Weeks seven - eight
Weeks 7-9
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).
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
ReplyDeleteA work classified as 'sublime' is full of passion, desire, wonder and amazement. It is a powerful technique to add into a piece of writing, which is done by only the most capable writers (Pateman, 2004). The 'sublime' is something which plays with the reader’s emotions as well as encasing the writers passion, which is why the 'sublime' is found commonly in romantic works of writing.
Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' there are plenty of examples of 'the sublime' throughout it:
"Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head" (Hutchinson, 1947)
In this second stanza Shelley turns a simple scene of stormy weather into something ‘sublime’ and striking. Due to the weather being given the qualities of an angel the reader views the miserable weather conditions as pleasant, out of this world and simplistic. Shelley uses blue as it is the colour of the sky as well a colour which represents tranquillity. Describing the sky as an ‘airy surge’ gives a desirable quality to the sky, treating it as something we can actually feel just like we can feel wind. ‘Sublime’ pieces of work take control of the reader’s desire and emotions. Making the reader feel as if the weather is some sort of angelic being, something we have never seen before, where as in reality, a stormy night is very common. The lighting is given the human like quality of hair, moving around in the sky like a plasma ball, strands dancing in the sky with luminosity to them.
“What terrifies us? Subjectively, it is the fear of pain. Objectively, we are terrified by vastness (the ocean), by obscurity (which hides the full extent of a danger from us), by what is powerful, and by what is infinite.” (Pateman, 2004, p. 193) In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader comes across a powerful monster – Frankenstein’s monster. As well as the monster being a powerful being, it is also very obscure in the sense it is composed of deceased human’s body parts and metal mechanics. “I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived” (Shelley, 1818). There is such a sense of power coming from the monster from itself coming to life, from these motionless body parts becoming capable of actual movement. ‘Ugly’ is commonly used in describing obscure things in life, just as the monster has been described before his transformation. Frankenstein’s monster brought out the romantic notion of ‘sublime’ through its power and obscurity, which was seen as strangely desirable to the reader.
References:
Hutchinson, T. (1947). The complete poetic Works of Shelley
Pateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education.London: Falmer Press
Shelley, Mary. (1985; 1818). Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, London: Penguin
Great answer, Monique. For me, the sublime has always had a religious feel to it. God in nature is the sublime, the divine shining out from nature...
Delete2. Go online and see if you can find anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816
ReplyDeleteOf course we will never know exactly what happened at Villa Diodati in summer 1816, however what we do know is what transpired there gave birth to what we now know to be the gothic genre of today.
The ‘year without a summer’ is the term commonly used to describe 1816, which essentially was a wet and gloomy summer due to a volcanic eruption which blanketed the northern hemisphere into a perpetual dreary atmosphere (May, 2011).
This then became the perfect backdrop for the bleak and gothic tales to be spun together by the residents of the Villa Diodati, a mansion in Switzerland – rented by Lord Byron and John Polidori; with frequent visitors, Mary Shelly and, not yet husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Greg Buzwell (n.d.) claims it were Lord Byron to suggest they put pen to paper and write up ‘ghost stories’ as there were little to do by the way of entertainment due to the increasing stormy weather. Inspiration which was largely drawn upon by German horror stories titled, ‘Fantasmagoriana’.
Interestingly enough, Mary came by her inspiration through a nightmare during her stay at the Villa, which she goes on to explain in her preface, ‘how the heightened consciousness of terror could be transformed into brilliant and inspirational creativity’.
The result of the bizarre summer in 1816 were for two iconic tales to be written: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Vampyre by John Polidori to emerge and go on to transform the literary world. Both tales have had considerable influences into popular culture and gone on to shape the gothic/horror genre of today.
References
Buzwell, G. (n.d.) Mary Shelley, Frankestein and the Villa Diodati. Retrived from http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
May, A. (2011). The Year Without a Summer. Retrieved from http://forteana-blog.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/year-without-summer.html
Some good information here, I like how you mention how influential 'Frankenstein' still is today! It's also great that you have put your own opinion into your blog entry :)
DeleteBablion (n.d) states ‘During the summer of 1816, the most scandalous group descended from England in the wake of the devilishly handsome 28-year-old poet Lord Byron. For four months, Byron rented a villa by the electric-blue waters of Lake Geneva, where he hosted animated soirees. There, he was joined by the intense 23-year-old poet and radical Percy Bysshe Shelley; his soulful, auburn-haired, 18-year-old future wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (they didn’t marry until the end of 1816); and Mary’s adventurous stepsister, Claire Clairmont. The result was doubtless the most artistically productive vacation of the century.’ It is not clear whether producing literary works was the main intention of their vacation, but their time there did indeed bring forth numerous successful works produced during their gloomy summer vacation.
DeleteBablion goes on to state ‘The eruption of Mount Tambora in faraway Indonesia sent a cloud of volcanic ash across the northern hemisphere.’ I found it interesting that the volcanic ash blew from hundreds of km’s away.
Bablion (n.d) also note that Byron’s traveling companion and physician, John Polidori, wrote a nightmarish short story called The Vampyre. It was the first vampire story in English and would influence Bram Stoker’s Dracula some 80 years later.
References
Bablion. (n.d). Summer of love: the romantics of lake geneva. Retrieved June 6, 2015, from http://exhibitions.nypl.org/biblion/outsiders/frankenstein/essay/essayperrottet
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
ReplyDeleteThe concept of ‘the sublime’ is better explored through art and literature than as a critically defined idea, hence the prevalence of it’s presence throughout Romantic literature. Romanticism in particular housed the opportunity for ‘the sublime’ to flourish, due to the desire to revel in emotion, creativity and nature. As stated by Pateman (2004), the sublime is reflected in works that have the ability to entrance us and fill us with wonder; the sublime can simultaneously inspire us with awe and fill us with terror. In my opinion, the sublime has potential religious undertones, or is at least attributed to some form of higher power.
Lord Byron’s “Manfred: a Dramatic Poem” is a work reflective of the sublime. Manfred calls on the help of seven spirits to forget his empty and unfulfilling reality, stating,
“…they who know the most
must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of life.” (Line 10-12).
Manfred is arguably claiming that to have knowledge is not the same as having a fulfilling life, and in keeping with the idea of the sublime, is insinuating that he needs an intervention from a higher power to be emotionally liberated. He goes on to say,
“…by a power,
deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell,
which had its birthplace in a star condemn’d,
The burning wreck of a demolished world,
A wandering hell in the eternal space…” (Line 42-46).
Byron uses Manfred as a vessel to express the romantic view of the sublime, that which believes in a higher power, beauty and death and destruction, things that are both inspiring and terrifying. Whether it is God, spirits, nature itself, the sublime possesses a power that heightens our emotions in order to inspire life.
Manfred summons seven spirits, including earth, sky, water, mountains, winds, night and destiny. These spirits are mostly reflective of elemental nature, which combines two sublime factors; the power of nature and the presence of a higher entity. As discussed by Pateman (2004), natural beauty is a key concept in romanticism, and Burke (1757), considers magnitude, difficulty and magnificence to be sources of sublimity. With this in mind one can consider Byron’s inclusion of the seven spirits his romantic perspective of the sublime.
Moreover, the seven spirits are not just a reference to natural elements, but also to religion. Present in the Book of Revelation, in the New Testament of the Bible, there are seven spirits discussed; spirits of the Lord, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and fear. With the sublime arguably having a religious lens, one can assume Byron used the seven spirits of both nature and God to present his understanding of the sublime.
Percy Shelley too addressed the significance of seven forces in this poem “Ode to the West Wind”. Not only is Shelley’s piece lyrical, as to reflect the melodic beauty of nature, it is presented in seven different parts; a reference to the seven elemental spirits or the seven religious spirits? Shelley directly addresses a higher power, writing,
“Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!
This reflects the sublime, praying to some form of entity whilst also considering the fragility of human life compared to the transcendence of earth and religion.
Shelley’s poem furthers to address the simultaneously beautiful and terrifying power of nature:
“Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,
Angels of rain and lightening!”
“Heaven” and “angels” are both religious references, whilst “boughs”, “rain” and “lightening” are all powerful forces of nature. This description, along with others, is an expression of earthly and atmospheric forces, which are both scary and beautiful, therefore true embodiment of the sublime.
Hutchinson, T. (1947). The complete poetic Works of Shelley
DeletePateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education.London: Falmer Press
White, L. (n.d.). A Brief History of the Notion of the Sublime. Retrieved May 29, 2015, from http://www.lukewhite.me.uk/sub_history.htm#kantromantics
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).
ReplyDeleteWithout the “brat-pack”, there is no evidence of what the gothic revolution would have looked like throughout the past and if would have have transformed a whole genre. The “brat-pack” influenced the gothic revolution immensely as in present day there are numerous TV series, films and books based around events from the authors that stayed in Villa Diodati. For me, the most prominent story being John William’s Polidori “The Vamprye.” This story has had a strong influence on many TV series and films. Such as “Vampire Diaries”, “True Blood” and even animation films “Dark Shadows.” As well as Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ producing a back story for several film adaptions and books.
Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
I was intrigued by this question as prior to this assignment I did not know very much about the history of the Gothic genre and how it came to be. I thought this question would be appropriate as I had no idea about Villa Diodati and I was fascinated to find out more and expand my knowledge. Researching I found that there were many theories of what actually happened in Villa Diodati that summer of 1861. The night that ‘The Vampyre’ and ‘Frankenstein’ were born had unusually terrible weather due to an Indonesian volcano which rocked the weather at Villa Diodati.
There were abnormal weather patterns in 1861, and it was condoned “he year without a summer. This affected countries all over the world, especially where Villa Diodati was situated. This is why the settings for the authors stories are grim, dark and rainy.
Vitelli, R. (2010). Who inspired Frankenstein?. Retrieved from http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2010/12/inspiring-frankenstein.html.
Mary Shelley was heavily influenced by her surroundings of Villa Diodati. Much of Frankenstein is set in Switzerland, and the weather often reflects the turbulent emotions of the Monster. Doctor Frankenstein’s home is even named ‘Belrive’ after the Villa Diodati’s former name.
(R. Schemdly, 2011) http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/the-writing-spaces-villa-diodati-mary-shelley/
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that?
ReplyDeleteUalberta (2003) outlines some of the movies that have been produced which are based on the happenings within the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816. The earliest of the three films Ualberta (2003) highlights is Gothic (1986) by Ken Russel. According to a trailer by NightTrailers (2014), Lord Byron is reported to have become a resident of the Villa Diodati due to banishment from his homeland. Lord Byron is described as mad, bad and dangerous. The Villa Diodati is described as a mad house, riddled with demonic activity. The residents of the Villa Diodati are depicted seeking communication with the spiritual realm, unleashing an abundance of evil within the mansion and awakening headless spirits that roam its halls. The story of the famous summer of 1816 portrayed in Gothic (1986) resembles a lot of characteristics of the horror genre which induce fear and terror among its viewers.
The second film highlighted by Ualberta (2003) is Haunted Summer (1988) by Ivan Passer. A trailer provided by CannonFilms (2011) noted that the film focuses on the friendship of Lord Byron and Percy Shelly, who are also and living in exile at the Villa Diodati. Passer’s account of the summer of 1816 depicts one of danger for Villa Diodati’s residents. Demons are again a main feature within the plot of the movies. Ualberta note that Passer did a good job at basing the plot around what we actually know of the summer on 1816 although fictional accounts have also been added (2003).
Ualberta (2003) note a third film, Rowing with the Wind (1988) by Gonzalo Suárez. According to IMDB (1990), the film claimed success, winning a total of 10 awards and attaining 7 nominations. This movies focuses on the life of Mary Shelly and the loss of her loved ones. Her creation of Frankenstein is scripted in to the film through the suggestion of Lord Byron for all of his friends including himself to write a narrative. This film focuses more on the generalising of the lives of Byron, Percy Shelly, Mary Shelly and Clair and the creation of their works rather than focusing on the portrayal of horrifying encounters with the spiritual realm and monsters that offer viewers an explanation of how horrifying monsters such as Frankenstein were created.
References
CannonFilms. (2011, February 14). Haunted summer trailer (cannon films) [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG-rJuyfvxM
IMDB. (1990). Rowing with the winds (1988) awards. Retrieved June 4, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093840/awards?ref_=tt_awd
NightTrailers. (2015, March 23). Gothis (1986) Trailer [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haS7s4MI0mI
Ualberta. (2003). A note on films: The 1816 geneva summer and frankenstein. Retrieved June 4, 2015, from http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Shelleys/films.htm