Interest in Language in Modern Literature Desirèe Mosca VA

Background of the path Study of Modern literature (V.Woolf, J.Joyce, T.S. Eliot)  Reflection about the use of language Aim of the path  Answer the following questions: Why are Modern writers interested in language? What does language mean to V.Woolf, J.Joyce and T.S. Eliot?  Improve linguistic, writing and speaking skills

Why are Modern writers interested in language? Modernism:  fall of certainties and truths  QUEST  possible answers in language & linguistics  relationship reality – language – human being  alienation, paralysis, inability to communicate  reflection about form, new poetic language  appearance vs reality; interior vs external world

What does language mean to V. Woolf? Desiring truth, awaiting it, laboriously distilling a few words, for ever desiring–(a cry starts to the left, another to the right. Wheels strike divergently. Omnibuses conglomerate in conflict)–for ever desiring–(the clock asseverates with twelve distinct strokes that it is mid-day; light sheds gold scales; children swarm)–for ever desiring truth. Red is the dome; coins hang on the trees; smoke trails from the chimneys; bark, shout, cry "Iron for sale"– and truth? Monday or Tuesday Language:  interrogation (knowledge, desire)  perception of reality (senses)  trans-figuration of reality (mind)

What does language mean to J.Joyce? While he had been full of memories of their secret life together, full of tenderness and joy and desire, she had been comparing him in her mind with another. A shameful consciousness of his own person assailed him. He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a penny−boy for his aunts, a nervous, well−meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealizing his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror. Instinctively he turned his back more to the light lest she might see the shame that burned upon his forehead. The Dubliners Language:  reflection  epiphany, reality vs appearance  discomfort, clumsiness, paralysis  discussion of universal themes

What does language mean to J.Joyce? the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know Ulysses Language:  total revelation of the human nature  memories  explicit mental operations

What does language mean to T.S. Eliot? If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: “That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all.” And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stairs With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Language:  Impossible communication  revelation of human fragility (fear, insecurity)

What does language mean to T.S. Eliot? What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20 You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, 23 And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock The Waste Land Language:  mood and atmosphere  human powerlessness  dependence from Nature

Summing up… Language in Modernism QUEST V.Woolf’s search for Truth J.Joyce’s discovery of Truth (epiphany) Modernists’ focus on interiority awareness of LIMIT T.S. Eliot’s and J.Joyce’s anti-heroes