Only someone who prevents us from satisfying a desire which he himself has inspired in us is truly an object of hatred. The person who hates first hates himself for the secret admiration concealed by his hatred.
Rene Girard, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, pp. 10-11
You might think about this in connection with "evil." Evil might just finally boil down to hatred.....
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
notes
M's human/soft/sentimental side
gen'l S, Silver Wig, his room, Harry Jones
Ending w/what kind of worldview?
--life goes on the same way, Silver Wig gone forever, Eddie Mars not gone forever
--corruption is not gone
How many mysteries are there in the story?
#Rusty Regan
#Sternwood blackmail
Ending of the novel
*corruption still exists
*really bad guys still exist (ex for Canino)
*Carmen isn't dead
*Rusty Regan is (bad)
*Silver Wig is gone forever
*Captain Gregory is still (only) "reasonably honest"
*Maybe Gen'l S doesn't have to know (about Rusty, about Carmen)
*M still has his license
*Geiger dead (good)
gen'l S, Silver Wig, his room, Harry Jones
Ending w/what kind of worldview?
--life goes on the same way, Silver Wig gone forever, Eddie Mars not gone forever
--corruption is not gone
How many mysteries are there in the story?
#Rusty Regan
#Sternwood blackmail
Ending of the novel
*corruption still exists
*really bad guys still exist (ex for Canino)
*Carmen isn't dead
*Rusty Regan is (bad)
*Silver Wig is gone forever
*Captain Gregory is still (only) "reasonably honest"
*Maybe Gen'l S doesn't have to know (about Rusty, about Carmen)
*M still has his license
*Geiger dead (good)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Prefinal test format and sample questions
NB you will need to know (and spell) titles, authors, directors, and you will need to be able to provide DATES of the texts.
Texts [3 points each]: Below write FOR each ofthe TEN texts [this is a sample from an old test--our number will be different) we've covered: title, author/director, date of publication/release.
Identify [3 points each]: Say concisely who or what each of the following is and identify the author OR the text or context in which it appeared.
1. Toussaint L'Ouverture
2. Nenny
3. Jody Starks
Define [4 points each]: Give a definition of each of the following words. Be sure your definition is the one most relevant to the way we used the term in class.
2. American Realism
4. miscegenation
5. James’s balloon
6. infer/imply [nb: there are TWO words here]
7. the 18th Amendment
8. anomaly
9. tableau vivant
10. suspension of disbelief
Brief answer [5 points each]: Answer the following questions briefly ( 1-2 sentences), making sure that you choose the most relevant of the possible ways to answer.
1. What is "playing the (dirty) dozens" and what is its significance in Hurston's novel?
3. All cultures seem to have a taboo on incest: what is one anthropological explanation for why all cultures have this in common? (hint: what does this taboo enable or enforce?)
9. Describe two strong female figures in The House on Mango Street , from two different stories or chapters. (It's o.k. if you don't remember their names; just be specific about why they are "strong").
12. To what film genre(s) does Mildred Pierce belong? (describe each and explain how/when they appear and how they work together in the film)
13. What is one way to read the way Tea Cake dies so that it "fits in" with an overall reading of the novel?
Short answer [7 points each]: These answers will be slightly longer (3-5 sentences) than the previous ones. These are not original essay questions; just report and/or summarize the class discussion/lecture material. Discuss the following quotations; be specific and give examples where appropriate.
2. "O.K., Bert. To hell with her!"
"Goddam it, that's what I want to hear! Come on, we got each other, haven't we? Let's get stinko."
"Yes--let's get stinko."
4. "Tom" was a bad baby, from the very beginning of his usurpation.
5. . . . for the first time he seemed to see before him the real Lily Bart, divested of the trivialities of her little world, and catching for a moment a note of that eternal harmony of which her beauty was a part.
6. We continued silent while the maid was with us--as silent, it whimsically occurred to me, as some young couple who, on their wedding journey, at the inn, feel shy in the presence of the waiter. He turned round only when the waiter had left us. "Well--so we're alone!"
8. Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
C. The questions below are intended to inspire short (8-10 sentences) answers that will display the depth and breadth of your grasp of the course material. Use the backs of the pages to continue answers (number them clearly).
1. "Nor did he fail again to observe, or imagine, an analogy between the beautiful girl and the gorgeous shrub that hung its gemlike flowers over the fountain--a resemblance which Beatrice seemed to have indulged a fantastic humor in heightening, both by the arrangement of her dress and the selection of its hues." Discuss.
2. Discuss the relationship between Jerry and Stephanie in The Stepfather.
3. Who is the Beast in Double Indemnity? Explain.
4. Give a brief summary of the basic points in Freud's essay "A Special Type of Object Choice Made by Men."
5. Discuss the connections between Ripley and the Big Bug in the film Aliens.
6. Marlowe gets furious when he finds Carmen in his bed. Discuss.
7. Harvey Roy Greenberg ends his essay by asserting that Denham is the real beast of King Kong. Explain this remark and then agree or disagree with it.
8. Why does Spade hand Brigid over to the police?
9. What is John Marcher waiting for and does it arrive?
10. What is a Venn diagram and what makes it useful for the kinds of things we explored in this class?
11. Clips: Choose one. Write your choice down, and describe briefly what is happening in the scene. Discuss.
sample questions from exams past
Note, especially, types of questions and directions given. Also: you will be expected to give titles, authors/directors, dates of publication/release for each of our texts.
Sample questions from 400 level courses on 20th century American texts.Texts [3 points each]: Below write FOR each of
Identify [3 points each]: Say concisely who or what each of the following is and identify the author OR the text or context in which it appeared.
1. Toussaint L'Ouverture
2. Nenny
3. Jody Starks
Define [4 points each]: Give a definition of each of the following words. Be sure your definition is the one most relevant to the way we used the term in class.
2. American Realism
4. miscegenation
5. James’s balloon
6. infer/imply [nb: there are TWO words here]
7. the 18th Amendment
8. anomaly
9. tableau vivant
10. suspension of disbelief
Brief answer [5 points each]: Answer the following questions briefly ( 1-2 sentences), making sure that you choose the most relevant of the possible ways to answer.
1. What is "playing the (dirty) dozens" and what is its significance in Hurston's novel?
3. All cultures seem to have a taboo on incest: what is one anthropological explanation for why all cultures have this in common? (hint: what does this taboo enable or enforce?)
9. Describe two strong female figures in The House on Mango Street , from two different stories or chapters. (It's o.k. if you don't remember their names; just be specific about why they are "strong").
12. To what film genre(s) does Mildred Pierce belong? (describe each and explain how/when they appear and how they work together in the film)
13. What is one way to read the way Tea Cake dies so that it "fits in" with an overall reading of the novel?
Short answer [7 points each]: These answers will be slightly longer (3-5 sentences) than the previous ones. These are not original essay questions; just report and/or summarize the class discussion/lecture material. Discuss the following quotations; be specific and give examples where appropriate.
2. "O.K., Bert. To hell with her!"
"Goddam it, that's what I want to hear! Come on, we got each other, haven't we? Let's get stinko."
"Yes--let's get stinko."
4. "Tom" was a bad baby, from the very beginning of his usurpation.
5. . . . for the first time he seemed to see before him the real Lily Bart, divested of the trivialities of her little world, and catching for a moment a note of that eternal harmony of which her beauty was a part.
6. We continued silent while the maid was with us--as silent, it whimsically occurred to me, as some young couple who, on their wedding journey, at the inn, feel shy in the presence of the waiter. He turned round only when the waiter had left us. "Well--so we're alone!"
8. Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
C. The questions below are intended to inspire short (8-10 sentences) answers that will display the depth and breadth of your grasp of the course material. Use the backs of the pages to continue answers (number them clearly).
1. "Nor did he fail again to observe, or imagine, an analogy between the beautiful girl and the gorgeous shrub that hung its gemlike flowers over the fountain--a resemblance which Beatrice seemed to have indulged a fantastic humor in heightening, both by the arrangement of her dress and the selection of its hues." Discuss.
2. Discuss the relationship between Jerry and Stephanie in The Stepfather.
3. Who is the Beast in Double Indemnity? Explain.
4. Give a brief summary of the basic points in Freud's essay "A Special Type of Object Choice Made by Men."
5. Discuss the connections between Ripley and the Big Bug in the film Aliens.
6. Marlowe gets furious when he finds Carmen in his bed. Discuss.
7. Harvey Roy Greenberg ends his essay by asserting that Denham is the real beast of King Kong. Explain this remark and then agree or disagree with it.
8. Why does Spade hand Brigid over to the police?
9. What is John Marcher waiting for and does it arrive?
10. What is a Venn diagram and what makes it useful for the kinds of things we explored in this class?
11. Clips: Choose one. Write your choice down, and describe briefly what is happening in the scene. Discuss.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
paper prompts (voluntary)!
* "the detective story [deals with] a hidden guilt that threatens to destroy the self-contained community, or, more contemporaneously, the social fabric of a city . . . " Leslie Fiedler
*Levi-Strauss asserts that myths of the Oedipal type always assimilate discovery of incest to the solution of a living puzzle personified by the hero--in his words "The audacious union of masked words or of consanquines unknown to themselves engenders decay and fermentation, the unchaining of natural forces--one thinks of the Theban plague-- . . ."
*It is a common observation--and like so many other commonplaces, an important one--that our system of thought, perception, and logic depends on our insistence that the world can be perceived in terms of categories which include some elements and exclude others. The starkest and most fundamental kind of category is that which designates a paired opposite: ie, "p" and "not-p." They are interdependently defined: "The category 'p' includes all that which is not not-p, and vice versa."
Part of the persistent horror of Oedipus's fate is that in his case, "p" and "not-p" have collapsed (and so therefore have most other important distinctions in Thebes--the place is a mess): The King is the Regicide; The Son is the Father; the Mother, the Wife; the Criminal is the Detective/Judge/Executioner; the Daughter, the Sister; etc. Implicit here as well is the horrific threat behind the prohibition of such transgression: if you violate these taboos, all distinction, which is to say, all culture and civilization (that which, we say, separates us from the animals) will precariously tumble into chaos.
*Levi-Strauss asserts that myths of the Oedipal type always assimilate discovery of incest to the solution of a living puzzle personified by the hero--in his words "The audacious union of masked words or of consanquines unknown to themselves engenders decay and fermentation, the unchaining of natural forces--one thinks of the Theban plague-- . . ."
*It is a common observation--and like so many other commonplaces, an important one--that our system of thought, perception, and logic depends on our insistence that the world can be perceived in terms of categories which include some elements and exclude others. The starkest and most fundamental kind of category is that which designates a paired opposite: ie, "p" and "not-p." They are interdependently defined: "The category 'p' includes all that which is not not-p, and vice versa."
Part of the persistent horror of Oedipus's fate is that in his case, "p" and "not-p" have collapsed (and so therefore have most other important distinctions in Thebes--the place is a mess): The King is the Regicide; The Son is the Father; the Mother, the Wife; the Criminal is the Detective/Judge/Executioner; the Daughter, the Sister; etc. Implicit here as well is the horrific threat behind the prohibition of such transgression: if you violate these taboos, all distinction, which is to say, all culture and civilization (that which, we say, separates us from the animals) will precariously tumble into chaos.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Arizona Quarterly Symposium schedule
Go here to choose the paper you are going to attend (and take a paragraph of notes on):
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195507153817503
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195507153817503
Friday, March 18, 2011
Schedule through May (nb: change in Paper #3 due date!
Mar. 22, 24, 29 The Omen (1976), Chinatown (1974) screen and discuss
3/31 No class
March 31-April 2 Arizona Quarterly Symposium (no class, but attendance at a paper of your choice will be required)
4/5 Paper #2 Reading Day
4/7 Prefinal. This is an exam which will cover all material to date. The format and extent of the exam will be discussed in class. The Final Exam will consist of questions already covered on this exam and new questions on material covered after 4/7.
4/12, 4/14 The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (1939). You can purchase a hard copy from any number of brick and mortar sources, or you can get it here: http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__the_big_sleep__en.htm
4/19, 4/21, 4/26, 4/28 ScreenChinatown (Polanski, 1974) The Omen (1976). Discussion of this and past texts; somewhere in here we will also have a review discussion of the Prefinal)
4/12, 4/14 The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (1939). You can purchase a hard copy from any number of brick and mortar sources, or you can get it here: http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__the_big_sleep__en.htm
4/19, 4/21, 4/26, 4/28 Screen
May 3 Paper #3
May 5 Last Day of Classes
May 10 Final 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Chavez 304
*Paper #4 will be optional: following the same rules as the previous three papers. Any paper handed in as Paper #4 will not lower your grade. You can turn it in when we meet for the final exam.
Friday, March 11, 2011
paper #2 and Prefinal
4/5 Paper #2 Reading Day
4/7 Prefinal. This is an exam which will cover all material to date. The format and extent of the exam will be discussed in class. The Final Exam will consist of questions already covered on this exam and new questions on material covered after 4/7.
4/7 Prefinal. This is an exam which will cover all material to date. The format and extent of the exam will be discussed in class. The Final Exam will consist of questions already covered on this exam and new questions on material covered after 4/7.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Paper #3 due date
Paper #3 will be due on 4/28 5/3 (paper readings may extend to part of class on 5/5).
Paper #4 will be optional: if you want to try to raise your grade. Any paper handed in as Paper #4 will not lower your grade. You can turn it in when we meet for the final exam.
Paper #4 will be optional: if you want to try to raise your grade. Any paper handed in as Paper #4 will not lower your grade. You can turn it in when we meet for the final exam.
General info for topics for next paper
For those who like to get started early: You will focus on one of our texts, with a brief reference to a second as part of your argument (the reference to the second text can be either support or counter-example); make sure you address the questions below in the context of your essay. Please note: none of these questions are your specific thesis. Your thesis should be something about the child/childhood or the parent/parental in your chosen text.
1. What is evil in this story--what does it do?
2. Where, according to the text, does evil come from--what is its point of origin in the story?
3. How does the story get you to participate in it (the story, the evil, the argument, etc.)?
Some pithy quotations:
Evil is a point of view.
--ANNE RICE, Interview with the Vampire
The rules are the same as for the first paper.
1. What is evil in this story--what does it do?
2. Where, according to the text, does evil come from--what is its point of origin in the story?
3. How does the story get you to participate in it (the story, the evil, the argument, etc.)?
Some pithy quotations:
Evil is unspectacular and always human
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.
--W.H. AUDEN, Herman Melville
The whole gamut of good and evil is in every human being, certain notes, from stronger original quality or most frequent use, appearing to form the whole character; but they are only the tones most often heard. The whole scale is in every soul, and the notes most seldom heard will on rare occasions make themselves audible.
--FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 12, 1875
--FANNY KEMBLE, Further Records, Feb. 12, 1875
--ANNE RICE, Interview with the Vampire
The rules are the same as for the first paper.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
links
YGB
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawYoun.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
tos
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamTurn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
gmhf
http://notearama.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-man-is-hard-to-find.html
gcp
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0Vu8Sc4jNfQJ:faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%25206710/Good%2520Country%2520People.pdf+%22good+country+people%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGYu61KSffr4qRrGjALru-vpnil33KFOPchvu0sizlymkIUEF-j0N0GVVR7EsjGDjViOhqh06W7HNfQwB3Laqzt9ayDoAyuBT9SwYA4uzFgSVorTjbceYsftq9H1p-jc_2WBXf&sig=AHIEtbT8CRz08FNhWxAOIgNuhfGUdBGtcg
tl
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
rfe
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawYoun.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
tos
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamTurn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
gmhf
http://notearama.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-man-is-hard-to-find.html
gcp
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0Vu8Sc4jNfQJ:faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%25206710/Good%2520Country%2520People.pdf+%22good+country+people%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGYu61KSffr4qRrGjALru-vpnil33KFOPchvu0sizlymkIUEF-j0N0GVVR7EsjGDjViOhqh06W7HNfQwB3Laqzt9ayDoAyuBT9SwYA4uzFgSVorTjbceYsftq9H1p-jc_2WBXf&sig=AHIEtbT8CRz08FNhWxAOIgNuhfGUdBGtcg
tl
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
rfe
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
Thursday, February 24, 2011
"Young Goodman Brown" (the instructions given in class Tuesday)
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawYoun.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
Or go to Google and enter
Young Goodman Brown etext
click on the link to etext.virginia.edu
Then click on "entire work"
Or go to Google and enter
Young Goodman Brown etext
click on the link to etext.virginia.edu
Then click on "entire work"
Monday, February 21, 2011
T of S quotations
" . . . one of [James's] most cruel effects: the ambiguity of innocence, of an innocence which is pure of the evil it contains; the art of perfect dissimulation which enables the children to conceal this evil from the honest folk amongst whom they live, an evil which is perhaps an innocence that becomes evil in the proximity of such folk, the incorruptible innocence they oppose to the true evil of adults; or again the riddle of the visions attributed to them, the uncertainty of a story which has perhaps been foisted upon them by the demented imagination of a governess who tortures them to death with her own hallucinations." --Maurice Blanchot (from The Siren's Song: Selected Essays by Maurice Blanchot; rpt from a 1959 essay)
"There is no question that the young woman sees the ghosts of Peter Quint and of Miss Jessel. We recognize also that she is making an extraordinary effort to keep calm in the face of the evil she fears. The evil, however, is in her own mind; when she has the 'certitude' that her ghosts have come for the children, the reader must decide whether she is stating a fact or enunciating a theory. Looking back over her story, we discover that her circumstantial account of the behavior of the children establishes them as 'normal.' Little Miles wants to know when he is going back to school; little Flora's escapade with the boar is perfectly in character for an eight-year-old. Yet the governess makes the behavior of the children seem sinister. The real 'turn of the screw'--the particular twist of pain in the tale--resides in what the governess is doing to the children. They, on their side, try constantly to accommodate themselves to her vision." --Leon Edel, from Henry James: Stories of the Supernatural
"Only make the reader's general vision of evil intense enough . . . and his own experience, his own imagination . . will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars. Make him think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications." --Henry James
"The Turn of the Screw is the most hopelessly evil story that we have ever read in any literature, ancient of modern. how Mr. James could, or how any man or woman could, choose to make such a study of infernal human debauchery, for it is nothing else, is unaccountable. . . . The study, while it exhibits Mr. James's genius in a powerful light, affects the reader with a disgust that is not to be expressed. The feeling after perusal of the horrible story is that one has been assisting in an outrage upon the holiest and sweetest fountain of human innocence, and helping to debauch--at least by helplessly standing by--the pure and trusting nature of children. Human imagination can go no further into infamy, literary art could not be used with more refined subtlety of spiritual defilement." --The Independent, 1899
"In 1934, Edmund Wilson for the first time suggests explicitly that The Turn of the Screw is not, in fact, a ghost story but a madness story, a study of a case of neurosis: the ghosts, accordingly, do not really exist; they are but figments of the governess's sick imagination, mere hallucinations and projections symptomatic of the frustration of her repressed sexual desires. This psychoanalytic interpretation will hit the critical scene like a bomb. Making its author into an overnight celebrity by arousing as much interest as James's text itself, Wilson's article will provoke a veritable barrage of indignant refutations, all closely argued and based on 'irrefutable' textual evidence." --Shoshana Felman, "Madness and the Risks of Practice (Turning the Screw of Interpretation)"
"Henry James's ghosts have nothing in common with the violent old ghosts__the blood-stained sea captains, the white horses, the headless ladies of dark lanes and windy commons. They have their origin within us. They are present whenever the significant overflows our powers of expressing it; whenever the ordinary appears ringed by the strange. The baffling things that are left over, the frightening ones that persist--these are the emotions that he takes, embodies, makes consoling and companionable. But how can we be afraid? . . . The beautiful urbane spirits are only not of this world because they are too fine for it. . . . We may feel clumsy in their presence, but we cannot feel afraid. What doe sit matter, then, if we do pick up 'The Turn of the Screw' an hour or so before bedtime?. . .
Perhaps it is the silence that first impresses us. . . . 'I can hear again, as I write, the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped. The rooks stopped cawing in the gold sky, and the friendly hour lost for the unspeakable minute all its voice.' It is unspeakable. We know that the man who sands on the tower staring down at the governess beneath is evil. Some unutterable obscenity has come to the surface. It tries to get i; it tries to get at something. The exquisite little beings who lie innocently asleep must at all costs be protected. But the horror grows. Is it possible that the little girl, as she turns back from the window, has seen the woman outside? Has she been with Miss Jessel? Has Quint visited the boy? It is Quint who hangs about us in the dark; who is there in that corner and again there in that. It is Quint who must be reasoned away, and for all our reasoning returns. Can it be that we are afraid? But it is not a man with red hair and a white face whom we fear. We are afraid of something unnamed, of something, perhaps, in ourselves. In short, we turn on the light. If by its beams we examine the story in safety, note how masterly the telling is, how each sentence is stretched, each image filled, how the inner world gains from the robustness of the outer, how beauty and obscenity twined together worm their way to the depths--still we must own that something remains unaccounted for. We must admit that Henry James has conquered. That courtly, worldly, sentimental old gentleman can still make us afraid of the dark. --Virginia Woolf, "Henry James's Ghost Stories," 1921.
"There is no question that the young woman sees the ghosts of Peter Quint and of Miss Jessel. We recognize also that she is making an extraordinary effort to keep calm in the face of the evil she fears. The evil, however, is in her own mind; when she has the 'certitude' that her ghosts have come for the children, the reader must decide whether she is stating a fact or enunciating a theory. Looking back over her story, we discover that her circumstantial account of the behavior of the children establishes them as 'normal.' Little Miles wants to know when he is going back to school; little Flora's escapade with the boar is perfectly in character for an eight-year-old. Yet the governess makes the behavior of the children seem sinister. The real 'turn of the screw'--the particular twist of pain in the tale--resides in what the governess is doing to the children. They, on their side, try constantly to accommodate themselves to her vision." --Leon Edel, from Henry James: Stories of the Supernatural
"Only make the reader's general vision of evil intense enough . . . and his own experience, his own imagination . . will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars. Make him think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications." --Henry James
"The Turn of the Screw is the most hopelessly evil story that we have ever read in any literature, ancient of modern. how Mr. James could, or how any man or woman could, choose to make such a study of infernal human debauchery, for it is nothing else, is unaccountable. . . . The study, while it exhibits Mr. James's genius in a powerful light, affects the reader with a disgust that is not to be expressed. The feeling after perusal of the horrible story is that one has been assisting in an outrage upon the holiest and sweetest fountain of human innocence, and helping to debauch--at least by helplessly standing by--the pure and trusting nature of children. Human imagination can go no further into infamy, literary art could not be used with more refined subtlety of spiritual defilement." --The Independent, 1899
"In 1934, Edmund Wilson for the first time suggests explicitly that The Turn of the Screw is not, in fact, a ghost story but a madness story, a study of a case of neurosis: the ghosts, accordingly, do not really exist; they are but figments of the governess's sick imagination, mere hallucinations and projections symptomatic of the frustration of her repressed sexual desires. This psychoanalytic interpretation will hit the critical scene like a bomb. Making its author into an overnight celebrity by arousing as much interest as James's text itself, Wilson's article will provoke a veritable barrage of indignant refutations, all closely argued and based on 'irrefutable' textual evidence." --Shoshana Felman, "Madness and the Risks of Practice (Turning the Screw of Interpretation)"
"Henry James's ghosts have nothing in common with the violent old ghosts__the blood-stained sea captains, the white horses, the headless ladies of dark lanes and windy commons. They have their origin within us. They are present whenever the significant overflows our powers of expressing it; whenever the ordinary appears ringed by the strange. The baffling things that are left over, the frightening ones that persist--these are the emotions that he takes, embodies, makes consoling and companionable. But how can we be afraid? . . . The beautiful urbane spirits are only not of this world because they are too fine for it. . . . We may feel clumsy in their presence, but we cannot feel afraid. What doe sit matter, then, if we do pick up 'The Turn of the Screw' an hour or so before bedtime?. . .
Perhaps it is the silence that first impresses us. . . . 'I can hear again, as I write, the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped. The rooks stopped cawing in the gold sky, and the friendly hour lost for the unspeakable minute all its voice.' It is unspeakable. We know that the man who sands on the tower staring down at the governess beneath is evil. Some unutterable obscenity has come to the surface. It tries to get i; it tries to get at something. The exquisite little beings who lie innocently asleep must at all costs be protected. But the horror grows. Is it possible that the little girl, as she turns back from the window, has seen the woman outside? Has she been with Miss Jessel? Has Quint visited the boy? It is Quint who hangs about us in the dark; who is there in that corner and again there in that. It is Quint who must be reasoned away, and for all our reasoning returns. Can it be that we are afraid? But it is not a man with red hair and a white face whom we fear. We are afraid of something unnamed, of something, perhaps, in ourselves. In short, we turn on the light. If by its beams we examine the story in safety, note how masterly the telling is, how each sentence is stretched, each image filled, how the inner world gains from the robustness of the outer, how beauty and obscenity twined together worm their way to the depths--still we must own that something remains unaccounted for. We must admit that Henry James has conquered. That courtly, worldly, sentimental old gentleman can still make us afraid of the dark. --Virginia Woolf, "Henry James's Ghost Stories," 1921.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Schedule
Feb. 22 "The Turn of the Screw," cont'd.
Feb. 24 Read "Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne
--discuss, probably with "The Turn of the Screw" as well
Mar. 1, 3 The Bad Seed, Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Mar. 8, 10 Discuss The Bad Seed
Mar. 15, 17 Spring Break
Mar. 22, 24, 29 The Omen (I think), screen and discuss
Mar. 31 No class. Choose an Arizona Quarterly Symposium paper to attend
Apr. 5 Paper #2 Selected papers read in class.
Feb. 24 Read "Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne
--discuss, probably with "The Turn of the Screw" as well
Mar. 1, 3 The Bad Seed, Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Mar. 8, 10 Discuss The Bad Seed
Mar. 15, 17 Spring Break
Mar. 22, 24, 29 The Omen (I think), screen and discuss
Mar. 31 No class. Choose an Arizona Quarterly Symposium paper to attend
Apr. 5 Paper #2 Selected papers read in class.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Paper#1 assignment
Choose from the following options:
1. Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing that the adage "Money is the root of all evil" helps us read our stories. Choose one text as your main text. Include a second text briefly, perhaps no more than a sentence or part of a sentence, but certainly less than a paragraph, to help make your argument. (The second text could be a counter-example if you like, rather than a second example.)
2. Write an essay on romantic love / heterosexuality in one of the texts (again, using a second text briefly as well).
3. Pick a quotation from those on this blog--there are a couple on the syllabus, and others in various posts--as an anchor for an essay in which you argue either that your main and secondary texts exemplify in some way or contradict in some way the gist of the comment. Do NOT type out the entire quotation--just refer to it, perhaps with a phrase, or with a word or two (or several) of summary.
4. Form and format directions for this paper are in a previous post.
5. Email me--before Monday night, please--if you have questions or problems.
Have fun!
1. Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing that the adage "Money is the root of all evil" helps us read our stories. Choose one text as your main text. Include a second text briefly, perhaps no more than a sentence or part of a sentence, but certainly less than a paragraph, to help make your argument. (The second text could be a counter-example if you like, rather than a second example.)
2. Write an essay on romantic love / heterosexuality in one of the texts (again, using a second text briefly as well).
3. Pick a quotation from those on this blog--there are a couple on the syllabus, and others in various posts--as an anchor for an essay in which you argue either that your main and secondary texts exemplify in some way or contradict in some way the gist of the comment. Do NOT type out the entire quotation--just refer to it, perhaps with a phrase, or with a word or two (or several) of summary.
4. Form and format directions for this paper are in a previous post.
5. Email me--before Monday night, please--if you have questions or problems.
Have fun!
Monday, February 7, 2011
some thoughts on our topic
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. --William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1950
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
— Flannery O'Connor
"Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look."
— Flannery O'Connor
"I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.
I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow."
— Flannery O'Connor (Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose)
"The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character. Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn't write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. "
— Flannery O'Connor (The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor)
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
— Flannery O'Connor
"Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look."
— Flannery O'Connor
"I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.
I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow."
— Flannery O'Connor (Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose)
"The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character. Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn't write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. "
— Flannery O'Connor (The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Schedule Update
Segue-ing into "children and evil":
Feb. 8, 10 Discussion of The Night of the Hunter, GCP, RE
Feb. 15 Paper #1 due in class
Feb. 17 "The Turn of the Screw," Henry James.
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamTurn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
Feb. 22, 24 Discussion cont'd, "Turn of the Screw"; readings, TBA
Feb. 8, 10 Discussion of The Night of the Hunter, GCP, RE
Feb. 15 Paper #1 due in class
Feb. 17 "The Turn of the Screw," Henry James.
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamTurn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
Feb. 22, 24 Discussion cont'd, "Turn of the Screw"; readings, TBA
Paper instructions
You'll be getting topic directions and prompts in a future post. Meanwhile, here are the basic directions:
3. Write a one-page, single-spaced paper. Do not use any of the usual flourishes. That is, do not write an introductory paragraph, do not write a summarizing conclusion paragraph, do not do any plot summary (other than what is required to provide a context for a point you are making, e.g., “When Silas gets drunk at the dinner party, he……”). Do not write any sentences that begin with “I think” or “I believe.” (This is not because there’s some rule against using the first person pronoun; it is because I already know that it’s you, and you will need the space.)
4. Make a full and complete argument supported by reference to and quotations (short!) from the text(s) you are writing about.
5. Be succinct. Ruthlessly edit your words. All of us use “extra” words we don’t really need when we write papers. This is not going to be easier to write than a 3-5 page paper. Basically it’s going to be all the important stuff you’d put into a longer, more leisurely production. It will take the same amount of time as a much longer paper.
6. You do not need a “Works Cited” list or footnotes; this is not a research paper, and I am familiar with the texts you will be using. This is, however, a formal academic paper, so make sure your writing style conforms to that model.
7. Proofread your paper before turning it in. Read it aloud to yourself too—this is a good way to catch problems. Have someone else read it--it's not cheating, it's in fact good writing procedure.
1. Use the paper prompts to think about or against the text you are writing about. Do not retype the prompts into your paper; just refer to it/them using the authors’ last names) and quote only a phrase or two if necessary.
2. This is not a research essay, nor is it a journal entry: make a cogent, compact, textually-supported argument. Don't waste time with rhetorical circling ("I think," "I feel") or plot summary; just go for the jugular, as it were, right away, stay on point, and get the job done.
3. Write a one-page, single-spaced paper. Do not use any of the usual flourishes. That is, do not write an introductory paragraph, do not write a summarizing conclusion paragraph, do not do any plot summary (other than what is required to provide a context for a point you are making, e.g., “When Silas gets drunk at the dinner party, he……”). Do not write any sentences that begin with “I think” or “I believe.” (This is not because there’s some rule against using the first person pronoun; it is because I already know that it’s you, and you will need the space.)
4. Make a full and complete argument supported by reference to and quotations (short!) from the text(s) you are writing about.
5. Be succinct. Ruthlessly edit your words. All of us use “extra” words we don’t really need when we write papers. This is not going to be easier to write than a 3-5 page paper. Basically it’s going to be all the important stuff you’d put into a longer, more leisurely production. It will take the same amount of time as a much longer paper.
6. You do not need a “Works Cited” list or footnotes; this is not a research paper, and I am familiar with the texts you will be using. This is, however, a formal academic paper, so make sure your writing style conforms to that model.
7. Proofread your paper before turning it in. Read it aloud to yourself too—this is a good way to catch problems. Have someone else read it--it's not cheating, it's in fact good writing procedure.
8. Due at 9:30 pm in class, Tuesday, Feb. 15.
9. Some of you (volunteers I hope) will be reading your papers to the class (everyone will eventually get a turn).
10. Attendance is very important.
10. Attendance is very important.
*if you miss class for any reason, please do not email your paper--just bring it to the next class you make it to.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Updated Schedule (note changes!) Effective January 27
Schedule through Feb. 8
Jan. 20 Read/discuss "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
http://notearama.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-man-is-hard-to-find.html
Jan. 25-27 Read/discuss "Good Country People," "The Lottery," and "A Rose for Emily"
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0Vu8Sc4jNfQJ:faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%25206710/Good%2520Country%2520People.pdf+%22good+country+people%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGYu61KSffr4qRrGjALru-vpnil33KFOPchvu0sizlymkIUEF-j0N0GVVR7EsjGDjViOhqh06W7HNfQwB3Laqzt9ayDoAyuBT9SwYA4uzFgSVorTjbceYsftq9H1p-jc_2WBXf&sig=AHIEtbT8CRz08FNhWxAOIgNuhfGUdBGtcg
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
Feb. 1-3 Screen and discuss The Night of the Hunter
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
Feb. 1-3 Screen and discuss The Night of the Hunter
Feb. 8 REREAD/discuss "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily"
Feb. 10 Paper #1 due. (Volunteers will read theirs in class; you will get full instructions by February 3.) nb: everybody will "volunteer" by the time the semester is over.....
Feb. 10 Paper #1 due. (Volunteers will read theirs in class; you will get full instructions by February 3.) nb: everybody will "volunteer" by the time the semester is over.....
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Schedule through Feb. 8
Southern Gothic, grotesque, ambiguity, etc. unit:
Jan. 20 Read/discuss "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
http://notearama.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-man-is-hard-to-find.html
Jan. 25-27 Read/discuss "Good Country People," "The Lottery," and "A Rose for Emily"
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0Vu8Sc4jNfQJ:faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%25206710/Good%2520Country%2520People.pdf+%22good+country+people%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGYu61KSffr4qRrGjALru-vpnil33KFOPchvu0sizlymkIUEF-j0N0GVVR7EsjGDjViOhqh06W7HNfQwB3Laqzt9ayDoAyuBT9SwYA4uzFgSVorTjbceYsftq9H1p-jc_2WBXf&sig=AHIEtbT8CRz08FNhWxAOIgNuhfGUdBGtcg
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
Feb. 1-3 Screen and discuss The Night of the Hunter
Feb. 8 Paper #1 due. (Volunteers will read theirs in class; you will get full instructions by February 1.)
Jan. 20 Read/discuss "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
http://notearama.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-man-is-hard-to-find.html
Jan. 25-27 Read/discuss "Good Country People," "The Lottery," and "A Rose for Emily"
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:0Vu8Sc4jNfQJ:faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/English%25206710/Good%2520Country%2520People.pdf+%22good+country+people%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGYu61KSffr4qRrGjALru-vpnil33KFOPchvu0sizlymkIUEF-j0N0GVVR7EsjGDjViOhqh06W7HNfQwB3Laqzt9ayDoAyuBT9SwYA4uzFgSVorTjbceYsftq9H1p-jc_2WBXf&sig=AHIEtbT8CRz08FNhWxAOIgNuhfGUdBGtcg
http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm
Feb. 1-3 Screen and discuss The Night of the Hunter
Feb. 8 Paper #1 due. (Volunteers will read theirs in class; you will get full instructions by February 1.)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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