The signal-man

Dear all,

As I mentioned on our last session, deadline to write the post about the signal-man is tonight!!

Please remember to do so.

See you tomorrow,
Claudia

The signal-man

Dear all,

Tomorrow´s session will be devoted to discussing the short ghost story "The signal-man" by Dickens.

To help contextualise its writing, it´s useful to know that "The Signal Man" was written after a railway accident which took place in 1865 that had a great impact on Dickens´s life.


On our discussion of the story think of the following:

What does the train represent?
Think of the opposition between isolation and community.
Think of the issue of social responsibility
How is modernity depicted in this ghost story?

See you in class,
Claudia

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1289

Keynotes of the Victorian Age

Before reading Dickens´s stories, please take a look at the following keynotes about the Victorian Age. Discuss the central metaphors in Dickens´s writing. To what extent do you think they depicted the main problems of the Victorian Age?

• Keynotes of the Victorian age: progress, expansion, power and mobility (See Poplawski, P. (2008). English Literature in Context. CUP)


• 1830 Opening of railway lines in Britain: advancement, growth and difussion, awareness of interconnectedness, invention.


• Print culture proliferated and literacy rates increased


• Influence of the Romantic era on Victorian writers: ideas of liberty, individualism, the nature of subjectivity, emphasis on the self, emotion, imagination, relationship between man and the natural world.


• Social responsibility of the artist.


• The Victorian age witnessed the boom of economic expansion, transformation and hope in the first period, while in the second, it witnessed uncertainty and doubt.

Dickens´s fiction central metaphors: Fog, contagion, the prison. These three metaphors were best embodied in the word disease, both literal and figurative (cholera was a common disease at the time and it hit working-class communities very hard in the years 1831, 1848, 1853 and 1866). In Dickens´s writings one finds the idea of disease that spread through modern society and it immobilised it. His desire to represent the social realities of urban life are found in most of his writings. In "Oliver Twist" (1837-1838), the author depicts his own suffering during his childhood. At the age of 12 he starts working in a blacking factory. His family is sent to prison due to debt. He isn´t but this traumatic experience would influence his writing very much. At the age of 15 Dickens starts working as a free-lance writer.

Also, please remember to post your entry about Frankenstein. Deadline Sunday 14. You may use the words listed below (Thank you Carolina!!) which were the result of your own reflection and discussions.

Consequences

Regret

Loneliness

Emptiness

Family

Self-esteem

Hate

Senses

Happiness

Marginalization

Frustration

Mistakes

Maternity

Beliefs

Problems

Feelings

Overwhelming

Rejection

Morality

Discrimination

Injustice

Acceptance

Love

Forgetfulness

Emotions

Lack of satisfaction

Identity

Society

See you in class,

Claudia

Frankesntein

Dear all,

Before we start the analysis of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I would like you to take a look at this picture. Think of how many similar pictures you´ve seen based on the novel, have you seen any of the films...?

Now be ready to listen to a fanstatic interpration of the novel...enjoy it!!

For next session please read the article provided in the following link

http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/knowledge.shtml

What aspects of Mary Shelley´s novel does the author of the article want to emphasise?

Claudia

Wordsworth

Dear all,

I have uploaded my latest presentation to the virtual. Please write your personal reflection after reading Keats´s poem "When I have fears that I may cease to be". Deadline Sunday 30.

About Wordsworth, follow the link below...listen to the poem, watch the video and be ready to write your reflection. What do the daffodils mean in the poem? What is the relationship between nature and the poet? Explain the following stanza "A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company". Deadline Sunday September 6. You may also decide to draw a comparison between the four Romantic poets/poems we have read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9-tEbv75E

On Friday we will start discussing "Frankenstein". I hope you´ve made progress with the reading.

See you then,
Claudia

Keats

Dear all,

Tomorrow´s session will be devoted to reading, appreciating and discussing one of the most beautiful poems written by John Keats "When I have fears that I may Cease to be".

Here is a link to a video where you can listen to the poem...its music...its melancholy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asGolDPXMoo

and the written version...

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery,

Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,

That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the faery power

Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

I will upload my previous presentation to the virtual so that you write your post on Coleridge´s poem. Deadline Sunday night. You can choose any of Coleridge´s quotations included in the presentation and discuss how they relate to the poem.

See you,

Claudia

Kubla Khan

Dear all,

Below you´ll find a Spanish translation of the poem. I hope this helps you understand, appreciate and enjoy this poem better:

Kubla Khan

•En Xanadu Kubla Khan decretó
•Un solemne edicto de la cúpula del placer:
•Donde Alph, el río sagrado, fluía
•A través de cavernas inescrutables para el hombre
•Hacia un mar sombrío.
•Diez mil millas de suelo fértil
•Con muros y torres fueron rodeados;
•Y había jardines que brillaban con sinuosas plantas,
•Donde florecían numerosos árboles de incienso;
•Y aquí, los bosques, tan antiguos como las colinas,
•Abrazaban rayos de luz entre el follaje.
•¡Pero! ! ¡Ese abismo encantador que se inclinaba
•Bajo la colina cubierta de raíces de cedro!
•¡Ese lugar salvaje! Por siempre sagrado y encantado,
•Bajo una luna menguante fue perturbado
•¡Por una mujer que sollozaba por su amante!
•Y del abismo, con furibunda e incesante confusión,
•Como si la tierra respirase atenazada,
•Una poderosa fuente surgió de pronto:
•Entre su rápida cadencia entrecortada
•Grandes fragmentos saltaban como ráfagas de lluvia,
•O como espigas bajo el filo de la guadaña:
•Y en medio de esas rocas danzarinas,
•de una vez y para siempre,
•Brotó el río sagrado.
•Cinco millas serpenteando como un laberinto,
•Entre bosques y valles corría el río sagrado,
•Hasta alcanzar las cavernas inescrutables para el hombre,
•Y se sumergía en un océano sin vida, con gran conmoción:
•¡Y entre el caos formidable, Kubla escuchó lejanas
•Voces ancestrales profetizando guerra!
•La sombra de la cúpula del placer
•Flotaba en medio de las olas;
•Allí se dejaba oír la confusa melodía
•De la fuente y las cavernas.
•Era un milagro, un extraño prodigio,
•Una luminosa cúpula del placer con entrañas de hielo!
•Una doncella con una cítara
•En una visión admiré:
•Era una joven abisinia,
•Y con el instrumento se acompañaba,
•Para cantar la belleza del Monte Abora.
•Podría revivir en mí
•Su melodía y su voz,
•A tal placer yo sucumbiría,
•Y con notas altas y prolongadas
•Aquella cúpula en el aire construiría,
•¡Esa soleada cúpula! ¡Esas cavernas de hielo!
•Y todos los que de ella han oído la verían allí,
•Y todos romperían a llorar. ¡Cuidado! ¡Cuidado!
•¡Sus ojos centelleantes, su cabello flotante!
•Ondean un círculo a su alrededor,
•Y cierran tus ojos con sagrada reverencia,
•Porque él se alimentó del rocío,
•Y bebió la leche del Paraíso.

Claudia