Tétel adatlapja
CÍMLAP
Bakos Judit et al.
Studies on the 20th Century English Novel

CONTENTS, PREFACE, ABSTRACTS



Contents

Preface

Bakos Judit: Fine Arts In Literature

Pellérdi Márta: Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight or, What You Will

Goldmann Márta: "Sirens" The Musical Chapter of Ulysses: Technique and Style

Farkas Ákos: Past in the Present and Future in the Past: T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and Sweeney Agonistes

Bakos Judit: Literary Self-Portraits Contrasted - in Virginia Woolf and Wyndham Lewis's Portrait of the Artist

Appendix

Mező Judit: Translations

Vajda János: Twenty Years On (Húsz év mulva)
Juhász Gyula: No More Can I Recall (Milyen volt...)
Juhász Gyula: Forever Anna (Anna örök)
Kosztolányi Dezső: Necrology (Halotti beszéd)

Abstracts



Preface

The Department of English Studies at Kodolányi János University College provides courses in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Literature and History, besides its obvious aim to improve students' foreign language proficiency. The studies in the first volume of the Kodolányi Füzetek published in April 1999 covered different theoretical and practical issues in Applied Linguistics.

The present volume gives insight into the research of our colleagues whose main area of interest is 20th century English literature. However, the adjective "English" in the title needs to be accounted for. Today several different English languages are spoken as people's native and second language in a number of countries like India, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia etc. As a result, different literary works are written in English in these countries, therefore, the expression "English novel" is considered to be a broader concept than it used to be. It involves all the literary works made in the English language regardless of whether they were created by British or other authors. This phenomenon explains the word "English" in the title of the volume since the present studies are not exclusively about English writers.

In the first paper BAKOS Judit takes an interdisciplinary approach in comparing the paintings of Vanessa Bell with Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. The second paper investigates Vladimir Nabokov's first English-language novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. PELLÉRDI Márta's aim in the study is to show how distinctly Nabokov incorporated Shakespeare's Twelfth Night into the novel. An abundant source of 20th century literary criticism, the theme of the third study is James Joyce's Ulysses. GOLDMANN Márta discusses how musical style and technique creates the text of the chapter called 'Sirens.' In the fourth paper FARKAS Ákos argues for the notion that art has to be light and serious at the same time, in the mirror of two T. S. Eliot works, Four Quartets and Sweeney Agonistes. The fifth paper by BAKOS Judit is concerned with comparing and contrasting Virginia Woolf and Wyndham Lewis's literary self-portraits.

As the Kodolányi Füzetek provides an opportunity for the publication of a wide range of issues, the editors found it important to include MEZŐDI Judit's poem translations in the Appendix of this volume to show the versatility of the colleagues working for our department.

We hope, dear readers, that you will find our work enjoyable.

The Editor



Abstracts

Fine Arts in Literature (BAKOS Judit)
The paper contrasts Vanessa Bell's paintings with Virginia Woolf's novel entitled To the Lighthouse. Virginia Woolf must have taken her sister's artistic behaviour as a model in creating Lily Briscoe's complex character. With sensitivity, moderation and strong faith in creation Lily represents an artist struggling with a lack of self-confidence. The process of painting Mrs. Ramsay's portrait is not only about painting but also about the techniques of a novelist. The first and most significant step of creation is an intellectual activity, through which the artist organises her ideas and feelings of her impressions about the world so that she could express her message to the audience in a comprehensible way.

Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight or, What You Will (PELLÉRDI Márta)
The paper deals with Vladimir Nabokov's first novel written in English, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. In this novel Nabokov offers the parody of an autobiography. The article demonstrates how Nabokov integrated Shakespeare's Twelfth Night into the novel through a network of subtle implications. With this discovery the genre of the novel can be determined.

"Sirens". The Musical Chapter of Ulysses: Technique and Style (GOLDMANN Márta)
The article is about an episode in James Joyce's Ulysses called "Sirens", the musical chapter of the novel. Music is not only one of the principal topics of this episode, but it is also about music per se. The author examines the different levels at which music appears in the style and technique and how the text of the chapter is formed by style and technique. At the end of the paper the author discusses Joyce's influence on contemporary composers.

Past in the Present and Future in the Past: T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and Sweeney Agonistes (FARKAS Ákos)
By analysing a T. S. Eliot poem and a play the author makes an attempt to prove that seriousness and popularity are strongly interrelated notions in literature and in arts in general. According to the author real art must be serious and light, traditional and modern in a way that it is rooted in the past but looks forward into the future.

Literary Self-Portraits Contrasted - in Virginia Woolf and Wyndham Lewis's Portrait of the Artist (BAKOS Judit)
Applying an interdisciplinary approach the paper sheds light on the connection between fine arts and literature, the basic characteristic of modernism, and analyses the rivalry of painting and literature and the relationship between artists and their works of art. Examining the authors' disguised or overt self-portraits the paper is searching for shared aesthetic notions in Virginia Woolf's and other contemporary authors' (James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis) autobiographical novels. The artist heroes examined are Tarr, Kreisler, Stephen Dedalus, Paul Morel and Lily Briscoe.


×