Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Kawabata's Snow Country
Virginia Woolf's claim that plot is banished in modern fiction is a misleading tenet of Modernism. The plot is not eliminated so much as mapped out onto a more local level, most obviously with the epic structural comparison in Ulysses. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf's strategy of indirect discourse borrows much from Impressionism in its exploration of the ways painting can freeze a moment and make it timeless. In Kawabata's Snow Country, the story of Yoko and her family and its relationship to the rest of the novel corresponds with an even more modern medium, film, and its superimposition of contradictory image.
Lily Briscoe's metaphor stabilize the
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Ramsay) and the image, fashioned by Lily, that lasts.
In Snow Country, cinema is the subtextual art form of choice for Kawabata. When Shimamura looks up at the domed sky, Kawabata uses filmic imagery to describe his visual journey: "Shimamura fancied that his own small shadow was being cast up against it from the earth. Each individual star stood apart from the rest, and even the particles of silver dust in the luminous clouds could be picked out, so clear was the night" (165). Shimamura literally projects himself into the void, through the "particles of silver dust" that resemble the dust a projector illuminates. The characters in Snow Country are trapped in themselves, with a reduced ability to articulate their desires, but they expand through cinematic images into the infinite landscape of nature and the Milky Way, just as the traditional plot, though displaced, is illuminated by the moments of consciousness throughout the novel.
The novel opens with Shimamura gazing at Yoko in the reflection of his train window. Early filmmakers took advantage of trains to showcase their medium, as the rapidly shifting landscape, and multitude of framing windows, was already an instance of "moving pictures." We are made aware in Snow Country, as in To the Lighthouse, that windows serve three purposes, just as the ocean is utilized in three visual ways in Moby Dick; we can look at them, through them, or at their
Filmmaking and cinematography are art forms completely open to interpretation in a myriad ways: frame composition, lighting, casting, camera angles, shot length, etc. The truly talented filmmaker employs every tool available to make a film communicate to the viewer on different levels, including social and emotional. When a filmmaker chooses to undertake an adaptation of a literary classic, the choices become somewhat more limited. In order to be true to the integrity of the piece of literature, the artistic team making the adaptation must be careful to communicate what is believed was intended by the writer. When the literature being adapted is
I chose to compare and contrast two women authors from different literary time periods. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) as a representative of the Victorian age (1832-1901) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) as the spokeswoman for the Modernist (1914-1939) mindset. Being women in historical time periods that did not embrace the talents and gifts of women; they share many of the same issues and themes throughout their works - however, it is the age in which they wrote that shaped their expressions of these themes. Although they lived only decades apart their worlds were remarkably different - their voices were muted or amplified according to the beat of society's drum.
In the novel To The Lighthouse Virginia Woolf uses literary techniques in order to express the character’s thoughts and emotions. Woolf incorporated her own experiences into her work in order to cope with lifes struggles. She had based the major characters in the novel off of her family and herself. For example Mrs. Ramsay was based off of her mother and Lily Briscoe represented herself. Virginia Woolf wrote in a new style of writing that was popular during the world wars called modernism. Modernism lasted roughly from the 1910’s into the 1960’s. This period of writing focused more on the inner self than nature, like the Romantics before them had. Modernist writers were influenced by those who raised questions about the rationality of the human mind, such as Sigmund Freud. By analyzing the stream of consciousness technique and indirect interior monologue along with narrated time Woolf expresses the character’s inner mind and perception.
In both novels the experience of growing up is explored through the use of narratives that span across lifetimes. In ‘Wuthering Heights’ Emily Bronte introduces the characters of Heathcliff and Catherine as children in an 18th century English household. In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, Khaled Hosseini also introduces both Mariam and Laila from young ages. The purpose of this style of writing allows he reader to provide justification for the events that happen to each character, and support the understanding that the childhoods of each characters determine them as they mature. The experience of growing up is also heavily influenced by contextual factors, and without them the characters would have had very different ordeals.
In the essay ‘“Oh, I see…’: The Birds and the Culmination of Hitchcock’s Hyper-Romantic Vision,” John McCombe attempts to connect The Birds to literary Romanticism. McCombe begins by citing a text from Robin Wood’s book Hitchcock’s Films Revisited. In the text, Wood discusses how Hitchcock controls the audience through editing and camera movement like a poet controls the reader through verse rhythms. To illustrate his point, Woods discusses how traumatic horror is conveyed in E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Hitchcock’s film. Woods conclude that it is better conveyed through visual images in Hitchcock’s film rather than through the text in the novel. Because of this, Hitchcock is considered to be more of a poet than a novelist.
Dystopian societies are a recurring theme among the works of many authors. It is difficult to predict the future, but authors such as Ray Bradbury and H.G. Wells have speculated possible scenarios for what lies ahead. Fahrenheit 451 and “Usher II” by Ray Bradbury and “The Country of the Blind” by H.G. Wells all depict events that result in chaos because of abuse of power and control. The three main characters of these compositions: Montag, Stendahl, and Nuñez are very similar yet greatly unique in many ways; they have controversial values, beliefs, philosophies, different views on society’s laws and they receive different consequences for their actions in the end.
During the 1800s and 1900s, authors styles of writing were very different than it is today. Their language and use of words was written in a way that impacted the readers very differently than today. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” were all read and watched to compare and contrast the similarities and differences. Three literary components stood out when comparing and contrasting, including character, setting, and plot. These three stories, written by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Katherine Anne Porter, can be compared to their corresponding movies, through the three literary components of character, setting, and plot.
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and in Virginia Woolf’s A Mark on the Wall - Subjective Narratives in Modernist Texts
Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.
In 'Rear Window, ' Hitchcock created an exclusive form of narration that guides the audience by symbolizing the windows as their eyes in which the majority the movie is shown through. As one of the signature scenes in Hitchcock’s movies, the first set of windows that the audience see are in Jefferies ' apartment in the opening-credits scene. The majority of the story was given away with regards to the forthcoming storyline, which has also presented an opportunity to set the tone of the film. It signified that the movie has officially begun when the bamboo curtain of Jeff 's window is raised and the courtyard is shown. This furthers the idea in which the eyes of the viewers are now has become a part of Jeff 's windows. Due to the metaphor, the audience 's
The poems “First Snow” by Mary Oliver and “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost use wildly different poetic forms to achieve much the same practical goal: to describe and represent the first snow of winter. In comparing these two works one is reminded of the universality of experience that makes poetry possible. In contrasting the two one is reminded of the unique creativity and range of expression that makes poetry precious. A synthesis of the two is a solid statement on the power of good poets.
Good Afternoon Ms Atkinson and fellow peers, as you can see, the texts I have chosen to discuss with you are To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lullaby by W. H . Auden, all of which have modernist themes, including conforming to traditional gender roles, time and love. To the Lighthouse revolves around the lives of the Ramsay family who are at their holiday house, hosting some guests, including Lily Briscoe (a painter) and Charles. The family are faced with different obstacles throughout the day, Lily with a discouraging comment from Charles and James’ oppositions with his father, but in the end, despite the differences, it is clear the Mr Ramsay heavily depends on Mrs Ramsay. Ten years later, Mr
Contrasting points of view counteract to the opposing feelings on each side of the window’s glass. The snowman subconsciously implies a sense of sympathy for the boy as he stays outside in the unbearable weather. ”His” point of view is essential to developing the overall message of youthful innocence. As the snowman melts enough to make the child begin to cry, it is inferred that the snowman was not initiating the gloomy feelings of the child; he was nonetheless trying to prevent them. Initially, the divergent points of view were difficult to grasp, but within further evaluation it is clear to notice that the two different points of view illustrate the devastation within fear and heartfelt love for genuine people.
Literature in the early and mid-twentieth century started to disrupt the traditional styles of writing from the time period before. It started a new era of writing that would be soon labeled as modernism. While stylistic choices have changed during this time period, one aspect of traditional values that continuously bleeds through the writing is the depiction of gender roles and the location of autonomy. Most literary texts depict men being born into a society that demands them to be self-assured, leading, domineering, and most of all, self-autonomous. It is because of this that men have developed a complex to believe they know what is best when applied to their life, the lives of others, how to manage society, and almost everything else. While stories such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper” depict how the lack of self-autonomy, in women, is severely detrimental, having complete control of the autonomous self could be inimical to one's life or could be factored into the reasoning of failure. In Ernest Hemingway's “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, the main character, Harry, believes to have lost sense of himself and his manhood because of the choices that he made, not as a writer, but as a man. Or in Jack London's “To Build a Fire”, the main character, the man, believes that he can conquer any obstacle, no matter how unprepared. His confidence led him to disregard the advice given by an older more experienced gentleman, but it also led him to his death.
essay in interestingly different ways. Bennett states that Woolf’s essay is not a feminist work, rejects the idea that Woolf’s discussion of women and