Aunt Fay writes to her niece Alice in the hope of teaching her about Austen and her writing and what better way to do that than by direct reference to Austen’s most successful text, Pride and Prejudice? Weldon in turn helps the actual reader understand Pride and Prejudice by commenting on the characters’ behaviour and the plot by giving her personal opinion, as well as identifying typical language features and explaining why Austen is valued today. She expresses empathy for Mrs Bennet which encourages the reader to reconsider their own opinion Her use of first person language tells the reader that they are reading a biased opinion, but also helps the reader trust Weldon as she is speaking
ALLUSIONS IN FAHRENHEIT 451 Literary allusions often are used to relate a novel to various other pieces of literary work. Ray Bradbury used a multitude of literary allusions to enrich the plotline of Fahrenheit 451. These references provided subtle hints of depth in the novel to the reader. Some allusions helped the novel by adding to the plot, providing a relatable experience to the reader, referencing familiar stories and fables, and giving characters and settings that special something called an “it factor” that the reader could find special. Some allusions, however, were harmful to the plot or to the reader, most often by confusing the reader if they did not know the context of the original quotation.
“The critic asks “is this believable?” The novelist, “how can I get them to believe this”? In short she argues that a good novelist always has some sort of conflict to tell and it must be suspenseful. “Something other than breakfast”. She uses witty humour to loosen the audience up. Atwood discusses the several genres of fiction that are available in this time and explains how this is not only a time of gender crossover but of genre crossover.
Allusions in The Picture of Dorian Gray Posted in The Picture of Dorian Gray with tags Allusions, Faust, Gyges' ring,Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare Allusions, Tannhäuser, The Picture of Dorian Gray,The Republic on December 16, 2008 by tammanyb While The Picture of Dorian Gray is a work created in the mind of Oscar Wilde, many aspect’s of the story have been borrowed from other texts. This is not unusual in the world of literature. When someone reads a fantastic piece, they may become inspired by it and rewrite it, adding their owns twists and plots along the way. In The Republic, Glaucon and Adeimantus present the myth of Gyges’ ring. This myth is presented in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
At the conclusion of her essay, Ozick personifies the essay as “she”, giving us a better idea of what an essay would look like or would do if it were a “she”. Ozick says “She may be bold, she may be diffident, she may rely on beauty or cleverness, on eros or exotica. Whatever her story, she is the protagonist, the secret self's personification”. She uses the title in her essay to say that the writing can be looked at as if it were an actual person. It embodies the writer, yes, but it also embodies a person.
Of these three movements, I feel that Modernism is best at “illuminating life”. Though each literary movement offers its own unique style, I believe that Modernism is best at “illuminating life” because it advocates the idea of progressing in life, experimentation, and getting inside and understanding what is going on in one’s mind. Modernism was first introduced in the early 1890’s; its main strand of thinking claimed that peopled needed to push aside their previous norms entirely and look forward into their future. The goal of modernism was not simply to revise one’s previous knowledge in light of new and current developments in society. Early thinkers of this movement wanted to separate themselves from tradition by reexamining every aspect of their lives, but they were rejected by the majority of society who were afraid of change.
Harold Bloom and Nick Hornby show their different philosophies of how people today should read literature. In Harold Bloom’s How to Read and Why, he states that it is important to read books for ourselves to capture more ideas from the world of literature. He says, “One of the uses of reading is to prepare ourselves for chance, and the final change alas is universal.” His comment about the “final change” being “universal”, the emphasis in Bloom’s essay is that people should be reading works by the great authors such as Sophocles, but he believes that people can gain the most by William Shakespeare. He states that Shakespeare’s plays are masterpieces that they would give people a better understanding of life’s universal experiences. For example, he says that reading King Lear help people understand the nature of patriarchy.
American Individualism in “The Portrait of a Lady” - empowerment or oppression? Henry James is a modern writer from the nineteenth century whose work has inspired and still inspires readers all over the world to follow one’s destiny and remain true to one’s beliefs even when the consequences may not be as positive as expected. He develops a great interest concerning the journey of the independent Americans to Europe, mainly because this journey is no stranger to him and he chooses to write about it, thus creating a novel that seems to be realistic but on a higher level. “The Portrait of a Lady”, published in 1881, as it is mentioned above, it explores the situation of Americans in Europe from the perspective of Isabel Archer, a young orphan American girl, who gets to feel the cultural differences between the two continents when she is introduced to the life-style of the citizens of Europe who acted mostly in the name of their cultural values. The title itself seems to treat Isabel as a work of art, because her character is charming and beautiful, capturing other’s attention, pretty much how a work of art should be, and it also draws the attention upon the artist and the object of his art, of which Alden Turner wrote: “Henry James creates a haunted portrait of Isabel Archer herself wherein he confronts the problem of establishing some meaningful relationship between art and life…Through the developing consciousness of Isabel Archer, James suggests that the idea of a “picture made real” depends upon a meaningful correspondence between the mind of the artist and the reality which confronts him or her.” Throughout the book, we are witnesses of Isabel’s transformation, because the book is written in such a manner that the thing that matters the most is to actually focus on her character and how she appears in relation to other characters , and not on
It also examines the social sphere in which the author moved, the psychological background of the author, the books and theories that may have influenced the author, and any other factors which influenced the work of art. New Historicism acknowledges that any criticism of a work is necessarily tinged with the critic’s beliefs, social structure, and so on. Most New Historicists may begin a critical reading of a novel by explaining themselves, their backgrounds, and their prejudices. Both the work and the reader are corrupted by everything that has influenced them. New Historicism thus represents a significant change from previous critical theories like New Criticism, because its main focus is to look at things outside of the work, instead of reading the text as a thing apart from the author.
Literary analysis: Modernism Between the late 19th century and early 20th century, modernism was a movement in arts, cultural tendencies, and associated cultural movements which centered around Europe. It was shaped by the development of industries, growth of cities and the negative effects of World War I. Modernists rejected the Enlightenment era thinking and realism like the romantics. Also, they combined the idea of idealist and realist instead of taking one side like the Romantics and the Victorians. The short novella “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad the modern novelist was considered as the beginning of the “Early Modernism” because the author described and mentioned many stories with modern themes and content in a modernist literature tones and forms. The novella “Heart of Darkness” was considered as the beginning of the “Early Modernism”.