Charles II- Protestant King. Country seen as Protestant country, although there were many Catholics
The state church was dominant
Charles had some interest in Catholicism
Charles- Protestant, James- Catholic
1678- Popish Plot
Titus Oates- spreads rumor there’s a plot to kill the king to make it a Catholic country with James as King when Charles dies
1679-1681- Exclusion Crisis
Attempt by Parliament to exclude James from being king incase Charles died without an air to the throne. Try to get Monmouth- the illegitimate son, to be heir to the throne- this was blocked in the house of lords
1681- Charles II dissolves Parliament- locks up wig leaders
The poem is about this crisis
Uses the language of the Old Testament
Allegorical
1685- Charles dies- James II takes power
Monmouth is excluded- power goes to Catholic James
James appoints Catholics to high power position & tries to dissolve Parliament
2 wives- Anne (2 daughters) and Mary (1 son- James)
1688- William & Mary claim power
James Flees & William and Mary take power. It goes from Catholic heir to Protestant rule
Bill of Rights is produced by Parliament- limited monarchy, still used today.
Mary & William die without kids- no heir. The crown passes to Anne- Mary’s sister. She dies without kids as well.
Jacobite= people who followed James. Think succession should stay with Catholics.
Jacobites- with death of Anne, power should go back to James
The people in Parliament said they didn’t want a Catholic king
George I- very German, becomes king
Hanoverian Succession- German, Protestant
Series of revolts against Hanoverians
Jacobites uprising
What matters-
There was a fight if succession should be by blood- biological vs. political
Catholic vs. Protestant
First 20-40 years King George on the throne was threatened. England & Britain were threatened & unsettled
British Government was threatened by outside pressure & continually in crisis
1745- Everything was over. Britain becomes greatest power in the world.
By Gunnar Johnson
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Irish Incognito By Edgeworth
The Irish Incognito
Piece can be read as exploiting Irish stereotypes- debatable!
Positive- he’s charming, no one has a problem with him when they know he’s Irish.
He’s confident- not a victim
He’s a flake- everyone is. Everybody is a swindler
Irish bull- “I’d rather die than be a Protestant”
By Gunnar Johnson
Piece can be read as exploiting Irish stereotypes- debatable!
Positive- he’s charming, no one has a problem with him when they know he’s Irish.
He’s confident- not a victim
He’s a flake- everyone is. Everybody is a swindler
Irish bull- “I’d rather die than be a Protestant”
By Gunnar Johnson
Aphra Behn and Oroonoko- By Chris Ponzi
The country to which the fictional Oroonoko belongs to is Surinam, but scholars aren't entirely sure if Behn actually visited Surinam or not, bust most likely she did, but it is generally regarded that the narrator of Behn's story Oroonoko, Or The Royal Slave, is not Behn herself. It's interesting however that most of the white characters in the colony in Surinam in the story were actually present in real life according to records. Aphra Behn, who was a fierce Royalist and actually a spy for Charles II, usually bases her fictional characters from political sentiments, usually portraying Republicans/Parliamentary individuals in a negative light; in this story, however, Byam and Bannister, who in real life were actual Royalists, are very evil and awful people, especially to Oroonoko. This might suggest that Behn wasn't in Surinam at this time and just knew the names of these men, or that she just didn't factor in her political sentiments.
Models for the character of Oroonoko could come from several sources, and one thought is that the colonial Oroonoko is based off of a white settler in Surinam named John Allin, who was a disgruntled alcoholic desiring independence, wounded the Surinam governor, and was then taken to prison where he killed himself of an overdose. If and when Behn was in Surinam, she would have seen African slaves from Ghana being transported to the colony, and that is where she would have received her inspiration regarding the physical aspects of Africans, though Oroonoko has a roman nose and straight black hair. Oroonoko could also be influenced by a fictional character named Oroondates from the novel Cassandra, who was a Prince that had his his wife taken by an older king, like with Oroonoko. The name "Caesar" for Oroonoko could also be based off the novel Cleopatra , where a captured slave named Juba is given the name Coriolanus by his captors.
Models for the character of Oroonoko could come from several sources, and one thought is that the colonial Oroonoko is based off of a white settler in Surinam named John Allin, who was a disgruntled alcoholic desiring independence, wounded the Surinam governor, and was then taken to prison where he killed himself of an overdose. If and when Behn was in Surinam, she would have seen African slaves from Ghana being transported to the colony, and that is where she would have received her inspiration regarding the physical aspects of Africans, though Oroonoko has a roman nose and straight black hair. Oroonoko could also be influenced by a fictional character named Oroondates from the novel Cassandra, who was a Prince that had his his wife taken by an older king, like with Oroonoko. The name "Caesar" for Oroonoko could also be based off the novel Cleopatra , where a captured slave named Juba is given the name Coriolanus by his captors.
Monday, March 17, 2008
In case you havent read everything about Persuasion by Jane Austen
You guys awake and still checking this thing?
I am sure somebody has already written this exact post. Oh well. I’ll be anonymous.
Persuasion by Jane Austen deals with a shift in importance from the vestiges of the old landed gentry to the individuality and judgment of the professional class who works for their own living. Anne’s mistake is not only that she IS persuaded but that she is persuaded by the “class” from which her father and Lady Russell come. She finds genuine love with Wentworth and this is very unique in an Austen novel because as we know Wentworth is professional military class. At the end of the book the narrator confesses that it’s ok to follow your individual judgment, you don’t have to follow established morality. As was said this book deals with all these shifts from the old to the new period that we have dealt with throughout the quarter. So let’s step back and explore some of these shifts in relation to persuasion.
Britain as aristocratic. It’s about who you are, not how much money or success you attain by your own endeavors,--> Britain becomes essentially a middle class country.
(Persuasion= the crises threaten this class, increasingly critical of money and wealth given to those who do not work i.e husbands and elder born sons. The eldest son was allowed to be lazy)
Monarchic TO democratic
Massive religious conflicts, as in church and state--> Smaller religious conflicts, Catholics are hated on , protestants, etc etc.
Nature changes from huge unfathomable thing -->smaller microcosm, able to be reflected upon and examined by man and in relation to man
Human self image and imagination changes from a collective group identity focus on “me” the individual self becomes the focus.
Love/Sex/Marriage from a theatrical performance, marriage was for appearances and propriety-->Individual love and depth of feeling and connection
Persuasion= The fate of women in the familial social system changes. The “ pretty, silly fashionable woman” with external brilliance and pomp is exchanged for the inner emotion and depth of Ann.
( Although I really can’t say that “silly pretty women” aren’t still alive and well and preferred by many)
The Nation changes from focus places on family and religion (Hanoverians/Jacobites) Nationality didn’t matter so much --> an increasing interest on how you relate to people instead of who is on top. ( See Burns: Auld Lang Syne/Such a Parcel of Rogues” . This can lead us into thinking about the relationship between Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Britain as well as the abolishment of the slave trade in 1807 and orientalism
Orientalism changes from a utilitarian method of erotizing and exoticizing in order to sell goods and ideas -->a whole new way of looking at the world. Everything in comparison (contrast) to Europe.
I am sure somebody has already written this exact post. Oh well. I’ll be anonymous.
Persuasion by Jane Austen deals with a shift in importance from the vestiges of the old landed gentry to the individuality and judgment of the professional class who works for their own living. Anne’s mistake is not only that she IS persuaded but that she is persuaded by the “class” from which her father and Lady Russell come. She finds genuine love with Wentworth and this is very unique in an Austen novel because as we know Wentworth is professional military class. At the end of the book the narrator confesses that it’s ok to follow your individual judgment, you don’t have to follow established morality. As was said this book deals with all these shifts from the old to the new period that we have dealt with throughout the quarter. So let’s step back and explore some of these shifts in relation to persuasion.
Britain as aristocratic. It’s about who you are, not how much money or success you attain by your own endeavors,--> Britain becomes essentially a middle class country.
(Persuasion= the crises threaten this class, increasingly critical of money and wealth given to those who do not work i.e husbands and elder born sons. The eldest son was allowed to be lazy)
Monarchic TO democratic
Massive religious conflicts, as in church and state--> Smaller religious conflicts, Catholics are hated on , protestants, etc etc.
Nature changes from huge unfathomable thing -->smaller microcosm, able to be reflected upon and examined by man and in relation to man
Human self image and imagination changes from a collective group identity focus on “me” the individual self becomes the focus.
Love/Sex/Marriage from a theatrical performance, marriage was for appearances and propriety-->Individual love and depth of feeling and connection
Persuasion= The fate of women in the familial social system changes. The “ pretty, silly fashionable woman” with external brilliance and pomp is exchanged for the inner emotion and depth of Ann.
( Although I really can’t say that “silly pretty women” aren’t still alive and well and preferred by many)
The Nation changes from focus places on family and religion (Hanoverians/Jacobites) Nationality didn’t matter so much --> an increasing interest on how you relate to people instead of who is on top. ( See Burns: Auld Lang Syne/Such a Parcel of Rogues” . This can lead us into thinking about the relationship between Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Britain as well as the abolishment of the slave trade in 1807 and orientalism
Orientalism changes from a utilitarian method of erotizing and exoticizing in order to sell goods and ideas -->a whole new way of looking at the world. Everything in comparison (contrast) to Europe.
The Sea View
Yessica Astorga Discussion 10 B
Charlotte Smith p. 42
The Sea View
This poem is reminiscent of Religion and of war. The images of the waves crashing and war ships make the poem less about nature and more about the effects of war. The Shepard sits reclined on a turf while all this is going on below him. There are two different scenes here, the poem begins very tranquil and serene and drastically changes to a bloody and death struck image. Man is the key player, as he is the one who takes both these elements of Religion and War and desecrates all the God has created. “Ah! Thus man spoils Heaven’s glorious works with blood!” (42). The Shepard is creating the serene scenery and as you get closer down to earth you witness what man does with it.
Charlotte Smith p. 42
The Sea View
This poem is reminiscent of Religion and of war. The images of the waves crashing and war ships make the poem less about nature and more about the effects of war. The Shepard sits reclined on a turf while all this is going on below him. There are two different scenes here, the poem begins very tranquil and serene and drastically changes to a bloody and death struck image. Man is the key player, as he is the one who takes both these elements of Religion and War and desecrates all the God has created. “Ah! Thus man spoils Heaven’s glorious works with blood!” (42). The Shepard is creating the serene scenery and as you get closer down to earth you witness what man does with it.
The Human Abstract
Yessica Astorga Discussion 10 B
The Human Abstract
p. 95 1794
The poem shows a contrast in Humans, this is a response to The Divine Image in Songs of Innocence. Where God and the human are linked together and are essentially said to be one. Here Blake shows the evil or the “realistic” carnal side of humanity, whereas before he was trying to show the “divine” side. The poem picks up on hypocritical humility and the fear of consequence. “He sits down with holy fears/ And water the ground with tears/ Then Humility takes its root/ Underneath his foot” (95). He also mentions the fruit of deceit that grows from the tree dwelling with the Human brain, which can be interpreted as humans being the root of all evil.
The Human Abstract
p. 95 1794
The poem shows a contrast in Humans, this is a response to The Divine Image in Songs of Innocence. Where God and the human are linked together and are essentially said to be one. Here Blake shows the evil or the “realistic” carnal side of humanity, whereas before he was trying to show the “divine” side. The poem picks up on hypocritical humility and the fear of consequence. “He sits down with holy fears/ And water the ground with tears/ Then Humility takes its root/ Underneath his foot” (95). He also mentions the fruit of deceit that grows from the tree dwelling with the Human brain, which can be interpreted as humans being the root of all evil.
William Wordsworth: Lines Written in Early Spring
Lines Written in Early Spring p. 250
1798
This is not like other poems by Wordsworth where the speaker finds sanctuary or pleasure with in nature. This poem shows disconnect between the human and nature. The speaker finds no pleasure in his surroundings and does not understand why he should find any. “The budding twigs spread out their fan/ To catch the breezy air/ And I must think, do all I can/ That there was pleasure there” (250). He is trying to convince himself that he sees and understands what should be there. In reality he sees nothing. This is very unlike other poems i.e. Tintern Abbey where the speaker finds himself in nature. He uses the scenery as a link to his youth. In this poem there is no connection made between the speaker and his surroundings.
1798
This is not like other poems by Wordsworth where the speaker finds sanctuary or pleasure with in nature. This poem shows disconnect between the human and nature. The speaker finds no pleasure in his surroundings and does not understand why he should find any. “The budding twigs spread out their fan/ To catch the breezy air/ And I must think, do all I can/ That there was pleasure there” (250). He is trying to convince himself that he sees and understands what should be there. In reality he sees nothing. This is very unlike other poems i.e. Tintern Abbey where the speaker finds himself in nature. He uses the scenery as a link to his youth. In this poem there is no connection made between the speaker and his surroundings.
Coleridge: Kublah Khan
Tiffany Simon
Not much was said about this is lecture, but I did my paper on it so i thought i would fill in the gaps.
this poem was written after an opiate dream. Coleridge fell asleep right after reading a line in Purchas's Pilgrimage which said "Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto: and thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall". When Coleridge awake he wrote down all the things which he could remember but in the process was called away on business and was unable to remember the rest of his dream upon return. because of this the poem is not finahsed and the true meaning cannot be figured out.
Another theory is that Coleridge was asked by Byron to write a poem about Orientalism and critiquing the British looks on foreigners which could be just so by using sexual imagery. if read closely it is evident that there are many sexual images throughout the poem which could be Coleridge writing a poem that seems to be beautiful but underneath all of this beauty is the savageness of sex. thus showing how underneath all of the properness of the British there is also a savageness which makes them no better than people from the east.
Not much was said about this is lecture, but I did my paper on it so i thought i would fill in the gaps.
this poem was written after an opiate dream. Coleridge fell asleep right after reading a line in Purchas's Pilgrimage which said "Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto: and thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall". When Coleridge awake he wrote down all the things which he could remember but in the process was called away on business and was unable to remember the rest of his dream upon return. because of this the poem is not finahsed and the true meaning cannot be figured out.
Another theory is that Coleridge was asked by Byron to write a poem about Orientalism and critiquing the British looks on foreigners which could be just so by using sexual imagery. if read closely it is evident that there are many sexual images throughout the poem which could be Coleridge writing a poem that seems to be beautiful but underneath all of this beauty is the savageness of sex. thus showing how underneath all of the properness of the British there is also a savageness which makes them no better than people from the east.
Blake: not just a poem but also a picture
Tiffany Simon (discussion 1B)
this was covered in the beginning of class and he put a lot of energy into it which makes me think it may be important for the final.
*All of his work was accompanied by pictures
*pictures were usually done by one person and the words another... BLAKE DID BOTH!!
*this connected them because the poet was able to put his thoughts into pictures as well as words which give the poems a deeper meaning.
*work was put onto a copper plate and etched into the copper.
*pictures were then done the same to.
*work was put together.
*Blake did everything himself:
- mixed his own ink
-sketched out everything
-pressed his own work
DEDICATION!!
the website that was given to look at other works by Blake: www.blakearchive.org
this was covered in the beginning of class and he put a lot of energy into it which makes me think it may be important for the final.
*All of his work was accompanied by pictures
*pictures were usually done by one person and the words another... BLAKE DID BOTH!!
*this connected them because the poet was able to put his thoughts into pictures as well as words which give the poems a deeper meaning.
*work was put onto a copper plate and etched into the copper.
*pictures were then done the same to.
*work was put together.
*Blake did everything himself:
- mixed his own ink
-sketched out everything
-pressed his own work
DEDICATION!!
the website that was given to look at other works by Blake: www.blakearchive.org
The Life of Jane Austen in Relation to Her Works
There are many biographical links from Jane Austen's life that seemed to have influenced her literary works, specifically in her novel Persuasion
The first obvious link was that Austen's family was of the lower side of the landed gentry class, loosely meaning the English social class that owned land. Her father, George Austen, had risen his way through his family's profession as Wool manufacturers into the landed gentry class, while her mother Cassandra was of a prominent family. This relationship mimics the protagonist of Persuasion, Anne Elliot, who is of a noble family, and Captain Wentworth, who had risen his way up in the ranks of the British Navy. Austen's parents relationship could be seen as part of the beginning of the changing times of England becoming a working middle class country, and its entanglement of relationships between its former elite and aristocracy which the novel expounds.
Another strong connection between the fictitious relationship between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot and Austen herself is that, when Austen was 21 around 1795/6, she fell in love with her neighbor's nephew Tom Lefroy. They apparently both had strong feelings for each other visible by all and letters later obtained between Austen and her eldest sister Cassandra, talk about spending a lot of time together. Sadly, the possible marriage was "impractical" because neither had the money and Lefroy's tentative legal career was being supported by a great uncle, and the Lefroy family intervened and sent Tom Lefroy away from Jane, never to be seen by her again. This unfortuante incident echoes the first encounter between Captain W and Anne, which begins and ends in a very similar way, yet only in the novel does he return and he and Anne get back together.
A third connection is that in 1800 Austen's father moved the family to Bath. Bath is one of the central settings of the later period of Persuasion, and it was said that Jane Austen was very upset about leaving the only home she had ever known for Bath. This would be very similar to Anne Elliot having to leave Kellynch Hall, which was Anne Elliot's only home. Here in Bath as well, Austen was proposed to by a man Harris Bigg-Wither, whom was said to be ugly, aggressive, and tactless. Austen accepted the proposal originally however because they both had known each other for a long time, and he was rich, which would help her provide for her family comfortably. Austen's rationale for accepting the marriage based on financial comfort is a major theme in Persuasion and many of her other novels, and this connection shows that it was still prevelant at this time and specifically for Austen. Austen ended the engangement shortly after the proposal however.
There are many other themes that pertain to Austen's work, but it seems important to understand a few to truly get a real understanding of Austen's motivation for her character's, settings, plot, and dynamic.
The first obvious link was that Austen's family was of the lower side of the landed gentry class, loosely meaning the English social class that owned land. Her father, George Austen, had risen his way through his family's profession as Wool manufacturers into the landed gentry class, while her mother Cassandra was of a prominent family. This relationship mimics the protagonist of Persuasion, Anne Elliot, who is of a noble family, and Captain Wentworth, who had risen his way up in the ranks of the British Navy. Austen's parents relationship could be seen as part of the beginning of the changing times of England becoming a working middle class country, and its entanglement of relationships between its former elite and aristocracy which the novel expounds.
Another strong connection between the fictitious relationship between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot and Austen herself is that, when Austen was 21 around 1795/6, she fell in love with her neighbor's nephew Tom Lefroy. They apparently both had strong feelings for each other visible by all and letters later obtained between Austen and her eldest sister Cassandra, talk about spending a lot of time together. Sadly, the possible marriage was "impractical" because neither had the money and Lefroy's tentative legal career was being supported by a great uncle, and the Lefroy family intervened and sent Tom Lefroy away from Jane, never to be seen by her again. This unfortuante incident echoes the first encounter between Captain W and Anne, which begins and ends in a very similar way, yet only in the novel does he return and he and Anne get back together.
A third connection is that in 1800 Austen's father moved the family to Bath. Bath is one of the central settings of the later period of Persuasion, and it was said that Jane Austen was very upset about leaving the only home she had ever known for Bath. This would be very similar to Anne Elliot having to leave Kellynch Hall, which was Anne Elliot's only home. Here in Bath as well, Austen was proposed to by a man Harris Bigg-Wither, whom was said to be ugly, aggressive, and tactless. Austen accepted the proposal originally however because they both had known each other for a long time, and he was rich, which would help her provide for her family comfortably. Austen's rationale for accepting the marriage based on financial comfort is a major theme in Persuasion and many of her other novels, and this connection shows that it was still prevelant at this time and specifically for Austen. Austen ended the engangement shortly after the proposal however.
There are many other themes that pertain to Austen's work, but it seems important to understand a few to truly get a real understanding of Austen's motivation for her character's, settings, plot, and dynamic.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Royal Exchange
Addison’s Royal Exchange (p. 2479)
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
ashley smith
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
ashley smith
Royal Exchange
Addison’s Royal Exchange (p. 2479)
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
Deserted Village
Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village” (p. 2877)
Category: Poem
Date: 1764
**Irish poet
-commentary on the Enclosure Acts (govt taking Yeoman’s land away to use for farming/natl parks)
-luxury (wealth, city, BAD) vs. rural (virtue, equality, happiness)
-nostalgic lament
-all virtues leave the land – rich possess and corrupt all and throw everyone into poverty
-birds no longer fill forest with song, instead there are bats
-happy egalitarian huge gap between wealthy and poor
-ashley smith
Category: Poem
Date: 1764
**Irish poet
-commentary on the Enclosure Acts (govt taking Yeoman’s land away to use for farming/natl parks)
-luxury (wealth, city, BAD) vs. rural (virtue, equality, happiness)
-nostalgic lament
-all virtues leave the land – rich possess and corrupt all and throw everyone into poverty
-birds no longer fill forest with song, instead there are bats
-happy egalitarian huge gap between wealthy and poor
-ashley smith
"And from his native land resolv'd to go, / And visit scorching climes beyond the sea;
With pleasures drugg'd he almost long'd for woe / And e'en for change of scene would seek the shades below."
---
This quote is from Byron's Childe Harold. Look out for the "Byronic hero" in the IDs, archaisms borrowed from Spenser, and Spenserian stanzas (eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine [twelve syllable iambic line], and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC).
Childe Harold is basically an outsider looking for distraction in foreign land. This poem is useful in thinking about Orientalism, as our hero is resolved to visit the "scorching climes beyond the sea." One can also approach the poem from the "self and imagination" angle. Byron's character closely represents himself, and the creation of such an identity is based off vice in relation to foreign countries.
Crystal Lie / Ian Newman's section
---
This quote is from Byron's Childe Harold. Look out for the "Byronic hero" in the IDs, archaisms borrowed from Spenser, and Spenserian stanzas (eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine [twelve syllable iambic line], and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC).
Childe Harold is basically an outsider looking for distraction in foreign land. This poem is useful in thinking about Orientalism, as our hero is resolved to visit the "scorching climes beyond the sea." One can also approach the poem from the "self and imagination" angle. Byron's character closely represents himself, and the creation of such an identity is based off vice in relation to foreign countries.
Crystal Lie / Ian Newman's section
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (p 111)
Category: long poem
Date: 1790-3
-complex irony/satire
-anti orthodox Christian/piety/morality
-Hell associated with the body and its desires, consists of energy, abundance, and freedom; and heaven with the soul, reason, restraint, passivity, and prohibition (aka Conventional Good)
-Real Good: marriage of the two (The Prolific/The Devouring)
-Rintrah – Elijah
-French Revolution – serpents represent hypocritical priests/inst. Religion disguised as Angels, and the Just Man is the raging prophet poet (Blake) seen as the Devil
-composed during a radical time of political conflict right after the FR. Written in prose, except for ‘argument’ and ‘song of liberty’
-describes poets visit to Hell (influenced by Swedenborg)
-conception of hell is not a place of punishment, but of unrepressed energy and not authoritarian like Heaven.
-wanted to reveal oppressive nature of conventional morality and religion
-proverbs of hell energize thought/ are controversial
-visits print house in hell, where they etch, which Blake swears to do on Earth (ref. to underground revolutionaries making pamphlets at the time)
-ends with revolutionary prophecies, asks for the world to break bonds of religious and political oppression
-marriage between social constraint and imaginative freedom, reason and energy, order and chaos – challenges to have a new way of thinking
-ashley smith (sorry!)
Category: long poem
Date: 1790-3
-complex irony/satire
-anti orthodox Christian/piety/morality
-Hell associated with the body and its desires, consists of energy, abundance, and freedom; and heaven with the soul, reason, restraint, passivity, and prohibition (aka Conventional Good)
-Real Good: marriage of the two (The Prolific/The Devouring)
-Rintrah – Elijah
-French Revolution – serpents represent hypocritical priests/inst. Religion disguised as Angels, and the Just Man is the raging prophet poet (Blake) seen as the Devil
-composed during a radical time of political conflict right after the FR. Written in prose, except for ‘argument’ and ‘song of liberty’
-describes poets visit to Hell (influenced by Swedenborg)
-conception of hell is not a place of punishment, but of unrepressed energy and not authoritarian like Heaven.
-wanted to reveal oppressive nature of conventional morality and religion
-proverbs of hell energize thought/ are controversial
-visits print house in hell, where they etch, which Blake swears to do on Earth (ref. to underground revolutionaries making pamphlets at the time)
-ends with revolutionary prophecies, asks for the world to break bonds of religious and political oppression
-marriage between social constraint and imaginative freedom, reason and energy, order and chaos – challenges to have a new way of thinking
-ashley smith (sorry!)
Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (p 111)
Category: long poem
Date: 1790-3
-complex irony/satire
-anti orthodox Christian/piety/morality
-Hell associated with the body and its desires, consists of energy, abundance, and freedom; and heaven with the soul, reason, restraint, passivity, and prohibition (aka Conventional Good)
-Real Good: marriage of the two (The Prolific/The Devouring)
-Rintrah – Elijah
-French Revolution – serpents represent hypocritical priests/inst. Religion disguised as Angels, and the Just Man is the raging prophet poet (Blake) seen as the Devil
-composed during a radical time of political conflict right after the FR. Written in prose, except for ‘argument’ and ‘song of liberty’
-describes poets visit to Hell (influenced by Swedenborg)
-conception of hell is not a place of punishment, but of unrepressed energy and not authoritarian like Heaven.
-wanted to reveal oppressive nature of conventional morality and religion
-proverbs of hell energize thought/ are controversial
-visits print house in hell, where they etch, which Blake swears to do on Earth (ref. to underground revolutionaries making pamphlets at the time)
-ends with revolutionary prophecies, asks for the world to break bonds of religious and political oppression
-marriage between social constraint and imaginative freedom, reason and energy, order and chaos – challenges to have a new way of thinking
Category: long poem
Date: 1790-3
-complex irony/satire
-anti orthodox Christian/piety/morality
-Hell associated with the body and its desires, consists of energy, abundance, and freedom; and heaven with the soul, reason, restraint, passivity, and prohibition (aka Conventional Good)
-Real Good: marriage of the two (The Prolific/The Devouring)
-Rintrah – Elijah
-French Revolution – serpents represent hypocritical priests/inst. Religion disguised as Angels, and the Just Man is the raging prophet poet (Blake) seen as the Devil
-composed during a radical time of political conflict right after the FR. Written in prose, except for ‘argument’ and ‘song of liberty’
-describes poets visit to Hell (influenced by Swedenborg)
-conception of hell is not a place of punishment, but of unrepressed energy and not authoritarian like Heaven.
-wanted to reveal oppressive nature of conventional morality and religion
-proverbs of hell energize thought/ are controversial
-visits print house in hell, where they etch, which Blake swears to do on Earth (ref. to underground revolutionaries making pamphlets at the time)
-ends with revolutionary prophecies, asks for the world to break bonds of religious and political oppression
-marriage between social constraint and imaginative freedom, reason and energy, order and chaos – challenges to have a new way of thinking
"Satyre against Reason and Mankind"
In "Satyre against Reason and Mankind", Rochester employs his reason as a means in which to discount man's reasoning and the actions that result. Due to each man's baseless faith in their own reasoning and under the impression that theirs is the superior, Rochester demonstrates that this thinking results in "mountains of whimseys" and only leads one "to death", destroying their happiness. Comparing his reasoning with that of others, Rochester refers to his as a "friend" that summons an appetite and enables him to enjoy life. He continues to question which is more base between man and beast, reaching the conclusion "savage man alone does man betray", referring to lust for power, envy, "pride, sloth, and gluttony" as vices in human nature that attribute to this. Rochester concludes that man differs more from his own kind then from "beast", due to their ability to "reason".
by Sara Burback
by Sara Burback
The Restoration
1660-1785
-expansion of English territory (which became known as Great Britain in the Act of Union in 1707)
-Newspapers became common and news spread quickly, population increased, slave trade became common, and a newly inspired interest in E.T. life was spurred through the discovery of the microscope.
-Also, an interest in distant regions (which is mocked in Gulliver's Travels)
The Restoration refers to the historic event when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy, and Irish monarchy were restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War.
--Ashley Smith
-expansion of English territory (which became known as Great Britain in the Act of Union in 1707)
-Newspapers became common and news spread quickly, population increased, slave trade became common, and a newly inspired interest in E.T. life was spurred through the discovery of the microscope.
-Also, an interest in distant regions (which is mocked in Gulliver's Travels)
The Restoration refers to the historic event when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy, and Irish monarchy were restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War.
--Ashley Smith
William Wordsworth: from Prelude, Book XIV
At the conclusion of "The Prelude", Wordsworth is found climbing Mount Snowdon, Wales' highest peak. He and his companion venture through the mist and fog on a "breezeless summer night", and each were "pensively" occupied with their individual thoughts. Upon reaching the summit, they encounter the moon "hung naked", and view the ocean. Wordsworth, upon seeing this view, finds in it's midst "the emblem of a mind / that feeds upon infinity, that broods / over the dark abyss", which Wordsworth understands to be imagination, "that glorious faculty / that higher minds bear with them as their own". This imagination, explains Wordsworth, transcends time and serves as its own fom of divinity, reflecting the power Nature held over Wordsworth and the influence it held over him and his work, and serves as the lens with which he views his life and comprehends its meaning. Without imagination, muses Wordsworth, spiritual and intellectual love cannot exist without Imagination, "for they are each in each, and cannot stand / Dividually". Wordsworth closes "The Prelude" in the hopes that his words may endure and encourages the reader as a "joint laborer[s] in the work".
Rochester: Early period view of the human/reason
In lines 80-100 of “A Satire Against Reason and Mankind” reveal Rochester’s views on humans expanding their knowledge, which was the main stream of thought in the early period. Man should not try to think beyond “is like an ass” (line 97). Earlier in the text, Rochester claims “filing those frantic crowds of thinking fools/those reverend bedlams, colleges and schools” (ll.82-83) again reiterate his view on how education and the idea of thinking beyond what is told/taught was viewed as harmful and rebellious. Unlike the idea of nature in the later period, which was viewed as a positive escape, in the early period texts (Rochester) reveal the idea that nature does nothing but betray and mislead man and that reason (specific to lines 80-100) has made man to believe that he is greater than he really is.
Some Differences Between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Janika Mohan
Section 1H
William Blake etched Songs of Innocence in 1789, he added additional works and published Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794
"SHEWING THE TWO CONTRARY STATES OF THE HUMAN SOUL"
In Songs of Innocence, Blake " assumes the stance that he is writing "happy songs/Every child may joy to hear "( Norton 81). The poems however deal with aspects of the "fallen " world; evil,suffering, inequity and loss of what we define as "innocent".So, what makes these poems innocent? It is the way they seem to be perceived and spoken with a voice of a soul in an innocent state. From the mouths of lamb and babes comes this expression of the fallen world.
Songs of Experience is " the vision of the same world as it appears to the 'contrary' state of the soul that Blake calls 'experience', is an ugly and terrifying one of poverty, disease, prostitution, war and social, institutional and sexual repression, epitomized in the ghastly representation of modern London. Though each stands as an independent poem, a number of the songs of innocence have a matched counterpart or 'contrary' in the songs of experience.(81) "Infant Joy" is paired with "Infant Sorrow" and "the Lamb" is paired with "the Tyger"
The difference between innocence and experience can also be seen as that between nature and humanity.
Various Lines from Songs of Innocence and their "counterparts" from Songs of Experience
Introduction
" Pipe a song about a Lamb";/So I piped with merry chear;/[HOW DO YOU PIPE A SONG ABOUT A LAMB?]"Piper pipe that song again"-/So I piped, he wept to hear./.....And I made a rural pen/And I stain'd the water clear/And I wrote my happy songs/Every child may joy to hear.
Introduction
Calling the lapsed Soul/And weeping in the evening dew,/That might controll/The starry pole/And fallen, fallen light renew
"O Earth, O Earth, return!/Arise from out the dewy grass;/Night is worn/And the morn/Rises from the slumberous mass.
"Turn away no more;/Why wilt thou turn away?/The starry floor/The watry shore/Is giv'n thee till the break of day."
The Lamb
Little lamb, who made thee?/Dost thou know who made thee?....
Little Lamb I'll tell thee/He is called by thy name,/For he calls himself a lamb;/He is meek and he is mild./He became a little child;/I a child & thou a lamb/We are called by his name.
The Tyger
"When the stars threw down their spears/And waterd heaven with their tears,/Did he smile his work to see?/ Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
The Chimney Sweeper ( Innocence)
...Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black;
And by cam an Angel who had a bright key,/And he open'd the coffins and set them all free;/Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run, And wash in a river and shine in the sun
The Chimney Sweeper ( Experience)
They clothed me in clothes of death,/And taught me to sing the notes of woe./
" And because I am happy, & dance & sing, They think they have done me no injury,/And are gone to praise God and his Priest & King,/Who make up a heaven of our misery."
Section 1H
William Blake etched Songs of Innocence in 1789, he added additional works and published Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794
"SHEWING THE TWO CONTRARY STATES OF THE HUMAN SOUL"
In Songs of Innocence, Blake " assumes the stance that he is writing "happy songs/Every child may joy to hear "( Norton 81). The poems however deal with aspects of the "fallen " world; evil,suffering, inequity and loss of what we define as "innocent".So, what makes these poems innocent? It is the way they seem to be perceived and spoken with a voice of a soul in an innocent state. From the mouths of lamb and babes comes this expression of the fallen world.
Songs of Experience is " the vision of the same world as it appears to the 'contrary' state of the soul that Blake calls 'experience', is an ugly and terrifying one of poverty, disease, prostitution, war and social, institutional and sexual repression, epitomized in the ghastly representation of modern London. Though each stands as an independent poem, a number of the songs of innocence have a matched counterpart or 'contrary' in the songs of experience.(81) "Infant Joy" is paired with "Infant Sorrow" and "the Lamb" is paired with "the Tyger"
The difference between innocence and experience can also be seen as that between nature and humanity.
Various Lines from Songs of Innocence and their "counterparts" from Songs of Experience
Introduction
" Pipe a song about a Lamb";/So I piped with merry chear;/[HOW DO YOU PIPE A SONG ABOUT A LAMB?]"Piper pipe that song again"-/So I piped, he wept to hear./.....And I made a rural pen/And I stain'd the water clear/And I wrote my happy songs/Every child may joy to hear.
Introduction
Calling the lapsed Soul/And weeping in the evening dew,/That might controll/The starry pole/And fallen, fallen light renew
"O Earth, O Earth, return!/Arise from out the dewy grass;/Night is worn/And the morn/Rises from the slumberous mass.
"Turn away no more;/Why wilt thou turn away?/The starry floor/The watry shore/Is giv'n thee till the break of day."
The Lamb
Little lamb, who made thee?/Dost thou know who made thee?....
Little Lamb I'll tell thee/He is called by thy name,/For he calls himself a lamb;/He is meek and he is mild./He became a little child;/I a child & thou a lamb/We are called by his name.
The Tyger
"When the stars threw down their spears/And waterd heaven with their tears,/Did he smile his work to see?/ Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
The Chimney Sweeper ( Innocence)
...Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black;
And by cam an Angel who had a bright key,/And he open'd the coffins and set them all free;/Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run, And wash in a river and shine in the sun
The Chimney Sweeper ( Experience)
They clothed me in clothes of death,/And taught me to sing the notes of woe./
" And because I am happy, & dance & sing, They think they have done me no injury,/And are gone to praise God and his Priest & King,/Who make up a heaven of our misery."
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know...
Samar Nattagh
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or duration of his woe.
Charlotte Smith’s “On Being Cautioned against Walking on a Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic” is a) one of my favorite poems and b) about being oblivious to what others think of you and the freedom it can afford you. However, Smith hints at the end that it can also bring you misery. The “lunatic” is only called a lunatic because he does not keep up appearances, “he has no nice felicities”. He does not care if others see him talk to the sea. This state of indifference is an idea that the speaker flirts with and says she sees “more with envy than with fear” but ends by acknowledging the pain that goes along with the release. The general conceit of the poem is that we should all strive to be like the lunatic in some way, by taking creative liberties and indulging our inner madness. Reason is a curse that must be cast off, at least temporarily, so that we may do this. But the extent to which we indulge our lunacy will affect the “depth and duration of [our] woe”.
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or duration of his woe.
Charlotte Smith’s “On Being Cautioned against Walking on a Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic” is a) one of my favorite poems and b) about being oblivious to what others think of you and the freedom it can afford you. However, Smith hints at the end that it can also bring you misery. The “lunatic” is only called a lunatic because he does not keep up appearances, “he has no nice felicities”. He does not care if others see him talk to the sea. This state of indifference is an idea that the speaker flirts with and says she sees “more with envy than with fear” but ends by acknowledging the pain that goes along with the release. The general conceit of the poem is that we should all strive to be like the lunatic in some way, by taking creative liberties and indulging our inner madness. Reason is a curse that must be cast off, at least temporarily, so that we may do this. But the extent to which we indulge our lunacy will affect the “depth and duration of [our] woe”.
And tell the embosom'd grief, however vain...
Samar Nattagh
To sullen surges and the viewless wind.
Though no repose on thy dark breast I find,
I still enjoy thee-cheerless as thou art;
For in thy quiet gloom the exhausted heart
Is calm, though wretch; hopeless, yet resign'd.
In Charlotte Smith’s “To Night”, the speaker describes the complex feelings she has towards nighttime. In the night, “the enfeebled mind/ Will to the deaf cold elements complain”. Nighttime, particularly the time right before we fall asleep, is prime self-reflection time and it can be either uplifting or depressing, depending on how the day went. The speaker’s mind complains to the night, though it is “deaf”, “cold”, and does not respond to her complaints. There is a certain eeriness to the night, as she feels the wind but cannot see it. She acknowledges that this complaining is “vain” and says that she finds “no repose on thy dark breast”. But although the night does not respond and offers only coldness, she still likes it. At the very least, the night is constant and its cyclical quality is comforting. Nighttime is the time we feel closest to another world; for the speaker, it is “heaven”. But since night is universally experienced, “heaven” can also symbolize a feeling of intimacy with other human beings, both alive and dead.
To sullen surges and the viewless wind.
Though no repose on thy dark breast I find,
I still enjoy thee-cheerless as thou art;
For in thy quiet gloom the exhausted heart
Is calm, though wretch; hopeless, yet resign'd.
In Charlotte Smith’s “To Night”, the speaker describes the complex feelings she has towards nighttime. In the night, “the enfeebled mind/ Will to the deaf cold elements complain”. Nighttime, particularly the time right before we fall asleep, is prime self-reflection time and it can be either uplifting or depressing, depending on how the day went. The speaker’s mind complains to the night, though it is “deaf”, “cold”, and does not respond to her complaints. There is a certain eeriness to the night, as she feels the wind but cannot see it. She acknowledges that this complaining is “vain” and says that she finds “no repose on thy dark breast”. But although the night does not respond and offers only coldness, she still likes it. At the very least, the night is constant and its cyclical quality is comforting. Nighttime is the time we feel closest to another world; for the speaker, it is “heaven”. But since night is universally experienced, “heaven” can also symbolize a feeling of intimacy with other human beings, both alive and dead.
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear...
Samar Nattagh
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.
In the last stanza of Blake’s “The Little Black Boy”, the little black boy (the speaker) talks about protecting the little white boy once they are in heaven from the “heat till he can bear”, suggesting that the burden of being black has better prepared him to “bear... our father”. The cruelties of the little black boy’s life have made him strong enough to take in and understand God’s love more easily than the white boy can. But the little black boy seems too willing to go along with this idea of redemption in the afterlife, dismissing almost completely the misery he experienced in his life on earth. Afterlife and being able to “stroke [God’s] silver hair” does not negate a lifetime of pain. The little black boy ultimately wants to “be like [God]” and wants God to then love him. In Blake’s “The Divine Image”, he introduces the idea of God being a reflection of the perfection of human qualities, rather than humans being imperfect reflections of God. Blake also had said, “All deities reside in the human breast”. Why, then, does the little black boy strive to be like God if God is already in him? Perhaps, he has no choice; the only way he knows to deal with his suffering is to follow his mother’s advice and take solace in God’s “heat” and “beams of love”. This is better than having no hope. But maybe religion is giving him a false sense of hope and contentment. Gaining God’s love in the afterlife does not solve the problem of injustice in the present life. The little black boy already is like God and already has God’s love but he does not put it to use. If only he realized this, he could use that reflection of God and his love to try to better his situation. If God exists in us and he is the perfection of our qualities, then the little black boy need only self-reflect to gain insight into his condition. Only then can that condition improve.
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.
In the last stanza of Blake’s “The Little Black Boy”, the little black boy (the speaker) talks about protecting the little white boy once they are in heaven from the “heat till he can bear”, suggesting that the burden of being black has better prepared him to “bear... our father”. The cruelties of the little black boy’s life have made him strong enough to take in and understand God’s love more easily than the white boy can. But the little black boy seems too willing to go along with this idea of redemption in the afterlife, dismissing almost completely the misery he experienced in his life on earth. Afterlife and being able to “stroke [God’s] silver hair” does not negate a lifetime of pain. The little black boy ultimately wants to “be like [God]” and wants God to then love him. In Blake’s “The Divine Image”, he introduces the idea of God being a reflection of the perfection of human qualities, rather than humans being imperfect reflections of God. Blake also had said, “All deities reside in the human breast”. Why, then, does the little black boy strive to be like God if God is already in him? Perhaps, he has no choice; the only way he knows to deal with his suffering is to follow his mother’s advice and take solace in God’s “heat” and “beams of love”. This is better than having no hope. But maybe religion is giving him a false sense of hope and contentment. Gaining God’s love in the afterlife does not solve the problem of injustice in the present life. The little black boy already is like God and already has God’s love but he does not put it to use. If only he realized this, he could use that reflection of God and his love to try to better his situation. If God exists in us and he is the perfection of our qualities, then the little black boy need only self-reflect to gain insight into his condition. Only then can that condition improve.
Literature Change between 1660 -1785
Camille Esparza
1st period: (extending to the death of Dryden in 1700)
- Characterised by an effort to bring a new refinement to English literature according to sound critical principles of what is right and fitting.
2nd period: ( ending with the deaths of Pope in 1744 and Swift in 1745)
- extends that effort to a wider circle of readers, with special satirical attention to what is unfitting and wrong.
3rd period: ( concluding with the death of Johnson in 1784 -1785)
- confronts the old principles with revolutionary ideas that would come to the fore in the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
1st period: (extending to the death of Dryden in 1700)
- Characterised by an effort to bring a new refinement to English literature according to sound critical principles of what is right and fitting.
2nd period: ( ending with the deaths of Pope in 1744 and Swift in 1745)
- extends that effort to a wider circle of readers, with special satirical attention to what is unfitting and wrong.
3rd period: ( concluding with the death of Johnson in 1784 -1785)
- confronts the old principles with revolutionary ideas that would come to the fore in the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Definition and belief of antinomianism.
- This is the idea that people are free from the law and that the law was made for us, we were not made for the law. It is the notion that there is no god separate from humans. Jesus died to forgive us our sins and the 10 commandments no longer are relevant to us. This concept can be found in many works from Blake, such as The Lamb and The Divine Image.
By Megan Callaway
- This is the idea that people are free from the law and that the law was made for us, we were not made for the law. It is the notion that there is no god separate from humans. Jesus died to forgive us our sins and the 10 commandments no longer are relevant to us. This concept can be found in many works from Blake, such as The Lamb and The Divine Image.
By Megan Callaway
“And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.”
These lines are the ending two lines of William Blake’s The Little Black Boy. Blake is referring to the authority within our society teaching the young generation to acquiesce to the standards and bigotry of traditional thought. He is saying that we as citizens need to find another way to think because by accepting the ideas of our older generations we are accepting exploitation in our society. Commonly held beliefs cannot be unquestioned simply because they are popular notions at the time. Even parents, who represent a type of authority, must be questioned in the information they provide to their dependents. Blake asserts the necessity to question authority and think for yourself.
By Megan Callaway
And be like him, and he will then love me.”
These lines are the ending two lines of William Blake’s The Little Black Boy. Blake is referring to the authority within our society teaching the young generation to acquiesce to the standards and bigotry of traditional thought. He is saying that we as citizens need to find another way to think because by accepting the ideas of our older generations we are accepting exploitation in our society. Commonly held beliefs cannot be unquestioned simply because they are popular notions at the time. Even parents, who represent a type of authority, must be questioned in the information they provide to their dependents. Blake asserts the necessity to question authority and think for yourself.
By Megan Callaway
First Day of Class- Short Blog
This is a bit of information from the first day of class. I know some people may not have been there for scheduling reasons.
-A Ballad is part of popular culture NOT part of the elite or educated. It is made for the people.
- You must look at the literature in the context that it was created from. Not through our perspective today but from their perspective back then.
- Makdisi talked about Wordsworth and Coleridge a lot. Particularly Lyrical Ballads. Talking about nature was not considered aesthetic then, it was viewed as political.
- Literature is never far from politics
-A Ballad is part of popular culture NOT part of the elite or educated. It is made for the people.
- You must look at the literature in the context that it was created from. Not through our perspective today but from their perspective back then.
- Makdisi talked about Wordsworth and Coleridge a lot. Particularly Lyrical Ballads. Talking about nature was not considered aesthetic then, it was viewed as political.
- Literature is never far from politics
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Charlotte Smith's "On Being Cautioned..."
Some thoughts...
Subjectivity of lunacy and identity is addressed within the sonnet and can be related to ideas concerning the self, imagination, identity, the human, and so forth. Note how the speaker delves into the identity and mental state of a supposed mentally ill person. This explores the way in which a public persona is created through preconceptions and the imagination of others. Also take into account the animalistic portrayal of the man and the personification of his surroundings—thus illustrating the large extent to which one can "imprint" their prejudices. There's a connection between the way the self is, in part, formed through the preconception of others and the way identity can be created through poetry/writing. The self therefore is never a singular portrayal, but an ever-changing image dependent on the eyes and presumptions of a given person. Taking this into account, is there a "true self"? This concept is pretty similar to the way Burney, Pepys, etc. reconstruct events and accounts of people through prose and their journals or biographies.
Crystal Lie Ian's section
Subjectivity of lunacy and identity is addressed within the sonnet and can be related to ideas concerning the self, imagination, identity, the human, and so forth. Note how the speaker delves into the identity and mental state of a supposed mentally ill person. This explores the way in which a public persona is created through preconceptions and the imagination of others. Also take into account the animalistic portrayal of the man and the personification of his surroundings—thus illustrating the large extent to which one can "imprint" their prejudices. There's a connection between the way the self is, in part, formed through the preconception of others and the way identity can be created through poetry/writing. The self therefore is never a singular portrayal, but an ever-changing image dependent on the eyes and presumptions of a given person. Taking this into account, is there a "true self"? This concept is pretty similar to the way Burney, Pepys, etc. reconstruct events and accounts of people through prose and their journals or biographies.
Crystal Lie Ian's section
Gulliver's Travels, Part 4, Chpts 1-4,8
Janika Mohan
Section 1H
Gulliver's Travels-Jonathan Swift (1726- amended 1735)
Romanticism was among other thing s movement of revolt against Pope/Swift type thinking. The question of What is man?
But...Swift explores what it is to be human.
Two philosophers: Leibniz (1646-1716) and Spinoza(1632-1677)
Leibniz:Each human is a self contained unit cut off from all other humans this is called a "monad"-i remember this by thinking nomad..a lone traveler ..maybe don't take this advice.Every individual monadic unit is a species-Extreme individualism
The opposing philosophical viewpoint was:
Spinoza: He argued the less individual we are, the better off we are, and that we only exist in our desires. Desire is our very essence-We exist in our striving, in our preserverance.
The argument that formed in this period surrounded whether the human was an individual or part of a collective mass. This is IMPORTANT because it relates to a broad shift between early to later periods we looked at.
Locke represented the view of Leibniz, that every human is an individual. He determined that we are individuals because of our power of rationality.
we all begin with a blank slate ( Tabula Rasa) and as we grow up our reasoning develops our differences. We cannot expect to understand everything so we can only focus on making "clear and distinct" or "determined" ideas and in doing this understanding will come about passively.
A little more about Tabula Rasa: Images bombard our minds, a world of obtrusive objects tel us how to think- a passive understanding of what it is to be human. Human beings are cut off from the creative power of God. All we understand is what God gave us, we are reduced to sensory organs. We are furnished with faculties for conveniences for living. Blake resisted this idea that we are locked inside our bodies.
SO---->>>
- Swift (along with Pope and Wilmot) questioned Locke's idea of rationality as the leading human characteristic, arguing mainly that rationality and reason are flawed and misleading although they were not entirely of Spinoza's view of having no individuality at all. This can be applied to Gulliver's Travel's different "races" of people . One is seemingly more sophisticated than the the other - The horses, or " Houyhnhuhms" are a representation of Locke and Leibniz's views:
their reasoning and rationality are what make them "superior" to the lesser, seemingly more primitive race.The "Yahoos" are described as primal humans-think about Spinoza and existing in our desires. Gulliver does not recognize the Yahoos as human even though the horses see him as being one of the Yahoos." He was extremely curious to know from what part of the country I came, and how I was taught to imitate a rational creature; because the Yahoos ( whom he saw I exactly resembled in my head, hands feet, face that were only visible) with some appearance of cunning, and the strongest disposition to mischief , were observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes ( 2426)".
and so what Swift is really saying is the opposite ... that the one race, equipped with human rationality, is really no different than the Yahoos who appear to be human.
The following describes the Yahoos
"The females were not so large as the males...the hair of both sexes was of several colors...Upon the whole I had never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy. So that thinking I had seen enough, full of contempt and aversion" (2420"
The next description of of the horse people:
" I was amazed to see such actions and behavior in brute beasts; and concluded with myself that if the inhabitants of this country were endued with a proportion able degree of reason, they must needs be the wisest people upon the earth.This thought gave me so much comfort...Upon the whole, the behavior of these animals was so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded, they must needs be magicians... " (2421).
It seems to me the satire in Gulliver is obviously more subtle than that in A Modest Proposal.an interesting question to explore is how does the method of satire/reasons differ in Swifts two texts.
Section 1H
Gulliver's Travels-Jonathan Swift (1726- amended 1735)
Romanticism was among other thing s movement of revolt against Pope/Swift type thinking. The question of What is man?
But...Swift explores what it is to be human.
Two philosophers: Leibniz (1646-1716) and Spinoza(1632-1677)
Leibniz:Each human is a self contained unit cut off from all other humans this is called a "monad"-i remember this by thinking nomad..a lone traveler ..maybe don't take this advice.Every individual monadic unit is a species-Extreme individualism
The opposing philosophical viewpoint was:
Spinoza: He argued the less individual we are, the better off we are, and that we only exist in our desires. Desire is our very essence-We exist in our striving, in our preserverance.
The argument that formed in this period surrounded whether the human was an individual or part of a collective mass. This is IMPORTANT because it relates to a broad shift between early to later periods we looked at.
Locke represented the view of Leibniz, that every human is an individual. He determined that we are individuals because of our power of rationality.
we all begin with a blank slate ( Tabula Rasa) and as we grow up our reasoning develops our differences. We cannot expect to understand everything so we can only focus on making "clear and distinct" or "determined" ideas and in doing this understanding will come about passively.
A little more about Tabula Rasa: Images bombard our minds, a world of obtrusive objects tel us how to think- a passive understanding of what it is to be human. Human beings are cut off from the creative power of God. All we understand is what God gave us, we are reduced to sensory organs. We are furnished with faculties for conveniences for living. Blake resisted this idea that we are locked inside our bodies.
SO---->>>
- Swift (along with Pope and Wilmot) questioned Locke's idea of rationality as the leading human characteristic, arguing mainly that rationality and reason are flawed and misleading although they were not entirely of Spinoza's view of having no individuality at all. This can be applied to Gulliver's Travel's different "races" of people . One is seemingly more sophisticated than the the other - The horses, or " Houyhnhuhms" are a representation of Locke and Leibniz's views:
their reasoning and rationality are what make them "superior" to the lesser, seemingly more primitive race.The "Yahoos" are described as primal humans-think about Spinoza and existing in our desires. Gulliver does not recognize the Yahoos as human even though the horses see him as being one of the Yahoos." He was extremely curious to know from what part of the country I came, and how I was taught to imitate a rational creature; because the Yahoos ( whom he saw I exactly resembled in my head, hands feet, face that were only visible) with some appearance of cunning, and the strongest disposition to mischief , were observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes ( 2426)".
and so what Swift is really saying is the opposite ... that the one race, equipped with human rationality, is really no different than the Yahoos who appear to be human.
The following describes the Yahoos
"The females were not so large as the males...the hair of both sexes was of several colors...Upon the whole I had never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy. So that thinking I had seen enough, full of contempt and aversion" (2420"
The next description of of the horse people:
" I was amazed to see such actions and behavior in brute beasts; and concluded with myself that if the inhabitants of this country were endued with a proportion able degree of reason, they must needs be the wisest people upon the earth.This thought gave me so much comfort...Upon the whole, the behavior of these animals was so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded, they must needs be magicians... " (2421).
It seems to me the satire in Gulliver is obviously more subtle than that in A Modest Proposal.an interesting question to explore is how does the method of satire/reasons differ in Swifts two texts.
Additions to Bunyan/Butler's historical context
Janika Mohan
Section 1H
Because there are already postings on Butler's Hudibras(1662) and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress(1678-79) as well as a very complete one about levelers I am just going to try to expand a little for IDs.
These two texts ( Hudibras and Pilgrim;s Progress) relate directly to the period from which they emerged.
Consider the time line surrounding the texts:
--England comes out of war at the end of the 17th century. Tension between the forces of parliament vs, the forces of nobility and aristocracy. 2008--> power lies with aristocracy as the "landed gentry" Prof. Makdisi spoke about now drives around in Land Rovers and shows up on cover of OK! magazine.
--There are new daring experiments in politics
- Levelers, the Ranters and the Diggers.--> and flourishing of different religious sects.
-Cromwell's army is a great democratic experiment and ideas emerged from the army. It was a people's army, normal everyday people.
--Cromwell proposed the restriction of monarchy while maintaining the House of Lords.This concession lead to anger from the soldiers .
--As stated the levers did not want total equality but equal political rights such as universal manhood suffrage.
** Must own property to be involved in Parliament
** 1st time normal men were given the chance to voice ideas and practice religious freedom with the mindset " Every man is a prophet" leads us to the idea of
"ANTINOMIANISM" "against the law" " we are free from god's punishment"which my peers have once again defined beautifully in other posts.
--THEN!! In 1660s political and religious freedoms discussed were suppressed by new acts and laws-Act against petitioning--> " Act of Incorporation", AND everything become regulated again. This brief surge of experimentation seen through Cromwell's army, The Levelers and Antinomianism should be kept in mind however when reading/discussing Bunyan and Bulter.
Section 1H
Because there are already postings on Butler's Hudibras(1662) and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress(1678-79) as well as a very complete one about levelers I am just going to try to expand a little for IDs.
These two texts ( Hudibras and Pilgrim;s Progress) relate directly to the period from which they emerged.
Consider the time line surrounding the texts:
--England comes out of war at the end of the 17th century. Tension between the forces of parliament vs, the forces of nobility and aristocracy. 2008--> power lies with aristocracy as the "landed gentry" Prof. Makdisi spoke about now drives around in Land Rovers and shows up on cover of OK! magazine.
--There are new daring experiments in politics
- Levelers, the Ranters and the Diggers.--> and flourishing of different religious sects.
-Cromwell's army is a great democratic experiment and ideas emerged from the army. It was a people's army, normal everyday people.
--Cromwell proposed the restriction of monarchy while maintaining the House of Lords.This concession lead to anger from the soldiers .
--As stated the levers did not want total equality but equal political rights such as universal manhood suffrage.
** Must own property to be involved in Parliament
** 1st time normal men were given the chance to voice ideas and practice religious freedom with the mindset " Every man is a prophet" leads us to the idea of
"ANTINOMIANISM" "against the law" " we are free from god's punishment"which my peers have once again defined beautifully in other posts.
--THEN!! In 1660s political and religious freedoms discussed were suppressed by new acts and laws-Act against petitioning--> " Act of Incorporation", AND everything become regulated again. This brief surge of experimentation seen through Cromwell's army, The Levelers and Antinomianism should be kept in mind however when reading/discussing Bunyan and Bulter.
The Spectator and The Royal Exchange by Addison
Janika Mohan
Section 1H
Posting right before the final, sorry. So, there were two chaps named Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele ,their journal was called The Spectator ,a daily occurrence during 1711-1712 on many a breakfast table next to the Earl Grey, Elderberry scones and mincemeat /kidney /liver /intestine pies and most likely some other mysterious English meat pastries .Addison was a reserved and prudent fellow, he won a fellowship from Oxford and dominated most of the writing in The Spectator . Ol’ Richie Steele was a bit more impulsive, a rakish and dashing Whig who kept the ladies on their toes by wounding people in duels ( Addison resorted to speaking fancy Latin verse to charm their bloomers off). Apart from their differences these mates worked together quite well.
We read “The Royal Exchange under the theme of Country and City, Race and Empire and Criticism. The journal lends to our understanding of daily English life on many levels. It is an all inclusive account of “ good manners, daily happenings in London, going to church, shopping, investing, trade and commerce, proper gender roles and relations, high and low entertainment, literature, philosophical and scientific speculations( Norton C 2469).” The Spectator infused education with entertainment and scholarly specifics with cultural and societal commentary
Prof. Makdisi’s final lecture concerned the shift from a collective, group mentality to a focus on the individual and distinctive self. When speaking of The Spectator the Norton Intro states “all were shown to be elements of a single, vast agreeable world.” This collective “unifying spirit” is seen explicitly in Addison’s “ The Royal Exchange” and can be viewed in this “collective” theme of the earlier period.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE Sat , May,19th, 1711
” It gives me secret satisfaction , and in some measure gratifies my vanity as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners consulting together upon the private business of mankind…making this metropolis a kind of emporium for the whole earth.”.
…I rather fancy myself like…a citizen of the world “
I am wonderfully delighted to see such a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes and at the same time promoting the publick stock; …raising estates for their own families by bringing into their country whatever is wanting and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous.”
“” Nature seems to have taken particular care to disseminate her blessings among the different regions of the world with an eye to his mutual intercourse…
“our own country in its natural prospect without any of the benefits and advantages of commerce, what a barren uncomfortable spot of earth falls to our share”
“Nor has traffic more enriched our vegetable world than it has improved the whole face of nature among us.”
“our morning’s draught comes to us from the remotest corners of the earth…My friend sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our gardens…, the Persians our silk weavers, and the Chinese our potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare necessities of life but traffic gives us great variety of what is useful, and at the same time supplies is everything that is convenient and ornamental
“ without enlarging the Bristish territories it has given us a kind of additional empire. It has multiplied the number of the rich.”
-This and other articles such as Inkle and Yarico and Aims of the Spectator helped develop the essay as a great literary form.
-The Royal exchange describes the new power of the London stock market in order to draw power away from the Dutch. The English basically wanted to appear more rich and diverse
-The “Food from one country and sauce from another” line shows us how England wanted to be at once English and universal at the same time. The entire world comes to you when you are a Londoner.
-These passages show how tightly knit economy and politics were during this time, also the present love for imperialism and colonialism.
-This an essay with a purpose inspiring national pride and propagandistic intentions, it tried to stimulate commerce and trade
-Addison places value on the collective “richness” and diversity experienced in London’s city hub , glorifying consumerism and trade. England is described as being entitled to all. He describes a kind of collective consciousness , of all countries and peoples, also of material goods, working to complete each other , imparting value.
-The use of rich here could mean diverse, as he notes a mixture of many cultures melding together. The men are affluent in god but also rich as in productive and fruitful, this kind of richness is what holds the ultimate value in Addison’s eyes, the ability of commerce and trade to reap in the fruits
Section 1H
Posting right before the final, sorry. So, there were two chaps named Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele ,their journal was called The Spectator ,a daily occurrence during 1711-1712 on many a breakfast table next to the Earl Grey, Elderberry scones and mincemeat /kidney /liver /intestine pies and most likely some other mysterious English meat pastries .Addison was a reserved and prudent fellow, he won a fellowship from Oxford and dominated most of the writing in The Spectator . Ol’ Richie Steele was a bit more impulsive, a rakish and dashing Whig who kept the ladies on their toes by wounding people in duels ( Addison resorted to speaking fancy Latin verse to charm their bloomers off). Apart from their differences these mates worked together quite well.
We read “The Royal Exchange under the theme of Country and City, Race and Empire and Criticism. The journal lends to our understanding of daily English life on many levels. It is an all inclusive account of “ good manners, daily happenings in London, going to church, shopping, investing, trade and commerce, proper gender roles and relations, high and low entertainment, literature, philosophical and scientific speculations( Norton C 2469).” The Spectator infused education with entertainment and scholarly specifics with cultural and societal commentary
Prof. Makdisi’s final lecture concerned the shift from a collective, group mentality to a focus on the individual and distinctive self. When speaking of The Spectator the Norton Intro states “all were shown to be elements of a single, vast agreeable world.” This collective “unifying spirit” is seen explicitly in Addison’s “ The Royal Exchange” and can be viewed in this “collective” theme of the earlier period.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE Sat , May,19th, 1711
” It gives me secret satisfaction , and in some measure gratifies my vanity as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners consulting together upon the private business of mankind…making this metropolis a kind of emporium for the whole earth.”.
…I rather fancy myself like…a citizen of the world “
I am wonderfully delighted to see such a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes and at the same time promoting the publick stock; …raising estates for their own families by bringing into their country whatever is wanting and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous.”
“” Nature seems to have taken particular care to disseminate her blessings among the different regions of the world with an eye to his mutual intercourse…
“our own country in its natural prospect without any of the benefits and advantages of commerce, what a barren uncomfortable spot of earth falls to our share”
“Nor has traffic more enriched our vegetable world than it has improved the whole face of nature among us.”
“our morning’s draught comes to us from the remotest corners of the earth…My friend sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our gardens…, the Persians our silk weavers, and the Chinese our potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare necessities of life but traffic gives us great variety of what is useful, and at the same time supplies is everything that is convenient and ornamental
“ without enlarging the Bristish territories it has given us a kind of additional empire. It has multiplied the number of the rich.”
-This and other articles such as Inkle and Yarico and Aims of the Spectator helped develop the essay as a great literary form.
-The Royal exchange describes the new power of the London stock market in order to draw power away from the Dutch. The English basically wanted to appear more rich and diverse
-The “Food from one country and sauce from another” line shows us how England wanted to be at once English and universal at the same time. The entire world comes to you when you are a Londoner.
-These passages show how tightly knit economy and politics were during this time, also the present love for imperialism and colonialism.
-This an essay with a purpose inspiring national pride and propagandistic intentions, it tried to stimulate commerce and trade
-Addison places value on the collective “richness” and diversity experienced in London’s city hub , glorifying consumerism and trade. England is described as being entitled to all. He describes a kind of collective consciousness , of all countries and peoples, also of material goods, working to complete each other , imparting value.
-The use of rich here could mean diverse, as he notes a mixture of many cultures melding together. The men are affluent in god but also rich as in productive and fruitful, this kind of richness is what holds the ultimate value in Addison’s eyes, the ability of commerce and trade to reap in the fruits
A List of Works & Authors in Chronological Order
Zenas Lee
Butler “Hudibras” 1662
Dryden “Annus Mirabilis” 1667
Pepys “Diary” 1660-69
Bunyan “Pilgrim’s Progress” 1678-79
Rochester “Satire against Reason and Mankind” 1679
“Imperfect Enjoyment” 1680
Dryden “Absalom and Achitophel” 1681
Behn “Oroonoka” 1688
Dryden “Essay of Dramatic Poesy” 1688
Locke “Essay on Understanding” 1690
Congreve “Way of the World” 1700
Steele “Inkle and Yarico” 1711
Addison “Aims of a Spectator” 1711
“The Royal Exchange” 1711
“Pleasures of the Imagination” 1711
Pope “An Essay on Criticism” 1711
Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” 1726
Swift “A Modest Proposal” 1729
Thomson “The Seasons” 1730
Pope “Essay on Man” 1733-4
Hogarth “Marriage a al mode” 1743-45
Collins “Ode to Evening” 1746
Johnson “Rambler” 1750
Gray “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard” 1742-50
Johnson “Preface to Dictionary” 1755
“Preface to Shakespeare” 1765
Goldsmith “The Deserted Village” 1770
Smith “Written at the Close of Spring” 1784
“To Sleep” 1784
Cowper “The Task” 1785
Blake “All Religions Are One” 1788
“There Is No Natural Religion” 1788
“Songs of Innocence and Experience” 1789-94
“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” 1790-93
Burke “Reflections on the Revolution in France” 1790
Paine “Rights of Man” 1791
Boswell “From the Life of Johnson” 1791
Coleridge “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” 1797
Equiano “An Interesting Narrative” 1789
Barbauld “Epistle to William Wilberforce” 1791
Wollstonecraft “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” 1792
Burns “Such a parcel of rogues in a nation” 1792
Blake “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” 1793
Burns “Auld Lang Syne” 1796
Wordsworth “Lyrical Ballads” 1798
Robinson “London’s Summer Morning” 1800
Edgeworth “The Irish Incognito” 1802
Wordsworth “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” 1802
Byron “The Giaour” 1813
Austen “Persuasion” 1816
Byron “Childe Harold” 1816
Coleridge “Kubla Khan” 1816
Shelley “Mont Blanc” 1817
“Ozymandias” 1818
Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” 1819
Shelley “Prometheus Unbound” 1820
De Quincy “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” 1821
Hemans “England’s Dead” 1822
Hazlitt “My First Acquaintance with Poets” 1823
Byron “Don Juan” 1824
Scott “Wandering Willie’s Tale” 1824
Barbauld “The Rights of Woman” 1825
Hemans “The Homes of England” 1827
Lamb “Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading” 1833
Shelley “Men of England” 1839
“England in 1819” 1839
Burney “Journal” 1768-1840
Shelley “A Defense of Poetry” 1840
Clare “I Am” 1842-48
Wordsworth “The Prelude” 1805-50
Butler “Hudibras” 1662
Dryden “Annus Mirabilis” 1667
Pepys “Diary” 1660-69
Bunyan “Pilgrim’s Progress” 1678-79
Rochester “Satire against Reason and Mankind” 1679
“Imperfect Enjoyment” 1680
Dryden “Absalom and Achitophel” 1681
Behn “Oroonoka” 1688
Dryden “Essay of Dramatic Poesy” 1688
Locke “Essay on Understanding” 1690
Congreve “Way of the World” 1700
Steele “Inkle and Yarico” 1711
Addison “Aims of a Spectator” 1711
“The Royal Exchange” 1711
“Pleasures of the Imagination” 1711
Pope “An Essay on Criticism” 1711
Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” 1726
Swift “A Modest Proposal” 1729
Thomson “The Seasons” 1730
Pope “Essay on Man” 1733-4
Hogarth “Marriage a al mode” 1743-45
Collins “Ode to Evening” 1746
Johnson “Rambler” 1750
Gray “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard” 1742-50
Johnson “Preface to Dictionary” 1755
“Preface to Shakespeare” 1765
Goldsmith “The Deserted Village” 1770
Smith “Written at the Close of Spring” 1784
“To Sleep” 1784
Cowper “The Task” 1785
Blake “All Religions Are One” 1788
“There Is No Natural Religion” 1788
“Songs of Innocence and Experience” 1789-94
“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” 1790-93
Burke “Reflections on the Revolution in France” 1790
Paine “Rights of Man” 1791
Boswell “From the Life of Johnson” 1791
Coleridge “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison” 1797
Equiano “An Interesting Narrative” 1789
Barbauld “Epistle to William Wilberforce” 1791
Wollstonecraft “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” 1792
Burns “Such a parcel of rogues in a nation” 1792
Blake “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” 1793
Burns “Auld Lang Syne” 1796
Wordsworth “Lyrical Ballads” 1798
Robinson “London’s Summer Morning” 1800
Edgeworth “The Irish Incognito” 1802
Wordsworth “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” 1802
Byron “The Giaour” 1813
Austen “Persuasion” 1816
Byron “Childe Harold” 1816
Coleridge “Kubla Khan” 1816
Shelley “Mont Blanc” 1817
“Ozymandias” 1818
Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” 1819
Shelley “Prometheus Unbound” 1820
De Quincy “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” 1821
Hemans “England’s Dead” 1822
Hazlitt “My First Acquaintance with Poets” 1823
Byron “Don Juan” 1824
Scott “Wandering Willie’s Tale” 1824
Barbauld “The Rights of Woman” 1825
Hemans “The Homes of England” 1827
Lamb “Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading” 1833
Shelley “Men of England” 1839
“England in 1819” 1839
Burney “Journal” 1768-1840
Shelley “A Defense of Poetry” 1840
Clare “I Am” 1842-48
Wordsworth “The Prelude” 1805-50
The Golden nymph replied: "Pluck thou my flower Oothoon the mild,
Another flower shall spring, because the soul of sweet delight
Can never pass away." She ceas'd & closd her golden shrine.
[this post is available]
Can never pass away." She ceas'd & closd her golden shrine.
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Far am I from denying in theory; full far is my heart from withholding in practice (If I were of power to give or to withhold} the real rights . . .
of men. In denying their false claims of right, I do not mean to injure those which are real, and are such as their pretended right would totally destroy.
[this post is available]
[this post is available]
As to the tragic paintings by which Mr. Burke has outraged his own imagination, and seeks to work upon that of his readers, they are very well . . .
calculated for theatrical representation, where facts are manufactured for the sake of show, and accommodated to produce,through the weakness of sympathy, a weeping effect. But Mr. Burke should recollect that he is writing History, and not Plays; and that his reader will expect truth, and not the spouting rant of high-toned exclamation.
[this post is available]
[this post is available]
I cannot tell how this may be, / But plain it is the Thorn is bound / With heavy tufts of moss that strive / To drag it to the ground . . .
And this I know, full many a time,
When she was on the mountain high,
By day, and in the silent night,
When all the stars shone clear and bright,
That I have heard her cry,
"Oh misery! oh misery!
Oh woe is me! oh misery!"
[this post is available]
When she was on the mountain high,
By day, and in the silent night,
When all the stars shone clear and bright,
That I have heard her cry,
"Oh misery! oh misery!
Oh woe is me! oh misery!"
[this post is available]
Enough of Science and of Art; / Close up those barren leaves; / Come forth, and bring with you a heart / That watches and receives.
Last line of The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth.
Written in 1798
Nature
what is knowledge
Written in 1798
Nature
what is knowledge
But hope not, courted idol of mankind, / On this proud eminence secure to stay; / Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find / Thy coldness . . .
soften and thy pride give way.
[this post is available]
[this post is available]
Another may new buds and flowers shall bring; / Ah! Why has happiness - no second spring?
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Though no repose on thy dark breast I find, / I still enjoy thee - cheerless a thou art
[this post is available]
William Wordsworth‚s Tintern Abbey
Wordsworth emphasizes on the atrocity of being locked up. He uses time to stress this in such lines as „Five years have past; five summers, with the length‰ and „Which at this season, with their unripe fruits‰. With diction of words like Å’season‚ and Å’unripe fruits‚, Wordsworth provides a descriptive image of time and nature to highlight the message of the Self being locked up inside ˆ similar to the asylum in the poem. As Professor Makdiski said in his lecture, this marks as the new Wordsworth.
- Donald Ung
- Donald Ung
John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke was a thinker as he spent most of his time pondering.
„Å’Clear and distant ideas‚ are terms which, though familiar and frequent in men‚s mouths, I have reason to think everyone who uses does not perfectly understand.‰ Locke explains the idea of Å’clear and distant ideas‚ through the classification of Å’determinate‚ and Å’determined‚. Å’Determinate‚ being straightforward perspectives and Å’determined‚ being intricate ideas. In the final passage of his writing I think he instates that complicated ideas thought of by men are simple ideas made complicated through inquiries Locke states, „If men had such determined ideas in their inquiries and discourses, they would both discern how far their own inquiries and discourses went, and avoid the greatest part of the disputes and wranglings they have with other.‰
- Donald Ung
„Å’Clear and distant ideas‚ are terms which, though familiar and frequent in men‚s mouths, I have reason to think everyone who uses does not perfectly understand.‰ Locke explains the idea of Å’clear and distant ideas‚ through the classification of Å’determinate‚ and Å’determined‚. Å’Determinate‚ being straightforward perspectives and Å’determined‚ being intricate ideas. In the final passage of his writing I think he instates that complicated ideas thought of by men are simple ideas made complicated through inquiries Locke states, „If men had such determined ideas in their inquiries and discourses, they would both discern how far their own inquiries and discourses went, and avoid the greatest part of the disputes and wranglings they have with other.‰
- Donald Ung
Industrialization in Blake's "The Garden of Love"
"A Chapel was built in the midst". The Chapel may refer to the factories as industrialization dramatically affected Britain through the working conditions and environment. In addition, my interpretation of the portrait for the poem exhibits a superior explaining something to children. During the industrialization, children were increasingly exploited due to the operation of machines also being a novelty to adult workers; thus, hiring children were preferable for their low wages.
(This is my interpretation and is subject to being a misinterpretation; however, I believe it to be true.)
- Donald Ung
(This is my interpretation and is subject to being a misinterpretation; however, I believe it to be true.)
- Donald Ung
Friday, March 14, 2008
Shift in the concept of Religion
-Donald Altamirano
In the early part of the period, the concept of religion is (for the most part) seen through strict beliefs in religious ideologies (mainly Christianity and Protestantism). Samuel Butler's character Sir Hudibras (Hudibras) a very religious man.
"For his religion, it was fit
To match his learning and his wit:
'Twas Presbyterian true blue,
For he was of that stubborn crew
Of errant saints whom all men grant
To be the true church militant" lines 187-192
Religion is also the central part of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian's travels become an allegory for Christian (the religion) beliefs.
Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man deals with the concept that their is order in the universe created by God. And Man is under God. Man is to obey God's will and authority.
Later in the period this idea is still prevalent, however it is being questioned to a great degree by ideas about the concept of Man, such as those put forward by William Blake. Blake throws out the traditional notions of God and religion in his works, stating that Man as a collective self is God, and God is Man: "Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is." (There Is No Natural Religion [b]) The same idea is also presented in The Lamb when Blake compares the lamb, the child (mankind), and God to be the same. Blake's works work against the traditional notion of religion, and warns against any form of authority.
In the early part of the period, the concept of religion is (for the most part) seen through strict beliefs in religious ideologies (mainly Christianity and Protestantism). Samuel Butler's character Sir Hudibras (Hudibras) a very religious man.
"For his religion, it was fit
To match his learning and his wit:
'Twas Presbyterian true blue,
For he was of that stubborn crew
Of errant saints whom all men grant
To be the true church militant" lines 187-192
Religion is also the central part of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian's travels become an allegory for Christian (the religion) beliefs.
Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man deals with the concept that their is order in the universe created by God. And Man is under God. Man is to obey God's will and authority.
Later in the period this idea is still prevalent, however it is being questioned to a great degree by ideas about the concept of Man, such as those put forward by William Blake. Blake throws out the traditional notions of God and religion in his works, stating that Man as a collective self is God, and God is Man: "Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is." (There Is No Natural Religion [b]) The same idea is also presented in The Lamb when Blake compares the lamb, the child (mankind), and God to be the same. Blake's works work against the traditional notion of religion, and warns against any form of authority.
Persuasion: A Good or Bad Thing?
Kayla McElwee
Section 1G-Fridays, 12-12:50pm
Anne is clearly an example of a character who is constantly persuaded throughout Austen's novel. For example, eight years before the novel begins, Lady Russell persuaded Anne not to marry Captain Wentworth. This decision leads the Captain to negatively judge Anne's firmness of mind and strength of character. However, Anne does not believe that Lady Russell's persuasiveness negatively affected her. Although she disagrees with the content of Lady Russell's advice, she thinks that (at the time) it was correct for her to be persuaded in such a manner. After all, Lady Russell is Anne's "mother figure", and Anne is obligated to heed her advice. Anne reasons that a sound mind pays heed to duty and to the judgment of others.
Section 1G-Fridays, 12-12:50pm
Anne is clearly an example of a character who is constantly persuaded throughout Austen's novel. For example, eight years before the novel begins, Lady Russell persuaded Anne not to marry Captain Wentworth. This decision leads the Captain to negatively judge Anne's firmness of mind and strength of character. However, Anne does not believe that Lady Russell's persuasiveness negatively affected her. Although she disagrees with the content of Lady Russell's advice, she thinks that (at the time) it was correct for her to be persuaded in such a manner. After all, Lady Russell is Anne's "mother figure", and Anne is obligated to heed her advice. Anne reasons that a sound mind pays heed to duty and to the judgment of others.
In contrast, Louisa Musgrove is an example of someone who can not be persuaded. Try as he might, Captain Wentworth can not prevent Louisa from jumping off the wall; as Lousia says, "I am determined I will". While the Captain initially praises Louisa's strong character, he later realizes that there is a big difference between a constant disposition (i.e. Anne) and a stubborn mind (i.e. Louisa). In the end, Austen allows the reader to judge whether persuasion is a positive or negative force. Therefore, even though Austen's narrator(s) tend(s) to be biased, the reader is allowed to form his/her thoughts about the main theme of the novel.
Personally, I admire both types of people: those who are firm to their convictions and those who are open to the suggestion of others. I do not feel that the reader has to choose either/or. It is possible for an individual to stay true to his/her values and morals but to also heed the advice of others.
Personally, I admire both types of people: those who are firm to their convictions and those who are open to the suggestion of others. I do not feel that the reader has to choose either/or. It is possible for an individual to stay true to his/her values and morals but to also heed the advice of others.
Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave- Aphra Behn
Martina Trejo
Ian Discussion 1A
Notes from 2/26/08 lecture
Ian Discussion 1A
Notes from 2/26/08 lecture
- What is interesting about this text is that it is often read as an anti-slavery work since it is a novel about an African slave written by a white woman
- A deeper reading suggests that Behn is making a deeper argument on the grounds of class and politics over race
- Behn focuses on the African slave and turns him into her ideal being for all of mankind
- While in the process of creating this ideal being Behn strips Oroonoko of his African features and replaces them with European features pg. 2186
- Rather than focusing on race, Behn makes politics and class the basis of her novel by recognizing Oroonoko as royalty and describing him as having a kingly stature
- Oroonoko does not represent the African nation because he is different from other slaves, his royal background allows him to remain separate from the slaves as his class becomes the focus
- When Oroonoko gets to the western hemisphere he is not treated as a normal slave; when he arrives his slave name becomes Caesar and he is treated more so like a governor
- What matters most is his individual bearing or “royal stature” versus him being African pg. 2225 and 2226
- Behn does not use her novel to belittle classes rather she uses it to send the message that we should listen to the king no matter what his situation; this is illustrated in the killing of Oroonoko
- For Behn, it is terrible that lowly men get a hold of a royal slave and demolish him and not so much the issue of the brutality that happens to all slaves during slavery
- Also important to point out that Behn’s novel reflected the current situation with the monarch during that time period
Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley
James Chang
Ian - Section 1A
Ian - Section 1A
From lecture notes:
- poem describes encounter with statue, inspired by statue of Ramses II
- promotes dichotomy of Orientalism by suggesting that at the end of the day, Orientals are just dust; the English will be the ones depicting and therefore controlling
My understanding of the poem (influenced by lecture):
- the emphasis on the pharoah’s passions, combined with the wrecked state of the statue (“trunkless legs,” “shattered visage”), exacerbates the negative quality of Oriental characteristics
-the description of the statue in the poem along with the phrase “an antique land” in the first line implies that, through the dichotomous opposition, the English are modern and poised to dominate the modern period; the period of Egyptian/Oriental power has passed; while the pharaoh once held power over many, his legacy now lies in a damaged statue alone in the desert (in addition, according to Egyptian belief, certain statues could serve as repositories for the soul in the afterlife)
-the line inscribed on the statue (“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”) loses all of its threatening quality with the statue lying in ruin; at the same time, the fact that the inscribed line is transmitted through Shelley’s voice elevates the status and importance of poets and their own “Works”
Shift in concept of Nature
-Donald Altamirano
Nature in the earlier part of the period is thought of to be only something that the educated can enjoy. To others, the non-educated, Nature is something horrible and also a frightening. In James Thomson's The Seasons this distinction between the common people and the educated view's of nature is best seen. Thomson describes the common peoples feelings upon viewing nature (specifically the northern lights) as being fearful.
Nature in the earlier part of the period is thought of to be only something that the educated can enjoy. To others, the non-educated, Nature is something horrible and also a frightening. In James Thomson's The Seasons this distinction between the common people and the educated view's of nature is best seen. Thomson describes the common peoples feelings upon viewing nature (specifically the northern lights) as being fearful.
"From look to look, contagious through the crowd,
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes
The appearance throws - armies in meet array,
Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire;" lines 1115-1118
The rest of the stanza produces more images of disaster and fear. However the educated do not feel the same way.
"Not so the man of philosophic eye
And inspect sage: the waving brightness he
Curios surveys, inquisitive to know
The causes and materials, yet unfixed,
Of this appearance beautiful and new." lines 1133-1137
In the later part of the period this view of nature changes and becomes something that is beautiful and viewed through the individual and the self. In Lines Written in Early Spring, Wordsworth makes a connection between the self (his own self) and nature:
"To her works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran" lines 5-6
Similar connections between the individual and nature are drawn in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey.
"Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth;" lines 102-105
"Well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being." lines 107-111
Tintern Abbey is also filled with words that create a separation of the individual and Nature.
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes
The appearance throws - armies in meet array,
Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire;" lines 1115-1118
The rest of the stanza produces more images of disaster and fear. However the educated do not feel the same way.
"Not so the man of philosophic eye
And inspect sage: the waving brightness he
Curios surveys, inquisitive to know
The causes and materials, yet unfixed,
Of this appearance beautiful and new." lines 1133-1137
In the later part of the period this view of nature changes and becomes something that is beautiful and viewed through the individual and the self. In Lines Written in Early Spring, Wordsworth makes a connection between the self (his own self) and nature:
"To her works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran" lines 5-6
Similar connections between the individual and nature are drawn in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey.
"Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth;" lines 102-105
"Well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being." lines 107-111
Tintern Abbey is also filled with words that create a separation of the individual and Nature.
"As when some dire usurper Heaven provides, To scourge his country with a lawless sway."
Ashley Menvielle (discussion 1E Brendon O'Kelly)
Lines 849-850 in John Dryden's Annus Mirabilis which was composed in 1667.
According to the Norton these lines probably refer to Oliver Cromwell. These are one of 2 sets of lines quoted by Prof. Makdisi in lecture. The other was:
"Such was the rise of this prodigious fire,
Which in mean buildings first obscurely bred,
From thence did soon to open streets aspire,
And straight to palaces and temples spread."-lines 857-860
This lines I think deal specifically with the civil strife that spread from the low and rough (mean) buildings of the lower classes into the open streets of the cities and finally into the homes and places(i.e palaces and temples) of the rich and powerful.
Here are the notes I made after rereading all of the poem and looking over old notes:
Annus Mirabilis: "year of miracles", metaphorically and literally England has been reborn.
1666: The actual year of the miracles that the poem is named for: war, plague, civil strife, and the Great Fire of London all occured in this year.
Dryden: uses the fire as an analogy of the events that swept through England in 1666. In order to announce the rebirth to the fullest extent, Dryden used quatrains which serve to elevate the style of the poem to a more regal, imperial bearing reflective of the glorious rebirth of London and England as the new global centers of trade and power. He interpreted the events of 1666 as God's way of bringing together the King and his people and purging England and London in order that it could be reborn and made better. In the poem he expresses a belief that London has risen out of the ashes, (like the phoenix bird) newer, better and ready to take her place as the trade center of the new global power in the world: England.
England: Has entered a new age of power. It has become the dominant colonial power over Holland and France as well as the new center of world trade (ex: lines 1193-1196). It was the beginning of Globilization and Dryden in Annus Mirabilis is putting it in very nationalistic terms with England as the dominant global power with London at its center and functioning as the very heart of this new global trade period. He expresses in the poem what he believes to be a new age of British power with the King as ruler of the new, great empire.
Original Theme: City and Country
I think it is also relevant to look at under the themes of The Nation
, and Race and Empire.
Lines 849-850 in John Dryden's Annus Mirabilis which was composed in 1667.
According to the Norton these lines probably refer to Oliver Cromwell. These are one of 2 sets of lines quoted by Prof. Makdisi in lecture. The other was:
"Such was the rise of this prodigious fire,
Which in mean buildings first obscurely bred,
From thence did soon to open streets aspire,
And straight to palaces and temples spread."-lines 857-860
This lines I think deal specifically with the civil strife that spread from the low and rough (mean) buildings of the lower classes into the open streets of the cities and finally into the homes and places(i.e palaces and temples) of the rich and powerful.
Here are the notes I made after rereading all of the poem and looking over old notes:
Annus Mirabilis: "year of miracles", metaphorically and literally England has been reborn.
1666: The actual year of the miracles that the poem is named for: war, plague, civil strife, and the Great Fire of London all occured in this year.
Dryden: uses the fire as an analogy of the events that swept through England in 1666. In order to announce the rebirth to the fullest extent, Dryden used quatrains which serve to elevate the style of the poem to a more regal, imperial bearing reflective of the glorious rebirth of London and England as the new global centers of trade and power. He interpreted the events of 1666 as God's way of bringing together the King and his people and purging England and London in order that it could be reborn and made better. In the poem he expresses a belief that London has risen out of the ashes, (like the phoenix bird) newer, better and ready to take her place as the trade center of the new global power in the world: England.
England: Has entered a new age of power. It has become the dominant colonial power over Holland and France as well as the new center of world trade (ex: lines 1193-1196). It was the beginning of Globilization and Dryden in Annus Mirabilis is putting it in very nationalistic terms with England as the dominant global power with London at its center and functioning as the very heart of this new global trade period. He expresses in the poem what he believes to be a new age of British power with the King as ruler of the new, great empire.
Original Theme: City and Country
I think it is also relevant to look at under the themes of The Nation
, and Race and Empire.
A Modest Proposal and the Irish Potato Famine
Samar Nattagh
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…”
Potatoes, brought to Europe from the New World, transformed the diets of peasants all over Europe because they provided more nutrition than corn and grain but for less money. Ireland, in particular, grew dependent on the potato as it allowed their population to increase very quickly. An 1840 report from the Irish poor law commissioner in Limerick described a laborer’s daily meal: “Breakfast: 4 1/2 lbs potatoes, 1 pint skimmed milk. Dinner: The same, and in winter herrings and water instead of milk. Supper: This meal is occasionally omitted in the city of Limerick, particularly during the short days”. But, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans infected the potatoes in 1845, what began became known as the Irish Potato Famine. Since the climate and soil made it difficult to grow grains, more than a million Irish died of starvation because they were no alternate foods available. While some blamed the cultural backwardness of the Irish for the famine, others blamed English racism, religious intolerance, laissez-faire economics of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo, and Parliament’s decision to place the burden of relief on the ineffective Irish poor-law system, which only made the famine worse.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift ridicules the idea that Irish ignorance caused the famine and instead shows how it was actually English ignorance that worsened the famine. The crux of Swift's satire (and the humor) is his supposedly realistic attitude towards solving the problem which is quite obviously not very realistic at all. Using very methodical descriptions and calculations, Swift attacks the British economic system by revealing the absurdities of mercantilism and rationalism when taken to their logical extremes. By reducing everyone to their most basic economic value, bluntly identifying his ideal solution as being “innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual”, he shows how irrational the supposedly rational system is. Swift’s satire, however, is not just a joke. His essay also draws strength from his realism when outlining the problems that affect the poor: “oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever”. He concludes by saying that he has “not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work”, mocking the English aristocracy, Parliament, and even, more generally, oppressors everywhere because the British political, economic, and social systems obviously protected certain people’s interests over others’ interests.
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled…”
Potatoes, brought to Europe from the New World, transformed the diets of peasants all over Europe because they provided more nutrition than corn and grain but for less money. Ireland, in particular, grew dependent on the potato as it allowed their population to increase very quickly. An 1840 report from the Irish poor law commissioner in Limerick described a laborer’s daily meal: “Breakfast: 4 1/2 lbs potatoes, 1 pint skimmed milk. Dinner: The same, and in winter herrings and water instead of milk. Supper: This meal is occasionally omitted in the city of Limerick, particularly during the short days”. But, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans infected the potatoes in 1845, what began became known as the Irish Potato Famine. Since the climate and soil made it difficult to grow grains, more than a million Irish died of starvation because they were no alternate foods available. While some blamed the cultural backwardness of the Irish for the famine, others blamed English racism, religious intolerance, laissez-faire economics of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo, and Parliament’s decision to place the burden of relief on the ineffective Irish poor-law system, which only made the famine worse.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift ridicules the idea that Irish ignorance caused the famine and instead shows how it was actually English ignorance that worsened the famine. The crux of Swift's satire (and the humor) is his supposedly realistic attitude towards solving the problem which is quite obviously not very realistic at all. Using very methodical descriptions and calculations, Swift attacks the British economic system by revealing the absurdities of mercantilism and rationalism when taken to their logical extremes. By reducing everyone to their most basic economic value, bluntly identifying his ideal solution as being “innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual”, he shows how irrational the supposedly rational system is. Swift’s satire, however, is not just a joke. His essay also draws strength from his realism when outlining the problems that affect the poor: “oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever”. He concludes by saying that he has “not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work”, mocking the English aristocracy, Parliament, and even, more generally, oppressors everywhere because the British political, economic, and social systems obviously protected certain people’s interests over others’ interests.
Hazlitt and "My First Acquaintance with Poets"
Alice Hang
Dis 1B Fridays 11-12pm
William Hazlitt and “My First Acquaintance with Poets”
William Hazlitt was a revolutionary thinker. He advocated liberty and equality, which were both principles behind the French Revolution. He wrote in “plain, point-blank speaking” style. His essays were concisely written. He is the model for modern essay writers.
“My First Acquaintance with Poets”
His essay was about his first acquaintance with a poet, literally. He met Samuel Coleridge. He met Coleridge after listening him lecture. Then, he invited Coleridge to his house. After that, Hazlitt visited Coleridge and met William Wordsworth. This text mentions many other distinguished writers and poets and quotes many of their works.With this essay, he showed readers that at the end of the day, poets are normal people. He did this by explaining how he was surprised by Coleridge’s physical appearance and describing Wordsworth’s unrefined manners. Hazlitt praises these poets for their genius and creativity, but he also describes them in human terms. They are just like any other person. Poets are not immortal. They disagree with each other, argue, and have strange habits. But indeed, they are masterminds.
Dis 1B Fridays 11-12pm
William Hazlitt and “My First Acquaintance with Poets”
William Hazlitt was a revolutionary thinker. He advocated liberty and equality, which were both principles behind the French Revolution. He wrote in “plain, point-blank speaking” style. His essays were concisely written. He is the model for modern essay writers.
“My First Acquaintance with Poets”
His essay was about his first acquaintance with a poet, literally. He met Samuel Coleridge. He met Coleridge after listening him lecture. Then, he invited Coleridge to his house. After that, Hazlitt visited Coleridge and met William Wordsworth. This text mentions many other distinguished writers and poets and quotes many of their works.With this essay, he showed readers that at the end of the day, poets are normal people. He did this by explaining how he was surprised by Coleridge’s physical appearance and describing Wordsworth’s unrefined manners. Hazlitt praises these poets for their genius and creativity, but he also describes them in human terms. They are just like any other person. Poets are not immortal. They disagree with each other, argue, and have strange habits. But indeed, they are masterminds.
Goldsmith "The Deserted Village"
Theodora Tran
Section 1G
-an idealization of English rural life mingled with poignant memories of the poet’s own youth in Lissoy, Ireland
-concern about the effects of agricultural revolution, which was hastened by Enclosure Acts
-Alternative for people was to seek employment in the city or to migrate to America.
-In the poem, Goldsmith opposes “luxury” (the increase of wealth, the growth of cities, and the costly country estates of great noblemen and wealthy merchants) to “rural virtue” (the old agrarian economy that supported a sturdy population of independent peasants)
-poem is a nostalgic lament for a doomed way of life and a denunciation of what he regarded as the corrupting, destructive force of new wealth.
Section 1G
-an idealization of English rural life mingled with poignant memories of the poet’s own youth in Lissoy, Ireland
-concern about the effects of agricultural revolution, which was hastened by Enclosure Acts
-Alternative for people was to seek employment in the city or to migrate to America.
-In the poem, Goldsmith opposes “luxury” (the increase of wealth, the growth of cities, and the costly country estates of great noblemen and wealthy merchants) to “rural virtue” (the old agrarian economy that supported a sturdy population of independent peasants)
-poem is a nostalgic lament for a doomed way of life and a denunciation of what he regarded as the corrupting, destructive force of new wealth.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Mary Wollstonecraft
Samar Nattagh
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, during the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft was one of the Enlightenment's most radical thinkers and she applied the Enlightenment's espousal of reason and critique of monarchy to the defense of women's rights. Building upon Rousseau's ideas, Wollstonecraft spoke even more forcefully against inequality and artificial distinctions, arguing that society should seek, "the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness". Wollstonecraft applied the critique of despotism to the basic family unit, comparing the oppressive power a monarch has over his people to the oppressive power a husband has over his wife. She critiqued marriage laws, which deprived women of property rights. She writes, "Civilized women are... so weakened by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature". She believed that female education and a deemphasis on typical frivolous femininity would enable women to acquire "strength, both of mind and body". However, Wollstonecraft only went as far as hinting at political rights for women and she believed in a division of labor between the sexes. "Let there be no coercion established in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper places."
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, during the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft was one of the Enlightenment's most radical thinkers and she applied the Enlightenment's espousal of reason and critique of monarchy to the defense of women's rights. Building upon Rousseau's ideas, Wollstonecraft spoke even more forcefully against inequality and artificial distinctions, arguing that society should seek, "the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness". Wollstonecraft applied the critique of despotism to the basic family unit, comparing the oppressive power a monarch has over his people to the oppressive power a husband has over his wife. She critiqued marriage laws, which deprived women of property rights. She writes, "Civilized women are... so weakened by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature". She believed that female education and a deemphasis on typical frivolous femininity would enable women to acquire "strength, both of mind and body". However, Wollstonecraft only went as far as hinting at political rights for women and she believed in a division of labor between the sexes. "Let there be no coercion established in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper places."
A Defence of Poetry - Percy Shelley
Russell Stoll – 1B
Percy Shelley’s “In Defence of Poetry” was completed in 1812. This essay focuses on the role of poetry and the poet in society; more specifically, it’s Shelley’s explanation of why poets are incredible, divine, super-human beings on which all of civilization and human existence relies. (This is surely a shocking point of view, since Shelley himself is a poet.) Makdisi has placed it in the Criticism section of our syllabus because it centers on Shelley’s criticism of reason. Shelley believes that imagination is the key ingredient of what makes poets such integral, productive characters, and thus this piece revolves around Shelley making the argument for why imagination is superior to reason. Because of this central argument, I believe that “Defence of Poetry” is extremely relevant to the theme of “self and imagination.”
“Defence of Poetry” can broken into three main arguments: 1) Why imagination is superior to reason. 2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization. 3) What makes a poet.
1) Why imagination is superior to reason:
This part makes up the bulk of the piece, and Shelley spends a lot of time explaining several different grounds for why imagination is better than reason. In Shelley’s opening paragraph, he sets up his argument with a series of analogies: “Reason is to Imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the soul, as the shadow to the substance.” For Shelley, imagination is superior to reason because imagination enables us to explore and to form new relationships. Essentially, imagination allows us to play, and it is this capability of play that establishes us as human. Shelley’s example for the embodiment of imagination is a child at play.
2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization:
Shelley believes that poetry tells us how to love ourselves and others. Because of this love connection, as brought about by the words of poets, we are able to understand each other and together bring about change in the world. For Shelley, poetry is not susceptible to the will of “I” or “me;” we cannot force poetry, it is forced on us. Therefore, poetry’s power to impose itself upon us is what drives us to connect, and ultimately transform society and help it evolve. Shelley believes that poetry is the only way for us to reach the divine.
3) What makes a poet:
In this essay, Shelley goes to great lengths to define what a poet is. For Shelley, the poets are the ones who love the most intensely; poets are heroes, prophets, the most moral, and in a sense Messianic. When Shelley uses the word “poet,” what he is really saying is “artist.” Poets are not just writers and authors: poets can be musicians, dancers, architects, sculptors, painters, law-makers, founders of civil society, inventors, and teachers. Basically, Shelley believes that anyone who fully employs their imagination is a poet. According to Percy Shelley, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
On a side note, something kind of cool to think about that is relevant to the idea of law-makers being poets: laws as metaphors. Ideas like "All men are created equal," and "All men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are really just metaphors that have became widely accepted over time. This is one example of how Shelley saw poets as "legislators of the world," and how poetry really does directly affect civilization. Before this, I had never really thought of laws as poetry, but now I find this concept rather fascinating.
(E-mail me at rstoll@ucla.edu with queries, questions, qualms, etc. Fare well, fellow students)
Percy Shelley’s “In Defence of Poetry” was completed in 1812. This essay focuses on the role of poetry and the poet in society; more specifically, it’s Shelley’s explanation of why poets are incredible, divine, super-human beings on which all of civilization and human existence relies. (This is surely a shocking point of view, since Shelley himself is a poet.) Makdisi has placed it in the Criticism section of our syllabus because it centers on Shelley’s criticism of reason. Shelley believes that imagination is the key ingredient of what makes poets such integral, productive characters, and thus this piece revolves around Shelley making the argument for why imagination is superior to reason. Because of this central argument, I believe that “Defence of Poetry” is extremely relevant to the theme of “self and imagination.”
“Defence of Poetry” can broken into three main arguments: 1) Why imagination is superior to reason. 2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization. 3) What makes a poet.
1) Why imagination is superior to reason:
This part makes up the bulk of the piece, and Shelley spends a lot of time explaining several different grounds for why imagination is better than reason. In Shelley’s opening paragraph, he sets up his argument with a series of analogies: “Reason is to Imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the soul, as the shadow to the substance.” For Shelley, imagination is superior to reason because imagination enables us to explore and to form new relationships. Essentially, imagination allows us to play, and it is this capability of play that establishes us as human. Shelley’s example for the embodiment of imagination is a child at play.
2) Why poetry is necessary to promote civilization:
Shelley believes that poetry tells us how to love ourselves and others. Because of this love connection, as brought about by the words of poets, we are able to understand each other and together bring about change in the world. For Shelley, poetry is not susceptible to the will of “I” or “me;” we cannot force poetry, it is forced on us. Therefore, poetry’s power to impose itself upon us is what drives us to connect, and ultimately transform society and help it evolve. Shelley believes that poetry is the only way for us to reach the divine.
3) What makes a poet:
In this essay, Shelley goes to great lengths to define what a poet is. For Shelley, the poets are the ones who love the most intensely; poets are heroes, prophets, the most moral, and in a sense Messianic. When Shelley uses the word “poet,” what he is really saying is “artist.” Poets are not just writers and authors: poets can be musicians, dancers, architects, sculptors, painters, law-makers, founders of civil society, inventors, and teachers. Basically, Shelley believes that anyone who fully employs their imagination is a poet. According to Percy Shelley, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
On a side note, something kind of cool to think about that is relevant to the idea of law-makers being poets: laws as metaphors. Ideas like "All men are created equal," and "All men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are really just metaphors that have became widely accepted over time. This is one example of how Shelley saw poets as "legislators of the world," and how poetry really does directly affect civilization. Before this, I had never really thought of laws as poetry, but now I find this concept rather fascinating.
(E-mail me at rstoll@ucla.edu with queries, questions, qualms, etc. Fare well, fellow students)
The Great Chain of Being
Matthew Nunez 1B
The Great Chain of Being
The Great Chain of Being is a list that the English used in order to distinguish between the different entities and objects that are found on Heaven and Earth. The list begins with the most important beings and ends with inanimate objects; this is the list Makdisi displayed on 1-03-08:
-God
-Angles
-Man
-Animals
-Plants
-Rocks
The Great Chain of Being
The Great Chain of Being is a list that the English used in order to distinguish between the different entities and objects that are found on Heaven and Earth. The list begins with the most important beings and ends with inanimate objects; this is the list Makdisi displayed on 1-03-08:
-God
-Angles
-Man
-Animals
-Plants
-Rocks
Rochester "The Imperfect Enjoyment"
Gittel Aguilar
Discussion 1E
This poem first circulated in manuscript form but was actually published posthumously. The genre of the poem is associated with the 1670s. It involves a sexual encounter that is described as a battle of the sexes. Of course it comes as no surprise that in this battle, the woman loses—despite the fact that “The Imperfect Enjoyment” is a poem about premature ejaculation. Men are pictured as more powerful, and the fact that this sexual failure occurs is blamed on the woman for being “too beautiful” rather than on the man. The man is seen as a “martyr to love” who gets to revel in the glory of victory in this battle while the woman has to accept the fact that defeat is inevitable. Unlike other poems in this genre, however, this poem does feature a woman who is equal, dominant and who actually speaks. The woman gives orders, but does so using the tools of the man.
It can be argued that, because of these aforementioned representations, this poem makes the case that sexual identity is the more important form of identity. Certain words (i.e. “dissolve”) point to different forms of sexual identity: a man as powerful, having a crisis of self, and just having an unstable sexual identity. Furthermore, though this was not done in lecture, one could also analyze the sexual identity of the woman in the poem as well: is her dominance good or bad? Is she actually dominant? etc.
Discussion 1E
This poem first circulated in manuscript form but was actually published posthumously. The genre of the poem is associated with the 1670s. It involves a sexual encounter that is described as a battle of the sexes. Of course it comes as no surprise that in this battle, the woman loses—despite the fact that “The Imperfect Enjoyment” is a poem about premature ejaculation. Men are pictured as more powerful, and the fact that this sexual failure occurs is blamed on the woman for being “too beautiful” rather than on the man. The man is seen as a “martyr to love” who gets to revel in the glory of victory in this battle while the woman has to accept the fact that defeat is inevitable. Unlike other poems in this genre, however, this poem does feature a woman who is equal, dominant and who actually speaks. The woman gives orders, but does so using the tools of the man.
It can be argued that, because of these aforementioned representations, this poem makes the case that sexual identity is the more important form of identity. Certain words (i.e. “dissolve”) point to different forms of sexual identity: a man as powerful, having a crisis of self, and just having an unstable sexual identity. Furthermore, though this was not done in lecture, one could also analyze the sexual identity of the woman in the poem as well: is her dominance good or bad? Is she actually dominant? etc.
Little Black Boy - William Blake
James Chang
Section 1A - Ian
From lecture notes:
-misread as racist because of language of first three stanzas; specifically, the poem has been misinterpreted as endorsing slavery and supporting the idea that inside the black slaves are white people trying to get out
-in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake consistently treats traditional authority figures, including parents, as problematic
-through the poem itself and its accompanying image on the plate, Blake undermines the lesson imparted by the mother
My own understanding (influenced by lecture):
- poem is similar to the Songs of Innocence version of “The Chimney Sweeper” (where the angel tricks Tom Dacre into enduring the hardship of his life as chimney sweeper through the promise of future salvation) in that the mother reassures the black boy that the “cloud” of his dark skin will “vanish” and his white soul will emerge when he achieves salvation through God
-furthermore, (like Tom Dacre who emerges from his dream rejuvenated, full of hope, and ready to work) the slave boy listens to the mother and vows to continue shading the white boy (interpreted as continuing to work) in hopes of one day becoming white too
-the color black in the poem represents experience and the reality of toiling in the fields under the sun; listening to the mother, the black boy focuses on becoming white and thus becomes oblivious to the reality of his life
-“I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear” (line 25); in this line, the black boy does all the work, “shading” and supporting the white, English boy; this line reflects how the prosperity of the white economy relied on slave labor and how the upper class, landed gentry lived luxuriously and free from hard work
-taking the context of Songs of Innocence and of Experience into consideration, “Little Black Boy” actually exposes the exploitation of slaves and therefore calls for people to challenge traditional authority of all forms
Section 1A - Ian
From lecture notes:
-misread as racist because of language of first three stanzas; specifically, the poem has been misinterpreted as endorsing slavery and supporting the idea that inside the black slaves are white people trying to get out
-in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake consistently treats traditional authority figures, including parents, as problematic
-through the poem itself and its accompanying image on the plate, Blake undermines the lesson imparted by the mother
My own understanding (influenced by lecture):
- poem is similar to the Songs of Innocence version of “The Chimney Sweeper” (where the angel tricks Tom Dacre into enduring the hardship of his life as chimney sweeper through the promise of future salvation) in that the mother reassures the black boy that the “cloud” of his dark skin will “vanish” and his white soul will emerge when he achieves salvation through God
-furthermore, (like Tom Dacre who emerges from his dream rejuvenated, full of hope, and ready to work) the slave boy listens to the mother and vows to continue shading the white boy (interpreted as continuing to work) in hopes of one day becoming white too
-the color black in the poem represents experience and the reality of toiling in the fields under the sun; listening to the mother, the black boy focuses on becoming white and thus becomes oblivious to the reality of his life
-“I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear” (line 25); in this line, the black boy does all the work, “shading” and supporting the white, English boy; this line reflects how the prosperity of the white economy relied on slave labor and how the upper class, landed gentry lived luxuriously and free from hard work
-taking the context of Songs of Innocence and of Experience into consideration, “Little Black Boy” actually exposes the exploitation of slaves and therefore calls for people to challenge traditional authority of all forms
Edgeworth, Maria
Matthew Nunez 1B
Edgeworth Maria 1768-1849
Edgeworth, was educated in English Boarding schools before her father moved her and her family to Ireland. There she taught her younger siblings (22 children in her family), and began to study politics and economics. Her first work “Letters for Literary Ladies” was a work defending women’s education.
After she was already successful as a writer, she grew increasingly interested in the vanishing way of life in rural Ireland. She began to represent her fiction in the style of Irish Folklore and culture in order to bring to the forefront social issues such as the prejudice that the Irish faced since the English conquered Ireland.
Her story “The Irish Incognito”(1802) is a meditation of the precariousness of individual identity, and also addresses the topic of discrimination felt by the non-English peoples of Britain.
Edgeworth Maria 1768-1849
Edgeworth, was educated in English Boarding schools before her father moved her and her family to Ireland. There she taught her younger siblings (22 children in her family), and began to study politics and economics. Her first work “Letters for Literary Ladies” was a work defending women’s education.
After she was already successful as a writer, she grew increasingly interested in the vanishing way of life in rural Ireland. She began to represent her fiction in the style of Irish Folklore and culture in order to bring to the forefront social issues such as the prejudice that the Irish faced since the English conquered Ireland.
Her story “The Irish Incognito”(1802) is a meditation of the precariousness of individual identity, and also addresses the topic of discrimination felt by the non-English peoples of Britain.
An Essay on Dramatic Poesy--Dryden
Kimberlee Vander Most--1B
Dryden's "An Essay on Dramatic Poesy" grew out of a desire to resist French literary tastes and standards. He wished to develop a uniquely English style of writing. With the reopening of the theaters in 1660, new English playwrights were uncertain of what direction to take. Should they imitate French style, the style of 16th and 17th century English dramatists, or develop something new and unique for the current England?
Dryden says its purpose is "chiefly to vindicate the honor of our English writers from the censure of those who unjustly prefer the French before them". He tries to remain skeptical and impose no few as right. He does this by setting up the criticism as a dialogue between friends, who all cite quotes from authors to bolster their opinions.
1) Crites praises ancients
2) Eugenius protests their authority; wants progress in the arts
3) Lisideius likes French plays
4) Neander defends English tradition and praises Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson
The dialogue takes place on June 3, 1665 on a boat in the Thames. The location is so specific because the friends wanted to hear the cannons and bussle of the English and Dutch ships fighting off the coast. The victory for England in the battle is supposed to reflect England's literary victory in the mind of Dryden.
*Taken from the Norton footnotes and intro for "An Essay on Dramatic Poesy" as well as some of lecture
Dryden's "An Essay on Dramatic Poesy" grew out of a desire to resist French literary tastes and standards. He wished to develop a uniquely English style of writing. With the reopening of the theaters in 1660, new English playwrights were uncertain of what direction to take. Should they imitate French style, the style of 16th and 17th century English dramatists, or develop something new and unique for the current England?
Dryden says its purpose is "chiefly to vindicate the honor of our English writers from the censure of those who unjustly prefer the French before them". He tries to remain skeptical and impose no few as right. He does this by setting up the criticism as a dialogue between friends, who all cite quotes from authors to bolster their opinions.
1) Crites praises ancients
2) Eugenius protests their authority; wants progress in the arts
3) Lisideius likes French plays
4) Neander defends English tradition and praises Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson
The dialogue takes place on June 3, 1665 on a boat in the Thames. The location is so specific because the friends wanted to hear the cannons and bussle of the English and Dutch ships fighting off the coast. The victory for England in the battle is supposed to reflect England's literary victory in the mind of Dryden.
*Taken from the Norton footnotes and intro for "An Essay on Dramatic Poesy" as well as some of lecture
Book 7 from Prelude: Wordsworth and Humans
William Wordsworth obviously does not like people. In Book 7 he clearly points this out. But it is important to realize that he's not merely saying people should not exist or that they are completely pointless. Rather, Bill is commenting on how people in large groups can accomplish nothing and that what they do is only for their own personal desires. The only solution to this is for people to reconnect to Nature, but even then Nature is someting that not everyone can appreciate.
The Main Point of Jane Austen's Persuasion
Alice Hang
Dis 1B Fridays 11-12pm
The Main Point of Jane Austen's Persuasion
Basic gist of novel: Anne was persuaded by her peers to not throw herself away by marrying Captain Wentworth. However, she regrets not marrying him and realizes the extent of her mistake of not just rejecting the marriage but being able to be persuaded by her peers to reject his proposal. Hence, “Persuasion.” Ultimately, in the end Anne accepts Captain Wentworth’s second proposal to show that she is no longer persuaded. She marries for genuine love and not for class.
This novel shows the wearing away of the old view of the upper class. This novel affirms that love is OK but that there exists a conflict between old established traditions and one’s inclinations such as consciousness of right. This novel stresses the arrival of independence, individual right of duty, and justice.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, the novel narrates the shift from inheritance and privilege from the upperclass to professionalism of the middle class. This novel CONFIRMS that the aforementioned shift is taking place. This big shift TIES EVERYTHING in the sense that Britain changed from being an aristocratic society to a predominantly middle class society and monarchical state to democratic state. This novel confirms the ideas of the middle class such as putting the individual on top of society’s requirements and rules.
Dis 1B Fridays 11-12pm
The Main Point of Jane Austen's Persuasion
Basic gist of novel: Anne was persuaded by her peers to not throw herself away by marrying Captain Wentworth. However, she regrets not marrying him and realizes the extent of her mistake of not just rejecting the marriage but being able to be persuaded by her peers to reject his proposal. Hence, “Persuasion.” Ultimately, in the end Anne accepts Captain Wentworth’s second proposal to show that she is no longer persuaded. She marries for genuine love and not for class.
This novel shows the wearing away of the old view of the upper class. This novel affirms that love is OK but that there exists a conflict between old established traditions and one’s inclinations such as consciousness of right. This novel stresses the arrival of independence, individual right of duty, and justice.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, the novel narrates the shift from inheritance and privilege from the upperclass to professionalism of the middle class. This novel CONFIRMS that the aforementioned shift is taking place. This big shift TIES EVERYTHING in the sense that Britain changed from being an aristocratic society to a predominantly middle class society and monarchical state to democratic state. This novel confirms the ideas of the middle class such as putting the individual on top of society’s requirements and rules.
Wordsworth "The Thorn"
Although it is placed under the theme of nature, it can also fit under the theme of love, sex and marriage.
“The Thorn” is not only about the love lost of Martha Ray, but an obsessive love between the speaker to Martha Ray.
The speaker becomes fascinated by her story to the point of obsession and to the point where as an audience we are unsure if the speaker has become insane. Images in nature further spark the speaker’s obsession; by fooling him into thinking he has actually encountered Martha Ray. Perhaps he has, but all the aspects of Martha Ray can be explained by nature
Ex. her cries – occur when there is a strong wind;
The scarlet of her cloak – there are flowers in the mountain of the same color;
Even when the speaker claims to have seen her he was caught in a storm – there was rain and mist that could have easily impaired his vision.
Monica Sandoval section 1B TA Waldo
“The Thorn” is not only about the love lost of Martha Ray, but an obsessive love between the speaker to Martha Ray.
The speaker becomes fascinated by her story to the point of obsession and to the point where as an audience we are unsure if the speaker has become insane. Images in nature further spark the speaker’s obsession; by fooling him into thinking he has actually encountered Martha Ray. Perhaps he has, but all the aspects of Martha Ray can be explained by nature
Ex. her cries – occur when there is a strong wind;
The scarlet of her cloak – there are flowers in the mountain of the same color;
Even when the speaker claims to have seen her he was caught in a storm – there was rain and mist that could have easily impaired his vision.
Monica Sandoval section 1B TA Waldo
Orientalism
Joy Ellis
Dis 1E
Orientalism refers to a set of ideas about the “East” (Morocco to Japan, basically all North African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries) held by England and other countries in the “West.” This obsession with anything from the “East” arose about the end of the 18th century and had permeated society by the end of the 19th century. Many of the ideas still exist today. The foundation of Orientalism is an opposition between The Self and The Other, and a whole list of false oppositions was created out of this.
While the West is described/ depicted as:
Rational
Noble
Virtuous
Good
Self-Controlled
Modern
Industrious
Masculine
Secular
Cold
Repressed
Productive
Restrained
Simple
Real
Dignified
The East is described/depicted as:
Irrational
Childish
Crazy
Violent
Uncontrollable
Barbaric
Lazy
Feminine
Religious Fanatics
Hot
Loose
Unproductive
Sexual
Erotic
Sensual
Luxurious
All of these oppositions are false and completely constructed. People in the west can be lazy, violent, and barbaric, while people in the east can be rational, good, and productive. However, by defining the East through all these things, those in the West helped define themselves as the opposite of all of those things. It gave them a sense of identity, a sense of oneness. “We” are all ________, and “they” over there are all like _________, and that is why we are glad to be us. They privileged themselves by denigrating others. Most people had never even been to the East at all. These oppositions also were used as a justification of imperialism. Since they considered themselves so modern, virtuous, and industrious, it was okay to conquer so many lands because they were all violent, barbaric, and childish and needed someone to help them. These sets of oppositions not only helped England glorify itself, but also offered an appealing alternative. A hot, sensuous, luxurious place sounds extremely appealing when living in cold, gloomy dirty, industrial England.
This idea is pervasive in many works like Byron’s Don Juan and “The Giaour”, Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn”, De Quincey’s Confessions of English Opium-Eater, and Shelley’s “Ozymandias”.
Even in Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he uses the same rhetoric of Orientalism and sets up the same oppositions even though the poems have nothing to do with the East. It shows how pervasive these sets of ideas were at that time.
Dis 1E
Orientalism refers to a set of ideas about the “East” (Morocco to Japan, basically all North African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries) held by England and other countries in the “West.” This obsession with anything from the “East” arose about the end of the 18th century and had permeated society by the end of the 19th century. Many of the ideas still exist today. The foundation of Orientalism is an opposition between The Self and The Other, and a whole list of false oppositions was created out of this.
While the West is described/ depicted as:
Rational
Noble
Virtuous
Good
Self-Controlled
Modern
Industrious
Masculine
Secular
Cold
Repressed
Productive
Restrained
Simple
Real
Dignified
The East is described/depicted as:
Irrational
Childish
Crazy
Violent
Uncontrollable
Barbaric
Lazy
Feminine
Religious Fanatics
Hot
Loose
Unproductive
Sexual
Erotic
Sensual
Luxurious
All of these oppositions are false and completely constructed. People in the west can be lazy, violent, and barbaric, while people in the east can be rational, good, and productive. However, by defining the East through all these things, those in the West helped define themselves as the opposite of all of those things. It gave them a sense of identity, a sense of oneness. “We” are all ________, and “they” over there are all like _________, and that is why we are glad to be us. They privileged themselves by denigrating others. Most people had never even been to the East at all. These oppositions also were used as a justification of imperialism. Since they considered themselves so modern, virtuous, and industrious, it was okay to conquer so many lands because they were all violent, barbaric, and childish and needed someone to help them. These sets of oppositions not only helped England glorify itself, but also offered an appealing alternative. A hot, sensuous, luxurious place sounds extremely appealing when living in cold, gloomy dirty, industrial England.
This idea is pervasive in many works like Byron’s Don Juan and “The Giaour”, Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn”, De Quincey’s Confessions of English Opium-Eater, and Shelley’s “Ozymandias”.
Even in Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he uses the same rhetoric of Orientalism and sets up the same oppositions even though the poems have nothing to do with the East. It shows how pervasive these sets of ideas were at that time.
Percey Shelley's "Mont Blanc"
Kevin Yee
Discussion 1B
Percey Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” is found under the “Nature” theme section. While the narrator writes about Mont Blanc’s majesty at first, he tempers the poem with the conclusion that nature is nothing without the human to perceive it. Shelley claims that nature is empowered by the human perception, and likewise it can be dethroned just as quickly. The narrator claims:
“And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human mind’s imaginings
Silence and solicitude were vacancy?” (lines 142-144; Norton 766)
In this passage, “thou” refers to “Mont Blanc”, as indicated by the Norton’s footnote. Shelley casts Mont Blanc as subject to the interpretive powers of man. This is a radically different conception about nature, and in turn, man’s relationship not only to his surroundings but also to himself. It is perhaps notable that under the title on page 762, it says in italics, “Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni”, for this gives context to the perspective from which the narrator writes about Mont Blanc. The narrator correlates human thought with water surrounding the Mountain, and throughout the poem oscillates in his judgment of Mont Blanc. The narrator even switches perspective, from use of the second person to the third person starting in the third stanza. While he beholds Mont Blanc as something to be revered, the narrator discovers the influence of self-perception upon his evaluation of Mont Blanc. Is it a natural wonder to be revered, or is it just a rock? Perspective is the judge. Since Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” is found in the Romantic (later) period, it is apparent that his conception of “Nature” was shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, which focused more on the individual self. This shift is made apparent when compared to conjectures of Nature seen in the earlier period. As Professor Makdisi explained in the final lecture, conceptions of nature shifted from something exclusive to fine minds to become a subject meditated upon by the individual. Nature in the later period, as demonstrated by Shelley’s “Mont Blanc”, was largely concerned with a person’s relationship to the surrounding world, with the theme of nature as a means to come to self-discovery.
Discussion 1B
Percey Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” is found under the “Nature” theme section. While the narrator writes about Mont Blanc’s majesty at first, he tempers the poem with the conclusion that nature is nothing without the human to perceive it. Shelley claims that nature is empowered by the human perception, and likewise it can be dethroned just as quickly. The narrator claims:
“And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human mind’s imaginings
Silence and solicitude were vacancy?” (lines 142-144; Norton 766)
In this passage, “thou” refers to “Mont Blanc”, as indicated by the Norton’s footnote. Shelley casts Mont Blanc as subject to the interpretive powers of man. This is a radically different conception about nature, and in turn, man’s relationship not only to his surroundings but also to himself. It is perhaps notable that under the title on page 762, it says in italics, “Lines written in the Vale of Chamouni”, for this gives context to the perspective from which the narrator writes about Mont Blanc. The narrator correlates human thought with water surrounding the Mountain, and throughout the poem oscillates in his judgment of Mont Blanc. The narrator even switches perspective, from use of the second person to the third person starting in the third stanza. While he beholds Mont Blanc as something to be revered, the narrator discovers the influence of self-perception upon his evaluation of Mont Blanc. Is it a natural wonder to be revered, or is it just a rock? Perspective is the judge. Since Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” is found in the Romantic (later) period, it is apparent that his conception of “Nature” was shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, which focused more on the individual self. This shift is made apparent when compared to conjectures of Nature seen in the earlier period. As Professor Makdisi explained in the final lecture, conceptions of nature shifted from something exclusive to fine minds to become a subject meditated upon by the individual. Nature in the later period, as demonstrated by Shelley’s “Mont Blanc”, was largely concerned with a person’s relationship to the surrounding world, with the theme of nature as a means to come to self-discovery.
Samuel Johnson: "Preface" to "A Dictionary..."
Kevin Yee
Discussion 1B
Samuel Johnson’s “Preface” to “A Dictionary of the English Language” is found under the “Criticism” theme, as it is apparent that it was intended to distinguish and sanctify the English language – in practice and purpose. Johnson wants to free the English language from the encroaching spirit of commercialization, whose corrupting tastes is attributed to the prevalence of trade. This type of trade can be seen in Addison and Steele’s “The Royal Exchange”, which takes a divergent stance on the same issue, the presence of foreign influences invited in by trade. While “The Royal Exchange” favors the ethnic, cultural, and ideological diversity afforded by trade, the epitome of which occurs at the “royal exchange” marketplace, Johnson’s “Preface” asserts the opposite. Johnson’s “Preface” is meant to safeguard the English language, to preserve the indigenousEnglish “nativeness”, “naturalness”, and culture. It is intended as an exclusion of the political and cultural “contamination” introduced by the tainting of foreign influences. This ideology is carried over from the notion that “English” is “natural” and native, and therefore all non-English was abnormal.
Johnson declares his purpose directly, in the following statement: “I have devoted this book, the labor of years, to the honor of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology without a contest to the nations of the continent.” Johnson claims that he has labored to make this dictionary to prevent the English study of literature and linguistics (philology) from being watered-down by the ubiquity of foreign influence. Johnson does not want to “yield”, to give up “without a contest” to the pressures of the time. It is a means of exclusion, not of inclusion. This is Johnson’s call for protection, for preservation, for defense.
Discussion 1B
Samuel Johnson’s “Preface” to “A Dictionary of the English Language” is found under the “Criticism” theme, as it is apparent that it was intended to distinguish and sanctify the English language – in practice and purpose. Johnson wants to free the English language from the encroaching spirit of commercialization, whose corrupting tastes is attributed to the prevalence of trade. This type of trade can be seen in Addison and Steele’s “The Royal Exchange”, which takes a divergent stance on the same issue, the presence of foreign influences invited in by trade. While “The Royal Exchange” favors the ethnic, cultural, and ideological diversity afforded by trade, the epitome of which occurs at the “royal exchange” marketplace, Johnson’s “Preface” asserts the opposite. Johnson’s “Preface” is meant to safeguard the English language, to preserve the indigenousEnglish “nativeness”, “naturalness”, and culture. It is intended as an exclusion of the political and cultural “contamination” introduced by the tainting of foreign influences. This ideology is carried over from the notion that “English” is “natural” and native, and therefore all non-English was abnormal.
Johnson declares his purpose directly, in the following statement: “I have devoted this book, the labor of years, to the honor of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology without a contest to the nations of the continent.” Johnson claims that he has labored to make this dictionary to prevent the English study of literature and linguistics (philology) from being watered-down by the ubiquity of foreign influence. Johnson does not want to “yield”, to give up “without a contest” to the pressures of the time. It is a means of exclusion, not of inclusion. This is Johnson’s call for protection, for preservation, for defense.
The Spectator: "The Royal Exchange, Inkle and Yarico, Aims of the Spectator"
FYI..this will be up in a few hours..
Glorious Revolution
Caty Zick
Discussion 1H
--Note: I know this one has already been done, but I did it on accident and thought I would just post it anyway--
In 1688, William II lead an army to remove James II from the throne of Great Britain in what came to be known as the Bloodless or Glorious Revolution. As a result, James II fled to France, and William and Mary take the throne in 1689 and established Protestant rule.
Neither the Whig nor Tory parties could accept Catholic James II as ruler, and when he produced a male heir, the possibility of a Catholic lineage became a reality. Protestant Dutchman William of Orange, along with his wife Mary, James’s Protestant daughter, became part of a plot to overtake the throne from James II. Along with a small army, William marched from southwestern England toward London, causing the King and his allies to flee. The fight was not yet over, however, as for the next fifty years a group of people called the Jacobites (supporters of James) continued to fight for James, his son (often called “the Old Pertender”) and his grandson (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) as the rightful heirs to the throne. After the failure of one last desperate Jacobite uprising in 1745, the Jacobites faded into the background, clearing the way for William and Mary to ascend to the throne. The Glorious Revolution is often viewed as the beginning of a stabilized, unified Great Britain.
Some poets who secretly sypmathized with the Jacobites:
-Aphra Behn
-Dryden
-Pope
-Johnson
-Robert Burns
Dr. Makdisi discussed the Glorious Revolution during his lecture on February 19th, and information on the Glorious Revolution can also be found in the introduction to the Norton Anthology, Volume C, on pages 2058 to 2059.
Discussion 1H
--Note: I know this one has already been done, but I did it on accident and thought I would just post it anyway--
In 1688, William II lead an army to remove James II from the throne of Great Britain in what came to be known as the Bloodless or Glorious Revolution. As a result, James II fled to France, and William and Mary take the throne in 1689 and established Protestant rule.
Neither the Whig nor Tory parties could accept Catholic James II as ruler, and when he produced a male heir, the possibility of a Catholic lineage became a reality. Protestant Dutchman William of Orange, along with his wife Mary, James’s Protestant daughter, became part of a plot to overtake the throne from James II. Along with a small army, William marched from southwestern England toward London, causing the King and his allies to flee. The fight was not yet over, however, as for the next fifty years a group of people called the Jacobites (supporters of James) continued to fight for James, his son (often called “the Old Pertender”) and his grandson (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) as the rightful heirs to the throne. After the failure of one last desperate Jacobite uprising in 1745, the Jacobites faded into the background, clearing the way for William and Mary to ascend to the throne. The Glorious Revolution is often viewed as the beginning of a stabilized, unified Great Britain.
Some poets who secretly sypmathized with the Jacobites:
-Aphra Behn
-Dryden
-Pope
-Johnson
-Robert Burns
Dr. Makdisi discussed the Glorious Revolution during his lecture on February 19th, and information on the Glorious Revolution can also be found in the introduction to the Norton Anthology, Volume C, on pages 2058 to 2059.
An Intersting Narrative by Olaudah Equiano
Jessica Kellogg Discussion 1H
"O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain?" (2855)
Equiano's statement is a valid argument against the slave trade. He calls upon Christians to adhere to their principles. He distinguishes himself as an African even though he identifies as a Christian as well. The construction of identity for Equiano demonstrates his ability to separate his ethnicity from his professed religion. Europeans in Equianos world are synonymous with the concept of Christianity. With their white privilige they enslave and justify this sin by "indoctrinating" the uncivilized. He challenges his white counterparts to a feat that he knows has nothing to do with Christianity, but has everything to do with gluttony.
Equiano uses "our" which shows that he speaks for all that are enslaved and still remains connected to his country and friends.
"O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain?" (2855)
Equiano's statement is a valid argument against the slave trade. He calls upon Christians to adhere to their principles. He distinguishes himself as an African even though he identifies as a Christian as well. The construction of identity for Equiano demonstrates his ability to separate his ethnicity from his professed religion. Europeans in Equianos world are synonymous with the concept of Christianity. With their white privilige they enslave and justify this sin by "indoctrinating" the uncivilized. He challenges his white counterparts to a feat that he knows has nothing to do with Christianity, but has everything to do with gluttony.
Equiano uses "our" which shows that he speaks for all that are enslaved and still remains connected to his country and friends.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Romanticism
Caty Zick
Romanticism
The term “Romanticism” is often used as if it referred to a single, unified idea. The concept of Romanticism, however, is not a single idea, but a larger set of ideas that came to light between 1785 and 1835/1840, largely in response to the end of the French Revolution (in 1789) and the hastening of the Industrial Revolution. Romanticism represents a moment of revolution in every aspect of life—political, economic, industrial, and social.
During the Romantic period, people began to view the self as the focal point of society, a major shift from the previous idea of the individual. This sudden revelation of the self marked the beginning of a larger shift in politics, commerce, and society. Political rights had only been given to land-holding men in England, but the French Revolution brought universal rights to men and women who had previously been ignored by the political process. Upon seeing this, the English renewed their objections to the few ruling the many, and wanted their politics to reflect their newfound sense of individualism. The English population felt the people should have a right to representation, not only politically, but verbally. This meant that the elite should not be the only voices heard in both politics and in literature, leading poets such as William Blake to spearhead this movement as a working class poet who asserted his right to be heard.
A person’s sense of self and how they related to other people in the world became an important question during the Romantic period. It is this quest to find meaning in the self that drove poets such as Wordsworth (the quintessential Romantic poet) to try to relate the self to nature. This aspect of Romanticism is often all that is seen of the movement, though there was much, much more to Romanticism than simply a poetic return to nature. Romanticism constituted a revolution in ideas about the importance of the self, which lead to new ideas about politics, economics, and society.
Some oft-cited Romantic Poets:
-Wordsworth
-Coleridge
-Byron
-Percy Shelley
-Keats
-Blake
Dr. Makdisi discussed the meaning of Romanticism in his lecture on January 24th and 31st.
Discussion 1H
Romanticism
The term “Romanticism” is often used as if it referred to a single, unified idea. The concept of Romanticism, however, is not a single idea, but a larger set of ideas that came to light between 1785 and 1835/1840, largely in response to the end of the French Revolution (in 1789) and the hastening of the Industrial Revolution. Romanticism represents a moment of revolution in every aspect of life—political, economic, industrial, and social.
During the Romantic period, people began to view the self as the focal point of society, a major shift from the previous idea of the individual. This sudden revelation of the self marked the beginning of a larger shift in politics, commerce, and society. Political rights had only been given to land-holding men in England, but the French Revolution brought universal rights to men and women who had previously been ignored by the political process. Upon seeing this, the English renewed their objections to the few ruling the many, and wanted their politics to reflect their newfound sense of individualism. The English population felt the people should have a right to representation, not only politically, but verbally. This meant that the elite should not be the only voices heard in both politics and in literature, leading poets such as William Blake to spearhead this movement as a working class poet who asserted his right to be heard.
A person’s sense of self and how they related to other people in the world became an important question during the Romantic period. It is this quest to find meaning in the self that drove poets such as Wordsworth (the quintessential Romantic poet) to try to relate the self to nature. This aspect of Romanticism is often all that is seen of the movement, though there was much, much more to Romanticism than simply a poetic return to nature. Romanticism constituted a revolution in ideas about the importance of the self, which lead to new ideas about politics, economics, and society.
Some oft-cited Romantic Poets:
-Wordsworth
-Coleridge
-Byron
-Percy Shelley
-Keats
-Blake
Dr. Makdisi discussed the meaning of Romanticism in his lecture on January 24th and 31st.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Mrs. Smith
Sam Allen
Discussion 1H
Mrs. Smith is one of many characters in Jane Austen's "Persuasion." She is not central to the plot (introduced in chapter 17), but she plays a very important role in the climax and also serves as a significant symbol of the class relations the novel examines.
Mrs. Smith is a former schoolmate of Anne's who helped her deal with the loss of her mother. All Anne knew of Mrs. Smith after they lost touch was that she "married a man of fortune."
When Anne "renews her acquaintance" with Mrs. Smith in Bath, her old friend has fallen into poverty after the loss of her husband. Sir Walter (Anne's father) cannot fathom Anne's reason to see such a lower class person. After he hears this, Sir Walter tells Anne "everything that revolts other people, low company, paltry rooms, foul air, disgusting invitations are inviting to you." Obviously, Sir Walter would never associate with someone like Mrs. Smith, much less meet with her frequently at her Westgate Building.
But Mrs. Smith eventually saves Anne from a huge mistake- marrying Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Smith and her husband knew Mr. Elliot when he was younger. Anne sort of considers marrying Mr. Elliot (on Lady Russell's advice) before Mrs. Smith exposes him to be a conniving cheat who just wants to marry Anne to increase the chance that he inherits the estate. In an ironic twist, after Anne marries Captain Wentworth, Wentworth helps Mrs. Smith recover the fortune that Mr. Elliot prevented her from claiming.
Mrs. Smith's benevolence shows that the lower class is very important to Austen. It is a subtle expression of one of Austen's key themes; the foolishness of the gentry and the worth of the lower classes.
Discussion 1H
Mrs. Smith is one of many characters in Jane Austen's "Persuasion." She is not central to the plot (introduced in chapter 17), but she plays a very important role in the climax and also serves as a significant symbol of the class relations the novel examines.
Mrs. Smith is a former schoolmate of Anne's who helped her deal with the loss of her mother. All Anne knew of Mrs. Smith after they lost touch was that she "married a man of fortune."
When Anne "renews her acquaintance" with Mrs. Smith in Bath, her old friend has fallen into poverty after the loss of her husband. Sir Walter (Anne's father) cannot fathom Anne's reason to see such a lower class person. After he hears this, Sir Walter tells Anne "everything that revolts other people, low company, paltry rooms, foul air, disgusting invitations are inviting to you." Obviously, Sir Walter would never associate with someone like Mrs. Smith, much less meet with her frequently at her Westgate Building.
But Mrs. Smith eventually saves Anne from a huge mistake- marrying Mr. Elliot. Mrs. Smith and her husband knew Mr. Elliot when he was younger. Anne sort of considers marrying Mr. Elliot (on Lady Russell's advice) before Mrs. Smith exposes him to be a conniving cheat who just wants to marry Anne to increase the chance that he inherits the estate. In an ironic twist, after Anne marries Captain Wentworth, Wentworth helps Mrs. Smith recover the fortune that Mr. Elliot prevented her from claiming.
Mrs. Smith's benevolence shows that the lower class is very important to Austen. It is a subtle expression of one of Austen's key themes; the foolishness of the gentry and the worth of the lower classes.
Coleridge and neurosis in general
Camille Esparza
Described in his introduction in the Norton as "dreamy, enthusiastic, and extraordinarily precocious", anyone’s initial conjured view of Samuel Taylor Coleridge might be relatively pleasant. And then, "prone to loneliness, despairing, a completely inept cavalry man, addicted to drugs, dejected, broken, and remorseful" sort of complicate things a bit.
They hint at complex and extremely unstable character whoes neurosis is directly apparent in his writing. If you look closely enough, Coleridge's anxiety completely fuels his syntactical, grammatical, and compositional choices.
Manily, reading the bios of all the authors, and finding out random facts like they were completely crazy helps so much when explicating their work. Behind every word is a conscious choice and therefore, a look inside into the thought process of the author. :)
Described in his introduction in the Norton as "dreamy, enthusiastic, and extraordinarily precocious", anyone’s initial conjured view of Samuel Taylor Coleridge might be relatively pleasant. And then, "prone to loneliness, despairing, a completely inept cavalry man, addicted to drugs, dejected, broken, and remorseful" sort of complicate things a bit.
They hint at complex and extremely unstable character whoes neurosis is directly apparent in his writing. If you look closely enough, Coleridge's anxiety completely fuels his syntactical, grammatical, and compositional choices.
Manily, reading the bios of all the authors, and finding out random facts like they were completely crazy helps so much when explicating their work. Behind every word is a conscious choice and therefore, a look inside into the thought process of the author. :)
William Wilberforce
Sam Allen Discussion 1H
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was one of the most prominent English abolitionists of his era. His parliamentary efforts led to the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the English slave trade.
Makdisi noted that Wilberforce's objection to slavery was moralistic and largely rooted in his Christian faith. His concern was not just for the slave, but for the morality of whites in Britain. While he fought for abolition, he also sought to maintain the domestic status quo with very conservative politics. He started the Society for Suppression of Vice. He wanted to increase religious observance in the middle class.
This all was covered in Makdisi's Feb. 28 lecture, in which he lectured on Anna Letitia Barbauld's "Epistle to William Wilberforce. Makdisi argued that Barbauld was also more troubled by "English moral degradation."
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was one of the most prominent English abolitionists of his era. His parliamentary efforts led to the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the English slave trade.
Makdisi noted that Wilberforce's objection to slavery was moralistic and largely rooted in his Christian faith. His concern was not just for the slave, but for the morality of whites in Britain. While he fought for abolition, he also sought to maintain the domestic status quo with very conservative politics. He started the Society for Suppression of Vice. He wanted to increase religious observance in the middle class.
This all was covered in Makdisi's Feb. 28 lecture, in which he lectured on Anna Letitia Barbauld's "Epistle to William Wilberforce. Makdisi argued that Barbauld was also more troubled by "English moral degradation."
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