1. How is the Romantic notion
of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic
construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader?
Discuss one or two examples...
2. Go online and see if you can find
out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful
summer in 1816...
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
1. The word 'Sublime' is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as something of great excellence or beauty, or to produce an overwhelming sense of awe.
ReplyDeleteTo focus on one author in particular, William Blake, it is evident that he used the Romantic notion of the Sublime which is reflected in his famous poems. In the poem 'Joy', Blake has written a text about new born infants, in a way that portrays them very idealistically and presenting the idea that new born babies are very fresh and have not yet been tainted by the world. For example,
"I have no name
I am but two days old.—
What shall I call thee?
I happy am"
According to Woods (2012), Blake presents four very grand or 'Sublime' themes in his poem 'Joy'. These four themes are Innocence, Vulnerability, Contentedness, and lack of identity. In terms of the construction of the text, Blake uses the last three lines of the second stanza to voice the innocence of the child, ““Thou dost smile, I sing the while; Sweet joy befall thee!”
Blake creates a very idealistic idea of new born infants. It seems that this is his aim. Woods suggests that the child is so innocent because he has not aged yet, and it becomes clear as the poem unfolds that Blake believes that we are all born innocent as an infant, and that our tainted nature comes later when we have experienced more of the world.
In terms of structure, crossref-it (2014) suggests that Blake’s ‘Joy’ produces simplicity which can relate to the idea of the Sublime. There is repetition of the words ‘sweet’, ‘happy’, and ‘joy’,
“I happy am,
Joy is my name.”
The two stanzas which fall into two matching halves, gives the stanza a rocking effect, which makes it work like a lullaby. The repetition of the closing line adds to the song like quality of the poem.
It is easy to pick up on William Blake’s idea that we are born innocent and lose that innocence as we grow by reading Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’. This poem is a lot darker than ‘Joy’. The theme and the language used is much more depressing for example,
“Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep.
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.”
Heath (2011), suggests that William Blake purposely does not rhyme the last two lines of ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ as he does in his other lighter poems, because it suggests a darkness and almost leads away from his typical Sublime theme.
“The sudden lack of rhyme is an abrupt return to the harsh realities away from the innocent and youthful fantasy that chimney sweeper Tom hopes to be fulfilled.”
This is unlike the joyful rhyming of the four last lines in ‘Joy’ which can completely change the mood of the poem for the reader because we tend to associate rhyme with positive vibes.
References:
Blake, W. Infant Joy.
Blake, W. The Chimney Sweeper.
Crossref-it. (2014). Language, tone and structure. Retrieved from
http://www.crossref-it.info/textguide/Songs-of-Innocence-and-Experience/13/1525
Heath, D. (2011). Analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake. Retrieved from
http://www.socialsciencemedley.com/2011/03/analysis-of-chimney-sweeper-by-william.html
Oxford Dictionaries. (n.d.). Sublime. Retrieved from
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sublime
Woods, J. (2012). Poetry analysis infant joy by William Blake. Retrieved from
http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/poetry-analysis-infant-joy-by-william-blake-5328/
Well thought out, Zane. Note that there is a strongly religious flavour to the word sublime. Blake was a mystic, not a traditional Christian, didn't like churches, but believed in the mystical power of God which led to the sublime.
DeleteHi Zane, I agree with your analysis of Blake's Infant Joy. I really enjoy this poem. To add on what you have already said, the poem is of ABCDDC rhyme scheme, which contrasts with much of Blake's other work. I like what you mentioned about a 'rocking effect', which makes it work as a lullaby. Indeed this poem would be easy to repeat to a child to coax it to sleep. I often notice (when babysitting) that the books I read to children sometimes have much deeper meanings than they appear on the surface. This poem certainly does. It accounts the baby’s mother asking what it wants to be named. The infant looks introspectively and finds only Joy. They decide the child shall be called Joy. “Sweet joy I call thee”. What Blake is saying with this deceptively simple statement is that the newborn infant is perfectly innocent, and is not born with the Catholic notion of Original Sin. It is a huge religious statement hidden in a child’s lullaby.
DeleteReferences:
Blake, W. Infant Joy
‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience Summary and Analysis’ (1999) Retrieved from: http://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/section16/
Blake, W. (1972; 1794). Songs of Innocence and Experience with an introduction and commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, London: Oxford
2. In relation to what 'really' happened at Villa Diodati during the summer of 1816, monstrous.com (2014) offers a reasonable explanation of the events.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the website, Mary Shelley was 19 when she went to stay at the Chapius in Geneva, Switzerland with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori, Byron's physician.
Apparently during her stay, the weather turned sour. The reason for the change in the weather, which included storms, was due to the massive volcanic eruption of Tambora in Indonesia.
Due to the terrible weather and one particularly terrible storm, the group were unable to leave, and so decided to read ghost stories to one another from Fantasmagoriana which included super natural stories. This was the time when Polidori wrote the first modern Vampire story.
One night while Byron recited his poem, Percy became upset and obsessed with the fact that he thought that Mary was the main villainess that was being spoken of in the poem. This upset Mary and is thought to have caused her bad dreams that night which created the inspiration for her story.
She dreamed of a manufactured humanoid whose success would terrify the artist. The next morning she began to write her story and wrote the line that would open Chapter VI of Frankenstein "It was on a dreary night in November"- She completed the novel in May of 1817 and is was published January 1, 1818.
Reference:
Monstrous.com. (2014). The summer of 1816 at Villa Diodoti. Retrieved from
http://frankenstein.monstrous.com/the_summer_of_1816_at_villa_diodoti.htm
2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
ReplyDeleteSo what really happened at the villa diodati in the summer of 1816?
Research shows that a young girl called Mary Shelley at the age of 19 years old, went to stay in Switzerland with her step sister, Byron, Byrons physician and John Polidori at Chapius. During their stay the weather went from being beautiful to a horrible storm. The change in the weather occurred due to an eruption of a volcano in Indonesia. In addition, this horrible weather had led to the group people not to go out of the Villa. Later on they decided to read scary German ghost stories, which later on inspired Byron to write a ghost story. John then wrote a modern Vampire story, meanwhile Mary wasn’t inspired to write anything at this time.
Byron then started to recite what he had written, which made Percy saddened as he thought that Mary was the main villainess in Byron’s story. Mary was very upset which led her to having a nightmare. This dream made her realise what she should write about, it was her inspiration. The following morning she wrote her story and research showed that in Chapter VI of Frankenstein "It was on a dreary night in November" was written by her. Following on Research showed that she completed the novel in May of 1817. Her book was then published in January 1, 1818.
If it wasn’t for this trip in 1816, and the people that Mary was with, she would have not been able to write such a powerful story. These people influenced Mary, and now her book is analysed and discussed today.
Reference:
The summer of 1816 at Villa Diodoti, (2014). Retrieved from: http://frankenstein.monstrous.com/the_summer_of_1816_at_villa_diodoti.htm
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Ruseel Gothic on Youtube).
Bellow are some links and examples...
Film: Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-v9HSrP4U
Novel: Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted (2005)Audiobook, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atEDtujA7bc
Novel: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
In addition to question 3..
DeleteJohn William Polidori’s short story, “The Vampyre" written in 1819 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vampyre
Ground well covered here. I'd heard that they had a competition to see who could write he scariest story, but that might be a myth!
ReplyDelete4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
ReplyDeleteI believe that the group of authors in 1816 at the villa, all contributed to form this gothic genre, which has influenced studies on gothic genre today. This genre is thriller and horror. John Polidori was the first to write and recite his vampire story called “The Vampyre”. While Mary received her inspiration to write when she had a nightmare that led to creating a book called “Frankenstein”. If it wasn’t for this time in 1816 these fictions wouldn’t have been created. I believe that it would have been different, or even gothic wouldn’t have even been born. Many people have been influenced by the writing of Frankenstein, nowadays even movies have been made in reference to the novel.
In addition I believe the vampire genre is famous at the moment. There are many Movies, TV, films, and novels. For Examples ‘Twilight’ saga and the TV series ‘The Vampire Diaries.’ All of these have also won Awards, and this all began in 1816.
A very good point you make here. It is very easy to trace many of the popular horror themes we have today, back to the stories that were created by the guests of Villa Diodati in 1816.
DeleteWithout the creation of the first modern vampire story, we would not have many of the classic vampire movies/franchises we have today like the Twilight Saga, Queen of the Damned, or even True Blood, or stars who made a career of playing a vampire like Christopher Lee. Modern Horror has such a large following today, and we owe that to authors like Mary Shelley, who at the time, would not have realised what an impact her writing would have on future generations.
Two very solid interpretations of the Gothic genre and how it came to fruition.
DeleteI also believe that the Gothic/Horror genre owes a lot to the authors that resided in the Villa Diodati in that eventful wet and cold summer of 1816.
One key theme that strikes with me is that of dark and foreboding weather which you will find in many horror/gothic stories of today and the past. It seems that many stories of this genre employ the use of weather to help reflect their characters and plot.
The movie series of 'Underworld' starring Kate Beckinsale is an awesome trilogy of movies that pits Vampires against Lycans (Werewolves). In the movies, almost every scene is set with cold, wet and very dark skies (often at night). The use of this weather helps add to the feeling of dark and evil themes surrounding the Vampires and Lycans.
I believe that many directors and authors have been influenced by stories like that of Frankenstein, where the weather is often used to depict evil and mysterious themes. Could it be, that if Shelley and Byron and co did not use weather as a main theme, may we have a slightly different version of the Gothic genre that we do today?
Zane I agree with your points made about what an impact Shelley's writing has had on the future generations. It is such a crazy thing to think about that something we may achieve in our time, as trivial and simple as it may seem may affect someone or even complete societies in later years. Another great point of yours Zane was the mentions about how people make their living out of this industry and genre that has been created from a simple nightmare from way back when. It is interesting to think about how someones imagination could conjure up such madness before these thoughts were seen on television or in the movies. These days these scary ideas and pictures are put into our heads by directors and writers as back then it would have had to simply be created and to have come from that person who would have had no previous idea of it all. I also liked your point Louie where you talked about how Byron and the gang from the Villa depicted a lot of their writing and feelings from the change of the weather. Their writing an stories got dark, almost as to mirror the weather around them. Which is found to be very common in modern films, as mentioned above, directors etc use the effect of weather to reflect their characters and plot.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to touch briefly on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Social Contract was a book that Rousseau theorized in an attempt to establish “a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society.” (Wiki). He also wrote “Emile, or On Education” in which he theorized on the role of women in society. I am always interested in how great figures of literature or of history regarded women, especially pertaining to the question we put towards Chaucer earlier this semester “is this a feminist work?”
ReplyDeleteAs we established back then, feminism is defined as “the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” (Dictionary.com)
Rousseau appears to establish this exact view in his open statement of ‘Book 5 Sophy, or Woman’. “(¶5.4) But for her sex, a woman is a man; she has the same organs, the same needs, the same faculties” he states. He refers to men and women as ‘machines’ whose “difference is only in degree.”
For the time of publication this was especially advanced, and compared to the mind-set of the Romantic era it was “feminist” (keeping in mind the term feminist did not exist). However viewed under a ‘post-feminist’ or ‘post-modern’ gaze Rousseau’s work on gender-relations is problematic.
While he negates that “the difference (between men and women) is only in degree” (perhaps he means intellectually) he goes on to say “The man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive”. This he labels ‘diversity’.
He goes on to further problematize his original statement by adding “(¶5.8) When this principle is admitted, it follows that woman is specially made for man's delight.” And the need for men to be pleasing to women is less urgent, this, he says, is the law of nature.
I know this doesn’t answer any of the blog questions, but there are none pertaining to Jeans-Jacques Rousseau and I thought he would be an interesting figure to look at.
References:
A Rousseau, J.J. (1762). Emile. Cole, G.D. (1913). Translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract, 1762
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract
I think that this would have been an interesting question to bring up on the blog. Especially because, as you have proved, there is a lot that could be brought up regarding Jean-Jacques Rousseau and 'feminism'.
DeleteFor his time, it seems that Rousseau certainly was giving some thought into what roles men and women play in society, and for his time, he probably was a lot more pro-female than many other men. However, his view that "the man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive", is certainly very backwards in terms of what is believed today. Today, if someone in New Zealand made a statement that women should be weak and passive, they would most probably be heavily criticized for having such a small minded view.
Very interesting topic think!
1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to distinguish Romanticism poets from 18th century neo-classicism poets is the point of imagination. Romanticism poets consider imagination as a basic element to write poetry because they think poems which have no imagination cannot exist. They think they could absorb inspiration and try to get the inspiration from nature. Consequently, a common trait of most Romanticism poetry is a nature friendly concept. They convert the experienced universe into the abstract universe by refining their experiences in relation to their imagination. By the process of these, they build ideology in their own minds and were intoxicated with the brilliance of their own imagination. But poets don’t always have imagination and inspiration. They were even frustrated by this. (poets.org, 2004).
The late 18th century was a period of rapid changes of society and poetic diction lost purity because of developing of reason and rationality. So William Blake tried to recover purity for poetic language by emotional bonding of conventional poetic word. He observed objects with new intuition and thought only spiritual things are essential, so he attached great importance to emotion, fancy and individuality instead of reason and conventionality (poetry foundation, n.d.).
The Garden of Love
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And "Thou shalt not." writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,
And I saw it was filled with the graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds.
And binding with briars my joys & desires. (poetry foundation, n.d.)
When we look at his poem at the first stanza, the first line means social role of religion and the second line means that his awareness is changed as he has matured and at the third line, as he is getting old he seems to experience more than when he was young. The chapel stands for the situation of secularization because Romanticism appeared to respond to industrialization.
References
poets.org. (2014). Romanticism. Retrived May 15, 2014 from: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-romanticism
Poetry foundation. (n.d.a). William blake. Retrived May 15, 2014 from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake
Poetry foundation. (n.d.b). The garden of love. Retrived May 15, 2014 from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175220
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Ruseel Gothic on Youtube).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, Fictional film or narrative film is defined as “a film that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. In this style of film, believable narratives and characters help convince the audience that the unfolding fiction is real.” (para.1.).
There are a lot of film and narrative media. When I refer to the fiction or narrative media, I used to think of the Villa Diodati because it is featured in some fictional media such as in the film Gothic and in novel Haunted, in Frankenstein, in the comic book The Unwritten. Those are related into the basis for the classical horror narrative stories with Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and others in 1816.
Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foAPqrFOp4o
About Lord Byron & Villa Diodati:
http://www.bargaintraveleurope.com/08/Switzerland_Villa_Diodoti_Geneva.htm
Villa Diodati’s landscape:
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Gifs/diodati.html
Villa Diodati related with Frankenstein:
http://frankensteinia.blogspot.co.nz/2007/08/villa-diodati.html
Location of Villa Diodati:
http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/villa-diodati/view/?service=0
References
Wikipedia. (n.d.a). Fictional film. Retrived May 15, 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_film
Wikipedia. (n.d.b). The villa diodati. Retrived May 15, 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Diodati
The summer of 1816 in the Villa Diodati was eventful, to say the very least. Some of the era’s greatest writers and masters of fictional literature gathered here together.
ReplyDeleteAmong those that took up residence at the Villa, the most notable were Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and Claire Clairmont.
One of the aspects of this summer in Europe was that it was the coldest ever recorded, as well as having strong wind, heavy rain, and constant damp and dreary conditions. It is believed that the weather of this summer played an influential part in the works of the writers who resided at Villa Diodati.
Lord Byron suggested to his fellow residents that they should have a writing competition. The premise of this was to create the scariest ghost story. While Byron began work on ‘A Fragment’, it is perhaps what Mary Shelley envisioned; a humanoid like creature created purely by science, that has become one of the most revered pieces of works from the era, as well as heavily influencing the genre of Gothic. This piece is more popularly known as ‘Frankenstein’
As noted previously, it was a very cold and wet summer while the writers stayed at the Villa in 1816. It is believed that Shelley’s Frankenstein was strongly influenced by this weather.
‘’ Victor first becomes intrigued by science through a "terrible thunderstorm" (seen in chapter two). ‘’ (enotes, 2012.)
The foul weather is referenced repeatedly throughout the story, often used to reflect the central characters feelings and emotions.
Although there are conflicting accounts of how events unfolded in the Villa during 1816, it is evident that this ‘little’ writing competition of Byron’s helped create one of the most celebrated pieces of fictional literature.
References:
stylinchickidey, 2012. Frankenstein. Enotes. Retrieved June 7th, 2014 from: http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/discuss-importance-weather-mary-shelleys-346348
The Summer of 1816. (n.d.) Retrieved June 7th, 2014 from: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/MShelley/summer16.html
3. The Ken Russel film provides the story of what happened in the Villa Diodati to the main stream. This is a great film to show people for their first encounter with Lord Byron and the other residents of the Villa in 1816.
ReplyDeleteI also stumbled across an early film called Rowing in the Wind. This film sees Hugh Grant play the leading role of Lord Byron, and focuses on his relationship with Merry and Percy Shelley. This film also would be great for people to watch as Hugh Grant, being a big name, would help bring a larger audience to the story of Lord Byron.
References:
Gothic, Part 1. (1986). Retrieved 7th, June 2014 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYFGjVKAaSM
Rowing with the Wind. (1998). Retrieved 7th, June 2014 from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093840/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
I agree with you Louie. Before being entered into this class I had not heard of Lord Byron or the infamous Villa and the stories from 1816, it is only when I had to research them for this class that I came upon these. Using an actor such as Hugh Grant in Rowing in the Wind would have been a good opportunity for the story to be told, with the help of a few famous strings to get the story rolling and into the homes of people. Many people probably had no idea about who Lord Byron was and how the story Frankenstein even came about. It is funny that in a culture like ours where the world is at our finger tips and all the information is around us that sometimes we still know so little. It is also commonly seen that famous personalities are used in modern film to draw attention to older issues of the past.
Delete2. The summer of 1816 is said to be the time in which Lord Byron, Clair Clairmont, John Polidori and Mary Shelley spent the summer in a rented lake house in Geneva, Switzerland. During their stay that summer they had expected the weather to be warm and inviting but they were left with days filled with rain and lightning storms. The writers were therefore forced to be inside all day and all night and had to find their own ways to entertain themselves. They kept themselves busy by reading stories to one another aside the fire and making up ghost stories to share between themselves. These events led to Mary one night experiencing the nightmare, which then led her to write and create the novel Frankenstein. She published the book at the mere age of 19. This summer was said to be a turning point in these writers lives and also a turning point in the literature world.
ReplyDeleteSummer of 1816. (2013). Retrieved from: http://maryshelley.wikia.com/ wiki/Summer_of_1816