“On one level Heart of Darkness highlights characteristically a modernist concern with language, its uses, abuses and limitations.” Evaluate the statement in the light of your understanding of the role of the language in Conrad’s text. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness can be seen as a great representation of a Modernist novel due to its general obscurity of the language used, as it appears widely thick and opaque. Rather than defining characters in with a sense of binary or morality the entire novel is in different shades of gray. The unfolding of events takes the reader between many a foggy bank; the action in the book and not just the language echoes tones of gray. In Modernist literature, much like painting, there is experimentation with form: narration style, tone and plot line.
Like many artists of the 1880’s, the Post-Impressionist wanted to portray “emotion and intellect as well as the visual imagery” ("Post impressionist,"). Some of these paintings were very expressive and sometimes emotional, such as the paintings by Van Gogh. The abstractness of these paintings were often underappreciated and ridiculed by society, like the works Van Gogh. It wasn’t until years later that some of these works were appreciated and valued. Many Post-Impressionism works of art were inspired by the historical events occurring at that time.
The painting triumphed greatly at the Salon of 1864, this was a time when the contemporary society had preference on realism over history and mythical painting. History painting was being ignored and was falling to disuse, Moreau did not agree with this. Moreau was in support for idealism , as an artist he wanted to dedicate his time as an artist forsaking his other life as a human being. The painting’s symbolic intentions, the use of the mythological subject (Sphinx), and the authoritative severity in the style gave an impression of the original grand art. Moreau was though of by many as the saviour of the grand at a time when realism had taken over the paintings at the Salon.
However, from an aesthetic standpoint the additions constituted a major alterationto Moroni's original composition and detracted from its appearance. It was the decision of both conservators and curators that the historic interest of the additions was far outweighed by the aesthetic dictates of the picture. Given that, one course of action might have been to paint out the additions so that the painting would read as the artist intended but the inscription and coat of arms could be uncovered at a later date. We are inevitably subject to the tastes and prejudices of our time, and in this way a decision could be made while leaving options open. However, the subtle handling and the fall of light would have been hard to imitate convincingly, and a further overpainting would have been one more step away from Moroni's original paint.
While the contrast of light and dark, white and black, and good and evil is a common theme in his novella, Conrad essentially reverses the meanings of the two. Conrad’s story is about the penetration of a corrupt light into darkness, and the consequences that result when the purity of darkness is tainted. In his story often the light is viewed as more menacing and evil than the darkness, and the
Grande Odalisque was painted during the overlapping period of the culmination of Neoclassicism and the beginning of Romanticism and was described as Ingres’ “break from Neoclassicism”, in which he shifted toward the style of exotic Romanticism. Drawing harsh criticism from his contemporaries and critics, Grande Odalisque, combined Classical form with Romantic themes, and was seen as a rebellion against the contemporary style. Also criticized were the unnatural curves and lines of the
Addie's genuine character as a living human will be a mystery; a few may view her as someone who was playing with the devil and others might see her as someone with admiration because she was one to believe that actions speak louder than words. The different characters throughout the novel and the difficulty stream-of-consciousness method all work together to create a novel that is open-ended and a matter of understanding. There is no intent truth to the narrative any more than there is any ideal certainty to the events that happen in it. The way that Faulkner uses the multiple narrators serves the purpose of trying to figure out what is the truth of these events that took place throughout the story and this is what makes this novel such a success. Faulkner desires to enchant his audience and grasp their mind.
Solomon Petchenik Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep avoids convention. Many inventive pacing techniques bend the curve of the traditional narrative plot line. The characters, while abundant, are not all essential to the story and just add branches to the realistic scenarios. The character roles, protagonist and antagonist, are never truly defined. All of these techniques are to paint a realistic world not bound by the rules of storytelling.
Poe put much effort and thought into the details of his literature, he painted a descriptive picture for the reader matter how dark and dreary. The name “Fortunato” means fortune/fortunate, which is symbolic because it is the complete opposite for the character in this story since his fate has been decided for him, “derivation from the verb fortunate, blessed by the goddess fortuna, or random fate. Naturally, to embrace fortuna was unthinkable in the Reformed traditions. Fate was not random” (87). Montresor is constantly smiling at Fortunato so he will have no suspicion of his bad intentions.
Heart of darkness Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad Context Conrad's works, Heart of Darkness in particular, provide a bridge between Victorian values and the ideals of modernism. Like their Victorian predecessors, these novels rely on traditional ideas of heroism, which are nevertheless under constant attack in a changing world and in places far from England. Women occupy traditional roles as arbiters of domesticity and morality, yet they are almost never present in the narrative; instead, the concepts of “home” and “civilization” exist merely as hypocritical ideals, meaningless to men for whom survival is in constant doubt. While the threats that Conrad's characters face are concrete ones—illness, violence, conspiracy—they nevertheless acquire a philosophical character. Like much of the best modernist literature produced in the early decades of the twentieth century, Heart of Darkness is as much about alienation, confusion, and profound doubt as it is about imperialism.