Notes on Lecture: On Paris by Ernest Hemingway

Overview

• Focus: AQA Language and Literature Paris Anthology for A-level study
• Text: "On Paris" by Ernest Hemingway
• Hemingway's column from Paris to a Toronto newspaper
• Critique of wannabes and fakers in Paris during prohibition

Structure of the Column

1. American Bohemians in Paris
   • Satire on superficial artists at Café Rotonde
2. Wild Night of Music in Paris
   • Critique of an exaggerated Paris for exploiting rich Americans
   • Describes a tourist's mugging in gritty Paris
3. The Mecca of Fakers
   • Reflection on fakers in Paris exaggerating fame
   • Examples include hyped boxers exposed in the ring

Context

• Hemingway: Renowned 20th-century writer with a masculine style
• Paris as the literary center in Hemingway's time
• Rock stars of the literary world

Genre and Purpose

• Gossip or society column in a newspaper
• Purpose: To entertain and inform on Parisian lifestyle
• Audience: Readers with literary and cultural interests, global outlook

Subjects and Themes

• Focus on foreign visitors' behavior in Paris
• Satire on tourists with exaggerated, grotesque depictions
• Comparison between authentic (muggers) and shallow (tourists)

Hemingway's Style and Linguistic Features

• High literary register, effective devices for analysis
• Metaphors and Comparisons
  • Extended aquatic metaphor: Describes visitors as scum
  • Animalistic metaphor: Café Rotonde as a birdhouse
  • Rhetorical comparison: Eating a jug of soured molasses
• Use of Nouns and Adjectives
  • Personal nouns with adjectives to convey criticism
  • Examples: Dumpy woman, loafers, fakers
• Grammar and Tense
  • Present tense for urgency and current relevance
  • Manipulation of tense aspect for narrative
  • Use of future tense for dramatic effect

Perspective and Pragmatics

• Avoids first person for a general perspective
• Use of second person for shared experience with readers
• Third person for distant, critical observation
• Irony for humor, e.g., calling artwork "masterpiece"
• Pragmatic irony in dialogue between muggers

Connection to Other Texts

• Comparison with other texts featuring crime, expatriate lifestyle, satire
• Similarity to Bill Bryson's satirical style and other character-focused texts
• Comparable to journalistic works like Williams's letters from France

Conclusion

• Rich text for linguistic analysis, useful for exam scenarios
• Encouragement to explore other texts in the AQA Paris Anthology series
• Open invitation for comments or questions in lecture series