Newbie needs quick help

[Nedsdag]

Hi, I'm a newcomer to this forum and I need help.

I teach a composition/literature class and I need to talk about reinvention in literature. First I'll talk about authors reinventing themselves such as George Orwell, then I will discuss reinvention in literature a la Jay Gatsby.

Can anyone add other subject/authors regarding reinvention and literature? Anyone?

[JBI]

Wordsworth reinvented himself - check out the difference between his virtually unknown first volume of poetry, written in a very 18th century sort of derivative style, and then his work with Coleridge on Lyrical Ballads, where they openly discussed how to reinvent poetry in their own image.

Of course, another great reinventor was T. S. Eliot - the stark difference between his three stages, Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Ash Wednesday/Four Quartets show how first he set himself in a sort of symbolist, ironic mode. Then in a sort of mythological, voice of the generation mode, and then finally in a Christian sort of cathartic mode. His move to England virtually allowed him the ability to become "an English" poet instead of American, and thereby, his drama career was able to flourish on rather English (or perceived by him as English) themes.

[Il Penseroso]

You could talk about Breton's surrealist movement and his attempts to reinvent what literature should be through exposing the unexplored unconscious through free association in his various manifestos.

[Mr Endon]

Samuel Beckett (coming from me, who else could it be) underwent a remarkable change in style. He started off with Joycean verbosity and virtuosity, full of obscure references and multilingual puns, and eventually found his place in silence, sparsity, 'impotence and ignorance'.

Wilfred Owen also reinvented himself, from Edwardian pastoral poetry to bitter and disillusioned war poetry (although he never really got over his elegiac streak).

I guess that any significant writer who wrote an influential manifesto would fall under 'reinvention of literature'. Breton is indeed a good example, as is Marinetti, the Russian OBERIU writers, and other literary pioneers.

[mayneverhave]

W.B. Yeats's gradual move from relatively traditional Romantic, Pastoral-type poet (a la The Rose) into the old, mystical, angry Modernist poet of The Tower and his later poems.

Also, Goethe's move from the Sturm und Drang of The Sorrows of Young Werther to Weimar Classicism (Faust).

[JBI]

W.B. Yeats's gradual move from relatively traditional Romantic, Pastoral-type poet (a la The Rose) into the old, mystical, angry Modernist poet of The Tower and his later poems.

Also, Goethe's move from the Sturm und Drang of The Sorrows of Young Werther to Weimar Classicism (Faust).

I would have to disagree - there is still that same powerful force running throughout even the last of times. He didn't reinvent himself, I would argue, just gradually changed - if it was Ossian to the Tower, I would agree, but his volumes in between show a gradual shift. There is still that same romantic voice sounding in even the last of his poems - in truth, I would think him perhaps the most sincere romantic of all - certainly the best, I would wager. The romantic voice is still the most dominant sound in, for instance, Among School Children, and even has traces in his last poem, Under Ben Bulben.

[Nedsdag]

Orwell changed from Eric Blair and his privileged background to the what we know of today.

[Qaphqa]

You could discuss Borges. His first collection, A Universal History of Iniquity, is a collection of accounts of pseudo-historical figures, and is quite different from the rest of his stories. After that, he wrote his more metaphysical and well-known stories in the collections Ficciones and The Aleph. After writing some smaller pieces, he purposely wrote some self-described "plain tales," which composed the collection Brodie's Report. His final collection The Book of Sand seemed to continue this style, with some exceptions, notably the title story, which seems more reflective of his most famous stories, as well as "There Are More Things," which is a tribute to Lovecraft.

[Jozanny]

I'd offer Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain? But I don't know enough about Samuel's development of his humorist persona to know if it compares to what Orwell's name has become.

[billl]

And Twain wrote Prince and the Pauper, which could be roped into the discussion of reinvention.

[Nedsdag]

Awesome on the Borges/Twain personas. Thank you so much!

If you can think of anymore, I'm listening! My class is in the afternoon.

[sixsmith]

How about Jack London's 'Martin Eden' - poor but undeniably bright young seafarer re-invents himself through education.

[billl]

sexsmith just reminded me of this one:

A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass,_an_ American_Slave

This one isn't fiction, it's an autobiography of an American slave who eventually escapes to freedom. Transformation maybe occurs more than once (e.g. when he learns to read and write is a transformation point of particular significance), but the transformation of the author (post-publication) into famed writer of international recognition is more than amazing enough.

(I realize that my post ended up avoiding the word "reinvention." It doesn't seem a strong enough word for what happens in this case, but I think this book might still fit into some possible avenues for approaching the topic.)