İNGİLİZ/AMERİKAN EDEBİYATI I

“The Kugelmass Episode” is a parody of both modern American and Jewish society and through the central character, Professor Sidney Kugelmass explores one of the central conflicts of the modern consumer society: dissatisfaction.

Exposition in a story sets the scene for the coming events.

The protagonist and the antagonist of the story, Sidney Kugelmass is a professor of humanities at City College. He has two sons from his first wife Flo, and pays high alimony to her. He is presently married to Daphne who is also working at the same college. Kugelmass is unhappy with his new marriage with Daphne whom he resembles to a troglodyte. Kugelmass is also unfortunate about his physical appearance as he is bold and his body is extremely hairy. This detail becomes important at the end of the story as he is followed by a hairy word “tener” at the end of the story.

Originally the protagonist of Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary, Emma shares many characteristics with Kugelmass. Emma is a woman of energy and romance, who cannot find these in her marriage with Charles. Therefore, in the novel, she has relationships with other men to add some excitement to her life. She is also extravagant in her spendings and at the end of the novel, she is refused by her lovers which makes her commit suicide.

Because the story is a postmodern one it employs three different narrative points of view. In the parts that concentrates on the action, the narrator is only objective, therefore the narration consist mainly of dialogues or a report of the events. This narrative point of view dominates most of the story. In the parts where the narration concentrates on Kugelmass’ feelings, this time the story is told from the third person limited omniscient narration and is told from Kugelmass’ perspective.

POSTMODERN FEATURES OF THE STORY

Self-reflexivity: The text referring to itself as a text.

Fragmentation

Intertextuality: The story is overtly intertextual borrowing one of the central characters and the theme of dissatisfaction from another literary work.

Playfulness and Parody

The world that is presented in the story is run with technology and is under the heavy influence of capitalism and consumerism. Most of the characters are living in a world where there is little genuine connection between characters. As a result of consumerism, Kugelmass is dissatisfied with whatever he has. The correct answer is A.

She is rich and as Kugelmass tells at the beginning of the story “had promise” (line 6). However, it is implied that she has changed during her marriage with Kugelmass perhaps by not being careful about her physical appearance. Because of this, Kugelmass resembles her to a cave man in line 117. She is also portrayed as a woman who holds the power in the relationship as she instructs Kugelmass to attend family meetings. Moreover, Kugelmass is very afraid of her because she has the power to drag him into poverty in case of divorce. The correct answer is E.

Self-reflexivity: The text referring to itself as a text. One of the examples of self-reflexivity is the language that Emma uses: “She spoke in the same fine English translation as the paperback” (lines 108-109). The correct answer is E.

Kugelmass does not have a linear life. His life is fragmented between his life in New York and his affair in Yonville. The same is reflected in the texts as well. When Kugelmass enters the novel, the narrative line of the novel is broken and it becomes nonlinear. The same thing happens when Emma begins to live in New York causing another fragmentation in his life. The correct answer is D.

Woody Allen has claustrophobia and agoraphobia because of which he had to attend psychoanalysis sessions for over thirty seven years. He has reflected these in his works. The answer is A.

He began producing short jokes to be sold for newspaper columnists and he started his career by by writing jokes for newspapers. The answer is D.

Having started his career by writing jokes for newspapers, Allen did not stop adding comic elements to his fiction. Humor is an inseparable part of his writings. Moreover, he uses daily speech frequently in his writings. His literature is a good example of American humor. Moreover, both his films and literature are considered to be examples of postmodernism employing most of the postmodern techniques, particularly parody. The answer is D.

Originally a theory of architecture, postmodernism has its roots in the post-World War II period. Postmodernism later influenced philosophy, art, literature, film and culture. Although the exact time that it began as a movement is not clear, it is usually believed that it is a reaction to the loss of meaning after WWII and a reaction to modernist attitude. Actually, postmodernism is a continuation of modernism, a literary movement that dominated the literary world between late nineteenth century and 1940s, and makes use of most of the characteristics of modernism. Therefore, in order to understand what postmodernism is, one should have at least a basic understanding of modernism. The answer is B.

One of the basic techniques that the postmodernists used and still use to play is parody. Parody “imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work in order to make fun of those same features”. The purpose of the parody is to present an ironical representation of the parodied text without being serious. The answer is D.

The story opens in a psychoanalyst’s office. Professor Sidney Kugelmass is complaining about his life and is disappointed that his marriage to his second wife Daphne did not turn out to be what he had expected. The answer is D.

“The Kugelmass Episode” is a parody of both modern American and Jewish society and through the central character Professor Sidney Kugelmass explores one of the central conflicts of the modern consumer society: dissatisfaction. The answer is C.

The protagonist and the antagonist of the story, Sidney Kugelmass is a professor of humanities at City College. The answer is A.

The type of the story cannot be explained by a single subgenre. As it explores the consciousness of Kugelmass, it has the characteristics of a character story. Also, the story falls into an action story because the action is as important as the characters. Moreover, as the story also reaccounts adventure, it can also be categorized as adventure story. Therefore, in the postmodern sense, The Kugelmass Episode is a simulacra, benefiting from intertextuality with its borrowing from various genres. The answer is E.

Self-reflexivity: The text referring to itself as a text. One of the examples of self-reflexivity is the language that Emma uses: “She spoke in the same fine English translation as the paperback” (lines 108-109). Madame Bovary is originally a French novel and the characters normally speak French. However, the version that Persky throws into the cabinet is the English translation which makes Emma speak English in the story. This shows the fictionality of the character, however, as the reader reads the story, that she is French is no more important and the reader simply looks over her using English, especially when she becomes a part of the modern world using daily language, even slang. Therefore, the distinction between reality and fiction is blurred. The answer is B.