Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
This blog is for use by students in Anjuli Raza Kolb's "Legacies of the Gothic Novel" course at Columbia University.
Course Description
The gothic novel is a genre of 18th and 19th century fiction that concerns itself with fear, mystery, the supernatural, violence, purity, otherness, and the impact of these conceits on its largely female protagonists. Much maligned as a popular or 'low' genre at its inception, the form has nevertheless persisted in its popularity as well as crossed into 'higher' forms of modernism and postmodernism. This course will read three key texts in the gothic mode-Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights-and follow the ways they are revisited and rewritten by contemporary American and Caribbean novelists. We will look at how these texts subvert the realist leanings of 18th century narrative prose in English-and its assumptions of enlightenment rationalism-by way of two main processes: narrative hypertrophy and feminist versions of horror. Additionally, we will take up select contemporary criticism on the gothic in literature, film, and art.
There are no prerequisites.
Followers
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(20)
-
▼
June
(15)
- Guerillas/No Telephone to Heaven
- Guerillas II
- Guerillas
- Sylvia Plath reads Purdah
- Wuthering Heights III
- Wuthering Heights II/Sedgwick/Kristeva
- Wuthering Heights I
- Wide Sargasso Sea II/ Caribbean Gothic
- Wide Sargasso Sea
- Jane Eyre II
- The Other Side of A Mirror
- Jane Eyre I
- Beloved III/ Modern Medea/ Black Frankenstein
- Beloved II
- Whitman "A Boston Ballad"
-
▼
June
(15)
I was thinking about the quotation that Molly used from Frankenstein's creature, calling himself an abortion, and thought a little bit more about why he would use that particular word. I realized that when children die, they don't leave behind many of the things that adults do, such as children, property, literary masterpieces, etc. So the creature is like a child that has never been able to obtain those things; abortion here is not killing a fetus but denying the possibilities of life. Beloved is literally a child that never obtained these possibilities. But in her reincarnation, Beloved is seemingly trying to have another chance at the things that Sethe desires and guards so fiercely.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about the use of sublime in texts, I noticed that there is something peculiar about the use of nature in the two novels we read. In Frankenstein the author’s descriptions not only set up the scene of events, prepare us for whatever comes next, but they also reveal emotional state of characters and in a way stage our response to what we are reading. What is more the author seems to attach a moral message to the natural phenomena and this is where I have a problem with Shelly’s depiction of nature. Morality is purely a human construct, and I feel a little manipulated when I see Shelly projecting her moral judgment (or her characters’ for that matter) on natural environment. Morrison’s use of natural imagery is more subtle: it seems to me that the images of nature in Beloved become another means to tell the story and add an emotional note to her tale. She does not pretend that the objects of nature carry some moral message in them, but skillfully uses natural imagery to deepen our emotional perception of a particular event. For example, the scene of Sethe’s delivery ends with the picture of spores of bluefern growing on the banks of a river. Morrison goes on to say: “And for a moment it is easy to believe each one has one [future] – will become all of what is contained in the spore: will live out its days as planned” (Morrison 99). What a powerful way to describe the feelings of a mother who wants to believe that her child will have an opportunity to claim his/her future that will only depend on his/her abilities and free will.
ReplyDeletePlease note I posted my previous comment under Borys's name. Here it goes again:
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about the use of sublime in texts, I noticed that there is something peculiar about the use of nature in the two novels we read. In Frankenstein the author’s descriptions not only set up the scene of events, prepare us for whatever comes next, but they also reveal emotional state of characters and in a way stage our response to what we are reading. What is more the author seems to attach a moral message to the natural phenomena and this is where I have a problem with Shelly’s depiction of nature. Morality is purely a human construct, and I feel a little manipulated when I see Shelly projecting her moral judgment (or her characters’ for that matter) on natural environment. Morrison’s use of natural imagery is more subtle: it seems to me that the images of nature in Beloved become another means to tell the story and add an emotional note to her tale. She does not pretend that the objects of nature carry some moral message in them, but skillfully uses natural imagery to deepen our emotional perception of a particular event. For example, the scene of Sethe’s delivery ends with the picture of spores of bluefern growing on the banks of a river. Morrison goes on to say: “And for a moment it is easy to believe each one has one [future] – will become all of what is contained in the spore: will live out its days as planned” (Morrison 99). What a powerful way to describe the feelings of a mother who wants to believe that her child will have an opportunity to claim his/her future that will only depend on his/her abilities and free will.
In pain and imagining, scarry writes, "the imagined Pierre is shadowy, dry, and barely present compared to the real Pierre, but is much more vibrantly present than the absent Pierre, and it was that absence that occasioned the introduction of the image."
ReplyDeleteSo much is absent in the novel that comes back to the reader vividly. Characters such as Halle, who we never encounter, but has become integral. Not to mention Beloved herself, the reincarnation of the Sethe's baby. Scarry describes the imagined version of the person as "shadowy, dry and barely present" which sounds ghostly, and also fits in with Beloved's quiet and purposeful nature.
I am interested in this idea of safety in Beloved. The word "safe" is used multiple times (probably the most prominent word choice besides "color"). I found it strange because when I think of being safe I think of my family and the care and home they provide for me. Sethe thinks that she is making her children safer by sending them away or, in the case of her daughter, killing her. The paradox of being safe and being with one's mother is evident. With Denver, Sethe keeps her safe by keeping her with her, even when she is in jail. If abandonment is the opposite of safety, then why does Sethe associate the two?
ReplyDeleteim also interested in the idea of safety and color in Beloved. its as if the motif of the tree extends into this concept of safety and the home: that is to say, the metaphorical, feminine, tree that is the lifeblood of 124 provides little tangible emotional shelter, nor shade from harshities, but more provides safety via shared experience, hardship, and struggle.
ReplyDeleteyeah , color...and the fact that baby suggs was "well into pink when she died. I don't believe she wanted to get to red and I understand why because me and Beloved outdid ourselves with it" (237)
ReplyDelete