Could you please help me, oh great, intelligent writing/English scholars ?

[average gina]

So, I'm going to soon start my senior year in a few weeks. Unless I decide to do something else, I'll be going through comprehensive exams next spring. I have to start preparing for this by finding "Nobel-prize worthy" works that cover three out of four genres (poetry of over 100 lines, fiction, non-fiction, and plays) in three different time periods (up to and including Elizabethan, Victorian, and modern eras) that have a recurring theme that may also connect through different kinds of criticisms. I've already decided that my theme will be revenge. What I'm asking for is recommendations for works. The works that I am sure that I will be choosing (well, sort of) are:

Pre-Elizabethan/Elizabethan:
the poem, El Cid
the play, The Merchant of Venice, (Hamlet seems too easy and too complex, I also thought about Titus Andronicus)

Victorian:
the fiction, Wuthering Heights

Modern:
the screenplay for Crash (I also thought about the screenplay for Do the Right Thing

The only other prerequisite is that the original text must be English. Could anyone recommend any works where the main plot is revenge or retribution, please? Thanks everybody!

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Going through my collection, the one title of revenge that stands out is Irvine Welsh's Porno. If you saw or read Trainspotting, Porno picks up the same characters years later, and of course that especially Sick Boy and Begbie are thirsty for revenge against Renton.

Plus, it's always good to do uni assignments where you can use the word Porno.


PS: Which Crash?

 

[Eluard]

I would add to Lauren's good suggestion the novel Warlock by Oakley Hall.

Personally I do not like the idea of doing a screenplay — but I'm old fashioned.

 

[average gina]

Here is the site for that movie, Crash.

What genre is Porno?

 

[average gina]

I would add to Lauren's good suggestion the novel Warlock by Oakley Hall.

Personally I do not like the idea of doing a screenplay — but I'm old fashioned.

Eluard, what is it about? What can you tell me about it that would convince my professor that it is "Nobel-prize worthy"?

 

[Eluard]

Eluard, what is it about? What can you tell me about it that would convince my professor that it is "Nobel-prize worthy"?

Well, Thomas Pynchon — who I regard as the greatest writer of the 20th Century — regards Warlock as the greatest novel of the 20th Century. There can be no higher recommendation.

As to what it is about: it is a retelling of the O.K. Coral shootout. (That's not really accurate, but it's a start.)

It's published by University of Nevada Press. (Ooops! Just checked — it is now a New York Times Classic book.)

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Here is the site for that movie, Crash.

What genre is Porno?

OK. Had it been the other Crash (Cronenberg's movie, Ballard's novel), I would definitely suggest the novel instead of the screenplay, even if I do love them both.

Porno is a 2002 novel. You can see a plot outline here or here.

 

[average gina]

Well, Thomas Pynchon — who I regard as the greatest writer of the 20th Century — regards Warlock as the greatest novel of the 20th Century. There can be no higher recommendation.

As to what it is about: it is a retelling of the O.K. Coral shootout. (That's not really accurate, but it's a start.)

It's published by University of Nevada Press. (Ooops! Just checked — it is now a New York Times Classic book.)

Okay. This sounds promising. The reason why is because of this:

Pynchon is regarded by many readers and critics as one of the finest contemporary authors. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Both his fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, styles and themes, including (but not limited to) the fields of history, science and mathematics. Pynchon is also known for his avoidance of personal publicity: very few photographs of him have ever been published, and rumors about his location and identity have been circulated since the 1960s.

Thanks, Eluard and Lauren! This is the kind of stuff I have to present to my professor for the work to be accepted.

 

[Tzara]

Here's a couple suggestions off the top of my head. Some overlap with books you've already listed:

• Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy, Cyril Tourneur: The Revenger's Tragedy, or John Webster: The White Devil. These are examples of Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge plays--the Elizabethan equivalent of a Wes Craven movie. These are the kind of thing Shakespeare was doing when he wrote Titus Andronicus. Nobel worthy? Well, there are some pretty bad Nobel winners.
• Other Shakespeare plays you might want to consider: Othello or, especially, The Tempest, in which revenge segues to redemption in the end.
• Eugene O'Neill's extremely long play Mourning Becomes Electra, which is basically an updating of the Orestia to an American Civil War setting. Nobel-worthy? Yep. 1936.

 

[Tzara]

Some more ideas:

• Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner is not about revenge, though certainly about retribution.
• Both John Gardner and Robinson Jeffers wrote adaptations of the Medea myth. Gardner's was a book-length novel in verse called Jason and Medeia. I don't know whether that would qualify as novel or poem. I think Jeffers' version was a long poem, but I don't remember.

Once you've decided on the books, post the titles. I'm curious about what you end up reading.

 

[Eluard]

I went to bed last night racking my brain for more contemporary revenge novels — as one does — and I think I came up with a good one:

Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson. I think it's on some list as one of the best novels of the 20th Century and it is worthy of that accolade. Terrific book and remarkably prescient! It would make a great choice.

 

[Tzara]

How about A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess? There is revenge in it, and retribution, and it's quite funny in a kind of sick way. Plus there's the fun of trying to figure out exactly what Alex and his boyz and actually saying. Burgess was, I believe, nominated for the Nobel before he died, or so the rumor went.

 

[MungoParkIII]

Here is the site for that movie, Crash.

What genre is Porno?

Wrong crash... Get the J.G. Ballard novel. Ah, but it's not revenge, sorry.



What about Disgrace by Coetze?

He won it in 2003, or do you need someone who hasn't won yet?

 

[average gina]

I went to bed last night racking my brain for more contemporary revenge novels — as one does — and I think I came up with a good one:

Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson. I think it's on some list as one of the best novels of the 20th Century and it is worthy of that accolade. Terrific book and remarkably prescient! It would make a great choice.

Lauren, I hate to question your brilliant opinion, but does Porno qualify as a prize winning work? I also have to be able to tie literary criticisms to (and through) most--if not all--of the other works.

Tzara, thank you for going to Elizabethan (uh oh...that's what I get for not paying much attention in Brit Lit II--or is that early Victorian? Egad) poetry for me! As you can tell, all I have is Wuthering Heights! With my having El Cid, I know I should study Spanish Tragedy as well.

Eluard, I'll look up Snowcrash. Thanks for the ideas.

The more works everyone offers, the more I can compare or support my choices.

Thank you very much!!!!

 

[average gina]

MungoPark and Tzara (again), thanks for the ideas! The works do have to be of award-winning caliber, or at least critically acclaimed.

Thank you all for the responses! Don't stop now, please!

 

[Eluard]

How about A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess? There is revenge in it, and retribution, and it's quite funny in a kind of sick way. Plus there's the fun of trying to figure out exactly what Alex and his boyz and actually saying. Burgess was, I believe, nominated for the Nobel before he died, or so the rumor went.

Yes, this was another one that I thought of as I was drifting off to sleep! Good suggestion.

 

[MungoParkIII]

Cormac McCarthy

Thought of another, stunning and brutal: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. He won the Pulitzer for his most recent book The Road, but Blood Meridian has the revenge you are looking for.

 

[Tzara]

Thought of another, stunning and brutal: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. He won the Pulitzer for his most recent book The Road, but Blood Meridian has the revenge you are looking for.

That's one I was kind of thinking about too. Gina's professor won't have any trouble accepting that one.

 

[Sapphire_O]

When I think Victorian and revenge, I think Edgar Allan Poe. The Cask of Amontillado is a classic.

I think Susan Glaspell is Victorian as well. Her short story "A jury of her peers" might fit. It was originally the play "Trifles," which I never read. (She wrote both). But the story really left a lasting impression on me. I know some universities study it in feminist writings classes, so it should be "literary" enough for your project.

 

[Picodiribibi]

Ahab?

 

[average gina]

Ahab?

What about Ahab? KIDDING!

I have a confession: I have never read Moby Dick or most of the literary classics. I got it in my purse and I'm beginning to read it.

As of right now, here is my list:

Pre-Elizabethan/Elizabethan:
the poem, El Cid
the novel:
the play, The Merchant of Venice, (Hamlet seems too easy and too complex, I also thought about Titus Andronicus)

Victorian:
the poem: (someone want to suggest any Edgar Allan Poe?)
the novel, Wuthering Heights (but I am reading Moby Dick)
the play:

Modern:
the poem:
the novel:
the screenplay for Crash (I also thought about the screenplay for Do the Right Thing

I've got to look at all of the suggestions everyone told me. Thank you, everyone! Please don't stop suggesting!

 

[Tzara]

You know, if they will let you do movies (or screenplays, though I have my own objections to screenplays as literature, as film is so much a visual, not literary, medium), you should consider John Ford's The Searchers. Like way iconic and beautiful and angry and most definitely about revenge.

Film professors love this movie, so if your prof takes films as qualifiers, this one should qualify easily.

 

[Eluard]

You know, if they will let you do movies (or screenplays, though I have my own objections to screenplays as literature, as film is so much a visual, not literary, medium), you should consider John Ford's The Searchers. Like way iconic and beautiful and angry and most definitely about revenge.

Film professors love this movie, so if your prof takes films as qualifiers, this one should qualify easily.

Film professors and Eluard. One of my favourite Westerns — got it on a high quality DVD finally.

 

[Picodiribibi]

For revenge, I liked the 1993 film True Romance.

 

[Angeline]

What about Ahab? KIDDING!

I have a confession: I have never read Moby Dick or most of the literary classics. I got it in my purse and I'm beginning to read it.

As of right now, here is my list:

Pre-Elizabethan/Elizabethan:
the poem, El Cid
the novel:
the play, The Merchant of Venice, (Hamlet seems too easy and too complex, I also thought about Titus Andronicus)

Victorian:
the poem: (someone want to suggest any Edgar Allan Poe?)
the novel, Wuthering Heights (but I am reading Moby Dick)
the play:

Modern:
the poem:
the novel:
the screenplay for Crash (I also thought about the screenplay for Do the Right Thing

I've got to look at all of the suggestions everyone told me. Thank you, everyone! Please don't stop suggesting!

For the Victorian period, you might want to read Robert Browning's My Last Dutchess. The dramatic monologue is a wonderful form in which the narrator unwittingly reveals himself through the story of the poem. My favorite of his is Andrea del Sarto (a really beautiful piece of writing), but I think Dutchess would fit your theme better.