I. Le cadre Une époque lointaine, moyenâgeuse (présence de châteaux) dans une région centrale de la Hongrie aux moeurs si étranges que l'on croit à la métempsycose. (transmigration des âmes d'un corps dans un autre). Tous ces éléments accentuent le dépaysement et donnent au lecteur le sentiment étrange qu'il est dans un autre monde où tout est possible. II. Les personnages Le Comte Berlifitzing: est à peine évoqué, ce n'est qu'un" vieux radoteur infirme qui n'avait rien de remarquable si […]
Biographie d'Edgar Allan Poe
Enfance 1806 Mariage le 14 Mars de David Poe Jr et de Mrs Eliza Hopkins. Tous les deux sont acteurs dans la même troupe et connaissent des difficultés matérielles de toutes sortes. 1809 Naissance d'Edgar Poe à Boston le 19 Janvier. David Poe disparaît. 1811 Mrs Poe joue à Richmond où elle meurt le 8 décembre de tuberculose pulmonaire à l'âge de 24 ans. Edgar Poe est recueilli par les Allan et s'appellera Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan est un […]
Edgar Allan Poe : introduction
Auteur américain de la première moitié du 19ème siècle, très prolifique puisqu'il a écrit plus d'une soixantaine de nouvelles et de poèmes, Edgar Allan Poe s'affirme en tant qu'écrivain de grande renommée, reconnu prestigieux en France grâce au poète Charles Baudelaire qui, en traduisant ses oeuvres, leur a conféré une beauté et une pureté exceptionnelles. Malmené dès l'enfance par la vie, assoiffé de tendresse, malchanceux en amour, hanté par ses phantasmes et ses démons intérieurs, névrosé au plus haut point, […]
Electre : tragédie et originalité du drame giralducien
Mythe de la vérité, la tragédie d'Electre est le récit d'une vengeance qui s'accomplit à ce titre. Le conflit qui structure la pièce lui donne unité et profondeur. Mais quelles sont les origines et les règles de la tragédie grecque? Quel mythe est à l'origine du drame d'Electre ? Quelle est l'originalité de Giraudoux par rapport aux célèbres dramaturges que furent Eschyle, Sophocle ou Euripide? I. Naissance de la tragédie A. Origines religieuses du théâtre La tragédie est née à […]
Death of a Salesman : an extended introduction
Introduction: the structure of the play In Miller's mind, Death of a Salesman was not an abstract concept but the concrete image of an enormous head that would be on stage, opening up the play, so that spectators would be able to see inside. It was a very ambitious idea and the original title was The Inside of his Head. In Death of a Salesman, the spectator is plunged into the main character's head. There is no linear onward progression […]
The ordering of events in The Great Gatsby
Introduction In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald condensed the story's events. It appears that two important changes were introduced: Fitzgerald suppressed a long episode of Gatsby's childhood in order to heighten the sense of mystery surrounding his protagonist's youth. This fragment was then turned into a short story Absolution that was published in a review Mercury. The second important change concerned the order of the events and the fact that in the original version it was Gatsby who spoke. In the […]
Structure and Narration in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is the third novel of Fitzgerald, published in 1925 after This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and the Damned (1922). Introduction It is a turning point in Fitzgerald literary career because it was to improve on his previous works: he tested new techniques and insisted on the novelty of his enterprise: 'I want to write something new, something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and 'intricately patterned' (letter to Perkins, agent at Scribners). Indeed, Fitzgerald devoted […]
Modernism
I. Defining the (literary) self and the nation: representative figures As an aesthetic phenomenon, Modernism refers to a period that ended in the late 1930's to early 1940's. The term "modernism" was first used in Germany in the 1890's, the period in which Modernism is said to have appeared. Unlike such terms as "Romanticism" or Classicism", Modernism does not refer to the qualities of works of art in a particular period: it is based on the idea that works of […]
The American Renaissance
Ralph Waldo EMERSON Emerson's literary and philosophical importance in the American renaissance and after it has always been associated with his lasting influence in two domains of American intellectual and social life: The emergence of an America romantic sensibility. The emergence of a characteristically American conception of individual consciousness and actions. For the first time in America, Emerson gave full expression to a philosophy of romantic idealism. He thought that the spiritual and intellectual ideals of the 18th century, the […]
Declaration of Literary Independence
I. Washington IRVING: evolution, nostalgia and imaginary compensation Irving was not under the influence of sentimentalism or romanticism, the two big influences of that time. In a way, he was the perfect incarnation of the American early literary development. He was a figure of literary transition in a society where American literature was still a hybrid. Irving's artistic opinions and his style changed dramatically over time but we can detect certain opinions and thematic elements that dominate his early as […]
Puritanism : a New World Vision
I. The Puritan New World vision in the longer schemes of things English Puritans can be divided into several groups. Most of the Puritans remained in England. They accepted the principle of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, with the Separatists (no affiliation with authority and the English protestant church). They were persecuted and many of them had to run away and come to the New World. To many Puritans, Christopher Columbus's passage in America was one of the most important historical events […]
An authentically American Literature
I. Writing the territory: the literature of discovery and exploration Started as a vision in Europe: it is a product of literary imagination. America existed only as a literary object that was represented in the writings of Europeans who first visited America. They brought back their own visions, written in Spanish or French and not in English. 16th century: the English knew about America through outside texts, not from English texts. 1670's: English mariners started exploring the North American coast. […]
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