EXPERIENCE & IMAGINATION IN WRITING.   Term Paper ID:24521 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines writer as shaper of personal life & history into works of art. Ideas of Emerson, works of Rousseau, Kafka, Eliot, Wordsworth, Shakespeare.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines writer as shaper of personal life & history into works of art. Ideas of Emerson, works of Rousseau, Kafka, Eliot, Wordsworth, Shakespeare. Paper Introduction: Ralph Waldo Emerson in The American Scholar makes a statement about writing, the process of writing, and the value of writing to subsequent generations. He states: The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him shortlived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now it is quick thought. It can stand and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. One might assume that the world depicted in the Confessions ofJean=Jacques Rousseau was more real because the book is an account of areal man's life, but it is still the ability of the writer to process andreshape the material of that life into a narrative which communicates withothers that makes the work valuable. Kafka has become identified with a certainview of the nameless and faceless bureaucracy that stands over us all,caring not for our feelings, unconcerned with our pain, and operating as avast machine with its own rules, crushing anything or anyone in its pathwith compete indifference. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It can stand and it can go. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing (Emerson 56).Emerson here expresses the process by which the writer observes the world,which for Emerson was preeminently the world of nature, and transforms thisobservation into art which expresses something the writer has learned aboutlife. . Work CitedEmerson, Ralph Waldo. It does not matter if the Richard II of the play of that name is justlike the real king, for there are arguments to this day about whether hewas a villain or a hero. The story of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis tells auniversal ruth as Kafka develops a fantastic situation and communicates anallegory about what it means to be human. Rousseau meditates on his own concerns and interests atthis particular juncture in life and relates these ideas to a broader senseof the entire life cycle and to his society, and his use of language andimagery helps convey the truth he has learned to others. Ralph Waldo Emerson in The American Scholar makes a statement aboutwriting, the process of writing, and the value of writing to subsequentgenerations. It is this processthat gives literature its truth, and it is that truth which speaks to usthrough the ages and which makes it possible for literature to soar andsing, no matter what its form otherwise. Franz Kafka saw the world in as cogent a way as Rousseau, but hefound a different way to shape the truths he saw in Metamorphosis, afantasy structured on truth. He states: The theory of books is noble. Shakespeare seeks truth in all hischaracters, and Iago as every bit as truthful and real as Othello, KingLear, or Hamlet. As a young man, Rousseau had his won work cut out for him--he hadto find a profession, apprentice himself to it, and learn from theexperience. Sometimes the means of communication can be more opaque, requiringthe reader to delve more deeply to find the meaning, as in the poem "TheLove Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Rousseau,as noted, uses himself as an example, and his book can be considered hisview of the prevailing ideas and lifestyles of his time and economiccircumstances. The women described by the writer are all in traditionalfemale social roles of mother, lover, and nurse. Thesubject of this work is the author himself, standing as an example of a manof his time. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Shakespeare could do this not because he knew Richard II--hedid not--but because he knew human beings and could make the king into ahuman being, flawed as all human beings are. This search for truth and asway to express truth is the key element whether the work contemplated isserious or comic, prose or poetry, dramatic work or novel. Truth comes in many shapes and degrees, and it would be wrong toconfuse the truth and reality of fiction with realism, which is only a wayof treating fiction. . Always, the world is only partially seen byPrufrock himself, for the fog or the constant chatter or the crash of thesurf prevents him from seeing more than a small portion of the world aroundhim. Molière writesabout characters who seem larger than life, as indeed they are, but thisonly emphasizes the truth that the writer finds in characters like Tartuffeand Orgon. (22-28).Emerson could have written this description of the power of experience andthe way it remains with the artist and shapes his life thereafter. Eliot, a work with a similar themeabout the debilitating nature of the modern world. Women were to be admired and pursued, but they were also notexpected to make the same sorts of sacrifices or find the same sort ofcareer as a young man. "The American Scholar." In Essays and Lectures, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 51-72. Rousseau has deliberately written abook that differs in tone from his other writings and that was written notfor his contemporaries but to ingratiate himself to future generations.The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau offers a non-dramatic, non-fictional view of male and female roles in the eighteenth century. Emerson understood the role of the artist, and the writers discussedhere, along with many other great writers, also lived what Emerson wroteabout experiencing the world and reshaping it so it soars for other people. Rousseau in this work presents the thoughts of a youngman learning about the world and deciding his own course in it. What matters is that Shakespeare bring shim tolife so powerfully that he has become the icon of the real king for most ofthe world. It was dead fact; now it is quick thought. It came to him short- lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. For much of the time he seems lost, seeking answers that elude him ashe grows older until those answers do not mean as much as they once did.The literary tea in particular links Prufrock with his creator, Eliot, muchas Gregor's job is similar to one Kafka once had. The structure of Metamorphosisis the structure of a dream, as is often true of Kafka's fiction, thoughhere the dream analogy is enhanced by the fact that Gregor awakens at thebeginning as if from a dream and may indeed still be dreaming, though thedream and the reality are no longer separable. What is clear is that he somehow soaked up the world ofhis time, including people from all social strata; many of the medical,scientific, artistic, legal, and political ideas of his day; and a wealthof knowledge, experience, and language by which he has been able tocommunicate with audiences for centuries. In a tragedy like Othello, hemakes heroes and villains alike live and breathe and express the experiencethe playwright himself must have had. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. He sees the women--andmost of the men--in his early life as shining examples to which he couldaspire. This process is evident in the work of all great writers, for theyturn to the world in which they live for inspiration. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. This operates at both the human level, with thebureaucracy of the state, and at a higher level, with the "bureaucracy" ofthe universe, equally indifferent and carrying out its mandate withoutcompassion. William Shakespeare embodies the idea expressed by Emerson in greatdegree, though it is more difficult to make direct connections between hisexperience and his writings because so little is known of his life comparedto most writers. Some of his plays are drawndirectly from history, but it is a history that is made to live for theaudience as no written history could because the characters are so real andso alive. Another case in which the poet places his own experience at thecenter and uses it as a direct example of the sort of process referred toabove by Emerson is seen in William Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a FewMiles above Tintern Abbey" in which the poet writes of a visit he made tothe area noted in the poem, a visit on which he remembers an earlier timeat the same site and also expresses his deep belief in a specialrelationship with nature, form which he sees all truth as emanating: These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart. Both writers aretherefore shaping their own experiences into something very different toconvey the truths they have found, just as Rousseau did in a more directway. Shakespeare has endured because of the truth he found andthe truth he expresses, and while few of us can lay claim to a kingdom orunderstand the role of a king, we can recognize when the playwright makesboth royal and nonroyal characters live on stage and express deeper truthsin their manner, their actions, and their language. The artist transforms the truth of his or her observations intosomething that itself has a shape, that express truth, and that engagesothers in the way it communicates so that the truth reaches out from thework to the reader, listener, or observer. Fantasy can be just as real and just as truthfulbecause it embodies the particular world-view and observations of thewriter. Some women are enticements to draw the young manfrom his course. The world is sketchedin a series of scenes--Prufrock at a literary tea, Prufrock walking on thebeach, Prufrock in the fog. New York: Library of America, 1983.----------------------- 6 If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.