Views of Modernity Presented in The Metamorphosis and The Convergence of the Twain
Views of Modernity Presented in The Metamorphosis and The Convergence of the Twain
Kiz F
The University of Southern Queensland
ENL3000
VIEWS OF MODERNITY PRESENTED IN THE METAMORPHOSIS AND THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN
The Modernist period, a period which most literary critics agree began in the late nineteenth century, was characterized by a total break from past forms and a constant search for new ideas. It was through this search that surrealism began to emerge, and many authors began to write about the alienation that mankind faced from both one another and nature, due to the rise of modern technology (Monroe and Moennig). Although many authors captured the essence of Modernist literature, only two particularly seminal texts can be examined in the work below. To this extent, this essay aims to examine and contrast the views of modernity, as presented in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Thomas Hardy’s The Convergence of the Twain.
These two texts are similar in their depiction of an increasingly technological world, presenting it as corrupting the human spirit, and further displacing humankind from its more natural and moralistic past. Hardy achieves this in The Convergence of the Twain by describing how nature (the iceberg) was easily able to overpower man’s vaingloriousness, and at the meeting of the two, the iceberg was left unharmed while the ship sunk under the sea (Hardy). Brody & Erikson posited that since Hardy’s poetry had always had the power and beauty of nature as a theme, it is unsurprising that he believed nature to be superior and timeless. Conversely, Hardy compared this ironically to the Titanic, a man-made machine that had been so immaculately described and honoured, only to ultimately buckle under natural (the sea). Hardy’s views are both in entire agreement and stark opposition with the dualistic view many Modernist writers had of mass culture and technology. This is to say that mass culture was viewed
Kiz F
The University of Southern Queensland
ENL3000
VIEWS OF MODERNITY PRESENTED IN THE METAMORPHOSIS AND THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN
The Modernist period, a period which most literary critics agree began in the late nineteenth century, was characterized by a total break from past forms and a constant search for new ideas. It was through this search that surrealism began to emerge, and many authors began to write about the alienation that mankind faced from both one another and nature, due to the rise of modern technology (Monroe and Moennig). Although many authors captured the essence of Modernist literature, only two particularly seminal texts can be examined in the work below. To this extent, this essay aims to examine and contrast the views of modernity, as presented in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Thomas Hardy’s The Convergence of the Twain.
These two texts are similar in their depiction of an increasingly technological world, presenting it as corrupting the human spirit, and further displacing humankind from its more natural and moralistic past. Hardy achieves this in The Convergence of the Twain by describing how nature (the iceberg) was easily able to overpower man’s vaingloriousness, and at the meeting of the two, the iceberg was left unharmed while the ship sunk under the sea (Hardy). Brody & Erikson posited that since Hardy’s poetry had always had the power and beauty of nature as a theme, it is unsurprising that he believed nature to be superior and timeless. Conversely, Hardy compared this ironically to the Titanic, a man-made machine that had been so immaculately described and honoured, only to ultimately buckle under natural (the sea). Hardy’s views are both in entire agreement and stark opposition with the dualistic view many Modernist writers had of mass culture and technology. This is to say that mass culture was viewed