an impact on him.
-their love progresses, meeting regularly

- T chases women at that time
- eating out together with N, G, D, T, J D does not hide her love for G, T
manages to realize whats going on
- T stops at the gas station of the husband of M, who is in despair because he got
to know that he cheats him w another man, her secret life wants to take her to
the West
- T loses his mistress and also his wife at the same time
- Plaza Hotel continue drinking

- T begins to badger G, about D
- The truth comes out
2016
Tth Nikolett
Gatsby wants Daisy to admit she's never loved Tom but that, instead, she has
always loved him. When Daisy is unable to do this, Gatsby declares that Daisy
is going to leave Tom. Tom, though, understands Daisy far better than Gatsby
does and knows she won't leave him: His wealth and power, matured
through generations of privilege, will triumph over Gatsby's newly
found wealth. In a gesture of authority, Tom orders Daisy and Gatsby to head
home in Gatsby's car. Tom, Nick, and Jordan follow.
- Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress, has been hit and killed by a passing car that
never bothered to stop, and it appears to have been Gatsby's car
- Nick Learns that D was driving the car, G will take all the blame
- N and Gs friendship ends
- Wilson kills G and then himself with a gun
- N have to make arrangements for the burial of G
- No one is concerned with Gs death
- Daisy and Tom mysteriously leave on a trip and all the people who so eagerly
attended his parties, drinking his liquor and eating his food, refuse to become
involved. Even Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby's business partner, refuses to publicly
mourn his friend's death. A telegram from Henry C. Gatz, Gatsby's father,
indicates he will be coming from Minnesota to bury his son
- Despite all his popularity during his lifetime, in his death, Gatsby is
completely forgotten.
- N goes back to the East, disgusted, disillusioned
- N refuses to shake hands with T You know what I think of you."
- Tom was the cause behind Gatsby's death. When Wilson came to his house, he
told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle. In Tom's mind, he had
helped justice along.
- Nick, disgusted by the carelessness and cruel nature of Tom, Daisy, and those
like them, leaves Tom, proud of his own integrity.
Characters:
- Jay Gatsby: ambiguous, very rich character
- Nick Carraway the story is told by his point of view, was once
Gatsbys neighbor
- Daisy Buchanan & Tom Buchanan D is the cousin of Nick, Tom is his
husband
- Jordan Baker professional golfer, love interest of Nick
- George Wilson & Myrtle Wilson
Structure
- 9 chapters
2016
Tth Nikolett
- Ch 5: midpoint, this is where they meet again in their new lives

- Ch 1-4: prelude to meeting, Ch 6-9: consequences
Narrative technique and style
- told by Nick Carraways point of view
- 3rd-party witness > partially involved
observer, moral center; always keeps his distance, but gives moral
advice still, he seems to be as morally ambiguous as the others are
unreliable narrator we know only his point of view,
judgements
- diffused information
central character (Gatsby) permeates text; he is the central character
and the central mystery as well
truth about Gatsby is very difficult to know, he always lies
about himself, he fuels the mystery about himself
- synesthesia is a recurring technique in the novel
Themes:
- time: frequent mention, time-words used more than 400 times >
Gatsbys struggle with time to get to Daisy
repetition of the past Daisy and Gatsby getting together, cycling
nature of time
time is a trap: time means the repetition of failures
clock on the mental piece, falls on the ground as if time stood still
- money and its position in society: money cant buy you a place in
society; the old New England society will never have you in their
circles, because not money what matters, but aristocracy
- love & illusion Gatsby can be read as a fairytale, but as a negative
fairytale
- American Dream: subversion and destruction of it he had this
dream in mind ever since his childhood, but it is an infantile fantasy of
how to succeed
retained his childlike quality
buys a house opposite Daisys house, green light at the end of the
docks > false hope
- funeral of Gatsby: apart from his father and Nick, no one is there,
including Daisy
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
one of the most innovative and important authors of the 20 th century

South; born in Mississippi, originally, he was Falkner put in the u to
make the army believe hes British/Canadian thus he was accepted to the
army
father: Colonel recurring character in his works
Yoknapatawpha country: imaginary setting for his works
deals with the pre- and the post-Civil War southern society nostalgia,
utopia
not very successful in the 1st part of his life struggling and drinking like
Fitzgerald
goes to Hollywood, on the verge of bankruptcy good money
1936: total collapse, thinks himself a failure
he lives to see his own literary resurrection 2 essays about him in the NY
Magazine
2016
Tth Nikolett
1950: literary Nobel price

immense success, teacher at the university
death: heart attack, drinking
Works
The Sound and the Fury (1929)

As I Lay Dying (1930)
Sanctuary (1931)
Light in August (1932)
Absalom! Absalom! (1936)
A Rose for Emily (1930)
A Rose for Emily
short story
set in Yoknapatawha, a fictional county
in the fictional city, Jefferson
allegorical title: a salute to express pity for the tragedy of a woman that
could not do anything about it
characters:
- 1st person PLURAL narrator
- Emily Grierson
o spinster, last Grierson, never communicates with the town
o Southern Belle beautiful, morally educated, stereotype of a
good Southern woman artist ?? I dont know who said that but
I think it is not true
o strange behavior, crazy, mysterious
o after her fathers death she becomes the onject of pity of the
townspeople
o the house shields her from the townspeople
o house: dusty, dark
o everybody rumors about her
o strange, distant, mysterious, bizarre behaviour
o dies from sickness
o necrophilia?
o desire to control others
- Homer Barron:
o Emilys love interest
o Yankee Northern origin, smiley, beloved by the workers
o also a stranger in town like E
o portrayed as homosexual or an eternal bachelor
o he disappears, killed? by E
-
Colonel Sartoris: father figure

the Negro - housekeeper
themes and interpretations

- new and old southern people
- detective story, not in a traditional sense, puzzle
- clash of societal expectations
Southern gothic
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
early 20th century

elements from gothic style, but not all
about human psychology extreme antisocial behaviors, illusions in
society, disguised realities or twisted minds
here: decay, old mansion
Time:
-
We learn about Emilys life through a series of flashbacks.

The story begins with a description of Emilys funeral and then moves into
the near-distant past
Narrator:
-
unnamed
the towns collective voice
mysterious
never find out how much they/he exactly knew about E
The Sound and the Fury
4th novel, immediate critical success

title from Shakespeares Macbeth (5th act)
central theme: breakdown of the Compson family
inception: with the picture of the little girls drawers and her brothers,
who didnt have the courage to climb the tree waiting to hear what she
saw
appendix written for it later, helps to understand the novel
Characters:
Candace (Caddy): not present personally, but represented through her

brothers relationship
Mrs. Compson
Quentin, Jason, Benjy
Miss Quentin
Dilsey
T.P., Versh, Luster
Narrative technique
interior monologue stream of consciousness

narrative indeterminacy
Setting
Jefferson, Missisippi
Compson family
former aristocrats, struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family

and their repu.
financial ruin
loses religious faith
many of them die tragically
2016
Tth Nikolett
lose the respect of the town of Jefferson
Structure
4 distinct sections
Ch. 1.: April 7th, 1928 (Good Saturday)
- Benjy: 33 years old, disabled (not clear what are its characteristics
hinted: developmental disability)
- style: no concept of time, we dont know where we are, disjointed
narrative style, frequent leaps in the chronological order, nonliterary
voice
- he is the shame for the family
- Caddy and Dilsey show care and true love for him
- italicization marks the flashbacks, and the thoughts from the past (diff
names of caretakers in diff times)
- he has 3 passions: fire, golf and his sister, Caddy
Problems arise when:
-
Caddy is banished: divorce from his husb., because of a child that is not
his
family sells the golf club to finance Qs education at Harvard
Luster: servant boy for him

In 1898 when their grandmother died, the four Compson children were
forced to play outside during the funeral. In order to see what was going
on inside, Caddy climbed a tree in the yard, and while looking inside,
her brothers looked up and noticed that her underwear was muddy.
This is Benjy's first memory, and he associates Caddy with trees
throughout the rest of his arc
change of name: from Maury to B.
B is castrated at the age of 15 bodily impotence reflects his mental
impotence attack on a girl
family is on the verge of extinction
impressionistic language
Ch.
-
2.: June 2nd, 1910 Quentin, older than Benjy

last day of Quentin, leading to his suicide by drowning
Hamlet-like figure, Harvard intellectual, tormented
obsessed with chivalry, strongly protective of women
not strictly linear narrative, best example on Faulkners narrative
o stream of consciousness in a Joyce-ian sense
deep longing for his sister, he loves her very much, wanting to protect
Caddy
o her purity and virginity
when C engages in sexual promiscuity horrified
o turns to his father
o he: virginity is invented by men and should not be taken
seriously.
o He also tells Quentin that time will heal all
spends all his time proving that his father is wrong
in the fall of 1909, Caddy becomes pregnant by a lover she is unable
to identify, perhaps Dalton Ames, whom Quentin confronts. The two
2016
Tth Nikolett
fight, with Quentin losing disgracefully and Caddy vowing, for

Quentin's sake, never to speak to Dalton again
Q says they have committed incest, but his father knows he is lying
feels to take responsibility for Cs sin
C marries Herbert Head finds out the pregnancy, sends her away
Q heartbreak over losing caddy
he meets a small Italian immigrant girl who speaks no English.
Significantly, he calls her "sister" and spends much of the day trying to
communicate with her, and to care for her by finding her home
Style:
- especially at the end Faulkner completely disregards any semblance of
grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead writing in a rambling series of
words, phrases, and sentences that have no separation to indicate where
one thought ends and another begins.
- This confusion is due to Quentin's severe depression and
deteriorating state of mind, and Quentin is therefore arguably an even
more unreliable narrator than his brother Benjy.
Ch. 3.: April 6th, 1928 Jason (Good Friday)

- Quentins bitter, cinical, straightforward younger brother, negative
character
- he hates everyone in his family
- he is the fav of the mother, Caroline
- his character is driven by greed, the desire for wealth, and revenge
against Caddy and Quentin (both the borther and Caddys daughter)
- blackmails Caddy into making him Miss Quentin's sole guardian, then
uses that role to steal the support payments that Caddy sends for her
daughter
- after their father dies, he supports everyone in the family financially
- lot of religious symbolism, in contrast with everything Jason represents
- leaves from work to find Miss Q run away by mischief
- Caroline: hypochondriac
Ch. 4.: April 8th, 1928 Dilsey, Jason (Easter Sunday)
- Dilsey: matriarch of the African-American family servants, has been
with the family for a very long time
- strength, faith in her, proud figure in the dying family
- 3rd person point of view
- about deeds of everyone in the family
- mistreated and abused but remains loyal
- takes her family and Benjy to the 'colored' church
- Luster is her grandson
- religious epiphany of Dilsey
- entrapment
- Benjy, flower, etc
lot of internal monologues taken to the extreme in the character of Benjy
2016
Tth Nikolett
circles of the narrative, the narrator is coming back to the same point
(Caddy)
Title:
- from Macbeth
-"tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, in this case Benjy, whose view of
the Compsons' story opens the novel. The idea can be extended also to Quentin
and Jason, whose narratives display their own varieties of idiocy. More to the
point, the novel recounts the decline and death of a traditional upper-class
Southern family, "the way to dusty death".
New Negro Renaissance

Introduction
definition
- Renaissance: rather inaccurate, not a return but rather a birth
history
- slave narrative, abolitionist movement: advocates education as
the key
- slavery was abolished by this time, but the situation was not equal
(voting, separation)
- line dividing whites and blacks
periods
- awakening: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B DuBois, James Weldon
Johnson, etc.
- Harlem Renaissance (20s and 30s): DuBois, Johnson, Alain Locke,
Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, etc.
- second generation: beyond Harlem (40s and 50s) Richard Wright,
Dorothy West, Anne Petry, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
poet laureate of black US

Harlem-born, went to Europe, then returned to Harlem
jazz & blues forms in poetry
themes from everyday life
language > Harlemese
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
- attempt to break with this duality
- self-definition
The Negro Speaks of Rivers

- blues-form
1st line: statement, 2nd line: longer repetition of the statement, 3 rd: having
the theme again in a different kind of state
- ancient history (Mesopotamia, Egypt) with Africa and America
extremes of identification, duality
- connecting Lincoln with the Mississippi (slave-holding states, racial
segregation)
-
2016
Tth Nikolett
written while he was 17 and on a train crossing the Mississippi River on

the way to visit his father in Mexico in 1920
I, Too
-
projects a future when afro-americans are part of the political life
Nella Larsen (1893-1963)
liminality Danish & West Indian

she was incomfortable in both worlds
2 novels and a few stories
- Quicksand, Passing
- Sanctuary
Guggenheim Fellowship
died forgotten, in poverty revival in the 1970s (African American, woman
author)
Passing (1929)
- set in Harlem, in NY
- the reunion of 2 childhood friends Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield
James Weldon Johnson Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
crossing the color line extremely dangerous
- Clare marries an openly racist, Southern man, John Bellew who
doesnt know Clare is of African American origin inspiration from her
own mixed racial origin
- Irene lives as an established member of the African American member
of Harlem she lives a full life; very self-conscious
- Clare is the one passing the line goes to a restroom where only whites
are allowed, she pretends to be white
- historical content: considerable color-line between blacks and
whites, unequality, but many claim recognition another racial group
different from the one they were believed to belong to was known as
"passing," even when it was based on a person's ancestry this is
what the title refers to
- passing-narrative, but can be also read as a romance story, ending in
death murder? nobody knows, but most of the people believe that
there are racial motives
- only way out from a bad situation like this is to accept yourself
Narrative:
- 3rd person, perspective of Irene, light-skinned black woman
Plot:
part 1
I receives a letter from C, causing her to recall the past ncounter she had
with her at the roof restaurant of the Drayton Hotel in Chicago
they grew up together, but lost touch
learns that she passes for white, her husband is rich, they live in Eu,
they have a daughter, he suspects nothing
she visits C with another friend, Gertrude
2016
Tth Nikolett
J makes racist views, making the women uneasy, still knowing nothing
(???? how)
they act white, to maintain Cs secret identity
Gertrude decide that Clare's situation is too dangerous for them to
continue associating with her
Irene receives a letter of apology from Clare but destroys it and goes on
with her life with her husband, Brian, and two sons.
part 2
re-encounter
new letter from C, ignores, C visits her
Irene serves on the committee for the "Negro Welfare League" (NWL) Clare
invites herself to their upcoming dance, despite Irene's advising against it
for fear that Jack will find out
attends the dance, continues to spend more time in Harlem
part 3
before Christmas
I begins to suspect that C has an affair with her husband, Brian
During a shopping trip with her visibly black friend Felise Freeland, Irene
encounters Jack, who becomes aware of herand by extension, Clare's
racial status.
Irene considers warning Clare about Jack's new-found knowledge but
decides against it, worried that the pair's divorce might encourage her
husband to leave her for Clare.
Clare accompanies Irene and Brian to a party hosted by Felise.
The gathering is interrupted by Jack, who accuses Clare of being a
"damned dirty nigger!"
Irene rushes to Clare, who is standing by an open window.
Clare falls out of the window from the top floor of the building
Whether she has fallen accidentally, was pushed by Irene or Bellew, or
committed suicide, is unclear.
Zola Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
multiple canonization
Alice Walker 1973
anthropologist & writer
Eatonville all black town in Florida, no duality in the population
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

- central figure: Janie Crawford
her rite of passage maturation as woman ripening from a vibrant, but
voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her
own destiny
setting: Florida, south, Eatonville
Pheoby Watson her bff she tells Janie's story on her behalf to
defend her from the gossip of the townspeople
she returns from a long period of absence
Her life has three major periods corresponding to her marriages
o
2016
Tth Nikolett
3 marriages, very diff. men
Nanny grandma was a slave, raped, mixed-race daughter, Leafy

o
o
o
Nanny escaped from her jealous mistress and found a good home
after the end of the American Civil War
Leafy was raped by her school teacher and became pregnant with
Janie.
Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy began to drink and stay out at
night. Eventually, she ran away, leaving her daughter Janie with
Nanny.
she is taken care by Nanny kissing w a boy (Johnny Taylor), N gets
scared, fears that she will become a mule to someone, wanting only
her body and labour
Logan Killicks
arranged marriage, older man, farmer
Janie is not interested in him
N wants J to get the stability she never had, opportunities, a man must
take care of her
Jaines idea: love must come from love (pear tree)
traditional gender roles Logan wants a helper in the farm, not a lover or
a partner
he thinks that Janie is ungrateful, Janie is unhappy
Nanny dies
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Jody (Joe) Starks

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
runs off with him

go to Eatonville
love, but also gender roles
land, general store for local residents
he becomes the mayor of the town
she is a trophy wife for him
forbids her from participating in the substantial social life that occurs on
the store's front porch.
treats her as his property, controlling her
later: teases her in public about being old (in her 30s)
she strikes back : gets hardly hit
he gets a fatal illness kidney disease - When Janie learns that he might
die, she goes to visit him. She tells him who she really is, and that he
never knew because he would not let her be free.
- after he dies: financially independent, gets offers from men, turns them
down
Tea Cake (Vergible Woods)
romantic reasons, much younger than Janie > different types of marriages
plays the guitar, gambler
treats her with kindness and respect
falls in love with him
2016
Tth Nikolett
sell the store head to Jacksonville to marry

planting and harvesting beans together
mutual jealousy , ups and downs
he whips Janie in order to demonstrate his possession of her
but Janie realizes she now has the marriage with love that she's always
wanted
The area is hit by the great Okeechobee hurricane.
Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while saving Janie from the dog and from
drowning, and he contracts the disease
he becomes increasingly jealous and unpredictable
He ultimately tries to shoot Janie with his pistol, but she shoots him with a
rifle in self-defense
She is charged with murder.
At the trial, Tea Cake's black male friends show up to oppose her, but a group of
local white women arrive to support Janie. The all-white jury acquits Janie, and
she gives Tea Cake a lavish funeral. Tea Cake's friends are apologetic and forgive
her, and they want her to remain in the Everglades. However, she decides to
return to Eatonville. As she expected, the residents are gossiping about her. The
story ends where it started, and Janie finishes telling her story to Pheoby.
abolishes male presence in her life, returns to Ethanville as a selfsustained woman

individualist
- black vernacular: regional dialect differences in speech is connected
to a lack of education, it was imposed on them by the white community
narrator in the story speaks in the black vernacular (Muh wife don't
know nothin' bout no speech-makin'. Ah never married her for nothin' lak
dat. She's uh woman and her place is in de home.")
- racism
- comments on the diversity mostly WITHIN the African American
community
divided African American community on many lines
internal racism within the AA community color-coding: lighter skin is
positive, darker skin is negative, even inside the community
Hurston was widely criticized for this, the author who becomes the voice
of the AA community doesnt show the community as unified
Themes
gender roles relationship bw men and women
marrying from love or to get security?
domestication of women
Richard Wright
1908-1960
controversial novels, poems, short stories
racial themes
Native Son
1940
2016
Tth Nikolett
social protest novel

Bigger Thomas 20y.o.
living in utter poverty
Chicago, 1930s
crimes, system behind them
Bigger's lawyer makes the case that there is no escape from this destiny
for his client or any other black American since they are the necessary
product of the society that formed them and told them since birth who
exactly they were supposed to be
"No American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger
Thomas living in his skull." - he wrote it once
Plot + some points
wakes up, huge rat that kills a skillet

belief: he has no control over his life
cannot aspire to anything other than low-wage labour
mother: pesters him to take up a job at a rich man: Mr. Dalton
Bigger: instead chooses to meet up with his friends to plan the robbery
of a white mans store
anger, fear, frustration
fear of confronting his fate
robbed many black-owned businesses, never attempted to rob a white
before
violently attacks one of his gang members to sabotage the robbery
takes the job as a chauffeur for the Daltons
Mr. Dalton
o
bigger landlord, where Biggers family lives, he owns lots of
apartments
o he effectively robs he poor black tenants, refusing them to rent
apartments
o effect: overpopulation in some areas, Chicagos South Side
o however, he donates money to black schools
o offers job to poor, timid black boys
o to get rid of his guilt
Mary Dalton
o his daughter
o frightens B for ignoring the taboos
o relationship bw b and w
o communist boyfriend, Jan
they force Bigger to take them to a restaurant to show their tolerance..
they order drinks, do not care about Biggers embarrassment get drunk,
all 3
drives around, M+J have sex on the backseat
M too drunk B takes her to her room, kisses her
Mrs Dalton blind
B gets terrified of her ghostlike presence
she does not know he is there
accidentally kills M tried to cover her face with a pillow, not to reveal
him, aand failed
tries to burn Marys body in the furnace they believed she
vanished
2016
Tth Nikolett
Marys murder gives Bigger a sense of power and identity he has never
known
Bessie: his GF
tries to collect money from the Daltons -> ransom letter -> signed as Red
(hatred for communism)
Maries bones are found in the furnace
Bigger flees with Bessie
rapes her
frightened that she will give him away, bludgeons her to death with a
brick after she falls asleep
massive manhunt for him
captured after a dramatic shootout
press, public
even though he is really guilty rumours, bad judgment, because he is
black
bad not only for him, but for the community: white mob use Biggers
crime as an excuse to terrorize the entire South Side
Jan visits him in jail - he terrified, angered, and shamed Bigger through
his violation of the social taboos that govern tense race relations
his friend: Boris A. Max to defend Bigger free of charge
he speaks to him as a human being
also an effect on Bigger: sees whites as individuals, and equal
Max tries to save Bigger from the death penalty, arguing that while his client
is responsible for his crime, it is vital to recognize that he is a product of his
environment. Part of the blame for Biggers crimes belongs to the fearful,
hopeless existence that he has experienced in a racist society since
birth. Max warns that there will be more men like Bigger if America does not
put an end to the vicious cycle of hatred and vengeance. I think it is a
comment made directly by the author, his ideas, thoughts
Bigger is sentenced to death
not a traditional hero, but Wright forces us to enter his mind and show
the devastating effects of social judgments and prejudice, the
conditions he was raised
Modern Drama
Origins
19 t h century
- prose and poetry accomplished

- drama relatively unimportant
- production of European dramatic works
centers
- Philadelphia
- NY (post-1825: Broadway)
boom in theatre-building from mid-19th century
focus on the visual part, not the plot (eye-candy)
2016
Tth Nikolett
20 t h century
Broadway: commercial productions

EXPERIMENTS: move away from Broadway > Little Theater movement
- also referring to the size of the theatres
- one-act pieces
- plays too marginal for Broadway
o European experimentalism, expressionism, avant-garde
o Yeats, Shaw, Ibsen, etc.
- varied content (ideological > Glaspells Trifles > feminism) important
social issues as topics
- formal innovation > e.g. employment of Greek forms in Mourning
Becomes Electra (ONeill)
- metatheatrical devices (Thornton Wilder) e.g. play within a play
THEATRES
- the birthplace of the New American Drama (William Archer)
- Little Theater (Chicago 1912-17)
o mostly staged European avant-garde and modernist drama
(Glaspell)
- Provincetown Players (Provincetown, MA then NY 1915)
o Susan Glaspell: Trifles (1916)
o Eugene ONeill: Beyond the Horizon (1920), The Emperor Jones
(1920) African American issues, social disadvantages
1. escape Broadway and commercial settings
2. express something new (form or content)
- e.g. psychoanalysis of Freud and Jung (Glaspells Suppressed Desires,
ONeills Mourning Becomes Electra)
- reflect on transgressive issues: feminism, homosexuality, sexual
taboos, etc.
3. characteristics
- domestic realism movement away from melodrama
- movement away from the outside to the inside
- emphasis on private/family
o conflicts within the family, usually dysfunctional family
o used as platform for national allegory e.g. Whos Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?: main characters are George and Martha
- restrictions in space usually only one house
o can be read in many ways, e.g. house as the human mind
Eugene ONeill (1888-1953)
playwright
realism
American drama can reach the level of the european works
dysfunctional family, recurring theme in his work
of Irish descent
father: actor but alcoholic, mother: morphine addict after Eugenes birth,
brother: alcoholic
- feel of guilt
Nobel Prize 1936
The Emperor Jones (1920), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), The Iceman
Cometh (1939, first performed in 1946), Long Days Journey into the Night
(wr. 1940)
2016
Tth Nikolett
Long days Journey into the Night
1940 > produced 1956

one of the finest American plays
received Pulitzer prize for this
semi-autobiographical, never intended for production
4 acts
Tyrone family > James, Mary, Jamie & Edmund (sons) like his family
Monte Cristo cottage
setting: living room
events take place during one day (August, 1912, 8.30-0.00)
- classical unity of drama
themes
- addiction to morphine, whiskey
- illness > younger brother: tuberculosis, no medication
- miserliness > father
- intra-family relationships
- trauma and pain
no happy endings, just like in modern dramas in usual
Plot
James 65 yo actor, reputation, only 1 role

Mary has just come back from a sanatory (addiction to morphine)
o decaying
o lies to her family of being cured
o lives in a fantasy world, insomnia, became addict after giving birth
o hates the house they live in
o was a pianist before
o loved her life before meeting James
Edmund 23, coughs very violently, bad health, nervous they suspect
that he has tubercolosis, his mother is nave, thinks he is just cold, the
other family members will try to hide the truth from her
o works at a newspaper
o worries only about the condition of his mother
constant fights in the family Mary vs james, James v Jamie
James: conspiration theories hears the boys laugh, assumes they laugh at
him, gets angry easily, not self confident, money in houses: eh
Jamie: 33, J attacks him for his lack of ambition and laziness, fail to
succeed in anything, bad influence to E, but that is not true
family originates from Ireland!
Doc Hardy doctor of E
Attack: Jamie only squanders loads of money on whores and liquor in town.
Jamie argues back that Tyrone squanders money on real estate speculation
J: resistant on spending money on good doctors, penny-pincher
spare bedroom: M used to satisfy her addiction there, maybe she is doing it
again
watering down fathers alcohol
Cathleen maid, chatty, flirts with E
Jamie and E both drinkers
E reveals his disease , M refuses to believe, wants only attention
2016
Tth Nikolett
afraid of the death of her son

Eugene Tyrone A son born before Edmund who died of measles at the age
of two
At midnight, Edmund comes home to find his father playing solitaire. While
the two argue and drink, they also have an intimate, tender conversation
E aspiration to become a great writer someday
quarrel
Mary lost in her dreams, comes down, pray
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
playwright
one of the decisive figures of this era
alcohol, drug addiction
later works (60s-70s): failing quality
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

o
o
films 20s: haste code Cat on: made into film; details changed
Pulitzer price for it
Blanche DuBois
in her 30s
no money
English teacher, pause because of her nerves
hates the new flat, Stanley is rough, they both dislike each
other
married very youndg, widowed distressed about it
Belle Reve her family home, lost it
travels to Laurel, Mississippi
her Sister- Stella, travels to leave with her
going to have a baby
Stanley Kowalski the husband of Stella
aggressive, ill-willed, hates B
worries that he is cheated out of inheritance, wonders what
happened to Belle Reve
Mitch Stanleys poker playing buddy
courteous, good mannered
like each other
STA strikes STE in rage, drunk
Eunice neighbour, refuge at him
apologize, goes back, Blanche is bewildered, because of that
behaviour and aggression
STE still loves STA
weeks pass STA and STE have problems
Stella that she wants to go away with him MITCH
TRUTH: Blanche confesses to Mitch that once she was married to a
young man, Allan Grey, whom she later discovered in a sexual
encounter with an older man. Grey later committed suicide when
Blanche told him she was disgusted with him. The story touches Mitch,
Plot:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
2016
Tth Nikolett
who tells Blanche that they need each other. It seems certain that
they will get married.
STA: Rumour of Blanche: was fired from her teaching job for having
sex with a student and that she lived at a hotel known for prostitutes
STE angry
Mitch hears the rumours, B confesses its true, gets rejected
attempts to rape her, she runs away
Stanley and Blanche are left alone in the apartment -> rapes her, but
it is only IMPLIED
B mental breakdown, mental hospital
STE cannot believe her about the rape
Mitch cries goes with her - "Whoever you are, I have always
depended upon the kindness of strangers."
B- fallen in the eyes of the society, bad drinking problem

southern belle, fading beauty
depends on male sexual admiration
Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
Death of a Salesman (1949),

The Crucible (1953): McCarthy-era, fear of communism - Salem witch
hunt
Pulitzer Price
Tony Award for best play
Comparison
Williams
Miller
South
North
senses,
emotions
private
intellect
female
male
confession
tribunal
social
Looman:
Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Death of a Salesman (1949)
New Orleans
memory play
episodic
American Dream
lyrical; psychological realism
self-deceit, thwarted dreams
2016
Characters:
Stanley Kowalski
Blanche DuBois
Mitch
Stella
Blanche raped by Stanley
physical and mental trauma
violent man, constantly hurting his
wife both mentally and physically
sexual encounter between the two
cultures
Tth Nikolett
Characters:
Willy Loman
Biff
Happy
Linda
The Woman
Howard
Charley
Bernard
no
action
in
the
present,
everything is about thinking about
the past
instantly became successful in the
US
Willy:
63, unsuccessful salesman we
dont
know
what
he
sells
(probably
himself),
unstable,
imagine events from the past, as
if they are real
unrealistic hopes about the future
childlike, relies others on support
> Willy also shows it (Will he?)
loman: Low Man, unable to climb
the social ladder - This perception
was dismissed by Miller, but
interesting
failure of the American dream
inability to become unattached
from each other
Happy: father in unsuccessful
repetition of the father
Linda:
passively supportive, docile
good knowledge of what is going
on
treated poorly, ignored
first to realize that Willy plans
suicide
Biff
older son, football star, potential
in high school, failed it after
seeing his father with another
woman, keeps it as a secret, this
ruins him
fathers dream for him: to be a
businessman
he wants to be a farmhand but
he wants to make his father
happy, leaves his own happiness
2016
Tth Nikolett
behind
Happy:
younger, shadow of Biff
almost ignored
restless lifestyle, womanizer
an assistant to the assistant buyer
at the local store, but is willing to
cheat a little in order to do so, by
taking bribes
tries to get attention: going to get
married
he tries often to keep his family's
perceptions of each other positive
or "happy" by defending each of
them
during
their
many
arguments
Linda looks down on him
he gives the family money
Charley
lends Willy money to keep up his
secret life
W treats him poorly
W is jealous of him, offered a job
but declines it
Bernard
Charleys son, worships Biff
successful
lawyer,
married,
children > the opposite of Ws
situation
Edward Albee (b. 1928)
playwright
Americanization of the theathre of the absurd
adopted at a very early age tension between his adopting family and
himself
openly homosexual addressed in many plays
Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1962 (film adaptation! Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor)

title: pun, the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from Walt Disney's
Three Little Pigs (1933) M and G sing this repeatedly in the play
o wolf future, afraid of death intellectualizes it
3 acts
setting: night end: sun rises, a new hope is beginning
breakdown of the marriage of a middle aged couple
characters:
- George and Martha
2016
Tth Nikolett
George: associate prof, at the college, Martha: daughter of the

president of the college
- Nick and Honey are invited to G&Ms house after a party
- Nick: biology prof
- (Marthas father) main authority figure, president
- (son) way to escape reality, to avoid the fact that theyre middle-aged
> son killed by Martha
games played during the night cruel and weird games
- peeling away layers of lies
- testing the boundaries of each others emotional capacity
- Borderline Personality Disorder.??
- theater of the absurd, Freudian psychology, and existentialism
- TotA irrational, bizarre characters, trapped in breakdowns of
communication, understand each other well, but not others
allegorical level: American dream
private level: therapy (Nick and Honey are ready to have children already)
all the characters change by the end no action, only conversation;
nothing really important happens, everything that happen, happen in the
language
reality and illusion
social expectations
PLOT:
Martha and George verbally abuse each other in front of Nick and Honey
The younger couple is first embarrassed and later enmeshed. They stay.
passive aggression is shown, abusing, attacking each other, humiliating
each other
G: gun Martha umbrella pops up
breaking a bottle
embarrassment
Honey goes to the toilet, vomits, too much drinks
Walpurgisnacht - name of an annual witches' meeting
N and G outside
N wife had a hysterical pregnancy tricking him to marry her,
false preg.
his past, boarding school one accidentally killed his mother by shooting
her, then his father while driving, got in asylum, never spoke again G
also wrote about it, the murder was intentional
M and N dance.
G attacks M
Get the Guests - tale of the Mousie too much brandy- story about
Honey
M seductively towards N they go up to fuck, but they cant, N is to drunk
book thrown to them
George comes up with a plan to tell Martha that their son has died
WTF IS GOING ON HERE??
Flores para los muertos reference to A Streetcar Named Desire
moon up or down?
Bringing up baby - game
o their son beautiful, talented
2016
Tth Nikolett
George informs Martha that their son was "killed late in the
afternoon...on a country road, with his learner's permit in his pocket"
o Martha screams, "You can't do that!" and collapses.
o It becomes clear to the guests that George and Martha's son is a
mutually agreed-upon fiction final game, they have been
playing it for years
o got killed, because Martha mentioned him to others instead of
keeping it as a secret (Rule one: NEVER talk about the..)
Nick and Honey leave
M suggest: new imaginary child, nooo acc to George, time for the game to
end
George singing: "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to Martha, whereupon she
replies, "I am, George...I am."
o
Postmodernism
no definition
- problematic
- diverging views on what makes PoMoPoMo
- pluralism seems to apply to different things
- no paradigm change > co-existence with modernity
- timeframe from the 1960s until today
PoMo: by its self-definition, allows for a non-hierarchal plurality
Cultural/historical background
traumas
- Holocaust
- Hiroshima & the fear of nuclear apocalypse
- Kennedy-assassination (same as 9/11 everyone knows where they
were and what they were doing at that time)
postindustrial society the reciprocate of what it was before
acknowledgement of diversity black movements, urge to define what
American is
mass culture cinema, media, etc.; infinite number to access information
today
- hierarchy of information
- high and low culture
- information is accessible to everyone
counterculture of the 60s
- opposition to the Vietnam war
Phenomena
existential insecurity
- modernism> epistemology = questions regarding knowledge
is there truth? what is it? > several other questions arising
like these
- PoMo> ontology = questions regarding being
question of reality still today in contemporary movies
(Matrix, Inception)
Basic concepts of postmodernism
2016
Tth Nikolett
all is relative and subjective

- no hierarchy between readings
rejection of master narratives
- no omniscient narrators
skepticism towards process
multiplicity & sense of fragmentation
reality as construct
- morality, language, self
receiver part of the message
PoMo literature: general characteristics
intertextuality
pastiche take several genres; from these, you assemble into on coherent
whole (e.g. Neil Gaimann: A Study in Emerald)
- irony
metafiction the text comments upon itself being a text (previously
American drama dealing with the fact that it is on stage)
fragmentedness the narrative is presented in a non-linear, non-logical
chronology; no conclusion
destabilization of the reader you dont know your reality
Postmodern prose characteristics
fragmented totality
- no metanarratives, no master narratives
center/periphery > decentralization
denial of representation
- simulacrum (Baudrillard)
emphasis on fictionality illusion that the narrative the readers presented
with is reality (Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair)
death of the author (Roland Barthes, Foucault) the author disappears
from the work
relationship to modernism > problematic
two views
1) break between two paradigms (e.g. Ihab Hassan)
2) no discontinuity (e.g. Linda Hutcheon)
father-son relationship
o high modernism > rejected (oedipal)
o radical modernism > embraced, accepted continuity
eclecticism
chaos as motif
- entropy
- Apocalypse
- dissolution of linearity
playfulness on contemporary things
questioning causality reasons are not deducible
end of the 20th century: postmodernism moves into the mainstream culture
(films, TV shows, etc.)
Sylvia Plath
1932-1963
2016
Tth Nikolett
poet, novelist, short-story writer

born in Boston, MA
German father, Austrian-American mother
loss of faith after her fathers death she was 8 then
Smith College, Newnham College
received acclaim as a poet and writer
married to Ted Hughes fellow poet
lived also in the UK
clinically depressed
committed suicide
confessional poetry
also won Purlitzer Prize (posthumous)
Themes:
imagery: the moon, blood, hospitals, fetuses, and skulls.

after 1960: surreal landscape in works, sense of imprisonment, looming
death
After Hughes left her, Plath produced, in less than two months, the forty
poems of rage, despair, love, and vengeance on which her reputation
mostly rests.
landscape poetry
Lady Lazarus
WWII Nazi Germany allusions and images

one of her Holocaust poems (Daddy, Marys song)
wants to kill herself several times (i have done it again)
dark, miserable, kind of creepy
laughing at death
title: Biblical character, Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
"Dying is an art" that she performs "exceptionally well." She seems to
believe she will reach a perfection through escaping her body.
Herr Doktor they continue to bring her back to life, when she wants to die
- Herr Enemy, Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Nazi lampshade, Jew Linen I think it refers to the brutal and inhuman acts
of Nazis (I heard a story of a female officer who made a lamp cover of the
skin of a jew person, but it might be an accidental parallel) also: horrific
atmosphere
cruel humans
failed attempts she also wanted to commit suicide many times until she
succeeded
first: car, drove off a bridge?
unwanted rebirth phoenix, ashes, fire
She accounts this connotation to the doctors in the poem, such as calling
the doctor Herr Doktor, because they continue to bring her back to life
when all she wants is to finally die
Charles Olson
1910-1970
second Generation poet
2016
Tth Nikolett
link between figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and
the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black
Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance.
grew up in Worchester, MA
father: mailman
spent summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which was to become the
focus of his writing
At high school he was a champion orator, winning a tour of Europe as a
prize
He studied literature and American studies, gaining a B.A and M.A at
Wesleyan University
taught at Clark University
PhD at Harvard
The Librarian
the landscape Gloucester
many brackets that contain info that is actually needed, so I dont know
what their roles are
Maximus
telling a story, first person singular
2 types of verses enjambament
Robert Duncan
poet
devotee of HD and western esoteric tradition
San Francisco Renessaince
o centered obviously in SF
o at the end of WWII
o collage of many diff communities that went there to seek out the
remnants of the bohemian cultrue
o hub of avant-garde
o abandoned the innovations of modernism
o not united, diff styles but: elegiac quality, longing for the lost world,
attempt to restore it, visions of nature and distant cultures
o Walt Whitmans poetry
New American Poetry
o 1945-60
o poetry anthology , Donald Allen
o avant-garde Am. poetry
o diff. poetic schools
Black Mountain College
avant-garde
impression: Pound, Williams, Lawrence
homosexual
Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow
meadow : represent a place that is metaphysically, spiritually, and
emotionally valuable for him
it is not clear who does the permission, or why is it needed
2016
Tth Nikolett
a made place
First beloved, Lady, Queen Under The Hill female titles
division between
o the artificial and the organic- made and not made
o the natural and cultural meadow, hall
o freedom and ownership not mine, mine
o youth, age
o mental, physical
o reality/dream
o landscape/architecture,
o light/shadow
time: "an hour before the sun's going down"
circularity
meadow: eternal, originary, unique
boundaries enable him to return there
daydreaming?
J.D Salinger
1919-2010
very private life
served in WWII
Catcher in the Rye (1951)
immediate success, lead him to public attention even unwanted

widely read, translated to almost every language in the world
considered controversial
originally for adult audience adolescents
adolescent alienation
angst
teenage rebellion
loss of innocence
complex issues such as: identity, belonging, loss, connection
realistic fiction
coming-of-age fiction
3 days
December, 1949
words like: stuff, crap, damn like a teenager would speak
if you want to know about you etc
1st Person Singular
kind of careless, ignorant narration
tells the story from a tuberculosis rest home
D.B
o brother- in Hollywood
o The Secret Goldfish books
Pency Prep(aratory) school, based on Salingers own exp.
Agerstown, Pennsylvania
The Title
2016
Tth Nikolett
he pictures himself as the sole guardian of thousands of children playing

an unspecified "game"in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to
catch the children if, in their abandon, they come close to falling off the brink;
to be, in effect, the "catcher in the rye"
MEANS: to save the children from losing their innocence, from the evils of
adulthood
PLOT
Holden Caulfield
o 16 years old, NYC
o kicked out of a prestigious boarding school (Pency Prep), because he
does not apply himself, poor work
o struggles with his own sexuality
o looks for true partners to speak to, lonely
o intellectual, wants challenges and happenings in his life
o etc
football game, the rival Saxon Hall won, he misses the game
he is the manager of the fencing team, loses equipment on the subway
cancellation
Christmas break begins at the following Wednesday
invitation goes to the home of his history teacher Mr SPENCER
he reads out his paper in hist. annoys him, he wrote a note to the teacher on
it
returns to the dorm quiet, students are at the game still
red hunting cap
Out of Africa disturbed in reading
Ackley
Stradlater
o roommate
o womanizer, just returned from a date
o JANE GALLAGHER Hs old friend
they fight S wins (because he fears that S does not apprec. Jane)
H catches a train to NYC
Edmont Hotel
perverts in the hotel struggles with his own sexuality
had opp to lose his virginity, but the timing never felt right
dancing with 3 women in their 30s, but disappointed: women cannot hold up a
conversation
visit to a nightclub prostitute Sunny visits his room
she seems about the same age as he
Holden becomes uncomfortable with the situation, and when he tells her all
he wants to do is talk, she becomes annoyed and leaves.
he pays her the right amount for her time, but she returns with her pimp
Maurice and demands more money
Sunny takes five dollars from Holden's wallet; Maurice punches Holden in the
stomach
2016
Tth Nikolett
nun they discuss R and Juliet together

Phoebe his 10 year old sister
he spots a small boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye",
which makes him feel less depressed.
Sally Hayes familiar date attend a play together iceskating then
drinking coke invites her to run away with him, declines, acts arrogant
Christmas Show, gets very drunk
He tries to find them but breaks Phoebe's record in the process, causing him
to almost cry. He feels that he may not be good enough, and the record was
the only thing he thought he had to offer to his sister.
Exhausted physically, mentally, and financially, Holden heads home to see
Phoebe.
Museum of Nat. history evolving, etc
Phoebe: the only person he can communicate with
Mr Antolini Admired Engl. teacher, offers him advice on life, a place to
sleep for the night
o wishing to die for a noble cause is the mark of the immature man,
while it is the mark of the mature man to aspire to live humbly for one
cause
o H regards him homosexual
o uncomfortable, embarassed
wandering the city, wonders if he is correct
Holden makes the decision that he will head out West and live as a deaf-mute
wants P to be happy and safe, most important to him
ZOO
winds up the story: getting sick, in an institution, will attend another
institution, no, he misses Stradlater and Ackley, surprisingly, and Maurice, the
pimp who punched him
He warns the reader that telling others about their own experiences will lead
them to miss the people who shared them.
Flannery OConnor
1925-1964
novelist, short story writer, essayist
women
Southern Gothic style
grotesque characters
Roman Chatolic Faith
morality and ethics
Christian realism
A Good Man is Hard to Find

The Artificial books and Other Tales
1953
Plot:
Bailey
a family trip to Georgia, to Florida for a vacation
his mother (referred to as "the grandmother") wants him to go to
Tennessee, to her relatives
2016
Tth Nikolett
John Wesley, June Star his children, 7-8

an escaped murderer called The Misfit last seen heading to Florida
Pitty Sing the cat of granny
er best clothes and an ostentatious hat; she says that if she should die in
an accident along the road, she wants people to see her corpse and know
she was refined and "a lady." :DDDD
talks continuously during the trip, games, jokes, stories
recalls her youth in the south everyth. was better back then (this is why
the title is a good man is hard to find)
the family stops at an old diner outside of Timothy for lunch, she talks to
the owner, Red Sammy, about The Misfit
After the family returns to the road, the grandmother begins telling the
children a story about a mysterious house nearby with a secret panel, a
house she remembers from her childhood. This catches the children's
attention and they want to visit the house, so they harass their father until
he reluctantly agrees to allow them take just one side trip
the house was in T, not in Georgia
that shocking realization makes her involuntarily kick her feet which
frightens the cat, causing it to spring from its hidden basket onto
Bailey's neck.
Bailey then loses control of the car and it flips over, ending up in a
ditch below the road
the children and the mother are injured
The family waits for help.
When she notices a car coming down the road, the grandmother flags it
down until it stops.
Three men come out and begin to talk to her. All three have guns. The
grandmother says that she recognizes the leader, the man in glasses, as
The Misfit
he Misfit has his two men take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods
the grandmother speaks to The Misfit who says he's been falsely
imprisoned for killing his father, when his cause of death was actually
a flu epidemic.
he did not remember what crime he had committed.
2 shots are heard
they take the mother, the baby and June
Grandma: pleads for her own life
Misfit: talks about Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead, doubts about it
becomes agitated, angry
life has no pleasure but meanness
The Misfit is going to cry, so she reaches out and touches his shoulder
tenderly, saying "Youre one of my own children!" His reaction is to jump
away "as if a snake had bitten him" and he kills her with three shots.
the whole family is killed
Misfit cleans his glasses
Bobby Lee, for claiming that the family's murder was "some fun!" "Shut up,
Bobby Lee," he retorts. "It's no real pleasure in life
killing without remorse even children
2016
Tth Nikolett
Grandmothers touch
o
transformation in the gr.

1: she was more concerned about looking like a respectable
person than being one. This is shown by her selfish desire to
go to Tennessee instead of Florida and, more importantly, by
her attempts to save her own life, even as her family
continued to die around her
2: in the end, she realizes she has not led a good life and
reaches out to touch her killer, the Misfit, in a final act of
grace and charity. newly found redemption
OR: this happened also in order to save her life
John Barth
1930 now: 86
postmodern, metafictional fiction
controversial topics: suicide, abortion
The End of the Road
1958
straightforward, realistic tale
philosophical novel
psychodrama
existentialist, nihilist
Jacob Horner suffers from a nihilistic paralysis

he calls it cosmopsis -> an inability to choose a course of action from all
possibilities
o retreats from emotion and human relations
o he keeps his sexual relations impersonal
nameless Doctor (African-American)
teaching job at a local teachers college
Joe Morgan super rational
Rennie JMs wife
love triangle, tragic result
sexuality, racial segregation, abortion
narration: first person, confession
story: most of it is at the campus
Plot:
abandoned his studies

stuck in Pennsylvania Railroad Station, Baltimore
after his 28th birthday
Remobilization Farm
therapy: teaching at Wicomico State Teachers College
befriends Joe Morgan, his wife, Rennie
marriage concept of him: the parties involved be able to take each other
seriously
2016
Tth Nikolett
beats his wife

Peggy Rankin: seduces her by striking her, as an imitation of Joe
Rennie teaches him horseback riding
talk about many things
encourages a resistant Rennie to spy on her husband
She is convinced that "real people" like Joe are not "any different when
they are alone"
sees of Joe while spying disorients her and her vision of himhe
masturbates, picks his nose, makes faces, and sputters gibberish syllables
to himself
Jake + Rennie adultery
Joe discovers it insists they maintain their affair!! - > to discover WHY
SHE IS UNFAITHFUL (seriously)
R is pregnant, not sure whose
Rennie insists on having an abortion, or she will commit suicide
Under an assumed name, Jake hunts for an abortionist
when Peggy refuses to help him find one, he strikes her
Unable to find a physician who will agree to the procedure, Jake turns to
the Doctor
Rennie dies from the botched abortion.
irony, black comedy

taboo topics
avoids describing his surroundings
naturalism witnessing abortion, in chapter 12
Thomas Pynchon
1937
79 years old
novelist
history, music, science, mathematics
National Book Award for Fiction
The Crying of Lot 49

1965
shortest of his novels
Oedipa Maas, California housewife (Kinneret)
husband: Mucho
unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution
companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Tristero
postmodern fiction
PLOT
she becomes entangled in a convoluted historical mystery
her ex-lover (Pierce Inverarity) dies and names her as the co-executor of
his estate
vehicle of Oedipa's adventure is a set of stamps that may have been
used by a secret underground postal delivery service, the Trystero
travels to San Narciso (Pierce's hometown)
2016
Tth Nikolett
she meets the lawyer, Metzger, assigned to help her

she spontaneously begins an affair with him
they sort through Pierces financial affairs extensive stamp collection
Mike Fallopian -> member right-wing fanatical organization called the Peter Pinguid
Society
bathroom of the bar, Oedipa sees a symbol that she later learns is supposed to represent a
muted post horn
the symbol are the acronym W.A.S.T.E. and the name "Kirby"
trip to Fangoso Lagoons P owned land there
Manny di Presso lawyer, who is suing the Inverarity estate on behalf of his client
client: recovered and sold human bones to Inverarity but did not receive proper payment
Pierce wanted the bones to make charcoal for cigarette filters
A member of The Paranoids, a hippie band that follows Oedipa around, points out that
Manny's story is similar to that of the 17th-century play The Courier's Tragedy.
Oedipa and Metzger decide to see a production of the play nearby. The play mentions the
word "Tristero," a word that fascinates Oedipa
She goes backstage to speak with the director, Randolph Driblette, who tells her to stop
overanalyzing the play.
(bocsi, meguntam, ez tl bonyolult)
The book ends with Oedipa attending an auction, waiting for bidding to begin on
a set of rare postage stamps that she believes representatives of Trystero are
trying to acquire. (Auction items are called "lots"; a lot is "cried" when the
auctioneer is taking bids on it; the stamps are "Lot 49".)
According to the narrative that Oedipa pieces together during her travels around
Southern California, the Trystero was defeated by Thurn und Taxisa real
postal systemin the 18th century but Trystero went underground and continued
to exist into the present (the 1960s).
Its mailboxes are disguised as regular waste bins, often displaying its slogan,
W.A.S.T.E. (an acronym for "We Await Silent Tristero's Empire")
-
symbol: a muted post horn

seas it first in a bathroom
its existence is revealed bit by bit, but there is always the possibility that
the Trystero does not exist
Oedipa: paranoia, believe or not?
The Trystero may be a conspiracy

a practical joke
it may simply be that Oedipa is hallucinating
no actual proof, can overreact or misinterpret things
- meets a wide range of eccentric characters

-
finds herself alone and alienated in the society

lost the life she lead before
Dr. Hilarius
2016
Tth Nikolett
Oedipa's psychiatrist, who prescribes LSD to Oedipa as well as other

housewives (she does not take it)
He goes crazy toward the end of the story, admitting to being a former
Nazi doctor at Buchenwald concentration camp, where he worked in a
program on experimentally induced insanity to render Jews permanently
catatonic.
He claims to use facial expressions as a weapon and boasts of a face he
once made that drove a subject insane.
He holes up in his office but is taken away peacefully by the police after
Oedipa disarms him.
Some info:
extremely postmodern text

parody of postmodernism?
silly character names
extreme sense of chaos (YES)
many cultures in it
like a world on drugs(drug culture)
conspiracy theories
Oedipa hallucinates so often that she seems to be constantly high, and
ultimately, this brings her nothing but a sense of chaotic alienation
Paul Auster
1947author, director
absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction
search for identity and personal meaning
Jewish parents, Polish descent
City of Glass
The New York Trilogy

1985
(Ghosts, The Locked Room)
mystery novel
postmodern fiction
meta-detective fiction, anti-detective fiction
uses elements of the detective novel but also creates a new form that
links the traditional features of the genre with the experimental,
metafictional and ironic features of postmodernism
first story: City of Glass
private investigator who descends into madness as he becomes embroiled
in a case
explores layers of identity
Daniel Quinn protagonist
intertextualism: Cervantes Don Quixote
his own name in the book as a character
As a result of a strange phone call in the middle of the night, Quinn, a writer of
detective stories, becomes enmeshed in a case more puzzling than any he might
2016
Tth Nikolett
have written. Written with hallucinatory clarity, City of Glass combines dark
humor with Hitchcock-like suspense.
Alice Walker
1944 novelist, short story writer, poet, activist
The Color Purple
1982
epistolary novel
won Pulitzer Price for fiction
National Book Award for Fiction
rural Georgia
African-American women in the southern US
numerous issues: low position in the society, culture
brutal incest
lesbian relationships
abusive husbands
Plot:
Celie: protagonist, poor, uneducated, 14 y.o. afroam. girl

Celie starts writing letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and
rapes her.
Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once.
Celie gave birth to a girl, whom her father stole and presumably killed in
the woods.
Celie has a second child, a boy, whom her father also steals.
Celies mother becomes seriously ill and dies.
Alphonso brings home a new wife but continues to abuse Celie.
Nettie: pretty, bright younger sister
Mr. ____ wants to marry Nettie
lover: Shug Avery lounge singer, photo of her: fascinates Celie
Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, and instead offers Mr. ______ the
ugly Celie as a bride.
Mr. ______ eventually accepts the offer, and takes Celie into a difficult and
joyless married life.
Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celies house.
blabla
Harpo
Sofia
Shug Avery befriends her, sexually attracted to her, kind to Celie, defends her
Miss Millie mayors wife, asks her to be her maid, says no, slaps her for her
disobeydiance, Celie knocks the mayor back, sent to jail, freed, sentenced to 12
years as the mayors maid
Grady Shugs new husband, but Shug has sex frequently with Celie
TRUTH:
2016
Tth Nikolett
mysterious letters arrive to Mr ____, they are from Nettie, she sent them to
Celie
wants to kill Mr xy
Nettie friends with a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine -> 2 adopted
children: Olivia, Adam
they are actually Celies biological children
Nettie also learns that Alphonso is really only Nettie and Celies stepfather, not their real father
Alphonso told Celie and Nettie he was their real father because he wanted
to inherit the house and property that was once their mothers.
Celie begins to lose faith in God

she is released, 6 months earlier
cursing Mr. ______ for his years of abuse
Shug announces that she and Celie are moving to Tennessee, Squek goes with
them sews pants there
- female circumcision is also shown
- Alphonso dies, the house and land are now hers, so she moves there
Celie and Mr. ______ reconcile and begin to genuinely enjoy each others
company. Now independent financially, spiritually, and emotionally, Celie is no
longer bothered by Shugs passing flings with younger men. Sofia remarries
Harpo and now works in Celies clothing store. Nettie finally returns to America
with Samuel and the children. Emotionally drained but exhilarated by the reunion
with her sister, Celie notes that though she and Nettie are now old, she has never
in her life felt younger.
Themes:
sex, racism, oppression
disruption of traditional gender roles
sisterhood
womens rights
Tony Morrison
1931women
novelist, editor
Professor Emeritus at Princeton University
vivid dialogue, epic themes, richly detailed characters
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993
Beloved
1987
Pulitzer price for it
Set after the American Civil War (18611865)
2016
Tth Nikolett
it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Margaret Garner,

who escaped slavery in Kentucky late January 1856 by fleeing to Ohio, a
free state
Sethe: also a slave, runs to Ohio
after 28 days of freedom, posse arrives to retrieve her and her children
under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right
to pursue slaves across state borders
Sethe kills her two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be
recaptured and taken back to Sweet Home, The Kentucky plantation,
from she fled
a ghost haunts their Cincinetti home believed to be the ghost of Sethe's
daughter
haunting: objects thrown to the ground, etc
Denver
o Sethe's youngest daughter
o shy, friendless, and housebound
Howard, Buglar -> both have run away at 13
Baby Suggs, the mother of Sethe's husband Halle, dies in her bed soon
afterward
Paul D slave, too from Sweet Home, forces out the spirit, <3 Sethe
on the way back, they encounter a young woman sitting in front of the
house, calling herself Beloved Sethe is charmed by her
Paul D is forced out by a supernatural presence, concerned by it
Beloved: influence over Sethe
(How she killed her daughter, running a saw along her neck - WHYYYYYYY)
Paul D leaves , shocked
Without him, sense of reality and time moving forward disappears.
Beloved: is the two-year-old daughter she murdered, whose
tombstone reads only "Beloved"
Sethe begins to spend carelessly and spoil Beloved out of guilt. Beloved
becomes angry and more demanding, throwing tantrums when she doesn't
get her way.
Beloved's presence consumes Sethe's life to the point where she
becomes depleted and sacrifices her own need for eating, while
Beloved grows bigger and bigger.
Denver - > help for the black community Beloved -> exorcised
Sethe: re-memory
Beloved -> disappears
The novel resolves with Denver becoming a working member of the
community and Paul D returning to Sethe and pledging his love.
Themes:
mother-daughter relationship
psychological impact of slavery
fragmentation of self, loss of true identity can be resolved by the
acceptance of the past
Beloved: serves to remind these characters of their past, causing the
reintegration of their selves
2016
Tth Nikolett
Maxine Hong Kingston
1940
Chinese
experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States
feminist movement
The Woman Warrior
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

1976
memoir
non-creative fiction
5 chapters
autobiography and old folk tales of China
experiences of Chinese-Americans living in the U.S in the shadow of
the Chinese Revolution
Stories of 5 women
Kingston's long-dead aunt, "No-Name Woman"

a mythical female warrior, Fa Mu Lan
Kingston's mother, Brave Orchid
Kingston's aunt, Moon Orchid
Kingston herself
lived experience, talk-stories, Chinese history, myths, and beliefs by her

mother
1.
No-Name woman
this aunt had brought disgrace upon her family by having an illegitimate
child
she killed herself and her baby by jumping into the family well in China
told her as a warning
memoir for her
quiet rebellion against the community
horrible experience of giving birth
2.
White Tigers
Fa Mu Lan
mythical warrior
first person narrative
trains to become a warrior from the time she is seven years old, then leads
an army of meneven pretending to be a man herselfagainst the forces
of a corrupt baron and emperor
After her battles are over, she returns to be a wife and mother
her: cant stand up against her own boss, her weapons are words
3.
Shaman
2016
Tth Nikolett
mother
Brave Orchid, her old life back in China
powerful doctor, midwife, destroyer of ghosts in her village
Chinese babies left to die, slave girls being bought and sold, a woman
stoned to death by her villagers
these images haunt her dreams
at the end: she visits her mother after many years
understanding after many years of conflict
4.
At the Western Palace
emperor- 4 wives
analogy for the sister of Brave Orchid Moon Orchid
Moon Orchid's husband, now a successful Los Angeles doctor, had left her
behind in China and remarried in America
Moon Orchid, who does not speak a word of English, is left to fend for
herself in America
She eventually goes crazy and dies in a California state mental asylum
5.
Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe

herself
her childhood, teenage years
anger, frustration in trying to express herself
to please her unappreciative mother
silent Chinese girl
the story of Ts'ai Yen, a warrior poetess captured by barbarians who returns
to the Chinese with songs from another land
Leslie Marmon Silko

1944
Laguna Pueblo writer (Native American tribe)
one of the key figures in the First Wave of the Native American
Renessaince
Lullaby
1981
oral tradition in storytelling in the Native am. culture
attempts to reproduce the effect of oral storytelling in a written English
form
perspective of an old woman, Ayah
saddest events of her life
white intrusion of her home
loss of her children Jimmie, son helicopter crash in war , he loss of her
children taken by white doctors, and the exploitative treatment of her
husband by the white rancher who employs him
these events led to a long term alienation between she and her husband,
Chato
2016
Tth Nikolett
strong ties to her grandmother and mother

present: searches for her husband in a local bar
The lullaby she sings to her husband at the end of the story, as he lies
dying in the snow, covers him with a blanket, brings the oral tradition full
circle, because she recalls this song as one that her grandmother sang to
her as a child.

AmLit2 - VinklerA Niki Kiegészített, Átdolgozott

Încărcat de

Informații document

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

AmLit2 - VinklerA Niki Kiegészített, Átdolgozott

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

American Literature 2

Make it new! (Ezra Pound)

late 19th cent.:Capitalism, free market; consumer society

heliocentric cosmology (Copernicus) the Earth is revolving around the

decentralization of human being

universe: ultimately indescribable - the deeper you get the more

Modernism general features

dualism surface and depth

Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Frost

Rimbaud, the Imagists, Pound, Williams, Stein

precursors: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson (preciseness, shortness)

Poets Club (1908)

Hulme: Lecture on Modern Poetry

Image: Intellectual and Emotional Complex

the precise point represented in the picture is linked to the complex

A LIST OF DONTS for those beginning to write verses

dont imagine poetry as easy and simple put effort in it

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

New England poet

both are equally worn, neither of the roads is less traveled by

analogical landscape poem

The buzz saw, although technically an inanimate object, is described as a

at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, Frost intended to read

The gift outright

one of the most influential poets of the 20th century

Most important works

1917 Prufrock and Other Observations

1922 The Waste Land

elitist writes for the educated few, requires background info

background: written in England, Eliot still in his 20-s

no clear definition of the audience Prufrock could be speaking to the

I I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker- aging

I completely hate it.

lot of themes popped up in fiction at this time.

the burial of the dead

birth, death, fertility, sterility

later converted to christianism

W.C. Williams (1883-1963)

William Carlos Williams

radical modernism: as opposed to Eliot's symbolism, it favours the image, and

instance, the mediation of 1 complex image, condensed into 1 spatialtemporal moment

So Much Depends / The Red Wheelbarrow

brief, haiku like, free verse

This is Just to Say

like a note left on the kitchen table

Landscape with the fall of Icarus

The Great Figure

appreciation of nature and his existence within it

By the Road to the Contagious Hospital

by the road: we can imagine the speaker travelling

comparing thighs to appletrees

about a beauty of a young women

not clear who she is talking to the doctor?

he is overpowered; but certainly a measure of admiration and a willingness

and the sun is a flame-white disc

above shining trees the moon or dawn

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

first major publication was written at age 35

The Man on the Dump

ridiculing romanticism and symbolism. The attempts of humans to mimic

the usage of lists common, everyday objects contained on a dump, "The

To the bubbling of bassoons, realism triumphs. everything is shed and we

Hilda Doolittle H.D