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ENG45C, "Quint was much too free.", LANGSTON HUGHES is known for…

- - - - POST-WAR MODERNITY is the societal response to the trauma and fragmentation of war, largely evident through art and literature.
        
        "The Sound and the Fury" by Willliam Faulkner
        
        The Compson family cannot grapple with the decay of Southern culture and tradition after the Civil War, representing the post-WWI era Faulkner lives in. Written non-linearly, fragmented, and experimental, The Sound and the Fury represents a novelist and his characters navigating the aftermath and societal fragmentation of war.
        
        "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;"
        
        "The Second Coming" by William Yeats Yeats comments on the disparaging state of the world after World War I, elucidating that humanity is lost in anarchy and morally corrupt. By employing religious diction and imagery, Yeats expresses the death of religion in his present.
      - THE GREAT MIGRATION The early 20th century witnessed a large movement of African Americans moving from the rural south to the urban north in search of opportunity, This led to the formation of communities and culture, and fundamental change in the American diaspora
        
        THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE was an artistic movement in New York City during the Great Migration, representing urban black culture and social change. Culture defined a new wave of literature, music, and jazz that was dedicated to affirming "the New Negro."
        
        Black workers in demand after WWI, creating economic opportunity and catalyzing the migration
      - URBANIZATION quickly created economic and social opportunities for individuals who flocked to cities for opportunities. This led to changes in social mobility as people were less tied to their circumstances. Technology changed everyday life and communication. Simultaneously, society navigated changing social structures in the midst and aftermath of World War I and colonization.
      - COLONIALISM
        
        Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
        
        Achebe reveals the horrors of African colonization and how the very foundation of his culture and people was stripped from them. Complex protagonist Okonkwo embodies masculinity and adheres to tradition, but in the face of the white man, he is powerless, and his people must submit to change and discard of their culture.
        
        CULTURAL CONFLICT
    - - NATIONALISM
        
        THE IRISH NATIONALIST STRUGGLE was Ireland's movement to gain independence from British rule defined by violence, division, and rebellion.
        
        WILLIAM YEATS was an Irish poet and nationalist whose poetry is attributed to helping develop national consciousness and identity.
        
        "Easter, 1916" by William Yeats This poem commemorates the Easter Rising of 1916 in which Irish Nationalists bravely led a rebellion against the British. Despite their failure and executions, Yeats recognizes their courage and dedication to the cause.
        
        JAMES JOYCE was an Irish writer known for his stream-of consciousness-writing style. Joyce had a complex relationship with Ireland, exiling himself in 1904 and never returning, but his writing continued to tie back to his roots.
        
        "The Dead" by James Joyce
        
        "The Dead" is written without an objective narrator and the focalization of characters shifts throughout the story. Joyce's use of free indirect discourse creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and characters, offering insight on their innermost thought processes.
        
        SAMUEL BECKETT was an Irish writer with a strained relationship with Ireland. While he incorporated many Irish saying in his works, he wrote primarily in French to "write without style."
      - FORM AND STRUCTURE
        
        FREE INDIRECT DISCOURSE
        
        STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS
        
        "Do I dare?"
        
        "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S Eliot is a free verse poem written as a stream-of-consciousness. The speaker is paralyzed by introspection and a disordered and fragmented mind.
        
        T.S. Eliot is known for his contributions to Modernist poetry.
        
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        FOCALIZATION
        
        The audience is limited to the Governess' perspective. Information is limited; she is an unreliable narrator.
        
        The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
        
        Morally ambiguous as James leaves room for interpretation. Are the ghosts real or a figment of the Governess' imagination?
        
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        Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff
        
        "I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters."
        
        Despite its namesake, Clarissa Dalloway is not the protagonist of Mrs. Dalloway. Through free indirect discourse, Wolff seamlessly intertwines the lives and perspectives of its characters to create intimate parallels and challenges between each other.
      - SECULARISM following the Englightment led to a period of lost meaning, purpose, and culture. In response, the Modernist era brought new perspectives, thinkers, and developments to society.
        
        FEMINISM
        
        H.D. was a Modernist and Imagist poet who was greatly inspired by Greek poetry and mythology.
        
        "Eurydice" by H.D. reimagines the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus, writing from Eurydice's perspective, Though this, H.D. gives Eurydice a voice and autonomy.
        
        "Sea Rose" by H.D. employs the image of a "marred rose" to illustrate the beauty of female resilience.
        
        Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff Link Title
        
        Wolff's Mrs. Dalloway explores gender roles in 20th century Britain and their debilitating restraints. By exposing inequity and female unhappiness through Clarissa, Mrs. Dalloway serves as a progressive feminist work that amplifies the female perspective.
        
        "Leda and the Swan" by William Yeats is a retelling of the Greek myth depicting Zeus' rape of Leda for the conception of Helen of Troy. Yeats' interpretation humanizes Leda, bringing a new and progressive perspective to the myth.
        
        MYTHS REIMAGINED
        
        "Nude Young Dancer" by Langston Hughes portrays the tension between the freedom of Black female expression through nude performance and the exploitation of young women in the community.
    - - THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION led to unprecedented economic growth and the rise of capitalism. With the expansion of the market came class division and frustration.
        
        THE LIVING CITY In the new urban age, the city becomes a new landscape for individuals of all walks of life, attracted to the new economic era.
        
        London in Mrs. Dalloway is portrayed as a landscape for characters from all walks of life as they pass-by one another. The city is a center for wealth, culture, and opportunity, but upholds rigid social constraints.
        
        Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff
        
        "The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?"
        
        Septimus Smith, throughout the novel, is ridden with symptoms of shell shock, and his being is ultimately fragmented by the detrimental effects of war. Woolf's stream-of-consciousness writing style and depiction of Septimus reveals societal and individual deterioration after war.
        
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        "The Man of the Crowd" by Edgar Allan Poe
        
        London represents the vastness of the new city as the unnamed protagonist hones in on one individual throughout the short story. "The Man of the Crowd" portrays isolation and disorientation in the new city.
        
        ANTI-CAPITALISM
        
        "The Sound and the Fury" by Willliam Faulkner
        
        Faulker, through Jason, demonstrates the moral decay of a capitalistic society as he lives a soulless, miserable life on Wall Street in New York City. Jason lives in the external world, separated from his home in Kentucky; however, he is full of resentment and anger. Jason rejects it through his embracing of the capitalist world, demonstrating society's difficulty in grappling with sudden economic and social change.
        
        "I would prefer not to."
      - CLASSISM
        
        Mrs. Kilman, Elizabeth Dalloway's teacher, and Clarissa Dalloway have a shared disdain for one another, symbolizing class divide. Mrs. Kilman belongs to the lower, working class and envies Clarissa's wealth and beauty, while Clarissa belongs to high society and envies Mrs Kilman's closeness to Elizabeth. Their dual role as a maternal figure to Elizabeth symbolizes the struggle for influence between classes in influencing the next generation.
- - - - The Governess suppresses her sexuality as female sexuality in the 19th century was considered taboo. She cannot grapple with her sexual feelings, which ultimately manifests into anxiety that amplifies her mission to preserve the innocence of the children.
        
        The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
    - - THE MARRIAGE PLOT is a literary device that follows a linear romance storyline that sums up to a character getting married and living happily with their partner and financial stability. Especially prevalent in 19th century literature, the marriage plot reflected the gender expectations of its time.
        
        Mrs. Dalloway breaks the traditional "marriage plot" as the novel does not center around Clarissa's romantic life but her internal turmoil. Clarissa and Richard have a loveless marriage, and Woolf's writing of Clarissa's unhappiness pushes against gender roles and expectations of the time.
        
        Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
        
        The pear tree symbolizes Janie's blossoming sexuality
        
        Their Eyes Were Watching God breaks down "the Marriage Plot" as protagonist Janie is married thrice throughout the novel. Each marriage represents a stage in protagonist Janie's personal journey of self-actualization and development. Her marriage is not the whole plot; her marriages are lessons learned.
    - - Caddy Compson's promiscuity and teenage pregnancy represents her rejection of tradiitonal Southern values. She runs away from the Compson home and is disowned, ultimately escaping the rigid constructs of the South, freed by her sexuality. Caddy does not have an entry of her own in the novel, nor does she appear outside of her brothers' memories, and the father of her child remains ambigious. Caddy is an enigma, representing freedom, nonconformity, and ambiguity.
  - - - Clarissa Dalloway is paralyzed by societal and gender expectations. As the wife of Richard Dalloway, she remains in her static and loveless marriage to maintain. her status and economic stability. She spends the novel reminiscing on the passionate life she cannot act on, submitting to the rigid expectations of her time.
      - Septimus Smith's inaction is a direct result from his post-war trauma. He is unable to return to his normal life and connect with others, causing his extreme sense of isolation. He cannot act as a loving husband nor productive member of society. Counterintuitively, Septimus ultimately takes the more action than other characters in the novel with his suicide -- the final means to end his suffering.
      - Peter Walsh, still in love with Clarissa, reminisces on the past and her rejection of him for Richard Dalloway. He tries to repress his romantic feelings for Clarissa, especially as he is arranged to marry another woman, but is overwhelmed by his yearning.
    - - THE TRAUMA PLOT is a literary device in which the character's past trauma is the reasoning behind their behaviors and actions, creating a very shallow understanding of the character as a whole. "Bartleby, the Scribner" rejects the traditional Trauma Plot as the audience knows nothing about Bartleby himself beyond the narrator's observations. Bartleby's past is unknown until the end, and even upon the lawyer slightly knowing his background, the reasoning for his indifference remains ambiguous.
      - Bartleby himself represents inaction through his passive defiance, famously expressing, "I prefer to not to." Bartleby's inaction drives the plot as the narrator's obsession with him deepens. His refusal to perform tasks is paradoxical: physically inactive while taking action against the capitalistic giant of Wall Street in the 20th century.
    - - The speaker is paralyzed with inaction throughout the poem as he grapples with the desire to act versus the fear of judgement. He is suspended in indecision, ruminating in the fleeting nature of time and lamenting it as it passes him.
- - - - "The Sound and the Fury" by Willliam Faulkner
        
        Quentin Compson cannot accept the decline of Southern values upon finding out about his sister Caddy's pregnancy. Coupled with his obsession with preserving Caddy's innocence, Quentin's sense of values are shattered and his life no longer has meaning. He cannot go on and he kills himself.
  - - - ABSURDISM is the philosophy centered around the universe's inherent meaninglessness and its tension with man's ceaseless search for meaning; the search paradoxically gives humans meaning in itself.
        
        "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett
        
        "Shall we go?"
        
        Vladimir and Estragon spend the duration of the play waiting for a figure called Godot, who never shows up. Their ceaseless waiting represents the innate absurdity of the human experience. Their persistence to meet Godot gives their lives meaning, and it is that embracement of meaninglessness that propels them to go on.
      - SPIRITUAL TRANSCENDENCE
        
        "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Yeats follows the speaker's longing to transcend human mortality into a state of higher-consciousness among immortal art and intellect.
      - Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff
        
        Upon learning about Septimus' suicide, Clarissa has a moment of realization about the fragility and absurdity of life. She returns to her party with a new sense of purpose, seeing life as extraordinary.
        
        "She felt somehow very like him—the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away. The clock was striking."
        
        As the entirety of Mrs. Dalloway takes place in a single day, and the chiming of Big Ben is a recurring motif that symbolizes the march of time leading to inevitable death.
      - "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Yeats details the speaker's longing to return to nature to find inner peace and connection to the natural world.
- - - - The Governess evidently develops an inappropriate obsession and fascination with Miles. He is the object of her sexual frustration, especially because his uncle, who she more clearly expresses attraction to, is absent and not to be contacted.
        
        THE SEXUAL CHILD
        
        THE GOTHIC CHILD
- - - - Their Eyes Were Watching God follows Janie on her journey toward singular consciousness. The novel begins with Janie "looking at herself through the eyes of another", but through her trials and tribulations, she gains a deeper understanding of her identity (Du Bois). By sharing her story with Pheoby, Janie ultimately affirms and tells her own story, defining herself and her narrative.
  - - - "What happens to a dream deffered?"
        
        "Harlem [2]" by Langston Hughes comments the on African American frustration on the state of America in the 1950s. The American Dream does not apply to their community. Dreams of social change and individual success are put off.
- - - - IMAGISM
        
        "The Oread" by H.D. is a quintessential Imagist poem with intense and immediate imagery and brevity.