Hemingway and Hitchcock: An examination of the aesthetic modernity

This dissertation examines the aesthetic vision common to Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Hitchcock as they present the modern world. Both artists explore themes of decadence, moving away from their Victorian upbringings as they experience the twentieth century. Past values associated with religious, social, and political institutions fail to explain the random pain and violence of the modern world. These institutions need to be critically examined to find new values, associating their works to the principles of the avant-garde. This interdisciplinary study of literature and film concludes that Hemingway and Hitchcock, two masters of their respective art forms, shared artistic themes and techniques in their search to define modernity, detailing how traditional ideals clash with contemporary experience to create moods stressing deterioration, decadence, and degradation.