Assignment Nº3

Assignment #3: Post-Modernist Literature
Compare and contrast the 2 Post-modern works with 2 of the other 4 works you have read.


Heart of Darkness (Victorian Literature, Joseph Conrad)
It is a novella written by Joseph Conrad and it is widely regarded as a significant work of English Literature. It exposes the dark side of European Colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: 1)The darkness of the Congo wilderness; 2)The darkness of the Europeans´cruel treatment of the natives; 3)and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.
There was spiritual darkness of several characters in this work, this sense of darkness also lends itself to a related theme of obscurity again, in various senses, reflecting the ambiguities in the work. Morality is ambiguous, that which is traditionally placed on the side of light is in darkness and vice versa.
It is a good example of Victorian Literature because the central themes were: 1.- The Hypocrisy of Imperialism 2.- Madness as a Result of Imperialism 3.-The Absurdity of Evil and at those times it was Good or Bad, God or Evil, Lightness or Darkness, it was no middle point in between them.



The Russia House (Post Modern Literature, John le Carré, 1989)
While Post Modernist Era live a process of absolute and total reevaluation and reappraisal of culture, history, identity and language. It had a good impact on Literature because all kind of themes are treated in Post Modern Literature producing a total explosion of colors as the least, emotions, suffering, happiness, death and life. The Russia House is a novel by Jon le Carré published in 1989. The title refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union.
The philosophical Barley Blair (protagonist, a middle-aged and heavy-drinking head of a modest family owned British publishing Company) reasons that governments are not the only ones who can manipulate and betray, and some things are more important than the games that spies play with others´lives. (Spy novel). Here we see distrust on theories and ideologies together with a complete rejection of conventional thinking in Post Modern Era.



“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”( Allan Poe, USA, 1841-short story) Victorian Literature
In this short story the themes explored by the author were isolation/alienation, lack of communication, pessimism/despair, loss of faith which were central Victorian themes at that time. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” introduces a new genre of short fiction to American literature: the detective story. The detective story emerged from Poe’s long-standing interest in mind games, puzzles, and secret codes called cryptographs, which Poe regularly published and decoded in the pages of the Southern Literary Messenger. He would dare his readers to submit a code he could not decipher. More commonly, though, Poe created fake personalities who would send in puzzles that he solved. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” along with the later story “The Purloined Letter,” allows Poe to sustain a longer narrative in which he presents seemingly unsolvable conundrums that his hero, M. Auguste Dupin, can always ultimately master. Dupin becomes a stand-in for Poe, who constructs and solves an elaborate cryptograph in the form of a bizarre murder case.
Animals In Poe’s murder stories, homicide requires animalistic element. Animals kill, they die, and animal imagery provokes and informs crimes committed between men. Animals signal the absence of human reason and morality, but sometimes humans prove less rational than their beastly counterparts. The joke behind “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is that the Ourang-Outang did it. The savage irrationality of the crime baffles the police, who cannot conceive of a motiveless crime or fathom the brute force involved.




“The Secret Pilgrim” (J. le Carré, Spy Novel, United Kingdom, 1990)
The Secret Pilgrim is a 1990 novel, set within the frame narrative of a series of lectures by John le Carré's George Smiley, famous only within the 'Circus'. The memoirs, narrated by Ned, a former pupil of Smiley's, are, except for the last, triggered by tangential Smiley comments in lectures given at Sarratt, the spy-training college which Ned runs. However, they are primarily accounts of Ned's own experiences rather than of Smiley's. Ned, who does not give his surname, represents himself as the head of the Russia House in The Russia House, disgraced by the defection of Barley Blair and hence condemned to a semi-retirement in charge of Sarratt. In many senses the Secret Pilgrim is a collection of short stories, tied together as Ned's recollection. Many of them are recognisable anecdotes or urban legends within the British Intelligence community.
The Secret Pilgrim examines how people behave under extreme stress (pushing things to the limit). The most dramatic of these episodes is the one in which Ned is tortured by Polish agents. With all his courage he resists giving them what they want. He is beaten and loses teeth; he is tied to a rack and worked over.

Assigment Nº2

Modernist Literature:

1.- Which 2 readings did you choose?
1) Witton,G. Scapegoats of the Empire (Australia, 1907-memoir).
2) Lawrence, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Britain, 1922-autobiography)


2.- Compare (3) and contrast (3) the reading you completed with the ppts. on Modernist culture and literature.


Comparisons:
a.- In both books you can find or see Historical events or things that have been passed in the history.
b.- Basically the philosophy and all the things relationed to the Eastern thought
Contrast.
c.- Actually the effects of the world wars in the mankind and all the consequences that The World Wars left.


Contrasts:
a.- Basically the searching for employments because of the the Great depression.
b.- Individualism.
c.- Actually one of the contrasts is that the readings are not very focussed on the happy things of the life they are kind of pessimists.



3.- In your opinion, do you feel the readings you completed are very good or excellent examples of Modernist literature?

I hardly believe that both books are excellent examples of modernist literature... but why? because in both the themes are the people who used to live at that time of the history and they talk about the lifes of them and that's the center of the modernist literature.

4.- Would you recommend these readings to your friends and/or family? Why/why not?

I strongly recommend these readings to my friends but not to my family, why?, because my friends of my age are concerning more about people and about theirselves and that's what they are looking for now, for an identity and I think that these books are very good for them to look for an identity because of the descriptions of the persons how they were living in the past or in the west so I hardly recommend this to my friends and not to my family.

Blog Assignment #1

I.- Which 2 readings did you select from the list?

I selected

a)Heart of Darkness

b)The Murders in the Rue Morgue


II.- Using these readings, compare (3 examples) and contrast (3 examples) the works with the ppt presentations on Victorian Literature and Culture given in class.

COMPARATION EXAMPLES:HEART OF DAKRNESS

1.- You can notice that all the characters are very civilized people who have a very good and funny job but in their own lifes in their personal life they live vey incivilized of what they are outside of their home or of their own worlds.

2.- Basically the Ambition is why all the main characters get into a conflict with all the people and all the world basically.

3.- The dark side of humans is present here because of the poverty that they suffers and also for the reasons of the bad persons that nobody liked.


CONTRAST EXAMPLES:HEART OF DARKNESS

1.- The author described all the things happened by the moment as they really was it was if he was doing a retrait of the reality in that jungle.

2.- Basically the new perspectives of all the things and also the inventions and technology managed by that time.

3.- The Idea and the concept of Darwin's evolution theory about the evolution of the monkeys that became basically what we are today HUMANS.

COMPARATION EXAMPLES: The Murders In The Rue Morgue
1.- The author shows the darkness of the life in his work.

2.- The concept that Women had a very secondary role in the society of that period.

3.- You can smell the mystery and all the scary things in this book.


CONTRAST EXAMPLES: The Murders In The Rue Morgue
1.- He's a very Romantic author.

2.- The Allusion of the problems are mentioned in this work.

3.- Edgar Allan Poe have problems with the alcohol and the bets actually he had a very bad problem with gambling and this things were not looked in that period it was something normal, as an example.


III. Do you feel that the readings you completed are very good or excellent examples of Victorian Literature? Why/Why not?

Yes I feel that the readings that I completed were excellents examples of Victorian Literature, because of the symbols and also the themes shown in the books a very good view of the reality of those days.

IV.- Would you recommend these readings to your friends and family? Why/Why not?

For sure I will recommend these readings to a friend or to somebody of my family they are so good and not long at all to read it and also are very interesting and you could know a lot of things about of the war for the money and the mystery in each book but I will be careful to who I will recommend it because a person who doesn't have a criticism judgment of what is he reading could not have the same reaction as a person who have that judgment to say what it's ok or what not.