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)
Im interested in how Emily Bronte touches upon the concept of "love" in "Wuthering Heights." While family love seems, at least within the Linton household, sturdy and reliable, romantic love seems to be portrayed as deceptive, evasive, and aloof: it is an emotion that is directed to destroy the heart of the female characters in the novel. Catherine Earnshaw is utterly ruined by her romantic love affair with heathcliff. Her niece, Little miss Cathy, is sorely decieved by her uncle heathcliff to believe that her cousin Linton really harbors romantic leanings towards her. This too almost becomes her downfall; her female naivety and adolescent hormones cannot be trusted. Literally. So what does Emily Bronte mean to say about love, and its role in a happy exsistence? DOes it have different effects for the men and women she portrays in her novel?
ReplyDeleteTo expand on what I wrote earlier, Heathcliff, too, finds peace when he uncovers Catherine's body. It is not until he sees her there that he is able to sleep soundly and unhaunted. The sentence "her face would change if the air blew on it" (354) shows the delicate nature of the corpse. It conjures the image of the man in the zombie movie grasping for the hologram lady and finding she was not there. It is as if Catherine's corpse is her ghost, that once confronted, brings Heatcliff some peace. It also reminds me of Sedgwick's exploration of the deep death-like sleep, but I'm not sure I have a great handle on this.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, Joseph survives throughout all the upheaval at Wuthering Heights. Nobody really likes him and he doesn't seem indispensable to the practical workings of the household. Why then does he outlive Hindley, Catherine, Edgar, Linton, Isabella and Heathcliff? I suspect it is due to the range of his desires, which are rather simple compared to the ambiguity and self-destructiveness of the aforementioned characters. Although Nelly has other positive traits, perhaps her simple desires also help her survive the upheavals in the moor.
ReplyDeleteHas anybody else noticed a complete lack of sympathy on Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s part – not only for other people but also for each other? Heathcliff and Catherine seem to excel in ruthlessly exploring weaknesses in other people, sometimes to a complete destruction of the persons involved. They appear to be cruel for no apparent reason on multiple occasions. Is tormenting each other a prerequisite for their love? Or is it a sign of their “flawed” nature? Their inability to feel compassion seems to be almost inhuman.
ReplyDelete