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Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who became the spokesman for the post-WWI generation yet whose books were also burnt in Berlin in 1933 given their allegedly decadent content, is one of the most fascinating, important and polarizing figures in American, Anglophone and World Literature of the 20th century. In his “Reflections on Hemingway”, the British playwright Tom Stoppard, among others, showed himself not only to be an enthusiast of the prize-winning American writer, journalist, adventurer and great sportsman but also stressed the lasting importance of Ernest Hemingway in general, who has been awarded both the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. While some critics have tried to identify Hemingway’s work as misogynistic, homophobic, racist and xenophobic, overall, scholars have praised Hemingway’s straightforward simple prose, his multi-focal photographic reality, his treatment of relevant human problems in confusing modern times and the authenticity of his characters, such as fishermen, bullfighters, hunters, boxers, backwoodsmen and soldiers who struggle courageously to persist in turbulent times.
This seminar will follow the (literary) career of Ernest Hemingway, who published his first literary work at the age of 17 and died aged 61 of self-inflicted gun shot wounds. Using landmark texts and film adaptations of his works (spanning the whole of his career), it explores his major themes and stylistic innovations. Apart from studying the aesthetic, cultural and socio-political substance of Hemingway’s literary works, some time will be spent on learning more about his provocative life-styles, his Nobel Speech as well as his (lasting) significance in a European and World literature context.
All participants are requested to obtain and read the following primary texts (please use the editions specified here), which will be discussed in the subsequent order:
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (1926 [ISBN 978-0099908500, Arrow Books, 1994]),
A Farewell to Arms (1929 [ISBN 978-0099273974, Vintage]) and
The Old Man and the Sea (1951 [ISBN 978-0099908401, Random House, 1994]).
Further texts required for the seminar will be provided online (cf. DuE Publico).
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