The Sun Also Rises

roman à clef.

• 1. A French phrase meaning novel with a key, used to mean a novel in which real people are described but under false names.

• 2. A story based on real characters and events known to the author, but presented under fictitious names.

Hemingway: behind the scenes

Assignment:

• Go to class website & select 1 of 4 articles for roman a clef analysis

epigraph

• An epigraph is a literary device in the form of a poem, quotation or sentence usually placed at the beginning of a document or a simple piece having a few sentences but which belongs to another writer.

• Can reveal theme, tone, mood, social/historical commentary

• Hemingway uses two as commentary on

• post WWI life (the aftermath)

• present time as the “Lost Generation” (Hemingway & other expatriates)

• and a future (post-Hemingway generation)

• Jake represents an authentic perspective through all three views

Epigraph: Gertrude Stein

• Ernest Hemingway used Gertrude Stein’s famous quotation,

• “You are all a lost generation”

• in the beginning of his book The Sun Also Rises. Through this epigraph, Hemingway shows us the entire period in which they were forced to live. The lost generation phrase as coined by Stein was truly reflected by Hemingway in his other pieces as well, but this novel proved to be a mouthpiece for the lost generation.

• Paris 1920s-1930s

• “Lost” “Wander” “Bohemian”

• Supplement: Stein video on class website

What is the Lost Generation?

• Aspects of Lost Generation revealed through narrative voice

• Examine Jake’s perspective towards the other characters

Narrative Voice: Jake’s description of Cohn

• Then there was another thing. He had been reading W. H. Hudson. That sounds like an innocent occupation, but Cohn had read and reread "The Purple Land." "The Purple Land" is a very sinister book if read too late in life. It recounts splendid imaginary amorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land, the scenery of which is very well described. For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man of the same age to enter Wall Street direct from a French convent, equipped with a complete set of the more practical Alger books. Cohn, I believe, took every word of "The Purple Land" as literally as though it had been an R. G. Dun report. You understand me, he made some reservations, but on the whole the book to him was sound. It was all that was needed to set him off. I did not realize the extent to which it had set him off until one day he came into my office.

Defining the Lost Generation through narrative voice

• Narrative Voice reflects the epigraph: “You are all a lost generation”

• Assignment Example:• Narrative Voice (Jake’s view, first person)

• Character: Robert Cohn

• Chapter: 2

• Example:

• Then there was another thing. He had been reading W. H. Hudson. That sounds like an innocent occupation, but Cohn had read and reread "The Purple Land." "The Purple Land" is a very sinister book if read too late in life. It recounts splendid imaginaryamorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land, the scenery of which is very well described. For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man of the same age to enter Wall Street direct from a French convent, equipped with a complete set of the more practical Alger books. Cohn, I believe, took every word of "The Purple Land" as literally as though it had been an R. G. Dun report. You understand me, he made some reservations, but on the whole the book to him was sound. It was all that was needed to set him off. I did not realize the extent to which it had set him off until one day he came into my office.

• Explain how Jake’s view of Robert Cohn reflects “The Lost Generation”

Jake’s perspective as “Lost Generation”

• Part I: Paris

• For each character, find a passage that defines The Lost Generation• Robert Cohn

• Frances

• Lady Brett Ashley

• Mike Campbell

• Georgette

• Count Mippipopolous

Example from class:

Explain how Jake’s view of Robert Cohn reflects “The Lost Generation”

Jake Barnes

• First person

• Narrative voice (Perspective-as “Lost Generation”)

• First person

• Expatriate writer

• “wounded”

• Lost Generation

• Tension throughout novel (Hemingway style)

• Communication failure

• Very important to review view on characters as reflection on Jake

Epigraph #2: Biblical Allusion

• “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goethdown, and hasteth to his place where he arose...”

• -Ecclesiastes

Structure:

• Part I: Paris• Part II: Spain• Part III:

• Authentic self vs. inauthentic self• Authentic living vs. inauthentic living• Religious • Love• Post war disillusionment• Nature

Bullfighting

• Metaphor for life

• Metaphor for war

• Metaphor for masculinity

• Chapter 13-18

• Written 1925-1926

• Published 1926

• Written in Pamplona & Paris

• Antagonist: post-war living

Hemingway Style:

• Iceberg Principle

Analyze Style

• Chapter 13 example of Iceberg Principle:

• Example carefully the passage with Montoya

• Select another chapter of choice for a close reading and evaluation for Hemingway’s style

• Prepare for Wednesday