A230A- Revision. Books 1&2 االتحاد الطالبي

Transcription

1 A230A- Revision Books 1&2 االتحاد الطالبي

2 Final Exam Structure You will answer three essay questions: one of them could be a close reading. One obligatory question on Shelley And then three questions to choose two No separate question on definitions but you can use the definitions in your answer. Write what you know about the chapter even if you did not understand what the question asks. Write in an essay form Study from ppp and pay attention to the titles of the slides and the summary slides and the underlined bold sections.

3 Book 1 - Chapter 1- Othello- Main points Renaissance Desdemona s three roles: as a daughter, a lover and a wife: the obedient daughter who turns to a defiant one to fight for her love. Then she becomes the deceived submissive wife + the willow song= Gender issue Racism Othello as a tragedy Iago s character.

4 Book1 Chapter 2- Candide Revise the TMA

5 Book 2- Romanticism Romantics were preoccupied with nature educating man. It appeared in mid 18 th C and the Romantic poets especially Wordsworth reacted towards the Industrial Revolution and the French revolution= they were alienated by the changes brought about the Industrial Revolution and disillusioned when the French Revolution failed to accomplish its aims of freedom and equality.

6 Book 2- Chapter 1: William Wordsworth The grandeur (greatness) of nature and of the poet: he is linked to Dove Cottage; his local landscape. Wordsworth s self is undivided. He thinks very highly of his abilities as a romantic poet= the (solitary ) lonely genius Memories and especially childhood memories and how they provide the source for his poetry. Poetry as a spontaneous overflow of feelings recollected in tranquility

7 Wordsworth Point Rash-judgement : shows the poet s disillusionment with the changes that happened to his local town because of industrialization. The names of the old places have changed which reflect the theme of colonization later reflected in the opium eater. The poet used to have a therapeutic relationship with nature which has changed and he feels alienated.

8 Wordsworth The Brothers also show the theme of homecoming to a strange local town but it is not about Wordsworth. The poem is written in the form of a dialogue between a Vicar and Leonard. Home at Grasmere : A poem wrote in Blank verse to imitate the great writers. It also speaks about the alienation and about the poet s role : whether to be occupied with the social problems or focus on his poetic vocation to create an ideal world

9 Wordsworth s The Prelude= writing the self W s epic poem about his genius and the role of the poet. It focuses on how he became a poetic genius and focus on memories as a source of nourishment (a reservoir for inspiration). YOU MAY STUDY Wordsworth from the comparisons in the next 3 chapters but I do not advise this.

10 Book 2 chapter 2- Shelley Tone differs from W: shifting not stable Mary Shelley s role in editing his work: she stressed the airy Shelley who has unique sensitivity The role of the romantic poet: he can perceive truth and communicate it to ordinary people/ the legislator of history/ the sensitive spirit who identifies with nature. Shelley has 4 personas (versions): the romantic, the political radical, the eye witness to history (legislator) and the messenger of the sublime

11 Shelley s poems Romantic poems: directly addressing nature and the poet who wishes to be part of nature and learns from nature. The I of the poet To a Skylark : the poem s form echoes the flying and singing of the skylark which the poet is unable to cope with. Ode to the west wind : celebrates the rebirth that comes with the violent west wind.

12 Shelley Two political radical poems: England in 1819 : The poem events that took place in England. To the Lord Chancellor mix the personal with the political. Mask of Anarchy : is written in ballad form and is in narrative form and discusses the same events.

13 Shelley Two historical poems which show that all great people and great civilizations must end and fall but they will still be remembered for what they leave behind them: the good and the bad. Mont Blanc: the sublime and its effect on the poet

14 De Quincey Debasement of literature and how production of literature became a profession subject to the reader s desires. He worked as a journalist and failed to be the great romantic poet. He constructed the persona of the opium eater who is a scholar and he writes his confessions not like other scandalous confessors. The story of the opium eater is instructional, moral and scientific relying on evidence but it is also interesting and have suspense.

15 De Quincey s style and structure His style is impassioned prose with long confusing sentences, complex structure with a lot of colons and semi-colons. The tone is humorous, sad, satiric, the sublime and the annoying The voice of grandiose with rhetorical strategies to engage the reader so as not to get bored. His structure is fragmented with sub-divisions, headings, flashbacks and flash-forwards, repetitions. It is divided into..

16 De Quincey The opium is the hero of the story: The characteristics of the opium: it is the source of pleasure and pain; it allows for visionary imagination; it is a commodity but it has the secret of happiness. Unlike Wordsworth, The self is divided and unstable. The vision is that of an addict not a prophet. Unlike W, the childhood memories are involutes but they contain dreams and nightmares while in Wordsworth, childhood memories are spots of time.

17 De Quincey Critic Grevel Lindop compares the opium eater story to the fall of Adam and Eve in the biblical story and in Milton s epic. Its theme is the loss of innocence. De Quincey quotes lines from Milton s Paradise Lost in the end of the opium eater. The opium is a modern version of the apple: it causes loss of innocence.

18 Book 2 - Chapter 4: Hoffmann German Romantic who live The Napoleonic war. He wrote literary tales where he mixed / juxtaposes fantasy with realism. He uses gothic elements in his tales The self is unstable and divided; that is why there are three perceptions to the story: three I s and eyes. He represents the dark side of the Romantic imagination.

19 Hoffmann s The Sandman style His tales are open ended and have no closure. They are imitating old fairy tales or household tales and uses the marchen structure. Multiple personas and multiple practices.

20 Hoffmann Ways of seeing the world: Eyes, the visions and the fear of loss like De Quincey, imagination gone mad and out of control. Three personas: Clara = balanced Nathanael = distorted = the romantic imagination The narrator= common sense and satirical

21 Hoffmann Clara is contrasted to Olimpia: Clara has voice and agency while Olimpia is voiceless and passive; Clara sees, Olimpia is seen. Clara is the rational woman while Olimpia is the ideal one. BOTH show masculine poet perception of women: the ideal beautiful doll and the kind balanced woman who has inner beauty. Clara is rewarded at the end by a happy settled marriage.

22 Hoffmann Freud s the uncanny and Nathanael as the child who has incomplete growth (Oedipus complex). Psychoanalytic reading of The Sandman. Traumatic childhood experiences make his memories a source of destruction not a positive influence

23 Hoffmann s automata Automata means robots and it represents the scientific imagination. Hoffmann was worried about the imagination of poets and scientists which fail to create the ideal and threaten madness. One of Hoffman s tales was entitled Automata and it is a recurrent idea in his tales. Olimpia is an automata and she shows artificiality.

24 Common points : 1- the poet s role In W: the Romantic poet has a mission; he has an inner eye and a unique link to nature which allows him to create an ideal society and a vision of a perfect world. HE IS NOT CONCERNED WITH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AND POLOTICAL PROBLEMS In Shelley: the poet can communicate the sublime. He is airy and genius BUT he is also engaged in the economic and political conditions of his time AND he is a legislator of history = Shelley tried to balance the poet s role

25 The poet s role Both of them were governed by reality and economic and political conditions. In De Quincey: he could not be the poet. He is the failed romantic In Hoffmann: the writer has unique abilities but is limited by reality. That s why he tries to mix fantasy with reality and Nathanael turns mad when he cannot fulfill his role as a poet.

26 Common point: 2- The Self Wordsworth s construction of the self as a solitary genius Shelley is the airy air who is romantic genius able to experience the sublime De Quincey is the divided deluded self who tries to have continuity of self as W but fails. Hoffmann s self is unstable and incoherent like De Quincey

27 Common Point: 3- Imagination Wordsworth= Visionary imagination Shelley= Visionary (sublime) De Quincey= Visionary addiction caused by opium Hoffmann = Sick imagination and traumatic childhood experiences.

28 Common point 4: Memory In W: Memory has positive influence and is the source for his poetry. In De Quincey: his childhood memories are traumatic and causes nightmares =involutes Hoffmann cannot distinguish reality from fantasy so we cannot know if Nathanael s memories happened or not but the effect of the memories is destructive.

29 exams questions How does Roderigo and Iago differ concerning marriage? Talk about part one of De Quincey s confessions. What did he convey to the reader? Hoffman s theme of eyes and seeing What are the characteristics of opium?