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).
Question 2: Go online and see if you can find anything about what happened at the villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816.
ReplyDeleteDuring the summer of 1816, Lord Byron rented this Villa in Geneva along with his personal phycisian (John William Pollidori), after enduring personal conflicts in his hometown in England. Since moving to the Villa Diodati, he met and befriended the Shelley's whom rented a household nearby. Percy Bysshe Shelley being a a poet and his soon to be wife who was then known to be Mary Goodwin, who then became Mary Shelley. The group was soon joined by Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont. According to sources, three days of rainy whether kept the five indoors reading fantastical stories and creating their own. It is from this incident in Summer 1816 that generated the fictional story we now know as the famous Frankestein.
Yes, well put together.Note that the first vampire story was written at the same event.
ReplyDelete2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
ReplyDeleteWhat really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816 gave the vital spark ignited Mary Shelly’s spirit to write the famous novel Frankenstein in an atmosphere of delicious fear as candlelight flickered in the house and lightning flashed across the surface of the lake outside.
Mary, still only 18, travelled to Geneva with her future husband, Percy and her stepsister Claire Clairmont and they met Lord Byron and his physician, Dr Polidori in a hotel where they abandoned in favour of the nearby properties. Shelley and his friends took a small chalet called Nontalegre but Bryon and his doctor took Villa Diodati, a large porticoed house once occupied by the poet John Milton. They got together into some philosophical discussions which later deteriorated into mind games which gave rise to tempt Mary to write the novel, Frankenstein, which memorized many movie goers.
Being hampered by the bad weather of June, they confined themselves within the cottage and entered into discussion about literary projects of writing ghost stories. Two iconic tales, Mary’s Frankenstein and John Polidori’s The Vampyre were written on this casual ploy.
Reference:
Buzwell, G. (n.d.) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Vila Diodati. Retrieved from:
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
Another good answer Joe. Look what can happen if there is no TV or internet!
ReplyDeleteHow 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...
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding and interpretation of what sublime means, elevated or lofty in thought and language.
Romanticism associates the ‘sublime’ with nature, aesthetics, poetry and the romantic experiences witnessing the beauty of nature. It can also conjure the sublime in the readers by having concepts that can take away their interest mentally and emotionally.
This sublime relates to the traditional Christian religion because of the understanding of the truths and the influence of these beliefs both when recorded and written. For example, you must ‘feel’ the Holy Spirit to ‘understand it’. According to Burke’s philosophy inquiry (1757), in the greater degree of sublime comes from the ‘terror’ in all cases. He defines ‘terror’ the fear of pain; we are terrified by vastness, by obscurity and with infinity. And according to, the sublime is a form of expression in literature where the writer applies a powerful and inspired emotion on readers using the description of a natural view or beauty as a concept of major importance for a romantic thought. This helps to create overwhelming feelings such as awe and astonishment to lift up the reader’s joy in what they are reading rather than persuading or pleasing the audience.
Reference
Dictionary.com. (n.d). Sublime. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sublime
Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research.../the-sublime/the-romantic-sublime-r1109221
3. How many fictional accounts can you find out about that?
ReplyDeleteI took the hint on board and started my search for fictional accounts of 'that fateful summer in 1816 at the Villa Diodati.' The first fictional account was a movie released in 1986 called, 'Gothic' directed by Ken Russel. Another movie I managed to find that portrays the story of Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati is 'Haunted Summer' (1988) directored by Ivan Passer. Another movie that fictionalises the events at Villa Diodati in 1816 is 'Rowing With the Wind,' which was released the same year as 'Haunted Summer' in 1988 and directored by Gonzalo Suarez.
Gothic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haS7s4MI0mI
Haunted Summer movie trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG-rJuyfvxM
Rowing With the Wind excerpt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgQwca6QNg0
These are the only three movies I managed to find online that were related to the 'that fateful summer of 1816' at the Villa Diodati.