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The circular ruins sparknotes
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Magical Realism and the Sublime in The Circular Ruins
Among the many short stories that the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges has written, "The Circular Ruins" was published in 1964 in a collection of his works entitled Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. Even though "The Circular Ruins" may be classified as a Magical Realist text, one may wonder if this short story could be classified as the Sublime as well. By examining "The Circular Ruins," a reader will be able to see several similarities between Magical Realism and the Sublime.
Of course, the first step in deciding whether or not "The Circular Ruins" is a type of the Sublime is to look at some of the characteristics of the Sublime. For instance, one of the characteristics of the Sublime is that it causes the feeling of transcendence, which means that the reader feels as if or she is rooted in the world but, at the same time, senses something that is beyond the world (Sandner 52). By using the element of dreams in "The Circular Ruins," transcendence is experienced by not only the reader but the main character, too. With the specific purpose to "dream a man" and "insert him into reality," the main character travels to circular ruins to sleep (Borges 46). After he finally accomplishes his purpose, the main character discovers that he himself is only the result of someone else's imagination (Borges 50). As a result, the reader may wonder if he or she, like the main character, is just the dream of someone else. Therefore, while the character and the reader may feel as if they are real human beings, they may begin to feel as if they are imaginary human beings, which is the sense of something beyond the world.
How does this feeling o...
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Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Circular Ruins." Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. Ed. Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby. New York: New Directions, 1964. 45-50.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scheherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 163-186.
Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 109-116.
Longinus. On the Sublime. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995.
Sandner, David. The Fantastic Sublime. Westport, C.T.: Greenwood P, 1996.
Schaffer, Barbara Joan. "The Circular Ruins." 23 January 2001
<http://www.themodernword.com/borges/borges_paper_schaffer.html>.
Gabriel García Márquez, 1982 Nobel Laureate, is well known for using el realismo magical, magical realism, in his novels and short stories. In García Márquez’s cuento “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” García Márquez tactfully conflates fairytale and folklore with el realismo magical. García Márquez couples his mastery of magical realism with satire to construct a comprehensive narrative that unites the supernatural with the mundane. García Márquez’s not only criticizes the Catholic Church and the fickleness of human nature, but he also subliminally relates his themes—suffering is impartial, religion is faulty by practice, and filial piety—through the third-person omniscient narration of “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes.” In addition to García Márquez’s narrative style, the author employs the use of literary devices such as irony, anthropomorphism, and a melancholic tone to condense his narrative into a common plane. García Márquez’s narrative style and techniques combine to create a linear plot that connects holy with homely.
Giants and Angels roam the pages of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World”, creating the perfect scene for magical realism. Many of the elements within these stories coincide with each other; this has everything to do with the overall component of magical realism, which binds together similarities and sets apart differences. The theme of each story can be found within the other and can stand by itself to represent the story it belongs to, the settings are similar in location and the ability to change but different in their downsides and the writing style is so similar it is complicated to find any differences. Marquez is a master story-teller whose works of art can only be compared with each other.
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995.
This places the reader in recognisable landscape which is brought to life and to some extent made clearer to us by the use of powerful, though by no means overly literary adjectives. Machado is concerned with presenting a picture of the Spanish landscape which is both recognisable and powerful in evoking the simple joys which it represents. Furthermore, Machado relies on what Arthur Terry describes as an `interplay between reality and meditation' in his description of landscape. The existence of reality in the text is created by the use of geographical terms and the use of real names and places such as SOrai and the Duero, while the meditation is found in...
The government soon realized that making one huge railroad would take forever, so they made The Pacific Railroad Act. It gave two industries, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific, the responsibilities for making the railroads. “The Central Pacific laid 690 miles (1,110 km) of track, starting in Sacramento, and the Union Pacific laid 1,087 miles (1,749 km) of track, starting in Omaha”(The First Transcontinental Railroad 1).
From 1871 to 1900, about another 170,000 miles of railroad tracks were added. Congress approved the Pacific Railway Act in 1862. That authorized construction of a railroad from coast to coast. Counties were able to work together easier due to the less travel time; which created an interconnected society. The use of steam engines made it possible so people could travel further distances much easier than if they were using only horse drawn wagons. The Railroads also created jobs across the United States that aided in the building of cities and towns across the country. With the invention of the steam engine those living in large cities across the country were able to obtain goods faster than they had been able with only horse powered means. Whatever good the railroads did for the country it also was rough on those who built it. Living in railroad construction camps and Laying track was an extremely hard way to live and earn a living. Railroad construction crews had to lay tracks across and through mountain, across lakes and rivers. They also were subjected to extreme weather conditions. The railroad camps draw all types of rough and tough characters, almost all of whom were looking for ways to make easy money, illegally or legally. Living conditions in the camps were often very rough and crude. The federal government aided in the building of transcontinental railroads by land grants. Railroad companies
After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).
Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 109-116.
The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
However, it was not easy for the railroad industry to promote their innovative new mode of transportation. With vision and ingenuity, the pioneers of the early American railroads were able to surmount all obstacles that stood in their way and led the Nation into a “transportation revolution.”
The author of Mark gives the basic outline or the “essentials” of Jesus’ biography. Considering this and the fact that Mark was the first gospel written, it should come as no surprise that the gospels of Matthew and Luke borrow from and expand on Mark. However, this does not mean that one should only read Mark because the “essentials” are all that’s needed in order to be a follower of Christ. Matthew and Luke have important material that Mark does not include. They also narrate from different perspective and with a different purpose. On the other hand, it also does not mean that reading Luke and Matthew will reveal everything you need to know about Mark, Mark merely includes details and wording that Matthew and Luke do
In The Sacred & The Profane: A Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade attempts to define the sacred by stating it is “the opposite of the profane” (pg. 10). Through out the book he tries to explain this statement through the concept of hierophany (the idea that one can experience, sensorily, the manifestation of the holy/sacred), however his main explanation of the sacred being “the opposite of the profane” is the comparison of a modern religious man and a modern non-religious man (a profane man). Eliade compares the two by explaining how each would react to space, time, nature, and life. This essay will explain the idea of sacred space, how a religious and a profane man would experience it, and how the idea of sacred space might be applied to the study of medieval art and architecture.
The first railroad in the United States was built in 1764 in Lewiston, New York. It was a gravity railroad (works with a system of poles and doesn’t need a locomotive) that was used to transport products between the British troops. After 1829 when the first locomotive was incorporated in the country, the railroad industry experienced a great development and many businesses developed with it. The presence of railroads stimulated commerce . Many goods were transported from city to city. The most common ones were cotton (from south to north) and food. This food that was shipped was transported mostly from south to north. Other products like fuel and wood or building materials were transported from north to south. Also gold and fuel was transported from western US to eastern US.
The Gospel according to Matthew, although being the first book of the New Testament canon, it was not considered the first gospel genre to be written. Matthew’s gospel gives an account of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In this essay, I intend to look at how the exegesis and interpretation of this gospel may be affected by our understanding of the authorship, its intended readership and where and when it was written. Although all these categories are important in their own right, I will focus more of the intended audience and readership of this gospel.