JHS Hugemanatees: If I were a cockroach...

If our visual artists sought to tap into the unconscious for inspiration, our interwar period writers, or Literary Modernists, would be no different. Lots of introspection, self-reflection, and ALL THE FEELZ.

Some words from the greats:

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." - Virginia Woolf

"One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer." - Franz Kafka

Writers like Joyce and Woolf employed the use of stream of consciousness - the continuous depiction of a character's thoughts and reactions. This level of depth into a character's thoughts allows the narrative to move in directions that was previously unheard of. Characters can suddenly be transported back in time as they reflect on past memories or they can envision what their future holds. Today we not only see this device used in contemporary literature, but music as well - especially hip hop and rap.

Franz Kafka's dark writing style, known as kafkaesque (the depiction of bizarre, nightmarish, hopeless situations that characters find themselves in) challenged the traditional novel and captured the sense of despair and disillusionment after the Great War. One of Kafka's best examples of this was his famous work, Metamorphosis, the 1915 novel about a man who finds himself transformed into a bug, rejected by his loved ones.

Don't forget - the last CE of the six-weeks is tomorrow! Even if you've maxed out, I suggest you read it since it discusses an important issue - the next Supreme Court justice.

Finished with your WHAP reading? Don't have to read the CE? Bored? Here are some ideas: