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AL20 ZHRNUTIE

13.2.

Social and philosophical background

Britain – a welfare state, a free multiracial (multiracional?) Commonwealth


Philosophy:

  1. Einstein (relativity, moral relativism)

  2. Kierkegaard (1813-1855), existentialism: (deals with questions of life and death), loss of spontaneity (we believe in truths of our teachers, parents, social class,..., we don´t discovery the truth ourselves, truth is subjective), passivity, individual lost in crowd, no responsibility (you are free until you are aware of your responsibility), he also invented the term – dread (we fear something we don´t know, man took problems upon his shoulders from God that´s how we are dreadful), invented expression - freedom within (vnútorná sloboda). Work: Repetition, Choroba k smrti, Either – Or – about our possibility, he introduced two voices Mark A, Mark B, who exchanged letters and lived as aesthete, enjoy the day- A, B is ethic. They are different and we don´t know who is right and it´s up to the reader to find out. He didn´t preach in his texts. He divided people into 3 categories: aesthetics, ethics, religious men. But the way he understood the religion is different from religious point of view, he was therefore excommunicated from the church. He also invented special style of writing, very difficult for reading. He was famous for his love with Regine ......., he didn´t deserve her and they lived separate lives, he missed her very much, she married, they met once and stared at each other, parted and wrote letter to her husband to exchange letters with her, but he didn´t allow it. This love was written by Lodge – Therapie.

  3. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Moravia, Vienna, London. Formative effect of childhood experiences - he stressed child experiences upon literature. Men write about what they wanted to experience but failed. He also tried to interpret dreams. Id, Ego, Superego. Oedipus complex. His famous student was Karl Gustav Jung, he was very friendly with him but then he turned away from him and invented: Persona – Mask which we wear to hide our nature – shadow. Animus are male qualities in women, Anima – female qualities in men.

Literature, culture

1910 – London exhibition of post-impressionalist (they could see modern art, French impressionism)

Pictures: Woolf – human character

Changed, B. public introduced to modernism

It coexisted with realism

Realism – Wells, A. Bennett, J. Galsworthy

Modernism – Joyce, Woolf, Forster, Conrad, Wagh, Lawrence

Pessimism - Hardy

We can also divide literature to: fiction and faction (fakty)


20.2.


James Joyce (2.2.1882-13.1.1941 Dublin-Zurich)

Basically he is the greatest fiction writer ever. Irishman. He and his family spent both wars in Switzerland that´s why he died in Zurich. Born into catholic family- catholics in Britain are minority- most of British people still belong to the Church of England found by Henry VIII. One of 15 children, some of his siblings died young, favourite son of his mother Molly. His father was lighthearted so family was growing larger and poorer. (Catholics were usually poorer)

  • Education: Jesuit schools (best for classical education)- boarding school Clongowes Wood College outside Dublin, he later left the school because they didn´t have money and went to cheeper school to center of Dublin- Belvedere College (also jesuit college). Originally he wanted to study medicine- he travelled to Paris but didn´t have money for that university so he went back to University College of Dublin.

  • 16. june 1904- his followers meet until this day in Dublin

  • This day he started dating Nora Barmacle (1904, 1931) She became his life companion, he married her after their first grandchild had been born. They stayed together but not in Dublin

  • He left island for continent and lived in various locations- Trieste (IT), Paris (FR)- here he stayed for longest time, he found here group of disciples (young artists- for ex. Samuel Beckett). In Paris were born their two children- Giorgio and Lucia (she was schizofreniac- died in England) He died in Zurich while being operated for perforated ulcer (gastric).

  • When he was in Paris he was called to his mother dying on cancer- she wanted him to kneel in front of him and he refused. When she died it became his nightmare and he couldn´t forgive himself for refusing to obey her last wish.

  • Chamber Music- short poems dedicated to Nora, they cover history of a love. Poems Pennyeach- he started puning with words- impressed by sounds of words. (Name- double coded- zemiačky za korunku/ básničky za korunku)

  • Dubliners- 1914. He had to fight 14 years for it to be published. It´s a mixture of naturalism and symbolism- first modern collection of short stories. (he talked there about real places, people- they were angry) 4 groups of stories- stories covering childhood experiences, adolescence, adulthood/maturity and public life

  • 1st story- Sisters – anonymous personal young narrator- boy records his experiences and how he was impressed by three words- paralysis, simony and gnomon. Double code- all the texts are about paralysis- inability to act/move, in short stories are different types of paralysis. In first story its about the disease...
    Simony- from Bible- sacred things being sold and bought- sin. For him was most important love, friendship and art- about ppl selling love, friendship- that was big sin for him.
    Gnomon- when something is not complete and something is missing (in stories- mother dies, somethings missing in relationship of father and children...)


    A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man- novel

  • Stephen Dedalus- strange double coded name (svätý Štefan- Stephen, Dedalus- mythologic inventor of labyrinth and first pair of wings- wings connote freedom=Stephen Dedalus= Martyr of liberty) ,,I will not serve to stomething I don´t believe longer. ´´ (he doesn´t want to serve his family, society and church) Stephen went through something similar like author (death of his mother)

  • Stephen Dedalus- his strategy- silence, exile, cunning.

  • Novel begins with typical english discourse about Parnell- (Parnell trusted in catholics and protestants when irish ppl were divided, but when he fell in love with married woman and he lost his public spot, they stopped to support him (most of his supporters) and the nation was split again. He was founder of Irish National Party- leader, when he lost his leadership he also lost his position in parliament and he died as a young and broken man.)

  • Ema. Dante. Uncle Charles

  • Protagonist- personal narrator. In spite of this fact he uses 3rd person past tense.

  • Textbook of aesthetics.

  • Every chapter ends in an epiphany: a sudden spiritual manifestation of a new truth. One of Joyce´s devices- that´s why he´s so famous- he has changed the world of prose

  • Complex web of motifs, images, symbols, a psychological lyric.

  • Exiles- drama

  • Ulysses- novel- his masterpiece

  • Finnegans Wake- novel - ,,unreadable novel´´ - he invented here his own language. (Joyce was a singer and musicians- took part in singing competitions- after failing to win a competition he decided to be a writer)

    27.2.


    ULYSSES 1922 february

  • 1st publication- prohibited by judges- 1st didn´t understand art and literature and believed that it was obscene.

  • 10 years later- other judge- more educated and declared Ulysses not obscene, only sincere- allowed to be published, it was still on black list of Church for many years. (na cirkevnom indexe)

  • Setting of the novel- 16.6.1904, Bloomsday. It ´s being celebrated by Joyces fans who come to Dublin and follow route of protagonist Leopold Bloom, there are golden bricks in pavement saying ,,this is where Leopold Bloom came´´ all places mentioned in the novel.

  • Novel is set during one day (Thursday) in Dublin and yet has around 700 pages. This novel shows stream of consciousness of three characters:

  • Leopold Bloom – hungarian jewish origin, but he feels himself to be a Dubliner in spite of his origin but by his citizens he is treated as a stranger. He is a cuckhold (jealous, cuz molly had lots of lovers) , advertisement canvasser (employed as a fine artist), he is kind hearted, mildly sensual. There are some broken phrases in his register. (nedokončené vety/myšlienky.) Married to Molly Bloom.

  • Molly Bloom- opera/concert singer, vulgar, her stream of consciousness is literal, no metaphers, beautiful, earthly, tempting, selfish. She has a daughter, teenager Milly practising to become a photographer.

  • The couple had also baby son born 11 years ago- he lived only 11 days, then he died- great shock for family, after this event they couldn´t behave like husband and wife anymore.

  • Stephen Dedalus- young teacher who decides on this day to give up his teaching job, because the pupils were not afraid of him (that meant that he was a bad teacher), he also gave up his room at Marteloow Tower. He is intellectual, poet, his stream of consciousness is metaphorical, it´s most sophisticated, there are many references on other works from world literature.

  • Diferent points of view, many styles, the novel is a complete system of parallelisms and correspondence (sometimes positive paralells- Odyseuss and Leopold are looking for their way home. negative paralell- odyseuss had son and dog, leopold had daughter and cat....) - it´s kind of a remake of Homer´s Odysseus- it had 18 parts and chapters in Ulysess are called the same.

  • It´s in three books- 1st- Stephen dedalus - 3 chapters

  • 2nd- 12 chapt. Leopold Bloom-

  • 3rd- all three protagonists and last chapters belong to Molly Bloom

  • the last sentence is on 70 pages- chaotic stream of consciousness of Molly who´s trying to fall asleep and she thinks of all her lovers and of Leopold as the best one(wtihout commas or stops). (another paralellism- Molly is negative parallel to Odyseuss´s wife, faithful Penelope)

  • It has a very strange ending- (no commas, stops= no chapters..) the rhytm of text is provided by the repetition of the word ,,yes´´. Yes is last word and it can belong to life... and the last ,,yes´´ might be her ,,yes´´ to Leopold.


    FINNEGANS WAKE

  • Finnigans Wake- ,,wake´´= kar. In England- wake is before the funeral-people sit joke dance eat and drink around open coffin, old traditional balad about some ,,Finnigan´´ who was brick clayer who fell from high ladder and died and who´s wake is being held. They are drinkning whisky and corpse smells it and ,,wakes up´´. Roman ends with ,,The´´ and nothing else follows- to finish it we have to go to beginning, because first sentence starts with word with little consonant – finn. Finish of novel is a circle and this shape is very frequent in modern fiction. Modern prose is based on Joyce´s style of a circle.

  • Last Joyce´s Novell- writing it for 17 years and he was careful and responsible while writing it

  • Chapelizod (Chapel of Iseult)

  • Setting of this last novel- One night: Saturday-Sunday, represent one night´s dream

  • Protagonist- Mr. Porter- scandinavian origin, he is often reffered as HCE- ,,here comes everybody´´- every reader can find himself in his stream of consciousness

  • Mrs. Porter- Anna Livia Pluravel- ALP- žena mnohých krás

  • Kevin&Jerry- Sham/artist, stem, living mercy Shaun- lacks creative spark, stone, stands for dead justice

  • Isobel

  • Tom Finnegan- ressurection myth

    6.3.

    JOYCEANISM

    Joyce- changed face of modern fiction- every other author somehow imitated him by employing some of his devices, which are very influential.

    1. Paralax- term from astronomy – one star is being watched through two or more telescopes at the same time, but pictures are different
      Its meaning in literature- when same event is presented from two/more points of view- happens in reality that different people look at things in different ways. – perspektivism. Typical example- Fowles- Collector- first half from HER point of view, second from HIS point of view.
      In literature we have 2 diff. kinds of paralax:
      a) modernist paralax- two minds, one object (phenomenon) – two worlds, ways, pictures (Ullyses 2nd chapt.- steven watches cloud and starts thinking of his mothers death- cloud is dark, grey, low. Ch.4- Leopold Bloom- same time (8o´clock) – he watches same cloud from diff part (steven-shore, leopold- Dublin streets)- Leopold starts thinking of diaspora- persecution of Jews throughout the history.
      b) postmodern paralax- one mind attacked at the same time by two worlds (registers, styles, languages)- Ullyses, (1st half ist modernist, second postmodern, last chapter again modernist) 2nd half of novel chapter called Oxen of the sun. (Odysseus: his ppl killed sacred oxens- then strucked by lightning as a punishment) In Ullyses- same tite of chapter as in Odyseus, but place- maternity ward. Steven and his friends (medicine students) stop there, and in spite of being in ,,sacred place´´- they started drinking and singing obscene songs and telling obscene jokes- they also commited sacrilege. Because of gravidity this chapter has very special style/form, because it´s parody of 9 different (famous) writers- 1 mind of reader is attacked by 9 different styles and 9 different development stages of english language.
      Similar example-chapter Wondering Rocks- set in streeets of Dublin- all the characters somehow meet there- Leopold Bloom walking the streets, while walking the streets he can overhear fragments of conversations of different Dubliners- mind of Leopold (and of Leopold) is attacked by different fragments of discourses.

    2. Paralipsis- special technique that Joyce used- its a figurative device- strategy of leaving out the words in order to atract readers attraction to them


    Giovanni Battista Vico (1668-1744)

  • History is a circular process of recurrences (story creates a circle) ( veľký pokrok neexistuje, len nepodstatné drobné pokroky- nová chladnička napr., ale ľudia sa VŽDY budú čohosi báť, v tom napr. pokrok nikdy nebude)

    1. theocratic stage- reign of gods who are worshiped Finnigan

    2. aristocratic – great men rule on their own iniciative- reign of heroes HCE- Mr. Potter

    3. democratic- reign of anarchy, chaos and false prophets twins who quarreled

    4. ricorso- the divine speaks in a clap of thunder, we come to out senses and resume worship of gods- the cycle starts all over again last chapter ends in The, first chapt. starts with small letter

    This circularity is typical for many new novels (Finnigan´s Wake)...


    1. Punning- instead of Sunday-sinday

    2. double coding- Finnigan´s wake

    3. remythologization- Introibo at altare Dei (pristúp k božiemu oltáru)- about 1st chapter of novel set outside Martelow Tower (military construction to protect Dublin) – akoby bol román tak posvätný ako omša pre autora, že ho zmenil na mýtus.

    4. fragmentation- two narrative techniques

    5. stream of concsiousness- comes from psychology, introduced to literature by Henry James.

    (Ullyses- last chapt.- molly´s stream of conciousness (nie metaforický, ale obyčajný doslovný), 2 – 3 sentences on 70 pages – rhytm made by word ,,yes´´


    David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930)

  • Eastwood in Nottinghamshire, mother teacher/father miner

  • his mother wanted him to become teacher, so he studied and got his teacher´s certificate

  • was also gifted as a painter

  • Frieda Weekley- wife of his German profesor, she had a family but she run away with D.H. Lawrence. They traveled together: Ceylon, Australia, America, Italy, Germany, France... ( he also wrote travel books)

  • he wasn´t great stylist, but he talked with immediacy, vividness and he was a moralist (moralist- that´s a sign of realism (?)- only one truth- truth of narrator

  • died of consumption (TBC)

    He wrote:

  • Poetry: Love poems, Collected poems, Beasts and Flowers

  • Short stories: England, My England, The Woman Who Rode Away,..

  • Books of travel: Morning in Mexico, Twighlight in Italy

  • Novels:

  • Sons and Lovers- set in Bestwood, protagonists- Morels/Paul, about sexual and emotional self discovery, we can feel here Freudian impact, part about relationship of Miriam and Clara is also a bit about his relationship to his mother.

  • The Rainbow: introduces protagonists from Women in Love, like Ursula for ex., a family chronicle, ugly industrial background: Anton Skrebenski, Ursula

  • Women in Love: about philosophy and love, mainly between the Brangwen sisters Gudrun and Ursula- Ursula teacher, Rupert Birkin is a school inspector, Gerald Crich is rich proprietor of ____, strong man involved with Gudrun- she is fine artist. Gudrun& Gerald= equally strong, keep on quarelling and fighting. At end of novel- trip in the Alps- she flirts with another young man, Gerald is jealous and he commited ,,suicide´´-- fell to the snow and froze

  • Lady Chatterly´s Lover- about Constance, married to sir Clifford, who is crippled from war, on a wheelchair, she becomes unfaithfull with Oliver Mellors- gamekeeper. román napadnutý na súde ako nemorálny- dvakrát, druhý súd po smrti, a vyhral- Obscene Publication Act- zákon- famous trial.


    13.3.

    THOMAS HARDY

  • representant of pesimism(Naturalism- found by french writer Emil Zoa)

  • Tess- his masterpiece

  • Darwins teaching had a great impact on pesimism- nature is the strongest, who wins. When we aply this on society- that leads to pesimism- only stronger ones win, not the clever or good ones

  • another sign of pesimism- the role of human will is underestimated- everything happens by an accident

  • characters are victims of mysterious forces of nature outside and within


    TESS OF THE D´URBERVILLES

  • subtitle- ,,story of a pure woman´´ - caused a scandal (because in the end she killed someone)

  • Tess- a poor farmer´s daughter /Durberfield/- he believes to be a descendant from once rich family

  • her dad sends her to claim money from them but its not truth- they only bought their title

  • Alec- a young man of means believed to be a distant relative, poultry farm- seduces and rapes her

  • Tess- pregnant, she leaves with child. Alec didn´t know about the child- she tried to earn money on a dairy farm

  • Angel Clare- clergyman´s son, met Tess on a dairy farm, falls in love with Tess and marries her in spite of will of his parents. Tess didn´t tell him about Alec, she tries it during honey moon night, Angel also tells her story of his one night stand. Tess can forgive him but Angel cannot forgive her. He is angry, telling her ,,you are not the woman that I fell in love, you´re just another woman in her shape´´ and he decides to leave for Brazil

  • she tries to write him letters, he doesn´t reply back to him

  • she goes back to her father- getting poorer, he dies- Alec helps them and he wants Tess to live with him. While she stays with him, Angel comes back. 1st she sends him away and then she stabs Alec to death, Angel and Tess run away, stop at Sonehenge, they are found there by police- Tess imprisoned and executed.

  • Tess- typical heroine of pesimism because she seems to be a victim. (Ideal woman for Hardy)


    Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski (1857-1924)

  • Polish writer. Poland was that time divided

  • he lived in Ukraine- his father was polish nationalist, that´s why he was imprisoned- fought for polish independence- he died in prison. His mother soon followed him

  • Uncle Tadeus Bobrowski raised him and wanted him to study- Conrad wanted to become sailor so he left house for Marseilles- 1874

  • he studied hard and became master mariner in 1886, later he also became british subject (britské občianstvo)

  • 1894- settled in England married Jessie George

  • he became excellent modernist writer- great master of English prose- a sea writer

  • He wrote stories of adventure, also philosophic texts- moral ambiguity

  • The Nigger of the Narcissus- about voyage from Bombay to London disrupted by James Wait (sickbed and then dies) and a trouble maker Donkin Gale, who tries to incite the crew into mutiny. Once James died, mariners feel sorry for him. This pity somehow caused troubles- they weren´t able to complete their duties. (ambiguity about pity- is it positive or negative?)

  • Lord Jim – Marlow- an intermediate narrator- new type of narrator invented by Joseph Conrad (sprostredkovaný rozprávač).- The story of someone else is narated by different narrator. Jim is a chief mate, good person doing heroic deeds. Ship carrying Pilgrims sinks. Captain persuades his officers to leave as first ones (inak majú kapitáni odchádzať poslední)- then there is trial on the court- Jim faces it- because of a gross failure of duty- he is stripped of his papers. He went to Patusan where he tries to restore order.- ppl here love him and respect him- then _____ kills him.

  • Under Western Eyes: philosophical novel- Razumov- wins essay writing competition, Prince comes to congratulate him. Razumov cannot forget the way prince was shaking his hand- he was poor and felt that the shake was really warm- he was impressed. Razumov- injustly imprissoned- group of revolutionaries who kill ministers- some anarchist students came and killed ministers and police came and arrested everyone, inlcuding Razumov- he is unhappy because he never wanted to be involved in politics. Razumov calls the Prince, tells him about his innocence and tells him name of the student who did it. they think that Razumov betrayed them.

  • Author compares natures of different cultures

  • Secret Agent- another story of group of anarchists – he liked to talk about corrupting effects of politics.- Verlock+Winnie (married together), Stevie- mentaly insane. Verlock organizes attack on Greenwich and forces Stevie to carry the bomb. Stevie- clumsy- falls down, bomb explodes. Winnie can´t forgive her husbands and she decides to kill him. Chapter about her decision- well written- in the style of Dostojevsky- with psychological inside.

    20.3.


    Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski had great impact upon Graham Greene

    Graham Greene (1904-1991)

  • born in the South England to family of headmaster, studied at Oxford, then he became journalist

  • apart from moral ambiguities there´s something that Graham Green shared with Konrad-

  • born as a protestant, fell in love with catholic girl, that´s why he in 1926 converted to Roman catholicism.

  • he wrote what critics called ,,catholic novels´´

  • wrote also short stories, books of travel, detective stories, books for children, essays

  • as a journalist he travelled a lot.

  • visited countries of unrest- with some revolution going on, he had very good nose for politics so he knew what was going to happen, how to revolution was going to end and wrote and published his novel before the revolution ended.

  • after his death ppl say that he was a double spy (not sure) – for Moscow/London

  • he was sent to Mexico, because there was a comunist revolution and comunist government came to power in 30´s and they started persecuting catholic priests- executed lot of them

  • he as a catholic was sent there to report on the situation- he wrote one of his best novels under the title

  • THE POWER AND THE GLORY- it´s a modern text with anonymous protagonist (we don´t know his name), so the man is reffered to as whiskey priest.- the last priest in a country- all other priests imprisoned/executed. why whiskey? – addicted to alcohol- had illegitimate child.

  • the 1st from long chain of Greene´s protagonists who can be reffered to, that they were sinful saints or saint sinners.

  • characters have sense of responsibility even though they are sinners

  • (something happens..) priests guesses that it´s a trap so he goes back, he is captured, imprisoned and executed

  • BRIGHTON ROCK- set in criminal underworld in Britain.Pinkie /17/ runs a gang, Rose /16/ White, there is love, there is chance. (brighton rock- dvojvýznam- lethal weapon in novel, zároveň lízatko. Weapon in lunapark- Hell- very dark room with statues of monsters v strašidelnom dome the journalist was sitting and Pinkie threw him to the sea ale netuším)

  • leader of one gang killed by another, so 17 yr old Pinkie became new leader and he wants to take his revenge on the other gang

  • 2 witnesses- 2 ladies- one Pinkies friend Aida (singer), the other Rose- childish/innocent. Pinkie decided he loved Rose and married her to avoid giving evidence about the crime she has seen.

  • Aida was after him- asking police to arrest Pinkie- but policemen were happy that gangs fough together, they didn´t care about it

  • at the end she manages to ask policemen to come and they are after Pinkie, he is trying to run away and he falls to the ocean on the very same spot where he killed the journalist

  • Rose is his wife and she is happy, pregnant and discusses her life with priest and he says ,,While there is love, there is chance.´´

  • philosophy of 2 ladies matters a lot in the novell. Aida wants justice, Rose wants to change Pinkie- she wants goodness


    What is interesting about Graham Greene´s philosophy?

  • what is right is not necessarily good.


  • THE HEART OF THE MATTER- set in Africa- Sierra Leone- WWII. Scobie- the deputy commisioner of police- at the beginning he is just and honest person, but he is also poor and his wife is not happy about it and want´s some more money and he is led to make various false moves because of pity for his unhappy wife Louise.

  • documentating modern catholicism. Louise-represents dogmatic catholics

  • modern catholics- Scobie (diff. from dogmatic) – they try to love their neigbours (they don´t care so much about hesitating in faith)

  • He loves 19 yrs old Helen- young widow, not his wife. He commites suicide- spácha smrteľný hriech


  • THE QUIET AMERICAN- Graham green visited Vietnam at that time, when it was French collony. Americans started going there and they believed that Americans will take over.

  • Pyle- main char., Fowler


    Greene published three collections of short stories- Basement Room, May We Borrow Your Husband? The Last World.

    Greene´s range is wide, but preoccupated with moral dilemmas /distinction of good- or evil from right-or-wrong/ gives his work a highly distinctive quality. A rare combination of critical and popular admiration.


    27.3.


    Feminism

    Feminist- someone who holds view that women are underrated and underestimated and discrimined

    Feminism- term from 19th century- implies both way of looking at the world and also way of acting in it.


    3 basic aims = critique of male characters in literature, (Joyce, Beckett and others were criticised), writing

    = estabilishing of female literary tradition = rereading and evaluating texts written by women

    = questioning gender differences, woman´s quest for self-definition, creating a feminine aesthetics and a special feminist language or metalanguage.


    Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

    She was Londoner, studied at King ´s College, born into intelectual family. Her father was a celebrity between philosophers and her sister was a world known painter. Virginia Woolf found a group of intelectuals/artists = so called Bloomsberry Group= artists and scholars used to meet there, discuss free love and art, criticise realism and tried to promote modernism.

    She started writing and sending essays to Time´s literary supplement, which was best literary journal in Britain. She was bisexual, later married Jewish reformer- Leonard Woolf, while she was married she fell in love with Vita West. She was political woman, she fought hard for womens right to vote.

    Virginia Woolf suffered of schizophrenia, she was too sensitive to different noises, so it was very hard for her to live during the war. During attacks she heard birds speak greek- after one of these attacks she committed suicide- jumped to the river.

    She also used technique of stream of consciousness, sought for more delicate rendering of streams of consciousness, in which she felt that the truth of human experience lay. She explored problems of personal identity, personal relationships, significance of time and memory. Her fiction is very poetic (it has beautiful rhytm and imagery)

    Most popular of her novels is The Waves. It is about three couples who recollect and reflect on their past, each have different register, they think about their friends who died, there are sections/chapters of lyrical prose desecribing play of sunrays in the sea.

    Other Novels: Night and Day (to her brother and sister)

    Mrs. Dalloway (she criticised Joyce´s Ulysses, but Mrs. Dalloway has the same setting- one day in June in London. Female protagonist (Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, wife of an minister of parliament (MP), during this one day she is preparing a party for celebrities (prime minister...)- she is shown as a perfect hostess. She´s still beautiful, even though she is 51 years old. Her past lovers come to the party.

    Stream of consciousness= not only hers, we know also lot about her through other streams of counsciousness of other characters.

    Peter Walsh- suitor- still in love with her, came there from India

    Sally Seaton- lesbian tone (it was the most perfect experience for Mrs. Dalloway when they kissed)

    Daughter Elisabeth- strange relationship

    Septimus Warren Smith- he is her alter ego in the novel. They never meet in novel, she just heard about him- doctor told her about his suicide on party. He was war veteran from WWI., who suffered of shell shock and it killed his best friend Evans and he saw it, wanted to warn him, screaming ,,Don´t go´´, he didn´t hear it and got killed-homosexual undertones- from this point of view- both Septimus and Clarissa were bisexual and she also considered suicide. Septimus had italian wife, she wanted him to consult doctor, but he hated doctors. When the doctor comes- ,,You want my life? Here it is!´´ and he threw himself out of the window.

    To the lighthouse- it has 2 parts.

    1st- The Window- son of Mrs. Ramsay wants to go to the lighthouse- he sees it as a magical ,,eye´´ but because of bad weather his trip is postponed. It´s the longest part, but it still covers just one afternoon.

    2nd part- it´s short and describes ten years and talks there abouth death of the heroine. When he came to lighthouse, he realised that it´s not so awesome and tells ,,Nothing is simply one thing´´ (we need at least two perspectives to look on things).


    3.4.


    POSTMODERNISM

    Post-can be explained in two different ways- ,,anti´´ (am. Scholars)

    ,,high´´ (british scholars)-

    Frank Kermode- defines postmodernism as the 3rd generation of modernism.

    Dustin Brook-Rose- defines postmodernism as a moderner modern.

    Postmodernism is term which can be discussed also philosophically- philosophy of doubt and resignation. (Age of rationality is over, we don´t trust the rationality because we cannot explain everything on rational basis, there´s new theory of determined chaos- (predtým – malá vec spraví malý efekt, neskôr- malá vec môže spôsobiť veľký efekt- butterfly effect ) more things that we don´t know than things that we DO know.

    On the other hand- Pluralism- we can take other people´s opinions

    Disruption of traditional values- postmodern texts deal rather with sex and seduction than with love.


    John Barth- american scholar- he believes that aesthetics of modernism is that of exhaustion.

    Postmodernism aestetics of replenishment. (anything goes- všetko je povolené- všetky prostriedky v jednom texte môžu existovať- again, plurality)


    Susan Sontag- defines postmodernism in three ways- victory of form is more important over the contents, victory of irony over tragedy, victory of aesthetics over ethics.


    Brian McHale: juxtaposition of 2 disparate worlds – niečo nespojiteľné- postmoderna to spája


    Ihab Hassan- Egyptian scholar who mentions some other qualities of postmodern texts

    Performance- active participation of reader

    Fragmentation (thematic/formal/

    Self-less-ness- identity- pohrávanie sa s identitou postáv

    The unpresentable- violence, death

    Agressive irony

    Hybridization- sometimes its difficult to say if it´s an essay or a short story


    (changing places- stále iný rozprávač- telefónne rozhovory....))


    David Lodge- short circuit (skrat)/textual or extratextual reality merge (autor vstúpi do príbehu a zhovára sa s postavou)

    Metafiction- antinovels- písanie o písaní- dissapoint readers expectations- writer is the hero, he starts to think about ,,how to write that´´

    In realism author reacts to reality, in postmodernism there is relation between text 1 and text 2- it can be parody (same in a different way) (agresívna, vysmieva prvý text- to isté inak) or pastiche (different in the same way) (nie je agresívny, skôr hold prvému textu)


    Theathre of the absurd (absurdná dráma- nie dráma je absurdná, ale to o čom sa píše je absurdné)

  • Appears in the middle of the 20th century (Beckett, Ionesco, Stoppard, Albee)

  • At the centre of European man there lies an essential absurdity- life has no apparent purpose, is out of harmony with its surroundings, sad to the point of anguish, and at the same time funny

  • Stress on destructive nature of time, the feeling of solitude and isolation

  • Main point- failure of communication- why? Lebo sa navzájom nepočúvajú (ako Godot)

  • The plays lack a formal logic and convertional structure, there are nonsense dialogues, repetitive or meaningless action and non-realist cyclical plots.

  • Mixture of comedy with horrific images. Dialogue full of cliches, wordplay, and nonsense.

  • Characters are metaphorical or archetypal

  • Anything that happens is permissible

  • Absurdist: we take ridiculous seriously

  • Cliche used (in other context)

  • Waiting for godot- metapher for life? Ppl´s life is waiting...


    Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Dublin- Paris

  • Dublin Trinity College, Befast, Germany, London, Paris, J.Joyce

  • (živí smrdia horšie ako mŕtvi- najprv wtf? Potom sa pochopí)

  • He studied Modern languages, English - Belfast, German - Germany, London, French –Paris

  • In Paris he met Joyce,

  • Poetry: Whoroscope (1930. Descartes- cogito ergo sum. He was first one who devided human personality into body and mind- duality)

  • Fiction: Dream of Fair to Middling Women (1992)- published after his death because it was ,,too sexual´´ ( z Tennysonovho ,,Dream of fair woman´´ a z toho spravil ,,snívaj o priemerných ženách)

  • Murphy- 1938- set in London, protagonist Murphy falls in love with prostitute- Celia, Mr. Endon

  • Grimly entertaining, it was about having versus being something

    Murphy spends years in rocking chair, later works in mental hospital, because of faulty radiator- výbuch plynu, he dies. Scéna v márnici je najsmiešnejšia- čítajú jeho poslednú vôľu- aby jeho popol spláchli v záchode, zastavia sa v krčme po ceste, vypadne im popol a zostane na dlážke. Melancholy, boredom, despair.


    10.4.

    Dystopia – anti-utopia

    Utopia is about beautiful future, dystopia about terrible future.

    Forecasts of the doom awaiting mankind.

  • 1600: Joseph Hall: Mundus Alter et Idem

  • 1920: Zamyatin: My

  • 1932: A. Huxley: Brave new world

  • 1945: G. Orwell: Animal farm

  • 1949: G. Orwell: 1984

    Science fiction, apocalyptic fiction

  • 1516: Thomas More: Utopia – a kind of earthly paradise, heavenly city, no private property, free education, meals accompanied by music…


    George Orwell (1903 – 1950)

  • Born in Bengal in British India

  • Studied at Eton,

  • His family did not have the money to pay for a university education. Instead he joined the India Imperial Police in 1922.

  • He went back to London, later moved to Paris

  • In 1937, Orwell travelled to Spain, where he joined one of the groups fighting against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

  • Last 3 years of his life he spent on The Hebrides, where he finished the novel 1984.

  • During his lifetime he was also a journalist – using a plain colloquial style

    Down and Out in Paris and London: It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities – London and Paris.


    Homage to Catalania: personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. Spanish Civil War broke out, he travelled to Spain as a volunteer. In Spain Franco – fascist (fašisti) came to the power and who hated fascism – democrats were against him and were supported by many volunteers all over the world. Democrats lost this war. Critique of the communists´ part in it: destroying anarchists, trockists and all not toeing the Stalinist line. Orwell was sent back to England and worked for BBC. He is known as a political writer.


    Coming up for Air – 1939

    Main protagonist is George Bowling, who lives on outskirts of an English town in Midland (West Bletchley). He is a member of a middle class, works in an insurance company. His wife´s name is Hilda and they have 2 children. He won money on a horserace and decides to take trip to the place of his childhood (Binfield) – which became failure, as it was almost completely changed. He is a typical example of an Anti-hero. It is a recollection of childhood and war experiences. Humour and self-irony. Discourse on politics. No closure – only open ending. (He comes back and knocks on the door, wife opens and we don´t know what follows).


    Animal Farm: a fable showing how a perversion of socialism could develop. The animals on Mr Jones´ farm revolt against their human masters and drive them out, the pigs becoming the leaders. They become corrupted, their power and a new tyranny replaces the old one. (Napoleon, Boxer, Molly is a mare - kobylka, dogs, tame raven Moses,…)

    It has a national anthem, and have wrong commandments: (later these commands were changed a little bit)

  • No animal sleeps in bed (on sheet it´s ok)

  • No animal must ever kill any other animal (cannot do it without reason)

  • No animal drinks alcohol (no to excess)

  • All animals are equal (but some are more equal than others)

    Major´s dream (which is a boar): parody of Der Kapital by Karl Marx


    1984: writes about totalitarian future of England systematically destroying the human spirit. In that dark vision of hell on Earth (called “newspeak) has become the principal instrument of power.

  • Main protagonist - Winston Smith – helpless struggle, suffers final defeat by acceptance. He has no heroic qualities only a longing for truth and decency. He is in love with Julia.

    (The story of Winston Smith presents the world in the year 1984, after a global atomic war, via his perception of life in Airstrip One (the former United Kingdom), a province of Oceania, one of the world's three superstates; his intellectual rebellion against the Party and illicit romance with Julia; and his consequent imprisonment, interrogation, torture, and re-education by the Thinkpol in the Miniluv.)

  • Big Brother is a fictional character that never appears in person. He is the embodiment of the Party who rule Oceania. His portraits are watching you – inescapable.

  • O´Brien – a member of the Inner Party who poses as a member of The Brotherhood, the counter-revolutionary resistance, in order to deceive, trap, and capture Winston and Julia.

  • Emmanuel Goldstein - a former leader of the Party, counter-revolutionary leader of the Brotherhood, and author of The Book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, Goldstein is the symbolic Enemy of the State—the national nemesis who ideologically unites the people of Oceania with the Party, especially during the Two Minutes Hate. While Winston eventually learns that The Book is the product of an Inner Party committee that includes O'Brien, whether Goldstein or his Brotherhood are real or fabrications of Party propaganda is something that neither Winston nor the reader is permitted to know.

  • 3 warring totalitarian super-states control the world: Oceania, Euroasia, East Asia.

  • BB, Inner Party, Outer Party, prols - ?????????

    Essays:

  • Politics and the English language

  • A Hanging



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