Tides of Memory: Reading Riders to the Sea and The Old Man and the Sea through the Blue Humanities

Abstract

This article looks at J. M. Synges Riders to the Sea and Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea from a Blue Humanities perspective. It says that these two stories are blue" literature that thinks about the ocean in a way that is similar to what people are saying about the ocean today. The article uses ideas from scholars like Steve Mentz, Philip Steinberg and Stacy Alaimo to see how the sea is shown as a living thing that can act on its own in these stories. It also looks at how the ocean affects who people are and how they remember things.
The article talks about how men and women deal with loss in ways in Synges story. It looks at how being alone on the ocean makes people think about their place in the world in Hemingways story. The article says that both stories have a way of thinking about the ocean and our place in it. By looking at these stories through the Blue Humanities we can understand them better and see how they fit into bigger conversations about people and the ocean. The Blue Humanities helps us see that J. M. Synges Riders to the Sea and Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea are not important literature, but also part of a bigger discussion, about how people interact with the ocean.

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