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Author: Professor Sean Scanlan (Page 2 of 4)

Homework for Monday, Nov 16

Hi Class,

Again, great job with the Weekly Goth! Looking forward to next week’s examples.

For Monday, I want students to take/find two photo examples–one of Gothic architecture and one of  Vidler’s Uncanny. Post the two photos and brief explanations of where and what the photo depicts. Point out a few characteristics that make the structure gothic or uncanny. The explanations can be short, less than 100 words. See my example in the Gothic Architecture category.

**Optional: I’ve posted a longish introduction to the history of the gothic by Nick Groom. These pages attempt to fuse the history of Germanic tribes to the reformation to British nationalism to art and culture. See Readings.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Prof. Scanlan’s Example of Gothic Architecture

 

At the corner of 5th Avenue and 25th Street in the Greenwood neighborhood (or extreme south Park Slope or extreme north Sunset Park) is the monumental gate to Green-Wood Cemetery. Designed by Richard Upjohn, the style of the gate (and guard offices) is called Gothic Revival—as opposed to medieval gothic style. Work was begun in 1861 and completed in 1865. The reason it took so long was due to the time-consuming work of carving the brownstone from Belleville, New Jersey. Limestone from Nova Scotia, Canada, was used in the panels that represent the scenes of death and resurrection from New Testament stories including Lazarus, the Widow’s Son, and Jesus’s Resurrection. John M. Moffitt was the sculpture of these panels. The gate was designated as a New York City Landmark in 1966. An interesting side-note is that the gate is home to a large colony of Monk Parrots that escaped from the Kennedy airport in the 1960s. Their call is very loud and is described as “raucous and harsh.”

I’ve highlighted some of the gothic features of this gate.

Prof. Scanlan

Quiz 2 and Homework for Monday, Nov 9

Hi Class,

Great job with the Weekly Goth! And thanks for working hard to wrestle with Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” I think that Quiz 2 (on the right sidebar) will be fairly easy after today’s class, that is…if you took notes. Be sure to proofread your work before submitting.

 

Here are three terms that are relevant:

Sentience/sentient

  1. Experiencing sensationthought, or feeling.
  2. Able to consciously perceive through the use of sense
  3. Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

catalepsy

  1. (pathology) severe bodily condition, described in psychiatric pathology, marked by sudden rigidity, fixation of posture, and loss of contact with environmental conditions

**I have long detested the word CREEPY! Why is that? Because it is overused to fill in for anything and everything related to the gothic. Please use this word with specificity, not as a general term.

creepy (use this term only if something is crawling/creeping, or crawling over one’s skin, or repulsive in a strange way!! I Don’t like #3, but I guess I can’t wish it away.

  1. Moving by creeping along.
  2. (informal)Producing an uneasy fearful sensation, as of things crawling over one’s skin.
  3. (informal)Feeling an uneasy fearful sensation; creeped out.
  4. (informal)Strangely repulsive.

 

HOMEWORK FOR MONDAY:

Read Blade #1 and #2 (in Readings) and select your favorite panel/frame/page. Come prepared to explain to the class why it is your favorite. Make sure to establish context so that we understand its importance/relevance.

 

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Homework for Wednesday, Nov 4

Hi Class,

I was quite impressed by the first two Weekly Goth posts! Good job Kwame and Yarlin! Let’s keep that sort of quality and insight going.

For Wednesday:

1–Please review both versions of “House of Usher.” Then, in your notes, list ten plots points in chronological order. What are the key differences between the versions? What is your favorite scene in the text version? In the graphic version?

2–in your notes, write down the definition of Sentience. Then closely read the long paragraph after the ballad “The Haunted Palace” where this concept is mentioned three times. What does sentience have to do with Roderick’s illness, the house itself, and, perhaps, with the death of Madeline?

****I’m going to hold off on the Blade graphic novel until after Wednesday.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

The Weekly Goth

The Weekly Goth is here!

 

The Weekly Goth is a space for students to post their ideas on the gothic. More specifically, each student will be asked to present a Weekly Goth at least once this semester. The presentation should explain to the class what the example is and why it is gothic. It may help to use the example to explain one of our technical gothic terms. Students should post a brief explanation(100-150 words) of the object under review. Check out a good  example:  Katsuyo Aoki’s skull sculpture below. This assignment will be part of the participation grade.

 

Terror vs Horror (using Stranger Things)

 

 

 

 


Below are a few Weekly Goth examples from last year…

————-Gothic Music by Blutengel (thanks Rogue)

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Gothic Dance by Bio Red Master (also thanks Rogue)

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Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982):

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Oct 7, 2015

Is this uncanny?

tooker1-articleLarge

George Tooker’s “The Subway” from 1950. CreditWhitney Museum of American Art

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Speaking of interpretations, here is a short interpretation of Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio”:

[Sept 25, 2015] Sculpture from Katsuyo Aoki (Hi-Fructose vol 21 2011)

From the article in Hi-Fructose (2011): The artist Katsuyo Aoki says that she is “most inspired by periods in art history that represent times of existential transition and upheaval in the art world (not to mention ones of significant flourish): the baroque and rococo, the gothic, and the expressionist niche of the postmodern” (47). We can see the pointy ridges and extra curves remind us of the baroque (overly ornate to the point of being ridiculous), and taken together with the hollowness of the bones and the strange jewelry at the point of this porcelain skull and in the mouth, this is most certainly meant to heighten our emotions, hence it is a gothic representation of death. This is not an everyday skull.

 


Peanuts comic:

darkstormy-fgj

Homework for Monday, Nov 2

Hi Class,

Great job talking about Gorey!

For homework:

1–Review the Gothic Homesickness handout and review Wilson’s “How to Read …” website

2–Homework: Read Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher,” then read the graphic novel version by Manning and Jimenz. In your notes, explore how gothic homesickness works.

3–Weekly Goth: Short in-class presentation. (video and voice recommended) The presentation should explain to the class what the example is and why it is gothic. It may help to use the example to explain one of our technical gothic terms. Students should post a brief explanation(100-150 words) of the object under review. Check out a good example:  Katsuyo Aoki’s skull sculpture on the Weekly Goth tab. This assignment will be part of the participation grade. Here is the schedule:

Nov 2: Kwame and Yarlin

Nov 4: Jamela and Joel

Nov 9: Manuel and Rachel

Nov 11: Isaac and Shemar

Nov 16: Fatma and Salim

Nov 18: Jessica and Victoria

 

On the horizon: we will have quiz 2 next Wednesday.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Hi Class,

 

**I’ve only received 7 Final Drafts of the Midterm Essay. If you have not already done so, please post your final draft today!

 

For Wednesday:

 

1–Read “The Iron Tonic” graphic story and answer these two questions: What examples of the sublime are noticeable in this story? Second, how many gothic elements (there are 4) can you find in this story?

 

2–Review ideas for The Sublime:

The Sublime:

The sublime is the feeling that arises from something awe-inspiring, breath-taking, unique, incomparable, beyond words. The sublime can also be the object, concept, quality, or experience that launches such feelings. As several seventeenth- and eighteenth-century travelers noted, the Alps are sublime in this sense because nothing at ground level prepares one for the view from their austere peaks, where earth and sky seem to meet (e.g., Caspar David Friedrich’s famous painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog—SEE BELOW (1817). Western aesthetics has been interested in the concept of the sublime since at least the first century, when the Greek scholar Longinus wrote his treatise On the Sublime. But it was not until the publication of Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756) that it became a topic of philosophical interest. Burke’s opposition between beauty as that which is well-formed and pleasing and sublime as that which is ugly, fearful and desirable all at once continues to inform thinking on this subject still. A particularly useful quote from Burke is: Sublimity may evoke horror, but knowledge that the perception is a fiction is pleasureful.” In effect, Burke’s distinction is between that which we perceive with simple pleasure (the beautiful) and that which truly moves us (sublime). German philosopher, Immanuel Kant adopts Burke’s opposition and uses it to discuss the limits of the imagination and the senses in contrast to the power of reason—for him, sublime is exalted and great.

Below: The Hahnen is a mountain of the Urner Alps, overlooking Engelberg in the Swiss canton of Obwalden. It has an elevation of 2,606 metres above sea level. (from Wikipedia article on The Sublime)

Hahnen, Swiss mountain

Homework for Monday, October 26

Hi Class,

Great questions today. I hope that each of you was able to benefit from all the questions/answers

Homework for Monday:

1–Finish revising, editing, and proofreading the Midterm Essay. Post your essay (full name and course number) to the new menu category titled “Midterm Essay” by class time on Monday.

2–I’ve posted the Terror/Horror handout and the Paragraphs/Sentences handout on the Readings menu tab.

3–We will discuss “The Enormous Radio” and “The Veldt” on Monday (I promise!).

 

Email any questions.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

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