The enduring struggle of one’s self-deception and inner conflicts, influenced by Conrad's sense of seclusion, inspired his stories and journeys worldwide, exposing the clashes, exploitation, and barbarity of Euro-African relations during the colonial expansionism of the 19th Century.
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Today Writers From Around the Worlds looks at Thea von Harbou, one of the leading lights of the golden age of cinema during the Weimar era; she was also a short story writer and a novelist of national renown. She personified female independence and what would now be feminism, being an early proponent of abortion, among other things, the most controversial of which—her support of Nazi Germany would lead to her mainly being ostracized by both literary and cinematic historians. These controversial political views make her a testament to just how complex the human experience can be. While she lived in splendor in the pre-war years on her wall – once covered with the art of the world– were two photos. One was of Gandhi, and the other was of Adolf Hitler.
Patrice Petro, author of "Representation In Weimar Germany," quotes a 1931 speech by Thea von Harbou regarding the repeal of Paragraph 218 which banned abortion--
“Our main goal is to find a new form of preventing pregnancy and therefore to make the entire [Paragraph] 218 unnecessary. Immediately, however, the Paragraph must fall because it is no longer morally recognized by women. It is no longer a law. We need a new sexual code because the old code was created by men, and no man is in a position to understand the agony of a woman carrying a child she knows she cannot feed. The law derived from male psychology, which forces a woman into having a child, creates, even if not deliberately, constitutional inferiority of women in relation to men which serves as a bulwark against women’s activities in economic and political life.”
Remembered more as a footnote to the career of her onetime husband and titan of German cinema director Fritz Lang. Born in the German province of Bavaria in 1888, Harbou published her first story at age 14. Completing college in Dresden, she traveled to Africa, later returning to Germany to pursue a career on the stage. By the 1920s, she was a behemoth in her own right within the German film world.
Harbou co-wrote both of Lang's "Dr. Mabuse" films, "Der müde Tod" ("Destiny"), the "Die Nibelungen" films, "Metropolis," and "M," among others. In total, she wrote or co-wrote ten films with Lang. For Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, another great director of the era. Harbou wrote or co-wrote "Phantom," "The Grand Duke's Finances," and "The Expulsion." Harbou co-scripted "Michael" with director Carl Theodor Dreyer. She was also a short story writer and a novelist of national renown. She secretly married Ayi Tendulkar, an Indian screenwriter, journalist, and actor, in 1938. Harbou remained in Germany during the war and continued writing scripts and directing two films (both of which had problems with Nazi censors). At a 1954 rescreening of "Der Müde Tod," she slipped and fell, dying several days later of complications.
Published originally in 1926 and in English in 1927, the novel was the basis for and written in tandem with Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film Metropolis. An example of expressionist literature, the story is considered the only way to understand the movie of the same name. The novel rendition expertly reproduces the ambitious nature of Wiemer German cinema and is even available online for free.
OSAMU DAZAI, NO LONGER HUMAN (ARCTICZUKO.TUMBLR.COM)
Osamu Dazai, one of 20th century Japan's best fiction authors, is considered a pioneer in Japanese fiction writing. Yet, his immense talent is perpetually overshadowed by a life strung with tragedy.
Shuji Tsushima was born into the Tsushima clan, an aristocratic family in the Kanagi region of Japan before he took on Osamu Dazai as his pen name. On June 29th, 1909, he was born into privilege, having access to a large mansion filled with servants. The family's luxuries can be attributed to the tremendous political influence received by his father, Tushima Gen'emon. The Tsushima family was large, with Gen'emon and Tane Tsushima giving birth to eleven children. However, Tane's health deteriorated rapidly after the birth of the eleventh child. With his father busy, and his mother bedridden, Shuji's upbringing resided with their family's maids and workers.
While attending Hirosaki University, the sudden suicide of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who also happened to be his favourite author, caused him unexplainable grief, and sooner or later, his life would be driven by this decision. The great potential he showed academically soon became missed classes and failed exams. To compound matters, Shuji developed a drinking problem coupled with an attraction towards prostitutes. In 1929, while still studying at University. Shuji attempted suicide for the very first time. Unsuccessful, but it would only lead to a series of more suicide attempts, including his second attempt with Shimeko Tanabe - a hostess whom he met in a bar, the pair attempted to drown off a beach. Shuji ended up surviving through the assistance of a nearby fishing boat, while Shimeko was not as fortunate.
Several years and several relationships later, in the era of Japan's rehabilitation post-war, Shuji or Osamu's popularity reached its peak. His first famous work, post-war os Viyon no Tsuma, was set in a post-war Tokyo, the story's protagonist; a woman who suffered after the war had left her with nothing. His next novel Shayo, also known for its English title, The Setting Sun, was heavily influenced by a Japanese woman named Shizuko Ota and her own work of transcribing the events of her life after the war. More than a big fan of Osamu, Shizuko ends up having an affair with Osamu, leading to Osamu having an illegitimate daughter with Shizuko.
Osamu's life again began spiralling into turmoil, following the birth of a daughter out of wedlock. His mental health declined, coupled with alcoholism and a diagnose of tuberculosis from before the war. In the end, he abandoned his second wife and his mistress, and his next relationship would end up being his last.
Dazai and Tomie's bodies discovered in 1948
The last woman in Osamu Dazai's life is Tome Yamazaki, a beautician. The two developed a relationship, living together. During their time together, Osamu wrote his most famous novel - Ningen Shikkaku or No Longer Human. He was able to finish the book successfully before committing suicide with Tomie. The two drowned themselves in a river near their home.
Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human tells the emotional and captivating story of a young man caught in the disintegration of Japanese aristocratic traditions amidst the impact of Western ideas. Consequently, he finds himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title). Narrated in the first person, it contains several elements which portray the tone of an autobiography. Through recurrent themes of Dazai's own life, including suicide, social alienation, and depression. And as of January 1, 2019, the book is in the public domain.
Pio Baroja
1872-1956
Death visits the paupers` house by Johannes Stradanus (Jan Van Der Straet) (1523-1605, Belgium)
The Spanish novelist and essayist Pío Baroja y Nessi is considered one of the signifIcant writers of the Spanish Literary movement: The Generation of 1898. His works consistently explore self-criticism with pessimistic views of life.
Portrait by Joaquin Sorolla (1914)
Pío was born in San Sebastián, Spain on Dec. 28, 1872. In 1879 his family moved to Madrid, where at 15, he studied medicine. Receiving his doctorate in medicine at the University of Madrid in 1893, he spent the next year as a country doctor in Cestona. Dismayed by the hardships and petty intrigues of country life, Baroja renounced his medical post in 1895. The shock of the Spanish-American War in 1898 provoked in him, as in many of his contemporaries, resentment against Spain's social abuses and the influence of the post-Inquisition Catholic Church. By 1898, he began contributing articles to the journal Revista Nueva and made the first of many trips to Paris. Baroja grouped most of his novels into cycles or trilogies. By 1902, Baroja devoted himself entirely to writing, turning out two or more books almost every year until his death, having published more than 100 books, including over 60 novels as well as volumes of memoirs, collections of short stories, essays, and poems.
His techniques to depict action in his novels include sacrificing structure to a practically haphazard flow of people, places, plots, and subplots, with style marked by short, choppy paragraphs. Baroja enjoyed considerable fame within Spain and abroad, and many of his novels were translated into English. In 1935 he was admitted to the Spanish Royal Academy. His works influenced many younger writers, notably Ernest Hemingway, who visited Baroja in Madrid in 1956 to declare his debt to him. Baroja died that same year on Oct. 30, 1956, at the age of 83.
Hemingway visits Baroja, 1956
"Allow me to pay this small tribute to you who taught so much to those of us who wanted to be writers when we were young. I deplore the fact that you have not yet received a Nobel Prize, especially when it was given to so many who deserved it less, like me, who am only an adventurer."
- Ernest Hemingway, 1956.
Characters of a reprehensible nature; the likes of which include vagabonds, adventurers, prostitutes, and anarchists, whose cynicism and rebellious spirit symbolized the author's ideal of a life of action, are regular features of a Baroja protagonist. His characters are committed only to a life of action, who, lacking constructive purpose, find themselves condemned to final ruin. He believed that only action has any positive value in a hostile and absurd world. Personal failure is the dominant theme of a typical Baroja novel.
JOSÉ APARICIO INGLADA - El Hambre en Madrid (Museo Municipal de Madrid, c. 1818) - Madrid's Year of Hunger
The Quest, the first of the La Lucha Por la Vida (The Struggle for Life) trilogy, presents a gritty, often brutal picture of urban life in working-class Madrid, as the protagonist, Manuel Alcazar, is pummelled by socio-economic forces beyond his control. While the novel concentrates on the social contrasts and difficulties of working-class life in Madrid, vital clues show the larger context in which Baroja, who became deeply influenced by the shock of the Spanish-American War, wrote. The war demoralized Spain, leaving in its wake the self-image of a weak and backward nation; for many Spaniards, their country’s perceived stagnation and backwardness was a dramatic contrast to America’s forward-looking energy and drive.
The period’s politics are less prominent in The Quest’s content than Baroja’s graphic elicitation of the sights, sounds, and smells of daily life in Madrid. Evocatively capturing the changes of the nineteenth century as urban populations, not just in Madrid but other cities rose considerably. Like Manuel, peasants flocked to urban centers, hoping for economic opportunity but often found only slums, hardships, and petty intrigues instead. The Quest is a worthwhile starter for anyone looking to explore one of Spain’s most celebrated writers.
Algonquin’s School of Media and Design offers a two-year program in Professional Writing, designed for people who have an aptitude and passion for writing and a willingness to practise their craft in a variety of media. This is the online portion of that media training. Graduates will possess exemplary writing skills for both print media and electronic platforms, and this is their practice ground.
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