Assessment :

-​ Written assignment 30%

-​ Prepare a presentation (Pairs) (choose a novel *NO FLYING HOME*) 10 minutes,
open up debates , come up with a few questions to open a discussion.
-​ Exam 70%
-​ Attendance is compulsory ( Monday and Tuesday)

DESDOBLES
-​ 9-10

●​ https://archive.org/details/flyinghomeothers0000elli (Flying home and Other stories

by Ralph Ellison)
●​ https://archive.org/details/newjournalism00wolf (The new Journalism by Tom Wolfe)
●​ https://archive.org/details/womanwarrior0000unse (The woman warrior by Maxine
Kingston)

03/02/2025
The 1950s , time of liberation, merges the American Dream. Technology and technological
advancements (car, train). Time of poverty for the United States, involved in conflicts
(second World war).
Men had to go to war and women had to stay at home.
The US knew it was the time to consolidate capitalism and to win the war of communism.
Before and during the Korean war, there were various problems in the 1950s. Joseph
Mccarthy was a senator of wisconsin and he is the inventor of the fake news (throwing a lie
and making it bigger).
The witch hunt , the theory of fear, 6 long years. He met Roy Con, and they decided it was
time to start the witch hunt.
He created the huag (people to testify about their activities, relationships with people, and if
they were enrolled with the communist party). That gave him the opportunity to persecute a
lot of people , he started firing a lot of people. Mccarthy
Roy Cohn was an American lawyer best known for his role as chief counsel to Senator
Joseph McCarthy during the anti-communist hearings of the early 1950s. He played a key
part in McCarthy’s aggressive investigations into alleged communist infiltration in the U.S.
government, military, and other institutions. Cohn gained national attention for his tough
questioning during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, which ultimately led to McCarthy’s
downfall.

Beyond McCarthyism, Cohn was instrumental in the "Lavender Scare," the government's
purge of homosexual employees, even as he was rumored to be gay himself. After leaving
public service, he became a powerful New York attorney, known for representing high-profile
clients, including Donald Trump, mafia figures, and business tycoons. Despite his success,
his career was marred by allegations of unethical behavior, leading to his disbarment in
1986, shortly before his death from AIDS-related complications.

The 1950s in the United States were marked by Cold War tensions, anti-communist hysteria,
and widespread fear of subversion. Senator Joseph McCarthy became infamous for leading
a "witch hunt" against alleged communists in government, academia, and entertainment,
accusing individuals without solid evidence. This period, known as McCarthyism, saw
thousands investigated, blacklisted, or dismissed from their jobs.

At the same time, the U.S. government intensified its purge of homosexual employees,
viewing them as security risks susceptible to blackmail. Over 400 more homosexuals were
ousted from government positions as part of the "Lavender Scare," paralleling the Red
Scare's crackdown on communists. In 1953, President Eisenhower formalized this
discrimination by signing an executive order banning gay individuals from federal
employment.

Meanwhile, Cold War fears reached new heights with the trial and execution of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg in 1953. Accused of passing (espionage) atomic secrets to the Soviet
Union, their controversial conviction further fueled anti-communist sentiment. These purges
and persecutions reflected the era's paranoia, shaping American politics and society for
years to come. They never found proof of the things they were accused of.
They wanted to show that they preferred dying rather than telling the truth and take care of
their children.

04/02/2025

-​ Japanese Internment camps. Manzanar, California 1942-45

-​ Korean War 1950-53
 -​ Vietnam War 1955-1975
-​ Key moment for capitalism and consumerism
-​ “You mean a woman can open it?” Men had to go to war and this forced women to go
to work , independence. When men came back they wanted to recuperate the throne,
so women were back to being the slaves of domestic life.
-​ Women were the protagonists of this propaganda of domestic space. Housewives
dressed with aprons and doing chores.
-​ The feminine mystique , the 1960s
-​ Lorde
-​ The 1960s
-​ The 1970s , Gloria Stainer , princesa de Asturias. Protagonist of second wave
feminism.
-​ The black panthers defended the rights of African Americans. The Black Panther
Party (BPP) in the 1970s was a political organization that emerged as a major force
in the fight against racial injustice in the United States. Founded in 1966 by Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale, the party had expanded significantly by the early 1970s,
with chapters across the country. During this period, the Black Panthers shifted their
focus from armed self-defense to community service programs, such as free
breakfast programs for children, health clinics, and education initiatives. They also
fought against police brutality, systemic racism, and economic inequality. However,
the party faced intense government opposition, particularly from the FBI's
COINTELPRO, which sought to undermine and discredit the movement through
infiltration, surveillance, and arrests. By the late 1970s, internal divisions, legal
battles, and government suppression had significantly weakened the party, leading to
its decline. However, the BPP’s legacy continues to influence modern movements for
racial and social justice. Are you looking for details on a specific aspect of the Black
Panthers in the 1970s?

●​ Modernism
​ Modernist literature is characterized by a rejection of 19th century traditions
and their consensus between author and reader. Modernist writers tended to see
themselves as an avant-garde disengaged from bourgeois values, and disturbed
their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and
Realism gives an objective description of reality, in which the author through the narrator
communicates to you his description of society, and those realistic novels should talk about
society, social classes mainly. Henry James, is a great example of realism, “Washington
square”.
Naturalism also gives you a description of reality, very detailed. As if the author was a
camera that is photographing reality and is describing exactly what it is seeing. Naturalism
includes in its definition a concept that is determinism, which tells you you are socially
conditioned by your origin and family, if you were born poor you are going to die poor, no
matter what you do, you are determined to die how you were born.
​ It is not any more about what you say or who said it, but about HOW you say it.
●​ Postmodernism
​ Modernism has been superseded or that it has continued into a new phase.
Postmodernism may be seen as a continuation of modernism’s alienated mood and
disorientating techniques and at the same time as an abandonment of its determined
quest for artistic coherence in a fragmented world, the postmodernist greets the
absurd or meaningless confession of contemporary existence with a certain number
or flippant indifference, favoring self-consciously depthless works of fabulation,
pastiche, bricolage or aleatory disconnection.
●​ Metafiction
​ ​ Fiction about fiction, or more specifically a kind of fiction that opnely
comments on its own fictional status. In a week sense, many modern novels about novelists
having problems writing their novel
●​ Intertextuality
​ A term coined by Julia Kristeva to designate the various relationships that a
given text may have with other texts. These intertextual relationships include
angram,allusion adaptation, translation, parody, pastiche, imitation and other kinds of
transformation.

10/02/2025

J.D SALINGER

High-class boy who dreamed about being a writer and who decided to go to the second
world War. When he came back he suffered from PTSD (war trauma) until he died.
He didn’t interact with other people, didn’t go out much, he was not a very nice person due to
all his mental health problems as a consequence Of the war.
He wrote The catcher of the rye and a few short stories.

●​ The catcher in the rye (she is obsessed with titles and beginnings (Laura))
This Novel was banned for decades, known to be a trigger for teenagers to become
psychopaths. Now is one of the most important novels in literature.
The novel is dedicated to his mother, he had an obsessive relationship with her.

Anything that caught your attention?

​ The tone of the text (juvenile, a teenager is talking to you)
​ “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is
where I was born“ ,so he is talking with us (his audience). He is assuming that you
 want to hear about it. He is going to address you throughout the novel (nominal
audience), to a narrator, someone who will be reading the story.
You in a text have a narrator, this narrator is a voice created by the author and this
narrator addresses a narratee (it is not a reader). He wrote this novel to be accessed
by everyone. Narratee is another fictional figure that the narrator addresses. He is
specifically addressing someone, a white teenage boy (16 years old, more or less) ,
and he is telling his story to show off his story in New York.
​ He is openly making fun of those realistic novels, the bildungsroman (a novel dealing
with one person’s formative years). Deconstruct literature Genres → postmodernism
characteristic.
​ “...but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” → Unreliable
narrator. He is going to play with that all the time.
​ This character says that something happened last Christmas, we do not know until
the very end that he ends up in a mental institution, we can see that the beginning
connects with the end. In this connection he is going to tell us about something that
occurred on Christmas and did not end well.
​ He is talking about his parents, he is talking in the same way any teenager would talk
about his parents. His relationship with his parents is not very good. There is
something that happened that the family avoids talking about.
​ “Don't even mention them to me.” This Novel was based on a short story “The secret
Goldfish” , intertextuality → postmodernism characteristic . Hollywood means money,
fame, the American Dream. He is making a statement against the American Dream.

11/02/2025
Page 5
Beginning of chapter 3 starts with a very similar sentence. Trying to convince the reader to
believe everything he is telling us. Readers have to distinguish if he is lying or telling the
truth.
End of chapter 5 : what can you tell me about the school? The horse is a sign of something
(masculinity), the school cares a lot about appearances . It is a business (private schools),
rich, wealthy families send their children to this school, in order to educate them to become
young men.
He spends a lot of time apart from his parents (boarding school). His parents literally don't
want to spend time with him.
End of chapter 2 : he constantly repeats the word phony, the idea of living in a fake world
where no one supports him.
Page 33, end of chapter 5: He is trying to find a way to connect with his roomate. “the thing
was…”
He and his family lost a younger brother. He talks about his brother with admiration,
adoration and love.
As a young boy he couldn't bear the pain That a brother's death provokes. (This is the family
Secret) The family and Holden are in constant pain for their loss, there is no way this Can be
fixed (this is the fact why the relationship with his parents is broken).
Connection between death and childhood. Ali (Holden's brother) as a child is frozen in time,
and his childhood too.
The baseball meet: title (catcher)
“ He is dead now, he got leukemia…” How Holden as a narrator sometimes tells you the
truth.
How Holden reacts when his brother dies. → His own child was stopped once this
happened, and they as a family didn't know how to continue. Very difficult for him to integrate
in society in general.
He was considered a psychopath (someone unable to enter society).
The fact that Holden has a brother thatched so young, introduces a feeling, this idea of the
eternal presence of death in his life, you can die in any time and place.
Related to the Traumatic and post traumatic syndrome of the constant presence of death.
Society that lived with the presence of death (war).
Important metaphor , page 53 (chapter 9): “the first thing I did…” → he doesn’t have anyone
to be with, he feels alone and is not comfortable with it.
“The driver was…” → he is desperately looking for someone. He sees himself as a duck, he
wants to know where the ducks go.

Parallel fragments, he is obsessed about where the ducks went. Existential question. He is
looking for something, a meaning in life. Somewhere to continue his life, to start again.
Ducks move, change places. → Emersonian Novel (R.W. Emerson, American philosopher
that emerges) Religion was not answering the most important questions of existence.
Connection with nature, when the individual could transcend their existence.
Emersonian novel → Because Holden is desperate to connect with society, to find a
meaning in life. He is trying to connect in an urban space. He looks for a connection with
nature (the Lake and the ducks)
Page 60 (chapter 10) third paragraph: “you should see her…” → Holden speaks about both
her and his brother in the same way. Here is a contradiction about movies. It is connected to
how Holden prays his childhood so much, how he remembers his experiences with them.
How he is dealing with Phoebe (his little sister)
Page 82 (prostitute episode) chapter 13: “ anyway before I got to the hotel…” “I went to my
room…” → This confirms that Holden is speaking to another boy his age. The whole
paragraph is just showing off , he is lying about the many opportunities to lose his virginity.
He is already creating an effective/emotional bond with the audience by confessing things.
Virginity was a fundamental topic in the 1950s.
Transition of Phoebe becoming a teenager.
Very simple and Ordinary statement about women.
Chapter 17 : “ I don't feel like myself tonight…” → he is scared about losing his virginity, by
sharing this with us is making our emotional bond even stronger. Relationship between
Holden and the readers.

17/02/2025
1.​ (First presentation) How Holden can be now considered an Incel? How he does not
treat women as people, blaming women how he has problems with them. He treats
them as objects. Holden meets Jane, he actually does not like her but her picture.
Holden lies to us, he wants us to believe she feels the same. Holden's envy of other
men (his roomate, the popular guy who gets the attention of other girls).
2.​ (Second Presentation) The unreliable narrator (you cannot trust what you are
reading, his view, we don't know if it is true or not) . Causes: Holden's actions, his
circumstances . Narrative purposes: reflecting Holden's emotions , encouraging
readers to question perception vs. Reality, emphasizing the Theme of Alienation,
exploring the struggle between innocence and adulthood, enhancing the novel’s
realism. Conclusion: We have many purposes inside and outside the text for the
unreliable narrator.

18/02/2025

Chapter 16 “It wasn't as cold as it was the day before, but the sun still wasn't out, and it
wasn't too nice for walking.” → Analyse metaphor and title of Catcher of the rye

Chapter 22 “ I’m not too sure old Phoebe Knew what the Hell I was talking about” →
connected to Ali's baseball meets

Meaning of the Catcher in the rye? Metaphor for the protection of innocence. Holden has to
Mature very fast and doesn't want the same for others. He wants to protect childhood.
Ali died very young, he was a child. Childhood is not related to death.
War novel because of the constant presence of death.

Through the metaphor is rejecting adulthood and embracing childhood. Not waiting to
become an adult.

First chapter : How unprotected he feels.

Ali’s death also represents innocence, the loss of innocence.
Holden goes to the Museum : (end of chapter 16) Eskimo → the only thing that would
change would be you.
Permanente makes him comfortable

Chapter 25 (middle page 109). “ You know The mummies then desde Guys…”
Ali froze time because he died, he is the only one that will stay in childhood.

Holden is trying to follow the institutions. However he wants to go to this place,

Massachusetts (The Walden pond?)

End of chapter 18 → example on intertextuality

Why do you think he only refers to Emily Dickinson

Chapter 23 (Mr. Antolini) → He thinks he is the best teacher he has ever had, only adult he
trust.
Chapter 24 (incident) → Holden needs a place to stay, he stays in Mr Antonili's apartment.
He felt secure, more than with his parents. “Then something happened. I don’t even like to
talk about it” → Mr Antolini is a pervert.
Literary facts → confusing and unclear. Holden is an unreliable narrator. Holden is a
character who is constantly defensive with the adult World.
Salendger wants to show the vulnerability of childhood. In this episode nothing happens If
you analyse it closely. Symbolity is unprotection.

Chapter 25 “After we left the bears, we left the zoo and crossed over this little street in the
park, and then we went through one of those little tunnels that always smell from
somebody's taking a leak.” (Carousels) →The carousel means childhood, the idea of a
constant movement “the way she kept going around and around”. Holden is assuming the
passing of time. Another metaphor in this fragment (the red hat), related to the baseball
meet. The red cap is adulthood, kind of a warning sign. Phoebe confirming that he is
becoming the catcher in the rye, putting him the red hat.
There is a way to protect childhood (baptising)

Chapter 26 → He misses all those people who he told his story (us), an effective bond.
Through his story he assumes you want to listen to him, he is projecting his emotions,
feelings, purposes on you. The audience becomes his family, his effective bond.
This ending is trying to say goodbye to his childhood, to move on. He assumes that he
needs to go back to track.He expresses certain hope, an attachment to life.
Makes him understand life, the fact that he needs to form part of adulthood, there is no
escape.

Moment of affection that he doesn't know how to react to it because no one has ever done it
with him before.

25/02/2025

The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951) by Carson McCullers

The gothic grotesque in Southern Literature:
-​ Southern Gothic work that explores themes of love, loneliness, and the human
condition. The story is set in a small, isolated town in the American South and
revolves around three main characters: Miss Amelia Evans, a strong, independent
woman who owns a café and a general store; Marvin Macy, her estranged husband;
and Cousin Lymon, a hunchbacked dwarf who comes to town and disrupts the lives
of the other characters.
-​ The narrative delves into the complex relationships between these characters,
particularly the unrequited love that Miss Amelia feels for Cousin Lymon and the
destructive jealousy that Marvin Macy harbors. The café becomes a central gathering
place for the townspeople, symbolizing a brief period of communal joy and
connection, but it ultimately falls into decline, mirroring the tragic and melancholic
tone of the story.
-​ McCullers’ work is known for its rich characterizations and its poignant exploration of
the nature of love and the pain of isolation. “The Ballad of the Sad Café” is a powerful
and evocative tale that captures the essence of human vulnerability and the often
bittersweet nature of relationships.
-​ The grotesque: Characterized by bizarre distortions, especially in the exaggerated or
abnormal depiction of human features. The literature of the grotesque involves
freakish caricatures of people's appearance and behaviour.
-​ The idea of normal , the norm that is imposed on you by the system.
-​ Novelette: A trivial or cheaply sensational novel or romance. A short novel or
extended short story.
-​ Novella: A fictional tale in prose, intermediate in length and complexity between a
short story and a novel and usually, concentrating on a single event or chain of
events with a surprising turning point (at the end).
Historical Context:
Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
exam: the dialogue between the works that we are going to study. “In cold blood”, if you
don't understand “the ballad of the sad café”, you won't understand “In cold blood” ​

1.​ Southern Gothic Tradition:

The novella is part of the Southern Gothic literary movement, which flourished in the
early-to-mid 20th century. Southern Gothic writers, including William Faulkner and Flannery
O'Connor, explored themes of decay, grotesque characters, and the dark side of Southern
society.
The setting- a rundown, nearly abandoned town- reflects economic decline and the isolation
experienced by many rural communities in the South.
2.​ Post-Great Depression America:
Written in the aftermath of the Great Depression (1929-1939), the well reflects the economic
struggles of small-town America.
the poverty and social stagnation in the town mirror the real-life hardships faced by many
rural communitie during this period.

Novella Analysis:

The Ballad of the Sad Café = Ballad usually refers to a romantic sad kind of song. The café
is giving us a place.

Ballad = a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in direct and dramatic manner some
popular story usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told
simply, impersonally and often with vivid dialogue.

3 parts:
1.​ The arrival of Cousin Lymon (event)
2.​ The growth of the Café (chain of events
3.​ The return of Marvin Macy (turning point)

Beginning part:
​ Think about what the peach trees mean?
The landscape is southern (fiery hot, winters here are short). Isolation. We have a list of
words (dreary, sad, miserable)

The heat is fiery, very hot, you cannot even breathe. The buildings are not taken care of and
it looks like nobody lives there, almost abandoned. Remains of the Café, there is still life in
there. Miss Amelia. Grief (closed eyes), suffering, pain.
She is not the southern lady (sexless and white). McCullers is going to play with gender
roles.
Cousin Lymon is a hunchback (freakish, monstrosity.)
Amelia's husband (Marvin Macy), a criminal, an outcast
The narrator is someone objective that is talking about the story of the town.
The Café has been closed since but they still remember it, they have memories there.
It wasn't always a café, the building once was a store. “Great gatherings on saturday nights”
She was in a dangerous marriage, which only lasted 10 days. She wasn't a “typical” woman,
she was tall,and muscled like a man, she had short hair. McCullers places her as an
abnormality according to normatility. She is rich, economically independent, meaning she
doesn't need to get married. Crosseyed
A masculine description of Miss Amelia, (a handsome woman).
How the town talked about her marriage (shock).
McCullers connects the three characters into a triangle that we cannot separate. (queer
(weird, strange, grotesque,abnormal , it could also mean she is playing with this idea of Miss
Amelia sexuality) marriage)

03/03/2025

Ballad of the sad cafe (grotesque) [Lucía]

-​ Isolation and the Outsider in the ballad of the cafe (how fragile human connections
are)
-​ The Grotesque and its role in expressing isolation (if you are a woman you are
doomed, downfall)
-​ Southern Grotesque (lifeless the town is, how lonely the people from the town feel.
Reinforces the idea of how society)

Do you think Miss Amelia's isolation is self-imposed, or is it a result of societal

expectations and rejection? The café represents a temporary escape from isolation,
what do you think McCullers is saying about human connection? Is it doomed to fail?

​ She is saying that all comes to an end, not that they are doomed to fail. We
are talking about pain too, this novel is about pain. Interesting idea of Love is a
grotesque thing.
Novel mixes both love and pain.
There is a punishment for Miss Amelia.
How love and pain are connected?
The love triangle in the ballad of the sad cafe [Paula San Segundo]

“Therefore, the value and quality … “

Miss Amelia & Cousin Lymon = Exploitation
-​ Reflection as outcast
-​ Suppressed emotions

04/03/2025

How the different parts of the text are going to be divided.

This paragraph gives us the beginning of the story “With all things which could be made by
the hands Miss Amelia prospered” (page 7 kindle unlimited)
Example of Southern Grotesque piece of literature (page 7 “It was toward midnight on a soft
quiet evening in April”)
-​ “Blue swamp iris” = creepy
-​ “midnight, moon” = grotesque description ( night is the hour of monsters)
-​ the whole atmosphere of a deserted scene , a grotesque atmosphere

Something is coming, something is approaching. “they saw clearly what had come”, they are
triggering as something that is not human “supernatural”.
Idea od stranger coming to town, someone we do not know or what he is going to do.
The most grotesque aspect. Represented as a freak, monstrosity. “HIs crooked little legs
seemed too thin to carry the weight of his great warped chest…” (His physical deformity is
also a metaphor of his suffering, pain)

The hunchback is kin to Miss Amelia. Even though she didn't speak, what is going to happen
after is . He comes crying to Miss Amelia.

Miss Amela was no kind to anyone so they assume she killed everyone on her path. People
in the town think evil things about Miss Amelia. She didn't have human contact.
She is a strange character, she is also independent and doesn't need a man, that is strange
for the people in town.
The rumors contribute to creating and changing the story.

Important section of the novel “This opening of the café came to an end at midnight.”
We start the triangle here. Miss Amelia loves cousin Lymon . “Now some explanation is due
for all this behavior” (page 28 kindle unlimited) .

Definition about love in the novella “First of all, love is a joint experience between two
persons - but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience
to the two people involved. There are the lovers and the beloved, but these two come from
different countries. Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored up love which has
lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. And somehow every lover knows this. He
feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness
and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer.”

We are taught that love must be corresponded, but we are not taught the frustration to be
corresponded. McCullers connects this with suffering.
Love comes from certain emotions and feelings that are buried inside you and provokes you.
When you love someone the love that you are feeling is inside you and not the other.
Love + pain
(Page 30 kindle unlimited) . Here Miss Amelia is the beloved (by Marvin Macy). Marvin Macy
found something in Miss Amelia that awaken something in him.

“But the hearts of small children are delicate organs…” The fact that he had a terrible
childhood (Marvin Macy) made him grow up as a violent and evil person. However he loves
that he feels for Miss Amelia changes him into a better person.
McCullers says how love can change you.

They finally get married , it seems she marries him in an attempt of accomplishing her role
as a woman.

“Well all this happened a long time ago…” (page 37 kindle unlimited). Love is also connected
to violence.

She doesn't want to have any sexual intercourse with Marvin, and that is the final line of their
marriage.

Cousin Lymon does not correspond to Miss Amelia's love. Cousin Lymon is the spirit of the
café, he is the person who is going to connect people. He is going to be the host of the café,
he is the one performing the female role and she is going to perform the male role.

11/03/2025
The consequences of the love not being corresponded
The beginning of the end, of the tragedy "Marvin Macy brought with him fortune" While he
arrives wealthier and more powerful, his return does not bring actual fortune to Miss Amelia-
only destruction. This is the beginning of the inflectional point of the novel, an example of the
southern grotesque change of weather and the influence of the weather in the plot.
Comparison between Marvin Macy and the devil, this is how his return is described as putrid.
He does not sweat. Macy came back for revenge.
How the cafe changed the life of the town: the whole town has somewhere to go, a
community (community vs individuality).
The love triangle ends with the final fight: "The fight took place on GroundHog Day, which is
the second of February. The weather was favorable, being neither rain nor sunny, and with a
neutral temperature". Everyone knows that the end is coming, the space is rearranged, the
cafe is central so it gives the signs of a premonition.
"It was plain from her white stiff face what a torment it was for her to be lying still and doing
nothing, but she lay there quiet as a corpse with her eyes closed and her hands crossed on
her chest." Typical of southern literature, the calmness before the storm (putting the dust
under the rug). These lines also become a premonition of what is going to happen, she is
lying like a corpse -we know something is going to die and it is surrounding Miss Amelia-.
The arrival of Marvin Macy creates an explosion that leaves a wasteland.
"A hawk with a bloody breast flew over the town and circled twice around the property. of
Miss Amelia." This fragment also serves as a promotion as a hawk is a praetor that circles
an area where death remains.
Even though Miss Amelia is a woman and he is a man they both train the same way to fight
as equals: gender roles.
"For the counter on which Cousin Lymon stood was at least twelve feet from the fighters in
the center of the café. Yet at the instant Miss Amelia grasped the throat of Marvin Macy the
hunchback sprang forward and sailed through the air as though he had grown hawk wings."
The hawk that the narrator mentions at the beginning of the scene is a promotion and a
reference to Cousin Lymon.
"He landed on the broad strong back of Miss Amelia and clutched at her neck with his
clawed little fingers." Miss Amelia was winning the fight, and then came the betrayal of
Cousin Lymon as he helped Marvyn. There is a certain attraction/admiration from Cousin
Lymon to Marvin Macy, who was in love with Miss Amelia but did not correspond. The result
of love not being corresponded is VIOLENCE. Carson Maccullers emphasizes how love and
violence go together.
Thu 13 Mar 17:26
Miss Amelia goes to her office and locks herself there. That is the end of everything.
No one in the town helps Miss Amelia. Stumpy MacPhail closes the door as if he is closing
time in the town.
Miss Amelia waited for him. Marvin Macy mistreats Cousin Lymon, the arrival of Cousin
Lymon demonstrates how he was used to this abuse. Even though he had the possibility of
being loved by a person who loved him truly, he chooses the person who mistreats him.
Carson Mcculluers and the hearts of hurt children.
"Yes, the town is dreary. On August afternoons the road is empty, white with dust, and the
sky above is bright as glass." The story is cyclical as this is a parallel fragment, it is the same
as in the beginning. This is what remains from the devastation left by Marvin Macy.
"The peach trees seem to grow more crooked every summer, and the leaves are dull gray
and of a sickly delicacy."
What do the peach trees mean? They represent love, as the peaches have the figure of a
heart. How love is fed, and how love grows, and how love transforms in the same way
seasons do. The novel evolves from summer, autumn, winter... The characters are not
perfect -uglier, prettier-. Mccullers point is that we are all different and can all experience
love.
Thu 13 Mar 17:26
THE TWELVE MORTAL MEN connected to the text: the narrator sells what the Forks Falls
are. Nothing happens, Miss Amelia is locked, and the only thing that can be heard is the
chain gang. The idea is that life goes on and there is still sound, the suffering is shared,
people who suffer and had a tragedy. These twelve mortal men stay together and suffer
together. The sound gives Miss Amelia hope that you can suffer with someone just as the
peach trees give her hope even though they are crooked.
African American Literature
+:: We'll deal with the representation written by those ethnic communities (not anglo-saxon
protestant) that are part of the american society but had to wait to be part of the American
History. Those ethnic groups found a way to write literature in their condition. different
generations of African American slaves who were not allowed to read or write, which made it
difficult for them but they found a way to do it. Only a few slaves who could escape
somewhere else (north or other countries).
The first texts written by African American are real testimonies in the form of autobiographies
or journals, common for a post colonial countries like the United States. They were mainly
focused on telling the experience on how the slaves/writers had been kidnapped in their
countries of Africa and their inability to communicate to make bondings as they all spoke
different dialects and languages. The first example of a text published in London in 1789 by
Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa who escaped to the UK.
Thu 13 Mar 17:
Slave narrative: a written account by an escaped or freed of his or her experiences of
slavery. A special African form of autobiography, slave narratives often serve as both
personal testimony and political critique, exposing the brutal realities of slavery. while
advocating for abolition and human rights. These narratives typically follow a structure that
includes childhood under slavery, the struggle for literacy, the cruelty. of enslavers, the
journey to freedom, and a reflection on life after escape. Notable examples include Frederick
Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) and
Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861).

17/03/2025
Ralph Ellison’s Flying Home and Other Stories

Beginning of the 20th century first pieces of literature of african american: Harlem
Renaissance. Many African american started to move to the north because it was more
open than the south. Many settled in Harlem (1920-30´s). Harlem is a famous area of NY.
artistic renaissance for this community: beginning of african american fiction. Authors such
as James Baldwin, Anne Petrie. Ralph was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and
American transcendentalism.

Ralph Elison went to University to study English, he wrote short stories and a fundamental
novel (Invisible Man), tat talks about racism, situations the african-american community had
to suffered, he coined the term “Invisible” to talk about how these people were marginalized
in the structure of society. african-american folk tales (inherited from the very first
communities that landed in the USaA in the 19th century, they were transformed and
reshaped by its mixture with diff cultural elements). churches and gospel became a way of
escaping all that suffering.

His fiction deals with transformations (his characters) and spiritual transformation (their
identity as african americans -Todd, or the protagonist of Invisible man). The use of lights
and darkness as metaphors for racist elements, the same happens with James baldwin´s
fiction and african-american fiction (darkness as pain, white is associated with whiteness,
cleanness, purity).

contributing to change the history context → a descriptive narrator

*At a party down at the square*

The beginning of the short story is simple and objective.

> “I don’t know what started it.”

simple tone with 1st person narrator (objective and descriptive). We know that he is an
outsider that is not used to what is happening (he is visiting his uncle) and that he is white.
He is not from the South and we are reading a story from the south.

> “and my uncle hollered for me to come on and I ran with them through the dark and rain
and there we were at the Square.”
> “dark and rain” is telling us that what we´ll read is not good, terrible, or something about
black people.

18/03/2025

Continue analysis of A party down at the square. Objective and descriptive way, the narrator
already tells us he is an outsider.
Very clear contrast between the darkness of the night in contrast with the fire (light).
“shivering in the light from the fire”. Can you associate the light given with something? With
hell, it’s an evil light. Ellison creates this light from the fire, hell.
-​ What can you tell about the people? There is a certain joy and entertainment in some
people, everyone is participating.
Shadows and the statute. Another contrast about darkness and light.

Parallelism between the black man and the narrator. “I tell you the rain was cold. . I had to
stick my hands in my pockets they got so cold.” → The narrator feels empathy.
Transformation takes place in the narrator. On one hand observation and on the other
ignoration.
Ellison creates this in order to keep this idea of the narrator as an outsider, someone seeing
this for the first time.
Finding entertainment to what they are doing. In order to create this ordinary feeling, he has
to make this contrast with the narrator, he does this by making a parallelism between the
black man and the narrator.

“like a chicken on a hot stove.” → he is comparing him to an animal, dehumanisation of

african american people and the african american community.
This black man is not doing anything to defend himself, he has assumed that he is going to
die.

Contemporary form of racism.

Ellison is telling you men and women are the same. Women are the ones who raise children
which means, this racism and violences passes from generation to generation.
They are the mothers of the future, mothers are the one who educate children and this
children must be grown racist.
We have to think about which category they both have in society.
(Plane accident) “It was a storm all right…”

Connection with the Great Gatsby.

“And the Sheriff drove me away” → The sheriff is there and runs to help the woman, while
the black man is burning alive.

“The clouds were moving fast in the wind…” → Being an outsider he still wants to take part
in society. We have the implication of the narrator in this situation. There is again a
parallelism with the blackman “and he stays there watching..” → he is admitting , the point is
social pressure, he is participating in this public murdering because all the others are doing
it, pressure of this racism.

“The nigger tried to say something I couldn’t hear for the roar of the wind in the re, and I
strained my ears…” → God is not going to help you, there is no religion here. He is asking
for mercy, they want him to suffer and they want to watch it.
He is asking someone to cut his throat → metaphor, burn in hell. He is trying to avoid that
because he is a Christian.
“I didn’t step on him though…”

Climax of the story, why? He is finally having a reaction. Transformation, emotional and
physical, He is a different person. “The next day I was too weak to go out, and my uncle
kidded me and called me “the gutless wonder from Cincinnati.” I didn’t mind.”

“It blew for three days steady, and put the town in a hell of a shape…” → It kind of closes this
transformation. “have to kill another black man” : they are forced to do it.
“I was right there watching it all..” → We have the impression that the narrator doesn’t care.
He isn’t saying what happened was wrong. Transformation of the narrator, disgusted by what
he saw.
There is a certain message of resistance to this violence. This idea that the African American
community is violent, which is not true.

The title: At a party down at the square. → the title has 2 nouns, party and square. Party is
the linching and is an entertainment. The party has racist implications.
Square talks about a public gathering, making a public statement. The centre of the town.
The unprotection of the law, this square is in front of the court house.

FLYING HOME
Starts with an accident that an African American boy (Tod) has.
He had to tell the supervisor he couldn’t do it.
About the African American old man: he takes a very caring role there, and Tod is very
distant with him.
25/03/2025

“He saw the old man watching, his torn overalls clinging limply to him in the heat…” → He
talks and describes Jefferson.
What is the narrator explaining there in relation to Todd and Jefferson? What are Todd’s
feelings towards Jefferson? He feels ashamed, because it reminds him of a sort of aspect
imposed by society towards African Americans.
He feels uncomfortable, he is uneducated, that makes him low class, poor. Jefferson
represents a part of the African American community. Tod feels ashamed by seeing what he
represents.
Todd feels different from Jefferson, “But soon he realized they did not understand his
accomplishments and they came to shame and embarrass him, like the distasteful praise of
an idiot”, he feels in a way superior, he is there training to be a pilot.

●​ “But it’s more than fear … a sense of anguish clung to him like the veil of sweat that
hugged his face” → Tod is worried about something, Todd needs to go back, he is
anxious.

●​ “and by his need to measure himself against the mirror of other men’s appreciation.”
→ need validation from society. why? social pressure and self esteem. Masculinity.
He is looking at himself on the mirror of White Masculinity NOT Black.

Key word: Mirror (metaphor) The idea of how White America, imposes and oppresses a
society with an identity image.
Todd as an African American Man is phasing the impossibility. It’a Todd’s transformation,
realization that he will never be the white pilot he wants to be. That is why he feels
uncomfortable with Jefferson, because Jefferson is in a way telling Tod where he comes
from.
●​ ““Son, what made all that blood on the glass?”” → Todd’s accident was because of a
(buitre) buzzard.
Buzzards are a metaphor here, they represent the African American community, how in a
way live in the margins of society, literal with the leftovers. In this constant idea of death.
Buzzards are born white but when they grow up they turn black. But on the one hand
buzzards represent the white society because they are constantly hunting, the weak ones
and eat what remains.

The Buzzard is there to become an obstacle for Todd to become a pilot, his career is over
(white society). However, at the end of the novel probably this buzzard is a good one,
because Todd meets Jefferson and with his help he flies back home.
Political connotation Jefferson gives to the bird. Explicitly, the description the narrator gives
about the birds is a bad one, but implicitly is a good one.
●​ “He’s mocking me, Todd thought angrily. He thinks it’s a joke…” → This comes from
the story Jefferson told Todd. He is black he is not going to achieve what he wants to
achieve, he will never be like a white man. The story is there to entertain Todd.
●​ till “It was as though an endless series of hangars had been shaken ajar in the
airbase of his memory and from each, like a young wasp emerging from its cell,
arose the memory of a plane.” → What do you see there? What is the form of that
story? What is the aim of Jefferson?. There is a mixture between mythology, biblical
mythology, with the African American experience. What is the conclusion of this
story?
He talks about how he wants to fly, and tells him where he has to fly and where he has to
land. Through the story he is telling him about his community. Todd is not happy.
He sees a plane and starts to run behind it and tries to catch it, it is also a metaphor, it is
impossible to become the person he wants to become.

●​ “The sun was not so high now, and Jeerson was calling, and gradually he saw three
gures moving across the curving roll of the eld…” → What happens at the end? What
is going on? What is important for the landowner?
This last part tells you about the transformation “Jefferson and the boy approached
him silently…”.

He is back to his masculinity, he has accepted Jefferson’s help. This is the transformation
completed.

What do you think the Buzzard means? The Buzzard is the African American community. Is
this the idea of protecting him.
It’s the myth of Icarus, whose father made wax wings for him and his son to fly and escape
from the labyrinth. And Icarus when he saw the sun he flew towards the sun and he died.
There are some things that you want to reach and cannot reach them.

How this myth explains the complete transformation of Todd. He will never be treated as a
white American and will never have access to what the White American community has
access to.
“THE BEAT GENERATION”

What is a literary generation? A literary generation is a group of writers who share common
characteristics, influences, and themes due to being born around the same time and
experiencing similar historical, cultural, and social events. These writers may not always
know each other personally, but their works often reflect a shared perspective shaped by
their era.

The Beat Generation was a group of young men, studying at columbia university. The Beat
Generation was a group of writers and poets in the 1950s who rejected traditional society
and explored themes like freedom, spirituality, and rebellion. They were tired of strict social
rules and wanted to live and write in a more open, honest way. Famous writers:
Jack Kerouac – On the Road (a novel about adventure and freedom)​
Allen Ginsberg – Howl (a powerful, rebellious poem)​
William S. Burroughs – Naked Lunch (a surreal and shocking novel)

31/03/2025

HOWL by Allen Ginsberg (Presentation)

-​ The Decay of North American Imagination

-​ The liberating potential of counterculture
-​ Nonconformity vs. Mainstream Society: The personification of Moloch
-​ A mad generation
-​ Conclusion: A call to liberation

Characteristics:
-​ General liberation
-​ Liberation of the world from censorship
-​ Descriminalization of some of the laws against marijuana and other drugs
-​ The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll, and rock and roll into high art
form, as evidenced by the Beatles.
-​ The spread of ecological consciousness, emphasized by Gary Snyder
-​ Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in the works
of Burroughs, Huncke, Ginsberg, and Kerouac.
 -​ Attention to what Kerouac called, after Soengler, “Second Religiousness” developing
within an advanced civilization.
-​ Respect for land and indigenous peoples as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan
from On the Road “The Earth is an Indian thing”.

John Clellon Holmes “This is the Beat Generation (1952).

​ The origins of the Word ‘beat’ are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most
Americans. More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of
nakedness of mind, and ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of
consciousness. In short, it means being pushed up against the Wall of oneself.
The hipster practices a kind of passive resistance to the square society in which he lives,
and the most he would ever propose as a program would be the removal of every social and
intellectual restraint to the expression and enjoyment of his unique individuality and the
‘kicks’ of ‘diggling’ life through it. This conviction of the creative power of the unfettered
individual.

Norman Mailer “The white negro” (1957)

01/04/2025

From Whitman’s “Barbaric Yawp” to Ginsberg’s “Howl”

“I celebrate myself …. waiting for you” → universality, making the reader reach. Some kind of
connection through the effect that the combination of his words can provoke on the reader.

Another connection that we have there is related to modernism. (Ezra Pound) → There is a
strong influence from transcendentalism to going to to modernism to get to ginsberg's
creation.

First verse of the poem → “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking
for an angry fix,... “ → he talks about drugs. He is already saying that those people who are
being pointed at and labelled as mad, were the best minds, so society is destroying the best
minds of generations. Baby? Not having something, getting rid of something, ‘Angry Fix’ →
creates a similar effect that when you are starving.
SURREAL SUBSTAPOSITION
“angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in
the machinery of night,” → Allen Ginsberg captures the intense yearning of the
"angelheaded hipsters" who are passionately seeking a profound, spiritual connection to
something greater. The phrase "burning for the ancient heavenly connection" suggests their
desperate desire for transcendence, while the "starry dynamo in the machinery of night"
symbolizes the cosmic, yet impersonal forces that govern the universe. Ginsberg paints a
picture of a generation searching for meaning in a world that feels both beautiful and
mechanized, highlighting their rebellion against mainstream society and their struggle to
find authenticity and enlightenment in a seemingly indifferent, modern world.

“who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural
darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,” → The
hollow eyed, they see everything.

22/04/2025

Howl is divided into 2 parts. Part 1 as an non capitalist manifesto.

Beginnings are fundamental.

He constantly talks about many places, you imagine these places like the bridge or Atlantic
city. These images are from New York, and they are urban spaces.

Makes reference to the electroshock therapy, most of those people end up traumatised.
Surreal juxtaposition, hydrogen jukebox. A reference to music and jazz in this case.

“Who crushed through their minds…”

What was the function of mental institutions ? → Way of controlling people, citizens, a way
to teach you how to behave. If you behave according to American values, the state can
control you.
He creates this character called Mollock, a Mexican god. It is the metaphorical
representation of capitalism.
“I’m with you in rockwand, I’m with you in rockwand….” → We have reached a point where
13/05/2025 (In Cold Blood)

The idea of the southern landscape. This feeling that something is going to break, that
clamness and quietness.
This calmness is broken in both cases. The arrival of cousin to the town. The massacre.

“The master of river…”

She is being locked up in a room because something was wrong with her. Capote introduces
that in a way to show how women were treated at the time.

Metaphor of her soul. The idea of the witness constantly threatens the novel.

He is giving many details. The setting of the killing scene.

The day starts with root beer and aspirins, it talks about addiction, pains…

Most important word: Grotesckly

Constant pain in the legs, that is why he takes the aspirins. He cannot move them, this
description is connected to the fact that his mother was a native american. “Grew up in the
margins of society”
Paris physical pain as a metaphor.
Two talophones is not there by chance. It conncets the house with the world (symbolic
metaphor). Isolated during the incidents.
The subjective description of Dick , as a manipulative and cruel man.

That blank of page 54 is the killing scene.

Page 67 → The ballad of the sad cafe, the neighboors and gossipping.