Influence of Religion at Literature and Art review

Influence of Religion at and Art - Literature review ExampleThis paper will begin with the disceptation that the twentieth century was the most discrepant period in the history of mankind. On the one hand that was the epoch of scientific, technical and intellectual progress and huge hitches in all spheres of human activity. On the other, the 20th century was the age of deep spiritual crisis. Every person in the world revised elder established ideas about good and evil. Thomas Mann called it the age of endless wars and revolutions (Jasper, 1992, p. 54). It assumed collisions not only between countries and classes but also in human minds and souls. The thorough experience of the World War I and World War II was described by American writers who came to fight young, full of hopes and returned from the war with destroyed dreams and believes without purpose the new ones. Such writers created their own literature - the literature of Lost Generation. In their whole kit and boodle Ernes t Hemingway, William Folkner and others depicted disregarded surroundings, estrangement and deep pessimism caused by uncivilized reality. Ernest Hemingway wrote when men fight for the freedom of their country against a foreign invasion, and when these men are your friends, some few friends and some of long radixing, you know how they were attached and how they fought, you learn, ceremonial occasion them live and fight and die, you learn that there are worse things than war. Cowardice is worse, treachery is worse, and simple selfishness is worse (Brian, 1988, p. 73). People, who got the scar of the war did not believe in deity any more. The crisis of the twentieth century was one of the social phenomena that had to be acknowledged before it was dealt with. The way out of the crisis was hard and long because the main grounds of it was the changing of the attitude towards the Christian dogmas. Outstanding German philosopher Fridrich Nitse wrote Cin one casept of God still was the strongest objection against existing We disclaim God. We deny the responsibility in God and due to this well save the world for the first clock (Pelican, 1991, p. 83). Another philosopher Thomas Mann said that Christianity was one of the bases on which our civilization lied. In such turbulent multiplication every person who was spiritually free and not only swimming with the stream of the age had an urgent necessity to reappraise his values, to realize them again and stand up for them. The 20th century strictly criticised Christian morality. Nevertheless that criticism touched only the superficial ideas but the deep Christian dogmas that were found once stayed virginal (Jasper, 1992, p. 69). For the last two thousand years you could hardly find a literary work where the theme of religion, faith or God was omitted. These themes were omnipresent. Their variations - Christian images, symbols, allusions, associations, philosophical reflections on God were found in works of different w riters, different genres and styles. American literature of the 20th century was not an exception. Till the time Kurt Vonneguts usage of Christian motives were not thoroughly examined. The critics had an opinion that Christianity and Vonnegut were almost incompatible. They supposed the writers attitude towards Christianity was not serious but even negative. Only the last researches of his works showed the role and meaning of Christianity in authors world outlook. Religion played an important role in Vonneguts artistic world and the Bible was the main element of the authors thinking. Vonnegut underscore the positive beginning of Christianity, its appeal to universal love. Nevertheless Vonnegut thought that the Christian religion couldnt prevent shocking crimes of the 20th century. J. Lundguist wrote a book dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut and his works. In it he analysed Vonneguts manner of writing and pointed out the cosmic irony as the main feature of writers method. He also touched the theme of Christian religion especially while analysing the Vonneguts novel Slaughter-House Five (1969). Lundguist compared the main hero of the novel with Jesus Christ.