Class Notes LITE - Gemma Lopez PDF

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Warning: TT: undefined function: 32 17th c. (diary writing) → 18th (journey and the self) → 19 th c. (monstrosity)ENGLISH LITERATURE 17th – 19thIt’s important to know about two issues: 17 th century Great Plague 1665 Great Fire of London 1666 This is history and it’s important to remember as it affe...

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17th c. (diary writing) → 18th (journey and the self) → 19th c. (monstrosity)

ENGLISH LITERATURE 17th – 19th

It’s important to know about two issues: 17th century - Great Plague 1665 - Great Fire of London 1666 This is history and it’s important to remember as it affects people’s life, like life writing. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: it’s the most famous diary of London (1660). It isn’t a fiction book, but has some elements that later will be used in fiction (nonfictional account). The author started writing the book when he was 26, and spent ten years writing it. Diary: you write every day about what happens to you o

Memoir: you write when you are older remembering your past 18th century Exploration of new countries: (travel writing: a different life writing that you can appreciate in both novels) o Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) o Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) - Subjectivity o Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) o Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1759) 19th century -

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Romanticism o Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or: the Modern Prometheus (1818) o Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) *Both will be an introduction to gothic monstrosity. Victorianism o Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847) o Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1839) *Middle classes: extremely related to the starting of the novels. They need text to reflect themselves (certain relation with Victorianism) *Subjects

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)

17th c. (diary writing) → 18th (journey and the self) → 19th c. (monstrosity)

THE LATE 17th CENTURY 1660: Restoration of the Monarchy → Charles II 1688: The Glorious Revolution 1689: The Bill of Rights (in other words, constitution) This period was very difficult for British people, and for that reason they decided to move → emigration “The English diaspora”. They move to America massively. The only way to go there was with transatlantic, and they passed in the sea 5 weeks. There is an estimation that 38,000 people left per year. They decided to go because it was easier to live in America. It is very important to talk about the conditions in which they lived. We have to focus in common people and not privilege. Normal people usually didn’t know how to write. We know the distribution of wealth: the money is distributed in a few persons, and the majority were poor. Vagrancy is related to people walking in the street in order to find something to eat. Meals are very basic, but for them a little bit miserly. The diet of rich people is based on meat and sugar, so the health is worse for them. The meal of common people is consisted in legumes, agricultural (urban), and we have to include: pastimes (music, going to the theatre, cock fighting, bear baiting, public executions, etc.). Pastimes have relation with what we eat. They started having exotic food in 1633, and it was a banana. Coffee houses started become important in that century, and first they were very important because women weren’t allowed. Women were prohibited to drink coffee in the 17th century. They also sold tea and hot chocolate. It is a place in which they met different people of other societies. But, unfortunately it declined some years after, as they started doing coffee at home and nobody attended the coffee houses. Life in the city was very difficult, and one reason is because the city was very dirty. Talking about insalubrious, the worst city as it had the major lack of hygiene was London. This developed to the Great Plague in 1665. It is thought that began in the slums of St. Giles. It lasted for a year, so in 1666 finished. A 100,000 were killed, and that was a ¼ of the total population of London in just 18 months. A rat flea caused the plague. Nowadays everybody knows the reason, but when it was happening no one knew what the cause was. Not until the end of the 19th century we knew the real cause of the plague, so it’s very recently discovered. London was an overpopulated city. “Rakers” were employed to remove the rubbish as anybody did this work, so before the streets were trashed all the time. Even before the plague, people died from fevers, stomach-aches and parasites. After the plague, the Great Fire of London started. 13,000 houses were estimated to burn. 70,000 people lost their homes. Only 8 people had record of their death. The rebuilding of London is also important, as they started having sewers (alcantarillas) and pavements. The rebuilding lasted 10 years.

17th c. (diary writing) → 18th (journey and the self) → 19th c. (monstrosity)

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Summary: ▪

1660 – 1689 → Chaotic years. Most difficult times in Britain: massive migrations due to economic poverty that resulted in bad distribution of health → Great Plague (1665). After the Plague, the Great Fire of London (1666) took place where only 8 people were recorded dead. This caused the reconstruction of London which brought major breakthroughs to society such as a sewers system.

DOMESTIC SPHERE The main issue was gender roles within the family. The husband/father = patriarchal, meaning he was the one in control of the family because it was believed that he was chosen by God. Providentialism →

Family

FATHER

Nation

+

KING

Universe

+

GOD

This had its effect on women: -

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They were expected to obey the law and male figures that were above her. To swear chastity. To preserve modesty (dress appropriately, not show off, be silent → it was a fetish; this last fact was very important because if a woman spoke in public without permission it was the ale figure of the family who had the control over the family who was humiliated). A book that talks about this is George Savile’s Advice to Daughter, 1688. Women had to be more sensible and sensitive than men, and this was the natural thought that separated men & women. Women who were married were expected to know everything that went around the house: house chores, the economy (expenses, needs, debts, etc.). The job that was very popular among women (and one of the few that they were able to practice). They were expected to know how to nurse a baby since they were young.

17th c. (diary writing) → 18th (journey and the self) → 19th c. (monstrosity)

LIFE WRITING It was the time when many modern philosophers were born. Modern philosophy was crucial to writers because they found themselves inspired by its theories. E.g.: the debates about God: he was the reason and the explanation of everything, every action or event was because of God. René Descartes → The first-person narrator. → cogito ergo sum (I think; therefore, I am/exist). RATIONAL THOUGHT We are thinking all the time, whether consciously or unconsciously and whether our thoughts make sense or not, however, Descartes meant that THINKING is always rational, meaning that it is conscious and logical. Spinoza, a rationalist philosopher, considered that knowledge can only be acquired by rational thoughts because it was the feature that gave existence. For rationalist philosophers, knowledge was the core of existence, however, there were philosophers like Locke or Hummes that had theories that talked about both extremes.

When reading, we first ask ourselves who? (wrote this), and then the other questions (what, why, where…). If a text is written in the person, the feelings, and the beliefs portraited feel true and emotionally driven. This type of narration gives power to the reader, it connects with it: empathy. This way the reader finds difficult to put what he or she is reading in doubt, it is hard to problematize it or question it. However, when it is hard to follow, and this reader is always alert, and ready to detect inconsistencies, this reader becomes “the resisting reader”. 1st person narrative → close to the reader / 3rd person narrative → zero distance to the reader, meaning the reader will have it hard to problematize. Distance and perspective have a similar meaning, usually; however, in literature, to talk about these terms we say focalization (it’s the focalizer who sets the point of view). The truth is an important topic in this narrative. The truth itself is a concept that doesn’t exist, so when is talked about in narration, even though it’s present, it may not be true per se. Versions and perversions = truth? Omniscient narrator ≠ third person narrator

It is not possible to

This narrator only has

adopt this situation

the POV of an external

in real life; therefore,

person to the narrator,

it is always superior.

and that’s it.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Genre: the type of text we are reading. People used to write about their lives for three reasons: autobiography, memoir, testimony. But in the end, there was a main objective: to leave an inscription (=construction → narrative, that doesn’t have to be necessarily a personal experience) of the self in the text. They try to achieve an all-pervading perspective → narrator-author (+ reader) = character, therefore, it has all the power and authority of the narrative until the reader begins to exert his/her power with their interpretations. Written diaries provide massive ambiguity to the reader, for this reason, diaries where much used in fiction. The main idea of the diary is the make sense of/organizing the reader’s emotions, feelings, reactions, etc., to make them conscious of their environment (cogito). Reality doesn’t make sense until/unless to transform it into a narrative. Life writing is the way we can transform the meaningless things into something that makes sense. This creates a paradox: the subject appears when it becomes a textual object. Constructing oneself has to do with control, order, experience, and language and narrative. When we say that the subject is making its inscription on the text the question of “the truth” it’s out in doubt. To avoid this, the autobiography pact was created (by Phillip Lejeune): it’s a pact/contract between the author and the reader through the text → the reader knows/trusts/accepts what the author says, the reader believes the author. From this it surges the question of morality: the reader believes the author blindly, however, how can the reader know if the author is lying? → there is no morality/moral judgement in fiction. I the end, the question of the “truth” is solved through this pact, which is exclusive in autobiographical fiction. This pact polarizes fiction and non-fiction, which was something that couldn’t be made in 17-19th c. Thursday, 3rd October 2019

It’s important to remember that the author is the narrator → author-narrator-character. The text is based on: -

Issue of voice Memory Recapitulation in retrospect. Narrative “The truth” Textual subject/object → issue of the character

We have a split subject (strategy) as the author, the narrator and the character are the same person: S. Pepys. The author never goes inside with the narrator. Narrative happens when the author see himself in the distance; and see it as the object of the text; in order to obtain this, he used third person narrative. The narrator and the character are the same person as the text is written in first person, if not will be different. Everything comes to the I-narrator (first person). In certain moments, the narrator/character became also reader/audience. He decided to leave writing the diary as he thought that was starting to

become blind, but he lived many years more and this never happened. In these cases, the death or health problems are the end of the history. Scherezade saw the survival of the narrative very important, so at the end of every chapter happened something intriguing in order to the audience didn’t leave it. So, it will have a longer duration → his objective. Samuel Pepys became a better narrator during the progress of his story. Why the diary is so important? -

It was one of the first autobiographical literature in English. Daily account First time that a person uses a diary for personal reasons. Before Samuel, the people used the diaries as financial issues. Self-awareness: becoming conscious of yourself as a character, narrator and author. Witness aspect: testimonial of many things like the Great Fire. Sense of humour THE 18th CENTURY

- Migration rural-urban - Colonialism, the slave trade ………………………………… -

The Enlightenment (la il·lustració) The birth of the novel

They wanted to know different ways of life. The encounter with other people is important. There is a certain relation with the colonialism (trade → exchange/conquest). The term colonialism has relation with exploitation (of people). Britain became a very important country. Migration: Rural → urban The 18th century it is called the age of the city, as it was the year of expansion. Living in the city is exciting, interesting and plenty of opportunities. In 1700: 5 mil citizens and in 1801: 9 mil. Only in London: 400,000 → 800,000 inhabitants. It was a chaotic and dirty city, with a lot of traffic problems. It was very crowded but very exciting. Not only London, also northern cities like Manchester. In 1660, England entrance completely the slave trade; the majority of Africa. *Jamaica. They found slave ports in the cities mentioned before, but also in Bristol and Liverpool. The Middle Passage: (human cargo)

The most complicated part of the journey it’s the Middle Passage, because there were a lot of people in the ship, without space or with a little bit to move. In 1790s, the British colonies had 480,000 people enslaved. The trip of the Middle Passage (the Atlantic Crossing) was very hard. The majority of the people came for small towns without food or drinks. A 10% died during the trip with some food, I mean the trip that they had programmed, without difficulties. But if the trip was more difficult that what they thought, a 30% died. When they arrive, a big part must work in slave plantations like sugar. Firstly, they took only men, but little by little also women and children. Colonialism was a social policy. Thanks to white women, slavery could be possible. Abolition was in the 1780s. They were the first appearing in the news talking about the slavery abolition. The law of abolition of slavery: 1807 → Act of Parliament. 1838 was the year considered to have the last abolition.

Tuesday, 08 October 2019

Cultural history of the 18th c. The Enlightenment (la il·lustració) → also called the age of Reason, is a period in which we can find a discussion based in scientific thoughts or discoveries, politics and philosophy. It takes place in the late 18th c. It was in favour of exploration , time to find new things or colonies, and individualism. These two issues were very important to the novels written. Before in the collective (the medieval mindset), we’ll think about individualism. We are describing “the modern world”. Britain is in good place but is a moment in which they can be several political changes. They debate what will be the best social organization, what can they do better to improve it. They question if the social structured set in the classics (Rome & Greece) are the ones that can make Britain better. They considered that looking at the individual is key to find happiness for society. The individual is the base to happiness and freedom. [Jean Jacques Rousseau: the noble (rational) savage (pre-social being) → “Man is born free and rational, but he is enslaved by society” → The social contract, 1762; he was trying to say that sovereignty/power/democracy lays in the hands of people]. In 1660 the monarchy is restored. Thomas Paine: English philosopher that moved to America during the late 18th c. He wrote a book called The Right of Man & The Age of Reason, these are the two political tracks that we can find in the 18th century in which he attacks the idea of the monarchy, the idea of the inherited privilege; he says “passive acceptance to the rest of society”. Thomas Paine = Kant: they talk about the laziness of society. They both talk about individual freedom and happiness; they say that it belongs to the people which must claim it and make it theirs. The key concept is INDIVIDUALISM because of the high number of literary pieces talk about the self; moreover, this is the only topic that is taken again to the 19th c. The birth of the novel → this is directly connected to what the Enlightenment stood for: exploration and individualism. The idea of science, objectivity, empirical observation and the psychological interest on the individual, the psychological exploration of the self. A reality that is interior. When we talk about the novel it directly draws us to the outer process (looking at the world) and the inner process (how we represent/interpret this world). It also ties with the liberalist politics, the liberty of the individual. NOVEL = NEW → Art = The Classics (form & content): when we say the classics, we think of three genres, the epic, tragedy and poetry → Homer, Virgil, Ovid & Seneca. These were the models to follow in order to write/compose art when it came to form and content. We can actually say that there’s a line that goes from these classic writers to writers from the British Isles like Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton. Once the Renaissance fades out, it surges the concept of THE NEW (the novel), a concept that goes against the tradition of the classics. It discerns in various points/what the concept of THE NEW entails: 1234-

Contemporary contents (18th c. England). The audiences (content is not written just for elite people). New authors, topics and readers → women. Experimental type of art which is trying a structure that’s far from the classics.

We have the concept of the personal/private = individual. This is one of the most important things in the novels, the idea of point of view. People read at home meaning that experience of reading a novel is not a collective experience but a private one. A novel is someone’s point of view and when you read it you add your own; in art it’s used the term perspective / focalisation. These concepts are the big innovations of the novel. The classics do not happen in private, that’s why the concept of THE NEW (the novel), doesn’t combine with the classics. Why is the novel something new? Because it talks about “the everyday” (prosaic). The novel is not necessarily about a hero or an aristocratic individual but about the normal people and their routines; it’s related to the middle classes: people who do normal things that they consider heroic or that it would help society and it would make them arise in the social scale, things which they think are big achievements. When we talk about heroicity in the novel we talk about transforming a normal character into a main character. Another important topic in the 18th c. novels are crime novels, travel novels, fantasy / horror novels. The first professional novel writer in English was Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, 1719) → he would get paid to write. He writes a type of text described as pretend realism → he builds a world which we can believe, a world that pretends to be the real world, however it isn’t; he is building a possibility. We call it realism because it follows the technic of mimesis (imitation of reality). He describes a realistic matter of fact with a lot of descriptions that seem so realistic that the reader may start having the impression of reality. The publication of Robinson Crusoe was one of the highlights of the 18th c. when it comes to literature. Thursday, 10 October 2019

He was 60 years old when he first published the novel, in 1719. This was a historical event in literature, it was the first time the personal experience of an individual was showed in prose fiction. The story of Robinson is singular and new. The emphasis is not what happens to him but on how he experiences what is happening to him; it focuses on the inner self → INSTROSPECTION. All these details describe the novel for...