For Thursday & Almost, Maine announcement

Remember that we'll be watching a short excerpt of Alice in Wonderland in class on Thursday, so we can decide in what ways the modern myth of Alice is different than the original (we might look at a few other examples as well). 

Also, because I couldn't get the screen working today, here's the announcement for the play that two of your fellow students (and one professor, to remain nameless) will be starring in this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Remember that admission is free at the show starts at 7:30 in the Halley Brown Ford Arts Center--in the smaller black box theater, not on the mainstage (you'll see where it is when you get there). Here's the university's press release: https://www.ecok.edu/news/almost-maine-take-stage-ecu

See you on Thursday! 

For Tuesday: Finish Alice in Wonderland!

Magritte, The Portrait (1935)

Sorry for the delay--I forgot to post these yesterday! But go ahead and try to finish the book for Tuesday since it's pretty short, and we'll have one more set of questions to round it out. On Thursday, we'll watch an excerpt from a recent adaptation of Alice in Wonderland to discuss ideas associated with your Mid-Term Paper. 

Answer two of the following:

Q1: How subversive should we consider the book, especially as it consistently parodies monarchs (this is written under Queen Victoria, after all), moral poetry, social norms, education, and even the courts of law. Is this all just cheeky nonsense to amuse children? Or is it also aimed at getting a chuckle (or a gasp) from the adults reading it aloud to their sons and daughters? An example that might support this?

Q2: How does Alice's approach to Wonderland change throughout the novel? As she grows in size, does she also 'grow' in other ways as well? Is there a hidden moral lesson in the character of Alice, perhaps for the 'real' Alice to pick up on?

Q3: In Chapter IX, the Duchess tells Alice to "Be what you would seem to be--or, if you'd like it put more simply--'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." Though this sounds like nonsense, why might this support a certain view of British society we've seen in the other books in class?

Q4: Recently, the books of Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among others) has come under fire for offering damaging characters and stories to children, and many of his books have been slightly re-written so as not to offend young readers (substituting "ugly" for "unpleasant," for instance). As one of the first true classics of children's literature, how might Alice in Wonderland come under fire for offensive stereotypes, and triggering scenes and language? Would the 'mad' Hatter and March Hare pass muster today? Or the homicidal Queen? 

Mid-Term Paper: The Original vs. The Myth (due March 9)

English 2653

Mid-Term Paper: The Original vs. the Myth

INTRO: One of the most common statements a reader can make upon encountering Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes¸ or Alice in Wonderland in the original is, “I didn’t know it was like this!” Even though both are iconic works of literature that have spawned dozens of ‘sequels’ in books, films, comics, and elsewhere, relatively few people experience the original—or know how it differs from its modern-day mythology. And yet, the book is what remains, and what we ultimately have to return to so we can understand who these characters are and why their stories so captivated their audiences’ imaginations.

PROMPT: For this paper, I want you to explore the difference between the original and the myth with at least ONE of these works. To do this, consider what you knew, or thought you knew, about the work before you read it, and what surprised you, excited you, or confused (even annoyed) you about the real thing. Compare this to at least ONE of the modern-day adaptations so we can understand how they willfully (or ignorantly?) interpret the characters and give people a different twist on the iconic stories. You might consider films, shows, fan fiction, and other popular culture depictions that are today more visible than the books themselves.

ALSO: Also, find at least 2 articles that discuss some aspect of your novel: these could be critical articles about some aspect of the novel itself, or one of the characters, or the modern-day adaptations, or anything related to our understanding of the book. Bring this into your conversation, so we can understand some of the issues surrounding the original vs. the myth of your work.

AND: Be sure to CLOSE READ specific passages of the novel to show us important themes and ideas that might not make it into the myth, or that you feel are essential for understanding its importance. Quote too from your articles and from your other primary source, the film/show/comic, etc. The idea is to have a CONVERSATION about the myth vs. the work with several different ‘people,’ these being your primary and secondary sources.

 REQUIREMENTS

• Page limit up to you, but no one-pagers, please! Double space, too!
• At least 1 other primary source, and at least 2 secondary sources
• Close reading from the novel (enough to establish some important ideas/passages)
• In-text citations should loosely follow MLA format and include a Works Cited page
• You must have fun with this! This is exciting—you’re educating people on how popular culture changes literature, and whether or not this is for the greater good. Be a teacher…some of you might use these ideas in a future classroom.
• DUE THURSDAY, MARCH 9^th by 5pm [no class that day]

 

For Thursday: Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Chapters I-VI

For Thursday's class, read at least through the "Pig and Pepper" Chapter (VI), though read more if you like. However, we're going to break this into two parts, so we'll finish the rest for next week. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How might Alice in Wonderland be a satire of a Victorian childhood? From what we read here, what might have been expected of young girls or children in the 1860's? What is Carroll specifically making fun of or parodying through Alice's adventures?

Q2: When Carroll originally wrote the book for Alice Liddell (the daughter of a friend), he included his own illustrations throughout. When the book was properly published, the publisher insisted on more professional illustrations, and John Tenniel (a popular artist) was hired to provide illustrations throughout. Why are the illustrations as important as the text of the story? What do they add to the experience of reading Alice in Wonderland? 

Q3: Writing about Magritte's paintings, Marcel Pacquet said that "Things have a flip side, a reverse, which is even more curious and fascinating than their manifested form." How does Carroll show us the same thing through Alice's adventures through the rabbit hole? Why might the entire book be a surrealist adventure into the mundane? 

Q4: Why do you think the work is so obsessed with eating and drinking (but mostly eating)? Why does she need to consume things to grow bigger or smaller? Could this relate to a child's understanding of how the world works? Sort of like the train coming through the chimney in Magritte's painting? 

 

For Thursday: Doyle, "The Speckled Band" and "The Copper Beeches"

REMEMBER, no questions this time around, since we'll have an in-class writing response over the two stories. Below are some ideas to consider for Thursday...

* How do racial stereotypes and fears creep into these stories as well, esp. "The Speckled Band"?

* What taboos do these stories uncover about the "civilized world" of English high society? What horrors are being conducted behind closed doors? Or under respectable professions?

* Does Holmes follow a moral code like many superheroes in modern comics & film? Like Batman, does he refrain from killing his victims? Does he go too far?

* How does Holmes' egotism get in the way of his work? Does Watson notice this?

* Why does Holmes fear the country more than the city? What makes the country more dangerous and a greater nest of crime? 

* What role do women play in these stories? Are they still mute victims, like Elizabeth in Frankenstein? Or are they granted more agency (like Irene Adler)? 

For Tuesday: Doyle, "The Red-Headed League," "The Five Orange Pips," and "The Man With the Twisted Lip"

Since time is pressing, we'll read three stories for Tuesday, but I'm not worried if you don't get all three read. Read as much as you can, but at least read two of them. Or read them all! :) We just don't have time to discuss each and every one, sadly.

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: In “The Five Orange Pips,” Watson recalls a list he once made (in an earlier Holmes novella, The Sign of Scarlet), of Holmes’ skills and defects, admitting that he knows only a little Botany, random Chemistry, but everything possible about criminal literature. We also see Holmes resorting to an encyclopedia to learn about the Klu Klux Klan. Is Watson (or Doyle) trying to demystify Holmes in these stories? Is he becoming more of a man and less of a myth? 

Q2: In “The Red-Headed League,” Holmes tells Watson, “the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious is proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.” Does this theory hold up in the mystery of the “Red-Headed League?” If so, what might this suggest about the psychology of criminals—and the reason they often get away?

Q3: In many ways, “The Five Orange Pips” could almost be a ghost story in the vein of “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “The Monkey’s Paw.” What does it have in common with these stories, and do you think Doyle ‘shifts’ the story away from the supernatural elements? Or does he affirm it by the end of the story? Consider, too, that this is one of Holmes’ rare failures—at least in the sense of bringing the criminals to justice.

Q4: How might "The Man With the Twisted Lip" by a kind of Jekyll and Hyde story without the scientific or supernatural element? Why might both stories (or Frankenstein, for that matter) deal with some of the deepest and darkest taboos of English society? Note, too, that it's another story of a "crime without a crime." 

Q5: At the end of “The Red-Headed League,” Watson calls Holmes a “benefactor of the race.” But he waves this off, saying merely that “man is nothing, work is everything” (to translate from the French). What do you think he means by this? How might this reveal an important aspect of Holmes’ character, particularly if we consider him a precursor to the modern-day superhero?

For Thursday: Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "A Case of Identity"

Answer two of the following for Thursday's class:

Q1: Like Frankenstein, the Holmes stories all frame narratives related by Holmes’ assistant, Dr. Watson, who is telling them long after the fact (presumably, when Holmes is no longer around for new advenftures). Why do you think Doyle adopted this approach? Is it similar to the Walton-Frankenstein connection? Is Watson a kind of Walton? Or is there more to the frame narration?

Q2: Both stories are about the dangers women in the late-19th century face while trying to be independent. While Irene Adler is much more aggressive and clever than Miss Sutherland, what makes each one especially vulnerable? Is Holmes sympathetic or oblivious to their situation?

Q3: Iain Pears, a critic and mystery novelist, wrote of Sherlock Holmes that he “is the archetypal ‘new man’ of the Victorian age, a meritocrat, living solely off his brains, dislocated socially and scornful of the society in which he lives.” Where do we see this in the stories? What makes him an ‘outsider,’ yet someone who earns his own way in the world without relying on class or wealth?

Q4: In “A Case of Identity,” Holmes writes, “life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence.” This sounds like a statement someone might make in a typical horror story about ghosts and monsters. So what does he mean by the “strange” things which are completely “normal” all around us? Why would we perceive these things as uncanny?

For Tuesday: Art Response #2: Edvard Munch (preparing for Sherlock Holmes!)

If you missed class today (Thursday) because of the icy roads, no big deal--I didn't count you absent. However, we did finish our discussion of Frankenstein (a lot of fun!) and will be moving ahead next week. See the post below this one for the revised schedule, barring any more snow/ice days! 

For Tuesday, we'll do another in-class writing to a painting by the Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch, who complements some aspects of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. The painting above is one of his famous ones, and might be a depiction of the streets of Holmes' London itself, "Evening on Karl Johan Street," though I won't be using that one in class on Tuesday. However, it might be one you decide to use in your Art & Literature Paper, should you chose to do it.

For Thursday, we'll be reading the first two stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which are "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "A Case of Identity." So feel free to read ahead. I'll post questions for them after Tuesday's class.

See you next week! 

Tomorrow's Class and Revised Schedule

NOTE: Class seems to be on for Thursday (the 2nd), so come if you think you can safely make it. The roads should be okay in many places, but maybe not in your neck of the woods. 

I've posted a revised schedule for the next few weeks so we can get back on track. The due date for the paper is the same, and only a few minor dates changed. So be sure to follow this schedule until Spring Break, at which point it the old schedule will resume. I'll assign the Mid-Term paper next week, so stay tuned! 

 

R 2                  Shelley, Frankenstein, last chapters [rescheduled] 

 

T 7                  Art Response #2: Edvard Munch 

R 9                  Doyle, Sherlock Holmes TBA

 

14                    Doyle, Sherlock Holmes TBA

16                    Doyle, Sherlock Holmes TBA 

 

21                    Art Response #3: Gustave Dore; 

                        Mid-Term Paper due by 5pm 

23                    Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

28                    Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

MARCH

2                      Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

7                      Art Response #4: Edward Burne-Jones

9                      Barrie, Peter Pan

 

14-16                         Spring Break