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...
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).
There are numerous fictional films and media accounts. The term narrative media or fictional media is a media term for telling a story, narrative or event. (Wallis, 2010)
ReplyDeleteVilla Diodati
• Film: Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-v9HSrP4U
• Novel: Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted (2005) Audiobook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atEDtujA7bc
• Novel: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
• Frankenstein (1910) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcLxsOJK9bs
Haunted Summer by Ivan Passer. This is similar to Ken Russels, Gothic story line, but the characters are portrayed as rock stars.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095280/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2P0hFI2k
Rowing with the wind(Film)-Kyle Marffin
Haunted summer (Film)
http://kylemarffin.tumblr.com/
Gothic Tales -- Elizabeth Gaskell
http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/gaskell.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
References:
Wallis, A. (2010). Narrative structure(s). Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/andywallis/narrative-5865177
Pretty good survey. Also, there have been a lot of film versions of the novel itself.
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ReplyDeletePart 2:Thunder and lightning rolled down from the mountains and their discussions turned to galvanism and the principles of animation. After reading samples from a book of German Horror tales Lord Byron suggested the idea of writing ghost stories to pass the time. Sexual tensions were also increasing in the Villa. Polidori became very interested in Mary who did not reciprocate, while Claire’s fixation on Lord Byron showed no signs of abating. It was following one of these discussions as storms raged outside that Mary had the nightmare that would give rise to the central idea of Frankenstein. “Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by before we retired to rest. When I placed my head on my pillow I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.” – Mary Shelley.
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein’s monster had been born. From this summer spent at the Villa Diodati both Mary and John’s stories would become well known and popular novels that would stand the test of time. So what happened to our band of comrades after the summer of 1816?
Mary and Percy would wed later that year in December, after the suicides of Percy’s real wife and also Mary’s half-sister Fanny. They then moved to Italy. While Mary seemed devoted to Percy their union was riddled with adultery and heart-ache. Percy would die only a few years later in 1822, drowning in a sailing tragedy. Widowed at 24 Mary worked hard to support herself and her son Percy Florence. She produced several more novels and promoted her late husband’s poetry. Mary died of brain cancer in 1851 aged 53 and was laid to rest with the cremated remains of her husband’s heart. Polidori died the year before Percy Shelley in London 1821, weighed down by depression and gambling debts. Despite strong evidence he committed suicide via cyanide his death report reads “death by natural causes.” Lord Byron went on to join the Greek movement for independence from the Ottoman Empire. While making plans to assemble an artillery fleet he fell ill before he could attack the Turkish held fortress of Lepanto. He subsequently developed a high fever and died in April 1824.
References:
A&E Television Networks, Mary Shelley Biography, May 15 2016. URL: www.biography.com/people/mary-shelley-9481497#love-and-horror
A&E Television Networks, Lord Byron Biography, May 15 2016. URL: http://www.biography.com/people/lord-byron-21124525#last-heroic-adventure
G. Buzwell, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati. URL: www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
Part 1: The characters involved in the fateful, stormy night at the Villa Diodati in 1816 were almost as interesting as the stories that would emerge. Mary Shelley, poet and soon to be author of Frankenstein or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft would sadly die shortly after Mary’s birth in 1797. Growing up Mary could often be found reading, sometimes by her mother’s grave. “My favourite pastime, during the hours given to me for recreation, was to write stories”- Mary Shelley. In 1814 Mary began a romance with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a devoted student of her father, but soon focused his attentions on Mary. He was still married to his first wife when he and the teenaged Mary fled England together that same year. They toured Europe together though struggled financially and faced the loss of their first child in 1815. Of Percy and Mary’s four children, only one would reach adulthood. John William Polidori was an English writer and physician accredited with the invention of the vampire was born in London in 1795. He went to the University of Edinburgh where he wrote a thesis on sleepwalking and received his degree as a doctor of medicine in 1815, aged 19. In 1816 he entered the eccentric and sickly Lord Byron’s service as personal physician and accompanied him on a trip throughout Europe.
ReplyDeleteThe summer of 1816 in which our infamous evening takes place was very memorable. Mount Tamboro in Indonesia had erupted and sent clouds of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. As a result the sun was obscured, temperatures dropped and rainfall increased to that of torrential. For many on the other side of the world the dismal and damp summer weather would have been a mystery. Birds settling down to roost at noon and the need to begin lighting candles in the morning would have lent a sinister and perhaps supernatural quality to both Mary and John’s surroundings. ‘The year without a summer’, as 1816 became known provided the perfect backdrop to the telling of bleak and sinister gothic tales. In May 1816 Mary, Percy and their son William travelled to Geneva. Accompanying them was Mary’s stepsister Jane (now Claire) Clairmont, who was in fact Lord Byron’s former lover. Within 10 days of their arrival Lord Byron himself arrived in a suitably dramatic fashion. Drawing up to the same hotel at the stroke of midnight in a Napoleonic carriage with his physician Polidori. Percy and Byron would meet and become friends for the first time the next day. In a short space of time both had abandoned the hotel in favour of leasing two properties nearby. Lord Byron leased himself the ‘Villa Diodati’, where our group of new friends would spend their evenings discussing literary projects and swapping stories.
“Many and long were the conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley to which I was a devout but nearly silent listener. During one of these, various philosophical doctrines were discussed, and among others the nature of the principle of life and whether there was any probability of its ever being discovered communicated.”-Mary Shelley
References:
A&E Television Networks, Mary Shelley Biography, May 15 2016. URL: www.biography.com/people/mary-shelley-9481497#love-and-horror
A&E Television Networks, Lord Byron Biography, May 15 2016. URL: http://www.biography.com/people/lord-byron-21124525#last-heroic-adventure
G. Buzwell, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati. URL: www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
Great answer, Janelle.Good thing they didn't have TV or the internet or these books would not have been written!
DeleteQuestion 2
ReplyDeleteGo online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816.
The Villa Diodati is located in the Cologny Village close to Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The mansion became famous ever since the summer in 1816 when Lord Byron rented the house to John Polidori. Mary and Percy Shelley were living nearby, and therefore they always stayed together to create stories in June 1816. Eventually, the masterpiece work of Gothic horror story Frankenstein and the first modern vampire story The Vampyre were carried out by Mary Shelley and John Polidori, respectively.
It is widely accepted that the Shelleys were welcomed by Lord Byron that summer. Note that Byron later stayed together with them for several days in the Dejean’sHôteld’Angleterreright after they first met on May 27th 1816. Even though the Shelley party was moved to theMaisonChapuis on June 1st 1816, and Byron had also moved to the Villa Diodati on June 10ththat year, the Shelleys maintained the daily meeting with Byron during the first 3 weeks in June. Due to the regular visit of Byron almost every night, his new residences at the Villa Diodati had become a new gathering place. Specifically, through the chilly and rainy nights that they read and created stories regarding German ghosts. At the night of, most probably, June 13th1816, partially due to the influence of the violent thunderstorm, Byron proposed a competition of ghost story, with the statement from Mary Shelley’s recollection that“You and I . . . will publish ours together” (Robinson, 2000).
In the following competition, Mary Shelley conducted Frankenstein, while Byron came up with A Fragment, and John Polidori, The Vampyre. The Villa Diodati has become well-known due to the positions of the ghost stories they made in 1816 in the literature history. It is quite fair to argue that most of the following Gothic horror and vampire stories are found with, to some extent, influences of those ghost stories.
References
Robinson, C.E. (2000). Byron and Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. University of Delaware.
The main point are here, Lydia. See other entries for more information.Janelle's is very good.
Delete
ReplyDeleteIn 1816 Lord George Gordon Byron rented the Villa Diodati in Switzerland for him and his friend John Polidori to stay in over the summer. Nearby Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley had also rented a house for the summer and visited Byron and Polidori often. The most notable of these visits was the three nights they spent together to shelter from the stormy weather. Over these three days they shared stories which would later go on to influence horror fiction forever. Mary Shelley told the group of her story of Frankenstein, a story dreamt up in one of the stormy nights. Later, when she wrote the whole novel, we would know this to be the story of a genius scientist who creates life by piecing together parts dug from a graveyard with his servant Igor. However, the man he creates is grotesque and monstrous and Frankenstein vows to hunt his creation. The other important story that was told at this time, by John Polidori, was the tale of the Vampyre. This described a simplistic story of a Lord, who is secretly the villain, accompanied by a young man who witnesses the deadly effects of the vampire. These stories are so incredibly significant for the Gothic horror genre, and indeed literature as a whole.
Frankenstein, while a seemingly simplistic tale on the surface, actually presents a wealth of interesting ideas that would later be explored through many angles of fiction. First of all is the idea of ‘Creating Life’. In the story Frankenstein wants to play god and create something of his own. This idea is an interesting one as it plays against our own mortality and our need to procreate. Frankenstein, a young man, obviously feels the need to create a new life, as many of us feel the desire to, but instead of finding a wife he builds a being with his bare hands. This seems important as a metaphor for the imperfection of man, it draws parallels with god casting Adam and Eve out of the garden, much like Frankenstein cursing and rejecting his creation. This idea would be explored and become a fixture in horror fiction, even outside of the Frankenstein narrative. Another idea that has remained in horror fiction is the chase, the hunt for the beast. In Frankenstein Frankenstein gives chase to his creation with dire consequences. This would later be seen in such horror mainstays as Dracula and Werewolf stories.
The Vampyre is the obvious root of texts like Dracula, which would then go on to found the more recent vampire movement beginning with Twilight. The appeal of the vampire in romantic and horror fiction can clearly be seen in this story. Firstly The Vampyre talks about a blood sucking fiend in the guise of a normal, perhaps even exceptional, man. This concept of a ‘Wolf in sheep's clothing’ (if you will) can later be seen in the immensely popular slasher film genre where at least one character hides a dark murderous secret. It plays on the fear of the unknown and also the darkness of humanity, themes that have intrigued and frightened readers and listeners forever. In The Vampyre Lord Ruthven seduces two women before murdering them. This combination of sex and fear or violence has its routes in the works of de Sade but has been a common theme in human sexuality for a long time. Once again it’s a sort of balancing act between pleasure and pain, light and dark. This is a very important theme that would go on to be a key part of both vampire and horror fiction, like Dracula, Twilight and Friday the 13th.
In conclusion, that fateful meeting of friends would go on to define one of the most popular genres in literature and beyond.
References:
Clark, W. (1935). Milton and the Villa Diodati. In Clark, W, Review of English Studies (pp. 51-57).
Byron, George Gordon (1997), Morrison, Robert; Baldick, Chris, eds., The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-955241-X.
Shelley, Mary (1831), Frankenstein.
The word ‘sublime’ defined in the dictionary as, of very great excellence or beauty. The term can often be used to describe the aesthetics of a scene or item. It can be thought of as greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.
ReplyDeleteIn literature the sublime is a form of expression that the writer uses to exert a powerful emotion on readers through detailed descriptions of nature. The idea of natural beauty was a very important concept of thought in the romantic period. According to Wollstonecraft the term is defined as "excellence in language", the "expression of a great spirit" and the power to provoke "ecstasy" in one's readers (2008. p.250).”
The beauty, vastness and force of the nature produce overwhelming feelings such as awe, amazement and wonder to uplift readers’ souls and offer a sense of vaunting joy. Take Ode to the west wind from Percy Bysshe Shelly for an example, in his poem, Shelly uses a lot of natural images like “west wind”, “dead leaves” and “plain and hill”. All descriptions of elements of nature and the natural forces. He uses these descriptive images in order to create an atmosphere of cold and loneliness. And to portray feelings of wintriness. The author compares the difficult time to the cold winter and readers can be easily relate to the incredible and untouchable forces of nature.
Also, as Blackwell (2003) talks of what makes people feel fear is the fear of having pain inflicted on themselves. So forces of nature such as oceans, storms, rain and darkness are seen as so powerful and out of human control. So they are often viewed with a slight fear as they cannot be predicted or stopped.
Some examples of literature that includes the notion of the sublime is:
William Wordsworth – Lines written a few miles above intern abbey
Where he talks of ‘these waters, rolling from their mountain springs’ and 'The landscape with the quiet of the sky’. He recites the objects he sees again, and describes their effect upon him: the “steep and lofty cliffs” impress upon him “thoughts of more deep seclusion”; he leans against the dark sycamore tree and looks at the cottage-grounds and the orchard trees, whose fruit is still unripe. He sees the “wreaths of smoke” rising up from cottage chimneys between the trees, and imagines that they might rise from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,” or from the cave of a hermit in the deep forest.
through this poem he uses the sublimeness of the natural world to describe his childhood memories of natural beauty and how close he was to nature.
References
Burke, E. (2009). A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Philological Quarterly, 3(82), 325-347. doi:10.1017/cbo9781107360495
Wollstonecraft S,M., Berni ,W. (2008). Frankenstein or the modern prometheus. Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse Books