Contemporary Implications in World Literature

“The limits of our language are the limits of our world.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein

What a bold statement to make in regards to the barriers of human intellect. Modestly put Ludwig is asserting the fact that as humans our culture, and inevitably our language bars us from appreciating the literature, arts, and humanities of other cultures to their full extent.

Ever wonder how large the scope of difference in translated text is when converted from one language to another? I’m sure at one point you have gone to Google translate, typed some foreign text in and instead of getting a desired translation what you got was a jumbled version of converted English banter. Sound familiar? Puffs Tissue’s advertising campaign is a perfect example of how words can get lost in translation. Only until after the launch of their product in Europe did the company unexpectedly find out that ‘Puffs’ is slang for ‘whorehouse’ is German. These humorous examples can lead us to ask a broader question: What else is lost in translation, especially in regards to literary texts.

Just glossing through the contents section of our ‘Norton Anthology of World Literature’ book can give us an estimate to just how many texts we read are presented to us  in a translated version. As a student it makes me wonder just how much of the true theme and beauty of language structure is lost when reading a translator’s interpretation of a text. Does the translated version of a novel, play or short story fall flatter than the author’s authentic creation? How can we really know what we are missing out on?

As part of our World Literature course I have found myself facing some challenges when reading translated texts. One such challenge is the toil that accompanies trying to follow along with footnotes and annotations provided to clarify a rusty translation. Although tools like footnotes are only there to aid a reader, I often find them a hinderance to a steady and fluid pace of reading. Eileen Chang’s ‘Love in a Fallen City’ is just one text our class has read in its translated form. When reading the biography prior to the story I learned that a Chinese reader, reading the text in its original form would understand the title to mean ‘Love for a beauty that could make a city fall.’ This meaning differs so vastly from ‘love in a fallen city.’ It makes me question what else contemporary students are deprived of when reading translated works. Translation can unintentionally change so much about an original literary work. Vocabulary choice and sentence structure are choices strategically made by an author that inevitably differ in translation. Translation and interpretations make texts that would otherwise be lost on a contemporary audience more available.  Translators are left with a difficult task as they attempt to capture and maintain the beauty and genius of an original text, hoping this genius doesn’t get lost in translation!

“I’m an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get a divorce, I keep the house.” –Zsa Zsa Gabor

You see it everywhere. The modern day plague that’s sweeping the nation. No, scratch that the world. You can’t turn on the TV without eventually hearing about it. You can’t open a magazine or a newspaper without reading about it. In fact it’s so prevalent in our world today that one in every two people will be affected by it. You’re probably wondering, what is this heinous epidemic, and where should I run to hide from it?! Would you laugh if I told you this ‘heinous epidemic’ was…divorce? Yup, divorce.

From marriages that begin in Vegas and end within the next 72 hours, to the extravagant weddings of the ‘Kim Kardashians’  of the world that barely make it past the honeymoon phase, marriage in a modern day world has been made into a joke, a farce, something people no longer look at as a life-long commitment. It’s just as easy to get a divorce today as it is to buy a new car. Sign a few papers along the dotted line and you can pretend your betrothal never happened.

It’s safe to say that these attitudes towards marriage and divorce have not always been present in our society. Eileen Chang’s short story, ‘Love in a Fallen City,’ makes critical comments on divorce in an ancient Chinese society. In the story’s opening the reader is made aware that the main protagonist, Liusu has divorced and is informed that her ex-husband has just passed away. Through dialogue between Liusu and her family members the shame that Liusu has brought on her family with her decision to divorce is evident. Her sister in law chastises Liusu saying “Is divorce such an easy thing, that you can get divorced anytime you want? If it were really that easy, why haven’t I divorced your Fourth Brother…I too have my own family, it’s not as if I don’t have a place to run to. But in times like these I have to think of their needs too….I still have some sense of shame!” Liusu has caused her family dishonor and added an additional financial burden with her divorce. Her family now has an extra mouth to feed and person to clothe. Through these passages Eileen Chang has stressed the significance and necessity of marriage during this time in Chinese society. During this time marriage was not viewed as a trivial and temporary commitment. It was seen as a life-long engagement that could not be easily ended through divorce without a serious stigma being placed on the man and woman.

When I read ‘Love in a Fallen City’ Zhang’s statements regarding divorce really stood out to me. What a far cry from a society today, where a 50% divorce rate exsis. How has our world gone from a traditional society where divorces were only seen in extreme cases, to a world where 1 in every 5 divorces are caused by, get this…FACEBOOK! This question is a complex one that I think has many answers. Has preoccupation with material drapings and superficialities (see my previous post ‘A Vanity Affair’ for more regarding that!) led to the deterioration of marriage as a sacred union, and in many cases as a holy sacrament.

Our society today is filled with couples and relationships that boast a selfish lifestyle. This lifestyle promotes preoccupation with one’s own well being instead of the well being of their significant other. Husbands and wives tend to forget the hard work and commitment that it takes to make a happy marriage last. They let menial troubles blow out of proportion and dissolve marriages that they simply don’t have the energy to work at. I absolutely believe that in many instances divorce is completely acceptable and necessary. However divorce today has been accepted as so commonplace that it to no longer carries the stigma of shame that it once did.

Do families today have the same reaction regarding divorce as Liusu’s family did? Would a 21st century family condemn and resent a relative who has gone through a divorce? Of course not. Hollywood has allowed for the glamorization of divorce. Turn on the TV and you can watch ‘Happily Divorced’ an entire sitcom dedicated to the mockery of divorce. Browse the magazine gossip rack and covers will scream of the recordbreaking-ly short marriages. The evidence is all around us, blatant billboard signs that society is every changing!

Scroll over to the sidebar and check out the new link posted ‘Next on the Syllabus: Harry Potter…?’ It is a really interesting article written by high school students in the mid-west. They feel that although the classical works of Shakespeare and his peers have stood the test of time, perhaps contemporary authors of modern day society deserve a chance to be taught in English classes across the U.S. Although I think it’s a stretch to say that Twilight and Harry Potter should make it onto a course syllabus, I think these students raise some interesting points. Maybe there is something worth studying in more contemporary works of literature. Undoubtedly the works of authors like Shakespeare, Bronte, Hawthorne etc challenge young adults to analyze literature and themes in ways that forces them to dig deeper. But perhaps adding contemporary novels to coursework would add a diversity to classes that would keep students engaged and eager to learn. Perhaps contemporary works can fill the gaps missing in so many high school and higher education English classes today!

“Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us leaving us dead, killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?”

Divided, tortured, heartbroken and scarred. These are just some words that can begin to describe a people living in a war torn society. Mothers seeing their sons off to fight, knowing they may never come home again, children seeing their father or mother depart for a foreign land, not understanding why they’re going away and being too young to know the enormity of their absence. Writers across time have taken the liberty to write down reactions to the heartache and anguish of war. Literary texts have been written satirizing war, condemning the very nature of its existence as well as the corrupt political heads behind it.

Pablo Neruda’s collection of poetry we read in class is one example of a writer, so fed up with the tragedies of war that he took it upon himself to write reactionary works expressing his disgust. Two such poems that take on an anti war approach are ‘Walking Around,’ and ‘I’m Explaining a Few Things.’ Neruda’s political activist approach in these works expresses the contempt he felt regarding the Spanish Civil War. The reader can see in the poem ‘Walking Around’ that Neruda has had enough of the calamities associated with war. He is ‘tired of being a man..’ He voices his hatred for public government officials when he says ‘..it would be delicious to scare a notary with a cut lily.’ ‘I’m Explaining a Few Things,’ further shows Neruda’s frustration and aggravation with war and society in general. He chastises society for expecting him to write poems flourishing with beauty and decorative language, when he is reminded daily of the horrors of war when he walks in the street and sees the blood of children. Neruda’s poetry forces the reader to see the stupidity and ignorance that accompanies war. Although undoubtedly war has been fought in the past for legitimate purposes, many fail to contemplate the tragedies of war unless if is directly affecting their homes or loved ones, forcing them to deal with it first hand. Neruda’s poem is a reminder of that.

War torn society has been no stranger to our country this past decade. Perhaps you may feel that since the beginning of the War against Terror no writer or scholar has taken the liberty to creatively satirize or ridicule war. However this is not true. The newest phenomenon to captivate our society today, ‘The Hunger Games Trilogy,’ was a result of author Suzanne Collins attitude toward modern day war. Collins was inspired to write ‘The Hunger Games’ while channel surfing the television one day and seeing heinous video clips of war followed by commercials for absurd reality TV shows. Collins is quoted as saying the two sets of footage “began to blur in this very unsettling way,” prompting her to draft ‘The Hunger Games.” The books tackle somber themes that the reader may overlook while burying themselves in Collins enchanting texts. ‘The Hunger Games” makes comments on poverty, oppression and the effects of war on individuals and society as a whole. Twenty-four young men and women, known as tributes, are forced to fight in an arena till their death, until only one is left standing. The entire spectacle is televised for the nation to watch as the drama unfolds. Tributes are forced to adopt a war-mentality, not unlike many soldiers forced to fight in combat in poorer countries around the world today. Although “The Hunger Games” is without question an entertaining, suspenseful book, I think it would be foolish to ignore the warning signs, and critical comments on society being hinted at throughout the books. The heavy importance our society places on trivial Hollywood shows and celebrities is becoming more and more apparent. We all have a tendency to turn a blind eye to the horrors of war and poverty. Similar to Neruda’s poetry, Collins is urging us to see the fault in our neglect of wartime horrors.

I found a really interesting critical response to an article that described a formulaic approach to writing. The author here  criticizes the original article claiming, “Language is the handmaiden of story, not the other way around. Master story. Everything else is gravy.” Take a look.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up one day transformed into a beast, a monster, or some sort of alien creature, completely isolated and repulsed by society? The answer to this question is most likely no you have not. In all honesty, the fantastic nature of the question is so bizarre, why would someone, in their daily routine even consider it? Perhaps even the notion of this occurring makes us too uncomfortable to contemplate it.

When I read Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ I instantly began to compare it to Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein.’ Both stories are centered on a strange and foreign character. Both stories are so widely nonsensical that it begs the question, why decades after they were written are these fantastical texts still read and analyzed by English students and scholars alike? Both Kafka and Shelley use the central image of their story to convey a serious theme regarding the effects isolation and rejection by society can have on a person, or in these cases a creature.

The characterization of both Gregor as an insect and the monster as a gigantic hideous creature are key to the illustration of the themes both authors in respective texts try to convey. The characters in these stories are isolated and secluded from society. Gregor’s transformation in the beginning of the story dismantles any relationships he had previously had with his family or coworkers. He is now kept in complete seclusion in his bedroom, hidden from the outside world. His previous life as he knew it is now a part of his past. Not only is Gregor denied the luxury of living life through his daily routine, but his family now begins to resent him. As the story goes on everyone in the household begins to care less and less about the state of Gregor’s health. Their sympathy diminishes and Gregor seems to be trapped in his home in a state on estrangement. Gregor’s family seems to realize their sympathy as limits,and the stress of Gregor’s state wears on them emotionally.

Similarly the representations of the grotesque monster as a central character in Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’ aims to convey the mental and emotional effects placed on someone’s life when they are forced to become an outcast in society. The novel centers around Victor Frankenstein’s creation of the morbid and horrendous monster. The monsters terrifies everyone it comes into contact with and it is forced to exist in complete seclusion and solitude.His rejection by society causes him to endure emotional grief and he consequently becomes violent and unhinged. These effects cause the reader to see, albeit in a fabricated manner, the detrimental effects loneliness and isolation can have on someone, or in this case something’s life.

Perhaps readers are uncomfortable with the fantastical nature of the texts and unrealistic characters of the novel. But maybe readers are uncomfortable with the critical statements made in these stories regarding society’s conduct towards outcasts.I think these texts read in a modern day society force a reader to evaluate his or her daily behavior. This self evaluation is not necessarily something we are always comfortable with doing.

How quick are we to form judgements on a person based on their physical appearance, material drapings, or perceived social standing? How quick are we to make harsh judgements on someone and deem them outcasts or taboo members of society? Although we won’t be eager to fess up, the answer to this question is probably far too quickly. Our society is filled with people who suffer from addictions, illnesses, physical deformities and mental conditions that make them different from your average John Smith and Mary Jane. We are so quick in placing these people in a category that demeans their humanity and insults their dignity. We isolate these people with no regards to their emotions and mental well being. A second thought is never given to the lack of compassion and neglect we show these outcasts.

Authors like Shelley and Kafka write with a purpose. They use such bold plot lines and outlandish characters to gain a firm grasp on the attention of their readers. I feel that they aim to get their readers to evaluate their behavior and actions in retrospect to the text. Okay, so maybe we aren’t faced with monsters, and family members turned insects everyday, but we are constantly faced with people who are different from us in some way. Maybe we don’t show enough compassion or empathy to others, or maybe we don’t even give people a chance to show us who they are.  Going to college in one of the most diverse schools in the nation, we can take a lot away from the themes shown in these literary texts. Hard as it may be to admit, these works can force many of us to recognize the need for an attitude and behavioral adjustment in our lives.