Author Archives: d.zhou2

My visit to the Museum of Modern Art was an amazing experience. I saw many paintings that are world-class. I saw the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most famous paintings to exist. Because it was not in the allotted time-frame of the assignment, I chose the next-most captivating painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso.
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, ceramist, stage designer, and the co-creator of Cubism. He is renowned for the ability to keep reinventing himself and his craft, his works over time drastically changed and it may appear to some that they would have been done by separate artists, not one.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was created in 1907 and is an oil on canvass. It was acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest in 1939 by exchange. This probably meant that the Museum of Modern Art had a deal or a trade with the Bequest for this painting. It depicts 4 prostitutes in a brothel in Avignon. It draws influences from African tribal masks and Spanish Renaissance artist El Greco.

The aesthetic of this painting is related to modernism because the evokes a new sense of style of painting that was drastically different from the conventional paintings at that time. Pablo used shapes alluding to sharp edges and curves to illustrate a scene. Although this artwork was made up entirely of geometric-like shapes, people were able to see that the human figures in the painting, 5 nude people. This can be considered a modernistic approach because it is a unique expression and technique people were not used to. Shapes made the painting, instead of the stroke of the brush or the traditional ways to paint an image. The painting reminded me of paper mache but in 2-D instead of 3-d. Another interesting point is that conventional paintings had depth and realism to the people, but he made it extremely abstract and modernistic by transcending the common “thinking” of that time period.

In a large room that housed the Starry Night, there was an entrance that connected to another room. On the wall of the adjacent room was the biggest painting I had seen in the Museum. This painting drew me in because of its size, color, and unconventional style. It was interesting that he used shapes to piece together the human figure, I thought that the irregular shapes of the artwork made it drastically unique.

One question I had about this work is why Pablo used the Cubanism to illustrate the nudity of men/women. Would it have been easier to just paint people in the more conventional way?

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79766

Tadeusz Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”, was a short story written about the horrendous conditions the prisoners faced in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The author speaks of his experiences through first-person narrative, detailing the atrocities that occur in the camp as a prisoner. This short story has similar themes to Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” as the narrator in both texts relate to the theme of dehumanization. In Borowski’s narration of the life as a prisoner, there were examples of derogation of the incoming Jews such as taking away their belongings and encaging them in tight, compact trucks. Gregor in “The Metamorphosis” faces similar consequences as he himself turns into a bug and has to face the dehumanization directly by his family members.

The beginning of the short story of “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” stood out to me because prisoners were starving, and food was a scarcity, they were described as “pigs” that ate stale bread and whatever scraps of food they can find on the ground. This was eerily similar to “The Metamorphosis” in that Gregor’s transformation into a bug changed his appetite and his human desire for sweet milk and bread became unpalatable after his sister brought it in to feed him. These two both draw upon the theme of dehumanization because like the “pigs” described in Borowski’s text, Gregor was willing to eat rotten and food considered to be inedible for human consumption. This connection ties directly to the concept of dehumanization because the prisoners inside Auschwitz were fed like they were pests and animals, they were not fed properly relative to the S.S. soldiers in the camp. As a result, prisoners were not treated like humans, but like animals. In “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor’s sister fed him scraps such as “some cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two days before” which he happily devoured to feed his new insect appetite. Gregor literally metamorphosed into a bug and developed traits of a bug so that makes him void of being “human”.

Another connection between the two texts would be the process of dehumanization. In Borowski’s short story, the prisoners were given orders to assist in moving the incoming Jews to be transferred into the gas chambers. When the trucks came, an absurd description of an overcrowded truck with the Jews on the inside gasping for air comes to show that they were given no respect nor consideration of their wellbeing. As a result, the prisoners had to clean up the unfortunate dead bodies left over inside the truck, carrying out corpses of infants crushed and flattened by their legs “like chickens” to be thrown away. This encaging is a dehumanizing act, which can also be seen in “The Metamorphosis”. Gregor, after scaring away his family, was basically exiled and locked in his own room where the only activities he could do is eat and wait. This is a dehumanizing act because there are no human rights such as freedom, his room was locked from the outside by his own parents. The idea of dehumanization is apparent in both texts through the use of entrapment and limitation of freedoms.

Response to Tartuffe, Moliere

— Discuss the theme of appearances or masks in Tartuffe? How does the issue of appearances vs. reality connect with the central concerns of the play?

The theme of masks in Moliere’s Tartuffe is shown throughout the play through many different characters. The most recognizable deceptive character in the play is Tartuffe, who appears to be a zealous God-fearing man, but has shown otherwise. For example, he claims to whip himself and wear his hair-shirt to emphasize his devoutness towards God but he ironically has lived a life of leisure in Orgon’s household. He was a gluttonous pig enjoying piles of food and endless amounts of wine whereas he would supposed to help Madame Elmire when she suffered from her illness.
Furthermore, the role of masks can be shown through other characters such as Madame Elmire. When she realized that Tartuffe had real intentions to seduce her, she appeared to lead him on so she can save her daughter’s marriage as well as show her husband of Tartuffe’s evil intentions. This theme is repeated again towards the end with Monsieur Loyal wearing the appearance of being against Orgon’s house but was intentionally leading Tartuffe’s schemes on to indefinitely prove that he was guilty.

My name is Devin Zhou and I am currently a sophomore at Baruch College. I am very excited to be a part of this class because studying and analyzing world literature will help me excel on other areas of my academic career. Recognizing and understanding the underlying theme takes effort from an individual so this course will definitely help sharpen my cognitive abilities. I did fairly well in global history in high school and world literature is definitely influenced by the time period in which the work is written, therefore I will take that into consideration when reading the passages for homework.
I am also a very attentive student so I will write the discussions down in class so I can pass the midterm and finals with breeze. This introduction post will be a constant reminder of the fighter than I am. I will look back at this post one week , two weeks, or maybe three weeks from now to serve as my motivation.
After looking at the syllabus, I think Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass would be one of the more interesting reads because I have familiarized myself with that memoir during high school.
I am looking forward to reading the other great works of literature and hope to see what my classmates’ perspectives are because I love sharing ideas and thoughts with those around me. I always felt like I had a limited scope of ideas and thoughts when it comes to explaining how I interpret readings but I will improve on these flaws this semester.
This is my first day of school and I had just purchased the required texts before I went home. I will start reading it as soon as this blog post is done. Notes are critical as well as words I don’t know. Another expectation from this course would be vocabulary development, I wish to expand my vocabulary.
English isn’t my best subject but I will try my best to succeed and get an A in this course because I am a slave to the GPA system. I know this class will not be an easy course so I will definitely be serious when it comes to assignments.