Nina Dietrich – författare

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0 (A), University of Marburg (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: PS The Initiation Theme in American Fiction, language: English, abstract: Initiation in Ernest Hemingway s A Farewell to Arms Since it was published in the late 1920s, Ernest Hemingway s novel A Farewell to Arms has mostly been read as a love story against the background of the First World War (Brooks 81; Matthews 77; Ross 90; Smith 78). This is right insofar as the novel deals with the young American Frederic Henry who, while being involved in the war on the side of the Italian Army, falls in love with a beautiful British nurse, Catherine Barkley. There is, however, more to this book: When looking at the world in which the protagonist finds himself, it becomes clear that it is one in which people are lacking proper, stable values. Everything that Frederic Henry learned in his teenage years, the world he grew up in and its complex value system based on such values as honor and dignity, has fallen apart. Frederic himself expresses this on several occasions, for example in Book Three, when he says, I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. [ ] Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the number of roads, the names of rivers, the number of regiments and the dates. (Hemingway 184-5)Because of the meaninglessness of those old values, A Farewell to Arms is also a story dealing with a quest that was typical for Frederic Henry s generation: a quest for knowledge and a way of living in a world whose foundations have been shaken by the chaos created by World War I. At the beginning of the novel, Frederic Henry is, in many ways, lost: He neither knows where he belongs nor where he is going. He seeks pleasure in activities such as drinking huge quantities of alcohol and going to a whorehouse with his comrades. As it depicts his growth from immaturity to maturity, or, in a way, completion of his character, A Farewell to Arms should be read as his initiation story. [...]

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1 (A), University of Marburg (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: PS Introduction to the Early 19th Century Novel, language: English, abstract: It is a truth universally acknowledged that Helen Fielding did not invent the plot of her novel Bridget Jones's Diary, which was first published in 1996, all by herself. When asked about it in an online chat session, Fielding admits that she "e;shamelessly stole the plot"e; of Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen (n.pag.). Bridget Jones's Diary received great praise from critics in the United Kingdom and beyond. In 1999, Fielding published a sequel called Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. A highly anticipated film adaptation entered cinemas in 2001, and soon became very successful. Even though Jane Austen's novel was published nearly two hundred years earlier than Fielding's, its plot still seems to be relevant to a turn-of-the-millennium readership. What parallels are there between the two novels and their heroines? In how far are Elizabeth and Bridget children of their time? What changes did Fielding consider necessary when taking Pride and Prejudice into the late 20th century? These questions will be answered in this paper. [...]

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Kent (School of English), course: Nineteenth-Century American Literature, language: English, abstract: After the first two volumes of Emily Dickinson's poems appeared posthumouslyin 1890 and 1891, there were many negative reviews of her work, such as,If Miss Dickinson s disjecta membra are poems, then Shakespeare s prolongedimposition should be exposed without further loss of time Miss Dickinson sversicles have a queerness and a quaintness that have stirred a momentarycuriosity in emotional bosoms. Oblivion lingers in the immediateneighbourhood.1Today, however, Dickinson s poetry is widely regarded as a milestone in Americanliterature. Dickinson has become a classic, famous for her vivid, powerful imagery andinnovative style. In fact, some critics consider her the finest American woman poet 2and claim that [h]er accomplishment is so radically original that the entire model ofwhat poetry can know (and write) changes when her work is taken into account. 3 Thereis an extensive range of criticism on Emily Dickinson s poetry, many of which focuseson her treatment of five dominant themes, that is, life, death, immortality, love andnature. Dickinson s early editors as well as critics including Ruth Flanders McNaughtongroup the poems in these categories. According to Henry W. Wells, about one quarter ofDickinson s poems deals chiefly with the theme of death. 4 This part of EmilyDickinson s poetry will be in the centre of this essay. The essay will, first of all, explainwhy the theme is so important for the poet. Why does Dickinson appear to bepreoccupied with death? Is it natural for her to make death one of her central topics?1 Anonymous, The New Pastoral Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, 69, January 1892,p.144, quoted in Ruth Flanders McNaughton, The Imagery of Emily Dickinson,Norwood Editions, 1970, p. vii2 David Porter, Dickinson: The Modern Idiom, Harvard University Press, 1981, p.1,quoted in Helen McNeil, Emily Dickinson, Virago Press, 1986, p.13 Helen McNeil, Emily Dickinson, Virago Press, 1986, p.14 Henry W. Wells, Introduction to Emily Dickinson, Hendricks House, 1958, p. 94

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Kent (School of English), course: 19th-Century American Literature, language: English, abstract: In James Fenimore Cooper's fiction, 'women are of central social significance. [Cooper s] theme is society, and he defines women as the nexus of social interaction, Nina Baym argues1. She claims that the author is not interested in women s personhoodor individuality, but rather in their usefulness for society. According to Baym,matrimony is the chief statement of the social language .2 Therefore, if a woman isapt for marriage, she is socially utile. One of the main aspects of The Last of theMohicans is the dichotomy between the half-sisters Cora and Alice Munro, to whom theconcept of social usefulness can be applied. On the one hand, Fenimore Cooper presentsAlice, who is fair, helpless and infant ile, as marriageable. On other hand, Cora, the dark,courageous and initiated sister, is considered unsuitable for wifehood. Instead of lettingCora be united in marriage with the Indian Uncas in the end of the novel, the authordecides to kill both of the m. Many of his contemporaries have urged Cooper to changethe unhappy ending. One critic, for instance, writes:Every event as we go along points to a favourable termination, when just at thewinding up, the design seems to be capriciously reversed, and [Cora and Uncas]are most summarily and unnecessarily disposed of. The vessel, having braved allthe dangers of her voyage, sinks as she is floating into smooth water.31 Nina Baym, The Women of Cooper s Leatherstocking Tales , American Quarterly 23(1971), p. 697. 2 Ibid., p. 698. 3 Unsigned review, The United States Literary Gazette, iv (May 1826), pp 87-94,reprinted in George Dekker and John P. McWilliams (eds.), Fenimore Cooper theCritical Heritage, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973, p. 100.

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0, University of Kent (School of English), course: American Modernisms, language: English, abstract: In an attempt to place Ralph Waldo Ellison's novel Invisible Man within aModernist framework, Berndt Ostendorf writes, Ellison is a Spatling, a latecomer to Modernism. Ellison s Modernism is not one of crisis and despair, but of innovation and hope. He accepts thediscipline implied in [Ezra Pound s] slogan make it new, but rejects thecultural pessimism of his ancestors. 1Although Ostendorf s description is right insofar that Ellison s work is optimistic in itsoutcome rather than as pessimistic as the majority of modernist novels, it does not seemto be in agreement with the term Modernism in general. Isn t modernist literatureusually called a literature of crisis ?2 Isn t Modernism said to feature elements ofcultural apocalypse rather than the hope Ostendorf mentions?3 And: Doesn tOstendorf s statement resemble a definition of Postmodernism rather than Modernism?In fact, Ellison s novel is hard to categorize. Critics agree that Invisible Man includescharacteristics of different literary periods. Malcolm Bradbury, for instance, says thenovel mixes naturalism, expressionism, and surrealism and thereby places itsomewhere between Modernism and Postmodernism.4 As these two terms areproblematic as far as their definitions are concerned, this essay will begin by namingsome of the key characteristics of both periods. Later on, the essay will point out anumber of typically postmodern features that Ellison integrates into Invisible Man andgive examples from the novel itself. Eventually, the essay will discuss whether InvisibleMan should be considered a modernist or postmodernist novel. 1 Berndt Ostendorf, Anthropology, Modernism, and Jazz , in Harold Bloom, RalphEllison, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 161 - 1642 Peter Childs, Modernism, Routledge, 2000, p.143 Malcolm Bradbury in A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, ed. Roger Fowler, asquotes in Childs, Op. Cit., p. 24 Malcolm Bradbury, The Modern American Novel, 2nd edition, Oxford UniversityPress, 1992, p. 166

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Kent (School of English), course: American Modernism, language: English, abstract: The New Woman came into existence in the second half of the nineteenthcentury, but remained nameless until 1894, when Ouida and Sarah Grand used the termfor the first time in two North American Review articles. Today, the New Woman isgenerally seen as the manifestation of changing gender norms at the fin de siecle. Criticssuch as Sally Ledger and Caroll Smith-Rosenberg differentiate between first andsecond- generation New Women: the first living and writing in the 1880s and 1890s, thesecond in the 1920s and 1930s (Ledger 1). As this quotation shows, the label is mostlyapplied to female authors. However, it can also be used to describe fictional characterssuch as Lena Lingard in Willa Cather s novel My Antonia, Jordan Baker in Fitzgerald sThe Great Gatsby, and Lady Brett Ashley in Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises) by ErnestHemingway. This essay will, first of all, explain what was new about women in thelate nineteenth and early twentieth century and thus attempt to define the term NewWoman. It will determine a number of characteristics that are considered typical of theNew Woman in fiction, and use these as criteria to examine whether the charactersmentioned above can be called New Women. Finally, the essay will compare themanner in which Cather, Fitzgerald and Hemingway present the characters. To begin with, the New Woman can generally be seen as a challenge toconventional gender roles. There are three main areas in which the New Woman differsfrom her predecessors: lifestyle, work and sexuality. That is, her attitude towards thesetopics bears little or no resemblance to the attitude of the early nineteenth-centurywoman.

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1.0 (A), University of Kent (School of English), course: American Modernism: Fiction, language: English, abstract: According to Evelyn Helmick Hively, Willa Cather's novels mirror theauthor s broad experience with people from all strata of society (Hively 171). Consequently, Cather s characters come from diverse cultural and socialbackgrounds. It is today regarded as one of the author s primary literaryachievements that her novels reveal a different West and [offer] an alternative direction forAmerican literature. They spoke for the Midwestern immigrant and thewoman, who had hitherto been silent, and they spoke in the language of anold culture taking root in a new land. (Thomas 64)In fact, although Willa Cather s female characters live on the margins ofAmerican society, they are strong-willed and in control of their destinies. Catherillustrates that even in the male-dominated, restrictive turn-of-the-century society,women have a large number of choices and can shape their lives in ways that theirpredecessors could not. Harvey remarks tha t gender proves an asset in theirefforts to achieve self- fulfilment, helping them turn inward to explore self in away that [male characters] never could (Harvey 33). Willa Cather s heroinesconstruct their own identities to varying degrees, taking advantage of theopportunities for personal improvement available in frontier and post- frontierAmerica, often manipulating the established image of womanhood andchallenging traditional views. Even though all of Cather s heroines are subject to similar socialexpectations and pressures, their lives differ to a great extent. Cather shows thatthere is more than one way in which the pioneer woman can seek self- fulfilment. In order to illustrate this, the essay will analyse four heroines, that is, AlexandraBergson from Cather s 1913 novel O Pioneers!, Antonia Shimerda (later Cuzak)and Lena Lingard from My Antonia and Marian Forrester from A Lost Lady. Allof these characters live in rural Nebraska in or, in Marian Forrester s case, at theend of the pioneer era. Harvey states that at that time, awoman was supposed to fill a variety of roles, all primarily for the purposeof helping a man achieve his American Dream. [...]