AMST 246: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner with Prof. Wai Chee Dimock

Lecture 19 - Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Part IV [November 3, 2011]

<< previous session | next session >>

Overview:

Professor Wai Chee Dimock concludes her discussion of For Whom the Bell Tolls by reading the novel as a narrative of dispossession and repossession. She argues that the rape of Maria, which takes place in front of a barbershop mirror, enacts one type of disempowerment; the end of Robert Jordan’s life represents another, but with the potential for redemption. She shows how Jordan vacillates between a “have” and a “have not,” depending on how ironically one understands Maria’s question “What hast thou?”

Warning: This lecture contains graphic content and/or adult language that some users may find disturbing.

Reading Assignment:

Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Resources:

Credit List [PDF]