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Essays on women in literature
Essays on women in literature
Depiction of women in literature
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Michael Levenson said in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism that Modernism fiction was “involved in the radical modern departure, across all of the arts, from representational verisimilitudei”. It was stylistically and thematically focused on rebellion against the way art was presented in the past and what its main focus was.
D. H. Lawrence was from a working class background and was always conscious of his status as an outsider because of his class. In his writing he focused on the idea of transgressing modern class systems in the search of new experiences. This is where the idea of rebellion becomes predominant in his writing. In The Virgin and the Gypsy (1930) he tells the story of a family ruled by a stern powerful Mater and the two young women eager for new experiences. The youngest daughter Yvette is the virgin of the title and it is through her encounters with the gypsy of the title (whose name is only revealed on the last page as Joe) and a soon to be divorcee and her young lover that she goes through a sexual awakening.
The family is presented as very traditional in their outlook and structure. At the beginning of the narrative, roughly ten years before Yvette's sexual awakening, we are told about how they had moved away and restructured the family after the vicar's wife, who they call She-Who-Was-Cynthia left for a younger man. The events of the novel and the actions of the characters can be seen as reactions to this first act of rebellion against family and religious tradition. It is never explicitly explained why she left, it is only said that she “went off with a young and penniless manii”. The vicar is described as a good husband and still handsome, and she has two little girls, so the question of “why... sh...
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...iting for people to invite him out for dinner or lunch. Beaver is typical of the inter-war generation. He is of the same generation as the younger generation in The Virgin and The Gypsy, who “sat very perkily in the car as they swished through the mud. Yet they had peaked too. After all, they had nothing really to rebel againstxiii”. He has nothing to rebel against. He has no goal in life except attending the next party and has no ties or loyalties of any kind. He abandons Brenda suddenly on a whim even seems bored by the life of endless parties. He calls a night out “rather dreary”, but admits that he is often only thought of last thing as a replacement so he should be lucky to have been invited at all. Even with his boredom with his chosen mode of life he makes no attempt to rebel against it and become anything more. He fully embraces his position as a modern man.
...Perloff, Marjorie. “Modernism without the Modernists: A Response to Walter Benn Michaels.” Modernism/Modernity 3:3 (1996): 99-105.
Search for Innocence in American Modernism. American Literature from its very beginning has been centered around the theme of innocence. The Puritans wrote about abandoning the corruption of Europe to find innocence in a new world. The Romantics saw innocence and power in nature and often wrote of escaping from civilization to return to nature. After the Civil War, however, the innocence of the nation was challenged.
Modernism is a genre of literature that commonly focuses on the alienation of an individual. "The Life you Save May Be Your Own," the short story, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," and the Twilight Zone episode "Kick The Can," all share the theme of modernism. The consequence of this alienation leads to the characterized individual being lonely and on their own. In the case of "The Life you Save May Be Your Own," one of the main characters is scarred and broken. Authors use characterization, symbolism, and other literary elements to bring about this alienation theme.
In the modernism there was no focus on the plot events, instead the writers focused on characters' consciousness. Ambiguity and complexity were valued at that time. Modernists often work towards open endings and used the narrative gaps. In the early modernism the technique of Stream of Consciousness was widely used to know more about the human sense. Modernism was influenced by naturalism and realism. Its social content is characteristically avant-grade (Drabble 682). Moreover, the 20th century is one of the most important periods in English drama. New ideas, terms and styles have been introduced as a result of the atmosphere. Writers on that time expressed their anger and scorn as a result of the wars and the revolutions. There were many social changes at that time and the playwrights started to tackle that in their plays (Innes
Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.
Looking at our past, there have been dramatic changes in the way humans view sex. Long before the 1900s individuals framed their views based on the religious institution. Due to the fact that they strongly centered their idea of sexual thought on religion, they believed that the only purpose of having sex was to procreate. As the 1920’s approached, there were various factors that changed the way individuals viewed sex. The “new women” known, as flappers were women who were confident in who they were. They changed their attire as well as their social attitude. In the 1920s, the flappers redefined sex; customs and traditions were broken and new norms were created by society.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
One attribute of Modernist writing is Experimentation. This called for using new techniques and disregarding the old. Previous writing was often even considered "stereotyped and inadequate" (Holcombe and Torres). Modern writers thrived on originality and honesty to themselves and their tenets. They wrote of things that had never been advanced before and their subjects were far from those of the past eras. It could be observed that the Modernist writing completely contradicted its predecessors. The past was rejected with vigor and...
Modernism helped to increase the interest in psychology, transition to seeing the writer as special, and the reaction against war/ industrialization. Ezra Pound described Modernism as “Making it new,” meaning making the pieces new/ different, and really experimenting with the writing. Modernism is used in many works of literature from short stories, poems, to even civil rights literature. A piece of literature that captures this is Ernest Hemingway’s, “Hills like White Elephants." In this Hemingway uses dialogue, and irony to help tell this story.
This critical; analysis will define the theme of the “repressive hypothesis” of Michel Foucault’s analysis of the Victorian standards of sexuality in the 20th century. Foucault argues that the 19th century Victorian bourgeoisie has defined the moral and ethical values of sexuality through the restrictive confinement of marriage. In the 20th century, Foucault critiques the history of Victorian sexuality as an oppressive regime through a Marxist and Freudian analysis that confines sexual relations to marriage, while, at the same time, makes non-marital sex a deviant or an illegally immoral act. In this case, the issue of morality challenges the established notion that sex has become demonized outside of the institution of marriage, but Foucault
The characters of a modernist narrative reflected a new way of thinking. A summery no longer highlighted meaning, it was ambiguous. The ambiguity portrayed unmanageable futures. The Modernis...
Simmel, Georg. ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ in Kolocotroni, Vassiliki; Goldman, Jane; Taxidou, sfdfsfdfsdOlga, ‘Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents.’ Edinburgh: Edinburgh ffffffffffffUniversity Press. 1998. Print.
It is a period when traditional values start to change.This movement causes innovations in science,art,culture,ethics,philosophy and psychology.It intends to find new or hidden meanings in the human experience.It’s main aim is to deal with new ideas.It is a break with the tradition.Modernist Poetry occurs between the 1890 and 1970.It’s key elements can be experimentation,anti realism,individualism.Experimentation means searching constantly.Anti-realism means to be against realism and concreteness.Individualism means to be an intellectual and to be an individual who has a self-confidence.The stress is mainly on the human mind rather than emotions.Many Modernist poets are from Universities,they appreciate their work a lot.It is a movement which is complex and diversed.It takes some of the important aspects from the movements.Modernism supports that every aspect from industry to philosophy should be interrogated.In this way,culture’s elements could be replaced by the new ones.The Modernist English poets write against the rules that are put by Victorian Poetry.They never deny the past poets or past works.They see themselves as they are respecting the earlier periods and other cultures.Their poems seem to be in longer form i...
Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald capture the essence of the modernist period, and both approach different aspects of the same genre. The goal of the modernist writer was to create an enjoyable piece of literature, while confronting issues that had never before been raised in the literary world to date. The Modernist hoped to wipe away the images of perfection in the imaginary realties of the literary past and create a clean slate filled with the reality of the modernist period. The Modernist authors will always be remembered for their exploration of language and form, and for their dedication to keeping us in a well lit place, in an otherwise deceiving reality.
This essay aims to explore the contextual ideas behind the modern movement, how it influenced today’s artists and thinkers, and how ‘Modernization, Modernity, Modernism’ shaped the world we live in. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, around 1860 after man had considerably conquered the machine, a new reality became prevalent in the lives of the newly industrialised world. Modernism includes more than just art and literature. By now it includes almost the whole of what is truly alive in our culture”(Greenberg 1982:5). This quote can be applied to the earlier days of modernism when jobs had changed from agricultural based employment to corporate and menial based labour.