Hey guys,
I wanted to create a thread so we have a way to communicate with each about the creative project.
Does anyone have a Real Life Haunted/Gothic Space in mind?
-Ayshe
Announcements for Tuesday, October 22
Hi class,
Good to see you today – I look forward to reading your papers.
Some notes:
-Please finish Part II as well as Parts III-V of “At The Mountains of Madness” for Thursday’s class. These are shorter parts, and if you wish, you can listen along to the audiobook here (scroll down to the video info to click on a specific section). Please print and bring to class!
No formal annotations this time, to leave room to think about Gothic Spaces presentations (see below).
-Blog group 1 (Sierra, Brian, Kerri, Jeremy, Janiya), please review the critical response prompts, and select 1 to respond to. As usual, try to ensure that you cover all the prompts amongst yourselves. Post by beginning of class on Monday.
-Below are your Gothic Spaces Presentation groups, followed by suggestions for virtual, cinematic, or real spaces your group could focus on. You will have some time to discuss with your groups on Thursday, but you should spend some time (~15-20 mins) investigating some of these titles and deciding which might appeal. Alternatively, if you have another idea, you should come prepared to discuss your preferred choice.
Video Game group: Kerri, Brian, Jeremy, Freddie
Suggested video games: Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Anchorhead, Amnesia, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth
Movie/TV group: Katie, Fahima, Afeisha, Christina
Suggested films: The Exorcist, Last House On The Left, The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, The Haunting (1963)
Suggested TV shows: Stranger Things, The Haunting of Hill House, The Others
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Real Life Haunted/Gothic Space group:
Fareena, Janiya, Angel, Ayshe, Sierra
Suggested spaces: New York’s haunted spaces (NOTE: some of these may not be practical or possible to investigate, but it’s worth browsing)
Dover Castle (supposedly one of the most “haunted” places in England)
Your group should settle on a place that you can either physically go to, or that you can “explore” via video and/or virtual recreations.
Critical Response Prompts: At The Mountains of Madness, III-V
Each of the prompts should be answered by at least 1 member of blog group 2. Please confer amongst yourselves as to who will write which prompt. (Each member should try to do a different category than the one(s) theyâve already done!) Responses should be at least 250 words and posted by 11 am the day of class. Please remember to select the appropriate Blog category before posting.
CLUE. Pick one detail related to any of the following:
-plot (a major event that amps up conflict, or revelation that provides key backstory)
-point of view (a moment where the narrator shows his limits, or moves between describing what he knew “then” and what he knows “now”)
-setting (descriptions of atmosphere or geography)
Write about how that detail might provide a clue as to the story’s perspective on any of the themes we’ve discussed in class: tampering with nature, American conquest of the unknown, and/or the inability of scientific language to adequately “explain” what the narrator encounters.
CONNECT. Pick a passage and connect it to any of the texts we’ve discussed in this class so far. It could be a point of contrast or a parallel. Make sure you expand on the comparison, beyond simply saying “it’s the same” or “it differs.”
CREATE. Draw a visual representation of any of the scenes in this section. It doesn’t have to be intensely detailed, but it should be a bit more involved than the visual annotations we did last class. Upload it as a JPG, and in 3-4 sentences, explain what the picture represents. Include direct quotes that refer to the text of the story.
Announcements: Finishing Your Paper; Lovecraft Visual Annotations
Hi class,
Best wishes as you finish your first graded paper this term. Some useful links:
–Handout on macrostructure and microstructure of a literary analysis essay
–Sample literary analysis article on M.R. James if you’re looking for concrete examples
-Your partner’s peer review comments
As mentioned in class, please print a copy and bring to class with your partner’s peer review comments stapled to the back. Please also upload a Word doc to this Dropbox file request.
Good luck! Below are some of your visual annotations for “At The Mountains Of Madness.” I hope the exercise gave you a different strategy for “breaking into” a text and engaging with its multiple meanings. Some of the detail here is really perceptive.
Ayshe:
Angel:
Katie:
Brian:
Kerri:
Announcements for Tuesday, October 15
Dear class,
Some reminders for this week:
–Bring Parts I and II of “At The Mountains of Madness” to class on Thursday. This reading is available in the “Readings” folder. You do not need to read beforehand, but you should have the paper in hand.
-Bring your filled-out peer review sheet for your partner, as well as your partner’s draft. Your partner will attach your comments to their final draft, and you’ll do the same for them. Your peer review response is a factor in determining your final grade for this unit. I estimate this should take about 30 minutes.
-Work on your own paper. Refer to the assignment description and the Essay 1 proposal you filled out 2 weeks ago. I estimate you should be spending about 1.5-2 hrs on this task before Thursday.
-Below are the groups for your Gothic Spaces presentations:
Video Game group: Kerri, Brian, Jeremy, Freddie
Movie/TV group: Katie, Fahima, Afeisha, Christina
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Real Life Haunted/Gothic Space group:
Fareena, Janiya, Angel, Ayshe, Sierra
As I mentioned in class, those who were present at the start of class chose a category of Gothic space to examine. If you weren’t there at the start of class, you have been placed in a group. In November, your group will present on one space in a video game, film/TV show, or real life that can be analyzed through the lens of the Gothic. More information about this project will be forthcoming, but you might spend some time (perhaps 10-15 mins) thinking about particular video game spaces, cinematic/TV show spaces, or real architectural spaces that interest you.
Announcements: weekend of October 11
Dear class –
For homework, please complete a 2 page partial draft of your first paper. Consult the assignment description (handed out in class + available in handouts folder). You can also consult the proposal that you were asked to begin filling out last week.
Bring the partial draft, as well as a printed copy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to Tuesday’s class. We will be reading the story together in class as well as exchanging drafts for peer review. Missing 2-page drafts will incur grade penalties. As usual, printed copies of the story are required (as opposed to pulling it up on your phone).
Finally, comments on the M.R. James posts are due by 5 pm today.
best,
Professor Kwong
GROUP 3 Clue
âWhat is the significance of a letter found in a letter in the pocket of the book?â
To me the significance is that there is a story of a secret to be told. The letter is a blackmail letter from the sister of the second archdeacon, saying that she âknows what happenedâ and to pay her forty pounds. But this letter from what I can tell was never sent. Itâs a look into the darkness of greedy, both financially and morally. The finacial aspect is wanting to be paid off for a secret that she has no proof of, which to me it hinted towards knowing there was a murder and by telling the secret people would be disgraced. The moral aspect is this is a church, a holy place where you are supposed to âlove one anotherâ, referring to the commandment, âLove thy neighborâ. The significance is also âGod is always watching, or even âall you do you will be judged forâ. Later on in the story we find the second archdeacon has suffered a similar fate as the first. Which can be interpreted as âpractice what you preachâ and âwhat you give is what you getâ. Finally I believe the letter signifies that the truth has a way of coming out whether it is from someoneâs words or a personâs reaction to the threat of those words.
GROUP 3 CREATE
Boy was it a long trip to Barchester Cathedral ! I am very surprised how big and massive the stalls are here. I did not see the three wooden figures anymore; the cat, figure pertaining to death, and the devil. Â As I took a seat in the archdecon’s stall I vividly visualized in my mind where each wooden figure would have been. I was not tempted to touch anything of fear of not knowing what other âcurseâ could be laying around unknowingly. I definitely felt very terrified, curious, and very tense. I made sure not to lay a hand on anything or fell asleep and mistakenly touched any god forsaken object in such a cathedral. In my view, everything that lays here such be holy, but without a word did I ever question it. I think anyone would be prompted to feel as I did due to the proceeding of such a story.
The writer visited the Barchester cathedral and the wooden figures are no longer around. I would feel as if maybe there are more curses laying around that no one has discovered or were the right candidate for the curse to undergo. Did John Austin think this  was a way of punishing the people who have blood on his hands?
Connect
In Chapters 1-4 we see Johnathan Harker making his way to Transylvania to meet Dracula for a Business meeting about the real estate property he, {Dracula} is interested in buying. while on the train he describes the scenery, he says, “Before us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossomâapple, plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals.”(Stoker). Johnathan see his surroundings and it seems like a beautiful scenery to the readers. the reading then takes a turn within the chapters we see Johnathan expresses terror when he see the 3 women feeding on something in a sac that is moving he was in fear for his life that he passes out. Jonathan is torn between rationality and sanity. Ann Radcliff describes the sensation of horror and terror in her article, “The Fantastic”. “The Fantastic” is about the difference between terror and horror. she describes terror as, “Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime,
though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference
between horror and terror, but in the uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the
first, respecting the dreaded evil?” (Radcliff). terror is the Uncertainty that the person feel when the feel like they are going to encounter the worst feeling of terror, Obscurity. While horror on the other hand is the actually encounter, for example, seeing a murderer pull out a knife, Immersion. This passage in Dracula connects to this definition of terror because Johnathan Harker’s character has encountered all of these literary definitions.
M.R. James Critical Response Prompts
Critical responses for this week will involve your answers to any of the following questions. As usual, please decide amongst yourselves who will write which prompts, and try to select a different prompt from one you’ve done already.
Questions for your annotated “investigation”:
Who is John Austin?
What is the significance of the wood that was used to carve the stalls in the Cathedral? What role does it play in the story’s events?
What took place at the “Hanging Oak”?
How is Haynes described in the opening obituary? Are there details in the story that undermine or contradict this description?
What is the significance of the letter found “in a letter in the pocket of the diary”?
What is the significance of one of the visual details found in the archdeacon’s stall?Â
Why do Haynes’ fortunes worsen only after “three years of hard and careful work”?
Why does the obituary writer blame Voltaire, Byron, and Shelley for Haynes’ death?
CLUE.
Pick one answer to one of the above questions. How might it provide a clue as to the metaphorical significance of the titular cathedral? Think about the different churches and abbeys that have popped up in our readings and the sorts of meanings attached to them. Try to unpack how the plot detail you’ve chosen casts the cathedral in a new light.
CONNECT
Pick one answer to one of the above questions. Connect it to a claim that Andrew Smith makes in his essay on M.R. James and Gothic revival. How might this plot detail exemplify, parallel, or contrast with Smith’s observations about James’ other stories?
CREATE
Imagine you are a modern tourist taking a trip to Barchester cathedral, still standing in 2019. You enter and are granted access to the archdeacon’s stall. Describe your experience. What do you see? Are you tempted to touch what you see, and why? How do you feel in that space?
In 1-2 sentences after, explain the basis for your paragraph.
