Title: "Gruff old scientists and rough old scholars" : the caricature of intellectualism in Aldous Huxley's short stories
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2021, vol. 47, iss. 2, pp. 105-117
Extent
105-117
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2021-2-8
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/144879
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This essay examines Aldous Huxley's short stories from early "Happily Ever After" to more accomplished "Chawdron" and "The Rest Cure". My analysis shows that criticism of perverted, one-dimensional intellectualism is one of the most important themes in Huxley's short fiction. His stories often mock superficial public school teachers, delusional academics, art snobs, unimaginative critics, and intellectuals who neglect or deliberately suppress emotions and thus limit their perception of reality. Huxley's criticism reveals his position on diverse phenomena ranging from British education to Modernist art. It also indicates his dissatisfaction with dominant ideas at the beginning of the XX century, positioning him as a unique thinker of the Modernist era.
References
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[29] Witemeyer, Hugh (1997) Modernism Resartus. In: Witemeyer, Hugh (ed). The Future of Modernism. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
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[2] Baker, Robert S. (1974) Spandrell's "Lydian Heaven". Moral Masochism and the Centrality of Spandrell in Huxley's Point Counter Point. Criticism 16 (2), 120–135.
[3] Bauman, Zygmunt (1993) Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
[4] Bedford, Sybille (1973) Aldous Huxley: A Biography, Volume One: 1894-1939. London: Chatto & Windus.
[5] Bell, Michael (1999) The metaphysics of Modernism. In: Michael Levenson (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9–32.
[6] Bradshaw, David (1996) The Best of Companions: J. W. N. Sullivan, Aldous Huxley, and the New Physics. The Review of English Studies 47 (186), 188–206.
[7] Childs, Peter (2000) Modernism. London and New York: Routledge.
[8] Congdon, Brad (2011) "Community, Identity, Stability": The Scientific Society and the Future of Religion in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. ESC: English Studies in Canada 37 (3–4), 83–105. | DOI 10.1353/esc.2011.0041
[9] Conner, Frederick W. (1973) "Attention"!: Aldous Huxley's Epistemological Route to Salvation. The Sewanee Review, Vol. 81, No. 2, 282–308
[10] Deery, June (1996) Aldous Huxley and the Mysticism of Science. London: MacMillan Press Ltd.
[11] Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1957) On Poetry and Poets. London: Faber & Faber.
[12] Fletcher, John & Bradbury, Malcolm (1991) The Introverted Novel. In: Bradbury, Malcolm and McFarlane, James (ed.) Modernism: 1890–1930. London: Penguin Books, 393–416.
[13] Gill, K. S. (1981). Aldous Huxley: The quest for synthetic sainthood. Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, 601-612.
[14] Huxley Aldous (1958) Collected Essays. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
[15] Huxley, Aldous (1992) Collected Short Stories. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Inc.
[16] Huxley, Aldous (1937) Do What You Will. London: Watts & Co.
[17] Huxley, Aldous (1931) Music at Night and other Essays. New York: Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc.
[18] Huxley, Aldous (2004) Point Counter Point. London: Vintage Books.
[19] Huxley, Aldous (1957) Proper Studies. London: Chatto & Windus.
[20] Huxley, Aldous (2009) The Perennial Philosophy. New York: Harper Publishers.
[21] Meckier, Jerome (2002) Aldous Huxley's Americanization of the "Brave New World" Typescript. Twentieth Century Literature 48 (4), 427–460.
[22] Meckier, Jerome (1969) Aldous Huxley: Satire and Structure. London: Chatto & Windus.
[23] Murray, Nicholas (2003) Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual. London: Abacus.
[24] Paulsell, Sally A. (1995) "Color and Light: Huxley's Pathway to Spiritual Reality." Twentieth Century Literature 41 (1), 81–107. | DOI 10.2307/441716
[25] Rosenhan, Claudia (2005) An attribution in Huxley's short story "Chawdron" via Lawrence and Ludovici. Notes and Queries 52 (1), 95–97. | DOI 10.1093/notesj/gji139
[26] Sheppard, Richard (1997) Modernism, language, and experimental poetry: On leaping over bannisters and learning how to fly. The Modern Language Review 92 (1), 98–123.
[27] Sion, Ronald. T. (2010) Aldous Huxley and the Search for Meaning. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland.
[28] Vitoux, Pierre (1974) Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence: An Attempt at Intellectual Sympathy. The Modern Language Review 69 (3), 501–522.
[29] Witemeyer, Hugh (1997) Modernism Resartus. In: Witemeyer, Hugh (ed). The Future of Modernism. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
[30] Yeats, William Butler (1936) Introduction. Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935. Oxford: Oxford University Press.