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).
2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816…
ReplyDelete“The eruption of Mount Tamboro in Indonesia in April of 1815 sent clouds of volcanic ash billowing into the upper atmosphere. The sun was obscured; levels of rainfall increased and temperatures fell. The summer of the following year was thus dismal and damp, with low temperatures and torrential rain causing disastrous crop failures throughout North America, Europe and Asia.”
This caused the sun to be obscured which in turn caused rainfall to increase and other wild weather patterns, like a drastic drop in temperatures.
This lead to the summer of the following year to be dark and dismal. Torrential rain caused crops to die out throughout North America, Europe and Asia. People on the other side of the world, to where the eruption occurred, were left bemused as to what was causing the crazy weather patterns. Which lead to people lighting candles at midday and birds going to roost at the same time.
“The discovery by scientists of large dark spots on the sun in the same year added to the growing sense of unease and impending doom, as reflected in Lord Byron’s apocalyptic poem Darkness, written in Geneva in July 1816.
‘The year without a summer; as 1816 became known, provided the perfect backdrop to the telling of bleak, macabre and doom-laden Gothic tales.”
See more at - http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati#sthash.b6liCOZV.dpuf
P.S I hope that this is acceptable as a reference. I have put quotation marks where I directly quoted from the website that I found the information at. Where there are no quotation marks I re-phrased/paraphrased what the website said.
All good Vanessa. Reference is fine.
DeleteHere’s some more info about Mary Shelley and what inspired her to write ‘Gothic’ stories:
ReplyDeleteIt was in May of 1816 when Mary Godwin-(she did not become ‘Mary Shelley’ until December 1816) and Percy Shelley along with their son William, travelled to Geneva. Mary’s step-sister “Claire Clairmont”- (a former lover of Lord Byron) also travelled with them.
“The journey across the French border and into Switzerland involved travelling through bleak, wintry landscapes. As Mary recorded afterwards in her travel volume History of a Six Weeks’ Tour through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland (1817) ‘Never was a scene more awefully desolate.”
It was the trees in landscapes of these areas; they stood very tall and in “scattered clumps”, throughout the ‘white wilderness’; “the vast expanse of snow was chequered only by these gigantic pines, and the poles that marked our road: no river or rock-encircled lawn relieved the eye, by adding the picturesque to the sublime’. The landscape, with its frightening, lonely and bleak aspect, clearly haunted Mary, and she would describe similarly desolate locations in her novel Frankenstein, a book that both begins and ends amidst bleak snowy wastes.”
See more at - http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati#sthash.b6liCOZV.dpuf
Taken from the same website. :-/ :-) I paraphrased quite a lot though.
A good answer. Now we know where the mood or atmosphere of the novel came from.
DeleteThis is interesting, the gloomy atmosphere portrayed in the novel is the exact theme portrayed in gothic, thriller movies nowadays namely dark, cold, misty etc. Her writings indeed has a huge impact on this genre even today.
DeleteThis is interesting, the gloomy atmosphere portrayed in the novel is the exact theme portrayed in gothic, thriller movies nowadays namely dark, cold, misty etc. Her writings indeed has a huge impact on this genre even today.
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ReplyDelete1. 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...
ReplyDeleteWilliam Blake’s poem titled ‘Introduction’ presents his collection named ‘Songs of Innocence’ first printed in 1789 (Songs of Innocence and Experience , n.d.). It is clear that the sentiment poets of the Romantic period had about the notion of the Sublime is interlaced through this poem, setting, as the title would suggest, a suitable introduction to Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’.
Two beings are presented in this poem that clearly this intentional connotation of innocence through biblical interpretation. “On a cloud I saw a child” (Blake, 1789), has the potential to depict an ethereal image with a Godly association. This seems to signify an angelic being, for example a cherub, while holding the strong underlying image of innocence that is traditionally associated with that of a child or baby. Additionally a lamb is used to enhance the innocent essence of the poem, “Pipe a song about a Lamb” (Blake, 1789) notably associated with concept the ‘Lamb of God’, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). In the poem the Lamb is referenced with a capital letter presumably to associate the being in the poem to the ‘Lamb of God’. In Christian teachings the ‘Lamb of God’ is symbolic of Jesus Christ as the perfect being and representation of ultimate innocence and sacrifice. From a religious and specifically Christian perspective this reference to the ‘Lamb of God’ and thus Jesus Christ illustrates the notion of the Sublime in this poem. Blake’s interpretation of the Sublime being ultimate innocence and purity.
Works Cited
Blake, W. (1789). Introduction . In W. Blake, Songs of Innocence .
John 1:29. (n.d.). In Gospel of John.
Songs of Innocence and Experience . (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience
a good start to understanding the sublime. Could you attempt some definition of the term?
DeleteAn official definition derived from Wikipedia in terms of the Sublime in philosophical terms states it "is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic." (Sublime (philosophy) , n.d) The Sublime is a concept of eternal greatness, without measurable boundaries. Blake uses the concept of the Sublime in his poem through the child and the lamb as two symbols of 'eternal' innocence.
DeleteWorks Cited
Sublime (philosophy) (n.d) Retrieved from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)
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).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Walton (1990) “It is a standard function of a cinematic work of fiction to prompt viewers to imagine- to make believe- themselves being shown the narrative events and circumstances of successive shots. Moreover, […] it is fictional in the movie […] Since ‘fictional showing’ is putatively what the movie’s images are meant to achieve, and ‘imagined seeing’ is putatively what move viewers do in response to those images, it is often easier to formulate certain points in terms of one thesis rather than the other. But, to repeat, the two these are utterly interdependent, although, of the two, the Imagined Seeing Thesis is probably the more fundamental.”
• Zelig (Woody Allen, 1983)
• This is Spinal Tap (Rob Rainer, 1984)
• Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
• The Office (2001-2003)
• Parks and Recreation (2009)
• Russian Ark (2002)
• Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Funny Games (1997, 2008)
Slugan, M. (2014). Some thoughts on controlling fictional narrators in fiction film. American Society for Aesthetics Graduate E-Journal, 6(2), 1-7. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2f134074-3c52-4615-a80c-7a39f5726592%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=126
You are right in what you say, but the question was really asking how many fictional accounts of the visit of the poets to the Villa Diodati you can find.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Gothic emerged in 1790s and continued in 1830s. In the Romantic period, Gothic is the most popular and controversial literary mode. It spread from the British Isles, throughout Europe, until in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThere are original Gothics.
• Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
• Bram Stocker’s Dracula
• Henry James’s The turn of the screw
These days, in the 20th century, the gothic exploded widely in a different way such as novels, films and television.
I will post some short trailer about other videos.
1.Ken Russell (director) -Gothic (1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbsUl-H16WY
2. Mary shelley (author) -Frankenstein (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmYEfF3We8M
3.Gaston Leroux (author) -The phantom of Opera (1909)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L16hR46Q9W4
4.Shirley Jackson (author) -The haunting of hill house (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn9WYVym9N8
5.Daphne du Maurier (author) -Rebecca (1938)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0gakRWZ03Y
Yes... And Bram Stoker's Dracula. the vampire is probably the most powerful gothic figure in modern fiction.
Delete2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816…
ReplyDeleteUpon looking online about what happened during the summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati I found that the events that took place gave birth to the gothic genre we know today.
The Villa Diodati was a mansion in Switzerland that was rented by Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori. Percy Shelley and future wife Mary Shelley often visited however due to the terrible change in weather had to prolong their stay.
In was then that Lord Byron suggested they write ghost stories to pass the time and thus The Vampire was created by John Polodori following The Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The writings from these two has by large influenced the gothic genre we know today. It is evident with the mass amount of vampire themed movies and series being produced such as the Twilight and Vampire Diaries etc.
However ultimately it is arguable that our appreciation of the birth of the gothic genre should be owed to the massive volcanic eruption of Tambora in Indonesia. This was the reason for the terrible change in weather and thus forcing the group to stay longer.
References
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/biblion/outsiders/frankenstein/essay/essayperrottet