Joseph Conrad

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 439.

Henry James books

Herbert George Wells

· Literature has a use (to transmit ideas) vehicle/container for the ideas

· Conservative in literature – the simpler a novel, the better, you shouldn't complicate things

· Message given straight on

· Not complicated form, not visible, not drawing attention, to itself

Literary quarrels – discussions in letters between Wells and James about art/fiction/role of art, they were published, he compares him to a journalist, form is not important but the subject

Recently two books about Henry James:

· Comb Toibin “The Master”, H. James protagonist, written in the style of Henry James

· David Lodge “Author, Author” –

20^th century split between high-brow and popular literature

· High-brow – more demanding

· Popular – repetitive, hardly innovative and experimental

· “A Passionate Pilgrim” – story of his life, culture in Europe, the difference between America (energy, openness, money, profit) and Europe (tradition, art, culture) erupts into open conflict

· “The portrait of a Lady” – a study of woman (Elizabeth) her development, her thoughts, changes

· “The Bostonians”

· “The Wings of the Dove”

· “The Ambassadors”

· “The Golden Bowl”

“The Heart of Darkness” – gaps, colours, symbolic objects, not based on plot and action, narration – filtred by Marlow

WYKŁAD 16

I World War

· 1^st world and mass war

· a lot of people (soldiers) died

· meantime – colonial wars, The Boers War (South Africa)

· rage

· unprecedented brutality

· improvement in weapon (gases, tanks, artillery)

· turning point: 1916 –

· Great battles: Somme, Verdun – extremely bloody, a lot of casualties, the attitude (initial optimism and enthusiasm) changed, harsh reality remained

· War – national trauma

· War literature, war poetry (most poets were soldiers, experienced the war)

o Relatively simple, nothing original, little experimentation

o Use of colloquial language, soldiers slang

o Subject matter: experience is communicated

· To 1916 – abstractly optimistic vision of war

o Rupert Brooke (soldier) – what war is like? (smell, touch), intellectual writing, theory

· After 1916:

o W. Owen

o S. Sassoon

o I. Rosenberg

o E. Thomas

o David Jones

o Soldiers, they experienced war, it doesn't bring any benefits, death, suffering, damage, philosophical poems, questions: what for do we fight?, sensual images (distorted bodies, reactions) the pictures of reality (battlefield) we see how in practice war looked like