Notes for Test

On Thursday this semester's test is finally here so I thought I might as well write a summary of the books and themes which I will be tested on. Who knows, if I perform badly in the test, maybe the lecturers will look upon me favourably due to these notes.

Firstly, I'm gonna talk about James Joyce's Ulysses. James Joyce was the Godfather of Modernism and this novel was groundbreaking in so many ways, particularly how Joyce rebukes the idea of a single narrative and gives us a decentered narrative as we see the events in the book through Stephen, Bloom, and Molly's eyes. He shatters the single version of reality of looking at things, providing the reader with unreliable narrative, where personality is in constant conflict and memory is often unreliable. Joyce likes to show that the same event can be viewed from different angles. He shows in his book that atoms can be viewed differently from person to person (relativity).  Ulysses show that Art and culture and politics have been overridden by psychology as the characters in the novel all have individual opinions.

James Joyce's High Modernism made people discard single viewpoints. Joyce was an icon for modernism, as there is nothing definitive within his works. He used  his Stream of Consciousness to present conflicts of contradiction. In Ulysses, the spontaneity of Bloom’s persona portrays Joyce's belief in fragmentation of thought. Joyce’s character’s also show uncertainty e.g. Stephen’s feelings throughout the novel and Molly's opinions on men. 

In addition to these points, Joyce also employs ever changing structures in his novel as there is no clear beginning, middle, and end, just a series of unconnected events which lead into one another, as is our everyday reality. 

Ulysses was banned due to its explicit content and sexual nature. Joyce was of the opinion that writers should write without fear of offending as such things as sexuality and deification are everyday experiences, which should be included in a novel. The sexuality and taboo nature of this book, plus the fact it was banned, contains clear Freudian undertones as the novel speaks openly as Freud wanted people to adhere to, and the fact it was banned just represents a conservative society which Freud disagreed with. 

Another cheeky character we will be tested on is Sigmund Freud. Sigmund like to talk about sex; . Freud believed sex motivates all and that sex is at the heart of humanity's ills. He also believed in analysing dreams to get to the root of people's problems, he said that dreams are the royal highway to the sub-conscious.

Freud also argued that Civilization causes people to deny their instincts by its social restraint and believed there is a conflict between the conscious and sub-consciouses as is shown in his theory of the Ego, id, and superego. Freud felt that a conservative society made people ill, and that because of a society which hide taboos, people are not what they seem. 

Freud has had a massive influence on theories of a consumer society. To appeal to people with psychoanalytic Freudian = massive cultural influence.

A favourite of mine on this year's reading list was definitely George Orwell's 1984. The themes running through this book are very clear, with ideas that people can be controlled through words and that these words are enforced by Thought Police; the ideas that Thought Police control Word crime. The world of 1984 has its own language called New Speak, which gets rid of words to indoctrinate and manipulate people through language. 

 Although 1984 is only a work of fiction, its does hold great poignancy, and such brainwashing can be seen in our society today. An example of this is when our MOD was called ministry of war. Why is it now called the Ministry of Defence? We aren't under attack! 

In 1984 the population of Oceania are fed to believe that they have always been at war with Eurasia. For me, this holds parallels with Stalin’s doctoring of photos as he wished to change the past to control the future just as Oceania did in the novel

Furthermore, sex isn’t a crime in 1984, it is sexcrime. There is no possibility of sex as it is a crime in itself.

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was another personal favourite of mine this semester, and although many criticize its methods of propaganda, for me Steinbeck's motives for such propaganda are pure. Grapes of Wrath is truly a classic. I feel that the novel was very humane and moral, so definitely acceptable. The novel showed that People are better off when they work together. 

Steinbeck gave the voiceless a voice in Grapes of Wrath by using campaigning journalism, which induced shock value via visual writing in the wake of photography. The novel included a series of articles he collated to create fiction. Steinbeck isn’t lying e.g. Tom Joad represents everyman’s struggle at the time of the dust bowl and Rose of Sharon's generosity shows ultimate kindness at a time of desperation, and she acts as somewhat of an advocate for socialism. 

Grapes of Wrath won the Nobel prize and it was the moment journalism became art. 

Finally, Emile Zola's Germinal was an interesting read. It was definitely beautifully brutal! Although some would argue that the violence he portrays within his work is unnecessary, I would counter that argument by saying that violence was used through necessity by the miners in the novel and was used as a force of good. 

Zola was one of the greatest realists of his time and also one of the first real photojournalists. Germinal portrays imagery so graphically that it would be hard for the reader not to taste the imagery. Pages and pages of description for a single event is common in Zola's novels e.g. the scene where the mine is flooding and the workers have to escape up a almost never ending ladder.