Material Details in Edith Wharton’s Writings

Edith Wharton was among the most prominent writers of her time and could compete with any of her contemporary colleagues. However, she as a female writer rose above her colleagues in her style and attitudes towards novel writing. The central themes in her novels were the conflict between social and individual fulfillment, repressed sexuality, and the manners of old families and the new elite, who had made their fortunes in more recent years. The contradictions in the upper class society were yet another theme that intrigued Wharton. The question of what is moral to one part of the society did not necessarily mean that it is moral for the other part of the society. Some people could at that time escape without any hidden or open punishment from the rest of the society if they were enough skillful and clever. On the other hand, for some people it was difficult to avoid pressure from the society and behave according what their mind and heart were telling them. This paper in particular deals with the Wharton's biographical background with the special attention to her family and life experience and how it influence and shaped her style of writing. The paper also deals with material and graphic details in her novels and the reasons behind usage of those graphic details.  Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence is still one of the most read novels and is required reading in High Schools and at the Universities. The final part of the paper deals with the abovementioned novel that influenced and shaped the writings of the generations of writers after her death.  

"The Linguistics of Ethnic Nationalism in the Western Balkans"

The Western Balkans socio-political discourse is heavily focused on the exclusive and radical ethnic nationalism and ideology. In this regard, the media and the political elites, through their focus on symbols, myths, ethnicity, tradition, history, language and culture play an important role in shaping the public opinion. Consequently, the daily newspapers in reporting the views of the political elites, within linguistic, discursive, socio-political and ideological contexts, can influence the masses who usually do not analyze the news critically. The paper also seeks to examine and interpret differences in language use by selected Western Balkans political leaders and the way their language choice influenced public opinion. Political, nationalist and ideological discourses promoted by the political elites are very specific and the journalists should report such discourses objectively. Therefore, it is significant to compare and contrast the role played by the media and the political elites in their linguistic, discursive and socio-linguistic choices in the text that may carry ethnic nationalist and ideological meanings. The theoretical and conceptual framework of the paper was based on Fowler’s (1989; 2003; 2010) works: “Language and Power”, “Analyzing Discourse” and “The Critical Study of Language”. In order to test research objectives on the coding and analyzing ethnic nationalism and ideology in the Western Balkans newspapers, the research employed critical discourse analysis for N=534 randomly selected news from the following four newspapers: Dnevni avaz (Bosnia and Herzegovina), “Večernji list” (Croatia), “Večernje novosti” (Serbia), “Vijesti” (Montenegro), limited to a period between 2016 and 2018

Material Details in Edith Wharton’s Writings

Edith Wharton was among the most prominent writers of her time and could compete with any of her contemporary colleagues. However, she as a female writer rose above her colleagues in her style and attitudes towards novel writing. The central themes in her novels were the conflict between social and individual fulfillment, repressed sexuality, and the manners of old families and the new elite, who had made their fortunes in more recent years. The contradictions in the upper class society were yet another theme that intrigued Wharton. The question of what is moral to one part of the society did not necessarily mean that it is moral for the other part of the society. Some people could at that time escape without any hidden or open punishment from the rest of the society if they were enough skillful and clever. On the other hand, for some people it was difficult to avoid pressure from the society and behave according what their mind and heart were telling them. This paper in particular deals with the Wharton's biographical background with the special attention to her family and life experience and how it influence and shaped her style of writing. The paper also deals with material and graphic details in her novels and the reasons behind usage of those graphic details. Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence is still one of the most read novels and is required reading in High Schools and at the Universities. The final part of the paper deals with the abovementioned novel that influenced and shaped the writings of the generations of writers after her death