Reflective Essay on Art and Famous Artists

Reflective Essay on Art and Famous Artists The Olive Trees† by Vincent van Gogh caught my eye as soon as I saw it. Van Gogh has always fascinated me with his dramatic use of color and the thick texture he used while painting. After doing some research, I learned that he painted â€Å"The Olive Trees† in 1890 after voluntarily entering an asylum at Saint-Remy (MoMA). It has been said that van Goghs talent flourished in the last two years of his life while at Saint-Remy. Although he died at the ripe age of thirty-seven, he was a busy man. He created over 200 oil paintings during his life. Some of his most famous pieces are The Starry Night, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, and Irises (Artquotes). â€Å"The Olive Trees† is an oil on canvas painting that measures 28 5/8 x 36† (MoMA). This piece is in the post-impressionist style. Post-impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its lack of emotions. Artists continued to use vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter (Topofart). The post-impressionist style is seen throughout most of van Goghs works and especially in â€Å"The Olive Trees†. Van Gogh used thick oil paint combined with wide rough brushstrokes to create texture in this piece. This technique called â€Å"impasto† is evident in many of his other works such as â€Å"The Starry Night† (Frank). The subject of the picture is olive trees. These trees could be found all around the asylum he admitted himself to. This painting seems to have a lighter mood than some of the other paintings he completed right before his death. It seems that he, â€Å"found happiness† or something that got his mind off of the deep depression and mental sickness he had. The viewer can see it in this piece by looking at the use of color and dancing lines he used to create a happy, but mellow mood in the piece. This technique can also be seen in his other works such as â€Å"Starry Night†. Not only did he use color and line to lighten the mood of the piece, but he also used shape. Van Gogh painted the olive trees, mountains, and clouds all by using organic shape. This creates a flow of line, mass, and space. By using these effects, van Gogh creates a visual rollercoaster for the viewer to follow. At first glance, the viewers eyes roll from the grass up to the olive trees, and then across the blue colored mountains. By using this flow of line, the painting has a unique balance to it which allows no space to appear empty. The painting seems lively and the olive trees create a mood of dancing across the landscape. Van Gogh created a well balanced atmosphere by using the light colored clouds to balance out the blues used in the mountains. The clouds also help to balance the arrangement of greens he used for the foreground and olive trees. This is called symmetrical balance. I believe van Gogh used this in his work not only create a well flowing piece, but also to get the viewers eyes to move across the painting. By doing this, he keeps the viewers eyes from staring at one section of the painting. Instead, the viewer receives an emotional grasp from the flow of line, color, and texture that the painting offers. Overall, I really enjoy this piece of art. Although it is not one of van Goghs most-known pieces, it is one of my favorites. I tend to go against the grain and choose things that I find interesting instead of going with the â€Å"social norm†. His use of color and texture is what keeps me looking at his work. I think the mood and emotion that he gave off by this painting could not be done with any other color. Obviously van Gogh had a message and an emotion that he wanted to portray in this piece, and I think he conveyed it perfectly. I think van Gogh was conveying a since of hope and happiness from this piece. His use of line and texture creates movement in the painting and a sense of joy. The bright cloud contrasts against the olive trees and seems to brighten the piece not only through color, but emotionally as well. The painting is a joy to look at and will remain that way for a long time to come. Works Cited Famous Vincent Van Gogh Paintings. Artist Quotes Art Quotes Famous Artists Fine Artists. Web. 17 Apr. 2010. . Frank, Patrick, and Duane Preble. Prebles Artforms: an Introduction to the Visual Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson /Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Art Reproductions, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Paintings. Art Reproductions Oil Painting Reproductions. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. . MoMA | The Collection | Vincent Van Gogh. The Olive Trees. Saint Rà ©my, June-July 1889. MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. . Diego Rivera Diego Rivera was born into a wealthy family in Mexico. From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City (Biography). He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by the governor of Veracruz (Biography). After his arrival in Europe in 1907, he began to study art with a number of well known artists. A few years later Picasso and Georges Braque began getting world-wide exposure with their new type of art, Cubism. From 1913-1918, he devoted himself almost entirely to the cubist school of art (Arttrader). In 1920, Rivera left France and spent a short time in Italy. While there, Rivera studied frescoes and the popular works from the Renaissance period (Biography). In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico to start on what I personally believe to be some of his best works. He began to paint murals in auditoriums, schools, and other various government buildings. Most of his art carried political influence which he believed in. Rivera was a communist and his work shared that of his political beliefs and how he felt about the Mexican people. He began to develop his own native style based on large, simplified figures and bold colors. Although his paintings were beautiful, his attacks on the church and political beliefs made him a controversial figure. (Biography). Some of his best known works during this time are: En el Arsenal, Creation, and The Flower Carrier. Rivera painted frescoes in this style for many years up until his death in 1957 (Biography). I chose to do my paper on one of his pieces with a Cubist influence. It was completed in 1912 while he was in France. The artwork is called â€Å"Cubist Landscape†. It is an oil on canvas that measures 25  ¾Ã¢â‚¬  x 35  ½Ã¢â‚¬  (MoMA). I chose this piece of art because it reminds me of my grandmother. She was a quilter, and at first glance, this painting reminds me of a patchwork quilt. Cubism was a huge influence in Riveras earlier career, and this was one of his first works in France. The content of this piece is a landscape filled with trees of different colors and a colorful sky with a mountain in the background. To me, it looks like you are looking at four different paintings that have been sat on top of each other at different angles. The use of the cubism style in this painting is very evident due to not only the name, but the way the object of the picture and background are â€Å"chopped† up and distorted throughout the piece. Rivera used big chunks of dif ferent objects to make this piece so it is not as distorted as the works of Picasso. I believe he did this so the viewer would not lose emphasis on the emotion Rivera was trying to get the viewer to feel. Rivera balanced the painting by using the Cubist style to section the painting out in to different pieces. The eye is specifically drawn to the lighter-green tree in the front. This tree is standing straight while all the other trees are bent and leaning in different directions. By doing this, Rivera made the tree in the front the subject of the piece, and made your eyes be drawn directly to this object. Line also played a role in the emotion and emphasis on the tree. He emphasized the front tree even more by making it more detailed and by giving the trunk of it texture. It stands straight up compared to the other ones to symbolize strength and power. The background of the artwork is where the emotion in the painting is created. The background is colored in a patchwork of the color wheel. Greens, reds, oranges, blues, violets, and yellows are all woven into the background to create a happy mood that surrounds the trees. The other trees also fall into the back ground and are red and blue. I think the added color that surrounds the subject gives the piece a lighter feeling and makes the viewer want to smile. I also like the use of impressionism in the piece. Around the border of the painting, Rivera dashed color on the background to create a meadow-like scene to the piece. The use of different color reminds me of wild flowers swaying in the breeze. He created what the eye would actually see in a meadow by using wide, short brush strokes. The way he painted the background reminds me of the brushstrokes used in â€Å"Impression Sunrise† by Monet. His short brush strokes also give texture and movement to the piece. Short brush s trokes make the piece look soft in texture and give it movement as if there were a breezing blowing through the scene. Overall I really enjoyed this piece of art. Not only did it remind me of my grandmother, but it also gave me a new grasp on the Cubist style of art. I was not a fan of cubism until researching this piece because I did not â€Å"get it†. So many times when viewers see cubism we want to run away because we cannot understand what we are looking at. In this piece Rivera makes it very clear and there is no underlying meaning like some of the other Cubists work. It is direct and straight-forward and that is why I chose it. This piece has caused me to grasp new meaning and understanding of the Cubist style and I will definitely embrace what I have learned. Works Cited Art Trader. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. . Diego Rivera Biography. Biography.com. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. . MoMA | The Collection | Diego Rivera. Cubist Landscape. 1912. MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 20 Apr. 2010. . Georgia OKeeffe Georgia OKeeffe was born November 15th, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She grew up most of her life in Wisconsin but moved away to go to the Chatham Protest and Episcopal Institute in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1900. After graduating in 1904, she studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Art Students League in New York (Georgia). She is well known for her artwork and has won many awards such as the Gold Medal of Painting, the Medal of Freedom, and was presented the National Medal of Arts in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan (Georgia). It is said that OKeeffe revolutionized modern art in both her time and to the present. She painted natural scenes which she vividly portrayed with a close-up view. She used art to convey that nature is as powerful as the widespread industrialization of the period of her time. Georgia OKeeffe married Alfred Stieglitz in 1924 (Georgia). He was a famous photographer who put his wifes work in his gallery. In 1916, Georgias work was first exhibited and this is when her art began to be seen and appreciated. In 1949, OKeeffe moved to New Mexico where her art took on a new dimension. She painted bones and desert scenes which captured the calmness and bareness of the desert (Georgia). During her career as a painter, OKeeffe has mostly been remembered for her abstract style of art. She painted many things you would see in nature. She painted them as she saw them, not has how most would see them. She created her style of art by zooming in on the object and painting things that the naked eye would not be able to see. This was her representation of the flower or other object she was painting. Her style of art has been viewed all over the world and she is one of the most famous American artists to this day. I chose â€Å"Lake George, Coat and Red† to do my paper on because the piece jumped out at me. The painting is oil on canvas and it was created in 1919 (MoMA). This abstract piece is rich in texture and the mood of it warms your heart and lightens your mood. Georgia not only used line to create happiness in her piece, but she also used the bright reds in the background to accent the dark color of the painting. She used red and blue because they contrast one another, and it is a great way to catch the viewers eye. Not only did OKeeffe use red and blues in the painting, she also used greens, yellows, and orange. Im not sure if each color was meant to represent different types of emotions, but it gives the piece a center or â€Å"wholeness† since she used every color. Not only is the color balanced in this piece, but the way she used the value in each hue also creates a centralized feel. Since the subject of the piece is a dark blue, I think OKeeffe used the small white ball in the upper portion of the painting to create a small mass that contrasts the heavy blues she used for the subject. Her use of thick lines and texture also contributes to the balance of the piece and gives the subject a since of flow and gracefulness that draws your eyes from the lower left-hand corner of the piece on towards the upper right-hand corner. The paintings size is 27 3/8† x 23  ¼Ã¢â‚¬  (MoMA). This is an average size piece for her, and I think she used this size to get the viewer to see the painting up close and visually â€Å"feel† the texture and the movement of the piece. Not only did the size of the canvas play a role in how she wanted the viewer to feel, but the medium she used did as well. Georgia OKeeffe used a lot of oil paints to make her art because of the way she could create texture throughout each piece with this medium. She also used oil paints because she could blend each color easily to create the hue she wanted. Scale also played a huge part of OKeeffes work because most of her abstract art is a zoomed-in version of what the eye can see. By using this blown-up scale, OKeeffe can make the viewer feel the emotion of the object. Overall, I think that Georgia OKeeffe mastered abstract art and I will continue to be a fan. She has forever changed the way art will be viewed and will be an inspiration for many artists to come. I would not change anything about this piece because the size, color, texture, medium, and line all play a part in what OKeeffe wanted to portray in this piece. Works Cited Georgia OKeeffe Biography. Lakewood Public Library (Lakewood, Ohio). N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. . MoMA | The Collection | Georgia OKeeffe. Lake George, Coat and Red. 1919. MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. . Paul Cà ©zanne Paul Cà ©zanne was a French painter born January 19, 1839. He developed artistic interests at an early age and was sent to Paris to study when he was twenty-three. He has often been called the father of modern art, who â€Å"strove to develop an ideal synthesis of naturalistic representation, personal expression, and abstract pictorial order† (Retro). While he was in Paris he studied the works of Monet, Delacroix, and Gustave Courbet (Retro). Cà ©zannes early paintings show little resemblance to his later and more important style. The subject matter is dark and depressing and includes fantasies, dreams, religious images, and a general theme concerned with death (Notable). Most of the work from this era of his life was harshly criticized and was never accepted in any art exhibitions. In the 1870s, Cà ©zanne began to change his style. He started using brighter colors and the religious subjects he once used in his paintings began to disappear (Notable). Cà ©zannes paintings from the 1870s clearly show the influence of Impressionism. He used short brushstrokes characterized by Monet and other early Impressionist to portray what the â€Å"eyes see rather than what the mind knows† (Frank). Some of his most known pieces from this time are â€Å"House of the Hanged Man† and â€Å"Portrait of Victor Choquet† (Notable). In the late 1870s Cà ©zanne moved back to his home in southern France and isolated himself from the art world. He began to create his own style of Impressionism, but he did not exhibit his art for almost twenty years (Notable). Cà ©zannes began to come out of his solitude during the 1890s. In 1895, a large number of Cà ©zannes paintings were shown, and public interest in his work slowly began to develop. By 1904 he was given an entire room at the Salon dAutomne (Notable). Unfortunately he died October 22, 1906 due to natural causes (Notable). Though he died right when he was getting large recognition for his work, Cà ©zanne will be remembered as a front-runner of modern art (Notable). The piece of Cà ©zannes work I chose was â€Å"Still Life with Fruit Dish†. This painting is an oil on canvas that measures 18 1/4 x 21 1/2 (MoMA). According to MoMA, [Still life was an important genre to Cà ©zanne, who made approximately two hundred such paintings over the course of four decades. In â€Å"Still Life with Fruit Dish† he created a shallow, compressed space that flattens the sculptural volumes of dish, glass, and fruit. This painting was a prized possession of the artist Paul Gauguin, who described the picture as an exceptional pearl, the apple of my eye. It was only when he needed money for medical care that Gauguin unhappily parted with it.] I completely agree with Gauguin. This painting is a fantastic example of how Cà ©zanne created his own style of Impressionism. If the viewer were to put Monets work next to it, you could see the resemblance of Impressionism, but he or she could also see both artists personal style difference. Monet was the pioneer of Impressionism, but personally, I prefer what Cà ©zanne did with this piece much more than â€Å"Impression: Sunrise† or â€Å"Water Lily Pond† by Monet. In â€Å"Still Life with Fruit Dish†, Cà ©zanne created most of the lines in the painting with thick, swift brushstrokes in the Impressionist style. Most of the lines in the painting are jagged and not very detailed. The lighting in the piece looks like it is coming from the right and is shining down on the table and the fruit bowl. By using light this way, Cà ©zanne put emphasis on the fruit bowl which is the subject of the piece. Cà ©zanne also positioned the knife to point directly toward the fruit bowl. This guides the viewers eyes from the lower-right-hand corner of the painting directly to the subject. Since this piece is in the Impressionist style, Cà ©zanne painted what the eyes actually see. Impressionists painted what they saw, so there is no underlying meaning to this piece like works of the Renaissance had. The colors Cà ©zanne used give emphasis on the subject. The background is a dark-colored wall. The tablecloth and fruit bowl are both bright white. Though blue is sometimes used to evoke sadness in a viewer, I do not believe Cà ©zanne was trying to create sadness in this piece. The colors he used for the fruits are realistic colors and their greens, yellows, and reds warm the painting dramatically. Cà ©zanne used thick texture in this painting, but it does not create movement or rhythm in the piece like the works of van Goghs did. I think here he used subtle texture just so the painting would not look bland and flat. The texture he used gives character to the fruit as well as the blue background. Overall, I really like this painting and wish I could have a copy in my house. So far it is my favorite painting I have written about. Cà ©zannes realistic proportion, contrast, and use of space also drew my eye to this piece. I like being able to view art and â€Å"know† what the artist wanted you to see and feel. When looking at this painting, I immediately â€Å"got it†. After reading about Cà ©zanne, I have definitely acquired more knowledge about the Impressionist style and gained a new love for his type of art. Works Cited Frank, Patrick, and Duane Preble. Prebles Artforms: an Introduction to the Visual Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson /Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. MoMA | The Collection | Paul Cà ©zanne. Still Life with Fruit Dish. 1879-80. MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. . Paul Cà ©zanne Biography. Oil Painting Reproductions : Museum Quality Art. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. . Paul Cà ©zanne Biography Life, Story, Death, School, Information, Born, House, Time, Year. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. . Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso was a famous Spanish painter and sculptor who lived from 1881-1973. He is best known for cofounding Cubism with Georges Braque. His father, Ruiz, was an artist and influenced Picassos early works. When Picasso was seven, his father began to give him formal training in drawing and painting (Answers). Ruiz was a traditional artist and instructor who believed that proper training required disciplined copying of famous artwork. Picasso became so preoccupied with art that he put his education second. After only six years of painting, Picassos father realized that his son was more talented than him (Answers). At the age of thirteen, Picasso took an entrance exam to the Barcelona School of Fine Arts. After creating his piece in only a week, he was accepted and began taking classes (Answers). Three years later his father sent him to Madrids Royal Academy of San Fernando which was one of the most recognized art schools in Spain (Answers). Shortly after enrolling at the Royal Academy, Picasso dropped out to move to Paris in the early 1900s. His first masterpiece was â€Å"Les Demoiselles dAvignon† which he created in 1907. It was thought of as being controversial because of its reference to the female body and masked faces he used (Answers). From 1909-1912, Picasso continued to work closely with Georges Braque to create what would be known as â€Å"Cubism† (Answers). Though Cubism is a huge part of Picassos work, the painting I chose has no cubist influence. My artwork is â€Å"Night Fishing at Antibes†. It is a 69† x 114† oil on canvas that Picasso completed in 1939 (MoMA). I chose this piece because I wanted to learn more about abstract art, and because I enjoy fishing. The subject of this painting was based on â€Å"Picassos observation of night scenes off the shore of Antibes in the South of France. Men went out and fished by the light of acetylene lamps; the lights attracted the fish to the surface, where they could be netted or speared† (Lenin). Some say that the painting has deeper meaning that relates to the outbreak of World War II, but after researching the topic heavily, I found that the idea is not for certain. The content in the painting is two fishermen in a boat. One has fishing line attached to his toe, and the other man is about to stab a fish with a spear. Two women are standing on a bridge to the right . One woman is holding a bicycle and eating an ice cream cone. Picasso used symbolism in his paintings, and there must be symbolism in this piece, but after my research, I could not find any concrete answers for why he painted â€Å"Night Fishing at Antibes† this way. Most art critics believe that Picasso painted this piece as a war protest much like â€Å"Guernica†, but he never announced that this was the paintings meaning (Answers). The size of the painting also has to do something with the meaning. This painting is almost twelve feet wide and seven feet tall. If the meaning of the piece is to protest WWII, Picasso created this painting to be the size of a billboard. This would help drive the underlying meaning of the painting and convey what Picasso wanted to say about the war with a bold message. Picasso created a well-lit piece by making the moonlight shine directly down on the water. This contrasts the fish on the right and makes the eyes look directly at it first. The piece is well balanced due to its large, dark background and small space of lightness. The viewers eyes go directly toward the fish on the right not only because of the lighting, but also due to the way Picasso used line. The spear has four straight, thick arrows pointing directly at the fish. This spear also looks like a trident. This could have some time of underlying meaning as well. The spear looks strong and bold. After guiding your eyes up the shaft of the spear, your eyes drift left across the arm of the fisherman. He is scaled much larger than the other fisherman in the boat and his eyes seem to be looking directly at the viewer. No other subjects in the painting are looking towards the viewer except for this fisherman. The spear and the fishermans arm are by far the strongest lines in the piece. They are at 90 degree angles, unlike any of the other lines in the painting. Though the piece is constructed with purely organic shapes, the painting does not convey a since of movement or rhythm. To me the piece seems like a snapshot in time catching everyone off guard. The colors Picasso used in the painting give the piece emphasis on what time of day it is. The viewer can tell the painting is a night scene because of the title, but I believe Picasso painted a night scene for an underlying meaning. Almost every color in the painting is dark except for the water on which the moon shines down on. The dark hues give the piece a cold and sad feeling. Just by the color alone, I can tell that I would not want to be in this scene. I really liked this work when I first saw it, but after doing research I have changed my view of it. Now knowing what was going on in the world at the time, I feel that this painting has a much deeper meaning than what I as young college student can grasp. I will always be a fan of Picassos work, but to be honest, I just do not understand a lot of what he wants the viewer to catch on to. I like the painting, but I am actually disappointed after writing this paper. Personally, I would have rather picked a piece that I could have understood than try to chase down the meaning of this painting. I spent more time doing research on the underlying meaning than I spent enjoying the painting. I felt like I was chasing my tail while doing the report on this piece. Nonetheless, I am still a fan of Picassos and maybe one day the message of this piece (if any) will hit me. Works Cited MoMA | The Collection | Pablo Picasso. Night Fishing at Antibes. Antibes, August 1939. MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. . Pablo Picasso Night Fishing at Antibes (1939). Lenin Imports UK Latest CDs, Cassettes, Vinyl , Movie, Art Memorabilia In Stock Art, Rock, Movie Loads More. Web. 21 Apr. 2010. . Pablo Picasso Night Fishing at Antibes (1939). Lenin Imports UK Latest CDs, Cassettes, Vinyl , Movie, Art Memorabilia In Stock Art, Rock, Movie Loads More. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. . Pablo Picasso: Biography from Answers.com. Answers.com: Wiki QA Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. Web. 23 Apr. 2010. .

Drama Translation Essay

However, the mission of a translator of a dramatic work is slightly different from any other literary piece. A dramatic text is written in order to be performed on stage. The translator of such a text has therefore to bear in mind that the readers (i. e. the audience in this case) shall not only follow the written form of the script but also and primarily its spoken version. This fact influences the work of a translator to a great extent. He has to chose words that are easily pronounceable by actors and comprehensible to the audience. At the same time he ought to aspire to maintain the meaning and form of the original as much as possible so that the translation represents the goal and effort of the original author. Each translator aims at a maximal realistic authenticity, including both the inner (author’s and director’s notes) and outer language of the drama. â€Å"Translation, the surmounting of the obstacle, is made possible by an equivalence of thought which lies behind the different verbal expressions of a thought. No doubt this equivalence is traceable to the fact that men of all nations belong to the same species. When an Englishman is thinking of the woman whom he describes as ‘my mother’, a Frenchman is thinking of ma mere and a German of meine Mutter. Among normal people the three thoughts will be very similar and will recall the same memories of tenderness, loving care and maternal pride. In consequence ‘my mother’ can be perfectly translated by ma mere or meine Mutter. † (Savory 1957, p. 11) Savory (Savory 1957, p. 49) furthermore states twelve rules of a proper translation: 1. A translation must give the words of the original 3. A translation should read like an original work. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. A translation must give the ideas of the original. A translation should read like a translation. A translation should reflect the style of the original. A translation should possess the style of the translator. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translator. A translation may add to or omit from the original. A translation may never add to or omit from the original. A translation of verse should be in prose. 13 12. A translation of verse should be in verse. There is a close relationship between the author and the translator of a literary work. Both of them have their own style of writing and expressing their thoughts. Nevertheless, the translator shall always be subordinate to the author whose text is considered the base of a dramatic text and its further stage production. â€Å"A translation may include any of the idiomatic expressions which are peculiar to its language and which the translator sees fit to adopt; but it needs not, because of this, possess the style which the reader may expect. Style is the essential characteristic of every piece of writing, the outcome of the writer’s personality and his emotions at the moment, and no single paragraph can be put together without revealing in some degree the nature of its author. But what is true of the author is true also of the translator. The author’s style, natural or adopted, determines his choice of a word, and, as has been seen, the translator is often compelled to make a choice between alternatives. The choice he makes cannot be reflect, though dimly, his own style. What does the reader expect; what does the critic demand? One of the reasons for a preference for a literal translation is that it is likely to come nearer to the style of the original. It ought to be more accurate; and any copy, whether of a picture or a poem, is likely to be judged by its accuracy. Yet it is a fact in making the attempt to reproduce the effect of the original, too literal a rendering is a mistake, and it may be necessary to alter even the construction of the author’s sentences in order to transfer their effects to another tongue. † (Savory 1957, p. 54) 3. 1 THE INTENTION OF THE TRANSLATOR The sense of purpose of translator’s work is to maintain, depict and impart the  original text; not to create a new piece of work that has no precursor. Translation aims to reproduce. The art of translation is founded on replacement of one piece of language material by another and thus on an independent creation of all artistic means proceeding from the language. â€Å"Translation as a work is an artistic reproduction, translation as a process is an original creation, translation as a type of art is a case on the boundary of art of reproduction and originally creative art. † (Levy 1963, p. 49) In the development of the art of reproduction two norms have been applied according to Levy (Levy 1963, p.52): the norm of reproduction (i. e. requirement on authenticity and accurateness) and the norm of â€Å"art† (requirement on beauty). This basic aesthetic contrast proves contrapositive to translational authenticity and freedom. The authentic 14 method (i. e. the literal) represents a procedure of work of such translators who aspire to reproduce the original precisely, whereas the free method (adaptative) aims at beauty, i. e. the aesthetics and thought proximity to the reader, and creation of an original work in a target native language. For a realistic translation both  norms are necessary: the translation has to be as exact reproduction of the original as possible but above all it should be a valuable literary piece of work. Newmark depicts the intention of a translator as follows: â€Å"Usually, the translator’s intention is identical with that of the author of the source language text. But he may be translating an advertisement, a notice, or a set of instructions to show his client how such matters are formulated and written in the source language, rather than how to adapt them in order to persuade or instruct a new target language readership. And again, he may be translating a manual of instructions for a less educated readership, so that the explanation in his translation may be much larger than the ‘reproduction. ’† (Newmark 1988, p. 12) The translator is supposed to be creative although his creativity is limited by the field of language. He can enlarge his native literature by creating new expressions (neologisms) or by incorporating foreign expressions into the native background (exotic expressions). Borrowing foreign language means or creating Czech equivalents is not only restricted to the lexical units but also to the stylistic values. Levy (Levy 1963, p. 69) mentions blank verse, sonnet, ghazal, haiku, and blues in this context. 3. 2 THE TRANSLATION OF A DRAMATIC TEXT The translator of a dramatic text has to respect the speciality of a spoken word. Dialogues do not narrate and depict actions or situations as in prose but they form them. They do not narrate how people meet and make relationships but perform the people acting and communicating with each other. The structure of a sentence of a dialogue is simple as could be, the sentences are usually paratactically connected, often without conjunctions. Many unfinished sentences and ellipsis may appear. So-called contact words are very important as well. Various modal particles and expressions that might have multifarious context meanings are characteristic of language of a dialogue. In this case dictionaries shall not be that useful for the translator for the language of drama is very specific and often peculiar. 15 In the frame of the artistic translation we further distinguish translations of poetry, prose and drama, which corresponds to the traditional division of artistic genres  into lyric, epic and dramatic genres. What is the quintessence of a dramatic text? Prose narrates events but drama transfers them via speech. Generally, the entire content has to be transposed into dialogues (monologues, polylogues), being accompanied by facial gestures, gesticulation, stagy space and props. The language requirements are higher here than in prose: the direct speech that essentially addresses the spectator has to be able to express – even though indicatively – far more than a dialogue of a novel. Except for the function of characterization of the protagonists the direct speech substitutes the other items of prosaic text (narrating the past, author’s reflexion, lyric digression etc. ), and at the same time it should sound naturally, for it is intended for a direct audio-visual impact. Kufnerova and Skoumalova (Kufnerova, Skoumalova 1994, p. 140) mention two kinds of a dramatic translation: 1 A piece of drama is translated as a literary text, and is originally intended more or less to be published for readers. That would be the case of most of the classical texts from Ancient times till 19th and 20th century. The translator proceeds from the original text and attempts to keep the most of its specificity. He is the only responsible and independent creator of the target text. The translator forms the final version of the translation regardless of the potential stage realization. 2 The director asks the translator for translation of a particular play for the setting with original and sophisticated poetics. The target text is exclusively written in cooperation with the particular theatre company. The original text is not that important any more, production features and a complete director intention predominate. The directors and often the actors themselves consider the text (and often even the original work) a kind of half- ready text, which they adapt during rehearsing the play, not always with a positive result. They create a dramatic text, transform the drama situations and adapt the language. Newmark comes with another theory of translating a dramatic work. According to him, the main purpose of translating a play is to have it performed successfully. 16  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Therefore a translator of drama inevitably has to bear the potential spectator in mind though, here again, the better written and more significant the text, the fewer compromises he can make in favour of the reader. Further, he works under certain constraints: unlike the translator of fiction, he cannot gloss, explain puns or ambiguities or cultural references, not transcribe words for the sake of local colour: his text is dramatic, with emphasis on verbs, rather than descriptive and explanatory. Michael Meyer, in a little noticed article in Twentieth Century Studies , quoting T.Rattigan, states that the spoken word is five times as potent as the written word – what a novelist would say in 30 lines, the playwright must say in five. The arithmetic is faulty and so, I believe, is the sentiment, but it shows that a translation of a play must be concise – it must not be an over-translation. † (Newmark 1988, p. 172) Newmark furthermore mentions Meyer who makes a distinction between dramatic text and sub-text, the literal meaning and the ‘real point’: i. e. what is implied but not said, the meaning between the lines. Meyer believes that if a person is questioned on a subject about which he has complex feelings, he will reply evasively (and in a circumlocutory manner). Ibsen’s characters say one thing and mean another. The translator must word the sentences in such a way that this, the sub-text, is equally clear in English. Normally one would expect a semantic translation of a line, which may be close to a literal translation, to reveal its implications more clearly than a communicative translation, that simply makes the dialogue easy to speak. Whilst a great play must be translated for the reading public’s enjoyment and for scholarly study as well as for performance on stage, the translator should always assume the latter as his main purpose – there should be no difference between an acting and a reading version – and he should look after readers and scholars only in his notes. Nevertheless, he should where possible amplify cultural metaphors, allusions, proper names, in the text itself, rather than replace the allusion with the sense. When a play is transferred from the source language to the target language culture it is usually no longer a translation, but an adaptation. Newmark concludes his thought by suggesting that â€Å"some kind of accuracy must be the only criterion of a good translation in the future – what kind of accuracy depending first on the type and then the particular text that has been translated – and what the word ‘sub-text’ with its Grician implications and implicatures can be made to cover a multitude of inaccuracies. † (Newmark 1988, p. 172) Jan Ferencik (Ferencik 1982, p. 72) was one of Slovak linguistic theoreticians dealing with the field of translating, among others. He also analyses the translation of a 17 dramatic text and mentions that unlike translation of other genres the translation of drama is characterized by: 1) written character of the text and non-written form of its social realization 2) collective and multistage character of an interpretation of the original in the process of creating the final translation text, on the contrary from the other genres, where the interpretation of the translator is unique and final. 3) dissimilarity of each new social realization, especially on stage, not only in case of  various translators and stage producers but also in case of coincident text and coincident stage producers within repeated communication (Stanislavskij – theatre, emotions, improvisation, momentary psychical and biological dispositions of actors, etc. ) excluding the technique of reproduced performances such as television recording, film, sound recording, etc. A live spectator, who himself becomes one of the interpreters of the performed text, is the participant of communication during a stagy realization. 4) subordination of all the involved to the interpretation of the main concept, which  usually means a weaker creative participation of the translator in the resultant communication than while translating other pieces of text Furthermore, Ferencik mentions the chain of communication that relates author, translator, director and finally the audience of a dramatic work. â€Å"The communicative successiveness of translation of a drama, unlike another translational texts, is following: Author – Translator (Interpreter 1) – Dramatic adviser and Director (Interpreters 2) – another involved originators: Scenographer, Composer, Actor (Interpreters 3) – Spectator, Listener (Interpreter 4). This chain of communication represents the time sequence of creation of a text and its social realization. † (Ferencik 1982, p. 72) As I have already said, translator’s interpretation of a text is only a base of a scenic interpretation which is, in connection with the presentation of a play, sometimes called director-dramaturgical concept. Naturally, there are differences in the approach to a translational dramatic piece of work, depending on the kind of its scenic realization (professional theatre, amateur theatre, TV dramatization, adopted performance, film adaptation, radio play..) and on subjective characteristics of particular interpreters. I would like to conclude this sub-chapter by another feature of a dramatic work, which is a dialogue cohesion. Cohesion as one of the linguistic means is to be found in 18 most of text styles and represents a connecting feature. Newmark (Newmark 1988, p. 58) sees a mistake in neglecting the spoken language as part of a separate theory of interpretation. Translators are concerned with recordings of many kinds, particularly surveys, as well as the dialogue of drama and fiction. Moreover, cohesion is closer in  the give and take of dialogue and speech than in any other form of text. Here the main cohesive factor is the question, which may be a command, request, plea, invitation (i. e. grammatically a statement or a command or a question) and where the forms of address are determined by factors of kinship and intimacy, and, regrettably, class, sex and age. Apart from transposing the structure of the sentence (e. g. ‘Could you come? ’ might become Tu peux venir? or Bitte komm), each language has opening gambits semantically reserved for this exchange. Similarly, each language has marking words that signal a break or end of a subject, such as ‘Right’, ‘Well’, ‘Good’, ‘Fine’, ‘Now’, ‘I see’ (Ach so, Parfait, C’est vrai) and the internationalism ‘O. K. ’ Lastly, there are the tags that are used to keep a flagging conversation going: ‘isn’t it, ‘see’, ‘you know’, which require a standard response. The translator has to bear in mind the main differences between speech and dialogue: speech has virtually no punctuation (‘The sentence is virtually irrelevant in speech’: Sinclair et al. , 1975), is diffuse, and leaves  semantic gaps filled by gesture and paralingual features. As I was working on the translation of Butterflies are free, it has been especially challenging to find an adequate equivalent to various cohesive means. In English it is more natural to use such introductory cohesive links as â€Å"you know† and â€Å"I mean† whereas in Czech it sounds rather disturbing and that is why I attempted to omit or replace those by more accurate expressions of the Czech language background. 3. 3 THE TRANSLATION OF THE TITLE OF A LITERARY WORK Naturally, the title of any literary work is an essential part and that is why  translating the title represents a challenging process for the translator. We, as readers, may find out many important clues out of the title. I have been working with a dramatic text that was already translated by Ivo T. Havlu in 1972. He translated the title Butterflies are free as â€Å"Motyli†. Nevertheless, the title of this play by Leonard Gershe (1969) is based on a quotation by Charles Dickens and on a song sung by Don, one of the protagonists. Havlu leaves the song out but I attempted to 19 maintain the original version and therefore translated the song, with help of a lyricist, in  the rhymed form of Czech. We have finally translated the phrase Butterflies are free as â€Å"Motyli leti na oblohuâ€Å". Concerning the theoretical background of translating the title of a literary work, Newmark (Newmark 1988, p. 57) distinguishes between â€Å"descriptive† titles, which describe the topic of the text, and â€Å"allusive titles†, which have some kind of referential or figurative relationship to the topic. For serious imaginative literature, Newmarks thinks a descriptive title should be ‘literally’ kept (Madame Bovary could only be Madame Bovary), and an allusive title literally or where necessary, imaginatively  preserved. Kufnerova and Skoumalova (Kufnerova, Skoumalova 1994, p. 149) grant that the title, being a description, abbreviation or metaphor, is essential part of the translation. According to them every translator pays attention to the title and rarely makes a mistake there, knowing the whole piece of work. Translation of a literary title is often influenced by the period conception or fashion. In 1920’ there was an effort to naturalize the title, introduce it into the local background, especially in the field of proper names. The  influence of a cultural system of Czech language is displayed even in period habits, that is why it is sometimes necessary to adapt the syntactic structure of the title to the common native forms. Czech language prefers connections of action to nominal linkages. Differences in social mind, knowledge of life and institutions and other extralinguistic means represent a frequent reason for an adaptation of the original version of a literary work. Contemporary literary translation relatively respects the original version of the title of the work in correspondence with the principles of modern science of translation  and we can rarely encounter the shifts, alterations or changes. Literary translations occupy a better position than film works translations that often include mistakes and frequent interventions in the original version and thus substantiate the insufficient competence of young translators and their insufficient responsibility. 3. 4 THE SHIFTS OF MEANING WITHIN THE TRANSLATION OF A DRAMATIC TEXT Within the translation of any piece of text a space for shifts of meaning, stylistic, etc. develops between the source and target language. The shifts might be unconscious,  20 or intentional and conception. In the second case we speak about a renovation of a translation. The term renovation therefore does not only represent an adaptation of outdated or archaic language, but it also a conscious conception adaptation of a text in a diachronic way and an adaptation to a different cultural and social background as well as to a particular directorial interpretation. Temporal and spatial distance causes that some features of the original text stop being comprehensible in another society, they are not transmittable via common means and  that is why even the realistic translation often requires an explanation instead of a literal translation or only an indication clue. The explanation is necessary if the reader cannot understand a word, idiom etc. that was present in the original version. Levy (Levy 1963, p. 82) implies that it is not correct to explain an indication, continue and complete a pause, or to sketch in the situation that has not been intentionally made clear in the original. Usage of indication is hereafter appropriate if we cannot use a full expression because the language material has become the artistic means and thus can be preserved. Slovak linguist Popovic mentions the shifts of a translation within his theory of expression: â€Å"An elaboration of the theory of expression becomes a starting point for a systematic evaluation of shifts in the translation, forms a basis of objective classification of the differences between the original and the translation. The demand to identify in the text every stylistic means from the structural point of view helps us to estimate in theory of translation that which represents an equivalent. A system of means of expression enables us to evaluate linguistic means in the stylistic analysis in the context, i.e. not isolated, but in their relation to the system of qualities of expression. This must be assumed if we wish to undertake a theoretical investigation of conformities and differences that arise when an original work is translated. Such generalizing evaluation of means in the frame of the single categories an expression and of the qualities of expression makes it possible for us to qualify explicitly, more precisely and systematically, the shift of expression, the relation between the language of the original and that of the translation. † (Popovic 1968, p. 238) Within my translating I have encountered several shifts of meaning. As the play was written in the 1960’ it was very demanding to concentrate on renovating the language and at the same time on preserving the original features to a certain extent so that the shifts could not represent such an interference of the original (Jill, for example, is mentioning Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and Rolling Stones as her contemporaries and I therefore could not transfer the whole script into the present time. ). 21 3. 5 THE  RENOVATION OF A TRANSLATION Every translation, not depending on the genre, gets outdated after a period of time. As the language develops, new words arise and are borrowed from other languages and it is therefore necessary to replace, renovate or adapt the original expressions. Renovation of a translation constitutes the total of the shifts – of time, place, semantics, composition etc. Depending on the extent of the shifts the final text might even lose its original character of a translation and become a text of different, new qualities. As I have already mentioned, the renovation is not a prerogative of dramatic texts only. No type of artistic translation can do without any level of renovation, especially without time-language shift. Every translation of a literary work which has not originated simultaneously with the original, which happens very often, requires a certain level of such shifts that may be called renovation. Renovation is a usual creative procedure which is not understood as a deconstruction of the semantic identity of the original. In case the translator extends the amount of shifts for a time – language reasons, such a procedure is perceived as deconstruction of subject composition and is thus called â€Å"modification†, â€Å"free translation†, â€Å"free processing†, etc. Is it conceivable to qualify the limits of renovation of a translation? Is it possible to say the extent of renovation shifts that are considered to be an acceptable translational procedure arising from a rationale concept? What are the limits of an arbitrariness of the translator and groundless deformation of a text? It is therefore necessary to approach the quality, legitimacy and artistic adequacy of each translation individually. Concerning the dramatic texts, it is essential to examine the interest of all interpreters in the final version of a text. Ferencik (Ferencik 1982, p. 79) suggests that the â€Å"artistic† time flies differently than the absolute â€Å"cosmic† time and the absolute time is not every time corresponding with the â€Å"social† time. That is why it might be useful to shift the time frame of the action forward and reach the physical time via the artistic and social time means after a  relatively short period since the composition of dramatic texts. It may also be necessary to shift the localization of the action and change the names of some characters, especially those that are conditioned by means of time renovation or real existence. 22 Finally, the critique has thus to judge the extent of translator’s and producers’ preservation, refinement or declension of the original intention of the author. It might happen that a dramatic work gets deformed because of ill-conceived renovation to such an extent that it becomes more an awkward parody of a comedy than a socially  impressive piece of work. Consequently it is essential to be very careful when choosing the appropriate renovation means, to maintain their level and choose such means that correspond to author’s poetics. Savory describes the renovation of a translation as follows: â€Å"Art, proverbially, is long, so that translation, in so far as it is an art, should be in like manner timeless, persistently reappearing as an inevitable response to the stimuli felt by succeeding generations. An artist in oils or water-colour does not refrain from making a picture of Mapledurham Mill because it has been drawn and painted so many times already; he regards this fact as one more reason for his, the latest, attempt. In the same way writers have always been ready to express in their own language the passages, from epigrams and couplets to epics and long books, originally written in other tongues. Of subsidiary importance is the fact that a fresh translation of any work of literary merit is welcomed because the existing translations sound antiquated, or are obsolescent; and this is a factor which cannot be neglected or forgotten. There are fashions in literature and changes in literary taste, so that a rendering of Virgil which satisfied the Elizabethans of the sixteenth century will not necessarily appeal to the Elizabethans of the twentieth. There should be small need for hesitation on the part of anyone who considers embarking on a worthwhile translation, and one of the most unmistakable signs of the literary interests and activities of the present day is the popularity and the plentifulness of new translations. † (Savory 1957, p. 28) Newmark (Newmark 1988, p.172) suggests that a translator of drama in particular must translate into the modern target language if he wants his characters to ‘live’, bearing in mind that the modern language covers a span of, say, 70 years. If one character speaks in a bookish or old-fashioned way in the original, written 500 years ago, he must speak in an equally bookish and old-fashioned way in the translation, but as he would today, therefore with a corresponding time-gap – differences of register, social class, education, temperament in particular must be preserved between one character and another. Thus the dialogue remains dramatic, and though the translator cannot forget the potential spectators, he does not make concessions to them. 23 3. 6 LANGUAGE AND STYLE As Newmark (Newmark 1995, p. 123) implies, for the translator, language is a code which he is well aware he will never break, a system he cannot wholly grasp, because it is lexically infinite. All he can do is make assumptions about it, in accordance with the benefits he derives from it, depending on the yield that suits the users at the time; the assumptions, like the sense of the words, will change continuously. â€Å"The translator is frequently faced with too little extralinguistic reality and too much linguistic ambiguity – words either too far out of their usual collocations or so frequently in them that they become meaningless cliche, fitting as loosely as yale keys in the huge locks of their context. † (Newmark 1995, p. 123) Concerning the Czech background, Kufnerova and Skoumalova (Kufnerova, Skoumalova 1994, p. 72) describe the Czech language as significantly different from other European languages that exist also outside Europe (Russian, English) in which we  cannot find general colloquial form of the language as in Czech. On the other hand, there are many informal expressions, dialects, slang and social dialects. Czech and partly German create a special area in Europe where general colloquial informal language is often used. In artistic translations this general colloquial Czech language does not appear without the stylization. That can be achieved via various techniques, but all of them tend to keep the appearance of such features in the text, so that they would fulfill their function and would not disturb the reader, or spectator. In my translation I have let Jill and finally also Don use such general colloquial Czech expressions although the original version had not always clearly stated those. I have done so in order to keep the unity and originality of the text. Slang represents a specific language field within each language and a specific problem of translators to be solved. It often includes emotional elements and thus characterizes the speaker. According to Knittlova (Knittlova 2000, p. 111) the collation of slang words that have various system relations in different languages is very difficult. In slang (especially of young people) we can notice an effort to be outlandish and to exaggerate expressive gestures. Slang wants to shock, provoke, it is a sign of revolt or disobedience. It is presented via overexposing some categories of expressions, hyperbole, metaphorical phraseology, colloquial metaphors, irony, comicality, folk expressions and above all playfulness with the language. Several studies have been written about English standard and sub-standard slang. The term â€Å"slang† denotes partly 24 a special diction, partly highly colloquial language or jargon of a particular social class,  a group or a period. In dictionaries the stylistic categorization of words or phrases that do not belong to a formal language is denoted by â€Å"slang†. However, the boundary between slang and colloquial English is rather movable and indistinct. Slang is an extract of colloquial language, it is not tied in with the rules of standard English, but it is rated as vivid, colourful, more full-bodied as for the diction and more flexible. It arises by a natural need of creation of new words that emotionally affect the utterance and express a subjective evaluation of the reality. Nevertheless, slang is not a secret code, an English speaker understands it easily but does not consider it something quite correct. Knittlova concludes that it is therefore a distortion of style if a translator replaces the English slang by offensive words or even by vulgarism. A style of any written piece of work is affected both by the personality of the writer and by the period of history he lives in. Translation includes the bridging of time as well as the bridging of space.

Analysis of The Telegram a short story by writer Iain Crichton Smith Essay

‘The Telegram’ is a short story by writer Iain Crichton Smith. The story follows two women’s experiences as the fate of their sons. The writer uses character and setting to increase the reader’s enjoyment of the story. Through the use of setting in terms of time and place the writer increases the reader’s enjoyment of the story. The story is set in a Scottish costal island during the Second World War. The two women live in a one road village and war is alien to them. Not just the women but the whole village does not understand the purpose of the war: â€Å"It came as a strange plague.† The village of the women was a very close knit community and this meant that everybody knew everybody else. To the village people the war was an attack on them rather than the country because the war was killing their young men and they felt that it was not their war to be part of. The Telegram itself had an impact on the village as it felt like ‘a strange missile’ because it would only cause havoc and destruction amongst the village people and most importantly ruin their lives. The setting of the story is effectively used by the writer to influence or have an impact on the characters, this use of setting increases the reader’s enjoyment of the story. Crichton Smith description is mainly focused on the thin women, the writer uses the imagery of a bird: â€Å" The other more aquiline, more gaunt, or to be more precise, more like a buzzard.† The thin women is perceived to be a person who is not very pleasant. The thin women has had a very hard life to cope with and because of this she is very independent. Through the imagery of a buzzard, a bird of prey, the thin women gives the impression that she is better than everybody else and like a buzzard she is stronger too. The use of the buzzard is also significant because the story is set in Scotland and the buzzard is Scotland’s most common bird of prey. However, even though the thin women is portrayed in a bad way, the thin women has been forced to make a lot of sacrifices. The thin women only received ten shillings in pension was forced into not buying new clothes. The realisation of the harsh circumstances that the thin women has faced make the reader enjoy the story more because the reader has sympathy for the thin women and knowing that her son is not dead gives the thin women hope. Despite all the sacrifices , the thin women saved and saved until she could send her son to university. This is a reason why the thin women thought she was better than everybody because others could afford to send their children to university but chose not because they thought of it as snobbish . The fact that the villagers thought education is snobby gives the reader insight into society the women lived in, the society that would not send their children to university in case that someone spoke ill of them. To deal with the hardships, the thin women has had to develop a lot of discipline and self-control to survive. The hardships the women has faced have left her to show no emotions and sympathy towards anybody but herself. However, for a moment the thin women tries to comfort the fat women in her time of need, this change in character is unusual because the thin women does not expect sympathy from others but now she is sympathetic towards someone else. Iain Crichton Smith uses the setting to show how it influences or has an impact on the characters, this use of setting increases the reader’s enjoyment of the story. Like the thin women, the author uses the imagery of a bird to describe the women: â€Å"†¦a fat domestic bird†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The fat women is described like ‘a fat domestic’ this suggests that the fat women is very dependant on others unlike the thin women. The word fat’ gives the reader the idea that the fat women has had it all in her life. Through the writers use of domestic bird’ it is suggested that the fat women. Due to the different lives both women lived they have differing views on things, this causes arguments between them: â€Å" Well, I just thought they’re better off.’ said the fat women in a confused tone, ‘ they get better food and they get better conditions.’ â€Å" The fat women is jealous how the thin women’s son is better off than her son even though the thin women is poorer e.g. the thin women’s son is of higher rank and gets better pay than the fat women’s son. The writer gives insight into the fat women when she explains why she did not risk sending her son to university in case others thought she was snobbish. Despite not sending her son to university it is evident that the fat women loves her son unconditionally, unlike the thin women, the fat women does not expect compensation from her son for bringing him up, this make the fat women a likeable character thus increasing the reader’s enjoyment of the story. When the fat women knows that the elder is not coming to her house she is all excited but then she realizes that it could be the thin women’s son who has died and only then does the fat women realise what the thin has gone through and tries to sympathy but she cannot. The reasons for the fat women showing no sympathy are that firstly, she does not like the thin women and because the thought of losing her own son has emotionally drained the thin women. The setting adds to suspense and tension throughout the story and especially the climax. From the thin women’s window they can see the entire village: â€Å" As the watched they could see at the far end of the street the tall man in black clothes carrying in his hand a piece of yellow paper. This was a bare village with little colour therefore the yellow was both strange and unnatural.† The fact that the women could see the man at the end of the village from the thin women’s window emphasise to the reader how small the village is, the village being small suggests that it is a very close knit community. The village consists of one road and as the elder walks along the road the suspense and tension builds and the reader expects the elder to visit the homes of the women however this does not happen. In the end the reader is shocked how it is actually the elder’s son who has died and the suspense and tension that leads to this increases the impact. In conclusion, Iain Crichton Smith successfully uses setting, character, imagery as well suspense and tension to increase the readers enjoyment of the story.

Skills Necessary for Accounting Success - 1289 Words

Before I started this research, I thought of an accountant as someone who punched numbers every day and had great book-keeping skills but I have now learned that the accountant has to possess certain other skills often referred to as â€Å"soft skills† in order to be competitive and successful in this ever-changing business economy. Some of these â€Å"soft skills† are, but not limited to, excellent written and oral communication skills, the ability to work well with other people, work ethic, honesty, empathy, and problem-solving. Superior technical skills, though very important for an accountant, are no longer sufficient as employers are demanding that graduates have both technical and soft skills. If this is the case, are accounting majors†¦show more content†¦Interestingly, Uyar and Gungormus concluded their argument by stating that accounting graduates should come to terms with the fact that since â€Å"curricular development is not in their power, there is little they can do† but when selecting their courses â€Å"they could take research findings into consideration†. They could also make themselves more equipped â€Å"in skill development† by engaging in â€Å"in extra-curricular activities, participate in teamwork, practice time and stress management, and improve both oral and written communication skills†. Accounting educators should tailor the curriculum to meet the demands of the global business world (47). Gail Lynn Cook, Darlene Bay, Beth Visser, Jean E. Myburgh, and Joyce Njproge, authors of â€Å"Emotional Intelligence: The Role of the Accounting Education and Work Experience† argue that â€Å"emotional intelligence (the ability to recognize, use and manage emotions) is a skill† which will enhance an accounting personnel’s performance in areas such as â€Å"leadership, team building, client relations and, perhaps, decision-making†. The way in which one identifies, utilizes and channel’s one’s emotions is an important â€Å"skill† which should positively impact an accounting professional’s job performance (267). The authors also state that accounting firms like Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers asked for emotional intelligence (â€Å"EI†) as a â€Å"required characteristic† in one of its job posting (268). The authorsShow MoreRelatedWriting P : A Successful Accountant879 Words   |  4 Pagesrelated to the econ omy. In addition, accounting is the root part of the economy. 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