Lit2120 World Literature
Spring 2005
Metamorphosis has been in translation for less than a hundred years, but has more criticism written on it than any other story. The class assignment concerns whether the ending is positive or negative. Are the characters better off or worse? Because of the ambiguity, there is no definitive answer...so let's talk.
Withdrawal Date: Friday, 18 March 2005
Check the Assignments Page and the Discussion Forum regularly
Week 10: 15 March to 20 March, 2005
Read Wallace Stevens “Emperor of Ice Cream” (1905), “The Idea of Order at Key West” (1905), read T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”(2075). "I scream for...." on Discussions.
Participation Grade 2 determined on 20 March, 2005
Spring Break! 21 March to 27 March, 2005
Week 11: 29 March to 3 April, 2005
Read Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis (1999). "Hard Shells, but soft and chewy insides" on Discussions.
Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, 3 April, 2005.
Assignment #5 on Kafka is due on Sunday, 10 April at 11:55p EDT (see Assignments page).
Modernism
I really advise all to read the introduction to modernism in the text. I think it's a fascinating read and hints at the reason for our chaotic contemporary life. With the growth of the study of the social sciences, it must have appeared that the entire universe was understandable (as it still may seem today). The rush to discover, though, has led people to discover for the sake of discovery, and has led the rest of us to accept discoveries as truths, which they are not. In fact, one of the latest discoveries in quantum mechanics states that nothing can be observed without that observation changing the thing being studied. What this seems to tell me is that discoveries may create explanations where none may be needed. Hmm, but that leads to madness....
Certainly, the modern age is obsessed with ways of knowing, and modernism has transformed the world by encouraging its observation in different and new ways. And if I may add a personal opinion, I think the idea of scientific rationalism has had a much greater impact on society than any humanistic movement. Scientific rationalism is the idea that everything can be explained scientifically, that problems can be cured or at least ameliorated. This answer-creating machine we call the Industrial Age or the Information Age is a direct outgrowth of the social and psychological studies of the late nineteenth century, and its impact on literature reflects its impact on our everyday life.
The detailed study of human thought by Freud and others led to some of the literary changes seen in Joyce, Kafka, and Robbe-Grillet. Freud's analysis of human consciousness propelled writers to imitate that associative stream of consciousness in their own writings. Joyce tried to recreate the flow of thoughts in his writing, and even structured his stories to jump from high to low points of existence, trying to imitate the way people recall only emotional points and forget the everyday mundane. This sort of experimenting led other writers to use symbols much more freely.
Other studies in the area of linguistics led writers to see words as games and as associative connections, lacking any ultimate meaning outside of local context. Understand, it was always felt that words expressed thoughts, and that even though two individuals spoke different languages, they could, given time, learn to communicate thoroughly. Linguistic studies began to show, though, that much of how we think is determined by our language. We are not equal creatures speaking different languages. Although we may have started out that way, language so changes our way of looking at the world as we grow that, as adults, we are now isolated in our own, cultural world view. The closest analogy I can think of involves the ability to lose an accent when learning a foreign language. As you may know, studies show that if people learn to speak another language before they reach puberty, it is possible they will be fluent in both languages. But if that person does not learn a language until after puberty, they will rarely lose their native language accent. The muscles of the mouth are so set by that time, complete fluency is virtually impossible.
Author Notes
Wallace Stevens, is another nearly-contemporary poet who makes this distinction between the real and the imagined clear. His poems are marked by the keen realization that what we perceive is ultimately changed by our perception of it (a trait that is now accepted by most scientists). As such, he often has harsh, clear images and settings in his poems, then contrasts them with symbolic, personal associations.
In "The Idea of Order at Key West," for example, Stevens extolls the created beauty of the singer, over the true beauty of Nature. "Water never formed to mind or voice;" it stands chaotic until drawn into the human mind and released in a "maker's rage." Only then does it become art, does it touch the truth of "our origins."
Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is the most studied piece of literature of all time (probably even more so than the Bible). This is because of its ambiguity. When Gregor Samsa wakes up as a vermin (usually interpreted as a cockroach) he is not just a symbol. He is the real thing. He is both a victim of his circumstances and responsible for them. Like Ivan Ilyich, he does come to some realization of his weaknesses at the end of the story, but I am not sure his death is a tragic one - - it was always too late for Gregor. Maybe this is because his attempts to "fix" things, to get better, is not intended to evoke sympathy on the part of the reader. In many ways, Gregor has caused the problems in his family, and the lack of closeness and communications are seen as his legacy.
These changes to our views on language and thought had immense impact on culture and art. Without a standard world view, a natural order, individual affectation became acceptable. Life became, in a sense, absurd -- arbitrary. Of course this did not occur right away. In fact our present postmodernist culture is said to be the final acceptance of these basic tenets. Dadaism, Cubism, Modern Art, Existentialism, Surrealism are all ways of expressing the un-understandable connections between the human mind, emotions, and other humans -- the arbitrariness of existence after Nietzsche.