Terminology
What is a dramatic monologue?
A dramatic monologue is a poem spoken by a fictional character who inadvertently reveals things about him or herself.
She has man's brain - a brain that a man should
have were he much gifted - and woman's heart. The
good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me,
when He made that so good combination…up to
now fortune has made that woman of help to us;
after tonight she must not have to do with this so
terrible affair. It is not good that she run a risk so
great. We men are determined- nay, are we not
pledged? - to destroy this monster; but it is no part
for a woman. Even if she be not harmed, her heart
may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and
hereafter she may suffer
Bram Stoker
What is the homosocial triangle?
Like a M-M-F love triangle, where both
men are pursuing the woman, but
focused on the bonding and rivalry
of the two men. The woman is absent,
dead, or otherwise incapacitated.
Not indeed in actual words; that is, he
could not read the language yet; but it was
plain enough, this beauty, this exquisite
beauty, and tears filled his eyes as he looked
at the smoke words languishing and melting
in the sky and bestowing upon him in their
inexhaustible charity and laughing goodness
one shape after another of unimaginable
beauty and signalling their intention to
provide him, for nothing, for ever, for
looking merely, with beauty, more beauty!
Mrs. Dalloway
What historical event most shaped Modernism?
World War I
What is kitchen sink realism?
A harsh, gritty realism
• Main characters were “angry young men”
—men in their 20s, disillusioned with
traditional society
• Working-class domestic life: cramped
apartments, fights around the kitchen sink
• Controversial social themes: addiction,
abortion, homelessness
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
of the year was
awake tingling near
the edge of the sea
concerned with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings’ wax
the whole pageantry
William Carlos Williams
What is shell shock?
Shell shock (now: PTSD) was a new
phenomenon for physicians. Named for the
physical effects of exploding shells.
• Baffling symptoms:
• Delay (as in post traumatic disorder)
• Patients tended to re-live their traumatic
experiences in dreams and visions
• Symptoms mysteriously came and went.
This all seems confirmation of our idea. However,
after a while I came away; my friend is just a little
too sane at present to make it safe to probe him
too deep with questions. He might begin to think,
and then -! So I came away. I mistrust these quiet
moods of his; so I have given the attendant a hint
to look closely after him, and to have a strait-
waistcoat ready in case of need
Dracula
What is a documentary novel?
A book that is a collection of documents: diaries, journals, letters, newspaper clippings
What is "the New Woman?"
A transgressive new version of femininity in the 1890s.
The “New Woman” demanded more sexual and social autonomy
It rasped her…to have stirring about in her this brutal
monster! to hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure, for at any moment the brute would be stirring, this hatred, which, especially since her illness, had power to make her feel scraped, hurt in her spine; gave her physical pain, and made all pleasure in beauty, in friendship, in being well, in being loved and making her home delightful rock, quiver, and bend as if indeed there were a monster grubbing at the roots, as if the whole panoply of content were nothing but self love! this hatred!
Virginia Woolf
What is invasion literature?
The fear of “reverse colonization”—far-off people invading and colonizing England, as England had been
doing to others for a century.
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
My Last Duchess
What is an elegy?
A poem of reflection and grief about
someone or something we’ve lost.
What is stream of consciousness?
A narrative technique conveying the continuous flow of thoughts, memories, and sensations through the mind.
She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift.
Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave
commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she
stands
As if alive.
Robert Browning
What are the four features of the Victorian era?
a. Empire and Economy: The Victorian empire
(1837-1901) expanded massively under Victoria’s reign, and Britain was a global economic powerhouse.
b. New technologies, sea (steamship), land (railways), and wire (telegraph) connected the global empire
c. Science and Medicine: Electromagnetism, Evolution, & Germ Theory
d. Gender, Coverture
In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure…
Musée des Beaux Arts
What are three themes of modernism?
1. Fragmentation of art & the mind
2. Subjectivity: its depth & richness
3. Disillusionment, paralysis
What does free verse mean?
poetry that does not use rhyme or meter
About suffering they were never wrong,The Old Masters: how well they understoodIts human position; how it takes placeWhile someone else is eating or opening awindow or just walking dully along
W. H. Auden
What is the story of the fall of Icarus?
The tale of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology is the story of a father and a son who used wings to escape from the island of Crete.
Icarus was the young man who fell from the sky when the wax that fastened his wings to his body melted as a result of the heat of the sun.
It's no good fooling about with love you know. You can't fall into it like a soft job without dirtying up your hands. It takes muscle and guts. If you can't bear the thought of messing up your nice, tidy soul, you better give up the whole idea of life and become a saint, because you'll never make it as a human being. It's either this world... or the next.
Look Back in Anger
What are the four key themes of Dracula?
a. East vs. West (“superstition” vs. Christianity)
b. The Gothic
c. The unconscious mind: sleep/dreams, hypnosis, seduction, sexuality
d. Ancient vs. Modern –Magic & superstition vs.
modern information technology