For Monday: Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chs.9-15 (or the end of Book One)

Answer TWO of the following for Monday's class: 

Q1: Chapter 14 is a delightful discussion of books and taste, in which narrator readily admits that “It was no effort to Catherine to believe that Henry Tilney could never be wrong.  His manner might sometimes surprize, but his meaning must always be just” (109).  How are we supposed to read their budding romance in these chapters?  Is it truly a match of equals? Or is Austen wary of having a man explain everything to a 'lesser' woman? 

Q2: How does Catherine continue to mistake fiction with reality, and allow her aesthetic views to color her personal decisions and beliefs?  In other words, how does she expect life to ‘read’ like a novel, and how does Austen satirize her views in doing so?

Q3: In Chapter 13, Catherine's brother scolds her by saying, "I did not think you had been so obstinate, Catherine...you were not used to be so hard to persuade; you once were the kindest, best-tempered of my sisters" (95). Why is it significant that the more Catherine learns, the more she is censured by her family and friends? How might this reflect many of the themes and sentiments of Wollstonecraft's Maria? 

Q4: A consistent theme in Austen’s novels is the entrance of a young woman into society.  However, such a rite of passage requires experienced chaperones to guide her on her way.  How does Austen satirize the idea of a young woman’s education—and in this case, into the social wilds of Bath?  What dangers or missteps does she encounter that were all too real for women in Austen’s time?  

For Friday: Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapters 1-6

From the 2007 adaptation of Northanger Abbey (we might watch a clip later)

NOTE: Northanger Abbey was probably Austen's first true novel, though she started it around the same time she started Sense and Sensibility. However, it was originally called Susan and was written in the form of letters. She sent this novel to a publisher around 1803 and never got a response. She later had to pay to get the manuscript returned to her, even though the publisher still refused to publish it. Since much time had passed, she thoroughly revised the book and re-titled it, but never published it--death got in the way. Her brother published it and her last book, Persuasion, together in 1819. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How does the narrator defend and/or satirize novel reading throughout the opening chapters of Northanger Abbey?  Consider that novels in the late 18^th century had become primarily the domain of women, chiefly works of a Gothic/romantic nature such as those Catherine and Isabella discuss in Chapter 6.  Can you tell if the narrator approves of them, or does she find them a bad influence on the women of her time?

Q2: We discussed in class on Wednesday about how Austen is satirizing some of the conventions of Gothic novels, particularly the "Mary Sue" characters who are the best, the brightest, and the most beautiful. Where else do you see her satirizing or poking fun at conventions of novels, romances, or of society itself? Where does she show us the opposite of what we might expect?

Q3: In what way might Northanger Abbey be a response to some of the issues of women and freedom we encountered in Wollstonecraft's Maria? While this is a very different work,  how do we know that both women were interested in the same characters and ideas? Is there anything of Maria in Catherine?

Q4: In Chapter 3, Henry Tilney jokingly informs Catherine that “I have hitherto been very remiss, madam, in the proper attentions of a partner here; I have not yet asked you how long you have been in Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the Upper Rooms, the theatre, and the concert; and how you like the place altogether." Based on this scene and others in Bath, what kind of environment is Bath?  Why might Austen be drawn to satirize such a place in her novel?  (By the way, Austen hated Bath!). 

For Monday: Finish Wollstonecraft's Maria

Be sure to finish Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman for Monday's class, and instead of questions, I'll give you a brief in-class response when you get to class. As long as you've finished the book (or gotten close) you'll easily be able to answer the question. Just make sure to bring your book! 

ALSO, we'll be starting Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey soon, so make sure to secure a copy. Below is the handout I gave out in class in case you missed or lost it. It's just some supplementary material about Wollstonecraft from a very recent biography of Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Shelley, that we have available to check out in our library! 

Mary Wollstonecraft (1757-1797)

Major Works: Mary (1787); A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792); Letters from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (1796); Maria, or the Wrongs of Women (1798)

“Women’s lack of book learning, far from being a disadvantage, freed them to be closer to Nature. To Mary, a female artist could aspire to bolder innovations than men like Godwin [her husband]. Mary herself would rather be a Greek poet than read a Greek Poet, rather be a force of Nature than describe one.

This was a brilliant sleight of hand: Mary had taken her lack of formal education and turned it into a strength. Godwin, who had criticized her grammar and her lack of restraint, needed to listen more closely to his heart to attain true greatness. All men did. Spontaneity. Sincerity. These were as important as reason and learned allusions, and were certainly more important than grammatical correctness.

The Wrongs of Woman is unfinished and difficult to read, as Mary was still working on it when she died and had not yet decided how it would end. She knew she was entering taboo territory by discussing female sexual exploitation, but since she was intent on exposing the evils that faced women, she never considered watering down her heroines’ sufferings. For Mary, the asylum was the central image of the book—its crumbling walls and dark passageways are her metaphor for the plight of eighteenth-century women.

Indeed, by having both Maria and Jemima tell their stories, Mary showed that it did not matter whether a woman was rich or poor—either way, she faced the injustice encoded in the English common law. Jemima could not prosecute her abusers. Her masters had the legal right to rape her and victimize her. The same was true for upper-class Maria; her husband has the right to tyrannize her despite her wealth and social status. In fact, this is probably one reason why Mary had difficulty developing the plot; female imprisonment is a necessarily static condition.”

--from Charlotte Gordon, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter, Mary Shelley (in ECU’s library!)

For Friday: Wollstonecraft, Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman (Chs.6-11)

Read the next few chapters and don't worry about understanding every little detail; try to focus on small passages and the ideas you can understand. Remember, too, that this novella is Wollstonecraft's attempt to show people the world they refuse to look at--the plight of unhappily married women and impoverished servants who have no recourse to justice. She wants us to feel their pain and despair even at the expense of writing a balanced, logical story. Also, since she never finished it, she never had time to clean the story up and make it read a bit smoother, as she would have done. So take it with a grain of salt as an important historical work that influenced many writers to come, even if it's not a beach read.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: One of the most powerful lines in the story, and perhaps the most autobiographical one, is when Maria exclaims, "Why was I not born a man, or why was I born at all?" (105). While this might sound melodramatic, why might a woman of this time think these thoughts? What rights and privileges does any man, rich or poor, have over any woman, rich or poor? Why might a woman of intellect and imagination truly wish to be a man?

Q2: In Chapter X, Maria writes that the women in books (some written by men) are often too good, and too sensible, always doing the "right" thing, particularly as submissive wives. However, these women "may possess tenderness; but they want that fire of imagination, which produces active sensibility, and positive virtue" (114). What do you think she means by this? Why would a good, submissive wife lack active and positive qualities? 

Q3: In the story, all the men soon realize that Maria's husband is a con-artist and a swindler. Even Mr. S--, the man intent on seducing her, says that "his character in the commercial world was gone" (119). So why is no one trying to rescue her from the marriage or protect her from his schemes? Aren't gentlemen supposed to be "gallant" and protect the innocent women of society?

Q4: In the late 18th century, and throughout the 19th century, sex was the ultimate taboo topic. It was unthinkable for a woman to write about sex herself, much less the secrets between a husband and wife. What makes this work so shocking in this regard? How does Wollstonecraft flaunt the taboo in the name of truth and justice? What does she want her readers to see and understand about the reality of a wife's sexual existence? 

For Wednesday: Wollstonecraft, Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Woman (Chs.1-5)

From Dore's London: A Pilgrimage (1872)

For Wednesday, be sure to read at least the first five chapters of Maria: Or, the Wrongs of Woman, which is the second story in the collection (you can skip "Mary," which is similar but a bit shorter). The following questions are designed to help you get into the material and consider some of the big themes and ideas in the work. Answer TWO of the four questions and bring them to class on Wednesday. You can either write by hand or type your answers out. 

You'll get full credit for the questions as long as you (a) turn them in on time, and (b) give me an honest, and thoughtful response. I won't give you credit for one-sentence responses or very vague responses that don't show you read the book. Remember, you don't need to understand the work 100% to answer the questions. Just "think out loud" and try to work through the question on paper. Writing about literature helps you understand it much more than if you just read it and closed the book. 

Q1: In the Author's Preface, Wollstonecraft writes that "In writing this novel, I have rather endeavoured to pourtray passions than manners" (59). In saying this, she is aligning herself with the sensibility movement that was sweeping art and literature (like Goya's famous portraits of women who seemed to have souls and thoughts). How does she attempt to make us feel Maria's character and despair? Why might this have been revolutionary for the time? 

Q2: Reflecting on the screams and howls of the mad men and women all around her, Maria says, "from most of the instances she could investigate, she thought [people went mad] because the judgment was weak and unexercised; and that they gained strength by the decay of reason, as the shadows lengthen during the sun's decline" (73). How might this passage reflect Goya's famous statement, "the sleep of reason produces monsters"? What symptom is she diagnosing her society with her? Why do so many of her countrymen go mad once they reach a certain age? 

Q3: How does Jemima's story reflect many of the Romantic sentiments of Blake's "London" and "The Tyger"? (if you missed class on Friday, you might want to read these poems--easily searchable online). Related to this, why do you think Wollstonecraft derails her narrative to give such a full account of Jemima's life and career? 

Q4: Similarly, how does Darnford's story paint a Blake-like picture of innocence and experience among privileged gentlemen in England? How is he taught to view women in society? And why is he so critical of life in America? 

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to British Literature from 1800, "Gothic Women"! This course will examine the development of British literature through three key periods: Romanticism, the Victorian Age, and Modernism/Post-Colonialism through many of the women who shaped the discourse. All too often, women writers, though they were extremely prolific and influential, are written out of the story of British literature in favor of the male authors they often worked with and inspired. Reading their works together shows a different perspective to the growth of several key genres in British literature, such as the novel and short stories, and helps us appreciate how their works challenged what it meant to be British, as well as female, during these revolutionary times. 

To quote the ground-breaking writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, “I come round to my old argument: if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an understanding to improve. And when, to render the present state more complete…she is inclined by present gratification to forget her grand destination, nature is counteracted, or she was born only to procreate and rot” (Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman). 

In other words, women have as much right--and as much instinct--to create literature as men, and by denying their birthright, they would doom their entire sex to mere procreation and rot. The writers in this class were determined to prove, often at great risk to themselves, that they could respond to their male counterparts and create bold new visions to inspire humanity. And in the case of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, they could also warn us of the terrors of technology in the hands of a would-be god. Though far from being a lone example of female insight, Shelley was merely one of a long-line of female writers, learning from and responding to her mentors and heroes (one of which was her own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft!). 

BE SURE TO BUY THE BOOKS FOR CLASS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! We'll start reading Mary Wollstonecraft over the weekend, so don't fall behind! E-mail me with any questions or concerns at jgrasso@ecok.edu.