British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

  REMEMBER: no more classes for Brit from 1800! Instead, all you have to work on is your book cover presentations on Flipgrid. The post about the presentation, along with detailed instructions about using Flipgrid, can be found here:  http://grassobrit2.blogspot.com/2021/11/flipgrid-presentations-and-resources.html Be sure you can log onto the Flipgrid site before you try to post your presentation. I added everyone to the site, but sometimes things don't work, as you know! Remember, too, that you will record the presentation on Flipgrid, so all you need is a completed powerpoint presentation (or something similar) open on your desktop. Again, the instructions are above. If you have any problems finding appropriate art, please let me know. I know a lot of art and can give you a lot of ideas! Also, look back through our blog posts, where I've posted tons of art over the semester with this assignment in mind (hint, hint)! You can use anything you find on the blog, of course, or a...

  If you missed class on Monday, we started watching the film Never Let Me Go (2010), based on Ishiguro's novel of the same name (2005). This was the book I almost taught instead of The Collector , but decided it was to much of a time jump from Hardy. However, I think it's a great way to conclude the class, so we're going to watch the excellent adaptation of it this week, finishing up on Wednesday. We'll do an in-class writing on Friday based on it, so try to watch it at least on Wednesday, or feel free to rent it yourself (it's on Amazon Prime, and possibly elsewhere, too).  ALSO, don't forget the post below which has the Flipgrid information and links to sources about art:  http://grassobrit2.blogspot.com/2021/11/flipgrid-presentations-and-resources.html Let me know if you have any questions about the presentation! 

NOTE: Remember that the post about Flipgrid and art sources is in the post below  this one.  ALSO, this are your very last response questions for the class! On Friday, we'll have an in-class writing over the end of the book, so enjoy answering TWO of the following questions for the last time this semester... Q1: Toward the end of her life, Miranda records the following in her diary: "uncreative men plus opportunity-to-create equals evil men" (252). What does she mean by this? Does this echo Frederick's earlier statement that "a lot of people...would do what I did or similar things if they had the money and the time" (20)? Is evil simply what happens when morons become artists? :)  Q2: What does Miranda mean by "He is the New People and I am the Few" (249)? Why might this be a problematic definition of the two of them, and how does she often acknowledge its unsuitability to them both? Q3: Throughout her diaries, Miranda is constantly trying Frederic...

NOTE: The questions for The Collector are in the post BELOW this one. Everyone should have received an e-mail inviting you to sign onto our class' Flipgrid site, "British Literature: Monsters and Madmen." If not, you can find the site here:  https://flipgrid.com/4ae4c72a . To join, enter this code: 4ae4c72a.  Once you're in, there is only one topic: Final Presentations. Click on this and you'll see the instructions. I've already posted a sample video, showing my own presentation, which you can watch to give you a sense of how you might do this (it's 8 minutes long). Remember that YOU ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES. If you go over, you'll have to re-record it and make it shorter! Ten minutes should be ample time to discuss all six slides, but you do have to keep it brief. You might give it a trial run and time yourself just to make sure. INSTRUCTIONS FOR RECORDING : 1. Click on "Add Response" when you're ready to record your video response. Make su...

NOTE: Keep reading and get as close to 200 as you can, but you'll have plenty of time to catch up as the readings get shorter next week (since we're close to the end!).  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: According to Miranda's diary, what kind of relationship does she begin to have with Frederick? Though not a friendship or any kind of love affair, how does she attempt to explain the way they talk to one another, and their daily conversations? Consider, too, her comment, "knowing someone automatically makes you feel close to him" (148). You might also consider whether this in part of Frederick's plan all along, or if it's more human nature. Q2: Why might she be interested in Frederick in the same way she's interested in G.P.? Note that she's not attracted to either of them, and both of them try to 'collect' her in their own way. What about them fascinates her, even as they both (in different ways) repel her? Q3: Miranda writes about Frederic...

Munch, Vampire (1895) REMEMBER: no class on Wednesday! I have to run the English table at Senior Day for High School students, so I can't be at class with you. So take some extra time to read The Collector !  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: When Miranda is passed out after her escape attempt, Frederick takes the opportunity to take her clothes off and take pictures of her, which he says was the "chance I had been waiting for" (91). He calls these photos "not artistic, but interesting." Why doesn't he attempt to rape her at this point? Or is the camera its own kind of rape? Consider, too, that he admits, "I thought I would go down and give her the pad again and take other photos, it was as bad as that" (92). Q2: After their aborted attempt to have sex, Frederick claims that "All I did later was because of that night" (109). He also claims that "she didn't see how to love me in the right way. There were a lot of ways she could hav...

Eye in Eye by Edvard Munch NOTE: The Final Project assignment is the post BELOW this one, in case you missed class on Friday. We'll talk about it much more in class, and I'll post resources for it very soon! Otherwise, read the opening of The Collector , which is in 2 parts: Part 1 is from Frederick (the "collector's") perspective, while Part 2 is from Miranda's perspective. The brief Part 3 returns to Frederick for the Epilogue.  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: Frederick claims that "a lot of people...would do what I did or similar things if they had the money and the time" (20). Do you think he was planning to abduct Miranda even before he came into the money, or was it, as he suggests, the power of money that lured him into such an evil act?  Q2: Somewhat related to the above, do we think Frederick is a reliable narrator so far in the story? He is very honest, and he lays all his cards on the table, so to speak. But do we see any cracks in his st...

  “ A book cover demands our initial engagement with a work. You may not think a cover reflects your own thoughts of a book, but it evokes a response and inspires a reader’s imagination to begin building the world within the pages created by the author…A book cover is a key with which we open a world of storytelling…one page at a time, cover to cover.” ( Elda Rotor, Classic Penguins: Cover to Cover ) PROMPT: For your final project, I want you to find new cover art for each of the books in class. The cover art should have a ‘conversation’ with the text, meaning they should evoke one or more of the following themes: A reference to a theme or symbol in the work An evocation of the historical moment—the art, ideas of the time A reference to the biography of the author An illustration of a specific passage or setting To do this, I want you to find six works of art that can evoke one or more of the above aspects, so we can think about each book in a ne...

Read all or as many of the poems that remain in the book, and answer only ONE question using 1-2 poems in your response: Q1: Most of the poems in this section were written and published between 1914-1917, just a little over 100 years ago. That means these poems are the first poems written squarely in the 20th century, and were written in the context of the first cars, planes, and modern warfare (WWI). What makes this poems seem more 'modern' than others, or suggests that Hardy is expressing or saying something new in his poetry? Obviously many of his themes echo earlier Romantic ones (Wordsworth, Keats, Browning), but where do we see ideas, scenarios, or expressions that could never have been written earlier? In other words, which of these poems incontestably carry the stamp of 20th century poetry?

Remember that you don't have to read every poem in this series, but do try to read as many as you can, or at least read several of them more than once, to really investigate some of the trickier meanings and connections between poems.  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: How is a poem like "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?" a comical twist on the earlier poem, "Friends Beyond" (p.12)? Why is it especially ironic that the dead wife is having a conversation with what turns out to be her dog? Q2: There are three poems entitled "In Tenebris" (in darkness): how do you read this trio of works? Is each one basically a variation on the one before? Does each one offer a progression of the theme into new and darker territory? Does one of them contradict or refute the other? Does III mean the same as I?  Q3: Several of these poems are elegies or laments, which are songs of extreme sorrow of people and things dead and past. What are Hardy's characters in these po...

NOTE: In the Dover edition I ordered for our class, read the first 26 pages of poems, either all of them or whichever ones catch your fancy. Hardy's poems are easier to read than most, since they almost always tell stories and are told from a specific character's point of view, like Browning's. However, Hardy also likes to use strange turns of phrase and rustic-sounding words, befitting the background of many of his speakers. Here are three things to keep in mind when reading him: 1. Look up unfamiliar words such as "fervourless," "illiited," "blast-beruffled," etc., since they can change the meaning of a line (or a poem!). Don't skim over the strange words. 2. As always, read poetry out loud whenever you can, for two reasons: Hardy's poetry is very musical, but it can be hard to 'hear' this when you read it silently; and two, Hardy's poetry is usually dramatic, meaning someone is speaking each one to the audience, and often...

NOTE: Remember that we do have class on Monday, because I gave you an extra class day to write Paper #2. We won't have class on Wednesday instead, and we'll just count that as the beginning of Fall Break. Read Appendix A, B & C from our version of The Invisible Man  on pages 173-195, then answer TWO of the following: Q1: Which of the four endings of the novel do you think is the most appropriate and satisfying and why? Also, how does this version differ most from the other three? What does he add or subtract to make this ending more effective? Q2: In Appendix B, which of the five works do you think Wells most borrows (or plagiarizes, if you want to go there) from? What idea or aspects of this work probably most influenced Wells' own work? Do you think Wells improved on these originals? If so, how? Q3: Interestingly, of the four stories in Appendix B (not counting the silly ballad by Gilbert), two approach invisibility from a fantasy perspective, and two approach it from...

  No questions this time, just be sure to finish the novel for Friday's class. I'll give you an in-class response and we'll take it from there. Boy, wait till you read the end of the novel! It's crazier than I remembered! :)  ALSO: I'm pushing the paper due date to WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13th. Why? Because I want to wrap-up our class on Monday (with the readings below), and give you Wednesday off to work on your paper and to leave the class for Fall Break. Sorry--I forgot to mention this in class today!  If you finish the book early, you might be interested in reading Appendixes A, B & C, which we'll discuss on Monday. These focus on the four alternative endings for the novel, other works on invisibility in the 19th century, and the early reviews of the book. I'll post questions for these on Friday.  Take care! 

  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: In class on Monday, I suggested that The Invisible Man/Griffin is split between his super ego and his id: the "super ego" is the higher, more rational/ideal self while the "id" is the animalistic self of desires and hungers. As the novel progresses, which one of the two seems more in dominance? Is he evolving or progressing as this new race of being? And is he aware of this transformation himself? Q2: Earlier in Chapter III, one of the villagers decides that their guest must be a "piebald...Black here and white there--in patches" (61). This betrays the racial fear at the heart of English society at the time, that someone not "pure" could mix in polite society. Where else do we see racist views expressed by the characters of the novel (on both sides)? What might be Wells' point in bringing these topics to light in the 1890s? Q3: When Marvel is talking to the mariner in Chapter XIV, the latter is remarking abo...

Answer TWO of the following:  Q1: The narration of this novel is very odd: while it doesn’t have a frame narrative, it does have a narrator who seems to be omniscient, but then reduces themselves by saying in the beginning of Chapter IV, “I have told the circumstances of the stranger’s arrival in Iping with a certain fullness of detail…” (61). Why do you think the story has a nameless “I” narrator and is limited to what people can see and observe of the stranger? Q2: What do you feel makes the Invisible Man “snap” and become what we might call today a super villain?  While he doesn’t seem necessarily evil or malicious at the beginning of the novel, he clearly becomes so by Chapter V.  Does Wells let us see the psychology of a super villain in these opening chapters?  Or is his personality, like his appearance, a mystery?  Q3: Once the stranger becomes famous in the village, the locals begin hatching ideas as to who he is and what’s wrong with him. What are ...

Caliban and Prospero, from The Tempest  NOTE: You don't have to read this poem, since I ended up cutting it from the schedule to start The Invisible Man next week. It's a very tough poem, but it has some great ideas that support the 'supervillain' theme we discussed on Friday. Here are some notes about the poem if you want to read it and possibly use it in your paper--or if you're just interested in reading more Browning. Caliban Upon Setebos Caliban: in Shakespeare's The Tempest , Caliban is a native of the island that Prospero, a wizard, conquers to plot his revenge against his brother, the Duke of Naples. Caliban is a half-man, half-beast, and Prospero initially takes him in, treats him nicely, and teaches him to speak. But he later confines him in a cell when Caliban tries to take advantage of his daughter, Miranda. But all of this happens before the play starts, and it's hinted at that Prospero (who loves stagecraft and often acts like a stage manager) ...

Madonna and Child: a painting by Filippo Lippi  NOTE : Like the previous poems, this one has some historical detail and references that might initially be confusing. However, once you get past them, it's an easier read than those poems, and you get more time to 'live' with the character. And Fra Lippo Lippi is Browning's greatest character, an almost Shakespearean character who seems to live and breathe, and has a very unique view of the world. Here are some notes to help you delve into the poem: THE STORY : Basically, Fra Lippo Lippi is a monk and a painter who works for Cosimo dei Medici , of the famous banking family that ruled Florence. He is holed up in Cosimo's house to create a number of religious paintings for him. But he gets sick of painting and hears the carnival going on outside, so ties up his bedsheets as a ladder and sneaks off into the night to party with the 'women of the night.' He is caught by the night guards and interrogated, until he ca...

  British Literature from 1800 Paper #2: The Psychology of the Supervillain If Frankenstein can be considered the first work of science fiction in English literature, then we can also claim that Victor Frakenstein is its first supervillain. After all, he’s a criminal mastermind who creates monsters, manipulates his family, and has grandiose visions of saving/ruling the world. After his first appearance, literature swarmed with unreliable narrators who were spurred onto evil acts, their crimes on parade for anyone to read and decipher. For this paper, I want you to make a case study of the development of the ‘supervillain’ using three ‘criminals’ in our class so far. These could consist of the Ancient Mariner, Victor Frankenstein, the Creature, Walton, the Duke, Porphyria’s Lover, the Monk, the Bishop, Johannes Agricola, Fra Lippo Lippi, Caliban, and the Invisible Man. You can even use something else from American/British literature at this time (Poe, Stevenson, Wilde, etc.) i...

NOTE:  Since these poems have more historical detail than the previous ones, I thought I would provide a few notes to help you along. Ultimately, these are poems with very unreliable narrators who tell stories about themselves which betray greed, avarice, self-righteousness, and blind indifference to their fellow man. The questions follow after these notes.  JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION * Agricola was a 14th century religious philosopher who founded a sect called the Antinomians, who believed in strict predestination. If someone was holy, they were going to heave no matter what; similarly, someone damned was damned from birth and no amount of good works could save them. So this "meditation" is his dramatic monologue about the nature of his existence.  SOLILOQUY OF THE SPANISH CLOISTER  * Takes place in a monastery in Spain sometime around the 18th or 19th century (we can only tell because the narrator mentions owning a French novel, which didn't come around until ...

NOTE: Browning's poetry is different from Keats, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, in that most of it is in a form called "Dramatic Monologues." As the title suggests, it's the speech of a single character (often a historical figure, or a character from literature or legend) talking to another person. So imagine this as a monologue from a play where the main character is talking to the audience. Like the paintings we look at on Wednesday, Browning is attempting to combine modern speech & character to mythic and historical situations. So it would be like the 'modern' look of Guenevere or Ophelia that we looked at in class. However, it's also like "The Baleful Head" (pictured above) where the historical/mythical setting is used as an allegory about issues of modern life. So try to imagine how he's attempting to talk about his own world through the lens of the past.  Poems: "The Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover" Answer T...

Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft, writer of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (and Mary's mother)  NOTE: Finish the book for Monday if you can, but if not, you can easily finish it this week since we'll have very little reading. In fact, I would encourage you to go ahead and read Appendix A and D even if you can't finish the book, since that's something I want to discuss in class. Remember that William Godwin in Mary's father, and Mary Wollstonecraft was her mother (though she died in childbirth, sadly). So the Appendix A writings are pieces from her parents that she is responding to, in some form, in the novel. Answer TWO of the following: Q1: Victor claims that his narrative is a warning for Walton, so that “the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (17). However, the end of the novel seems to contradict his aim in telling his story—and Victor’s actions seem less than repentant than would first appear. What  is  his ho...

Answer TWO of the following: Q1: When Victor bids farewell to Elizabeth (after planning to marry her), the 1831 text says that she “acquiesced; but she was filled with disquiet at the idea of my suffering, away from her, the inroads of misery and grief...she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.” However, our version of the novel reads: “ Elizabeth approved of the reasons of my departure, and only regretted that she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience, and cultivating her understanding...We all, said she, depend upon you; and if you are miserable, what must be our feelings? ” (164). What does the original text seem to communicate about Elizabeth ’s experience that the 1831 version wipes away? Q2: Why does Victor renege on creating a companion mate for the Creature? Particularly when, after a long debate with the creature in Chapter IX (Book 2), Victor finally muses, “I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent; but I felt...

REMEMBER, we switched dates a little so that your Paper #1 is due on Monday instead of last week. There is NO CLASS ON MONDAY so you can work on it. In the meantime, keep reading Frankenstein, Book 1, Chapter 5 to Book 2, Chapter 7, pp. 88-148.    Answer TWO of the following for Wednesday's class:  Q1: In Book 1, Chapter 7, Victor and Elizabeth interview Justine in prison, and learn of her false confession. How might this chapter be a discussion of justice and cruelty comparable to what we find in  Maria ? Why doesn't Victor, who knows the truth, tell the court what he knows? Does he admit his cowardice to Walton?  Q2: How does Elizabeth change in these chapters from what he was? Victor notes that "She was no longer that happy creature,"  and that she had "become grave." Is it just the death of her loved ones that causes this change? As one of the few women in the novel, what does Shelley want us to see through her character and its degradation? Q3: One of ...

Self-Portrait by Goya...or is it Victor Frankenstein??? NOTE: Try to read as much of the first FOUR chapters of Frankenstein  for Friday's class. There's SO MUCH to discuss here, so we can't possibly be through it all. The questions below are a kind of 'wish list' of what I hope to discuss, and where you might focus your reading as you wade through the opening chapters. If you've never read the novel, relax and enjoy the ride. If you have, try to read it in light of the Romantic poems we've read in class, and consider how the novel changes when we read it in the shadow of The Rime, Tintern Abbey, and The Eve of St. Agnes.  Answer TWO of the following:  Q1: Most first-time readers of Frankenstein are surprised to find that the novel begins with a frame narrative: that of Walton, the arctic explorer, who is writing home to his sister, Mrs. Saville. How does this contrast with the frame narrative we encountered in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”? Also, why is...

  No reading yet for next week, since when we come back on Wednesday, we'll do our second Art Response to one of Goya's famous works (not the one below, but it will give you an idea of what to expect). This will also serve as an introduction to Frankenstein , which we'll start reading for Friday's class. So if you want to get started, feel free, though it is a shortish novel. Expect to see many echoes in this work to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Eve of St. Agnes, and even Wordsworth's poems!  See you next week!  Goya's "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters"...did we read anything recently about someone sleeping and not liking what they saw when they awakened? 

William Holman Hunt, Romeo and Juliet  Keats' poem, The Eve of St. Agnes , is like his own version of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner if he married it to a half-remembered version of Romeo and Juliet. In fact, you might think of this poem as Shakespeare as retold by the Romantics, since many elements of Romeo and here (forbidden love, two young lovers, an old nurse maid who assists them, even an old priest who watches over them), but the actual romance, and the background of the story, couldn't be more different than Shakespeare. But it sounds very familiar to those who have read The Rime ! These questions cover the entire poem, but feel free to stop somewhere in the middle if you're having trouble with it.   Answer TWO of the following, even though I gave you five this time: Q1: Keats, like Coleridge, tries to create the feel of an ancient poem set in a quasi-medieval world using words like "sooth" and "amort." Yet the poem still sounds utterly differen...

Of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear—both what they half create, And what perceive (Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey) Wordsworth and Coleridge did everything together—including writing poems. Wordsworth often took credit for Coleridge’s best ideas (the albatross), and Coleridge did the same (the Lyrical Ballads). Keats was a superfan of the Romantic poets and lived in their shadow, possibly even beating them at their own game. All of them were inspired by each other, borrowed from each other, and if we want to be catty, stole from each other as well. That’s what makes Romantic Poetry such a rich and important movement—it speaks with so many of the same ideas in very similar language. For your first paper, I want you to choose TWO passages from TWO different poems (each poem a different poet) where one seems to steal from the other. You can look up the dates if you want to see who came first, but even publication dates can be tricky, since poets often sit on work...

Be sure to finish the poem for Monday, or ideally, read it again. The poem makes more sense (or is more familiar, at least) if you read it with an awareness of what's generally going on. Then you can focus on the small details, and hear the strange music of the poem. As with any longer poem, there's simply too much to take in at once--or twice--or fifty times (I've been reading this poem since 1994, when I first picked it up, and am still rethinking it!).  Answer TWO of the following: Q1: In many ways, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner mirrors J.M. Turner's later painting, The Slave Ship that we viewed in class (here's the post about it below:  British Literature from 1800, "Monsters and Madmen" (Fall 2021): Links for Turner's Slave Ship (1840) (grassobrit2.blogspot.com) ). How might both works be trying to disguise their message underneath sublime imagery and general misdirection? Do you think Coleridge could also have an anti-slavery or humanitarian me...