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Style and themes of American literature
American literary esay
American literature influence
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Donald Barthelme has been called “probably the most perversely gifted writer in the U.S.'; As well as “ one of the best, most significant and carefully developing young American writers'; (Harte and Riley, 41). He was born April 7, 1931 to Donald and Helen Barthelme in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Barthelme had a wide range of careers during his lifetime. He worked as a newspaper reporter and as a managing editor of Location, and art and literature review (Harte and Riley, 41). His other jobs included serving in Korea and Japan in the U.S. Army (Barthelme Bio, 1), Professor of English at the City University of New York, teacher of Creative Writing at the University of Texas in Houston, and of course author of short stories and novels (Anderson et al, 919). He is the author of a number of collections of short stories including “Come Back, Dr. Caligari'; (1964); “Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts'; (1968); “ City Life'; (1971); “Sadness'; (1972); “Great Days'; (1978); “Overnight to Many Distant Cities'; (1983); and “Paradise'; (1986). He also wrote Snow White, a parody of the popular children’s fairy tale, the novel. He won the National Book Award for Children’s literature for the book titled “The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine: or, the Hithering, Thithering, Djinn'; (1971) (Marowski and Matuz, 3?). In 1976 he received the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters for his book The Dead Father. His book Sixty Stories was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner award for Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize all in 1982. Barthelme also had the privilege of being widely regarded as one of the ablest and most versatile American stylists (Robert et al, 919). Donald Barthelme passed away July 23, 1989 from cancer in Houston Texas.
According to the Literature book Barthelme’s stories contain plots that are “unconventional episodic, a clutter of styles, absurdities, and slapstick.'; In his hands, “a myth is likely to turn into realism, and realism into absurdity.'; It is said that Barthelme’s characters are “two-dimensional parodies of themselves, rather than fully developed individu...
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...he actors get ready for the play they are putting on, what people think of the play, and finally how the playwright is getting ready for his next play.
Sindbad is a story about a substitute teacher that normally teaches at night, who takes a job during the day. The teacher keeps saying that the students keep asking him to leave. He reads a story about Sindbad to them, but it is a fake version that is about Sindbad owning a store and making everyone that comes into his store happy.
The last story I read was The Explanation. I did not understand what the story was about. It wasn’t really a story but a series of questions and answers with squares filled in with black on each page.
All of the stories that I read came from Barthelme’s book Forty Stories. He is “widely regarded as one of the ablest and most versatile American Stylist'; (Anderson et al, 919). Barthelme does write about a variety of different topics, which does make him a versatile writer. He is a writer that makes the reader think about what they are reading and wonder what he means by what is written.
the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It
Litz, A. Walton. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 2, Part 2. New York: Charles
preparing us for the tragedy. I will be focusing on Act 3 Scene 1 and
Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: Pearson-Prentice, 2010. 40-49. Print.
Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser was born August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana. The younger brother of Paul Dresser, a well-known songwriter, Theodore was a famous novelist known for his outstanding American writing of naturalism. He was also a leading figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the unflinching presentation of real-life subject matter. Even though a majority of his works were about his life experiences, he also wrote about new social problems that had risen in American at the time as well as things sexual in nature. Dreiser was born the ninth of ten surviving children in a family that was stricken with life-long poverty. His father was a German immigrant that was mostly an unemployed mill worker with a strict attitude because of his narrow Roman Catholic belief. His mother had a Czech Mennonite background and she was a fair lady that was always compassionate to her son. Because of the family’s severe degree of poverty, they moved frequently between small Indiana towns and Chicago in search of a better cost of living. Dreiser did not have much of an education in his lifetime. He attended parochial and public schools including a year at Indiana University in 1889-1890 throughout his academic years. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago in 1892 before working his way to the East Coast. While living on the East Coast in 1894, Dreiser found a job working for a Pittsburgh newspaper.
Luebering, J. E, ed. The 100 Most Influential Writers of All Time. New York: Britannica
Now that the play, “Post-its (Notes on a Marriage),” could make the audience react to feel distanced and questionable of the actions of the characters, how can that relate to everyday life? traits of the play Post-its (Notes on a Marriage) through staging and conversation,
The main portion of the book is about convict Shadow Moon. The story begins with Shadow learning that he will be released from prison early, but only because his wife Laura and best friend and employer, Robbie, have died in a car wreck. On the flight to his wife’s funeral, Shadow takes a very vaguely described job offered to him by a peculiar man named Wednesday. Events irreversibly take a turn toward the supernatural as Shadow realizes his boss is something more than human. As the story progresses, Shadow learns that he is actually working for Odin, an old god brought over by a group of Vikings in America’s distant past. He encounters many supernatural beings throughout his work for Odin and l...
reputation as one of the finest American writers of all time. A man of towering
It was very nice to read something that had a lot of drama and suspense. This story has a mix of everything. It has a bit of suspense, drama, and comedy; therefore, it led it to be a very nice play. The people that would most like this play, has to be people who like suspense, drama, and thriller. These people would like it, because this story has a mix of everything, so the people who like to have a mix in their stories, they will love this story. It will suit them, and will give them a pleasure of reading a nice
Using techniques such as marking the moment, cross-cutting, role-play, hot-seating and various others I have been able to create pieces of drama based around the play Blood Brothers. This will help me in understanding and creating pieces of drama bases around the true explicit story but also around the metaphors, which surround and embrace the story. In the future, this will help me dramatize future pieces of drama. Creating a level of depth, which is simulated by someone who completely understands that piece of drama. Being able to watch a play and be able to create a piece of drama from
“Play” opens with three figures encased in large urns with only their faces visible. The urn as a prop is significant because it symbolizes the individuals’ being trapped by their own desires; doomed to repeat them. They can neither see nor hear one another. A spotlight, acting as a voiceless interrogator projected on the faces of the actors, swivels between them prompting each in turn to speak; when the light leaves, the faces fall silent. A man and two women (a husband, his wife and his mistress) are compelled by the light to recount the story of their love triangle. Through precise use of lighting, shadows, and props the audience is compelled to become fascinated with the story. As the bodies repeatedly recount their stories, various tones are used to describe/convey new details each time. “Play” begins with a humorous tone, but with each repetition the story becomes darker and wearier? However, the consistency of that single set makes for a powerful message and keeps the audience in tune and focused.
reach into the ideas and themes of the play so we will have a good
On September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, a son was born to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Faulkner. This baby, born into a proud, genteel Southern family, would become a mischievous boy, an indifferent student, and drop out of school; yet “his mother’s faith in him was absolutely unshakable. When so many others easily and confidently pronounced her son a failure, she insisted that he was a genius and that the world would come to recognize that fact” (Zane). And she was right. Her son would become one of the most exalted American writers of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and two Pulitzers during his lifetime. Her son was William Faulkner.
Chapter 3 talks about "the actor". I found this chapter very interesting. I found out that actors had to go to college too. I also found it compelling to learn that in the passage on page 76, under the picture, it talks about how playing "ordinary people" in a realistic play is often the biggest challenge for an actor.