Norton anthology of literature - Admission/Application Essay Example

Norton anthology of literature QSN Norton Anthology of literature describes the twentieth century as the “Georgetown afternoon”. The writers refers twentieth century as “Georgetown afternoon” because it was the time which marked development and establishment of literature. Many literature writers arose during this time. The years range from 1900 to 1990s. One of the defining features of the twentieth century was the radical artistic experiment. The twentieth century marked advancement in literature, music, and art during the initial years of this century (Gilbert and Susan 67). There were many prominent writers during this time that included Pablo Piscasso, Ignor Stravinsky, and F.T. Marinetti. Some of the English writers of the twentieth century included Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, and Mina Loy. Most of these writers responded to the challenges and stimulus of avant-garde of European with poems, plays, manifestos, as well as with other forms of literature writing. This topic discovers all links between modernist innovations and continental experiment of English –language writers and poets during a extraordinary ferment period in arts and the literature. The twentieth century marked a lot of improvement in both arts and literature and that is the writers of this book refer to it as “Georgetown afternoon”. QSN 2: there were a number of technological advances and innovations between the years 1900 and 1920. Some of these technological innovations included car manufacturing and electric cooking. These technological innovations had both positive and negative social effects. These resulted in a number of poets, novelist, and philosophers seeing the advance of technology as a challenge and threat to conditions of human beings. To begin with, the advancement of these new technologies influenced a large group of people to forget their cultural practices. With the advancement of technology that would enable people to save time and increase convenience, one would always think that, these advancement will enable people to understand their cultures, communicate with their colleagues effectively, strengthen and maintain their families, and help others become socially adept. However, this was not the case with many literature writers. The technological advancement caused people to be overly stressed, distracted, and also increased isolation. One of the philosophers who were against technological advancement was Jacques Ellul who was a French Philosopher. Ellul argued that advancement of technologies such as car manufacturing and electric cooking influenced people to subordinate or eliminate the natural world as well as leaving behind their cultural practices.According to many writers, technology advancement drew away human concerns(Gilbert and Susan 234). QSN 3:the Norton examines a period of seventy years in the science development history (approximately between 1860 and 1930). This is from the viewpoint of debates of a wide society in the western as well as some non-western countries, which was stimulated by the notions of theorists Freud, Darwin, Einstein(Gilbert and Susan 97). According to Norton, the acceptance of the ideas of these three theorists coincided with accelerated secularization period, mass literacy, popular press influence, unprecedented growth, and modernization in both general as well as technological sense. All these movements influenced both urgency and immediacy to acceptance of the revolutionary views of these three theorists. After the Second World War, the views of essential theorists such as Freud, Darwin, and Einstein were not focused in such a broad attention. Their views were also not likely to be seen as future concerns. In this book, the writers explore the biographies and debates against the ideas of these three theorists. Norton also asserts that the views of these three theorists were acceptable in some societies observing that they were highly essential (Shesgreen 56). Norton recommends Freud, Darwin, and Einstein as the most prominent theorists during science development in the western countries. QSN 4:most of the early American novelists used novels to proclaim egalitarian messages to the society. Some of the early writers such as D.H. Lawrence,Ernset Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald,for example,seemed anxious about the rise of Feminism. Their novels spoke for beggar girls, orphans, factory girls, as well as other minority groups in the society. These early writers kindly repeatedly emphasized the overall need of women education and equality. The examples of novels that cover a lot about the rise of feminism are Charlotte and The Coquette. These two novels are considered among the novels that talk about women rights. Therefore, one can render such novels as American Literature works or Feminist novels. Some of the characters in the novels of the above mentioned writers portray fear for men by respecting and doing what their men command them to. The characters in their novels portray reasoning over misleading passions as well as an optimistic emphasis on the important goodness of humanity. The entire contexts in these writers’ novels portray how women in the twentieth century lived a live of inequality of fearing and respecting their men(Shesgreen 90). Women of these ancient times had no voice over their men and their duties were only to take care of their husbands and children. Women were not allowed to do any public activity according to the contexts in the novels of these writers. QSN 5:The WWI had many positive impacts towards women both politically and professionally. Before this, women were only supposed to carry out domestic duties such as taking care of kids and their men. As a large proportion of men left their jobs to go and fight for their country, women were left around with a variety of job choices (Hurston 78). Women were now able to carry out activities that were only supposed to be done by men. There were now able and encouraged to work for men’s positions thus advancing their professional and political careers. This marked a new dawn in the life of women and the beginning of equality and freedom for women. This period not only impacted women politically and professionally but also led to implementation of new health care systems for women. For instance, there were new attitudes towards child care and birth control, which began to emerge. This was seen as a “new life for women” since before implementation of these child care and birth control measures, women were only associated with the duty of child bearing and caring. Women were now able to birth to the number of children that could allow them continue with their political and professional careers. QSN 6:The short storyof Zora Neale Hurston “Sweat” portrays one of the major characters Sykes as being upset easily by the deeds of his wife Delia. In order to overcome his anger, he beats her up, cheats on her, and makes fun of snakes, which are Delia’s biggest fear (Hurston 405). However, women characters in this short story are very different from the early women. For instance, in the early days women were only associated with house chores with their husbands being the families’ breadwinners. Delia is the household breadwinner and her husband feels threatened after beating and cheating on her. This is one different aspect of the female characters in this novel from those of early writers. However, Sykes tries to make Delia understand that he is the control of everything by trying to drag her down in order to make her inferior. Although women on early novels seemed to fear their husband after being threatened the female characters in this novel are very different. For instance, Delia instead of showing fear to her husband, she did not fall down and she stood up and told Sykes “Mah tub of suds is filled yo’ belly with vittles more than yo’ hands is filled it….” (Hurston 408). Delia is much different from the women characters in early novels because she portrays her courageous to her husband by talking back to him something that was not common in early days. Works cited Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar.The Norton anthology of literature by women: the traditions in English. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007. Internet resource. Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. Internet resource. Shesgreen, Sean. "Canonizing the canonizer: A short history of the Norton anthology of English literature."Critical Inquiry 35.2 (2009): 293-318. Wall, Cheryl A, Zora N. Hurston, and Roger D. Abrahams."sweat": Zora Neale Hurston. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1997. Print. Read More