Saul Bellow's Hidden Theme Keith M
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Hemingway & Faulkner English 423, Fall 2016 Dr. David Swerdlow 405
Hemingway & Faulkner English 423, Fall 2016 Dr. David Swerdlow 405 Thompson-Clark, x7345 Office Hours: MWF 11-12 and by appt. Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are among the United States’ most celebrated writers. Nobel laureates and icons of the modernist era, these two writers may be most known for their easily recognizable and radically different styles that surface in everything they write. In many ways, however, they are kindred spirits in terms of theme and ambition. Consider their Nobel Prize acceptance speeches. (Please note that Hemingway, because of illness, was not able to give his speech himself. It was delivered by the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.) Having no facility for speech-making and no command of oratory nor any domination of rhetoric, I wish to thank the administrators of the generosity of Alfred Nobel for this Prize. No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility. There is no need to list these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience. It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart. Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten. Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. -
Dictionary of Midwestern Literature Volume One: the Authors Philip A
200 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Dictionary of Midwestern Literature Volume One: The Authors Philip A. Greasley, general editor (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2001. Pp. x, 666. Illustrations,suggestions for further reading, appendix, index. $59.95.) This volume presents, in alphabetical (that is, persons with their origins and/ order, approximately four hundred en- or most lasting affiliationswith the area) tries on individual authors. Each entry and “Midwesternliterature.” This ambi- begins with name, birth and death dates, guity has implications for the usefulness and major pseudonyms, and continues of the volume. Who is represented here, with sections on biography, literary sig- and on what basis? nificance, identification of major works, Anderson’s essay, for instance, con- and suggestions for further secondary cludes with the intriguing note that four reading. The entries are signed and in- of the eight American winners of the clude the institutional affiliations of some Nobel Prize in literature are midwest- one hundred contributors,all members erners: Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Heming- of the Society for the Study of Midwest- way, Saul Bellow, and Toni Morrison. By ern Literature,the project’s sponsor. This geographicaland cultural affiliation and volume is the first of a proposed three by attitude these four belong in this vol- for the Dictionary of Midwestern Litera- ume. The situation is less clear for other ture. Volume two, in encyclopedia-entry figures who also appear: Black Elk, born format, will cover important historical in Wyoming, raised in the northern and research sites, movements, themes, plains, and oblivious to the white man’s and genres; volume three will be a dis- cultural construct of “region”;Joyce Carol cursive, chapter-organized, literary his- Oates, whose connections to the region tory of the Midwest. -
Wallace Stegner and the De-Mythologizing of the American West" (2004)
Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Department of Professional Studies Studies 2004 Angling for Repose: Wallace Stegner and the De- Mythologizing of the American West Jennie A. Harrop George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dps_fac Recommended Citation Harrop, Jennie A., "Angling for Repose: Wallace Stegner and the De-Mythologizing of the American West" (2004). Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Studies. Paper 5. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dps_fac/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Professional Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANGLING FOR REPOSE: WALLACE STEGNER AND THE DE-MYTHOLOGIZING OF THE AMERICAN WEST A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Jennie A. Camp June 2004 Advisor: Dr. Margaret Earley Whitt Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©Copyright by Jennie A. Camp 2004 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GRADUATE STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER Upon the recommendation of the chairperson of the Department of English this dissertation is hereby accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Profess^inJ charge of dissertation Vice Provost for Graduate Studies / if H Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. -
The Ernest Hemingway Primer
The Ernest Hemingway Primer By Timeless Hemingway Copyright © 2009 Timeless Hemingway Publications. All rights reserved. Contents I. Biography II. Books by Ernest Hemingway III. The Life: Top 5 Frequently Asked Questions IV. The Literature: Top 5 Frequently Asked Questions V. Notable Quotables VI. Further Reading 2 Biography I. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois to Dr. Clarence Edmonds Hemingway and Grace Hall Hemingway. The second of six children, Ernest enjoyed an adventurous boyhood, fishing and hunting with his father in the northern woods of Michigan. He attended Oak Park High School where he excelled in his classes, particularly English. He tried his hand at football and swimming, edited the school paper (the Trapeze), and contributed pieces to the school's literary magazine (the Tabula). After graduating high school, Ernest traveled to Kansas City and worked as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star. In 1918, he began service as an ambulance driver for the Italian army. On July 8, he was wounded at Fossalta on the Italian Piave while delivering chocolates, cigarettes, and postcards to soldiers. He married Elizabeth Hadley Richardson on September 3, 1921. The newlyweds soon entered the literary community of Paris, living off of Hadley's trust fund and Ernest's pay as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. The 1920's were extremely productive writing years for Hemingway. Three Stories and Ten Poems was published in 1923, In Our Time in 1925. In 1926, The Torrents of Spring and the widely successful novel, The Sun Also Rises were published. -
On Norman Mailer
LITERATURE 3 Scavenger of eternal truths Norman Mailer in the 1960s THOMAS MEANEY Norman Mailer COLLECTED ESSAYS OF THE 1960S 500pp. Library of America. £29.99 (US $35). 978 1 59853 559 4 FOUR BOOKS OF THE 1960S 950pp. Library of America. £39.99 (US $45). 978 1 59853 558 7 Edited by J. Michael Lennon I went to Wharton with Donald Trump. We were both from praetorian families in Queens – his more martial than mine – in the first line of defense on the crabgrass frontier. We went out one night together to a hotel behind Rittenhouse Square. His date was a wised-up girl from Phila- delphia society who dreamed of becoming a stripper; mine was a retreating waitress, with a hyena body that gave off a whiff of the inquisi- tive. After the drinks – Don drank seltzer – we took them to a room we’d booked upstairs. My date gashed my face with her high-heel after I tried to shuffle her into one of the bedrooms. There was panting from Don’s quarters, the sound of a teetering vase, then mechanical chanting, until a final flesh-on-flesh “Whaa- aap!” A volley of sweet-talk followed. “If you want to be a dancer, there’s nobody who’s going New York City, 1968 to stop you, not even your father,” Don whis- pered. “I know some of the best dancers in this in a Trump Air commercial, which left him of Walt Whitman and Leon Trotsky, your the haste to give pleasure. It was cool in mood, town. -
Ideological Tension in Four Novels by Saul Bellow
Ideological Tension in Four Novels by Saul Bellow June Jocelyn Sacks Dissertation submitted in fulfilmentTown of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts atCape the Universityof of Cape Town Univesity Department of English April 1987 Supervisor: Dr Ian Glenn The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University Contents Page. Abstract i Acknowledgements vi Introduction Chapter One Dangling Man 15 Chapter Two The Victim 56 Chapter Three Herzog 99 Chapter Four Mr Sammler's Planet 153 Notes 190 Bibliography 212 Abstract This study examines and evaluates critically four novels by Saul Bellow: Dangling Man, The Victim, Herzog and Mr Sammler's Planet. The emphasis is on the tension between certain aspects of modernity to which many of the characters are attracted, and the latent Jewishness of their creator. Bellow's Jewish heritage suggests alternate ways of being to those advocated by the enlightened thought of liberal Humanism, for example, or by one of its offshoots, Existenti'alism, or by "wasteland" ideologies. Bellow propounds certain ideas about the purpose of the novel in various articles, and these are discussed briefly in the introduction. His dismissal of the prophets of doom, those thinkers and writers who are pessimistic about the fate of humankind and the continued existence of the novel, is emphatic and certain. -
Kindred Ambivalence
KINDRED AMBIVALENCE: ART AND THE ADULT-CHILD DYNAMIC IN AMERICA’S COLD WAR by MICHAEL MARBERRY A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2010 Copyright Michael Marberry 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The pervasive ideological dimension of the Cold War resulted in an extremely ambivalent period in U.S. history, marked by complex and conflicting feelings. Nowhere is this ambivalence more clearly seen than in the American home and in the relationship between adults and children. Though the adult-child dynamic has frequently harbored ambivalent feelings, the American Cold War era—with its increased emphasis on the family in the face of ideological struggle—served to highlight this ambivalence. Believing that art reveals historical and cultural concerns, this project explores the extent to which adult-child ambivalence is prominent within American art from the period—particularly, the coming-of-age story, as it is a genre intrinsically concerned with the interactions between adults and children. Chapter one features an analysis of Katherine Anne Porter’s “Old Order” coming-of-age sequence, specifically “The Source” and “The Circus.” Establishing Porter’s relevance to the Cold War period, this chapter illustrates how her young heroine (Miranda Gay) experiences ambivalence within her familial relationships—which, in turn, comes to foreshadow and represent the adult-child ambivalence within the Cold War period. Chapter two expands its scope to include a larger historical context and a different artistic mode. With the rise of cinema during the Cold War period, the horror film became a genre extremely interested in adult-child ambivalence, frequently depicting the child as a destructive force and the adult as a victim of parenthood. -
Electronic Green Journal Volume 1, Issue 41, April 2018
Electronic Green Journal Volume 1, Issue 41, April 2018 Review: Citizen Steinbeck: Giving Voice to the People By Robert McParland Reviewed by Ryder W. Miller New York, NY, USA McParland, Robert. Citizen Steinbeck: Giving Voice to the People. Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. 259 pp. ISBN: 9781442268302, hardback. US$40.00; alkaline paper; also available as an e-book. Citizen Steinbeck: Giving Voice to the People provides a wonderful and fascinating overview of the life and literary achievement of John Steinbeck (1902-1968). English Professor Robert McParland tells a detailed story about Steinbeck’s life which begins in Salinas, California, as well as his struggle to be a successful writer, his days at work and in the war, and his literary success and achievements. As a writer, Steinbeck went beyond being a regionalist to become one of America’s most famous writers; he won a Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He also had an international perspective having been part of the American military struggles overseas and having done some travel writing and setting some of his stories in other countries. Steinbeck began as a reporter but went on to write some stories with mythological elements as well as having characters that believed in witchcraft and astrology. His novels were set in the land with lush descriptions of the outdoors. Salinas, CA was part of the farming community and Steinbeck wrote of their times and struggles. Steinbeck also wrote about some of the animals in these landscapes and one could argue that he also gave them and the land a voice. -
Henderson the Rain King and the Spiritual Quest
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number1. February 2019 Pp. 87 -99 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol3no1.7 “Imaginary Homelands”: Henderson the Rain King and the Spiritual Quest Ramzi B. Mohamed MARROUCHI Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Communication Sultan ZinalAbidin University Terengganu, Malaysia Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Communication Sultan ZinalAbidin University Terengganu, Malaysia Abstract: This paper investigates how and why the spiritual quest of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (1959) enigmatically results in madness. The identity of the American subject should be investigated in the light of his/her restless search of “Other modes of freedom” and imaginary homelands. -Pondering upon this, the researcher realizes that three fundamental questions need to be addressed: What are the aspects of Henderson's spiritual quest? -As a Jewish hero, how could Henderson be associated with quest, victimization and madness? Can one think about identity or identities? To unmask these blind spots, the theme of the quest will be investigated, first. The researcher shall trace Henderson's movement from a material world – New York – to a spiritual and romantic one, Africa. Second, Henderson's failure to cope with the new world and therefore his failure to (re) – construct the identity of the American character will be examined in details. This safely allows us to argue for the madness of the hero. The conclusion is that there is no ‘absolute identity’ to the American subject. Henderson's attempts to re-construct a “new identity” shall be seen in line with poststructuralist premises regarding “difference, multiplicity, other, cultural diversity.” Key Words: Alienation, Henderson the Rain King, Hegel, identity, Saul Bellow Cites as: MARROUCHI, R. -
THE QUEST OP the HERO in the NOVELS OP SAUL BELLOW By
THE QUEST OP THE HERO IN THE NOVELS OP SAUL BELLOW by BETTY JANE TAAPPE, B.A. A THESIS IN ENGLISH Submltted to the Graduate Paculty of Texas Technologlcal College In Partial Pulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OP ARTS 4e T3 I9CL /\/o. m Cop. Z ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am <Jeeply lndebte<J to Professor Mary Sue Carlock for her dlrectlon of this thesls. 11 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGpENT. 11 INTRODUCTÍON 7 . 1 Chapter I. PAILURE IN ISOLATION . 6 II. EXPERIENCE AS A TEST POR EXISTENCE. 25 III. "THE TRUTH COMES IN BLOWS". .... 5k IV. STATEMENT OP EXTERNAL EXPERIENCE AND INTELLECTUALITY 78 CONCLUSION 100 iii INTRODUCTION Many novels of the past few decades have been characterized by theraes which eraphasize human freedom, rebellion, fatalism, mechanical necessity, and obsession, and because of the tendency of the "raodern hero" to vacil- late in a somewhat precarious way between the prevalent themes of Promethean defiance and Sisyphean despair, there seems to have developed a pattern in modern literature, ironic and paradoxical, that involves the hero in a struggle for identity in a world that almost always is rejected by him as incoraprehensible or absurd. Because of the omnivorous nature of the novel as a literary form, both the intellectual therae of defiance and the raetaphysical "anguish" are presented not only in sophisticated, cosraopolitian, intellectual set- tings, but also in provincial atraospheres, where daily rou- tines, sounds, and sraells are very familiar. Therefore, the raodern novel or, as Howe prefers, the "post-raodem" novel, in raany ways serves as a docuraent on raan and his attempt to elicit meaning frora a world that alraost always proves to be irremediably absurd. -
NOTES on CONTRIBUTORS Thomas La Borie Burns Teaches English
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Thomas La Borie Burns teaches English and American literature at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. He has published poetry, poetic translations, and essays on literature and other topics, both in Brazil and in the United States, and is currently a doctoral candidate in literature at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Willian Harmon has taught English and American literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapei Hill since 1970. He has published five volumes of poetry, including winners of the Lamont Award and the William Carlos Williams Award. He has published a criticai study of Ezra Pound s work and has edited The Oxford Book of American Light Verse, the fifth and sixth editions of the Macmillan Handbook to Literature, and Columbia University Press anthologies of the top 100 and top 500 poems in English. Robert F. Kiernan is Professor of English and World literature at Manhattan College, in New York City. He was a Fulbright Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo in 1991 and the Universidade Federal de Brasília in 1992. He Lectured at the ABRA PUI conference in Maringá in 1989. He is the author of six books: Katherine Anne Porter and Carson McCullers (1986); Gore Vidal (1982); American Writing Since 1945: A Criticai Survey (1983, translated as A Literatura Americana Pós 1945: Um Ensaio Crítico, 1988); Noel Coward (1986), Saul Bellow (1989), and Frivolity Unbound: Six Masters of the Camp Novel (1990). Barbara Ladd is Assistant Professor of American literature in the English Department at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. She has published in The Southern Quarterly, The Mississippi Quarterly, and elsewhere. -
Katarina Graah-Hagelbäck
School of Languages and Media Studies English Department Master Degree Thesis in Literature, 15 hp Course code: EN3053 Supervisor: Billy Gray The Description and Meaning of Faces in Selected Texts by Saul Bellow Katarina Graah-Hagelbäck Dalarna University English Department Degree Thesis Autumn 2011 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. A Few Words about Physiognomy 3 3. Faces as the “Reflection of the Soul”: What Faces Betray 5 4. How Bellow Depicts Faces 8 4.1. Descriptions of Some Individual Facial Features 9 4.1.1. Noses 9 4.1.2. Eyes 11 4.1.3. Mouths/Lips 13 4.1.4. Skin/Complexion 13 4.1.5. Teeth 15 4.2. Humorous Depictions 16 4.3. A Recurring Image and a Recurring Adjective 18 4.4 Ageing Faces 19 5. The Protagonists’ Relation to Their Own Faces 22 6. Faces as Representations of the Whole Character and of Humankind 24 6.1 Bellow and Levinas 29 7. Conclusion 31 Works Cited 33 1 1. Introduction “To see was delicious. Oh, of course. An extreme pleasure!” (Mr. Sammler’s Planet 147). Seeing, that is, visual impressions and renderings, appears to be an important element in the fiction of the American writer Saul Bellow (1915–2005): “the most basic activity of his fiction . is a matter of this very looking: the protagonist stares at the world” (Opdahl, “Strange Things” 14), and his prose could be said to work “through the acuteness and intensity of its seeing” (Clayton 293). Thus, although Bellow is in many respects “a novelist of intellect” (Fuchs 67), who often fairly wallows – or, rather, has his protagonists wallow – in intricate theoretical analyses and subtle reflections on everything human, he is also to a very high degree a sensual writer.