Dr. Szlyk's Blog for ENGL 190: August 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Understanding "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Link

Thank you, Danielle, for writing this up and letting me link to it!

Natalia's Summary of The Girl Without Hands

Link

Monday, August 16, 2010

Map of Candide's Journey that Michelle Found

Link

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Johann's "Happy-Go-Lucky" Trailer

Link

How does Poppy compare to Candide?

Thank you, Johann!

Ram's Summary of Girl Without Hands

Link

Thank you again, Ram :)

Ram's Summary of Goose Girl

Link

Thank you, Ram :)

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Study Guide for Final in EN 202 Summer 2010, pt. 4

The painting above is Henry Meynell Rheame's watercolor La Belle Dame sans Merci (1901). It really is amazing how many British painters were inspired by Keats' poem. Here are just a few that we looked at. Let's start with J.W. Waterhouse's painting from 1893:

There is also Sir Frank Dicksee's 1902 interpretation.

I could go on forever....but there are other interesting angles to find. Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner" are both in ballad format. See Conrad Geller's article on the ballad form: http://www.writing-world.com/poetry/ballad.shtml

Here is Prof. Lilia Melani's definition of the ballad:

Ballad: a relatively short narrative poem, written to be sung, with a simple and dramatic action. The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, or a combination of these. Two characteristics of the ballad are incremental repetition and the ballad stanza. Incremental repetition repeats one or more lines with small but significant variations that advance the action. The ballad stanza is four lines; commonly, the first and third lines contain four feet or accents, the second and fourth lines contain three feet. Ballads often open abruptly, present brief descriptions, and use concise dialogue.
The folk ballad is usually anonymous and the presentation impersonal. The literary ballad deliberately imitates the form and spirit of a folk ballad. The Romantic poets were attracted to this form, as Longfellow with "The Wreck of the Hesperus," Coleridge with the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (which is longer and more elaborate than the folk ballad) and Keats with "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (which more closely resembles the folk ballad).

See these links for lyrics to the ballads that we listened to.

Here are links to Thompson's songs:
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/song_o_matic.asp?id=585
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/song_o_matic.asp?id=586

More importantly, though, Coleridge and Keats' poems are both part of Romanticism. Poets writing in this literary style emphasized feeling, the poet's receptiveness, more everyday language, and the revival of once-popular forms. Poets downplayed elitism and classicism although they might engage in medievalism or the imitation of medieval art and poetry. Coleridge attended but did not graduate from Cambridge University. Keats trained as a doctor at a time when that profession was not as prestigious as it is today.

Here is a picture of Coleridge:

Ben Whishaw played Keats in the recent Bright Star.

Ballads also rely on orality:

Effects of not having a system of writing
Performance - depends on the audience/ occasion
Repetition

For more information about orality, see these links:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/51
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orality

I'd like to juxtapose our folk & fairy stories with the ballads.

See these links for background on the Brothers Grimm:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/146
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/147

These are the stories we covered. With the exceptions that are listed, all stories below are from the Brothers Grimm's collections. Note that their stories changed as Wilhelm edited them to suit children.

"The Goose Girl" is here: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm089.html

"The Girl Without Hands" follows: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm031.html

"Godfather Death": http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html

Charles Perrault's "Donkey Skin": http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault11.html

I.B. Singer's "Gimpel the Fool": http://salvoblue.homestead.com/gimpel.html

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier": http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheSteadfastTinSoldier_e.html

Have you looked at the presentations that have been given during the second part of the semester? Check your inbox!

Betel presented on the Hamer of Ethiopia.

Lisa presented on Hans Christian Andersen.

Theresia presented on Chinua Achebe.

Danielle presented on horror films and Gothic stories.

Johann presented on Impressionism in art and Joseph Conrad.

Shefali presented on Voltaire & the Enlightenment.

Ram, Natalia, and Mike presented on vampires in film.

Below is a scene from Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola's film.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Study Guide for Final in EN 202 Summer 2010, pt. 3

Now I'd like to move on to women's writing: Emily Dickinson's poems, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," and the concept of True Womanhood. The picture above refers to Elaine Showalter's recent study on women's writing in America from Puritan New England's Anne Bradstreet to contemporary author Annie Proulx. (Here's a link to Katha Pollitt's review of Prof. Showalter's study:
http://www.slate.com/id/2213111 .)

For information about Raise the Red Lantern and "Stale Mate," see this link:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/168

More information about Emily Dickinson (1830-1885) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) follows.

We read the following poems by Emily Dickinson:
"They shut me up in Prose," "My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--," and "I Heard a Fly buzz." All but the last reading are in Vol. 5 of our anthology. See this link for the last poem:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15393

For reviews of recent books on Emily Dickinson, see the following links:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/150/White_Heat_The_Friendship_of_Emily_Dickinson_Thomas_Wentworth_Higginson

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/151

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/170

I also want to link to Higginson's translation of Petrarch's sonnet here:

http://www.sonnets.org/petrarch.htm#010

Contemporary poet A.M. Juster's translation may be found here:

http://www.amjuster.com/poem14.html

The picture below is the cover of Brenda Wineapple's recent White Heat, which retells the correspondence between Emily Dickinson and editor T.W. Higginson.

The painting above is Maria Spartali Stillman's depiction of Petrarch's first glimpse of Laura, the woman he addressed in 365 of the 366 poems in his Canzionere. She may well be a symbol of love and beauty as the two never really met.

I also want to include a map that shows where Amherst, Emily Dickinson's hometown, is.

We also talked about "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a story about a woman's experience of postpartum depression and as a horror story. For more information about postpartum depression, see this link:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/DS00546

For more information about the "rest cure" that the narrator and Perkins Gilman underwent, see this link:
http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/reflections/fall2008/rest.html

This article from the American Psychological Association discusses the rest cure and its successor, the work cure:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/05/cures.aspx

The picture above gives you an idea of what the yellow wallpaper might have looked like. Victorian decor was known for its elaborateness and, as some say, tastelessness.

However, if one tones it down, the Victorian style can be quite colorful and cozy.

Here is the information about True Womanhood.

True Womanhood (19^th c.)

Purity

Piety

Domesticity - Domestic Science

Submission

Hannah More - the exception that proves the rule (she helped promote the doctrine of separate spheres and female submission, but she made her living as a writer and educator.)

Women wrote literature to instruct morally more than intellectually.

Angel in the House (Victorian era) - woman as moral influence

Separate spheres (man--public; woman--home)

This picture appears to be from the early Victorian era (1830s/1840s) when attitudes towards women were most conservative.

By the 1860s, dresses became quite unwieldy. This woman below is wearing a dress of crinoline, an extremely heavy fabric. Between the circumference of a woman's dress and reliance on candles & wood-burning stoves, this type of dress sometimes caught fire, killing the woman wearing it.

The final picture below dates from 1895, shortly after The Yellow Wallpaper was written.

Compare the outfit from 1924 that the woman below is wearing. Note that she is depicted with a set of golf clubs. It would have been impossible for the Victorian woman to play golf.

See this link for my review of Clever Maids, a book about the women who provided the Brothers Grimm with their stories:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/147

Singing the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Link

Thank you, Michelle :)

If you don't know Gilligan's Island, see these links:

http://www.gilligansisle.com/

http://www.thewb.com/shows/gilligans-island/marooned-pilot/8ae27d25-b203-491a-92fb-2343b8542256

Michelle Found an Article about Emily Dickinson's "Loaded Gun" poem

Link

Susan Howe provides another viewpoint on Emily Dickinson's poetry, especially on her Civil War work.

Thank you, Michelle!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Study Guide for Final in EN 202 Summer 2010, pt. 2

Next we saw the 1922 silent film Nosferatu,which was directed by F.W. Murnau, who then lived in Germany. He left that country for the United States in 1926, and he died in 1931, so most of his films were silent, and he did not live to see the Nazis take power in Germany.

For more information about Murnau's Nosferatu, see this entry below:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/154/Nosferatu_1922

Dr. Elizabeth Miller's web site on Dracula includes a list of his characteristics (according to Bram Stoker):
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/traits.html
Note that Murnau created the vampire's inability to stand sunlight.

Dr. Miller has included another essay on the link between bats and vampires:
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/bats_vamp_drac.html

Here is a link to Roger Ebert's review of the 1931 Dracula, the first "talkie" vampire film.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990919/REVIEWS08/909190301/1023

Or you might prefer a more recent version of Dracula.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19921113/REVIEWS/211130301/1023

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040507/REVIEWS/405070306/1023

Below is a picture from Transylvania, the region in Romania where Dracula was said to come from.

Looks like it is time for a map.

We also looked at this trailer of Herzog's Nosferatu (1979):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeYpGsEdEZU

For more about silent movies, see the following entry:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/165/1923_Stan_Laurel_in_Roughest_Africa

Or this link to "The Little Pest" with accompaniment by Ben Model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z6hgc6I4-s

You might also enjoy Rosa Rio and Buster Keaton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_kZzmpAU8Q&feature=related

Here are some pictures of the early nickolodeon theaters.

Finally, here is a history of silent film:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ryahnke/film/cinema1.htm

Study Guide for Final in EN 202 Summer 2010, pt. 1

The picture above is of Qiao's Compound, the place where Zhang Yimou filmed Raise the Red Lantern (1991) just two years after the events in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Here is the BBC's article on these events: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/newsid_2496000/2496277.stm

Below is a map that will show you where Pingyao, the site of Qiao's Compound, actually is.

For more information about Pingyao, see this link:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Pingyao

Our study guide for the final begins with this film. It is based on Su Tong's 1990 novella Wives and Concubines. Zhang Yimou has also directed the historical films Red Sorghum and To Live as well as The House of Flying Daggers, a more action-oriented film. In Raise the Red Lantern, university student Songlian (played by Gong Li) travels to northern China to become the fourth wife (or Fourth Mistress) of Chen. She lives in a compound with Chen's other wives although each woman has her own house. This compound is in the country, but we do not see much of the countryside, except in the very beginning of the film as Songlian walks to the compound. The other wives are the older and psychologically distant First Mistress, mother of Chen's older son; Zhouyan, the second wife who appears to be very friendly and cheerful but is plotting against the others; and Meishan, a former opera singer who is the mother of Chen's younger son as well as the mistress of Doctor Gao. Raise the Red Lantern takes place in the 1920s, a time of unrest throughout China although the Chinese Civil War did not begin until 1927. The scene pictured above is of the lighting of the red lanterns, which signifies the house where Chen will spend the night. In the film, it is a family tradition; therefore, Chen does not wish to question it. Above Songlian is shown with her maid, Yang, who had had hopes of becoming the Fourth Mistress and, as we see, has hung red lanterns in her room. (Or has Chen hung them there?) After Songlian's ruse to feign pregnancy is discovered, and she betrays both Yang and Meishan, acts that result in their deaths, Songlian has a breakdown. In the next to last scene, she is observed by Chen's new bride, the Fifth Mistress.

What did you make of the ending to Raise the Red Lantern?

Is Songlian a tragic heroine? If so, what is her flaw? Or is she a victim of larger forces?

I am also going to link to my entry on Raise the Red Lantern as well:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/17/Raise_the_Red_Lantern
There you will find reviews of the film as well as some scholarly essays and background information.

If you would like to watch an example of Chinese opera, this is the YouTube video that I showed you:

http://xxiaojoex.multiply.com/video/item/1/Chinese_Peking_Opera?replies_read=1

Here is a link to a video of one of the best actresses in Chinese opera today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC6Ecc1LztY&feature=related
Plus there is singing! You may compare her performance with Meishan's.

We also read Eileen Chang's "Stale Mate," a story that was originally written in English. Eileen Chang's "Stale Mate," on the other hand, is a twentieth-century short story set at about the time of Raise the Red Lantern. Whereas Su Tong's novella and Zhang Yimou's film date from the 1990s, Eileen Chang's story was written during the 1950s after she had immigrated to the US. This story is also set in a more Westernized although not urban setting (whereas Raise the Red Lantern is set in rural Northern China--although we see mostly Chen's compound). In "Stale Mate," Luo, a high school teacher, pursues Miss Fan, a student, even though he is married to a woman who lives at his family's farm. Luo divorces his wife despite his family's protests, but the divorce does not come through quickly enough for him to marry Miss Fan--or so he thinks. Out of pique, Miss Fan pursues a marriage that her family is arranging for her (she is after all in her mid-twenties

), and Luo marries Miss Wang. Miss Fan's marriage falls through, and a few years later she meets Luo again. Luo then divorces his second wife to marry Miss Fan. However, as it turns out, he is convinced to ask his two ex-wives to live with him and his current wife...and so, despite his desires to be modern, he is more or less in the same situation as Master Chen in his compound! Interestingly, he and the former Miss Fan have less money than his ex-wives do.

For information about Eileen Chang, see the following entry:
http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/48/Eileen_Chang_Stale_Mates

It is easier to find Shanghai on a map.

Here is a picture of Shanghai today:

Does it make a difference that "Stale Mate" was written by a woman and Raise the Red Lantern was directed by a man? Or that "Stale Mate" was written in English and Raise the Red Lantern was filmed in Chinese?

Final Prompts for EN 202 Summer 2010

Below are the prompts for the take home part of the midterm. Choose only one prompt. The essay will be due to me by Monday, August 16

The picture above is of Arthur Hughes' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," yet another British artist's response to Keats' poem.

1. Must the protagonist of a story, poem, or film from the second part of the session (from Songlian onwards) follow the hero's journey (Joseph Campbell's monomyth)? In what ways does he *not* follow this monomyth? How does this affect the plot of the story, the character's coherence and believability, and the genre of the work? How does this affect the audience's response? Consider alternate models for narrative: tragedy, naturalism, Achebe's depiction of society, etc..

2.    How does the presence of works NOT originally written in English (Candide, Raise the Red Lantern, Leopold Sedar Senghor's poems, Baudelaire's "The Albatross," the stories by the Brothers Grimm, Ruben Dario's poems, Nosferatu, Petrarch's sonnets, Hans Christian Andersen's story) affect your definition of world literature? Which works are you comfortable reading? Which works are you uncomfortable reading? Why? How comfortable should you be in a course like EN 202? Consider the impact of translation, genre, and readers' expectations here. Note that technically Fitzcarraldo was filmed in English although we saw the German version.

3. Discuss the role that masculinity and/or femininity play in up to four of the works we've read so far. (At least two works must be from the second part of the session, which began with Raise the Red Lantern.) Consider the role that history, culture, and even genre play in defining what appropriate masculinity and femininity are. Consider the impact of the author or filmmaker's gender. Also, consider your viewpoint as a 21st century man or woman.

4.    Comment on Chinua Achebe’s statement: “Art is more than just good sentences; this is what makes this situation tragic. The man is a capable artist and as such I expect better from him. I mean, what is the point in that book? Art is not intended to put people down. If so, then art would ultimately discredit itself.” How does it apply to up to three of the works we've read or watched this session? How does it not apply? Consider the purpose of satire. Does Achebe's statement apply to Candide? Should it apply?

5.    How do you define literature? Support your definition with four separate works from various genres and cultures. Two works must be from the second part of the session. Also, be sure to consider what is NOT literature. You may discuss the folktale as a genre of literature. Consider the role that orality, performance, and audience may play. Should it matter that today's storytellers' audiences are often children? You may also discuss the idea of film as literature. Again, consider the role that print, audience, and performance plays. Note the distinction between silent film and movies with sound. Does it matter whether a film is based on an earlier work of literature? Or whether this piece of literature is worthwhile?   I encourage you to discuss poetry as literature, considering the role of form, rhyme, meter, and translation.

6.   This session we are watching a number of older, more slower-paced films without CGI as well as reading older works (18th & 19th century). These films and texts also come from cultures other than America's. How are these films and texts different from the films and texts that you are used to? How are they similar? What do they add to your understanding of films and film history? to your understanding of world literature? Be sure to justify your reasons with examples from the movies that we have seen. At least one film must be Raise the Red Lantern or Nosferatu. At least one text must be from the second part of the session.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Readings for the Rest of Session II -- Summer 2010

Here are the readings for the rest of our time together. Those that we discuss in class will be on the final. I also encourage you to read through the background readings on Multiply!

On Tuesday 8/3, we will finish watching Nosferatu, and we will discuss "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the following poems by Emily Dickinson: "A narrow Fellow in the Grass," "They shut me up in Prose," "Much Madness is Divinest Sense," "My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--," "The Soul has Bandaged Moments," and "I Heard a Fly buzz." All but the last reading will be in Vol. 5 of our anthology. See this link for the last poem:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15393

For Wednesday 8/4, we will read Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Vol. 5) as well as Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (Vol. 5. Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes" will be an extra reading for those who have the time:
http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/eveofstagnes.html .)
You may also like to read Charles Baudelaire's "Albatross" in Vol. 5.

Thursday (8/5) is the beginning of our unit on folk tales.
For Charles Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood," see this link:   http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html#perrault
See the following link for the Brothers Grimm's "Little Red Cap":   http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html
"The Goose Girl" is here:   http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm089.html
"The Twelve Dancing Princesses" follow: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/twelvedancing/index.html
See the following link for two versions of "Hansel and Gretel": http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm015a.html
"The Girl Without Hands" follows: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm031.html

These readings may spill over onto Monday 8/9. We will add "Godfather Death": http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm044.html.
as well as I.B. Singer's "Gimpel the Fool": http://salvoblue.homestead.com/gimpel.html

For Tuesday 8/10 and Wednesday 8/11, we will read Voltaire's Candide in Vol. 4.