Literatura Norteamericana III PDF - University of Zaragoza

Apuntes-Literatura-Norteamerican... eryyel Literatura Norteamericana III 3º Grado en Estudios Ingleses Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Zaragoza Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explota...

Apuntes-Literatura-Norteamerican... eryyel Literatura Norteamericana III 3º Grado en Estudios Ingleses Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Zaragoza Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 1 THE INHERITANCE OF THE 19 TH CENTIRY IN U.S FUCTION: REALISM AND NATURALISM ★ US REALISM HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE TURN OF THE CENTURY Period: 1865 – 1914 Economic growth: non important → powerful Factors that help the US to become powerful o Modernization America agrarian (primary sector) → industrial o Transport: 1865 1st transcontinental railroad (West Coast to East Coast) 1870– 90 railroads tripled o Natural resources: many more than in any country (exc. Russia) > used for production o Capital impulsive industry (based on capitalism) o Technological wonderland after the civil war o Production: cheaper, faster, sold + transported cheaper o Inventions: (by Americans) typewriter, telephone, phonograph, machinegun, escalator, radio, motorcycle o Growth: economic, population x3, urbanization o Some important moments: o 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition: US imp. technological inventions (recover idea of the City Upon a Hill, be an example to look at). o 1893 Chicago World Fair: technological inventions exhibited, national pride after the Civil War o 1885 Home Insurance Building in Chicago: first skyscraper, characteristic urban landscape → change in landscape o 1883 Brooklyn Bridge: combination of technology and architecture Contrasts: o Wealth VS poverty: extreme gap* o Nostalgic images: people were enthusiastic or the developments but at the same time nostalgic of the American Mythological past (the Wild West, the US as a country for new beginnings, Freedom) o WASP values and massacring, segregation (especially South) and discrimination (racist attitudes, social separation African Americans / white until the 1960s, VS women) Social transformation o 1860: 40 mill > 1900: 80 mill o 27 mill immigrants from 1840 – 1910 o Problems of assimilation and working conditions (immigrants discrimination > ghettos) o Creation first Unions VS exploitation o 1886 American Federation of Labor: the 1st American Union to defend the worker´s rights → better working conditions, times, salaries *Social polarization and stratification: growth of the country > people fastly richer Stratification is the formation of social classes. Robber barons: Middle Ages barons (inherit the money) > 19th century robbers. (Physical aspect fat, well dressed people). Comparison: Middle Ages - travelled back in time (society) 1 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Scientific discoveries o Darwin´s The Origin of Species, 1859 → theory of evolution (h.b = animal descendant) o Second Law of Thermodynamics or Law of Entropy: the universe will run out of energy (contrary to the optimism of the Newtonian era, the universe becomes unpredictable) Change in values: o Survival of the fittest by Herbert Spencer Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. o Individualism, solidarity = lose money o Capitalism o Self-made man: not born into a rich family > mechanisms richer, “from rags to riches” like in The Great Gatsby o Pursuit of happiness: conception of the American civil. (happiness = money) Positive side effects: well-being (comfortable life) Negative side effects: corruption, opportunism REFLECTION IN LITERATURE New literary themes 1. Self-made man: E.G: Howells´s Rise of Silas Lapham 1885 Scientific rationale for competition and struggle ▪ Charles Darwin ▪ Herbert Spencer´s First Principles 1862 – Darwin´s ideas nature > society. Some reactions against Uptain Sinclair The Jungle, Theodor Dreiser Utopian literature: another type of society ▪ Edward Bellamy- not capitalistic future society 2. The city: Chicago: reconstructed after the Fire > skyscrapers, biggest train station Uptain Sinclair The Jungle (pictured in Chicago) Controversies/dichotomies: Popular culture (more accessible) Elitist culture East culture West unculture, savageness, lack of education Imagination The Machine Pragmatism (William James) Idealism (trascendentalism) Material (Pursuit of Hapiness) Spiritual progress US Europe Man Woman (no gender equality) Regionalist literature: Not only: popular and mass Also: West, Midwest, South, women (Kate Chopin) and minorities Local themes, nostalgia (romance, domestic novels, frontier stories) Changes in literary industry: Mass production, commercialization (easier to sell books in a big scale) → Middle classes + cultured No copyright: easier to publish New journals: Scribner´s Monthly Professionalization of the writer – Howells, Twain, James US literature transformation: English literature offshoot → proper national literary industry (achieved 1920s) 2 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 U.S REALISM The definition of realism depends on your definition of reality. A reflection of the notion o US realism = transition bet Romanticism and Modernism. o Some Romantic writers (Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson) o Origin: France 1845 o Gustave Flaubert´s Madame Bovary Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. o Honoré de Balzac: series of novels Comédie Humaine 91 books (1830 - 1848). o Predominant literary approach after the Civil War o US Realism not really a movement, simultaneous with Romantic writers. o Realist writers = reflect reality (present, industrialized, business, capitalist background) o William D. Howells: “realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truth full treatment of material” →Record of life as it is lived o Representatives: o Mark Twain o William D Howells o Henry James WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS: CLASSICAL REALISM 1837-1920 Prestigious novelist and critic: one novel per year (total 40) Called “the Dean of American Letters” Self-educated (Latin, German, Spanich, French and Italian) Influence: Irving and Cervantes Educated middle class Moral convictions US consul to Venice during Civil War Editor in chief of the Atlantic Monthly 1871 – 81 Fictional Works: The Rise of Silas Lapham 1885: about business and morality A Modern Instance 1882 Annie Kilburn 1889 A Hazard of New Fortunes 1890 A Travees from Altruria 1894 Through the Eye of the Needle 1907 Literary significance o Promotion of writers and American writing o Transition 19th > 20th American lit → moving away from “telling” > “showing ” o E.g from telling > showing: Dostoyevsky wrote dialogic novels based on dialogues between the characters while the narrator voice disappears o Democratization of literature → language easier to understood by ordinary readers, accessible o Father of American realism: essays on the issue and his defence of fidelity to life o Moralizing realism o Verisimilitude; novel as a mode of social observation → Ordinary, common people and events Background to this new critical interest in the novel: Division in the social status of poetry and the novel Genteel tradition Commoners and pioneers Concept by George Santayana: high social Twain status, elitist Longfellow: very convoluted style Lack of recognition of North American authors VS British writers and copyrights laws Necessity: convince American readers novel = high form of literature VS the aristocratic understanding of poetry as the highest) 3 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Criticism and Fiction 1891 Task of the novel “to picture the daily life in the most exact terms possible, with an absolute and clear sense of proportion.” Theory of the novel → became the 1st theorist of the novel in the English language Realism = interpretation of life Some interpretations of the novel: 1. As romance 2. As sociological document (news report, with story and plot > keep the readers interested) 3. Henry James represents another type: “A novel is in its broadest definition a personal, a direct impression of life” rather than in a objective way From Criticism and Fiction Romanticism is all about this feelings Realism: Ordinary language Novel as a sociological document Novel as romance Smiling aspects of life: positive aspects, achievements of the country Pointing individual characters rather than a society Depiction of the social wounds in the present country Emphasis on America Picture of the struggle ★ HENRY JAMES 1843 – 1916 NYC Brother of philosopher William James (stream of consciousness – human mind associative manner, continuous path) Mental development of the characters Boston, Cambridge (Mass.) and Newport (Rhode Island) Expatriate: England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy Attracted to European country > motif: contrast bet US and EU 1869/70 and 1875/76: travelling EU Influence: Turgenev, Maupassant, Flaubert and Zola (first naturalist) 1876 stayed in EN until his death 1916 → 1915 became a BR subject Write: novels, short stories, criticism. Criticism: prefaces of the novels: the most important one is “The Art of Fiction” Trying to find his place as a writer (personal style): Am: rude, innocent, uncultivated / Eu: polished, too canny 4 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Work´s Phases: 1 The international theme Daisy Miller, The Europeans, The Portrait of a Lady 2 Experiments with theme and form The Bostonians, What Maisie Knew, The Turn of the Screw 3 Late phase (international / cosmopolitan The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl theme, conscience, moral problems) Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Significance: Literary significance Bridge between Realism Modernism and Psychological novel Realist fiction (omniscient narrator) > flow of a character´s inner thoughts > steam-of consciousness Contribution to extension of realism / to modernism (both) Writer of the international novel o Topic: contrasting American VS European characters o Europe as the home of civilization and high art Principles of composition of the modern novel Transition 19th novel > modern novel (conscience mind) > psychological realism / experimentalism 19th: Modern: based on Conscience: interior movements – stream of consciousness plot Destabilization of the essential values Confrontation of epistemological issues (cognitivism and the functions of the mind) International significance Changing relationship of America with Europe o Before industrialization: America innocent, agricultural // Europe: old, class-ridden, wise o After industrialization: America corrupt, materialistic, culturally raw, rude, innocent, uncultivated // Europe: cultural values, civilization, high art, more polished, canny, moral decadence However, things are not so clear-cut (e.g Daisy Miller) Main characteristics of his Fiction 1. Study of character and moral:  Realism = the impression of characters  Main character: refined conscience in difficult moral situations  Subtle analysis of the human mind 2. Sophisticated technique  Combination: heterodiegetic narrator (3rd person)  + Sustained internal focalizer: A “center of consciousness” through whose eyes and ideology the story is mostly presented  Free indirect style  Effects: o Irony o Unity in the composition: same intensity through the thoughts of the character o Intensity o Psychological subtlety Is Henry James´s fiction outdated? o Repetition same topics o Analysis of characters: rich, no working class o The moods and rituals of the upper classes are so important topic as to discuss their behaviours? 5 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 “The Art of Fiction” o Claims artistic value for fiction / novel o Theory of the English novel: founder of the Anglo American novel theory o Theory of realism: o No romantic adventure or “romance” o No detailed social documentation as in naturalism Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. “The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life” o His sense of realism: o Beyond the limits of reality: includes aesthetic + psychological aspects o +Mind and conscience VS impressions o Characters: great imagination + mental versatility o “Perceptive aesthetics” deduce the world from impressions → realty as perceive through the eyes of the beholder rather than something objective (1)“the only condition that I can think of attaching to the (2)“… The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a composition of the novel, is […] that it be sincere” (567) novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is “the air of reality (solidity of specification) seems to be the that it be interesting […] A novel is in its broadest supreme virtue of a novel—the merit of which all its other definition a personal, a direct impression of life: that, to merits […] helplessly and submissively depend” (559) begin with, constitutes its value, which is greater or less according to the intensity of the impression. But there will (1) Faithfulness to reality as the main request of the novel be no intensity at all, and therefore no value, unless there is freedom to feel and say.” (3)“It goes without saying that you will not write a good novel unless you possess (2) Against any other prescription the sense of reality; but it will be difficult to give you a recipe for calling that sense on how to write novels. into being. Humanity is immense, and reality has myriad forms; the most one can (3)The importance of the form affirm is that some of the flowers of fiction have the odor of it, and others have not and execution of the novel […] It is equally excellent and inconclusive to say that one must write from belongs to the writer alone. experience […]. (4)“A novel is a living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, (4) Novel as an organism (future and in proportion as it lives will it be found, I think, that in each of the parts influence on the New Critics) there is something of each of the other parts” (560) (5) “There is one point at which the moral sense and the artistic sense lie very near (5) Related to his vision of together; that is in the light of the very obvious truth that the deepest quality of a work of realism is James’s concept art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer. In proportion as that of art in relation to truth and intelligence is fine will the novel, the picture, the statue partake of the substance of morals beauty and truth. To be constituted of such elements, is, to my vision, to have purpose enough.” (567) (6) “He admits that the events he narrates have not really happened, and that he can (6) Talking about Trollope, on give his narrative any turn the reader may like best. Such a betrayal of a sacred officeseems to me, I confess, a terrible crime...” narrational instructions. o Compares the novel to painting “as the picture is reality, so the novel is history” o Denies the old-fashioned distinction: novel of incident VS of character. Only differentiation: good VS bad novels “that which has life in it and that which has it not” (561) Note on general Narratology: Focalization: Two types: a. Internal (narrator delegates perspective to a character within the story) b. External (by definition, narrator) Narration: The voice that tells the story. Two different axes should be considered: Position: External: extradiegetic, inside: intradiegetic Participation: character: homodiegetic, non participant: heterodiegetic Non related: omniscient or limited knowledge, intrusion…etc 6 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Daisy Miller → see document for annotations General: 1878 (in The Cornhill Magazine). It was extensively revised. It was a novella, not a novel. (Novella/ novel: length difference) General themes: Impossible love story between the characters according to social norms. Criticism of Americans who come to Europe and become less Americans. The expectations that women had to face when interacting with men. Structure: 4 chapters (exposition, a development and affegic event). The first chapter occurs in Switzerland and the following in Rome. From pages1 to 7, occurs in Vevey (Switzerland), is the Vevey first meeting. From 7 to 15 in Vevey as well, the conversation with Mrs. Costello, second meeting and the Chateau de Chillon visit. Then in Rome, from pages 15 to 23, we have the Walker's room, Pinician garden. From pages 23 to 33, the party at Mrs. Walker's, the hotel with the Millers, Saint Peters with Mrs, Costello, the Palace of the Caesars, the Colosseum and the ending-back at the beginning. Space – symbolism: o Vevey: represented = paradise for the Americans. Holiday resort for upper classes, nice views, lake. o Geneva: Winterbourne lives there. It is famous because of Protestantism and Calvinism. The connection between puritanism and the USA is due to leaving England to go to a new place to establish ideology and spread it. o Chateau de Chillon: prison in the 16th cent. There was a famous prisoner there, Francois de Beauvoir who fought for freedom, for social norms in 1530 and fought for the liberty of Genova. Telling names  Daisy = flower, fragility, white petals = spring (new life)  Winterbourne = winter (death)  Miller = common surname, average American = mill (new industrialized classes, the new rich)  Costello = castello (castle) in a higher position, looking down to the rest of the society, imposing social rules  Walker = woman, represents being free to move without restrictions, uses a carriage to move around, certain irony to it – because when she moves she is enclosed in a vehicle or she stays at her drawing room.  Giovanni = represents youth and life Time -symbolism: Action: Approx. in 1876, because it says that the action happened two or three years ago from its publication. → Representation of vagueness The year 1876 it’s the anniversary of the American Independence in 1776 There is a self-reflection on the American Nation, identity an nationhood. Discourse: Direct discourse: Winterbourne thought, “She is certainly very charming and how extraordinarily communicative and how tremendously easy!” → dixit formula Indirect discourse: Winterbourne thought that she was very charming and extraordinarily communicative and tremendously easy. →dixit formula Free indirect discourse: Certainly she was very charming, but how extraordinarily → no quotation marks, no dixit formula. (The reader doesn´t know directly that this are the thoughts of Winterbourne because they are not told explicitly from the narrator) Narrator´s voice; qualities of the character, less detached, ambiguous emotions 7 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Real characters = Americans in Europe American aristocracy is represented by: Winterbourne, Costello and Mrs Walker The American “new rich” are represented by The Millers (Daisy, Randolph, Mrs Miller and Mr Miller) Three types of characterization: 1. External in the narrative voice focalized through Winterbourne Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. 2. Through other characters’ words and descriptions 3. Through each particular character’s voice (dialogue) and action Social relations and the international theme: The aristocracy: anachronistic in the free market economy of competitive individualism o Winterbourne, Mrs. Costello, Mrs. Walker o Earlier Republican and Jeffersonian values, judges of the other classes The mercantilist: the new monetary power o The Millers, especially Randolph National society: o The new middle class (growth of capitalistic US) o The traditional aristocracy (links to Europe) Gender relations and women´s rights movement: Daisy Miller = central character o Question: (sexist connotation) is he a flirt or a coquette? o She is a Walker, so she needs to display, to perform, to express her wealth o She is improper, frivolous, she resists decorum (debate about women´s rights and female activist) o Cult of domesticity o Promising and youthful but unaware of social conventions o Novella is inserted in a national debate. o Hamartia? o The tragic flow is something that a tragic hero has (e.g Macbeth is ambitious), in this story there is not a tragic hero, but she has a tragic flow for being a freer American (in social forms) going to an European society. Interpretations: 1. Resistance to European standards and to male authority (international theme) “the girl looked at him more gravely… i´ve never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me or to interfere with anything I do” (p.20) Ideal of American natural vitality, free domed innocence 2. Robert Wisbuch “Winterbourne and the Doom of Manhood in Daisy Miller” Revision of American masculinity (connected to social class) o Opposition Winterbourne VS Daisy (and Randolph) o He is passive, just observes and judges, categorizing what Daisy does. o The stiff, passive, categorizing (Europeanized, Winterbourne) vs the natural, uninhibited, active, energetic (the new America) o Winterbourne is not competitive, doesn´t take any action. o He is dependent on women (Ms Costello, Mrs Wallker) o He observes (dissects Daisy´s physical features) and categorizes (flirt or coquette) o Daisy does not manage to shake him out of his categorizing passivity. 3. Another interpretation o A study: getting to know human nature. o Focus shifts from Daisy to the problem of knowing her indecision. o Tension between impulse to categorize (intelligence) and impulse to sympathize (love) o Slipperiness of human judgement o How can we know human nature (Foreshadows Modernism) 8 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 ★ U.S NATURALISM THE LOWER CLASSES: STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL Transformations and contrasts Chicago = one of the most important cities of the US together with NY o 716,881 people attended The World´s Columbian Exposition (technological development= o “Chicago Day” established on October 9 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Some names for this era:  The Gilded Age  The Pullman Era: George Pullman (industrialist) Pullman Wagon (comfortable for travelling) in 1864 o High wages to his workers (the Pullman partners) o First time low class workers could be compared to the middle class people o Town named after him, where the workers of his factory would live o Eugene Debes: Railroad union (one of the first unions) o 1894: “The Pullman strike” > spread all around the country Robert Cleveland (president): sent the troops > violence Consequences: ▪ Importance American Unions + Eugene Debs created a political party ▪ Consciousness American people: bad conditions of the working class Social unrest and muckraking literature Theme: bad working + living conditions (critic) → Publicly denouncing corruption Name: Muk (mud, dirt) + rake (instrument to work in the garden, rastrillo) finding the dirty side of politics, corruption Term derives from a politician: Theodore Roosevelt Some muckraking writers: o Upton Sinclair The Jungle (1906): bad conditions of a factory, unionist actions IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND Darwinism: The origin of species o theory of evolution o Religious controversy: hb not created by God VS Creationists o Humans are no longer unique; they are just animals. o Darwin eradicated idea of reason (humans have animal instincts) o Struggle (for life, for survival) o Natural selection: those who can use the limited resources will survive, if not they will extinct. Social Darwinism: Herbert Spencer First Principle  Applied Darwin´s findings to the human society → Survival of the fittest o Evolution via natural selection: society progress through natural selection (the ones who are stronger than other would evolve and succeed) o Teleological move of history: “telos” objective / goal. o Some anthropologists used this theory to justify racist attitudes o Josiah C. Nott and George Gliddon: support the superiority of cultures (nat selection) o National scale (social stratification) rich deserve their position (fittest) o Related to the Manifest Destiny and the City Upon the Hill “The Americans could reasonably look forward to a time when they will have produced a civilization grander than any the world has known” (Herbert Spencer) “The growth of big business is merely the survival of the fittest. Rockefeller justifies his richness on The American beauty rose can be produced in the splendor and social Darwinism: the survival of the fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing fittest (America is great because there are the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil people like me). The sacrifice of the poor tendency in business. It is merely the working-out of a law of is necessary for the country nature and a law of god” (John D. Rockefeller) Determinism 9 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756  Determine > to be determined by (conditioned by) >If something conditions you, not free to act as wish  Idea: individual is product of forces which keep you in their flow 1. Internal forces: instincts and heredity (genetic heritage) 2. External features: environment (economy, society, housing, working conditions, sanitary conditions) The Rights of the people and representation of the American Dream: Pursuit of Happiness  Money is already the American Dream for many people by the end of the 19th century  Dollar bill – reverse (notice peak of pyramid) *Differences in ideologies: Realism Naturalism Freedom of action Determined by forces Moral responsibility Responsibility is questioned (how far are responsible for your acts if your acts have been conditioned) Example: Theodore Dreiser´s An American Tragedy (1925) Focus on the adaptation to the environment The struggle for survival NATURALISM CONTEXT IN THE U.S.A Tenements in the Bowery in New York Specially immigrants – work force Whole area of the town dedicated to them Before the civil war: high fashioned areas > working class Anti catholic (anti Italian and Irish) Not security, crime Contrast: also of theatres and banks – contrast of the new riches 1867 NYC Tenement Act: preserved these buildings for the immigrants but required various families to share an apartment. Little ventilation, tend to be burned down Origins of the naturalism: Originated in France: Emile Zola Thérèse Raquin (1867) Essay: “Le roman experimental” (1880): writing a novel = running an experiment (you establish an environment and everything should happen like a machine, according to the character´s instincts) Some authors: Vicente Blasco Ibañez, Guy de Maupassant, Hendrik Ibsen, August Strindberg Themes: o Portray a sordid reality o New urban an industrial America: specially the working environments and conditions o Heredity and the environment Techniques: o Use of language of the lower classes slang o Circular structure: a downward spiral o Realism vs Naturalism* In the US: o Appears in the 1890s o Maggie: first example of the US naturalism o Focus: the struggle for survival o Not always deterministic, Not always urban , Not always critical o Breaking of taboos: representation of violence, sex > social outrage o Progress, morality and civilization: the benefits of human progress o Civilization = trap: it creates a habit in us to become civilized. o World beyond civilization > situations of violence / violent clashes in society > could have positive (liberation of self-assertion) or negative outcomes (loss of self-control) 10 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 o Balance between the forces of civilization & instincts (find an equilibrium) American naturalists: 1. Frank Norris: the outrage of the natural forces > destruction: McTeague (1899), The Octopus (1901) 2. Theodore Dreiser: The American Tragedy (1925), Sister Carrie (1900) 3. Jack London: Civilization is what soften us and deprive us for our instincts, we nee the forced to survive in a natural environment: The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), “To Build a Fire” Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. (1908), White Fang. STEPHEN CRANE 1871 – 1900 Newark Religious parents (father: methodist minister) Free-lance reporter: effects of tenement housing, liquor and poverty 1893: first version of Maggie: A girl of the Streets (suing a pseudonym) The first naturalistic novel of the USA 2nd edition (1896) considerably re-writen Literary friend of William Dean Howells War correspondent (Greco Turkish War and Cuba 1898) Scandal, living with a former brothel owner Died at 28, in Germany 1900 for tuberculosis Also a poet: The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) Famous novel: The red Badge of Courage 1895 – No naturalism, impressionism Other writings: Two volumes on short stories (e.g “The Open Boat” 1898, based on a personal event) George’s Mother 1896 Literary views and themes: o In transit from realism > modernism o Interest: narrative technique that may reproduce the human capacity to perceive reality (The Read Bodge of Courage) o Influence social Darwinism: denouncing the survival of only the economically fittest in American society. o Use of the burlesque: style does not fit in the theme – low topic presented in elevated style or vice versa. Maggie, a girl of the streets → see document for annotations (Chapter 1) Compare the beginning, style and narrative voice to those of Daisy Miller. Daisy Miller: detailed description dedicated to describe the setting. Maggie: starts directly with the action. In media res: starts in the middle of the action. Henry James: forma, convoluted, free indirect style Stephen Crane: Short sentences and paragraphs, informal, more straightforward style, dialogues Maggie and Daisy Miller: extradiegetic and heterodiegetic narrator Maggie: objective narrator, camera eye narrator Focalization: external in Maggie and internal in Daisy Miller How is realism achieved? Dialogues reproduce the slang language from the low-working-class children Description of the setting How it the milieu established? For naturalism the environment is very important because it determines you 11 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Offensive language, dark and violent atmosphere Violence is normalised (see red underlined quotes) What literary devices and rhetorical figures does Crane use? Animalization: the children are animalized (see blue quotes). Can be linked with the idea of evolution (the hb is an instinctive creature) Symbols (orange) Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Synaesthesia: crimson oaths Hyperboles: adds Personification: ignorant stables How are the children and Jimmy’s father characterized? Violent, rude, bad-educated, self- assured, too adult for their age (grown up on the street, streetwise) Change in style: more burlesque, hyperbolic and burlesque passages > amusing way: represent children as they were heroes in an epic Is there any change in tone when the father appears? The tone is no longer amusing, is more serious (Chapter 2) What atmosphere is established? How? House compared to an animal (see yellow) How are the dwellers described? See yellow quotations What impression does Maggie’s family leave on you? Disfunctional: not a safe space, destrictive environment What is the relation of the children to their parents? Maggie: used to the violence but still kind of scared. Jimmy: cusses his father, becomes scared too Neighbour reaction In general How do the characters compare to those of Daisy Miller? Low class, unrefined, not reflective, more instinctive, animalistic terms Beheviour conditioned by environment, the jungle of the slim (animalistic) How do you feel about the children (especially Maggie and Jimmy)? Feel very lonely, very much on their own, need to adapt to the environment How is this feeling provoked by the text? Very violent, the reader feels sympathetic to the characters What makes this text an example of naturalism? Use of slang, ordinary language 12 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 2 THE JAZZ AGE AND THE AMERICAN DREAM ★ HISTORICAL CONTEXT THE ROARING TWENTIES WWI affected people: called “the lost generation” > disappointed the country Concept the lost generation: Gertrud Stein (Maecenas of the new American authors in Paris) Ernest Hemmingway The Sun also rises from 1926: expatriates’ communities in Europe. Disillusionment: when the focus of the war changed too, disappointment in the values, no longer valid. Some authors: John Dos Passsos, E.E Gummings, Hart Crane The roaring twenties: o America has become one of the richest countries o Period were the stock market rose, euphoric atmosphere The jazz Age A culture of consumerism: show that you are a consumer, social activity POLITICS Return to normalcy after World War I: Economic growth (1920-1929) Three Republican presidents: Warren G. Harding(1921-1923), Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929), Herber Hoover (1929-1933) Conservative policy: o Tax cuts for the wealthy o No government intervention, No protection for individuals o The chief business = business o Limited role in international affairs (isolationism) o 1929 Stock Market Crash (beginning of Great Depression) 1920S SOCIETY Prohibition 1920 – 33: o 18th amendment: illegalized the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol o 21st amendment: The transportation or importation of intoxicating liquors. o Speakeasies: raided by the police, but pay them money to be left alone. o Gambling (Black Sox Scandal): they were a baseball team that were bride to loose o Gangsters and bootlegging: Al Capone (scar-face.) – provide alcohol to people. o St Valentines Massacre 1929: members of Al Capone´s syndicate disguised as police. o Was punished for tax fraud, not for killing. (Related to Gatsby: these activities were the basis of his wealth) 1920S THE NEW WOMAN IWW: Women stopped being housewives and started to be workforce. They started fighting for their freedom: Right to vote 1920, New self-conception of the world Flappers, fashion and social norms o Short skirts, smoke in public, dancing (even they were not married), more movement outside the house, short hair (make them look more androgynous) o Birth control (pill) was invented, having sex just for the pleasure. ADVERTISEMENT AND CONSUMERISM End of the 19th century = Age of the billboards Mass and consumer culture. More money = more buying power (working hours not regulated) → more leisure Thorsien Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Consumerism = symbol to show your income (e.g luxury cruises) 1920s Mass culture: radio, film, popular magazines, automobile (freedom) 13 Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 ★ SCOTT FITZGERALD 1896 –1940 Married Zelda Sayre The voice of the post-Victorian generation The chronicler of the Jazz Age Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. Works: o This side of Paradise 1920: very well received by the critics, a kind of experimental novel, following modernism (consist on letters, extracts), portrayed + comment the generation of the 20 o “Here was a new generation…grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fough, all faiths in man shaken” o The Bautiful and the Damned 1922 o The Great Gatsby 1925 o Tender is the Night 1934: based on his relationship with Zelda, because she became mentally ill. o Tales of the Jazz Age 1922: short stories gave much more money than novels o Essay: “Echoes of the Jazz Age” (Scribner´s Magazine, 1931) o “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me” (“The Rich Boy”. 1926) The Great Gatsby Binary oppositions: The memory of the Great War The happy, carpe-diem environment of the 1920 American Dream: o Meritocratic spirit: hard work – from “rags to riches”, Benjamin Franklin o Dream: Daisy´s love, becoming rich is just another thing. (The American dream not just materialistic) o Collision VS actual conditions of existence o Definition: Historian James Truslow Adams in 1931: o “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone” Impossibility to recuperate old values and relive the past The pastoral or natural: idyllic view of the countryside, The modern mechanized world, hectic city life, innocence, no temporary complexity, no corruptions corruption (Nick represents this) Chivalric narrative and Arthurian symbolism and motif o The Holy Grail. Gatsby = unworthy Grail quester. o Daisy= unworthy embodiment of the Grail o The Grail = spiritual salvation, to save King Arthur and rejuvenate him, a rejuvenated kingdom which is lying waste o Daisy = youth, innocence, but negatively she is materialistic, hedonistic o “Her voice is full of money” o Culture of material success: Daisy as a prized possession Christianity: the American Adam: The American Adam Socioeconomic circumstances o First man in paradise o Dream is due to fail o America = Garden Eden – “fresh green o Tragic flow, tragedy breat of a New World” o Romantic hopes – a new start 14 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 Gatsby´s descriptions: “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people —his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God —a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Chapter VI) Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad. “The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone —fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars” (Chapter I) First description of Gatsby: o Pastoral image, idealistic nature, Romantic atmosphere o But also, mystery, shady: moving cat – symbol of bad luck, mystery, a foreboding, →related to the Platonic vision, as if he came out of a dream, he is kind of non-definitive shadow o Materialistic side: silver o > Romantic vs materialistic NARRATOR: Extradiegetic, Homodiegetic (character), not auto diegetic (not the main character) Temporal distance between action and telling: 2 years passed Unreliable “It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth […] She was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone”(Chapter VIII) Free indirect speech ““[…] he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a Paralepsis: to comment something that you high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have don’t know for sure looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and Morally divided narrator shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw Interest not on what Gatsby did but on the the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass” (Chapter VIII) effect it had on an average American (Nick) He told me all this vey much later, but I´ve put it down here with the idea of exploding those first rumors. (Chapter VIII) Non-linearity: non chronological Description of the narrator: Observer, character, moral voice, commenter. The surroundings were rotted, not Gatsby. Carraway = carried away, by Gatsby. Whether he can uphold the position he set to himself "pathfinder", "an original settler". "I'm inclined to reserve judgment" doesn't judge Gatsby who he idealized, but Daisy, Tom, rich, superficial people. Complete doble moral standards. He observes, he doesn't act, says he doesn't judge but he does, when things go wrong the withdraws and goes to the west. He has good intentions but he is not morally pure. Paralepsis & mania about only one thing. 15 Abre tu Cuenta NoCuenta con el código WUOLAH10 y llévate 10 € al hacer tu primer pago a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-10404756 CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION Jay Gatsby mysterious, self-made man, idealistic, chivalric knight, “American Adam” by winning Daisy, American dreamer (personifies the American dream by becoming rich and materialistic) but allows himself to be corrupted. Daisy Like the flower, naive like an act, more intelligent than she projects, plays the silly woman, Buchannan beauty, gold like wealth, materialistic, passive, objectified, childish, superficial, a role she plays to survive socially, when she talks about her daughter, when she knew her baby is a girl, she cries and says she hopes she is a fool. She plays the fool be that is expected of her by people like Tom. Tom Buchanan racist, a bad husband, cheats on Daisy, unfaithful, aggressive, when he realizes when daisy and Gatsby are having an affair. Cruel body, hard mouth, “national figure", associates him with America as a country, the old rich, patriarchal, white-supremacist. Myrtle Wilson poor, level-headed, working class, she has aspirations, sensuous, femme fatale, struggles for a better life (eventually she dies), Myrtle is a perennial plant (survives in winter), a survivor. George Wilson working class, highest inspired to have Tom's car. Stuck in situation, symbolized by his heath condition (anaemic), symbolizes the lack of passion and energy, unable to fight for any dream but Tom's car. Jordan Baker flapper, the new woman, more independent, some economic independency, has a gender neutral name, androgenous in her name. Careless, irresponsible, decadence (the party society, of the American dream). SETTING The Summer of 1922 on Long Island and in New York City East Egg Tom, Daisy and the Old Rich West Egg Nick and Gatsby, new rich and middle class (Gatsby´s house compared to the hotel de vile Paris, an imitation, fake) Valley of Ashes George and Myrtle, working class, grey, dust, ashes, by the bible this means death, living death, excluded by the hedonistic life of the 20s, the underside of the American dream, the spiritual barrenness of the US society, wasteland, nothing grows there. In the same year Wasteland by TS Eliot was published: fresh green breast of the new world New York loose morals, freedom, excitement, isolation, lack of warmth, heartlessness The Midwest old, traditional, conservative, family values (Nick gets his values from here) Fitzgerald is also from there, less freedom, family interferes more, security, stability you feel safe. “That’s my Middle West —not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family’s name” (Chap