Of Rocks and Marlin: The Existentialist Agony in Camus’s \u3cem\u3eThe Myth of Sisyphus\u3c/em\u3e and Hemingway’s \u3cem\u3eThe Old Man and the Sea\u3c/em\u3e

Explores the relationship between Camus’s existential philosophy and The Old Man and the Sea, comparing Santiago to Sisyphus. Characterizes each as alone and isolated in his “repetitive struggle that must end in defeat, but who refuses the escape of some ultimate religious consolation.” Gives an existentialist reading of the novella’s Christian allegory, climaxing in Santiago’s “crucifixion.

Analysis of expressive elements in the Dante Sonata

The present document is a reflection upon Liszt's most important piece, the Dante Sonata from the cycle Années de Pèlerinage. It represents the pinnacle achievement of the Italian Years and it is considered one of the most difficult pieces to play from the standard repertoire. It ranges from virtuosic, brilliant passages to sincerely moving emotional statements. Liszt's musical maturity can be seen evolving through this masterpiece by observing its innovative harmonic structure and formal conception. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

The undependable bonds of blood: the unanticipated problems of parenthood in the novels of Henry James

A dilemma inherent within any parent-child relationship is that a youth may require attention and guidance that a parent is unable, or unwilling, to provide. How much is a parent willing to "give up" and will this new role bring with it a residue of resentment because demands are being made upon his or her emotional and financial reserves? Herein lies one of the sources of psychological tension that Henry James examines with such care and precision. Problems that begin within such familial discord bring with them a volatility that often reaches beyond family boundaries. These collisions, and their aftershocks, have consequences that no one can anticipate or repair. The novels of Henry James provide a wide spectrum of figures that lack the flexibility to adapt and meet the needs of their children. Louise Barnett asserts that James's literary families are a group of people "whose underlying constant is the tragic paradox that blood relations are both essential and unreliable" (Barnett, 144). The figures placed within these settings are often a grotesque conglomerate of unsuccessful marriages and absentee relations in which parents practice unhealthy patterns of behavior and negatively influence their children before they have a chance to mature into full grown adults. There are many authors who present families in their literature, but none of these "blood" ties seem as uniquely misshapen or more clearly recognizable than those of Henry James. The chasm between what one needs and what one gets often appears to be not only wide, but also laden with challenges. As I will argue, it is a breakdown of parenthood--an institution that James's novels portray as rife with flaws and shortcomings--that all too often functions as an obstacle. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Time's inexorability: a performance study of Gerald Finzi's Earth and air and rain

Gerald Finzi has at least once been characterized as the English Hugo Wolf. To one familiar with the music of both Wolf and Finzi, such a statement understandably elicits pause and must be qualified by the context in which the characterization was made. Wolf's musical compositions are considerably more complex and broader in scope than those of Gerald Finzi. Finzi's compositional style is one unmistakably British, and shares little in common with the music of Wolf. There is, however, a shared characteristic in their compositional styles. Each of the men was highly detailed in their sensitivity to poetry and used music as a medium to accentuate their respective languages' aesthetic qualities. For Gerald Finzi, the poetry of Thomas Hardy seems to have held a strong attraction as fodder for song composition. This is evidenced in the overwhelming number of his songs with Hardy texts as their subjects. Finzi's Hardy songs constitute a significant period of English song composition in the first half of the 20th century. His careful attention to textual declamation and Hardy's shifting tone of voice result in songs that not only exemplify a style distinctively British, but also a style that bears out the deeper philosophical foundations of Hardy's poetry. His careful grouping of the ten poems of Earth and Air and Rain illustrates not only his gift for setting his native language, but also an intimate understanding of the ideology contained within Hardy's poetry. A successful performance of Earth and Air and Rain is greatly dependent upon the performer's ability to portray the ideology of Hardy as seen through Finzi's musical interpretation of his poetry. Learning to recognize the compositional devices characteristic of Finzi's idiomatic style enables the performer to accomplish this task. To that end, the following performance study seeks to compartmentalize those devices in such a way that not only facilitates a successful performance of these songs, but that also gives insight to the performance of the other Finzi settings of Hardy poetry. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Three Approaches toward Historiography: The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Possession, and Waterland

Critics have widely explored John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Graham Swift’s Waterland, and A. S. Byatt’s Possession. These novels are generally treated as outstanding historiographic metafictions since they self-consciously adopt the notion of history and simultaneously problematize historical understanding. For Hayden White, the historian is inevitably impositional and every narrativized history is relative. Following White, Linda Hutcheon defines postmodern historical fiction as the type of fiction that self-reflexively and paradoxically makes use of the notion of history and simultaneously denies its truthfulness. The present article attempts to analyze, compare, and contrast John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Graham Swift’s Waterland and A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance in light of the theories of White and Hutcheon to show that in spite of problematization of the possibility of recovering the past as it actually was, these novels treat the concept of history differently