"With reference to at least two novels published after 1870, examine ways in which they disclose anxieties about male and/or female sexuality at the end of the nineteenth century."
"With reference to at least two novels published after 1870, examine ways in which they disclose anxieties about male and/or female sexuality at the end of the nineteenth century." Alex Coby, Physics III H.10. MODERN LITERATURE AND DRAMA Dr Siv Jannson The end of the nineteenth century was, like the end of the twentieth, a time filled with fear, anxiety and panic. All major issues in society at any time are generally represented in the literature of the time and this was certainly the case at the end of the nineteenth century. There were many reasons for anxiety; the collapse of empire, the rising Women's emancipation movement and the rise of the theories of Darwin and Freud, amongst others. The primary anxiety at the time, in my opinion, was the fear of 'perverse' sexuality, be it the empowerment of women and the 'decadent', or homosexual man. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson both illustrate this fin de siècle sexual anxiety to great effect, and it is on these two novels that I will concentrate. They approach these anxieties in different ways, and while Dorian shows the personal anxieties felt by the homosexual in fin de siècle England, Jekyll and Hyde exposes the anxieties felt towards the homosexual: As Showalter said, Jekyll and Hyde can be most convincingly read as a fable of fin de
Compare and contrast the ways these authors present the oppressive society of their dystopias and the effect these techniques have on the reader.
Atwood: 'The Handmaids Tale' Orwell: '1984' Compare and contrast the ways these authors present the oppressive society of their dystopias and the effect these techniques have on the reader. Both novels stimulate the reader's anxieties and fears as they explore the dystopic worlds of 'Airstrip One' and 'Gilead'. All of the aspects and issues that are portrayed in the societies are conveyed using a number of techniques such as the manipulation of the familiar and comfortable with the alien and unnerving that Airstrip One and Gilead come to represent. The basic literary techniques and depth of detail are paralleled in both of these pieces of prose and go someway in highlighting the similarity in style yet the backgrounds and eras of the authors set the texts apart and the means (characters, motifs, symbols and experience) they use to deliver the chilling messages behind the novels. '1984' is a political novel written with a purpose of warning readers about the dangers of totalitarian states and in one part says that if you want to see a picture of the future ' imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever'. It is a horrific view of the destruction of totalitarianism. Some of what Orwell prophesised came true in Russia, to some degree. In Stalinist Russia, documents were destroyed as in the 'Ministry of Truth' and there was a 'beautification' of a leader, like there is
The Thematic Parallels Between Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov
Chelsea Greenlee Dostoevsky 0 August 2011 The Thematic Parallels Between Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov Between the years 1866 and 1880, Russian author and philosopher Fyodor Dostoevsky completed several renowned novels, including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov.1 In each of his novels, Dostoevsky examines and interprets several social, physical, mental, and emotional situations and conditions which he believed to both influence and shape the nature of humanity. His theories concerning the causes and effects of these situations are evident throughout each of his works. Despite the fourteen-year gap between when he wrote the first of his novels, Crime and Punishment, and the last, The Brothers Karamazov, the parallel thematic elements in Dostoevsky's writings remain constant. Both The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment contain corresponding central themes including the motivations and psychological consequences of murder, the suffering of children and the foundation of that suffering, and the effects of the influence and the manipulation of money. Furthermore, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov also represent the theories of philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, concerning his interpretation of Dostoevsky's works as "polyphonic novels," which contain multiple voices in a dialogue of "polyphonic truth."
Compare and contrast the writers' presentation of Gatsby and Heathcliff.
ENGLISH LITERATURE A2 UNIT 5: LITERARY CONNECTIONS COURSEWORK: COMPARING TEXTS COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE WRITERS' PRESENTATION OF GATSBY AND HEATHCLIFF Fitzgerald's novel 'The Great Gatsby' is a short American tale arising out of the jazz age during the 1920's. It is full of love, expectations and ultimately loss. The eponymous Gatsby is, as the title suggests, the focal point around which Fitzgerald presents his story, through the narrator Nick Carraway. In much the same way that 'The Great Gatsby' was a product of its era, Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' is largely a result of the romantic movement that was sweeping Europe, intellectually and artistically in the late eighteenth to mid nineteenth centuries. The focus on freedom, emotion and the individual come cross strongly during the novel, with the protagonist, Heathcliff's name conjuring images of the wild Yorkshire moors in which the tale is set. Bronte implements the use of a narrator in her novel. The role is split between the pompous Lockwood and the pragmatic servant Ellen Dean (Nelly). Lockwood's judgement, and therefore Bronte's presentation of character through him, is made doubtful to the reader by a series of blunders. An example being where Lockwood, upon encountering Heathcliff's dogs: 'indulged in winking and making faces at the trio' after previously being warned 'to let the dog alone'- showing that he
Novels of the 1890s are different in so many ways from the novels of the rest of the Nineteenth-Century that they seem almost to belong to a different genre. To what extent would you agree with this claim?
TMA 06 W6186059 Sean Delahoy Option A 'Novels of the 1890's are different in so many ways from the novels of the rest of the Nineteenth-Century that they seem almost to belong to a different genre.' To what extent would you agree with this claim? Written in 1897, Stoker's Dracula exists as more than just a part of the Nineteenth-Century; it belongs to the period known as the fin de siécle, a French term used to describe the period between the end of one era and the beginning of another and the consequent anxieties and expectations that marked this change. In this period the Nineteenth-Century novel transgressed, adopting less secure, traditional methods to epitomise the instability of its time. The conventional styles and rules of realist fiction that had been developed throughout the century were being changed by novels such as Dracula in order to incorporate and emulate the turbulence that existed for Victorian society at the end of the century. Illuminating the fear and social apprehension of the unknown future in unrealistic, unconventional ways helped to capture the trepidation of what the turn of the century would bring from home and abroad. This removal of the rules that clarified the genre of the Nineteenth-Century novel makes the novels of the fin de siécle seem to belong to a
Alienation in 'Le Vice-Consul', 'Elise ou la vraie vie', 'Pluie et vent sur Télumée-Miracle' and 'The Handmaid's Tale.'
Alienation in 'Le Vice-Consul', 'Elise ou la vraie vie', 'Pluie et vent sur Télumée-Miracle' and 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Alienation occurs as an overriding theme throughout each of these novels and is presented through the narrative voice, character, plot and setting. Alienation is described as a form of estrangement; transference of ownership; mental disorder, and the failure to recognise familiar persons or things. To be alienated or estranged from someone or something means becoming a stranger to something or somebody one was closely related to. The term alienation, as was once defined by Rousseau, started as soon as man was separated from his 'natural' condition. Alienation for Duras often signifies both disjunction and harmony, couples are most often estranged from one another in a sustained desire for the absent other. Alienation often occurs as a form of madness, as there would normally be a communion and sharing of love, although due to a breakdown in identity the notion of the isolated individual is created. As Duras' novel evolves, the shift from negative connotations of alienation to more positive meanings of disjunction and destruction is evident. In 'Le Vice-Consul' Anne-Marie Stretter appears as a central figure as the wife of the French Ambassador to Calcutta, where they have lived for seventeen years. What we learn of her is that she is Venetian, she
'The Handmaid's Tale' - Based on your reading of the text so far, what do you find interesting about the way Atwood presents the character of Offred?
Jonathan Newcombe 'The Handmaid's Tale' October 2002 Based on your reading of the text so far, what do you find interesting about the way Atwood presents the character of Offred? 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a novel written in the early 1980's by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1986. 'The Handmaid's tale' reveals an eerie dystopia that is set in our future, we learn about a society called Gilead where every law is based on manipulated extracts from the bible. As a result of the new society reading has been outlawed, women's bodies are used as instruments and education doesn't exist. 'The Handmaid's tale' combines a bleak futuristic reality, feminism and politics to create a dystopian atmosphere that draws the reader into questioning the rules of the new society and those of their own. In the opening chapter the reader is quickly introduced to a new world and to Atwood's chosen style of narration. We are introduced to novel by one of Offred's memories, a time in her past but in the reader's future. Offred and some other girls are sleeping in what used to be a school gym. As Offred describes her surroundings she suggests that something has happened to America. 'Army issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S'. Although we are not sure what has happened this heavily suggests that the U.S no longer exists. This is the first time the reader is
The Metamorphosis:The Potrait Of Kafka's Life
The Metamorphosis: The Potrait Of Kafka's Life By Vishal S Shah -- 4/01 The Metamorphosis written by Franz Kafka is considered one of the few great, poetic works of the twentieth century. Addressing The Metamorphosis, Elias Canetti, a Nobel Prize-winning author, has commented, "In The Metamorphosis Kafka has reached the height of his mastery: he has written something which he could never surpass, because there is nothing which The Metamorphosis could be surpassed by - one of the few great, perfect poetic works of this century" (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/m4lec5a.htm). There are many symbolisms and parallelisms used in the story. "[Kafka's] disturbing, symbolic fiction, especially The Metamorphosis, written in German, [not] only prefigures the oppression and despair of the late 20th century" but also is an account of the dramatic transformations that had occurred during his own life ("Kafka Franz", Funk?, 2000). This beautifully written masterpiece of Kafka's is clearly symbolic of his own life and nightmare-like life experiences he had with his father. "Suppose all that you have always valued in your life was shown to be an illusion. What if your precious beliefs, maxims, platitudes, and traditions were inverted and distorted beyond recognition? You suddenly realize that what is good is bad; what is beauty is foul; what is virtue, vice. What if all your points of
Daniel Defoe.
Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe was a member of the lower middle class, a Dissenting Protestant, and a staunch political activist, all of which contributed to a lifelong sense of alienation and embattlement. He suffered his share of ups and downs, falling into severe financial and legal trouble in mid-life. Having been twice imprisoned himself, Defoe had a first-hand knowledge of the social underworld he describes in Moll Flanders. Because of his class status and religious affiliation, Defoe was in some respects an outsider among the literary figures of his generation. He was educated, but in a practical vein; he did not receive the classical education that informed the careers of Pope and Dryden, for example. Moll Flanders was not a novel that enjoyed great success at the time of its publication; the coarseness of its subject matter alienated many potential readers. It was for later centuries to appreciate the nature of his achievement in this book. Though some 19th- and 20th-century critics have belittled Defoe's technical achievements, he currently enjoys a strong literary reputation and is counted by many contemporary scholars as one of the key figures in the early development of the novel. The full title of Moll Flanders gives an apt summary of the plot: "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu'd
Judith PughMarking Tutor: Mark Brown To what extent are writers also detectives in the novels you have studied?
Judith Pugh Marking Tutor: Mark Brown To what extent are writers also detectives in the novels you have studied? The crime and the detective novel and their conventions have changed considerably over the last century. As societies have changed, these genres have adapted and branched out to meet the needs of writers attempting to express new concerns. Edgar Allen Poe's detective novel, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) follows conventions we would now consider to be traditional in mystery writing. Bearing a close resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, we find a detective who relies on reasoning and deduction to solve a mystery that to all intensive purposes appears unsolvable; a locked room mystery such as Doyle's The Speckled Band (1892). In America, between the world wars, emerged the 'hard-boiled' private eye novel, featuring tough private investigators, often themselves outcasts from society. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are examples of authors from this school of detective fiction. After the Second World War there was increasingly a feeling that literary fiction was an inadequate means of accurately describing the horrors of the modern world. 'New journalism' emerged, a term coined by Tom Wolfe to describe non-fiction novels by authors such as Truman Capote. His true crime novel, In Cold Blood (1965) is one of the texts