Thursday, November 1, 2007

Myth and the Modern World Quartely Test

on Friday October 2nd, 2007
Be prepared to explain the significance of either of these quotations and explain how they relate to Modernism.

Portrait of Kafka done by Andy Warhol.

Kafka described in a letter to Klopstock: “If we were on the right road, having to leave it would mean endless despair. But we are on a road that only leads to a second one, and then to a third one, and so forth, and the real highway will not be sighted for a long time—perhaps never—and we drift in doubt, but also in inconceivably beautiful diversity; so the accomplishment of hopes remains an always unexpected miracle, but in compensation, the miracle remains forever possible.

cover of Duncan's book done by the painter / collage artist Jess (Collins)

Robert Duncan, 20th Century American poet, writes in his essay “Towards an Open Universe”, “Beauty strikes us and may be fearful, as there is great beauty in each step as Oedipus seeks the heart of tragedy, his moment of truth, as he tears out his eyes, and sees at last. . . For in our common human suffering, in loss and longing, an intuition of poetic truth may arise”(Duncan 79).

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