Wednesday, October 27, 2010

What is research? re·search (r-sûrch, rsûrch) n. 1. Scholarly or scientific investigation or inquiry. tfd.com

Source: tfd.com

inquiry.

Who was Herbert Spencer ?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era.

Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. In 1902 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[1] Indeed, in the United Kingdom and the United States at "one time Spencer's disciples had not blushed to compare him with Aristotle!"[2]

He is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.[3] This term strongly suggests natural selection, yet as Spencer extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, he also made use of Lamarckism.

Henri Bergson || Epistemology || phenomenology || stupendous || John Middleton Murry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Bergson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Middleton_Murry#Critic
http://www.katherinemansfield.net/life/briefbio1.html
http://www.bing.com/search?q=stupendous

http://www.answers.com/topic/phenomenology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology
http://www.google.com/search?q=phenomenology

What is Ontology and Phenomenology?

Ontology:

The subject of ontology is the study of the categories of things that
exist or may exist in some domain. The product of such a study, called
an ontology

Source:
jfsowa.com/ontology


Phenomenology:

A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality
consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in
human consciousness and not of anything independent of human
consciousness.

Source:
answers.com/topic/phenomenology

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Day in the Life of an English Literature Student



UNDERSTANDING MODERN LITERARY THEORY

http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm#marx
http://www.kristisiegel.com/links.htm

Video: http://academicearth.org/courses/literary-theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_theory

http://www.muwasalat.com/2010/10/understanding-modern-literary-theory.html
http://englishliteraturelinks.blogspot.com/2010/10/dr-kristi-siegel-internet-sites-and.html

Friday, October 22, 2010

THE MAJOR HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE AMERICAN LITERATURE INCLUDING HEMINGWAY’S WRITING - Fictional writer - Vye -

Major Historical Events of the early 20th Century in American Society:-

The three major historical events of the 20th century were the First World War that broke in 1914. The second important event was The Great Depression that was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in America it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s.The third most important historical event was the Second World War that occurred in 1939.

Effects of the Major Historical Events On Society:-

The affects of these events were immense as War changed the mindset of the whole society, making them rebel against the norms. After the World War I, the second great shock that in twentieth century was faced by America was the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Americans, being proud of their prosperous past were not able to cope with the adverse circumstances as the past comforts were in sharp contrast to the new difficulties.   Politically, America became strong after World War 1. It rose to become the major superpower of the world but unrest was created in the people due to the anti-war sentiments.  The experiences of the war in the west led to a sort of collective national trauma. The optimism of 1900 was entirely gone and those who fought in the war became to known as 'the Lost Generation' because they never fully recovered from their experiences. The large-scale migration after World War, also posed a threat to the country's stability. The immigrants began to be treated with suspicion and distrust. People had become disillusioned from religion due to the innovations posed by science, but seeing the destruction caused by scientific inventions during the war, disillusioned them from science as well consequently this generation became empty and hollow from inside. Women became more active in the affairs outside home. Soldiers left behind helpless families. The sense of family life was disturbed and shattered. People became pessimistic about the future, as they had lost faith in the possibilities of human potential. Fear and uncertainty was created in people's psyche.

Major Writers and Themes of the Post War Era

Historical and social changes have always molded the novelists' perception while writing. This phenomenon is particularly visible with regards to post-war literature. The early twentieth century was dominated by cataclysmic events. The Americans survived the two World Wars and overcame the economic upheaval of the Great Depression. They won, but were not victorious. These events reverberated through society and left a devastating psychological impact. In the novels of the era during and after world war, Man's helplessness in facing different events was portrayed tragically.  

The major thematic concerns of these times inadvertently focused on how the individual had to combat with the restrictions and impediments posed by society. In addition, the extreme emptiness felt by the Lost Generation became a recurrent theme in the writings of this era. After the World Wars, Man became rootless and alienated from tradition. This loss of tradition was accompanied by moral degeneration and a resurgence of the meaninglessness of life. Man in these times was seen as fighting against a malignant Natural world. As Daiches (1960) comments:

"The loss of the confident sense of a common world, of a public view of what was significant in human action…had an effect on both the themes and the technique of fiction."

D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway were the major writers of this era. D.H. Lawrence was one of the notable literary figures in the early twentieth century. His works are a reflection of the major modern issues. He focuses upon the destructive effects of the so-called modernity (an effect of the World War). He writes about the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and explores the nature of individuals and their relationships with one another. Similarly, Franz Kafka's works reflect the anguish and guilt of Modern Man. Kafka builds up the grim mood of individual tragedy that is common to many of his contemporaries, which had its roots in the grim experiences of War on that generation. Kafka himself is said to have stated:

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us … we need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieves us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide."

Major Influences in Hemingway 

In Hemingway's works there is a disillusionment caused by the horrors of war. The hard realities of life, like that of a sudden death or any sudden loss, are depicted in his writings. Both physical and mental/emotional disturbance is to be found under scrutiny in his works. The past child-like faith in happy endings is negated by Hemingway. He gives a lesson of courage even while knowing how the reward might not be given, even to those who remained courageous.

 Hemingway's life and his writings were influenced by many personal and public events and  The First World War provided Hemingway with experiences, which made him a more mature man and changed the inflexible ideas and illusion of his youth. Especially his experience of being wounded in the First World War was not only a physical but also an emotional wound.This unkind display of indifferent death familiarized him with the depressing reality of life. (Young, 1968)  

During his recuperation, he saw many wounded soldiers who were suffering from great stress after confronting the calamities of their lives in different ways. After this injury, Hemingway had no desire to maintaining his gay, courageous mood of his youthful ideals regarding the glory of war. (Dimri, 1998)

Another fundamental influence or experience on Hemingway and his writing is his association with a nurse named Agnes Von Kurowsky whom he met in the hospital while he was injured. His contact with her later developed into a romantic affair. In this context Baker (1972) comments

"Young women like Agnes Von Kurowsky were soon aware of a newly aggressive sexuality, (i.e., people like Hemingway) hitherto sublimated but now brought forth by the long confinement in bed, the kindly attention of pretty nurses, and a romantic setting of a hospital in wartime Milano."

It was intrinsically absurd that a badly injured soldier, who had experienced the failure of the delusion of immortality a few weeks after he enlisted, fell in love with a nurse. This same absurdity which is found in his life is also found in his writings as well. The harshly injured heroes are seen falling in love in spite of their dark vision of life during war.  

It became difficult for Hemingway to adjust in society after returning home from war. The experiences that he had undergone were very different from the norm. The time that he spent in Italy created a sense of tragic adventure. He found it hard to live an ordinary existence at home. (Gurko, 1968) 

The Spanish Civil War is one of the greatest influences on Hemingway. When the war started in 1936, Hemingway began reporting on it. Many of his short stories therefore are set in Spain. Among them The Undefeated, Today is Friday, The Killers, The Butterfly and The Tank, and Night Before Battle stand out. In all these stories, he threw light on the suffering of Spaniards.

The element hope or faith is prevalent in Hemingway's work – whether it's the presence or absence of such emotions. At this connecting in Hemingway's works Dimri (1994) says:

'As a matter of fact Hemingway is the most unconventional of modern writers. It is difficult to define him within the boundaries of religion or a particular philosophic group. He has been called by all available names __ existentialist, wounded idealist, romanticist, realist, sentimentalist, stoic, nihilist, naturalist, materialist, pragmatist, impressionist etc….The benign presence of God is totally missing in his major works. In his struggle, the hero finds no support, no help from any divine source, the solace of religion is denied to him. In his moment of extreme pain Nick declares to have made a separate peace, Krebs declares himself to be out of God's Kingdom, Jake Barnes, Frederick Henry, Robert Jordan do not find comfort in God at the time of crisis or suffering."                                                                                                             

Hemingway's works are cynical, his disillusioned characters spend their time drinking, fishing, fighting, and wrenching. These activities are, of course, time-honored diversions of epic and fictional heroes; but in Hemingway they cease to be diversions and become not only goals of existence, but a sort of mystical masculine moral obligation of a lost generation, tough, courageous, and honest, but broken physically and emotionally by the brutality of war and disillusioned by the in sensitivity and hollowness of civilized society.

If we take a critical look at the novels of Hemingway we can clearly find out how the crises of 20th century has influenced his writing on great scale.

In Our Time is a collection of short stories by Hemingway. The title comes from the Common Book of Prayer but the stories reveal that there is "no peace in our time". In this book ministers are shot, lovers are separated, affaires come to an end, murders are committed in short the story deals with everything decent coming to an end.

The Sun Also Rises is a story of a few American expatriates who were living in Paris after the war. They were all wounded either physically or psychologically. The story focuses on how the old pre-war values cannot give them the directions that they are looking for and in this lost world they are all lost souls. All the characters in this story at the end come to realize the limitations of their own existence.

A Farewell To Arms is about the First World War and its epitomizes the whole of the American response to the First World War. It is the novel in which Hemingway has written about the experience of Henry who was a wounded soldier of war, he falls in love with a nurse and in his effort to protect his love he runs away from battle field but at the end the beloved, his child and his carrier all is lost and he is left all alone in the wide world. The Hemingway hero will carry the scars of this fatal accident with his through out his life.  

Novels such as The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are populated by men who are, in Hemingway's words, "hurt very badly; in the body, mind, and spirit, and also morally." In these works, World War I casts a shadow over characters who, no longer believing in the traditions and values of the nineteenth century or in the goodness of government, are disillusioned idealists who reject nationalist propaganda and easy sentimentality.  

For Whom The Bell Tolls is about the story of an American volunteer who has been assigned the task of blowing up the bridge in the hills. He falls in love with a girl Maria but at the end of the novel he dies and deserts her. In the novel Hemingway has dealt with the issues as democracy, fascism, human freedom, communism and most importantly the destiny of man.

The Old Man and The Sea is a story of an old man who goes out on a journey to catch a fish . After long struggle for 84 days he ends up catching a fish but on arriving on the port he is left with a skeleton of the fish only. The theme of the story is man's struggle and man's helplessness in the hands of destiny. Death and courage are two of the themes that Hemingway often writes about essentially. Hemingway thinks of courage as a person's ability to be calm and controlled in face of death.  "A man may be destroyed, but not defeated," he declares in The Old Man and The Sea.

Conclusion  

Thus, we can conclude by saying that in Hemingway writing the disturbance, turmoil, restlessness and confusion of the twentieth century is clearly evident. The events left a great impact on the individual as well as the society on the whole, the American literature of that time is enriched with the impressions of those events.

(Article is for academic use only)
Help taken also from wikipedia.org and other resources

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

History of English and American Literature1

ROSA PARK'S SIGNATURE

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Visual: Similie of the Sun (Plato)

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/plato/thesun.htm

--
[ARE YOU BORED, DON'T BE ;]

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THE MYTH OF ER (source: wikipedia)

A Renaissance manuscript Latin translation of The Republic

The Myth of Er is an eschatological legend that concludes Plato's The Republic (10.614-10.621). The story includes an account of the cosmos and the afterlife that for many centuries greatly influenced religious, philosophical and scientific thought.

The story begins as a man named Er (Greek: Ἤρ, gen.: Ἠρός; son of Ἀρμένιος - Armenios from Pamphylia) dies in battle. When the bodies of those who died in the battle are collected, ten days after his death, Er remains undecomposed. Two days later he revives when on his funeral-pyre and tells of his journey in the afterlife, including an account of reincarnation and the celestial spheres of the astral plane. The tale introduces the idea that moral people are rewarded and immoral people punished after death.
 

Plato's simile of the sun, image of the divided line, and allegory of the cave are intended to clarify exactly how the things we experience in the sensible, ordinary world (e.g., chairs, drawn triangles) are less real than the ideal models (Forms) on

 
 ...Just as drawings, reflections, or copies of sensible objects are not as real as the sensible things on which they depend, so sensible things are not as real as the concepts in terms of which they are identifiable. Concepts that rely on sensual imagination for their intelligibility--for example, mathematical concepts such as triangularity--are more real than, say, triangular blocks of wood or drawings of triangles. But even though concepts that are based on sense experience are not limited to any particular expression and are unchanging, they are not as real as the Forms, which do not rely for their existence or intelligibility on anything sensual and changing...

TONI MORRISON REFERENCES VIA WIKIPEDIA

References
  1. ^ Duvall, John N. (2000). The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 38. ISBN 9780312234027. http://books.google.com/books?id=iHbeC1I_aWUC&pg=PA38. "After all the published biographical information on Morrison agrees that her full name is Chloe Anthony Wofford, so that the adoption of 'Toni' as a substitute for 'Chloe' still honors her given name, if somewhat obliquely. Morrison's middle name, however, was not Anthony; her birth certificate indicates her full name as Chloe Ardelia Wofford, which reveals that Ramah and George Wofford named their daughter for her maternal grandmother, Ardelia Willis." 
  2. ^ a b Dreifus, Claudia (September 11, 1994). "CHLOE WOFFORD Talks about TONI MORRISON". The New York Times. http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/texts/morrison1.html. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  3. ^ a b Larson, Susan (April 11, 2007). "Awaiting Toni Morrison". The Times-Picayune. http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-8/1176268522309540.xml&coll=1. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  4. ^ a b c d Grimes, William (October 8, 1993). "Toni Morrison Is '93 Winner Of Nobel Prize in Literature". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/11/home/28957.html. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  5. ^ Verdelle, A. J. (February 1998). "Paradise found: a talk with Toni Morrison about her new novel - Nobel Laureate's new book, 'Paradise' - Interview". Essence Magazine. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n10_v28/ai_20187690/pg_2. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  6. ^ "The Bluest Eye" at Oprah's Book Club official page
  7. ^ Menand, Louis (December 26, 2005). "All That Glitters - Literature's global economy". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226crbo_books. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  8. ^ "New York Home of Toni Morrison Burns". The New York Times. December 26, 1993. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEED8173BF935A15751C1A965958260. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
  9. ^ Jefferson Lecturers at NEH Website (retrieved January 22, 2009).
  10. ^ Toni Morrison, "The Future of Time, Literature and Diminished Expectations," reprinted in Toni Morrison, What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2008), ISBN 9781604730173, pp.170-186.
  11. ^ B. Denise Hawkins, "Marvelous Morrison - Toni Morrison - Award-Winning Author Talks About the Future From Some Place in Time," Diverse Online (formerly Black Issues In Higher Education), Jun 17, 2007.
  12. ^ http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters.html
  13. ^ a b Jaffrey, Zia (February 2, 1998). "The Salon Interview with Toni Morrison". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/02/cov_si_02int.html. Retrieved 2007-06-11. 
    Why distance oneself from feminism?

    In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book -- leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity. I detest and loathe [those categories]. I think it's off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things.

  14. ^ "Talk of the Town: Comment," The New Yorker, October 1998, accessed August 6, 2008.
  15. ^ "Congressional Black Caucus," CNSNews.com, October 2001.
  16. ^ Sachs, Andrea."10 Questions for Toni Morrison", Time, May 7, 2008.
  17. ^ http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/29/headlines
  18. ^ Alexander, Elizabeth."Our first black president?, It's worth remembering the context of Toni Morrison's famous phrase about Bill Clinton, so we can retire it, now that Barack Obama is a contender.", Salon.com, January 28, 2008.
  19. ^ http://www.rfkmemorial.org/legacyinaction/bookawards/
  20. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUN ALSO RISES BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY

The Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926, the plot centers on a group of expatriate Americans and Britons in continental Europe during the 1920s. It follows the group from Paris to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. The book's title is taken from Ecclesiastes which is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Hemingway's original title for the work was Fiesta, which was used in the British, German, Russian, Italian, Czech and Spanish editions of the novel. It is often described as Hemingway's best novel.

 

The Sun Also Rises portrays the lives of the members of the so-called Lost Generation, the group of men and women whose early adulthood was consumed by World War I. This horrific conflict, referred to as the Great War, set new standards for death and -immorality in war. It shattered many people's beliefs in traditional values of love, faith, and manhood. Without these long-held notions to rely on, members of the generation that fought and worked in the war suffered great moral and psychological aimlessness. The futile search for meaning in the wake of the Great War shapes The Sun Also Rises. Although the characters rarely mention the war directly, its effects haunt everything they do and say.

 

The major characters in the novel are Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Pedro Romero and Mike Campbell.

 

Jake is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He is an American veteran of World War I working as a journalist in Paris, where he and his friends engage in an endless round of drinking and parties. Although Jake is the most stable of his friends, he struggles with anguish over his love for Lady Brett Ashley, his impotence, and the moral vacuum that resulted from the war. Part of Jake's character represents the Lost Generation and its unfortunate position: he wanders through Paris, going from bar to bar and drinking heavily at each, his life filled with purposeless debauchery. He demonstrates the capacity to be extremely cruel, especially toward Cohn. His insecurities about his masculinity are typical of the anxieties that many members of the Lost Generation felt. Yet, in some important ways, Jake differs from those around him. He seems aware of the fruitlessness of the Lost Generation's way of life. He tells Cohn in Chapter II: "You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another." However, though Jake does perceive the problems in his life, he seems either unwilling or unable to remedy them. Though he understands the dilemma of the Lost Generation, he remains trapped within it.

 

Lady Brett Ashley is a beautiful British socialite who drinks heavily. As the novel begins, Brett is separated from her husband and awaiting a divorce. Though she loves Jake, she is unwilling to commit to a relationship with him because of his impotency. She is a strong, largely independent woman who exerts great power over the men around her. She refuses to commit to any one man, preferring ultimate independence. However, her independence does not make her happy. Her wandering from relationship to relationship parallels Jake and his friends' wandering from bar to bar.

 

It seems that there are several misogynist strains in Hemingway's representation of Brett. For instance, she disrupts relationships between men with her very presence. It seems that, in Hemingway's view, a liberated woman is necessarily a corrupting, dangerous force for men. Brett represents a threat to Pedro Romero and his career as she believes that her own strength and independence will eventually spoil Romero's strength and independence. World War I seems to have played an essential part in the formation of Brett's character. During the war, Brett's true love died of dysentery. Her subsequent aimlessness, especially with regards to men, can be interpreted as a futile, subconscious search for her original love. Brett's personal search is symbolic of the entire Lost Generation's search for the shattered pre-war values of love and romance.

 

Robert Cohn is a wealthy American writer living in Paris. Though he is an expatriate like many of his acquaintances, yet he stands apart because he had no direct experience of World War I and because of the fact that he is a Jew. He holds on to the romantic pre-war ideals of love and fair play, yet against the backdrop of the devastating legacy of World War I, these values seem tragically absurd. As a Jew and a non-veteran, Cohn is a convenient target for the cruel and petty antagonism of Jake and his friends. He has spent his entire life feeling like an outsider. While at Princeton, he took up boxing to combat his feelings of shyness and inferiority. Although his confidence has grown with his literary success, his anxiety about being different or considered not good enough persists. These feelings of inadequacy may explain his irrational attachment to Brett that is; he is so terrified of rejection that, when it happens, he refuses to accept it. Cohn adheres to an outdated, pre-war value system of honor and romance. But sadly, his value system has no place in the postwar world, and he is unable to sustain it. His tearful request that Romero shake his hand after he has beaten him up is an absurd attempt to restore the validity of an antiquated code of conduct. His flight from Pamplona is symbolic of the failure of traditional values in the postwar world.

 

Pedro Romero is a nineteen-year-old bullfighter. His talents in the ring charm both aficionados and newcomers to the sport alike. He serves as a foil for Jake and his friends as he carries himself with dignity and confidence at all times. Moreover, his passion for bullfighting gives his life meaning and purpose. In a world of amorality and corrupted masculinity, Romero remains a figure of honesty, purity, and strength. Brett develops an intense crush over him because of these qualities.
 

Mike Campbell is a constantly drunk, bankrupt Scottish war veteran. He has a terrible temper, which most often manifests itself during his extremely frequent bouts of drunkenness. He has a great deal of trouble coping with Brett's promiscuity, which provokes outbreaks of self-pity and anger in him, and he seems insecure about her infidelity as well as his lack of money. Being Brett's fiancé, he feels he cannot exercise any control over Brett.

 

The major themes discussed in the novel are the aimlessness of the Lost Generation, the male insecurity and the destructive power of illicit physical relationship.

 

World War I undercut traditional notions of morality, faith, and justice. No longer able to rely on the traditional beliefs that gave life meaning, the men and women who experienced the war became psychologically and morally lost, and they wandered aimlessly in a world that appeared meaningless. Jake, Brett, and their acquaintances give dramatic life to this situation. Because they no longer believe in anything, their lives are empty. They fill their time with escapist activities, such as drinking, dancing, and debauchery. It is important to note that Hemingway never explicitly states that Jake and his friends' lives are aimless, or that this aimlessness is a result of the war. Instead, he implies these ideas through his portrayal of the characters' emotional and mental lives. Although they spend nearly all of their time partying in one way or another, they remain sorrowful or unfulfilled. Hence, their drinking and dancing is just a futile distraction, a purposeless activity characteristic of a wandering, aimless life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

PICTURE OF ROSA PARK, THE LADY WHO STOOD IN THE FACE OF FIRE

File:Rosaparks.jpg

English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King jr. (ca. 1955)

Mrs. Rosa Parks altered the negro progress in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, by the bus boycott she unwillingly began. National Archives record ID: 306-PSD-65-1882 (Box 93).

Source: wikipedia



political and social happenings in 1960 afro american

http://www.google.com/search?q=political+and+social+happenings+in+1960+afro+american

paraphilia: A psychosexual disorder in which sexual gratification is obtained through highly unusual practices that are harmful or humiliating to others or socially repugnant, such as voyeurism or pedophilia.

Etymology: Gk, para + philein, to love

sexual perversion or deviation. A condition in which the sexual instinct is expressed in ways that are socially prohibited or unacceptable or are biologically undesirable, such as the use of a nonhuman object for sexual arousal, sexual activity with another person that involves real or simulated suffering or humiliation, or sexual relations with a nonconsenting partner. Kinds of paraphilia include exhibitionism, pedophilia, transvestism, voyeurism, and zoophilia. paraphiliac, adj., n.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Celebriphilia

Source: TFD.COM

MODERNITY IN LITERATURE

Modernity, modern literature when talking about liberalism,
uncertainty of life and all that, is not focusing on the dead things
and purposelessness in life.

They are just trying to open UP every-ones mind. A society, where
SCIENCE struggled so much. Brutally murdered by church at times.

This modernity, this open consciousness where everything is challenged
is the only way, science, arts, liberalism could have flourished.

If this modernity; discourse of doubt, couldn't existed then human
cloning, new ways of seeing the absurdity in life, the human need to
more creative and grow like a tree, could never have existed.

THE GREAT GATSBY - What I know, till now, after reading the plot overview

A twisted story about love. A story about people, who are confused and submerged in their own sins. Gatsby love for Daisy is real, as he is committed to become a sacrificial lamb for Daisy; as he takes on the blame of killing Myrtle Wilson in order to save her love, Daisy.

Tom wrongfully defaces Gatsby's character in order to gain sympathy from his wife. And in order to win back his wife, although he himself was having an extra-marital affair (Shame on you Nick!)

"Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. " Source: sparknotes
Okay! I need to make it quick. The Great Gatsby is about the American Dream going to waste and breaking into pieces. There is no such thing as a American Dream that works. It is more like balloon filled with hot air, which when it bursts would/will/can/could/ did melted/defaced the faces of everyone involved in the incident that took place at Gatsby's mansion.



THE GREAT GATSBY

Source: sparknotes

Nick reflects that just as Gatsby's dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby's power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him "great," Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby's dream and the American dream—is over.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

OSIP MANDELSTAM - RUSSIAN POET AND ESSAYIST

Emilyevich Mandelstam (also spelled Osip Mandelshtam, Ossip Mandelstamm) (Russian: О́сип Эми́льевич Мандельшта́м) (January 15 [O.S. January 3] 1891 – December 27, 1938) was a Soviet poet and essayist, one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets.

LIST OF MAJOR ROMANTIC POETS

  1. Albania: Naim Frashëri, Sami Frashëri, Jeronim De Rada
  2. Brazil: Álvares de Azevedo, Castro Alves, Casimiro de Abreu, Gonçalves Dias
  3. Czech Republic: Karel Hynek Macha
  4. Denmark: Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard
  5. England: William Blake, George Gordon Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, John Keats
  6. France: Alphonse de Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, Alfred de Musset, Charles Baudelaire
  7. Georgia: Nikoloz Baratashvili
  8. Germany: Novalis, Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist, Clemens Brentano, Joseph von Eichendorff, Achim von Arnim
  9. Hungary: Sándor Petőfi
  10. India: Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Satyendranath Dutta
  11. Ireland: Thomas Moore
  12. Italy: Giacomo Leopardi, Ugo Foscolo, Alessandro Manzoni
  13. Montenegro: Petar II Petrović Njegoš
  14. Poland: Three Bards (Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński), Cyprian Kamil Norwid
  15. Portugal: Alexandre Herculano, Almeida Garrett, António Feliciano de Castilho
  16. Romania: Mihai Eminescu
  17. Russia: Golden Age of Russian PoetryAleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Tyutchev, Evgeny Baratynsky
  18. Scotland: Robert Burns, Joanna Baillie, Walter Scott, James Macpherson
  19. Serbia: Branko Radičević, Đura Jakšić, Laza Kostić, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
  20. Slovakia: Janko Kráľ
  21. Slovenia: France Prešeren
  22. Spain: Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, José de Espronceda, Rosalía de Castro, José Zorrilla, Jacint Verdaguer
  23. Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko
  24. United States: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson

WHO WAS WILFRED OWEN?


Wilfred Owen
Born 18 March 1893(1893-03-18)
Oswestry, Shropshire, UK
Died 4 November 1918 (aged 25)
Sambre–Oise Canal, France
Nationality British
Period First World War
Genres War poem


wilfredowen.org.uk/home/
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was a British poet and soldier in the first world war, and one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and sat in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Some of his best-known works—most of which were published posthumously—include "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting".

African American Literary Criticism

Watch it on Academic Earth

ENGL 300: Introduction to Theory of Literature

http://oyc.yale.edu/english/introduction-to-theory-of-literature/content/class-sessions

Monday, October 11, 2010

Who was "Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor"?

In 1508, Maximilian, with Pope Julius II's assent, took the title of Erwählter Römischer Kaiser ("Elected Roman Emperor"), thus ending the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the pope.

Source: Wikipedia

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dr. Kristi Siegel - Internet Sites and Resources for English Majors - Dr. Kristi Siegel Professor of English Chair - Language, Literature, and Communications Division Director, English Graduate Program Mount Mary College

Source: http://www.kristisiegel.com/links.htm

The following sites provide excellent resources for anyone interested
in the study of literature
and composition:

Online Literature

UPenn Books Online - over 11,000 literary texts,
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books.

"Passions in Poetry" - this site offers hundreds of poems and the
section (categorized by
authors) of classical poetry is especially good (it includes major
British and American poetry
from the early 14th to late 19th centuries), http://www.netpoets.com.

Bartleby.com - a nicely organized selection of online literature,
encyclopedias, and
collections of quotations, http://www.bartleby.com.

The Internet Public Library - a comprehensive selection of books,
newspaper, literary
criticism, reference materials, children's and adolescent literature
collected by the University
of Michigan. The site currently contains nearly 30,000 texts and/or references,
http://www.ipl.org/col.

Calls for Papers

If you'd like to get published, attend a conference, or present a
paper at a scholarly conference, these
two sites offer the most comprehensive lists of paper calls:

The English Server - http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/calls

The UPenn Server - http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP

Literary Criticism and Theory

"The Voice of the Shuttle" Web Page for Humanities Research. This site
offers perhaps the
most comprehensive collection of links to specific authors, genres,
theories, syllabi,
academic information, technology, etc., available on the web. The site
is an ongoing
project headed by Alan Liu of the University of Southern California -
Santa Barbara:
http://vos.ucsb.edu

Jack Lynch's Collection - Rutgers University. Though not as
comprehensive as the Voice of
the Shuttle page listed above, Jack Lynch's site is also a goldmine of
links to sites on theory,
literary periods, authors, genres, and so forth:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/theory.html

Yahoo's Links to Criticism and Theory. Another excellent resource for
finding materials on
literary theory and criticism:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Criticism_and_Theory

Introduction to Literary Theory. Website of Kristi Siegel, a faculty
member of the Mount
Mary College English Department, offering descriptions, bibliographies
and key figures of
major twentieth-century critical theories.
http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel/theory.htm

On-Book – website of Jane Thompson, a faculty member of the Mount Mary College
English Department, providing her own information as well as many
links to other literature
and theory resources: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1653

Composition and Writing Resources

A Guide to Writing College English Papers - from the English
Department at the University
of Puget Sound - nice clear information and reasonable expectations:
http://www.ups.edu/faculty/dewhite/papers.htm

Writing Tips and Strategies – Collection of mini-lectures by Kristi
Siegel, Mount Mary
College faculty member, on various writing techniques such as
description, pacing,
developing a thesis statement, using the writing process, eliminating
clichés, varying
sentence style and patterns, http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel

Writing Better - A Guide for Amherst Students - a nice, clear
introduction to writing:
http://www.amherst.edu/~writing/wb_html/wb.html

The Elements of Style - William Strunk, Jr.'s classic 1918 text on
writing and style. Timeless
advice. The book is divided into sections for easy accessibility:
http://www.bartleby.com/141/

Grammar Resources

This truly superb collection of interactive grammar quizzes (they're
actually fun), vocabulary
quizzes, and other writing resources provides an excellent resource
for those needing
grammar brush-ups. The site was developed by Dr. Charles Darling from
the Capital
Community College. He also includes pages of grammar "bloopers" and other lively
references: http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/original.htm

Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style: An alphabetical listing and
description of
common grammatical glitches. He also has some good bibliographic references:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing

Technology and Literature/Composition

How to Use the Internet for Literary Study - An informative guide
written by Professor Greg
Jay at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; besides his own
information he also provides
many useful links: http://www.uwm.edu/~gjay/Litcrit/Weblitguide.htm

Writing and Technology - .pdf files providing visual step-by-step
instructions for using
computer-assisted techniques to augment the writing process. Materials
developed by Gene
Baer, Kristi Siegel, and Martin Moldenhauer,
http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel

Professional Organizations and Academia

English Departments on the Web -Want to see what other English
Departments are doing?
This comprehensive list links to over 1,300 English Departments on the web:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/english/links/engdpts.html

Modern Language Association (MLA): http://www.mla.org

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): http://www.ncte.ie

Sigma Tau Delta - English Honors Society: http://www.english.org

ARMISTICE DAY PARADE, 1919

The Armistice Day Riot

On Armistice Day, Tuesday, November 11, 1919, during a parade in
Centralia, Washington, a riot erupted that resulted in gunfire,
killing four veterans recently returned from the First World War.
Vigilantes rounded up anyone thought to be involved in the shootings,
put them in jail, and later that day lynched one of them.

Source:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cainhome/remmen_album/emil_guard/centralia_tragedy.htm

RIOTS IN EAST SAINT LOUIS, 1917

The East St. Louis Riot (May and July 1917) was an outbreak of labor
and racially motivated violence that caused an estimated 100 deaths
and extensive property damage in the United States industrial city of
East St. Louis, Illinois, located on the east bank of the Mississippi
River across from St. Louis, Missouri.

Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_Riot

Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=riots+in+saint+louis+1917

Who was Booker T. Washington?

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington

Up from Slavery, and an invitation to the White House
Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at Tuskegee Institute, 1905

Washington authored four books during his lifetime:

* The Story of My Life and Work (1900)
* Up From Slavery (1901)
* My Larger Education (1911)
* The Man Farthest Down (1912)

In an effort to inspire the "commercial, agricultural, educational,
and industrial advancement" of African Americans, Washington founded
the National Negro Business League (NNBL) in 1900.[24]

When Washington's autobiography, Up From Slavery, was published in
1901, it became a bestseller and had a major impact on the African
American community, its friends and allies. One of the results was a
dinner invitation in 1901 by Theodore Roosevelt.

Chronology of Toni Morrison's Jazz

1855  Vera Louise Gray, pregnant, moves to Baltimore; True Belle,
slave, goes with Vera Louise; leaves behind two children, May (age 10)
and Rose (age 8) (142)
1873  Aug.: Golden Gray meets Wild, pregnant w/ Joe (144); Joe Trace
born, Vesper Co., VA (123); raised by           Rhoda and Frank
Williams (123); taught to track by Henry Lestory (Hunters Hunter)
1870-90s  successive waves of northern migration (33)
1876  Violet Trace born (138)
1886  Vienna burned; Joe and Victory wander (174)
1888  Rose Dear loses her house, land, and goods (98, 138); Rocky
Mount hangings; Sept.: True Belle returns a           free woman to
Vesper (138)
1892  Rose Dear's suicide


1893  Joe hunts for his mother, Wild (175-78, cf. 36); marries Violet
1899  True Belle dies (138)
1901  Booker T. Washington eats at the White House; Joe and Violet
evicted from land Joe bought (126)
1906  Joe and Violet take the train to NYC (107)
1917  riots in East St. Louis; Dorcas's parents murdered (57); July:
march in NYC (54, 57, 128)
1919  Feb.: Armistice Day parade (129)
1925  Oct.: Joe meets Dorcas (68) 1926  Jan. 1: Joe shoots Dorcas
(180); Jan. 3: Dorcas's funeral (9); March: Violet visits Alice
Manfred.

Source: vanderbilt.edu ... jazz.htm














Weblinks on Literary Theory

  1. ACRL - Association of College and Research Libraries - Literary theory resources
  2. Introductory Guide to Critical Theory by Dino F. Felluga of Purdue University
  3. Literary Resources - Theory by Dr. Jack Lynch - Rutgers University
  4. Contemporary Literary Theory - Dr. John Lye (Brock University)
  5. Voice of the Shuttle Literary Theory Page by Dr. Alan Liu - USCB
  6. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
  7. Glossary of Literary Theory - University of Toronto
  8. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (extensive range of articles on critical theory)
  9. Swirl - Theory Resources at Southern Oregon University by Warren Hedges
  10. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source: kristisiegel.com

TWO USEFUL LINKS FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDENTS

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A comprehensive resource on philosophy.
iep.utm.edu
Introductory Guide to Critical Theory: If Gender & Sex, Modernism, Postmodernism are the terms you want to understand. Here's a useful site.
cla.purdue.edu

ONE OF THE MAIN THEMES OF THE NOVEL JAZZ

One of the main themes of the novel is purgatory and the cathartic ability of Jazz music.

BALTIMORE CITY

Baltimore (pronounced /ˈbɒltɨmɔr/) is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the U.S. state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River,

Source: wikipedia.org ... Baltimore
http://www.baltimorecity.gov/

NORTHERN MIGRATION 1870 to 1890s ONWARD

...1870-1924, which is characterized by the migration from Southern and Eastern Europe, mostly Polish and Italian. Their main goal was to build a better life than they had had in their homeland...

...Mostly small Irish tenants and agricultural labourers fled for the hunger, many of whom were in a state of extreme distress. Driven by recurrent food crises, the annual outflow over the next half-century (1840-1890) was increasingly of younger Irish emigrants travelling alone, now including large numbers of young women.
Many of the Scots who arrived after 1815 were Highlanders who had lost their crafts in the 'clearances'...

Source: let.leidenuniv.nl

kristisiegel.com - BASIC LITERARY TERMS

Plot is the way in which the narrative events are arranged. Generally, plots have the same basic elements:
  • Exposition - the explanation of the story's premise and background material necessary for the reader to understand the story;
  • Crisis - the peak in the story's action--the moment of highest dramatic tension;
  • Climax - the scene which presents the story's decisive action;
  • Resolution or denouement--the outcome of the story--the information that ties up all (or many) of the story's loose ends.
Source: kristisiegel

FREUD'S MODEL OF PSYCHE

Freud's model of the psyche:
  • Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy.
  • Ego - mostly to partially (<--a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego.
  • Superego - often thought of as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral judgments in light of social pressures"
Source: kristisiegel

[ tfd.com ] - What does heresy mean?

her·e·sy  n.
a. her·e·sy - A controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine, as in politics, philosophy, or science.pl. her·e·sies 1.
a. An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs, especially dissension from or denial of Roman Catholic dogma by a professed believer or baptized church member.

WHAT IS ANIMA?

"the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image of a woman."

kristisiegel.com/theory.htm#newcriticism

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF FALACY?

fal·la·cy
n. pl. fal·la·cies
1. A false notion.
2. A statement or an argument based on a false or invalid inference.
3. Incorrectness of reasoning or belief; erroneousness.
4. The quality of being deceptive.

CRITICAL/THEORETICAL APPROACHES

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