'The Still Point of the Turning World'
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Modernist Permabulations Through Time and Space
Journal of the British Academy, 4, 197–219. DOI 10.5871/jba/004.197 Posted 18 October 2016. © The British Academy 2016 Modernist perambulations through time and space: From Enlightened walking to crawling, stalking, modelling and street-walking Lecture in Modern Languages read 19 May 2016 ANNE FUCHS Fellow of the Academy Abstract: Analysing diverse modes of walking across a wide range of texts from the Enlightenment period and beyond, this article explores how the practice of walking was discovered by philosophers, educators and writers as a rich discursive trope that stood for competing notions of the morally good life. The discussion proceeds to then investigate how psychological, philosophical and moral interpretations of bad prac- tices of walking in particular resurface in texts by Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and the interwar writer Irmgard Keun. It is argued that literary modernism transformed walking from an Enlightenment trope signifying progress into the embodiment of moral and epistemological ambivalence. In this process, walking becomes an expression of the disconcerting experience of modernity. The paper concludes with a discussion of walking as a gendered performance: while the male walkers in the modernist texts under discussion suffer from a bad gait that leads to ruination, the new figure of the flâneuse manages to engage in pleasurable walking by abandoning the Enlightenment legacy of the good gait. Keywords: modes of walking, discursive trope, Enlightenment discourse, modernism, modernity, moral and epistemological ambivalence, gender, flâneuse. Walking on one’s two legs is an essential but ordinary skill that, unlike cycling, skate-boarding, roller-skating or ballroom dancing, does not require special proficiency, aptitude or thought—unless, of course, we are physically impaired. -
The Waste Land: a Personal Grouse
The Waste Land: A Personal Grouse Leon Surette University of Western Ontario Eliot¶s Waste Land must be the most discussed and analyzed poem of its length in the language, yet, for all that, it is perhaps still the most contested of all poems firmly ensconced in the canon. Initially receivedat least by its boostersas an articulation of the alienation, disillusion and scepticism of the young twentieth century, it has since been attacked from many anglesas reactionary, mystical, homosexual, anti-Semitic, elitist, phallocentric andperhaps most damaginglyas a con. The last criticism comes from the rather acid pen of Lawrence Rainey, who denounces the whole of Modernist art DV OLWWOH PRUH WKDQ ³D VWUDWHJ\ ZKHUHE\ WKH ZRUN of art invites and solicits its cRPPRGLILFDWLRQ´ (3).1 The Waste Land, Rainey says, was ³DQ HIIRUW WR DIILUP the output of a specific marketing-publicity apparatus through the enactment of a triumphal and triumphant occasion´ 7KHUHLVQRGRXEWWKDWWKHSXEOLFDWLRQRIThe Waste Land was orchestrated by Eliot, Pound, and Eliot¶s Harvard friend, Schofield Thayer, co-editor of The Dial, but if we are to condemn all artworks whose creators indulged in self promotion, the canon would shrink radically. Of course, the poem has its defendersindeed, they are legion; however, few any longer defend the poem¶V ³P\WKLFDO PHWKRG´DIHature emphasized by early boosters and by Eliot himself. 5RQDOG %XVK IRU H[DPSOH GLVPLVVHV WKH ³)UD]HU DQG :HVWRQ LPDJHU\´DV³VXSHULPSRVHGSLHFHPHDORQWRVHFWLRQVWKDWKDGEHHQ ZULWWHQHDUOLHU´an assessment with which it is difficult to disagree. +RZHYHUKHJRHVRQWRVXUPLVH³WKDW(OLRWKDGVRPHNLQGRIVKRUW- lived religious illumination during the process of re-envisioning the IUDJPHQWVRIKLVSRHP´ WKHUHE\SURVSHFWLYHO\GHIHQGLQJLWIURP Rainey¶s accusations of manipulative career buildingwhich it certainly was. -
Poetics and the Waste Land
Poetics and The Waste Land Subjects, Objects and the “Poem Including History” Wassim Rustom A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages University of Oslo In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the MA Degree May 2016 Poetics and The Waste Land Subjects, Objects and the “Poem Including History” Wassim Rustom © Wassim Rustom 2016 Poetics and The Waste Land: Subjects, Objects and the “Poem Including History” Wassim Rustom http://www.duo.uio.no Abstract The aim of this thesis is to trace key elements of the poetics that produced The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot’s landmark work of modernist poetry. Part I of the thesis examines the development of the Hulme-Pound-Eliot strand of modernist poetry through a focus on the question of subjectivity and the relationship between philosophical-epistemological ideas and modernist poetics. It traces a movement from a poetic approach centred on the individual consciousness towards one that aims to incorporate multiple subjectivities. Part II offers a complementary account of Eliot’s shift towards a more expansive scope of subject matter and of the fragmented poetic structure of The Waste Land. The argument is based on Jacques Rancière’s analysis of the modern regime of poetics dominant in the West since the Romantics, which identifies “literature” with the “life of a people” and is characterized by an inclusive logic that poeticizes ordinary subjects, objects and fragments. To my parents Contents Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 Part I 1 Early Modernism and Turn-of-the-century Philosophy: Subjectivity and Objectivity...9 1.1 Subjectivity and Narrative Technique................................................................................ -
The Waste Land by T
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot Copyright Notice ©1998−2002; ©2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design® and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license. ©2007 eNotes.com LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution or information storage retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher. For complete copyright information on these eNotes please visit: http://www.enotes.com/waste−land/copyright Table of Contents 1. The Waste Land: Introduction 2. Text of the Poem 3. T. S. Eliot Biography 4. Summary 5. Themes 6. Style 7. Historical Context 8. Critical Overview 9. Essays and Criticism 10. Topics for Further Study 11. Media Adaptations 12. What Do I Read Next? 13. Bibliography and Further Reading 14. Copyright Introduction Because of his wide−ranging contributions to poetry, criticism, prose, and drama, some critics consider Thomas Sterns Eliot one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The Waste Land can arguably be cited as his most influential work. When Eliot published this complex poem in 1922—first in his own literary magazine Criterion, then a month later in wider circulation in the Dial— it set off a critical firestorm in the literary world. The work is commonly regarded as one of the seminal works of modernist literature. Indeed, when many critics saw the poem for the first time, it seemed too modern. -
Mass Culture and Individuality in Hermann Broch’S Late Works
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Sunderland University Institutional Repository MASS CULTURE AND INDIVIDUALITY IN HERMANN BROCH’S LATE WORKS JANET PEARSON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Sunderland for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. APRIL 2015 i Abstract Mass Culture and Individuality in Hermann Broch’s Late Works Janet Pearson This thesis explores Hermann Broch’s thought regarding the relationship between the individual and the mass, in an age of mass-culture. Broch, an Austrian-Jewish intellectual, who emigrated to America in 1938, discussed ideas upon this theme in theoretical essays, including a theory of mass hysteria (Massenwahntheorie) as well as his fictional The Death of Virgil (Der Tod des Vergil). In the study, the analysis of his theoretical work shows that Broch’s views regarding the masses differ from those of other theorists contemporary to him (Le Bon, Freud and Canetti), in that they are closely linked to his theory of value. It also establishes that his ideas about individuality reach back to the earliest philosophers, and that he perceived this dimension of human existence to be changing, through the development of ‘ego- consciousness’. Building upon this, the textual analysis of the Virgil demonstrates that Broch finds similarities between his own era and the age of Augustus, but also indicates that the concept of individuality portrayed in the work goes beyond that discussed in his theoretical writing and points towards a new role for art in the post-industrial age. -
The Individual and the «Spiritual» World in Kafka's Novels
Studies in 20th Century Literature Volume 3 Issue 1 Article 3 8-1-1978 The Individual and the «Spiritual» World in Kafka's Novels Ulrich Fülleborn Universitat Erlangen-Niirnberg Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl Part of the German Literature Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Fülleborn, Ulrich (1978) "The Individual and the «Spiritual» World in Kafka's Novels," Studies in 20th Century Literature: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1057 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in 20th Century Literature by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Individual and the «Spiritual» World in Kafka's Novels Abstract Following an earlier essay by the same author on 'Perspektivismus und Parabolik' in Kafka's shorter prose pieces, this article gives a description of the structure of Kafka's novels in terms of the concepts 'the individual' (cf. Kierkegaard's 'individuals') and 'the spiritual world' (Kafka: «There is no world but the spiritual one»). Joseph K. and the land-surveyor K. become individuals by leaving the world of everyday life and passing over into the incomprehensible spiritual world of trials and a village-castle community, in the same way that Karl Rossmann had passed over into the 'Nature-theatre of Oklahoma' before them. And they remain as individuals, since in this world they struggle to hold their own. -
Franz Kafka's Transformations
Franz Kafka’s Transformations Andrew Barker ALONE amongst the contributions to the volume, this essay does not address a Scandinavian topic. The theme of transformation in Franz Kafka’s work and life does, however, allow us to recall that Peter Graves is himself a notable example of a changeling, having begun his career at Aberdeen University as a student of German under the venerable Professor Wilhelm (Willy) Witte. What is presented here may thus serve as a reminder of a world Peter inhabited long ago, before he morphed into the Scandinavian polymath we know and honour today. The impetus for the present contribution came from reading James Hawes’ exhilarating study Excavating Kafka (2008).1 This work was promptly written off by Klaus Wagenbach, the doyen of Kafka studies in Germany, who is quoted as saying: ‘Irgendein Dämel kommt daher, weiß nix und schreibt über Kafka’ (Jungen 2008).2 In defence of Wagenbach’s po-faced dismissal of a much younger, non-German scholar’s work, one might plead that his grasp of English was insufficient for him to grasp the book’s satirical and polemical intentions. In fact, Excavating Kafka is the work of a scholar who knows a great deal about Kafka, and writes about him with panache and insight. I can match Hawes neither in my knowledge of Kafka nor the secondary literature, but I share with him a mounting frustration with the commonly-peddled myths about Kafka’s life and work, and it is some of these which I shall address in this short paper. Looking at the work first, I shall concentrate on what is probably Kafka’s most iconic story, Die Verwandlung (1912; ‘Metamorphosis’), the English translation of whose title I find particularly problematic. -
Fusing the Voices: the Appropriation and Distillation of the Waste Land
Fusing the voices: the appropriation and distillation of The waste land Martin John Fletcher Submetido em 19 de julho de 2015. Aceito para publicação em 23 de outubro de 2015. Cadernos do IL, Porto Alegre, n.º 51, dezembro de 2015. p. 51-66 ______________________________________________________________________ POLÍTICA DE DIREITO AUTORAL Autores que publicam nesta revista concordam com os seguintes termos: (a) Os autores mantêm os direitos autorais e concedem à revista o direito de primeira publicação, com o trabalho simultaneamente licenciado sob a Creative Commons Attribution License, permitindo o compartilhamento do trabalho com reconhecimento da autoria do trabalho e publicação inicial nesta revista. (b) Os autores têm autorização para assumir contratos adicionais separadamente, para distribuição não exclusiva da versão do trabalho publicada nesta revista (ex.: publicar em repositório institucional ou como capítulo de livro), com reconhecimento de autoria e publicação inicial nesta revista. (c) Os autores têm permissão e são estimulados a publicar e distribuir seu trabalho online (ex.: em repositórios institucionais ou na sua página pessoal) a qualquer ponto antes ou durante o processo editorial, já que isso pode gerar alterações produtivas, bem como aumentar o impacto e a citação do trabalho publicado. (d) Os autores estão conscientes de que a revista não se responsabiliza pela solicitação ou pelo pagamento de direitos autorais referentes às imagens incorporadas ao artigo. A obtenção de autorização para a publicação de imagens, de autoria do próprio autor do artigo ou de terceiros, é de responsabilidade do autor. Por esta razão, para todos os artigos que contenham imagens, o autor deve ter uma autorização do uso da imagem, sem qualquer ônus financeiro para os Cadernos do IL. -
The Complete Stories
The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka a.b.e-book v3.0 / Notes at the end Back Cover : "An important book, valuable in itself and absolutely fascinating. The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, symbolic, parabolic, grotesque, ritualistic, nasty, lucent, extremely personal, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic. numinous and prophetic." -- New York Times "The Complete Stories is an encyclopedia of our insecurities and our brave attempts to oppose them." -- Anatole Broyard Franz Kafka wrote continuously and furiously throughout his short and intensely lived life, but only allowed a fraction of his work to be published during his lifetime. Shortly before his death at the age of forty, he instructed Max Brod, his friend and literary executor, to burn all his remaining works of fiction. Fortunately, Brod disobeyed. Page 1 The Complete Stories brings together all of Kafka's stories, from the classic tales such as "The Metamorphosis," "In the Penal Colony" and "The Hunger Artist" to less-known, shorter pieces and fragments Brod released after Kafka's death; with the exception of his three novels, the whole of Kafka's narrative work is included in this volume. The remarkable depth and breadth of his brilliant and probing imagination become even more evident when these stories are seen as a whole. This edition also features a fascinating introduction by John Updike, a chronology of Kafka's life, and a selected bibliography of critical writings about Kafka. Copyright © 1971 by Schocken Books Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Schocken Books Inc., New York. Distributed by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. -
Class Exercise: the Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka and Expressionism
Class Exercise: The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka and Expressionism GW 2050 Jeanne Stauffer-Merle [Bracketed items are addressed to teachers; this site was originally created for the students.] [Students were already given a general background on Kafa's life and themes/interests.] [Difficulties for students with “The Metamorphosis”: 1. That Kafka chose to use this unrealistic device, forcing students to let go of their dependence on the rational. 2. That the image goes beyond symbolism, propelling the image of an interior state into an exterior reality; the difficulty here is that the image is both symbol and “real.” Gregor both is and is not (in the literal German translation) a monstrous vermin (ein ungeheueres Ungeziefer). Kafka gives this creature a vague name, "a monstrous vermin," to allude to its symbolic nature, yet describes the creature very realistically, reminding us that it is not just a traditional symbol, but a part of a concrete reality. Hopefully, after the end of this exercise, students begin to understand this dual nature of Gregor. The intent of this exercise, then, is to give students a tool for interpreting a text that not only moves sharply away from realism, but uses a paradoxical image.] [A way of introducing this concept is with Expressionistic painting, so students see the importance of this kind of image in "The Metamorphosis," as well as helping students to see connections between art and literature. I chose The Scream because it is of the same era as Kafka's work, is iconic and familiar to most students (although most students don't know what Munch is trying to express) and because The Scream so famous, it gives an added authenticity to using Expressionism.] Expressionism: Expression of an inner psychological state as a literal, physical condition. -
ANALYSIS “The Waste Land” (1922) TS Eliot (1888-1965)
ANALYSIS “The Waste Land” (1922) T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) “[The essential meaning of the poem is reducible to four Sanskrit words, three of which are] so implied in the surrounding text that one can pass them by…without losing the general tone or the main emotion of the passage. They are so obviously the words of some ritual or other. [The reader can infer that “shantih” means peace.] For the rest, I saw the poem in typescript, and I did not see the notes till 6 or 8 months afterward; and they have not increased my enjoyment of the poem one atom. The poem seems to me an emotional unit…. I have not read Miss Weston’s Ritual to Romance, and do not at present intend to. As to the citations, I do not think it matters a damn which is from Day, which from Milton, Middleton, Webster, or Augustine. I mean so far as the functioning of the poem is concerned…. This demand for clarity in every particular of a work, whether essential or not, reminds me of the Pre-Raphaelite painter who was doing a twilight scene but rowed across the river in day time to see the shape of the leaves on the farther bank, which he then drew in with full detail.” Ezra Pound (1924) quoted by Hugh Kenner The Invisible Poet, T.S. Eliot (Obolensky 1959) 152 “[Eliot’s] trick of cutting his corners and his curves makes him seem obscure when he is clear as daylight. His thoughts move very rapidly and by astounding cuts. -
The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka This eBook is designed and published by Planet PDF. For more free eBooks visit our Web site at http://www.planetpdf.com The Metamorphosis This text is a translation from the German by Ian Johnston, Malaspina University- College Nanaimo, BC. It has been prepared for students in the Liberal Studies and English departments. This document is in the public domain, released, January 1999 2 of 96 The Metamorphosis I One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow- like sections. From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes. ‘What’s happened to me,’ he thought. It was no dream. His room, a proper room for a human being, only somewhat too small, lay quietly between the four well- known walls. Above the table, on which an unpacked collection of sample cloth goods was spread out (Samsa was a traveling salesman) hung the picture which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame. It was a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearm disappeared.