British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

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?