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Crditos desta disciplina
Coordenao
Coordenador UAB
Prof. Mauro Pequeno
Coordenador Adjunto UAB
Prof. Henrique Pequeno
Coordenador do Curso
Prof. Smia Alves Carvalho
Coordenador de Tutoria
Prof. Joo Tobias Lima Sales
Coordenador da Disciplina
Prof. Salete Nunes
Contedo
Autor da Disciplina
Prof. Salete Nunes
Setor Tecnologias Digitais - STD
Coordenador do Setor
Prof. Henrique Sergio Lima Pequeno
Centro de Produo I - (Material Didtico)
Gerente: Ndia Maria Barone
Subgerente: Paulo Andr Lima / Jos Andr Loureiro
Transio Didtica
Dayse Martins Pereira
Elen Cristina Bezerra
Ftima Silva Souza
Hellen Paula Pereira
Jos Adriano Oliveira
Karla Colares
Viviane S de Lima
Formatao
Camilo Cavalcante
Elilia Rocha
Emerson Mendes Oliveira
Francisco Ribeiro
Givanildo Pereira
Sued de Deus Lima
Publicao
Joo Ciro Saraiva
Gerentes
Audiovisual: Andra Pinheiro
Desenvolvimento: Wellington Wagner Sarmento
Suporte: Paulo de Tarso Cavalcante
Design, Impresso e 3D
Andr Lima Vieira
Eduardo Ferreira
Iranilson Pereira
Luiz Fernando Soares
Marllon Lima
Programao
Andrei Bosco
Damis Iuri Garcia
Sumrio
Class 01: 20TH Century American Short Story Ernest Hemingway................................................ 01
Tpico 01: Hemingway and the Lost Generation .................................................................................. 01
Tpico 02: Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants ....................................................................... 05
Tpico 03: Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place .................................................................... 08
Tpico 04: Analysis of Film Versions ................................................................................................... 10
Class 02: Twentieth Century American Poetry ..................................................................................... 13
Tpico 01: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 13
Tpico 02: Modernism ........................................................................................................................... 15
Tpico 03: The Beat Generation ............................................................................................................ 25
Tpico 04: Contemporary Poetry ........................................................................................................... 30
Tpico 05: Interconnections ................................................................................................................... 37
Class 03: Twentieth Century American Drama ..................................................................................... 40
Tpico 01: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 40
Tpico 02: Arthur Miller ........................................................................................................................ 42
Tpico 03: The Trial of Arthur Miller : an article by John Steinbeck ................................................... 45
Tpico 04: Tragedy and the Common Man - an essay by Arthur Miller ............................................... 48
Tpico 05: A View from the Bridge Introduction............................................................................... 49
Class 04: Twentieth Century American Drama (Part 2)....................................................................... 52
Tpico 01: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 52
Tpico 02: A View from the Bridge Act 1.......................................................................................... 54
Tpico 03: A View from the Bridge Act 2.......................................................................................... 57
Tpico 04: A View from the Bridge Stage Version ............................................................................ 59
Tpico 05: A View from the Bridge Film Version ............................................................................. 61
Tpico 06: Glimpses of Another View .................................................................................................. 64
MULTIMDIA
Ligue o som do seu computador!
Obs.: Alguns recursos de multimdia utilizados em nossas aulas,
como vdeos legendados e animaes, requerem a instalao da verso
mais atualizada do programa Adobe Flash Player. Para baixar a verso
mais recente do programa Adobe Flash Player, clique aqui! [1]
PALAVRA DA COORDENADORA DA DISCIPLINA DE LITERATURA EM LNGUA
INGLESA IV
1.1 INTRODUCTION
English Literature IV is a course which will explore the American
Literature of the twentieth century in terms of three main genres: short
story, poetry and drama. Thus, a selection of the works of some of the most
representative authors from this period will constitute the required reading
material for the course.
The reading of short stories, poems and plays will be followed by the
analysis of adaptations/translations of such literary works into other art
forms/ media, such as films, videos, songs, etc.
Fonte [2]
This first lesson of this course focuses on the genre short story.
Most literary critics and scholars, who have studied this genre in the
twentieth century, seem to agree that the American author who best
developed the short story in this period was Ernest Hemingway. Harold
Bloom, a famous contemporary American critic, states that:
Brief fictional prose narrative. It usually presents a single
significant episode or scene involving a limited number of characters.
The form encourages economy of setting and concise narration;
character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but seldom fully
1
Generation.
Lost Generation, in general, the post-World War I generation,
but specifically a group of U.S. writers who came of age during the war
and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term stems
from a remark made by Gertrude Stein [10] to Ernest Hemingway [11],
"You are all a lost generation." Hemingway used it as an epigraph to
The Sun Also Rises [12] (1926), a novel that captures the attitudes of a
hard-drinking, fast-living set of disillusioned young expatriates in
postwar Paris.
The generation was "lost" in the sense that its inherited values were no
longer relevant in the postwar world.
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/348402/LostGeneration [13]
2
Fonte [15]
FURTHER READING
Are you interested in learning more about Hemingway? If
so, click on the link below. The text will also be available in
"Material de Apoio".
PRACTICE 1
After reading "Hills like White Elephants", answer the questions
below.
1.
2.
point in their relationship in which their dreams are all coming true
3.
4.
2. The connection of the title with the main theme of the story could
be stated in terms of the drawing of a parallel with the
1.
2.
3.
4.
LISTENING
LISTENING TO THE STORY
Click on the following link to listen to "Hills like White Elephants".
After listening to it, answer the questions in Practice 2.
Hills Like White Elephants (click here) [3]
PRACTICE 2
After listening to "Hills like White Elephants", answer the questions
below.
2.
3.
4.
2.
3.
4.
Fonte [1]
This short story was published in the collection Winner take Nothing
(1933). It constitutes another very good example of Hemingway's style and of
the themes that are recurrent in many of his works. According to H. P.
Werlock,
Spare and short, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" develops almost entirely by
dialogue. The narrative depends on the reader's ability to provide the
framework of existential despair (see EXISTENTIALISM) and NIHILISM, the
encounter with the cultural wasteland, and loss of faith. For many it is the
seminal story in Hemingway's short story catalog, the quintessential
illustration of his theory of omission. It is one of his most anthologized short
stories. (WERLOCK, 2010, p. 145)
PRACTICE
After reading A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, answer the questions
below.
1. Through the conversation between the two waiters, it can be
inferred that the younger waiter
1.
is in a hurry that specific night because his wife is waiting for him in
is not able to grasp the existential issue involved in the old man's
feels that getting old is just an avoidable process and that he can
picture himself in the future as he observes the old man in his loneliness
4.
admires and respects old people for their wisdom and dignity, but as
the old man has stayed for too long in the cafe, he has lost his temper
2. When the old man, in an attitude of despair, tried to put an end to
his own life, the person who saved him was
1.
2.
3.
4.
3. In the older waiter's monologue toward the end of the story, when
he paraphrases the Lord's Prayer using the Spanish word nada, one can
find the expression of the
1.
2.
meaninglessness of life
3.
4.
4. The older waiter expresses his solidarity with the old man, showing
that he understands what it means to feel lonely and to wish for a "clean
well-lighted place" in order to temporarily escape from the darkness of
1.
a sinful soul
2.
a moonless night
3.
4.
a disturbed mind
In Topic 4, you will watch the film versions of the stories you read in
Topic 2 and 3:
Hills Like White Elephants
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
After watching a film version of each story you previously read, discuss
the questions related to the films in the FORUM.
Fonte [1]
FORUM A
Click on the links below to watch the film versions of Hills Like
White Elephants. After watching the films, discuss the following
questions in FORUM A.
Film versions for Hills Like White Elephants:
1. HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS - Directed by Bruno Schiebel [2]
2. HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS - Directed by by Yuriy
Mikitchenko and Sean Brown [3]
=>Watch the two film versions for "Hills Like White
Elephants" and establish a comparison between the film
versions and Hemingway's short story, considering the
following aspects:
1. Setting: Is the setting in the films similar to or different from the
setting in the story? How does that setting contribute to/is relevant to the
development of the story?
2. Characters: How does the process of characterization of Jig and the
American man show that the story unfolds in the 20s? If it doesn't, which
aspects do you have to indentify another time period?
3. Performance: Do you think that the performance of the actors was
able to convey the state of anxiety of the couple and the lack of ability to
communicate with each other that one senses when reading the story?
4. As to the end of the story, do you think that the way it was acted out
in the films gives the viewer any hint in relation to Jig's decision? Or does
it sound uncertain as it does to the reader?
FORUM B
10
Click on the links below to watch the film versions of A Clean, WellLighted Place. After watching the films, discuss the following questions
in FORUM B.
Film versions for A Clean, Well-Lighted Place:
1. A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE Ash Blodgett [4]
2. A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE Peter Hastic (PART 1 [5])
(PART 2 [6])
=>Watch the two film versions for "A Clean, Well-Lighted
Place" and establish a comparison with Hemingway's short
story, considering the following aspects:
1. Setting: Is the setting in the films similar to or different from the
setting in the story? How does that setting contribute to/is relevant to the
development of the story?
2. Characters: How does the process of characterization of the two waiters
and the old man reveal their traits as characters in the written story?
3. Performance: Do you think that the performance of the actors was able
to convey the contrasting attitudes of the waiters in relation to the old
man?
4. As to the end of the story, what aspects were omitted or are
different from the written story and what implication does that have for
the understanding of Hemingway's theme?
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of the stories and one of its film versions and write a short
essay in which you analyze the adaptation process, taking into account the
elements/aspects suggested for discussion in the forum and adding further
comments on specific points, on choices of the directors to represent
Hemingway's story.
the
Lost
Generation:
expatriate
12
Fonte [1]
http://www.answers.com/topic/poetry#ixzz1OcxjUcn9
[2]
1. http://bernasvibethewayiseeit.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/poetrycorner.gif
2. http://www.answers.com/topic/poetry#ixzz1OcxjUcn9
Responsvel: Prof. Salete Nunes
Universidade Federal do Cear - Instituto UFC Virtual
14
Fonte
Modernist poets and poetry react especially productively to the period's preeminent modes of avant-garde experimentation: manifestoes and the leading
techniques of modernist visual art, collage and abstraction. Responding to and
reinventing these avant-garde discourses and practices not in any
conventional sense poetic twentieth-century poets derive modernist poetry's
signal formal techniques: free verse, montage, juxtaposition, intertextuality and
linguistic abstraction.
(DAVIS& JENKINS, 2007, p. 29)
William Carlos Williams was born, lived all his life and died in
Rutherford, New Jersey. Nowadays he stands, together with Pound and
Eliot, as one of the main representatives of modernist American poetry. He is
the one who managed to use the language of everyday speech for poetry,
recording the "local" as a necessary first step to presenting the "universal"
During most of his life, Williams kept a balance between his successful
career as a doctor in his small town and his production as a poet. He was a
very versatile writer, for he wrote not only poetry, but also short stories,
plays and essays. He thought it was his duty to improve society, both through
medicine and writing.
Poetry does not hold a mirror up to nature, Williams argues, but, by a process
analogous to nature's own, transfigures nature into new, living form. The
contemporary poet must strive to heave the most seemingly insignificant,
'unpoetic' materials into the transfigured light of the imagination ('So much
depends / upon // A red wheel / barrow'), and he must also work to wrestle
15
objects and emotions away from their traditional poetic associations, the 'crude
symbolism' that associates 'anger with lightning, flowers with love'.
(DAVIS& JENKINS, 2007, p. 183-184)
POEMS
The poem Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is taken from the
collection Pictures From Brueghel, published in 1962, in which all the
poems are based on paintings by Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569). The book was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry just two months after the poet's death
in 1963.
A point to be highlighted in relation to these poems is style. And here it
is necessary to mention a poetic resource that is frequently used by Williams,
which is enjambment.
Enjambment or enjambement, the running over of the sense
and grammatical structure from one verse line or couplet to the
next without a punctuated pause. In an enjambed line (also called
a 'runon line'), the completion of a phrase, clause, or sentence is
held over to the following line so that the line ending is not
emphasized as it is in an endstopped line.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms:
http://www.answers.com/topic/enjambement#ixzz1OmPem1Zo
[2]
CHALLENGE
Observe the painting and answer these questions:
1. Where is Icarus?
2. How many other people are there in the painting?
Do they see the fall of Icarus?
16
Fonte [3]
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
PRACTICE 1
Now that you have read the poem, answer these questions:
1. Among the people in the painting, who is mentioned in the poem?
2. Which verse/verses in the poem show(s) that the people did not
pay attention to Icarus fall?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS.
FURTHER READING
Click on the tabs below to read 2 other poems from the collection
Pictures From Brueghel.
Fonte
[5]
18
Fonte
[6]
20
PRACTICE 2
After reading and listening to the two poems, do the following
activities:
1. Answer these questions about the poem The Young Housewife
21
1. The verses in red are related to question 1.a. and the verse in
green is related to question 1.b.
At ten A.M. the young housewife
moves about in negligee behind
the wooden walls of her husband's house.
I pass solitary in my car.
Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.
2. Here are 2 examples of parodies of the poem This is just to
say.
This is just to say
Forgive me
for leaving the plums
from my science project
in the icebox.
You probably
thought that
I was saving them
for breakfast.
The trash can
was so far away
and I
was so tired.
By Renee
By Steve Faires
22
TIPS
Click on the link below if you wish to read more examples of parodies
for this poem.
http://somewhereinthesuburbs.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/this-isjust-to-say/ [11]
FORUM
PART A:
1. Discuss the following questions about the poem The Young
Housewife.
a. Which verse/verses provide(s) us with hints as to the type of
relationship husband/wife?
b. What does the poem let us know about the role of women in the
1920s?
2. Read an excerpt from a poem by W. H. Auden (1907-1973), Muse
des Beaux Arts, that refers to the painting Landscape with the Fall
of Icarus, and compare it with Williams' version, taking into
consideration the 2 questions in practice 1 as a starting point for your
comments, and consider also:
a. Which verse/verses in Williams' poem express(es) the beauty of
the landscape?
b. In the painting, Brueghel brings to the foreground all the
exhilarating beauty of the landscape and places Icarus in a corner, almost
hidden from view, thus saying, somehow, that Icarus' fall was not of
importance for the surrounding world. In which verse/verses does
Williams express this idea? What about Auden's poem?
MUSE DES BEAUX ARTS (CLICK HERE)
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking
dully along;
23
24
"It was a rebellious group, I suppose, of which there many on campuses, but it
was one that really was dedicated to a 'New Vision'. It was trying to look at the
world in a new light, trying to look at the world in a way that gave it some
meaning. Trying to find values that were valid. And it was through literature
all this was supposed to be done."
FURTHER READING
Would you like to know more about the Beat Generation?
READ WHAT OTHER AUTHORS HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT. (CLICK HERE)
25
Allen Ginsberg
(1926 1997)
Fonte [3]
Ginsberg's parents were both schoolteachers, and his father was also a
poet. They participated in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village around the
1920s. Thus, Ginsberg had a background within which an ambition to be a
creative writer was celebrated. Although the first time his father read "Howl"
he was shocked, he also recognized that it was the expression of the great
talent of his son and later declared that he was an admirer of the young
Ginsberg poetry.
"Howl" is a poem of protest, outrage, attack, but at the same time of
affirmation, of a desperate search. The poet seems to go through an
underworld of darkness, solitude, while trying to achieve some sense of
union with others and with a certain spiritual element. It is filled with images
of destruction and starvation, persecution and alienation, but it also contains
images of illumination, some glimpse of a transcendent reality. Although full
of personal allusions, it is not reduced to them.
26
Allen Ginsberg
(1926 1997)
Fonte [4]
PRACTICE 3
Read this extract (montage) of the poem (click here) (Visite a aula
online para realizar download deste arquivo.) and, through the analysis of
the verses starting with who, identify some features that characterize the
generation mentioned in the first verse (who they were, how they lived,
what they did).
Now see a video of John Turturro reciting this extract of HOWL in the
following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyh3tVyuQNU
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWER.
who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the
roof waving genitals and manuscripts,
MULTIMEDIA
Read the poem and click on the link to watch a performance of Paul
McCartney and Allen Ginsberg reciting the poem accompanied by music.
Allen Ginsberg & Paul McCartney
Live at the Royal Albert Hall, October 16, 1995.
28
The Ballad of the Skeletons (Click here) (Visite a aula online para
realizar download deste arquivo.)
FORUM
Part B: Now that you have read the poem "The Ballad of the
Skeletons", and watched the video, choose the speech of 05 skeletons
and explain why they are still meaningful nowadays.
29
As a result of that trend, all aspects of daily life can be treated with
similar consideration and be part of the work of art, of literature, of poetry.
Billy Collins's poems are representative of Contemporary poetry.
Billy Collins
1941
Fonte
Probably the best way to introduce Billy Collins is giving him voice in
this poem in which he expresses his view of the teaching of poetry.
VERSO TEXTUAL
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
30
William J. Collins (Billy Collins) was born in New York City in 1941. He
studied at the College of the Holy Cross and, for his M.A. and PhD. he went
to the University of California, Riverside. He taught for thirty-five years at
Lehmann College of the City University of New York. He has received many
awards, including the Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry, in 2005. He
was US Poet Laureate in the period 2001-2003 and New York State Poet
Laureate in 2004.
QUESTION
What is Poet Laureate?
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT POET LAUREATE.
By the time Billy Collins was selected the nation's poet laureate in 2001, he
had produced a number of volumes of poetry that enjoyed both critical
success and an impressive level of popularity among readers from a wide
range of ages. In his position as laureate, it was the young adult audience he
most actively sought to reach, mobilizing a movement to reinvigorate poetry
in classrooms across America through a project he called Poetry 180, named
not only for the number of days in a typical school year but also for the
number of degrees in a complete about-face turn.
(BLANCHARD, 2007, p. 51)
Unlike many poets of his generation, Collins often uses humorous anecdotes
as the basis for his work. This sense of humor, tempered with wise
observation and skillful manipulation of image and story, attracts both an
academic and a nonacademic audience. Critics praise his craft, which
31
4.2 POEMS
4.2.1 "THE LANYARD"
From The Trouble with Poetry,2005.
Read the poem The Lanyard (click here) (Visite a aula online para
realizar download deste arquivo.), and listen to the poet reading it.
PRACTICE 4
After reading and listening to the poem, answer the following
questions:
1. The humorous aspect of the poem lies mainly in the irony that
pervades it. What irony is that?
2. By the end of the poem, after weaving each stanza carefully through
the ironic statements, what is it that the poet manages to "seriously" imply
about mother/son relationship?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS.
32
When asked to explain his connection to readers, Collins explains, 'As I'm
writing, I'm always reader conscious. I have one reader in mind, someone who
is in the room with me, and who I'm talking to, and I want to make sure I don't
talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the
beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into
a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong.
(LEHMANN, G. http://jmww.150m.com/Collins.html)
33
me in a sweatshirt or robe,
you invisible.
Most days, we are suspended
over a deep pool of silence.
I stare straight through you
or look out the window at the garden,
the powerful sky,
a cloud passing behind a tree.
There is no need to pass the toast,
the pot of jam,
or pour you a cup of tea,
and I can hide behind the paper,
rotate in its drum of calamitous news.
But some days I may notice
a little door swinging open
in the morning air,
and maybe the tea leaves
of some dream will be stuck
to the china slope of the hour
then I will lean forward,
elbows on the table,
with something to tell you,
and you will look up, as always,
your spoon dripping milk, ready to listen.
FURTHER READING
Read more Interview with Billy Collins for The Paris Review
34
TO READ
35
36
Recently (May 11, 2011), The White House promoted a poetry workshop
for students/poets from all over the country. Poets were invited to speak for
5 five minutes only (and had 5 more minutes to answer questions from the
students). In these 5 five minutes they were supposed to provide the
participants with advice they considered really relevant when attempting to
write poetry/become a poet.
Click on the link to watch the video of Billy Collins' participation (it
starts in minute 04:34) in the 'White House Poetry Workshop' (May 11, 2011)
and answer the question: what are the two pieces of advice that the poet
gives to anyone aspiring to write poetry?
Billy Collins at White House poetry workshop pt 1
If you wish to see the complete workshop, here is the link: Poetry
Student Workshop at the White House
PRACTICE 5
37
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of these options:
1. Write a brief essay in which you compare the two poems you have
read based on Brueghel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, taking
into consideration the questions in Practice 1 and in Forum A, and
expanding your comments.
2. Write a brief essay in which you analyze the speech of at least five
of the skeletons in The Ballad of the Skeletons, discussing how,
through a single line of speech, the poet conveys a multiplicity of meanings
that apply to the specific figures being portrayed.
TIPS
Here are some links to videos, in case you wish to continue
having fun with poetry.
"Walking Across the Atlantic" by Billy Collins recited by a 3-year-old
child
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahcrYHgK7wg&feature=related
[1]
Sweet Talk -- Billy Collins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0yn7nS_wuc&feature=related
[2]
Billy Collins - Consolation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXx5K6gfQBw&feature=related
[3]
The Conversation: Child Poet a YouTube Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ur-S_mp_4&NR=1 [4]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahcrYHgK7wg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0yn7nS_wuc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXx5K6gfQBw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ur-S_mp_4&NR=1
39
The third unit of this course focuses on the genre Drama. Click here to
read a definition of drama.
Drama: the general term for performances in which actors
impersonate the actions and speech of fictional or historical characters
(or nonhuman entities) for the entertainment of an audience, either on
a stage or by means of a broadcast; or a particular example of this art,
i.e. a play. Drama is usually expected to represent stories showing
situations of conflict between characters, although the monodrama is a
special case in which only one performer speaks. Drama is a major
genre of literature, but includes nonliterary forms (in mime), and has
several dimensions that lie beyond the domain of the literary dramatist
or playwright (see mise en scne). The major dramatic genres in the
West are comedy and tragedy, but several other kinds of dramatic work
fall outside these categories (see drame, history play, masque,
melodrama, morality play, mystery play, tragicomedy).
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
http://www.answers.com/topic/drama#ixzz1Pdib0W90
Twentieth century American drama tends to raise questions about the
pluralized and fragmented self, about the role of spatiality in the individual's
condition and position in society. Another tendency is the exploration of
drama's own conditions and processes of existence. All these aspects are
major modern/postmodern concerns.
Two main playwrights remain as center figures in the scene of American
drama in the twentieth century: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.
Fonte [1]
Fonte [2]
"During the years immediately following the Second World War, two major
playwrights, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, dominated the American
stage. These playwrights were often interested in exploring social issues,
specifically the human costs of postwar industrial capitalism and the
contradictory nature of the American dream. Both essentially followed the
40
According to Miller,
"When I began writing, when Tennessee Williams began writing, we shared the
illusion that we were talking to everybody. Both of us wrote for the man on the
street. So consequently the architecture of our plays, the embrace of our plays,
their breadth, was in accordance with that conception. It was the very opposite
of an elitist theatre, the very opposite of an intellectual theatre."
(Miller, apud BLOOM, 2005, p. 116)
In this unit, we are going to study about Arthur Miller and read/start
discussing one of his most frequently performed plays both in the US and
abroad: A View from the Bridge.
41
Arthur Miller was born and grew up in New York City. His father was a
prosperous businessman until the Crash of 1929, after which the family went
through serious financial problems during the Great Depression.
Great Depression: the longest, deepest, and most pervasive
depression in American history, lasted from 1929 to 1939. Its effects
were felt in virtually all corners of the world, and it is one of the great
economic calamities in history. Economic activity began to decline in
the summer of 1929, and by 1933 real GDP fell more than 25 percent,
erasing all of the economic growth of the previous quarter century.
Industrial production was especially hard hit, falling some 50 percent.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History
http://www.answers.com/topic/great-depression#ixzz1Pmmhm9ND
The DEPRESSION period (1930s) had a great impact on Miller's sense of
himself, his family, and his society. During this period, he worked as a truck
driver, as a waiter, and as a clerk in a warehouse among other jobs. These
jobs made it possible for him to be in contact with the kind of working-class
people/characters who appear in his plays. His father's fall from financial
security and the way the people around him had to struggle to hold on their
place in society put Miller in a position of a keen observer of social relations.
Miller started writing plays in the period he was at the University of
42
Miller supported various liberal and radical causes in the 1940's and
1950's and was called to testify about his political commitments before
HCUA (House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC - House UnAmerican Activities Committee) in 1956 (this was also the year he married
Marilyn Monroe, from whom he divorced in 1961). And "while he willingly
answered all questions regarding himself and his own activities, he refused
to give the names of alleged communist writers with whom he attended a few
meetings in New York in 1947. He was cited for contempt for refusing to
testify and was blacklisted by Hollywood. In 1958, however, he was officially
cleared of contempt after a two-year legal battle." (SADDIIK, 2007, p. 50)
offer hope and solace for a world desperately seeking to find a glimmer of hope
in a world of darkness. In spite of his tragic vision and brutally honest
confrontation with the dark forces of human depravity, Miller's plays show the
human spirit."
(CENTOLA, 2007, p. 201)
43
FURTHER READING
Click here to read an interview with Arthur Miller.
Arthur Miller, The Art of Theater No. 2 Spring 1966
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4369/the-art-of-theaterno-2-arthur-miller. [2]
44
the twentieth century, winner of the Novel Prize in Literature in 1962, wrote,
in 1957, an article for Esquire Magazine in which he vehemently defends
Arthur Miller in relation to his trial from the HUAC's sentence of contempt
of congress.
TIPS
Click on the link to read Steinbeck's article, "The Trial of Arthur
Miller".
http://www.oocities.org/tleeves/huac.html [2]
PRACTICE 1
Now that you have read the article by Steinbeck, answer these
questions:
1. Along the article, written in a perfectly woven sequence of
arguments to show the absurdity/irrationality of the decision of the
committee against Miller, Steinbeck develops his reasoning using parallel
sentences / structures and juxtaposing opposing ideas, which make his
arguments really powerful. Identify some instances of this stylistic
strategy.
PARALLELISM in sentences refers to matching grammatical
structures. Elements in a sentence that have the same function or
express similar ideas should be grammatically parallel, or
grammatically matched. Parallelism is used effectively as a rhetorical
device throughout literature and in speeches, advertising, and
popular songs.
Example: Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison
45
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/Section/What-is-parallel-structurein-writing-.id-305408,articleId-27144.html
probably is. Since many parents raise their children badly, mother
love could be defined as a danger to the general welfare.
3. The Congress had a perfect right to pass the Alien and
Sedition Act. This law was repealed because of public revulsion. The
Escaped Slave laws had to be removed because the people of the free
states found them immoral. The Prohibition laws were so generally
flouted that all law suffered as a consequence.
4. We have seen and been revolted by the Soviet Union's
encouragement of spying and telling, children reporting their
parents, wives informing on their husbands. In Hitler's Germany, it
was considered patriotic to report your friends and relations to the
authorities. And we in America have felt safe from and superior to
these things. But are we so safe or superior?
47
Fonte [1]
Click on the link to read Miller's essay, "Tragedy and the Common
Man" [2]
FORUM
PART A: Discuss the following questions with your classmates and
tutor in the forum.
1. How does Miller justify his view that the common man is as apt a
character for tragedy as the ancient kings and characters of a high rank, as
mentioned by Aristotle in his definition of tragic hero?
2. In which terms, then, does Miller define "tragic flaw"?
3. In Miller's view, where do the qualities in tragic plays, that
move/disturb us as human beings, stem from?
4. In which aspect, according to miller, does tragedy express the belief
in the perfectibility of man?
48
Fonte
The play A View from the Bridge is based on the true story of a
Brooklyn longshoreman who ruined his life by informing the Immigration
Bureau about two illegal immigrants from Italy. First written and staged on
Broadway in 1955 as a one-act play, it was not successful. Miller tried to
simply tell the story he himself had heard, but he later recognized it was too
direct and cold.
Thus, in 1956, he decided to rewrite it for a production in London. That's
when he made it into a two-act play. He also expanded some characters,
especially Beatrice and Catherine. It was then a great success not only in
London, but also in Paris. After that, the play has had many productions in
the US. Recently (2010/2011) it has had very successful revivals both in New
York and London.
A View from the Bridge is a play which bears a similarity to Greek
Drama , not only in its tragic approach, but also in the way it is structured,
with the figure of a narrator/commentator, who, somehow, plays the role of
the Greek chorus.
Greek Drama
According to Aristotle, Greek drama, or, more explicitly, Greek
tragedy, originated in the dithyramb. This was a choral hymn to the god
Dionysus and involved exchanges between a lead singer and the chorus.
It is thought that the dithyramb was sung at the Dionysia, an annual
festival honoring Dionysus.
Tradition has it that at the Dionysia of 534 B.C., during the reign of
Pisistratus, the lead singer of the dithyramb, a man named Thespis,
added to the chorus an actor with whom he carried on a dialogue, thus
initiating the possibility of dramatic action. Thespis is credited with the
invention of tragedy. Eventually, Aeschylus introduced a second actor
to the drama and Sophocles a third, Sophocles' format being continued
by Euripides, the last of the great classical Greek dramatists.
Generally, the earlier Greek tragedies place more emphasis on the
chorus than the later ones. In the majestic plays of Aeschylus, the
chorus serves to underscore the personalities and situations of the
characters and to provide ethical comment on the action. Much of
49
TIPS
Click on the link to watch a video of an interview with Arthur Miller
for BBC, in which he is talking about A View from the Bridge. [1]
FORUM
PART B: After watching the video, discuss the following questions
with your classmates and tutor in the forum.
1. According to Miller, in this extract of the interview, there is an
aspect which is implicit in tragedies in general. He even mentions Hamlet
and Macbeth to exemplify it. Which aspect is this?
2. How did Miller get to know the story that gives origin to the play?
3. Miller also explains the meaning of the title of the play. Why A
View from the Bridge?
4. And about the function of the character Alfieri, what does Miller
say?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIGSBY, Christopher. The Cambridge Companion to Arthur
Miller. Sixth Printing. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Modern American Drama. Bloom's
Period Studies. New York: Chelsea House, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern Critical
Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.
BORDMAN, G. & HISCHAK, T. S. The Oxford Companion to
American Theatre. 3rd. ed. New York: Oxford University Press,
2004.
BRYER, J. R. HARTIG, M. C. The Facts on File Companion to
American Drama. Second Edition. New York: Facts on File, 2010.
CENTOLA, Steven R. Arthur Miller and the Art of the Possible. In:
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). Arthur Miller. Bloom's Modern Critical
Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. KRASNER, David (ed.).
A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
50
51
Fonte [1]
Fonte [2]
The fourth unit of this course focuses on the analysis of the play A View
from the Bridge, by Arthur Miller.
In terms of structure, A View from the Bridge is divided in two acts.
Although there is no formal division of scenes, they can quite clearly be
identified through the sequence of episodes in the story and also through the
interludes (in this case, a short time intervening between events), when the
narrator (Alfieri) appears to comment on the events or to give the audience
guidance to better understand other characters' attitudes, mainly Eddie's
(the protagonist). He not only narrates, explains, but also judges Eddie's
behaviour.
As already mentioned in unit 3, Alfieri's function is that of the Greek
chorus, an intermediary between the audience and the characters. His role as
a lawyer reflects this in-between space. He is both an insider and an outsider.
Here are the main characters in the play, illustrated by the cast of the
2010 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge.
Fonte [3]
Fonte [4]
Fonte [5]
TIPS
If you wish to see the cast for the other characters in this Broadway
production, click here and watch a video in which they talk about their
roles. It starts at 1:28.
Opening
Night:
A
View
from
the
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IyVcPZ1chO0&playnext=1&list=PL4A2BA91FE5A9F2F5 [6]
52
Bridge
53
Fonte [1]
of the play easier, we have done the segmentation of the acts into scenes. For
Act One, the division is as follows:
PROLOGUE: (Alfieri); pp. 1-2
SCENE 1: Eddie gets home from work bringing the news about the arrival
of Beatrice's cousins, two illegal immigrants from Italy; pp. 3-15
INTERLUDE: (Alfieri); p. 15
SCENE 2: The arrival of the cousins (Marco and Rodolpho) at Eddie's
home, where they are going to stay temporarily; Rodolphos singing of
"Paper Doll"; pp. 15-23
INTERLUDE: (Alfieri); p. 23
SCENE 3: Catherine and Rodolpho go to the movies (weeks later); pp. 2333
INTERLUDE: (Alfieri); p. 33
SCENE 4: Eddie is increasingly upset by the developing relationship
between Catherine and Rodolpho and visits Alfieri in search of legal
advice; pp. 33-37
INTERLUDE: (Alfieri); p. 37-38
SCENE 5: An evening at home Catherine and Rodolpho's dancing;
boxing lesson; increasing tension; pp. 38-46
PRACTICE 1
54
After you finish reading ACT ONE of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE,
answer these questions:
1. In scene 1, what gives us hints that Eddie is extremely jealous of
Catherine, maybe not in a way appropriate for a father-like/uncle x niece
relationship?
2. When Eddie seeks Alfieris advice (scene 4), trying to find a way of
stopping Rodolpho and Catherine's relationship, Alfieri tries to make him
see that he has gone too far in his feelings for Catherine, but he refuses
to/is unable to see it. Identify evidence of this fact.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS.
Paper Doll'
- written by Johnny S. Black, 1915
- lyrics as recorded by The Mills Brothers in 1942
I'm gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal
55
And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with dollies that are real
When I come home at night she will be waiting
She'll be the truest doll in all this world
I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own
Than have a fickle-minded real live girl?
I guess I had a million dolls or more
I guess I've played the doll game o'er and o'er
I just quarrelled with Sue, that's why I'm blue
She's gone away and left me just like all dolls do
I'll tell you boys, it's tough to be alone
And it's tough to love a doll that's not your own
I'm through with all of them
I'll never fall again
Say boy, whatcha gonna do?
I'm gonna buy a Paper Doll that I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal
And then the flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with dollies that are real
When I come home at night she will be waiting
She'll be the truest doll in all this world
I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own
Than have a fickle-minded real live girl
56
Fonte [1]
In 'Tpic 2' you are going to read and analyze Act Two of the play "A
View from the Bridge". In order to make the process of reference to the parts
of the play easier, we have done the segmentation of the acts into scenes. For
PRACTICE 2
After you finish reading Act Two of A View from the Bridge, answer
these questions:
1. In Catherine's conversation with Rodolpho in scene 6, there is a
moment in which she expresses the dilemma she is going through: the fact
that she loves Eddie as a father figure, that she knows and understands
him so well and would not like to see him hurt, but, at the same time, the
fact that she is afraid of what he might do to prevent her from marrying
Rodolpho. Identify this in the conversation.
2. In his visit to Alfieri in scene 7, Eddie is desperate to find a way to
prohibit Catherine's marriage to Rodolpho. As Alfieri shows him that there
is nothing to be done, that he has to let her go, he (Alfieri) can clearly see
Eddie is going to risk all and call the immigration office. Thats when
57
Alfieri uses the argument that has to do with the code of honor in such
cases. What is that ultimate argument?
FORUM
PART A: Discuss the following questions with your classmates and
tutor in the forum.
1. Rodolpho sings a part of the song Paper Doll in scene 2. In which
sense is the song very to the point in relation to Eddie's feelings toward
Catherine?
2. In scene 5, after Eddie knocks Rodolpho down in the boxing lesson,
Catherine puts Paper Doll on the phonograph to dance with Rodolpho.
Whats the significance of that choice then?
3. What is the meaning of Eddie's kisses (Catherine and Rodolpho) in
scene 6?
4. In which way is the tragic ending also a statement made by Miller in
relation to what was going on (the McCarthy period) at that moment in his
country?
58
Fonte [1]
Click on the links to watch a stage version of A View from the Bridge.
Then answer the questions related to it in FORUM B.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjr9IEf2ZV4&feature=related
[2]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=g4aLMNrdl5s&feature=related [3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=t1jQCmICx0Y&feature=related [4]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=UMNPF0IoWq4&feature=related [5]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO324eN9Mbk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=HQluPcet6Xw&feature=related [7]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vbZ8QRwUR5s&feature=related [8]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3unXWWb2lA&feature=related [9]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YbSeGP3CkRc&feature=related [10]
59
[6]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=m42UOygsTuo&feature=related [11]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1-TtZ-9Cfg&feature=related
[12]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7e97Txsvuo&feature=related
[13]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=81wbujlCnD0&feature=related [14]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VZduhcmNsBc&feature=related [15]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=g9ewSIG9_6o&feature=related [16]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=6APjxXWNHSY&feature=related [17]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=L4bWAhFhVBo&feature=related [18]
60
Fonte [1]
Click on the links to watch a film version of A View from the Bridge.
Then answer the questions related to it in FORUM B.
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Jv52hDtDMYA&feature=related
[2]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YNzmyB7wv7Y&feature=related [3]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ohAX20HUWwg&feature=related [4]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=X_FTn04EULo&feature=related [5]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=oIncYVy53Uk&feature=related [6]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z77m2SiP0&feature=related
[7]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 7
61
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=DEbb8PzFYtk&feature=rel ated [8]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lSvhQAPE7KM&feature=related
[9]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3OzyoIeEp4&feature=related
[10]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=QX8EraOvkoo&feature=related [11]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL5LJhUz-z8&feature=related
[12]
A View from the Bridge (Vu Du Pont ) - 1962 - Arthur Miller Play directed
by Sidney Lumet part 12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiHVAXkrIrs&feature=related
[13]
FORUM B
After watching the stage production and the film production
of "A View from the Bridge", discuss the following questions
with your classmates and tutor in the forum.
1. In relation to the stage version, how does the setting match the
description provided in the opening page? What is different? Is anything
left out? Does it really make a difference?
2. In the stage version, how does the fact that Alfieri's role is played by a
woman affect the overall interpretation of the character? Does it change
the way Eddie relates to him (her)?
3. In relation to the absence of the narrator in the movie, what are some
of the things that the viewer is left without knowing because of his
deletion?
4. As to the end of the movie, how does it differ from the play? How does
that alter the interpretation of the final scene?
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
Choose one of the video versions of A View from the Bridge (stage
production or film production) and write a short essay in which you
compare it to the text of the play. Take the questions in FORUM B as
starting points and move on exploring other aspects that called your
attention, showing how they keep/don't keep the focus on the text.
62
63
Fonte [1]
Fonte [2]
In Tpic 6, we have included a few links for videos related to the 2010
Broadway revival of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. They are really just
glimpses, as the entire play is not available to be viewed online. Have fun
watching them!
Theater Talk: "A View from the Bridge" with actor Liev Schreiber and
director Gregory Mosher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FN6Vr7GajA [3]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Don't Know Nothin"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hY6IKXrc6s&feature=related [4]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "He's Like a Chorus Girl or
Something"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3yQSjjiug4&NR=1 [5]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Can't Be So Friendly, Kid"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FH29Wno448&NR=1 [6]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "You Can't Act the Way You Act"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=comkyLdZUU0&NR=1 [7]
Show Clip - A View from the Bridge - "I'm Not a Baby"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdCRyUciTQ&NR=1 [8]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIGSBY, Christopher. THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO
ARTHUR MILLER. Sixth Printing. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). MODERN AMERICAN DRAMA. Bloom's
Period Studies. New York: Chelsea House, 2005.
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). ARTHUR MILLER. Bloom's Modern
Critical Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.
64
CENTOLA, Steven R. Arthur Miller and the Art of the Possible. In:
BLOOM, Harold (Ed.). ARTHUR MILLER. Bloom's Modern Critical
Views. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. KRASNER, David (ed.).
A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
MEYERS, Jeffrey. A Portrait of Arthur Miller. In: BLOOM, Harold
(Ed.). ARTHUR MILLER. Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York:
Infobase Publishing, 2007.
OAKES, E. H. AMERICAN WRITERS. New York: Facts on File,
2004.
SADDIIK, Annette J. CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN DRAMA.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
65