Annotated Bibliography

Writing Style and Ernest Hemingway

Abby Ghibaudy

Cohen, Milton.  “Soldiers Voices ‘In Our Time‘: Hemingway’s Ventriloquism.”  The

            Hemingway Review 20 (2000): 22-29.  [Literature Online]

            “In Our Time,” by Ernest Hemingway, is a compilation of short stories told by several soldiers. The soldier’s voices span three nationalities, three battle theaters, and two wars - World War I and the Greco-Turkish War of 1920-1922. Critics argue the soldier’s voices are actually Hemingway’s voice conveyed through the main character, Nick Adams.  Cohen, on the other hand, denies this claim and defends Hemingway’s use of “distinctive prose styles particular to each speaker and situation.” The soldier’s words are often ambiguous, yet, the author has deconstructed the prose to reveal distinctly separate voices.  Critics further argue that American accents appearing in French and Italian army units result in “Hemingway ventriloquism.”  Others praise the style for portraying a “universality of experience.”  The nationalities of the soldiers are obsolete because war has the same effect on everyone: war is a chaotic state of death, violence and horror.  However, Cohen persists that the piece contains a variety of voices and in effect achieves particular states of physical experiences and psychological affects. (160)

Kleinman, Craig.  “Dirty Tricks and Wordy Jokes: The Politics of Recollection in ‘A

            Farewell to Arms.’”  The Hemingway Review 15 (1995): 54-72.  [InfoTrac Web -    

            Expanded Academic]

            This review examines the role of love jokes, war jokes and word play in Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.”  Kleinman argues that Hemingway’s humor is a means of ridiculing the system and exposing the absurdities of war.  The characters, themselves, in “A Farewell to Arms,” use jokes to cope with everyday turmoils and painful recollections.  The serious themes confronted in the novel are made friendlier to readers through the careful disguise of subtle jokes.  Stylistically, if the jokes were of a blunt nature, they would appear inappropriate in their placement and context.  Kleinman also quotes exerts from “A Farewell to Arms” to support his claims.  (105)

Kobler, J.  “Ernest Hemingway: Journalist and Artist.”  Ann Arbor, Michigan.  UMI

            Research Press.  1968.  [Infokat]

            In 1920, Hemingway immersed himself into writing fiction and abandoned his previous profession in journalism.  Critics, in this specific novel, summarize Hemingway’s writing style as having journalistic tendencies.  Specifically, they label him a ‘recording device.’  Despite this critical view, Hemingway regarded himself as a creative fiction writer.  Kobler confronts the varying points of view while making distinctions between recording (describing) and making (imaginative) in Hemingway’s writings.  Dialogue, action verbs, attributive words and other word choices are also examined to differentiate between the two different forms of writing that occupied Hemingway’s life.  Is he a journalist, fiction writer, or a fiction writer with journalistic tendencies?  (108)

Nakjavani, Erik.  “The Aesthetics of the Visible and the Invisible: Hemingway and

            Cezanne.”  The Hemingway Review 5 (1986): 2-12.  [Academic Search Premier] 

            “I’ll learn as much from painters about how to write as from writers,” said Hemingway.  His affinity for visual art was underlined by his admiration for Cezanne.  Similar to Cizanne’s paintings, Hemingway attempted to depict visual images; however, unlike Cezanne he used the written word as a tool.  His “iceberg theory,” paralleled by Cezanne’s “iconic augmentation theory,” finds force in creating visual images through “latently evoking images.”  Hence, the objects described (or painted) work to stimulate the unwritten (or not painted) details.  Descriptions of various settings depicted in Hemingway’s novels are listed as examples.  Nakjavani also directly quotes exerts from Hemingway’s books that refer to Cezanne, himself. (107)

Phillips, Larry.  “On Writing.” New York. Charles Scribner’s Sons.  1984.  [Infokat]

            “Ernest Hemingway on Writing” assembles a coherent understanding of what Hemingway thought it meant to be a writer. Letters excerpts and other forms of written works combine to act as an actual handbook for writers.  The collection also includes Hemingway’s novels, stories, interviews, and commissioned articles; as well as letters to editors, friends, fellow artists, and critics. Topics range from a 1929 letter congratulating F. Scott Fitzgerald on the completion of his book to discussing the social economic implications on writing.  Records also show Hemingway advising other writers on their work habits, character development, topical choices, and choices of obscenity.  The editor acknowledges that Hemingway did exactly what he intended not to do; he left a wealth of material for critics and pundits to tear down forever. However, it’s agreed that Hemingway would have been pleased that his work was being used for future generations of writers.  (146)

Portch, Stephen.  “The Hemingway Touch.”  The Hemingway Review 2 (1982): 43-46. 

            [Academic Search Premiere]

            Hemingway methodically includes silent dialogues and gestures in his writings to enhance meanings.  Readers interpret such non-verbal communication subconsciously: “people feel something more than they [understand],” said Portch.  Hemingway, in “Hills like White Elephants,” stylistically conveys the tension between two characters through the use of silence.  Upon boarding a train the narrator discloses a time sequence of a 45-minute train ride.  A “serving woman” later announces a 5-minute arrival timing.  The deafening presence of silence supports what the occasional dialogue states.  Likewise, the female smiles “brightly” at the serving woman while merely offering only a smile to her partner.  The division is clear.  Hence, the complex nature of human psyches and relationships are revealed through Hemingway’s subtleties of human action.  (122)

Raabe, David.  “Hemingway’s Anatomical Metonymies.”  Journal of Modern Literature 21 (1999):

            159-163.  [Literature Online] 

            Metonymy is a figure of speech, which replaces the name of one thing with the name of some other related object. Hence, the phrase ‘lands belonging to the crown’ converts the meaning of ‘crown’ to mean government. Such stylistic substitutions of words appear in Hemingway’s works to create heightened character development and audience participation.  Specifically, he uses metonymies to replace objects in the story with parts and functions of the human body.  He alludes to emotional associations, thus, allowing readers to make their own assumptions and connections between the metonymies. Consequently, audiences develop empathy for Hemingway’s characters, specifically through attaching themselves to his verbal usages. Fredrick Henry’s entree choices in “A Farewell to Arms” and Jake Barnes’ witnessing fire balloons in “The Sun Also Rises” are cited as examples.  Entree choices foreshadow the upcoming death of Henry’s wife while the fire balloons represent Barnes’ anguish over his sexual impotence.  (150)

Tetlow, Wendolyn.  “Hemingway’s ‘In Our Time:’ Lyrical Dimensions.”  Studies in the

Novel 26 (1994): 332-334.  [Literature Online]

            A review of “Hemingway’s ‘In Our Time:’ Lyrical Dimensions” reveals Tetlow’s desire to explain the relevance of this work as a stylistic and thematic “thread connecting Hemingway’s entire canon of work.” Her thesis states that “In Our Time” is poetry written into prose.  Hemingway’s collection of short stories, “In Our Time,” was a work in progress. He released four editions over the course of eight years, revising and expanding in each subsequent work. Tetlow examines each of these works and how Hemingway carefully crafted each to achieve a precise desired effect.  Tetlow refers to the stylistic changes between pieces as “tonal centers,” because of the contradictory brevity and yet conservation they achieve.  (112)