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Tema 1: 20TH CENTURY REALISM
Henry James Main authors Mark Twain Theodore Dreiser Realism emerged in Europe in the 1840’s. It’s main characteristics were:
. Present and past are discontinuous . Past can be rejected without serious relevance to the Present . Patriotic desire to reflect American realism . Emergence of scientific discovers (science allows a more individual reality)
The civil war marked a turning point in American literature (from agricultural to industrial economy and landscape). Realism could be understood as a response to romanticism. Realism denies the continuity of time and the abstract imagination and traditions were substituted by the real things, imitating nature. Since the artists can’t borrow things from the past, they want to study his particular age. So everything that came from the past was irrelevant for them. The new politics provided a new view of man, it allowed to take more individual approaches to reality. In America we find two authors that emerged in realism: Twain and Dreiser. Twain was considered realistic for his landscapes and language, but he wasn’t that interested in social issues. Dreiser was the most realistic author of America, he provided moral and material progresses. They were both a response to the past, they proposed solutions. They rejected the idea of picturesque tradition for the idealization of nature by transcendentalists. In response to this, Nature and God were reconsidered a new approach to them. Very interested in daily life ( no metaphors) “Flat Style” instead. No distinctions between arts and life. The writer is considered now as a reporter of arts. Twain and Dreiser wrote letters to each other and reflected the realistic concerns of American literature. They rejected the past (transcendentalism and Puritanism) and they made an approach to simple facts (no idealization in their words). “The man was attached to the land (America rejected technology)” After the Civil War, America abandoned those principles, they altered their minds and way of life. Now the farmers were no longer the model man, it was the industrial man. The men of the South were interested in this Regionalism.
The cities as such ones provided degradation. On the other hand, Regionalism was an alternative to this. Agrarian society Regionalism Realism Naturalism Some of them felt nostalgia for the agrarian society and tuned into a very oppressed one. The aim of the men now is to survive, and they can survive in three ways:
- Trough animal instincts
- Trusting in God (religion solved some of the doubts of industrialism)
- Constructing the new model of life/environment
Henry James (was originally American but became an UK citizen in the XX century). Traditional realism, very much interested in human relationships (psychological relations-> complexity of the human existence) Writers used descriptions, analysis and dialogues to explain what they saw. The technique of the point of view combines realism and the point of view. Each character points out his own point of view about that reality. At the end, the reader gets a final impression about that reality. This is also called psychological view, the experience of the individual. Objectivity-> recognition of the individual. They retook the idea of determinism (everything comes from men’s past). We have no manifestos or essays on realism in America. It paid attention to economics and political reforms.
Tema 2: Dos Passos
Rapid cuttings Spatial focus Modernism Mechanization of human figures The sense of physic damage Half abstract urban city spaces It emerged with many revolutionary ideas, a formal innovation about language and an artistic and literary phenomenon. Within, we find another movements: Cubism: emphasis on fragments Dadaism: explores the capabilities of men Futurism: very interested in the machines (man separated from nature) Surrealism: deconstructed objects
- Cinematic technique
- Influenced by Futurism and Cubism
- (^) Use of fragmentation (rapid cuttings)
MANHATTAN TRANSFER.cubism Determinism to move machines. Democratic fiction all the characters are on the same level. Close to modernism and to cinematic techniques. Moral actdemocratic man in the 20th^ century. Not a personal work, however we see oppressive elements and his Marxism. Eye minded novel. Active reconstruction of reality, the true hero of the novel is Dos Passos himself, the modernist artist. Free from old norms, organized himself in a modernist way. Cinema Verité, filming reality on the streets as it is. Public placeshis interest in mass of people. No emotionsit’s just like seeing diverse pictures. Poetical character in each paragraph. Provides a response to the novel which was written after WWI. Opposition of individuals and social system. No plotfocus: structure of the novel, which makes you feel lost. Many characters to reveal the social exploitation of men. Cinematic structure.
TEMA 3: JOHN STEINBECK 1902-1968. Salinas Valley.
His works:
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Tortilla Flat
- The Red Pony
- Of Mice and Men
The landscapes, the people and the conflicts of Salinas Valley appear in his works. His parents supported him as a writer, which was not very common. He abandoned Stanford University to become a writer, he was obsessed. He worked in jobs involving physical labour, because he wanted to come in contact with common workers, of whom he admired their courage, their non- hypocrisy and the fact that they were survivals, as himself. All this were human aspects. When he was 27 he published his first novel “Cup of Gold”, which was quiet successful. In the next decades he wrote 11 novels, 2 collections and travel books. He was a divers writer and the covers of his books were very important. Work groups:
- Naturalistic tragedy (most successful)
- Novels situated in Monterey Bay (like Tortilla Flat , related to love affairs)
- Sentimental novels, lyrical works, pastoral bucolic landscapes ( The Red Pony )
He married 3 times and divorced twice. His third marriage made him move to the eastern part of the USA and he turned to write about travelling. He distrusted social organizations. OF MICE AND MEN Dramatic novel which is rather connected to the theatre than to fiction. Each individual should accept his responsibility. Both characters are survivals. One of them (Lenny) kills a girl. He is a handicapped man. This is the searing story of the daily labours, fragile hopes and ultimate tragedy that befalls the ranch hands George and Lenny. The NY stage version played to critical acclaim and ran for more than 200 performances. The character of George is a storyteller. Steinbeck’s books have also a Scottish influence. His appropriation of the Scottish poet Robert Burns for the title of this novel conveys Steinbeck’s theme along with a connection to Scottish populism. The setting of the novel is twelve miles south from Salinas Valley, Soledad, which means solitude and loneliness. Simple and good hearted Types of characters Picaresque Sentimental Half-wits, primitive They are simple and naive, the are people who are free from moral values. Always involved in survival situations. However, they are full of bitterness, they were used as a critic towards capitalism. They often appear as too sentimental, feelings justify everything. This does not represent Greek tragedy, it is closer to stupidity. Half-wits, they are primitive, but not because of the nature, but for society. This characters share two characteristics: they have no responsibilities (but they are happy about this situation) and they are beyond the law (the only thing they need is food) _________________________________,,___________________________________
The approaches are on the lower level:
- Tragedy
- Political text, critic to capitalism
- (^) Stressed sociological point of view of people exploited by other people
- 6 scenes
