Manhattan Transfer In The Context Of Cubism And The New Metropolis Around 1900

Foreword

As being portion of the Modernism motion, Dos Passos plants are strikingly different from the literature of the nineteenth century. At first sight, his manner of narrating makes the feeling of being really dense as he uses a rich linguistic communication, full of colourss, odors, allusions. While this is non unconventional in itself, the constructions of his narrative are. He is non clearly specifying a supporter, narratives start out of the blue and so all of a sudden disappears once more. Manhattan Transfer, possibly the flood tide of his authorship, confuses and at the same clip fascinates with its multiple strings of narrative which sometimes touch, sometimes entangle but ne’er lead to a great coda, like one would hold expected in earlier literature. Dos Passos introduces a immense dramatis personae of characters but none of them clearly become supporters, while the cities of New York City remains a changeless subject and might even be claimed as the true supporter of the novel. What motivated Dos Passos to this new manner of authorship? Where did he happen inspiration and which modern-day creative persons influenced him? While this is a really complex inquiry to reply, one surely of import facet is his association with painters in Paris and New York. Among them were celebrated impressionists, expressionists, and particularly cubists. During his clip in Europe, Dos Passos attended Gertrude Stein`s acquire together where he got to cognize authors such as Guillaume Apollinaire and painters such as Georges Braques that were in great favour of the merely freshly developing Cubism. Against this background, it is deserving look intoing if Dos Passos` manner of authorship and techniques bear a resemblance to cubist pieces of art. Therefore I would wish to analyse which specific cubist techniques were used in the book and how these fit in with the general development of cubism, modernist literature and the outstanding subject of the metropolis New York after 1900.

Introduction

Manhattan Transfer was published 1925 and covers the narrated clip from 1897 until 1924, a clip, which was characterized by advancement, industrialisation and a new urbanity. The population of the state was divided and torn between blind religion in advancement and critical battle with the worlds. The metropolis became the new centre of modern, metropolitan life, particularly New York City as the population exceeded 4 million by the terminal of World War I. Artists of all sorts were attracted by the metropolis and desired to work straight on the pulsation of times.

John Dos Passos ‘s was born 1896 in Chicago as an illicit boy of an American female parent with blue blood and a attorney, whose male parent emigrated from Portugal. As a immature male child, Dos Passos traveled through Europe with his female parent and wrote his first narratives and articles. He studied at Harvard and Spain, until he volunteered as an ambulance driver in World War I. The experience of the war dominated his first two novels One Man ‘s Initiation ( 1920 ) and Three Soldiers ( 1921 ) . From spring 1919 until late 1922, he remained in Paris and in Spain as a civilist. Upon his return to America, Dos Passos non merely devoted himself to composing, but he besides engaged in societal undertakings, which lead to a more and more critical stance toward society. His chief plants include the USA trilogy, dwelling of the novels The 42nd Parallel ( 1930 ) , 1919 ( 1932 ) and The Big Money ( 1936 ) and of class Manhattan Transfer which was written in 1925. John Dos Passos died 1970 in Baltimore ( Gale, 2005-2006 ) . Dos Passos ‘ association with modern-day creative persons became an of import beginning of inspiration to him and influenced him significantly in his prowess.

The purpose of this thesis is to uncover the transportation of cubist techniques from painting to composing in Manhattan Transfer and to implant my findings in the context of a new germinating Modern Art and a changed urban life style at the beginning of the twentieth century. My thesis consists of three major parts. First, I would wish to briefly present the life in New York around 1900. Furthermore, I attempt to give a brief debut in the modern-day response and word picture of the city in order to the set the right frame for the analysis of Manhattan Transfer. Although this portion could of class be covered rather extensively, I will merely concentrate on facets which are ineluctable for understanding the development of a new manner of composing in Dos Passos` work. I so travel on to concretely look into Cubism and the techniques that developed between 1910 and 1914. During this period the two original cubist currents, viz. analytical and man-made cubism, developed and within them the techniques that are used in MT. My purpose is to demo the usage of cubist techniques in Manhattan Transfer and to exemplify why they are of import for the overall construct of the novel.

Although techniques from all modern humanistic disciplines of that epoch can be found in the novel, I will specifically concentrate on Cubism. This seems peculiarly interesting to me, as the incorporation of collage and text montage, crude colourss and multi-perspectivity seems to peculiarly lend to the singularity of the novel. Furthermore, I have non been able to happen a batch of scientific research on associating Manhattan Transfer to Cubism. In general, merely really few texts link Cubism to concrete pieces of literature and even those remain at the surface. The analysis of Manhattan Transfer could therefore be regarded as an illustration for a possible attack to the analysis of modern metropolitan novels. It is an effort to offer a new vision, a new entree to these novels.

Manhattan Transfer In The Context Of The Metropolis

Life In New York Around 1900

The fresh Manhattan Transfer takes topographic point at the clip of the thaw pot epoch: The narrated clip begins around 1875, and already at that clip, New York had the character of a large metropolis, both economically and culturally. The steady influx of immigrants from all over the universe – most of them arrived by ship – exemplify how much the “ myth of Manhattan ” influenced the thought about this new centre of the universe. New York was regarded as portion of the New World to be conquered, in which anyone could rapidly come by celebrity, money and award, if he was merely willing to do adequate attempts. New York grew steadily and shortly took on a dramatic graduated table: the population rose from 1.9 million people in the late nineteenth century to 4.2 million around 1900, and in 1925 New York already had 7.7 million dwellers. Immigrants poured into Manhattan by the 1000s and all of came there because of their dream of a better life. However, building noise, crowded conditions and feverish hustle characterized the day-to-day lives of most of the occupants.

However, the crowded conditions contrasted the namelessness of the large metropolis. Particularly the many fledglings, who chiefly grew up in little countryside communities, experienced a feeling of loss and solitariness. Unlike their place towns, New York did non offer a predefined societal web or religious mention. With freedom came the demand to take among many options and the demand for investing in relationships that were no longer axiomatic. It was really good possible to run into person merely one time and so ne’er see him or her once more and it was non needfully a large issue to pretermit spiritual duties. Persons became a batch more autonomous in their determinations which did merely allow more freedom but could besides take to terrible freak out.

Another prevalent feature was the on-going industrialisation and mechanisation. Not merely was the metropolis filled with building noise but the streets were crammed with autos, ropewaies, passenger cars and walkers. The ropewaies were regarded as a major menace to life and limb and accidents occurred often. The modernisation of production and transit nevertheless contrasted with the desolate lodging and healthful conditions. The metropolis ‘s first belowground cloaca goes back to the mid of the nineteenth century but most waste was “typically disposed of in backyard privies, dumped into the trough or poured into pools and streams” ( Markowitz, 2003 ) Many lived in crowded tenement houses deprived of running H2O or healthful installations and the chief cause of decease were infective diseases.

Wholly, these populating conditions were wholly different from the manner of life most people were used excessively. The metropolis was an overpowering topographic point and centripetal overload became an every-day challenge. There was so much information to procedure and so many determinations to be made that the person could really easy experience overchallenged and burned out. But maybe it was besides due to this rich input, that the city has been a topographic point of all time since where new currents develop and creativeness flowers. Boundaries are crossed when civilizations mix and inspire one another ; particularly so in metropoliss like New York. The artistic representation of the urban fortunes of life, nevertheless, became a crisis of response.

Word picture Of The City In The Novel

By taking a battalion of storytellers and plot lines, John Dos Passos creates a many-sided image of Manhattan and, in a manner, let`s the metropolis present itself. He consciously chooses non to show the metropolis subjectively and negates a concise intermediary storyteller who tells the reader what is deserving seeing and what is non. Klotz describes this phenomenon really exactly, when he writes: „Dos Passos? Fiktion geht dahin, die Stadt sich selber zu uberlassen, gleichsam heimlich Zu belauschen, damit sie unbefangen sich gebe, wie sie ist.“ ( Klotz, 1992, p. 340 ) 107 A good illustration for this is the figure of Jimmy Herf. He is a fledgling to New York City and take the reader on his geographic expedition through the streets of Manhattan. He strolls around throughout several sequences, immerses in the hurly-burly of the metropolis, alterations scenes often and sneaks through all parts of Manhattan and all categories of people. In that sense, Jimmy Herf genuinely represents the secret eavesdropper who reveals the existent features of the large metropolis.

Dos Passos reduces the metropolis New York to its nucleus Manhattan, a topographic point which has its ain its ain beat, an independent entity in which all actions and events take topographic point but which still represents the city as a whole. Manhattan is non merely the model for the novel but turns out to be an independent figure that with distinguishable features. The qualities that Dos Passos ascribes to the metropolis turn it into a life being, which directs the characters and controls their actions. Manhattan becomes the hero of the fresh – though by necessity a tragic hero. The narrative ne’er leaves New York or its milieus. The novel more or less Begins with Bud come ining the metropolis and ends with Jimmy Herf go forthing it. Major events such as World War I occur wing and whenever characters leave the metropolis, the reader looses path of their whereabouts.

Although the metropolis is really many-sided, more than anything else, Manhattan is depicted as a monstrous animal, corroded by decay, and the motive of destructiveness is prevailing throughout the whole novel. Already right at the beginning, Dos Passos draws a dark and negatively-connoted image of Manhattan:

Three chumps wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled chou caputs that heave between the splintered planktonic walls, the green moving ridges spume under the unit of ammunition bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, clangs, gulps the broken H2O, slides, settle easy into the faux pas. Handwinches commotion with jangle of ironss. Gates fold upwards, pess step out across the cleft, work forces and adult females through the imperativeness manuresmelling wooden tunnel of the ferry house, crushed and jostling like apples fed down a chute into a imperativeness. ( Dos Passos, p. 15 )

Dirty rotten nutrient Acts of the Apostless as a metaphor for decay and takes off all energy from the originally positive scene in which immigrants arrive in America, full of hope for a better life. Looking at the three major parts of the novel, one can clearly observer the motive of round motion in the metropolis, which Dos Passos combines with the portraiture of desperation and decease. Two major instances stick out in, and they are both self-destructions: Bud and Stan. These deceases point to a larger calamity. New York, in its ruthless enterprise for modernisation, leaves behind everyone who can non maintain up. Stan ‘s decease is followed by Anna Cohen ‘s about fatal accident ; Lily Herf ‘s shot precedes Uncle Jeff ‘s deathly infection with grippe. The fresh describes legion cases of tenement houses set afire, tram accidents, auto clangs, and slayings.

New Forms Of Expression

Contemporary Reception In The Humanistic disciplines

In the early twentieth century, one could detect an increasing figure of Western literary texts that dealt with the subject “ the metropolis ” . With the outgrowth of the modern city and a turning figure of people suppressing urban infinites, the metropolis gained more and more influence on artistic creative activity. The consideration of the metropolis in literature at the clip of the visual aspect of Manhattan Transfer was non wholly new, as already ancient poets like Horace and Virgil dedicated plants to this subject. However, Alain-Rene Lesage ‘s Diable Boiteux from 1707 is regarded as one of the first European novels, which takes on the subject of the city. In the nineteenth Century, among others, Notre-Dame de Paris ( 1831 ) by Victor Hugo and Le ventre de Paris ( 1873 ) by Emile Zola revolved around the metropolis and its dwellers. Manhattan Transfer, eventually, is one of the first urban novels of the twentieth Century. On the one manus, the metropolis was a fabulous projection screen for human dreams, its chief motive being freedom which seems to offer upward mobility, modern life style, and populating on the pulsation of the times. On the other manus, modern-day literature reveals the dark side of the city, turning it into a monstrous being that devours people pitilessly juggernaut, an amoral Gomorrah of modern times, into “sin city” . The metaphors used include a tantalising adult female, a labyrinth, and a new Babylon. They all point to the dark, but besides mystical side of the city.

The reader ‘s state of affairs corresponds to that of person situated in the center of the image which requires a new signifier of seeing. In his essay “Die Wahrnehmung der Gro?stadt, “ Manfred Smuda negotiations about the “process of larning how to see“ : The topic must seek to put the sheer endless and overpowering watercourse of feelings of the city in relation to his or her ain experiences and do sense of it. By making so, the topic will replace the former chronological narration by a dynamic and coincident manner of stand foring urban impressionsnm ( Smuda, 1992, p. 167 ) . The metropolis is no longer merely a modern-day subject but a subject which leads to an intense treatment of altering and progressively more complex perceptual experience. Smuda writes: “Um der Gro?stadterfahrung gerecht Zu werden, mussen die modernen Kunste ihre Medien revolutionieren, vor allem auf dem Felde der Narrativitat“ ( Smuda, 1992, p. 163 ) . The receiver no longer stands outside of the narrative but in the center of it. He no longer merely devour the illusive world of the narrative but demands to convey order, chronology and logic into the pandemonium of feelings.

The presentation of the metropolis non merely became one of the most of import subjects of literature, but besides of modern art. When look intoing the motive of the metropolis in literature, we will automatically be pointed towards the ocular humanistic disciplines, and frailty versa. The relationship between modernism and the metropolis manifests itself both in Impressionism, expressionism, every bit good as in cubism. The inundation of incoming feelings and the tremendous gait of the metropolis, rapid alteration and the on-going spread of engineering forced creative persons to seek for new techniques in order to capture a individual minute. The art of Impressionism, for illustration, uses a light coppice manner to capture atmosphere and extracts on the canvas. Many texts from the same clip uncover an influence by Impressionism as they concentrate on little fraction of what can be perceived and set descriptive words side by side, like light coppice shots. When it comes to exposing a secret plan, Prof. Becker observes the followers: The literary heterotaxy of this dynamic outside universe, the show of instantaneous feelings and the rapid sequence of events required the forsaking of a broad-based, chronologically and causally structured secret plan. Epic short signifiers such as the study and short pieces of prose pieces seemed better suited to picture the dynamism, velocity and gait of metropolitan universe ( Becker, 1993, p. 65 ) . The “ narrative order ” loses its significance and makes manner for new ways of representation, ensuing from new experiences.

However, capturing stray minutes was non plenty for some modern creative persons. They desired to make a bigger image and wanted to be able to demo the flood of centripetal perceptual experience and ensuing atomization in their art. Dos Passos was one of them and his desire to make a new manner of look was shared by many of his modern-day co-workers. “ [ … ] more than anything else, the Gallic cubists and Postimpressionists – work forces who chose to paint non one landscape literally, but to pick and take among the ocular objects before them, pull strings them, show them in fragments, arrange them in esthetic forms, utilize them every bit freely as composers in music use the subjects they put together” ( Belkind, 1971, p. 68 ) . Particularly Expressionism and Cubism sustainably influenced the relationship between literature and ocular humanistic disciplines. In her book “Korrespondenzen zwischen Literatur und Bildender Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert“ , Swantje Petersen writes: “Die Kunste beeinflussen sich in dieser Zeit nicht nur, sondern sie durchdringen einander jetzt auch. Visuell-Bildhaftes findet Einla? in dice Literatur, und vor allem wird zunehmend dice Sprache ins Bild integriert. Aus dieser Verbindung entstehen im Laufe diethylstilbestrols Jahrhunderts zahlreiche Mischformen, wie [ … ] Schriftcollagen und poetische Textbilder [ … ] “ ( Petersen, 1995, p. 11 ) .

Cubism From 1910 Till 1914

As many creative persons around the bend of the century, besides Cubists no longer believed in the illusionist representation of world. “Der Kontext der modernen Gro?stadt [ geriet, L.S. ] an dice Grenze der Malbarkeit, eine Entwicklung, welche dice Maler nicht ignorieren durften [ … ] ” ( Grasskamp, 1992, p. 273 ) Alternatively of concentrating on content, they decided to concentrate on the debatable issue of representation itself. Painters such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed a wholly new attack by analysing the implicit in construction and perspectivity of objects. The implicit in thought is to cut down objects to their basic elements: regular hexahedrons, lines, cylinders, cones and domains. Most cubist pictures lack any important content and chiefly consist of landscapes, still lives and figures ( if any identifiable content at all ) .

Early Cubism went through two distinguishable stages. The first phase of Analytic Cubism, enduring from 1910-1912, is characterized by polygonal structural elements, crude colourss, and human figures. The transition of all objects into geometric forms remained the most outstanding trait. The unidimensional and mono-perspective position was replaced by a multi-dimensional position on things. The spectator could see all sides of one object at the same time spread out on the canvas. From the disintegration of the consistent thought of infinite, Picasso and Braque continued to fade out the compact visual aspect of the organic structure. The devastation of signifier reached its extremum, until eventually the representation of 3-dimensional elements became planar and simply consisted of surfaces and lines.

The ulterior stage of Man-made Cubism, enduring from 1912-1914, added montage elements to the picture. Painters added more bold and bright colourss to their impersonal, organic pallet and started utilizing non-paint elements such as sand, newspaper inscription, and cigar negligees. Picasso and Braque broke the boundaries of the traditional methods of pulling and picture and tended to integrate stuffs such as printed oilcloth, wallpaper garbages, and newspapers. These alleged “ objets trouves ” virtually brought world into the pieces of art. While the accent was on signifier, colourss became secondary and were merely used to determine and contrast the different forms. The pallet became limited to earthy tones, in sunglassess of ochre, browns and leafy vegetables.

Manhattan Transfer In The Context Of Cubism

Multiperspectivity

When speaking about the word picture of the metropolis in the novel, one of the first things to notice is the unusual narrative state of affairs. Most of the clip, the reader finds himself placed inside the individual who dominates the current state of affairs and with whom the reader moves. This personal storyteller gives insight in both his external feelings every bit good as in his ain consciousness. The undertaking of contemplation and representation is, nevertheless, non assigned to one specific figure but awarded afresh throughout the book. Sometimes we observe the supporter of the sequence, at other times we get to see the metropolis through the eyes of a apparently undistinguished figure. Merely as cubism all of a sudden allows all positions at the same clip by traveling “ around the topic ” within one image, Dos Passos depicts Manhattan from all sides, concentrating in wherever he sees fit. A peculiarly interesting illustration is the anon. server who, in the center of his work, looks up to bask the position:

When the server leans over to take away the empty oystershells he can see through the window, beyond the graystone parapet, the tops of a few edifices stick outing like the last trees at the border of a drop and the tin foil ranges of the seaport littered with ships. ( Dos Passos, p. 261 )

Although, he must hold seen this position many times earlier, he all of a sudden sees the secene in an about romantic visible radiation. It is precisely this minute that Dos Passos uses a cameralike rapid climb to concentrate on a specific portion of the view. That manner, the metropolis is reflected in many different personal figures throughout multiple sequences. This leads to a fractured image of Manhattan, one that represents multiple positions at the same clip. Allen Belkind concludes:

Manhattan Transfer is one of the earliest of that type of novel which has come to be known as “ collectivized ” . The thought is to show a cross-section of the societal construction, the societal being ; an “ over-view ” of the topic in which the inside informations of single lives merge in the general image of `society` . ( Belkind, 1971, p. 61 )

This besides explains the narrative technique of “ limelights ” and the apparently helter-skelter fragmentization. The purpose is non to picture the single destiny and the whereabouts of a supporter, but to fall in the pieces to a big, societal survey of New York.

Collages And Text Collage

The act of collage is an of import facet for the formal analysis of Manhattan Transfer and hence demands to be clarified in item. The term montage was chiefly coined by cubists in the early twentieth century and collage in that context merely means the agreement of individual pieces as portion of a bigger work. Other illustrations for collage can be found in newspapers and movies. Newspapers normally are made up of separate articles, images and ads which together form an enlightening paper. Besides movie uses collage as it would be absurd if non impossible to demo all parts of the plot line which do non give any utile information. While these two signifiers of collage are evidently utile, collage in literature and painting seem to be a batch more hard to near. Volker Klotz expressed that in his Essay „Zitat und Montage in neuerer Literatur und Kunst“ :

“Der Bruch Massachusetts Institute of Technology der Tradition la?t sich nicht nur an deren Produkten ablesen, sondern auch an der Reaktion des zeitgenossischen Publikums. Die Montage der kubistischen und surrealistischen Maler, dice lyrischen und epischen Montagen von Apollinaire und Joyce, dice musikalischen Montagen Strawinskys und dice szenischen Montagen Piscators losten beim Publikum Befremden, Verbluffung, Abwehr gold. Sie muteten ihm Einstellungen Zu, die anders waren, ALSs der vertraute, relativ anstrengungslose Kunstgenu?.“ ( Klotz, 1992, p. 181 )

This instead effortless ingestion of art peculiarly applies to the direct, chronological and organized novels of the 18th and nineteenth century. The end was to bring forth the perfect semblance of world and to conceal, if non deny, the production procedure. The act of collage reveals how the piece was manufactured, where parts start and end, and where and how they have been connected. Therefore, the text or picture has no distinct boundary lines and the ensuing openness provokes a feeling of brokenness. Viewing audiences and readers are non merely confronted with elements within the piece of art but must at the same clip spread out their skylines. The creative persons chose to mention external beginnings to construct a connexion between their work and the outside universe. One can acquire the feeling that these cited pieces were ripped out of their context and so misplaced in the text or picture. But this deliberate and emphatic supplanting is more than merely an ruse. It is used out of a certain aesthetic attitude towards the centripetal overload and multiperspectivety that seem to hold challenged creative persons and authors at the beginning of the twentieth century. John Dos Passos surely faced that challenge and he chose text collage as one of the appropriate techniques to show his concerns. He himself worded his purposes as follows: “I started a rapportage on New York… The narrative must stand up off the page. Fragmentation. Contrast. Montage. The consequence was Manhattan Transfer“ ( Hurm, 1991, p. 31 ) .

The first noticeable thing about Manhattan Transfer is the apparently shuffled transitions which make the whole novel appear as a collaged text. In add-on to that, one can happen spots and pieces from newspaper articles, advertizements, vocals, letters, notes, poetry lines and entries from encyclopaedia. Furthemore, Dos Passos incorporates transitions that are made up of “ watercourse of consciousness ” . Like Georges Braque determination, for illustration, a newspaper article, which fits into his montage, Dos Passos allows Dutch Robertson to trip over a newspaper:

He walked into the chilly park and sat down on a bench. There was rime on the asphalt. He picked up a lacerate piece of pink flushing newspaper. $ 500,000 HOLDUP. Bank Messenger Robbed in Wall Street Rush Hour. [ …Dutch felt his bosom buffeting as he read the column. ( Dos Passos, 2000 [ 1925 ] , p. 286 )

This newspaper extract, found by opportunity, fits precisely Dutch`s life state of affairs, because Dos Passos did non randomly choice textual fragments but custom-made them harmonizing to their map. The incorporation of specific newspapers articles reveals something about the ideas and behaviour of the character reading it, but at the same clip, it serves as a method of qualifying Manhattan as a metropolis. This is a technique developed by creative persons such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque during Man-made Cubism. The integrating of alleged “ objets trouves ” besides included newspaper articles, that were supposed to link the work with absent parts of world.

Another interesting fact is that the novel contains strikingly many transitions from vocals. One of the most interesting utilizations can be found in the chapter ‘Rejoicing City That Dwelt Carelessly ‘ Fair. Anna has the love vocal “Somebody loves me, I wonder who…” stuck in her caput and it keeps reoccurring throughout the whole transition but varies it a small spot each clip ( Dos Passos, p. 250 ) . While the vocal is clearly embedded the first clip by the sentence “ The melody is all through her organic structure [ … ] , ” one finds the staying snippings drifting freely and about detached from the events. This expressed repeat maps as a rhythmic component and gives construction. Like the Cubists repeated geometric forms and other elements, Dos Passos uses the vocal over and over once more to disrupt the secret plan and so allow it blossom once more. The song snippings can be even be compared to repetitive coppice shots on a canvas, which give construction and add a new bed with every repeat.

In add-on to the pieces taken from newspapers and vocals, DosPassos frequently incorporates watercourses of consciousness into the novel every bit good. These complex and formless trains of idea which are made up of feelings of bitterness, memories, contemplations and overlapping subjective perceptual experiences are an built-in portion of the novel. Dos Passos provides the reader with a battalion of feelings which are given unfiltered through the eyes of the characters. They are about like snapshots which show all actions taking topographic point at a given minute, but besides reveal the characters` perceptive feelings and personal feelings which are subjective but still typical for those populating an urban life style. Therefore, the centripetal flood and overstimulation, which disturb and perturb the character?s ideas, are shown as diagnostic for metropolis life in general. If Ellen paces up and down her flat, seeking to get away from a hailstorm of ideas, the reader understands that this is non a alone trait of the character Ellen, but a phenomenon from which most large metropolis people must endure. Take the big sum of positions and real-world state of affairss which are strung together and intertwined with each other, Manhattan Transfer composes an tremendous text montage which was manufactured in a cubist mode.

Geometric Elementss

Cubist representation is contrasted with realistic representation in the novel. Manhattan is described naturalistically in footings of topography, the layout of the metropolis, the architecture and spacial conditions, but it is presented in a cubist manner. Not merely the narratives of single characters are interrupted, fragmented and scattered over the full novel, but besides Manhattan itself. Descriptive fragments of the metropolis appear once more and once more and pull a kaleidoscopic image of Manhattan. The image of Manhattan in the fresh appears to be merely like the multi-faceted cubist pictures and Prof. Gerd Hurm concludes: “The ocular humanistic disciplines proved extremely influential, for Manhattan Transfer presents a many-sided cubist city” ( Hurm, 1991, p. 214 ) . Dos Passos creates a view of Manhattan that he shatters and reassembles in a cubist mode. By fade outing bing straightforward secret plans, Dos Passos has the chance switch his focal point on rapid climb in on coveted point. Just as cubism allows all discrepancies of representation, by traveling “ around to the object, ” Dos Passos shows Manhattan from all sides and alterations perspective often.

Cubists ab initio designed charts before working on their pieces of art, which at first glimpse appeared to be a random conglobation of different spots and pieces. They collected geometric forms, garbages and snippings and so tried different agreements until the single pieces formed one unit. One must presume that Dos Passos besides designed a chart in front, given the accent he put on the fragmental nature of the metropolis. Just like the Cubists, he uses geometric forms to give the novel construction. This geometry is non merely seeable through the formal analysis of the novel, but it besides reflects in the content. Repeat of geometric forms and elements is a typically cubist techniques to equilibrate a picture. Hurm summarizes the connexion between repeat in Manhattan Transfer and Cubism as follows:

The Cubist fictional image of Manhattan, like the existent metropolis, contains symmetrical dealingss and rational, geometrical signifiers. The metropolis ‘s rectangular layout set down in 1811, its enumeration of streets, the metropolis equidistance between Blocky and the continuity of built up infinite along canyon-like streets is captured in the luxuriant Symmetries and repeats in the novel ‘s signifier. ( Hurm, 1991, p. 234 )

The signifier of “ unit of ammunition ” seems to be a geometric signifier that is peculiarly emphasized in Manhattan Transfer and that besides represents an of import constituent of cubist pictures. Dos Passos repeats round signifiers and strategies to imply to the reader that all procedures are a rhythm, which, harmonizing to Manhattan Transfer, ever ends in decease. Meanwhile people keep invariably traveling in circles and stay trapped in their ain repeating action sequences. A dramatic illustration is Francis, who attends the test of Dutch Robertson:

When she got to her pess she found that the courtroom was really disgustingly traveling easy unit of ammunition and unit of ammunition, the white justice fishfaced with noseglasses, faces, bulls, uniformed attenders, Windowss gray, xanthous desks, all traveling unit of ammunition and unit of ammunition in the sickening odor near, her attorney with his white hawk olfactory organ, shortly Wiping his caput, frowning, traveling unit of ammunition and unit of ammunition until she thought she would throw up. ( Dos Passos, p. 348 )

Francis perceives a round motion in everything while being in the courtroom. Here the cubist facet is emphasized even more through the ternary repeat of the signifier unit of ammunition. Through repetition, picking up a certain subject, topographic points or individuals over and over once more, Dos Passos gives the entire composing a beat and construction.

Color And Atmosphere

Dos Passos make usage of an expressive colour pallet when depicting landscapes and figures. He uses colourss to make atmosphere and sticks meticulously to the symbolism and usage of the colourss that have been assigned to them by different art motions. Therefore we find light, warm colourss in state of affairss and delicate images are created that remind of pointillist pictures whereever Dos Passos depicts hope and love. However, when it comes to stand foring the dark side of the metropolis, Dos Passos engages the cubist colour pallet:

Bud stood on the corner of West Broadway and Franklin Street eating peanuts out of a bag. It was noon and his money was all gone. The Elevated thundered overhead. Dustmotes danced before his eyes in the girderstriped sunshine. Wondering which manner to travel he spelled out the names of the street for the 3rd clip. A black shiny cab drawn by two black shinyrumped Equus caballuss turned the corner crisp in forepart of him with a rasp on the setts of ruddy shiny wheels all of a sudden braked. There was a xanthous leather bole on the place beside the driver. In the cab a adult male in a brown bowler hat talked loud to a adult female with grey plume boa round her cervix and grey ostrich plums in her chapeau. ( Dos Passos, p. 64 )

In this transition, Dos Passos describes an opressive and dark state of affairs. He does non merely utilize expressive words such as “dustmotes“ or “girderstriped“ in order to stress the feeling of day of reckoning, but he explicitly makes usage of the connotative significance of colour. Dark colourss are assorted with crude pigments and contrasted with distinguishable signal colourss such as ruddy and xanthous. Although the baleful subject of this scene reflects an expressionist point of position, the combination of crude and bold colourss is typical of the cubist colour pallet. Early cubism employed blunt contrasts between different colored signifiers. While the sunglassess were frequently similar, like red against dark orange ( as can be seen in Picasso ‘s Three Women ( 1908 ) ) , there was no blending between them. Picasso did non divide the colourss by a distinguishable black line, as Matisse did, but instead set distinguishable colourss side by side whioch so created a boundary line between the constituents through the deficiency of blending. The same phenomenon can be observed in Cezanne ‘s later works, as he seldom blended out of use colourss. The consequence created by this method is that the signifiers are basically characterized by colour ; the colour, in that sense, defines each signifier and makes up its individuality. Strong colour without shadowing creates volume and signifier. This method would finally be called “modeling by color.” Nevertheless, Cubism relies on interrupting an object up into its constituent signifiers and exposing them on the canvas in such a manner that captures a multi-faceted position of that object. Color enhances that consequence but interrupting up the object into its constituent still gives the most accent to the signifier of the objects. As Picasso noted, “Cubism is [ … ] an art covering chiefly with signifiers, and when a signifier is realized it is at that place to populate its ain life” ( qt. Barr Jr. , 1980, p. 270 ) .

The subject of colour in the context of the large metropolis is straight addressed in the chapter “ One More River to Jordan ” :

Imagine this metropolis when all the edifices alternatively of soiled grey screen were ornamented with graphic colourss. Imagine bands of vermilion round the entablatures of skyscrapers. Colored tile would revolutionise the whole life of the metropolis. . . Alternatively of Fallin back on orders or on the Gothic or Romanesque ornaments we could germinate new designs, new colourss, new signifiers. If there was a small colour in the town all this difficult shell inhibited life ‘d interrupt down. There ‘d love to be more less divorce. ( Dos Passos, p. 234 )

Dos Passos refers explicitly to the creative activity of atmosphere through colourss which besides explains why he, as an writer, chooses such a rich colour pallet for his authorship.

Decision

John Department of State Passos, an “American modernists ” and member of the lost coevals, … In Manhattan Transfer, he depicts New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century and the reversible coin of the American Dream. In position of the advanced authorship techniques used, “ Manhattan Transportation ” does non suit in the traditional strategy of composing and requires some accommodation from the reader. The manner in which the novel is written clearly reflects the common influence of literature and ocular humanistic disciplines as it shows distinguishable characteristics of modern picture. Particularly the comparing to Cubism reveals many interesting elements in the novel?s construction. Not merely is the narrative plot line fragmented and shuffled, but besides reassembled in a carefully selected montage manner. Dos Passos succeeds in painting a bigger image of life in New York and the psychological and sociological challenges of the new epoch by leting the reader to see the same object from different angles, merely like in a cubist picture. Manhattan Transfer was besides analyzed in footings of the cubist text collage, and in conformity with Gerd Hurm, I conclude that the novel genuinely depicts a “ cubist metropolis. ” If Dos Passos would hold been largely interested in people`s life narratives, he could hold written a novel which tells one person destiny after another. However, he must hold been more hypnotized with metropolis life itself as he constructed a large metropolis novel out of a complicated montage of fragmental life narratives. The presentation of the city around the bend of the century with all its aspects is at the bosom of the novel ; non a presentation of assorted subjects. The chief subject is the metropolis itself, as it represents itself and how it acts on its dwellers. Dos Passos techniques reflect the new challenge of centripetal overload and pull a realistc, modern yet aesthetic image of New York around 1900.Furthermore, Dos Passos makes usage of colour symbolism in order to make atmosphere. Analyzing Manhattan Transfer as a fictional but however representative history of metropolitan life and sing that it was written under the the influence of modern art, allows for a whole new entree to the novel. The novel can therefore function as an illustration for the interesting relationship between literature and art and how their common influence gained a new high in the Modernist epoch. Glen McLeod formulated this in his essay “ The Visual Arts “ : “ It is impossible to understand to the full the development of literary Modernism, with at least a fundamental cognition of modern art ” ( McLeod, 1999, p. 194 )

It is by no agencies easy to sort Manhattan Transfer as it is neither a strictly urban novel, which merely portrays the life in the cities nor does it portion all features of one specific genre. Dos Passos created a truly alone piece of authorship, last but non least, because of the usage of modern art techniques. This thesis clarified the stopping point relationship between the development of large metropoliss, such as New York and the development of modern art. Apparently, one needs to understand modern ocular humanistic disciplines in order to understand literature of the clip. Merely this interdisciplinary attack allows Manhattan Transfer to be to the full understood as what it is: a merger of the humanistic disciplines to picture the home ground metropolis, the presentation of a multi-faceted Manhattan full of single positions, the presentation of the challenges that came with the large metropoliss in the twentieth Century. The representation of metropolitan life seems to clearly mirror a crisis of significance in modern urban civilization, whose roots stretch far back, but which doesn?t become a existent menace to the single until alleged modernism. The metropolis novel becomes a sub-genre of the novel and develops new ways to react to the crisis. That manner, the crisis becomes originative and out of freak out grows reorientation.

Though Dos Passos was influenced by modern-day painters and authors, nil like Manhattan Transfer had of all time been written before. Dos Passos succeeds in stand foring the impossible, that is picturing an full metropolis and an full epoch while turn toing the new challenges of metropolis live straight, through his narraton, and indirectly, through his authorship techniques. The comprehensiveness and coincident deepness of Dos Passos ‘ position along with his cubism-inspired manner of composing distinguishes Manhattan Transportation from modern-day pieces of literature. Along with the U.S.A. trilogy, it was one of the mileposts of Dos Passos ‘s long-lastinmg calling, and it is, until the twenty-four hours, one of the landmarks of American modernist fiction.

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