Forms of Alienation and Loss in Hemingway’s Texts

• Thesis title in Czech: Formy odcizení a ztráty v Hemingwayových textech
• Thesis title in English: Forms of Alienation and Loss in Hemingway’s Texts
• Key words: Odcizení|ztráta|Hemingway|Kierkegaard
• English key words: Alienation|Loss|Hemingway|Kierkegaard
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2020/2021
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 02.11.2020
• Date of assignment: 02.11.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 06.11.2020
• Date and time of defence: 24.06.2021 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 29.05.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 24.06.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.

Guidelines

A literary behemoth of the 20^th century Ernest Hemingway wrote dozens of short stories and many novels, which made him famous all around the world. Hemingway had a singularly unique approach to writing, employing the so called “iceberg” method he invented. This method, emphasizing austerity and conciseness of text, allowed him to delve deep into the souls of the protagonists. Seemingly plain and unadorned words of his stories and novels conceal texts brimming with emotion, passion, and tension, whilst discussing the great topics of human life. These topics include the question of well-lived life, death and dying, alienation of self, love and friendship, and other topics. During his fruitful career as a writer Hemingway created many complex and remarkable heroes. Many of those heroes share a common trait – in one or another way they have become alienated, they have become lost. Lost to themselves, to their lives and to their surroundings. Those characters deal with alienation from themselves and reality, failing to become themselves, not finding their purpose, with personal crisis and disappointment.
The aim of this BA thesis is to analyze the main characters in selected texts of Hemingway and examine the nature of loss of each hero, while commenting on Hemingway’s writing style and referring to philosophical works of the Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In his work Kierkegaard deals, among other issues, with the nature of human existence and the quest of self to become oneself. The analysis of Hemingway’s characters will draw a parallel to Kierkegaard’s philosophy; to better understand how have various kinds of loss combined with alienation influenced the selected protagonists. Especially, the analysis will focus on that part of Kierkegaard’s work concerning the struggle to become oneself, the issue of responding to the opportunities coming one’s way, which put one on the right track in their life, and the feeling of alienation from one’s self. This parallel to Kierkegaard will allow for a deeper and more percipient understanding of the nature of the alienation and loss in those selected Hemingway-heroes, and how it shaped their lives, what consequences it has had. The studied characters will be from the following texts: two short stories “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and a novel The Sun Also Rises.
In conclusion, the thesis will look into well-known Hemingway-characters and analyze them, from the viewpoint of loss and alienation. It will also use Kierkegaard’s philosophy to offer a new angle and better understanding of the various kinds of losses those selected protagonists have suffered.

References

List of secondary sources:
Bouchard, David F. “Being Collected.” Hemingway: So Far from Simple. New York: Prometheus Books, 2010.
Fleming, Robert E. “Hemingway’s Late Fiction: Breaking New Ground.” The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Scribner, 1966.
Hemingway, Ernes. Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. London: Vintage, 2014.
Kierkegaard, S. Either/ Or. Translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin Swenson. Volume one. London: Oxford University Press, 1946.
Kierkegaard, S. Either/ Or. Translated by Walter Lowrie. Volume two. London: Oxford University Press, 1946.
King, J.L. Notes on The Sun Also Rises, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Works. Toronto: Coles Publishing Company Limited, 1972.
Lodge, David. “Repetition”. The Art of Fiction. New York: Viking, 1993.
Nagel, James. “Brett and Other Women in The Sun Also Rises.” The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Sanderson, Rena. “Hemingway and Gender History.” The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Quinn, J., Roraback, E. S., Ulmanová, H., Veselá, P. Wallace, C. “Twentieth-century American Literature.” Lectures on American Literature. Ed. Justin Quinn. Praha: Karolinum, 2016.