It may well be an unconscious impulse but the writers are directly or indirectly influenced by their socio-political millieu, even when opposing it, and you don’t need to be a Marxist to acknowledge that.
As Edward Said showed in his examination of ‘Orientalism’, or recent works showcasing the overt or covert politics of such literary figures as William Wordsworth (Jonathan Bate’s "Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World") and Jane Austen, politics can intrude into the poetic realm or comedies of manners — or other forms of fiction, too. And this can span the entire gamut from literary classics to pulp fiction.
The Cold War is a fitting example. As two contrasting systems of social and political organisation vied for global influence, the conflict for influencing hearts and minds underpinned the diplomatic and military manoeuvres.
Duncan White’s "Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War" (2019) offers...
As Edward Said showed in his examination of ‘Orientalism’, or recent works showcasing the overt or covert politics of such literary figures as William Wordsworth (Jonathan Bate’s "Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World") and Jane Austen, politics can intrude into the poetic realm or comedies of manners — or other forms of fiction, too. And this can span the entire gamut from literary classics to pulp fiction.
The Cold War is a fitting example. As two contrasting systems of social and political organisation vied for global influence, the conflict for influencing hearts and minds underpinned the diplomatic and military manoeuvres.
Duncan White’s "Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War" (2019) offers...
- 9/4/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Exclusive: Documentarian Cosima Spender plans feature about her grandfather, the 20th Century writer.
English poet, novelist and essayist Sir Stephen Spender is to be the subject of a new feature by his granddaughter, the documentary filmmaker Cosima Spender (Palio).
Subscriber Content
Interview: Cosima Spender, ‘Palio’
The London-based director told ScreenDaily: “I’ve written a short fiction that I’d like to make into a feature. It has been researched as a documentary and is based on the moment my father realised his father was homosexual.
“It’s about a family Christmas when a mother goes away and the father invites a young writer to stay with the family.”
“It’s not a biopic,” continued the director, whose previous credits include 2011 documentary Without Gorky, which charts the influence on her family of her maternal grandfather, the artist Arshile Gorky.
“It’s a slice of his life and will explore the emotional dynamics at play within the family,” she added...
English poet, novelist and essayist Sir Stephen Spender is to be the subject of a new feature by his granddaughter, the documentary filmmaker Cosima Spender (Palio).
Subscriber Content
Interview: Cosima Spender, ‘Palio’
The London-based director told ScreenDaily: “I’ve written a short fiction that I’d like to make into a feature. It has been researched as a documentary and is based on the moment my father realised his father was homosexual.
“It’s about a family Christmas when a mother goes away and the father invites a young writer to stay with the family.”
“It’s not a biopic,” continued the director, whose previous credits include 2011 documentary Without Gorky, which charts the influence on her family of her maternal grandfather, the artist Arshile Gorky.
“It’s a slice of his life and will explore the emotional dynamics at play within the family,” she added...
- 8/12/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Swr Vocal Ensemble of Stuttgart/Marcus Creed:
America (Hänssler Classics)
Perhaps it takes foreigners to put together a program of Aaron Copland's Four Motets, Steve Reich's Proverb, John Cage's "Five," Morton Feldman's The Rothko Chapel, Leonard Bernstein's Missa Brevis, and Samuel Barber's "A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map." Whatever this 77-minute disc lacks in stylistic coherence, though, it makes up for as a cross-section of 20th century American choral music.
The a cappella Copland pieces date from his study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, before he'd created his trademark style; their lush harmonies are surprising from him, but quite beautiful and oddly anticipatory of recent choral trends (think Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen). The Reich, however, is prototypically Reichian in its gently propulsive Minimalism (influenced by Medieval organum), complete with accompaniment on vibraphones and synthesizers.
Cage's a cappella "Five," one of his late-period "number pieces,...
America (Hänssler Classics)
Perhaps it takes foreigners to put together a program of Aaron Copland's Four Motets, Steve Reich's Proverb, John Cage's "Five," Morton Feldman's The Rothko Chapel, Leonard Bernstein's Missa Brevis, and Samuel Barber's "A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map." Whatever this 77-minute disc lacks in stylistic coherence, though, it makes up for as a cross-section of 20th century American choral music.
The a cappella Copland pieces date from his study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, before he'd created his trademark style; their lush harmonies are surprising from him, but quite beautiful and oddly anticipatory of recent choral trends (think Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen). The Reich, however, is prototypically Reichian in its gently propulsive Minimalism (influenced by Medieval organum), complete with accompaniment on vibraphones and synthesizers.
Cage's a cappella "Five," one of his late-period "number pieces,...
- 3/29/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Zweig peeled back the veneer of Austro-Hungarian culture to expose sexual repression and the nature of love – no wonder he inspired Anderson's latest film
Why read Stefan Zweig? It is wonderful that Wes Anderson has cited him as an inspiration for his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, but there have been quite a few people who would rather you didn't. Most famous of these were Hitler and Goebbels, for the very simple reason, at the same time both boring and terrifying, that Zweig was a Jew, on top of being the most translated author writing in German at the time. Being both was an intolerable affront, and if Hitler or his agents never laid hands on him, it was because they didn't have to: not only would burning all copies of Zweig's works have been a time-consuming exercise, he and his wife killed themselves, in exile in Brazil in...
Why read Stefan Zweig? It is wonderful that Wes Anderson has cited him as an inspiration for his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, but there have been quite a few people who would rather you didn't. Most famous of these were Hitler and Goebbels, for the very simple reason, at the same time both boring and terrifying, that Zweig was a Jew, on top of being the most translated author writing in German at the time. Being both was an intolerable affront, and if Hitler or his agents never laid hands on him, it was because they didn't have to: not only would burning all copies of Zweig's works have been a time-consuming exercise, he and his wife killed themselves, in exile in Brazil in...
- 2/25/2014
- by Nicholas Lezard
- The Guardian - Film News
Oxford just inherited a sizable collection of letters and manuscripts from former poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, The Guardian reports. The archive was donated to the University’s Bodleian Library by his children, actor Daniel Day-Lewis and food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis.
The collection includes letters exchanged between the elder Day-Lewis and other notable figures, such as Kingsley Amis, Alec Guiness, and W.H. Auden. The latter, with whom Day-Lewis was especially chummy following their undergraduate years at Oxford, offers previously unseen criticism of Day-Lewis’ work that ranges from subtle (“The lines ‘For there’s no wonder … When any echo waits’, sound as...
The collection includes letters exchanged between the elder Day-Lewis and other notable figures, such as Kingsley Amis, Alec Guiness, and W.H. Auden. The latter, with whom Day-Lewis was especially chummy following their undergraduate years at Oxford, offers previously unseen criticism of Day-Lewis’ work that ranges from subtle (“The lines ‘For there’s no wonder … When any echo waits’, sound as...
- 10/30/2012
- by Josh Stillman
- EW.com - PopWatch
Tamasin and Daniel Day-Lewis hand over poet laureate's archive including manuscripts and letter from Wh Auden.
Wh Auden did not want to appear condescending but his criticism of Cecil Day-Lewis's poem would certainly appear to be crushing: "You are not taking enough trouble about your medium, your technique of expression," he wrote, adding that one line sounded as if Day-Lewis was waiting for his tea.
The letter, from around 1928 or 1929 when both poets were still in their 20s, is one of many to appear in an extensive literary archive that has been donated to Oxford University's Bodleian Library by Day-Lewis's children, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis and the food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis.
The library will on Tuesday host a symposium celebrating the life and work of the former poet laureate and marking what Chris Fletcher, keeper of special collections, said was an extremely generous gift.
"It is a wonderful archive...
Wh Auden did not want to appear condescending but his criticism of Cecil Day-Lewis's poem would certainly appear to be crushing: "You are not taking enough trouble about your medium, your technique of expression," he wrote, adding that one line sounded as if Day-Lewis was waiting for his tea.
The letter, from around 1928 or 1929 when both poets were still in their 20s, is one of many to appear in an extensive literary archive that has been donated to Oxford University's Bodleian Library by Day-Lewis's children, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis and the food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis.
The library will on Tuesday host a symposium celebrating the life and work of the former poet laureate and marking what Chris Fletcher, keeper of special collections, said was an extremely generous gift.
"It is a wonderful archive...
- 10/30/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
Novelist, playwright and essayist with a complete mastery of the scene he described
Gore Vidal, the American writer, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin's poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box. After 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to centre stage with a series of blistering pamphlets and public pronouncements that led many, including his former friend Christopher Hitchens, to pounce on him. But Vidal never looked back.
Despite his output as a novelist and playwright, many critics considered Vidal's witty and acerbic essays his best work. Often published first in such journals as the New York Review...
Gore Vidal, the American writer, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin's poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box. After 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to centre stage with a series of blistering pamphlets and public pronouncements that led many, including his former friend Christopher Hitchens, to pounce on him. But Vidal never looked back.
Despite his output as a novelist and playwright, many critics considered Vidal's witty and acerbic essays his best work. Often published first in such journals as the New York Review...
- 8/1/2012
- by Jay Parini
- The Guardian - Film News
"Death disports with writers more cruelly than with the rest of humankind," Cynthia Ozick wrote in a recent issue of The New Republic.
"The grave can hardly make more mute those who were voiceless when alive--dust to dust, muteness to muteness. But the silence that dogs the established writer's noisy obituary, with its boisterous shock and busy regret, is more profound than any other.
"Oblivion comes more cuttingly to the writer whose presence has been felt, argued over, championed, disparaged--the writer who is seen to be what Lionel Trilling calls a Figure. Lionel Trilling?
"Consider: who at this hour (apart from some professorial specialist currying his "field") is reading Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, John Berryman, Allan Bloom, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Edmund Wilson, Anne Sexton, Alice Adams, Robert Lowell, Grace Paley, Owen Barfield, Stanley Elkin, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer, Leslie Fiedler, R.P. Blackmur, Paul Goodman, Susan Sontag,...
"The grave can hardly make more mute those who were voiceless when alive--dust to dust, muteness to muteness. But the silence that dogs the established writer's noisy obituary, with its boisterous shock and busy regret, is more profound than any other.
"Oblivion comes more cuttingly to the writer whose presence has been felt, argued over, championed, disparaged--the writer who is seen to be what Lionel Trilling calls a Figure. Lionel Trilling?
"Consider: who at this hour (apart from some professorial specialist currying his "field") is reading Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, John Berryman, Allan Bloom, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Edmund Wilson, Anne Sexton, Alice Adams, Robert Lowell, Grace Paley, Owen Barfield, Stanley Elkin, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer, Leslie Fiedler, R.P. Blackmur, Paul Goodman, Susan Sontag,...
- 4/24/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
27-year-old Matt Smith, the current eleventh incarnation of The Doctor in UK sci-fi series "Doctor Who", is set to play acclaimed gay British novelist Christopher Isherwood in BBC2 TV movie "Christopher And His Kind" reports The Sun.
Isherwood penned the semi-autobiographical 1964 novel "A Single Man" which was adapted last year into the acclaimed Tom Ford-directed film that scored Colin Firth an Oscar nomination. Isherwood also penned 1939 novel "Goodbye to Berlin" which ultimately served as the basis for the classic Kander-Ebb musical "Cabaret".
'Kind' is based on his fully autobiographical 1974 book of the same name which covers a decade in his life (1929-1939) from escaping his suffocating upbringing to live in Berlin, his departure from Germany after Hitler came to power, his years wandering around Europe and his eventual move to New York City.
Along the way it frankly deals with his experiences as a gay man in this politically turbulent time period,...
Isherwood penned the semi-autobiographical 1964 novel "A Single Man" which was adapted last year into the acclaimed Tom Ford-directed film that scored Colin Firth an Oscar nomination. Isherwood also penned 1939 novel "Goodbye to Berlin" which ultimately served as the basis for the classic Kander-Ebb musical "Cabaret".
'Kind' is based on his fully autobiographical 1974 book of the same name which covers a decade in his life (1929-1939) from escaping his suffocating upbringing to live in Berlin, his departure from Germany after Hitler came to power, his years wandering around Europe and his eventual move to New York City.
Along the way it frankly deals with his experiences as a gay man in this politically turbulent time period,...
- 4/29/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Dame Edna Everage and Michael Feinstein make a fine couple, if you enjoy a visual oxymoron: the former is the alter ego of the Australian Barry Humphries, known for his large out-sized glamour. The latter is the charming song man of The Regency, diminutive, understated, elegant. Each a consummate performer, together they make for an entertaining evening combining highlights of the American songbook with Dame Edna's signature comedy, and somehow, by the end you find yourself happily in a sing along waving priapic gladioli and intoning, "Thrust, thrust, thrust." How did you get here? The show is based on the conceit that each has booked this space, and now, egos flair, the two vie for dominance. The brainchild of the stars plus playwright Christopher Durang and Lizzie Spender, the daughter of Stephen Spender and Barry Humphries' wife, All About Me, utilizes...
- 3/29/2010
- by Regina Weinreich
- Huffington Post
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