1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected
in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under
consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...
2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what
really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
Question two
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpK6fDKQL18 (Frankenstein, Mary Shelley 1910) just some clips of the old movie that were made into a short video on youtube.
The Villa Diodati is a manor in colony close to Lake Geneva and it was famous for the terrific authors such as Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley where it was the first step for the classical horror stories. It was the basis of classical horror stories including Frankenstein and the Vampyre. The terrible weather system ruined the summer for people worldwide in 1816 and the authors were daring each other to write their most scary nightmares where many of the famous gothic stories were created.
-Frakenstein written in 1816 by Mary Shelley at Villa Diodati
-Darkness written by Lord Byron 1816
They all moved into the Villa Diodati and it wasn’t a pleasant place to stay and rained almost every day. It was certainly not the sort of place for a wealthy young British aristocrat to suddenly choose to relocate to. Byron was inspired to write one of his most famous poems called “Darkness” with the cold and the gloom. Mary Shelley had dreams which could be the creation of ‘Frankenstein’ and it could be due to her three events of death which happened to her close people (Bargain travel Europe, n.d.).
Bargain Travel Europe.(n.d). Lord Byron & Villa Diodati. Retrieved from
http://www.bargaintraveleurope.com/08/Switzerland_Villa_Diodoti_Geneva.htm
In additional, you can find a range of Villa Diodati video at
Deletehttp://www.ovguide.com/villa-diodati-9202a8c04000641f8000000000befa98#
“This place still existed, and been seen as a holy place for writers. Which they called the Villa Diodati “a home for English-language writers of fantasy and science fiction in Europe”.
In reality, what happened at the Villa Diodati that summer is not important. The summer’s real importance is in its ongoing effects on both the present and the future. Approximately 150 years later, in 1960, the concept of a Cyborg was born, which is very similar to the monster created by Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein during that summer of 1816 (“We are all Cyborg”, 2012). To those people, the summer of 1816 might never have existed with the terrible weather, but to literature it was a summer of success because of the writing that emerged from Marry and others. To scientists the summer has led them to the possibilities of a world with Cyborg, but to ordinary readers it was just a summer with the Frankenstein monster.
Reference
We are all Cyborg. (2012). Retrieved from http://book.douban.com/review/5384677/
Sublime is a term used to criticize art or literature text, to call a work ‘sublime’ is like calling it ‘divine’. “But if a critic uses ‘sublime’ to characterize a work which includes amazement, wonder or awe in virtue of its ambition, scope or a passion which seems to drive it, then this use is not far off that to be found in one of the major works of classical criticism” (Pateman, 2004).
ReplyDeleteRomanticism may be defined as an artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. Also it can be said as an attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization.
Sublime work has the power to ‘transport us with wonder’. Pateman(2004) stated that sublime passages in literature exert and ‘irresistible’ force. Sublime is a word used to criticize literature through imagination. “in greater degrees, the sublime is that which produces terror “(Pateman, 2004). Another way a work could be sublime is through loosing ourselves and being afraid and in pain. According to Pateman(2004), we are drawn to things which cause us pain as well as terror. These works are characterized to have power to effect loss of control over ourselves. That is why the Sublime can be the major works of classical criticism.
According to Pateman (2004), only artists who have the ability to create ‘grand conceptions’ by utilizing their ‘powerful and inspired emotion qualities’ can accomplish the creation of ‘The Sublime’ power. And with the combination of technique, strong ideas and emotion, these special artists can produce ‘true sublime’ in their works.
Pateman (2004) also stated that the irony of the human minds; we are programmed from an early age to “seek pleasure and shun pain”, but on the other hand we are intrigued and attracted to things that “cause us pain, indeed terror”. However, ‘The Sublime’ can create some kind of pleasure, which contains fictional or metaphorical pain.
The desire of humans to avoid pain and pursue pleasure is reflected in the romantic literature. In romantic sublime poems, pleasure seeking appears as a vanity in the long run, although pain avoidance can be gained in the realisation. The sublime is simpler terms means something that is both beautiful and terrible.
Pateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education. London: Falmer Press, pp 169 -171.
Romanticism. Retrieved May 13, 2013, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticism
and
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/romanticism
How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader?
ReplyDelete‘On the Sublime’ is the work which focuses on the effect of good writing is both a treatise on aesthetics and a work of literary criticism. Longinus critically approved and blamed the literary work as examples of bad and good styles of writing. He encouraged the ‘elevation of style’ and the essence of ‘simplicity’. Longinus sets out five sources of sublimity which are great thoughts, strong emotions, certain figures of thought and speech, noble diction and dignified word arrangement (Weiskel, 1976). According to Pateman (2004, 1991), ‘on the sublime’ deals with forms of expression which have the power to lead the readers into wonder and having the ‘irresistible’ force. This comes in the sublime passages in literature and from a rhetorical advice “a well timed stroke of sublimity scatters everything before it like a thunderbolt, and in a flash reveals the power of the speaker” (On the sublime, chpt 1).
Romanticism associates the sublime with nature, artist, poet and the romantic experiences witnessing the beauty of nature. Also it can evoke the sublime in the readers by having concepts that can take away their interest intuitively and emotionally. This can be joining the irrational opposites of love/death. The sublime is related to traditional Christian religion because faith centres on the understanding of truths that includes empirical experience and often with the language. For example, you must ‘feel’ the Holy Spirit to ‘understand it’. According to Burke (1757), in the greater degree of sublime comes from the ‘terror’ in all cases. He defines ‘terror’ the fear of pain; we are terrified by vastness, by obscurity and with infinity. “Infinity has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror, which is the most genuine effect and truest test of the sublime” (p. 129).
Pateman, T. (2004,1991). 'The sublime' in key concepts: A guide to aesthetics, criticism and the arts in education. London: Falmer Press.
There have been different authors who have been influenced by William Polidori and Mary Shelley. They have both created the literature “The Vampyre” and the “Frankenstein”. Most of the authors in villa Diodati have influenced on the modern gothic and to create new stories inside the gothic genre. The Villa Diodati ‘bratpack’ has came up with a fascinating genre of the gothic whereas nowadays it is still so popular and people are very interested in this genre. There are different dramas on vampires for example “The vampire diaries”, “True blood” and also movies like “Twilight”. They are producing more and more series of the Gothic genre where it is becoming popular by day (Shellys ghost, n.d.).
ReplyDeleteShelly’s ghost. (n.d.). Retrieved from 13, June, 2013 http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/diodati-the-residence-of-lord-byron
Question 1
ReplyDeleteHow is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...
The term 'sublime' is explained is the dictionary as, foremost degree or wonderful degree, and it also is commonly used in aesthetic area. According to Wollstonecraft S, M “Longinus defines the literary sublime as "excellence in language", the "expression of a great spirit" and the power to provoke "ecstasy" in one's readers (2008. p.250).” And according to Pateman (2001, 1994), the sublime is a form of expression in literature where the writer applys a powerful and inspired emotion on readers using the description of a natural view or beauty as a concept of major importance for a romantic thought. The beauty, vastness and force of the nature produces overwhelming feelings such as awe, amazement and wonder to uplift readers’ souls and offer a sense of vaunting joy. Pateman (2001, 1994), also states that the romantic ideology of the 'sublime' "deals with forms of expression which have the power to`entrance' us, to `transport us with wonder', as opposed to simply persuading or pleasing the audience.
Reference
Dictionary.com. (n.d). Sublime. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sublime
Wollstonecraft S,M., Berni ,W. (2008). Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus. Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse Books
Pateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education.London: Falmer Press, pp 169 - 171.
Question 2
ReplyDeleteGo online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
After researching online I was able to find many different accounts of what 'really' happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816. But the core basis that holds those many accounts are the same, which is the birth of the Gothic genre. it is the birth place of many classic horror flicks like 'Frakenstein written in 1816 by Mary Shelley at Villa Diodati' and 'Darkness written by Lord Byron 1816 at Villa Diodati'. It is believed that one fateful night during a storm, the entourage gathered to retell ghost tales that would later inspire literary ingenuity in the likes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre.Members of the gathering include: Lord Byron and his mistress (rumoured to be Claire Clairmont), Percy Shelley and partner Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (who later changed her surname to Shelley) and Byron's personal doctor John Polidori.
Reference
Bargain Travel Europe.(n.d). Lord Byron & Villa Diodati. Retrieved from
http://www.bargaintraveleurope.com/08/Switzerland_Villa_Diodoti_Geneva.htm
Villa Diodati (n.d.) Retrieved May 22, 2013 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Diodati
King, S. (n.d.) Frankenstein, Milton and the computer. Retrieved May 22, 2013 from http://www.todayinliterature.com/stories.asp?Event_Date=6/19/1816
Question 3
ReplyDeleteHow many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH_pgNQcs5g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VpPfnxdflA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2hl5Ee5_1E
http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/diodati-the-residence-of-lord-byron
http://lastroseofsummer2.hubpages.com/hub/Percy-Byssche-Shelley-and-the-Victims-of-the-Summer-of-1816
These are some of the links that helped me to understand the fictional accounts.
Delete