ENG 3407, Gothic Lit, Fall 2019

Announcements, September 17

Dear class,

Thank you for engaging today, both on Dracula and on the subject of our class’ progress. I am confident that, as our class gets a handle on the readings, our written and spoken explorations will be even more fruitful than they have been so far.

Please note for Thursday:

–Quiz on Dracula 1-9, Usher, the fantastic, Radcliffe’s definition of terror. 7 questions, multiple choice.

–Annotations: only 10-20 words each, but at least 1 per chapter from everyone; at a minimum, please cover different lines/passages from other students (though you can overlap if you do more than the minimum)

–Blog Group 2, please look over the prompts + decide who will respond to which one. (Actually, everyone, please look at the prompts, as they will give you a sense of the shape of the reading!) As usual, please post 250 words by 11 am on Thursday.

-Please note that the Felluga reading on abjection has been moved to next week. Don’t worry about it for Thursday’s class!

-Finally, I’ve posted the clips from today’s class under Videos.

Critical Response Prompts: Dracula, ch. 5-9

Each of the prompts should be answered by at least 1 member of the blog group. Please confer amongst yourselves as to who will write which prompt. 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.

1.

After 4 chapters of trapping us with Jonathan Harker at Castle Dracula, Bram Stoker suddenly shifts to very different sort of narrative: letters detailing the friendship between Lucy and Mina. Specifically, the letters in Chapter 5 discuss Lucy’s love life and her interactions with suitors.

CONNECT Lucy’s “courtship” subplot with one passage/scene from Ch. 1-4. Is there any sense in which Lucy’s and Jonathan’s internal struggles might mirror one another? In what sense Lucy’s subplot foreshadow the intrusion of Gothic themes into her story?

2.

In chapters 5-9, several events dramatize the struggle between applying a rational view of strange phenomena, and applying a religious or “enchanted” view. In several cases, characters debate (externally or internally) how best to interpret physical evidence: Mr. Swales’ cynicism about local folk legends, Seward’s observations of his patient Renfield, and Van Helsing + Seward’s examinations of Lucy.

Focus on one of these subplots, and discuss how it might provide a CLUE as to what Stoker might be saying about the limits of reason + deductive logic. Compare and contrast how characters respond to “weird” or strange phenomena (whether stories, behavior, or symptoms). Are reason and deductive logic useless in this novel? Or do they play some positive role?

3.

Chapter 7 includes the “Log of the Demeter,” which could be a short story in its own right, about the doomed fate of the ship’s men.

CREATE a fictional paragraph, written from the perspective of one of the sailors who goes missing. Narrate the sailor’s final encounter with Dracula. What does the sailor see? How would he react to Dracula? What role do the sea + natural elements play in this final encounter? Pretend you’re writing a “deleted scene” from the novel.

After the paragraph, include 2-3 lines explaining the basis for your paragraph, with reference to the text.

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Jeremy Eisner Blog Group 1 Clue

In chapter I of Dracula, Stoker makes several remarks through Harker’s account of his journey through the Eastern European Countryside that give a sense of English Superiority. On page 5(in the physical edition), Harker records that ” With some difficulty I got a fellow-passenger to tell me what they meant; he would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye”. Harker describes the fact that being English made it easy for him to learn about the charm that the villagers were telling him about. This lead me to think why being English would suddenly change their attitude about speaking with Him. It took me to another passage about Harker’s judgements of the common folk he comes across on his journey. He ends up using two words to describe the majority of the people he meets in the first chapter, “Commoner” and “Peasants”. Now he says these words about several groups of villagers because of the way they are dressed and the way they act around his presence which leads me to believe he thinks of himself as higher than these people. Stoker might have written Harker’s dialogue like this as that was the viewpoint of Eastern Europeans at the time the novel was written. At that time, Britain had a more lavish lifestyle than that of other countries in Europe at the time. They made classy paintings, rich literature, and expensive clothing, so seeing people with home-made clothes, dirty and more rugged individuals was not the normal. With that said, seeing that image from Harker’s or even Stoker’s perspective did not inspire thoughts of the wealthy, more civilized culture that they were living in. Personally, I do not believe that Stoker consciously thought the English people were superior as he only really wrote comments about other countries’ people in an ignorant way given that he was never really exposed to other kinds of people before. With that said, I believe that Harker’s description of the villagers may be a form of English superiority, but Stoker’s inclusion of these comments makes the story all the more eerie and uncanny.

Angel Oquendo

Professor Kwong

ENG 3407

9/12/19

Critical Response

In both gothic stories, Castle of Otranto and The Fall of the House of Usher deal and mention paintings. The authors of these stories seem to be heavily affected by paintings in their lives to the point to write stories mentioning them. In Castle of Otranto, There was a painting made by Alfonso of his son, Theodore that was adored and evaluated for hours by the some of the women of the story, Matilda and Isabella. In The Fall of the House of Usher, there are also paintings, paintings created by a mentally unstable man by the name of Roderick Usher. Like the painting of Theodore in Castle of Otranto, the paintings that Roderick Usher produces are so realistic that it made himself “shudder” and exclaim about how they are as “vivid as their images before me”. Although these paintings are beautifully realistic, it is scary to Roderick as much as it is beautiful. The painting is uncanny to Roderick and affects him mentally and physically. He creates his paintings when he his hurting and concerning himself about his health.

On page five, Roderick goes to create a painting and it starts with an ominous white tunnel that is shaded along the edges to make it seem like it is so far underground that it has never seen the light of the sun. The tunnel is low hanging with smooth white walls. Light rays are beaming through the tunnel but it is unclear as to where the light is coming from.

“A small picture presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or device.”

Follow up: annotation + analysis tips

Hi class,

Just a follow up to the previous announcement, to note that you can find the tips for annotations, comments, and critical responses available online. I handed these out on Thursday. If you’re feeling a bit lost, use the tips to guide your thinking and dig deeper into what we’re reading!

Announcements/HW for Tuesday, Sept 17

Dear class,

Thank you for engaging with Poe’s weird and wild text yesterday.

Thank you also for engaging on the topic of bringing hard copies of the readings. Whenever there are readings that need to be printed, please use your daily quota to print, staple, and bring to class. As you could tell yesterday, a lack of hard copies makes it really hard to get through the lesson – and also to get the most out of this class experience! If for whatever reason you have issues printing, please contact me in advance.

Please note that I did not count the first quiz towards your grade. There will be a second quiz, in the same format, on Thursday, Sept. 19. [UPDATED 9/14) The quiz will cover Dracula 1-9, the highlighted sections of the Radcliffe essay, and “Usher.” Quizzes will usually happen on Thursdays this semester.

For homework, please enjoy the first 4 chapters of Dracula! Read the prompts to get a sense of the content in these chapters. Group 1, you’re up for the next round of critical responses. Please contact me if/when you have questions about the prompts.

Also, Blog Group 1, comments for this week will be due by 5 pm tomorrow.

See you soon!

Clue- Blog Post 2 Ayshe Kerim

It is evident that the Monster’s way of self-education is admirable. By watching the cottage-dwellers from a distance and examining their actions and their behaviors, the Monster slowly develops his own habits. Unfortunately, due to his appearance, the Monster is aware that will not be accepted by the cottage people, “Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in water or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail image and that inconstant shade (Shelley 9)”. This is seen when Felix, Safie, and Agatha return back to their home, come to realize there was a giant monstrous being conversing with their father. Despite the Monster’s acquired knowledge and respect for the cottage-dwellers, the cottage people do not accept him as a human being. This goes back to Steven’s point about how Gothic “represents” the revolutionary ideas and emotions of the 18th century, while also trying to “contain” those ideas and emotions within a “conservative structure”. This is because Gothic was seen as the foreign and unordinary. Gothic demonstrated themes of horror, fear, the extreme, and the dark. According to the cottagers actions, the Monster was depicted just like that. Additionally, his actions are presented as a horrific product of “revolutionary” activity (i.e. Dr. Frankenstein’s experiment), despite his good intentions. It his physical appearance that sets him back.

Critical response prompts: Dracula, ch. 1-4

CLUE. Dracula was written at the height of Britain’s power as an empire. Imperialism created a strong sense of pride in national identity.

In ch. 1 of Dracula, Jonathan Harker describes his journey traveling from Munich to Transylvania. As he gets further East, he describes the landscape and the customs. Focus on one passage that offers a clue as to what Bram Stoker thinks of Britain’s sense of national superiority.

CONNECT. In “On the Supernatural in Poetry,” Anne Radcliffe uses a discussion of Shakespeare to define terror and horror. Her definition of terror emphasizes “obscurity” and uncertainty.

In ch. 2-3, Harker’s observations about his strange host create a mounting sense of unease and suspense. Not only is he a prisoner, but his host seems to have many dark powers, and there are other inhabitants in the castle… Connect one passage from h. 2-3 to Radcliffe’s definition of terror. How does Stoker create a sense of terror that fits her definition?

CREATE. In ch. 4, Harker tries to send word out about his situation, only to have Dracula burn the letter. He realizes Dracula is terrorizing the peasants while posing as Harker. After wolves foil his attempt at leaving the castle, Harker finally makes a desperate rush for the window.

Create a paragraph, written from Harker’s point of view. Imagine and narrate what happens right after Harker tries to escape. (Spoiler: he doesn’t fall to his death!). Who or what does Harker encounter as he tries to get back to England? Base your paragraph on Harker’s style of narration. After your creative paragraph, include 1-2 sentences explaining its content.

BLOG GROUP 3 CREATE: Katie Lynch

The Roderick Usher Painting I will be referencing is “The Girl Who Knew Too Much”. The narrator speaks of Roderick’s ever downward spiraling mind. The loss of his sister is too much for him to bare and he starts believing he sees her and that she is coming for him. The painting “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” creates the parallel of both Roderick’s delusions and his sisters knowledge of just how cursed the family is. In “The Fall of the House of Usher we see this when the Narrator says“Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many hours,
many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared not—I dared not speak! “. The quote makes you see the picture of Roderick looking around speaking of the cries or noises of his sister, believing that she has been buried alive and has come back to get him. His painting “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” shows a girl that seems to be coming out of the wall determined to be heard, perhaps a lonely girl in search of companionship from her brother, her best friend. Calling out to the person she needs to listen to her, to save her. But also I see it as a warning to Roderick, that he needs to be very careful because he too is cursed to have this same fate crumbling into non existence.

Fareena Group 3 CONNECT:

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens….. I know not how it was but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; …. I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows”.

As the author of “The Fall of the House of Usher” started this literature by painting the setting in our mind as we read. The opening was very dark, dull and filled with nothing but something all at once. Then went on by saying the first glimpse of the building was very distasteful rather extremely unpleasant. The house is gloomy and filled with unimaginable and unexplainable mystery. I interpreted this piece of literature, as the author is using the description of the house as a metaphor for America. He describes the house as a simple landscape.. bleak walls.. and the vacant eye like windows. One aspect of America the narrator could be referring to is American politics. In essence, autumn days are filled with bright colored leaves and a bright sky; however it was written as a dull and dark day. This could be relating to the corrupting president candidate that we currently have in office and the fact that he has us in pure darkness as a nation. Afraid to go outside for we as people of the United States should be deported. He then went on by saying first sight of the building a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded his spirits. I thought about the White House and all that Trump is doing to bring our country down. Hearing the word America, is not what it once was. The narrator touched on the vacant eye-like windows, for this could be the metaphor of the madness that is currently taken place in our country. For our president is not thinking of his people, he is thinking of solely all the wrong topics and is causing him to have a vacant eye on all the topics he should be focusing on.