Littérature anglophone S3 PDF

Histoire de la littérature anglophone Auteurs et artistes anglophones  Auteurs et artistes anglophones Week 1 Edgar Allan Poe : American Author We’ll focus on his fictional works rather than his poetry, he’s born in Boston in 1809. His death is a mystery. Poe’s everlasting her...

Histoire de la littérature anglophone Auteurs et artistes anglophones  Auteurs et artistes anglophones Week 1 Edgar Allan Poe : American Author We’ll focus on his fictional works rather than his poetry, he’s born in Boston in 1809. His death is a mystery. Poe’s everlasting heritage. Poe has become a permanent monument of Western Culture. The United States’ first national Poet. Edgar Poe has also been a major figure of literary and aesthetic influence over many future generations of artists. He is generally considered « inventor » of modern short story, crime stories, investigation and science fiction. Some of his most famous tales are also emblematic of the writing of madness. Tim Burton is hugely influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, his first animated film « Vincent »is a tribute to Poe. Vincent (1982) | Court métrage réalisé par Tim Burton (VF) He is also the inventor of tales of investigations, there’d be no Sherlock Holmes or Agath Christie without him. He’s a trailblazer, someone who opens a never entered before trail. He wrote from the US, he was involved in cities such as New York, Boston, Baltimore, Richmond etc… = East of the South of the US. Poe belongs to the first generation of « national » US writers, along with James Fennimore Cooper, Nathanel Hawthorne, Herman Melvill and Walt Whitman He is an emblematic figure of the « American Renaissance ».That’s a time at which langage took a singular twist. An un-American Poet Although Poe was writing at the height of the Transcendentalists' days, he was fiercely opposed to their general philosophical ideals, views on the United States as a country as well as their approach to the Self. Poe was very probably the least « American » of all the writers of his time. Poe’s Romantic Forefathers… They were British. Samuel Tyalor Coleridge, Lord Byron = they are romantic poets in the early 19C. Poe was influential over French symbolists such as Stephane Mallarme and Charles Baudelaire, it’s because of the French that Poe became a monument of Western Culture Charles Baudelaire (Fleurs Du Mal 1857). = He was the official translator of Edgar Allan Poe. Stephane Mallarme set to translating Poe’s poems. It is pretty sure that without Baudelaire’s interest in Poe he would have been forgotten. A Gothic Writer ? Often associated with an imagery resting on darkness, transgression and decay, Edgar Allan Poe is often associated with the gothic, initially a literary movement that flourished in England in the late 18C. A Morbid Imagination « The Death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical subject in the world » He was certainly morbid connected with disease and death. Not the funniest writer. That’s why he did not really fit in with transcendentalism. At the end of his life, he wrote an essay: ‘The Philosophy of Composition’, 1846. He said that “ The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most political topic in the world. Consumption = tuberculose Le guignon ou avoir la guigne = la poisse Some Biographical Elements « Il existe des destinées fatales, il existe dans la littérature de chaque pays des hommes qui portent le mot guignon écrit en caractères mystérieux, dans les plis sinueux de leur front » Charles Baudelaire 1809: Born in Boston, His father disappears 1811: His mother died in December. He finds a shelter home with John and Fanny Allan 1815-20: Goes to Boarding school in London 1820-26: Attends University of Virginia, Gambling, Drinking, and debt problems 1827: Publishes Tamerlane and Other Poems 1829: Death of Fanny Allan, break up with John Allan. Publishes “ Al Araaf “ 1831: Expelled from West Point 1832-35: Settles in Baltimore with his aunt and cousin. Works as assistant editor for a literary magazine. 1835: Publication of Berenice 1836: Married Virginian Clemm, his younger cousin 1838: Moves with Virginia in NYC. Publication of Gordon Pym and ‘Ligeria’ 1839: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 1841/2: Editor for Graham’s Magazine Publishes « Murders in the Rue Morgue » 1843: « The Gold Bug » « The Black Cat » and the « Tell-Tale Heart » are published 1845: Publication of « The Raven » Literary fame. 1847: Virginia’s death, Poe becomes ill and returns to Baltimore 1849: Dies on October 7 in mysterious circumstances Poe, « Poète Maudit ». Quickly after his death Poe became a paragon of the ‘accursed poet’ because of his literary heritage in the US but mostly with Baudelaire’s translations of his Histoires Extraordinaires in French in 1856 and 1857. Death feminine figure = Mother, Fanny Allan, Virginia. Poe idealized the beauty of women’s departure on the threshold of death. Raven Poesy in English Literature is marked by rhythms more than syllables Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe | Powerful Life Poetry The Raven (Christopher Lee) https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/the-raven/summary/ Published in January 1845 « Raven » is his best known poetical work and his first truly successful publication. Both remarkable in form and content, the poem gave way to a vast number of commentaries, interpretations, illustrations, as well as intermediate transformations; the eponymous “ raven “ has become an iconic substitute for the complete works of E.A Poem and even for the writer himself. It's a long poem of 108 lines. The short story is quite often associated with modernist writers. → there is something pioneering about writing short stories during the 19th century since narratives essentially were told as novels. Week 2 Hawthorn published a collection of tales about the early days of America and in 1840 tales of the grotesque and arabesque. When Baudelaire translated “ nouvelle histoire extraordinaire ” he did not follow the publication. Evolution to the tale into more modern, more folklore than tradition and more intense of something literary. One important thing to remember about a short story is that you're not supposed to read it aside, you're supposed to read it in one go. Poe had read twice- told tales. When you read a novel, there are a variety of characters, accidents, weddings etc… With a short story not the time = single effect. Economic factors = edgar always in need for money, the short story was a way to make money a little bit more quickly. Literary magazines which were published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket = novel by POE 70 short stories Parodies Political “Psychological” ( before psychology existed, two kind: story of terror and mindness, the other stories of reasoning and detection. ) Grotesque ( both funny and horrible ) Berenice Was published in a literary magazine and it was Poe's first literary “success”. The tale was written when he was living with his young wife Virginia, it has some autobiographical elements but quickly transforms that autobiographical into more horrifying and also more comic. “ Berenice “ should not be taken too seriously. It has apparently horrible nature but also can be read as a bad joke, certainly he's playing with the limits and very much an exercise in transgression. Beren (icy) = iciness = glaçant. MISERY is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide horizon like the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch, as distinct too, yet as intimately blended. Overreaching the wide horizon like the rainbow! How is it that from Beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness? — from the covenant of Peace a simile of sorrow? But thus is it. And as, in ethics, Evil is a consequence of Good, so, in fact, out of Joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are, have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been. I have a tale to tell in its own essence rife with horror — I would suppress it were it not a record more of feelings than of facts.  My baptismal name is Egæus — that of my family I will not mention. Yet there are no towers in the land more time-honored than my gloomy, grey, hereditary halls. Our line has been called a race of visionaries: and in many striking particulars — in the character of the family mansion — in the frescos of the chief saloon — in the tapestries of the dormitories — in the chiseling of some buttresses in the armory — but more especially in the gallery of antique paintings — in the fashion of the library chamber — and, lastly, in the very peculiar nature of the library's contents, there is more than sufficient evidence to warrant the belief. The recollections of my earliest years are connected with that chamber, and with its volumes — of which latter I will say no more. Here died my mother. Herein was I born. But it is mere idleness to say that I had not lived before — that the soul has no previous existence. You deny it. Let us not argue the matter. Convinced myself I seek not to convince. There is, however, a remembrance of ærial forms — of spiritual and meaning eyes — of sounds musical yet sad — a remembrance which will not be excluded: a memory like a shadow, vague, variable, indefinite, unsteady — and like a shadow too, in the impossibility of my getting rid of it, while the sunlight of my reason shall exist. In that chamber was I born. Thus awaking, as it were, from the long night of what seemed, but was not, nonentity at once into the very regions of fairy land — into a palace of imagination — into the wild dominions of monastic thought and erudition — it is not singular that I gazed around me with a startled and ardent eye — that I loitered away my boyhood in books, and dissipated my youth in reverie — but it is singular that as years rolled away, and the noon of manhood found me still in the mansion of my fathers — it is wonderful what stagnation there fell upon the springs of my life — wonderful how total an inversion took place in the character of my common thoughts. The realities of the world affected me as visions, and as visions only, while the wild ideas of the land of dreams became, in turn, — not the material of my every-day existence — but in very deed that existence utterly and solely in itself. I - A disturbed and disturbing narrator Unlikely name = Egæus Inversion ( l.35 ) tone is solemn and hyperbolic. An emphatic register and a complex language Imagination is use Manifold = multiform Misery = which will then trigger a lexical field = sad, wretchedness etc… The narrator is trapped in remembrance memories and he talks of shadows maybe haunted with memories and who is trapped in his mind just as he's trapped in his chamber ( l.20) So there's a sense of entrapment dominating the text , the narrator is caught in the palace of his imagination. 1st person with homodiegetic perception “Here died my mother”. = just like Poe’s mother Berenice and I were cousins, and we grew up together in my paternal halls — Yet differently we grew. I ill of health and buried in gloom — she agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy. Hers the ramble on the hill [column 2:] side [[hill-side]] — mine the studies of the cloister. I living within my own heart, and addicted body and soul to the most intense and painful meditation — she roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours. Berenice! — I call upon her name — Berenice! — and from the grey ruins of memory a thousand tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah! vividly is her image before me now, as in the early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh! gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh! Sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim! — Oh! Naiad among her fountains! — and then — then all is mystery and terror, and a tale which should not be told. Disease — a fatal disease — fell like the Simoom upon her frame, and, even while I gazed upon her, the spirit of change swept over her, pervading her mind, her habits, and her character, and, in a manner the most subtle and terrible, disturbing even the very identity of her person! Alas! the destroyer came and went, and the victim — where was she? I knew her not — or knew her no longer as Berenice. II- A blend of romance and pathology The romance between the two cousins degenerate because of disease. When the paragraphs open we are in a fantasy word where Berenice is called graceful, overflowing with energy etc… The pros of the cousins here is poetry. Oh! = register of Romance. Sylph ( connected to the forest, figure of fantastic beauty ) amid the shrubberies of Arnheim ( nymph from the water )! = mythical figure. Love is emphatic ( exaggerated ? ) Disease = subtle and terrible for exemple These two run into each other. Virginia = Poe’s wife had a disease. The narrator also suffers from a disease = monomania = obsession of the object of Berenice. In the meantime my own disease — for I have been told that I should call it by no other appellation — my own disease, then, grew rapidly upon me, and, aggravated in its symptoms by the immoderate use of opium, assumed finally a monomaniac character of a novel and extraordinary form — hourly and momentarily gaining vigor — and at length obtaining over me the most singular and incomprehensible ascendancy. This monomania — if I must so term it — consisted in a morbid irritability of the nerves immediately affecting those properties of the mind, in metaphysical science termed the attentive. It is more than probable that I am not understood — but I fear that it is indeed in no manner possible to convey to the mind of the merely general reader, an adequate idea of that nervous intensity of interest with which, in my case, the powers of meditation (not to speak technically) busied, and, as it were, buried themselves in the contemplation of even the most common objects of the universe. The forehead was high, and very pale, and singularly placid; and the once golden hair fell partially over it, and overshadowed the hollow temples with ringlets now black as the raven's ring [[wing]], and jarring discordantly, in their fantastic character, with the reigning melancholy of the countenance. The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and I shrunk involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the thin and shrunken lips. They parted: and, in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth of the changed Berenice disclosed themselves slowly to my view. Would to God that I had never beheld them, or that, having done so, I had died! The shutting of a door disturbed me, and, looking up, I found my cousin had departed from the chamber. But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas! departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not a speck upon their surface — not a shade on their enamel — not a line in their configuration — not an indenture in their [page 335:] edges — but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth! — the teeth! — they were here, and there, and every where, and visibly, and palpably before me, long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania, and I struggled in vain against its strange and irresistible influence. In the multiplied objects of the external world I had no thoughts but for the teeth. All other matters and all different interests became absorbed in their single contemplation. Obsession not general feeling = here is not normal it's an inversion for one single feature = teeth ( The teeth! — the teeth! — they were here, and there, and every where, and visibly, and palpably before me, long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development.) and some kind of fetishism. Unfortunately for the narrator, Berenice dies when she dies. We have an ellipsis, it is not described, it's left out and instead the story finishes with the depiction of the narrator in the day without berenice. III- A shocking “final effect” I found myself again sitting in the library, and again sitting there alone. It seemed that I had newly awakened from a confused and exciting dream. I knew that it was now midnight, and I was well aware that since the setting of the sun Berenice had been interred. But of that dreary period which had intervened I had no positive, at least no definite comprehension. Yet its memory was rife with horror — horror more horrible from being vague, and terror more terrible from ambiguity. It was a fearful page in the record of my existence, written all over with dim, and hideous, and unintelligible recollections. I strived to decypher them, but in vain — while ever and anon, like the spirit of a departed sound, the shrill and piercing shriek of a female voice seemed to be ringing in my ears. I had done a deed — what was it? And the echoes of the chamber answered me — “what was it?” On the table beside me burned a lamp, and near it lay a little box of ebony. It was a box of no remarkable character, and I had seen it frequently before, it being the property of the family physician; but how came it there upon my table, and why did I shudder in regarding it? These things were in no manner to be accounted for, and my eyes at length dropped to the open pages of a book, and to a sentence underscored therein. The words were the singular but simple words of the poet Ebn Zaiat. “Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicæ visit arem [[visitarem]] curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas.”* Why then, as I perused them, did the hairs of my head erect themselves on end, and the blood of my body congeal within my veins? There came a light tap at the library door, and, pale as the tenant of a tomb, a menial entered upon tiptoe. His looks were wild with terror, and he spoke to me in a voice tremulous, husky, and very low. What said he? — some broken sentences I heard. He told of a wild cry heard in the silence of the night — of the gathering together of the household — of a search in the direction of the sound — and then his tones grew thrillingly distinct as he whispered me of a violated grave — of a disfigured body discovered upon its margin — a body enshrouded, yet still breathing, still palpitating, still alive! He pointed to my garments — they were muddy and clotted with gore. I spoke not, and he took me gently by the hand — but it was indented with the impress of human nails. He directed my attention to some object against the wall — I looked at it for some minutes — it was a spade. With a shriek I bounded to the table, and grasped the ebony box that lay upon it. But I could not force it open, and in my tremor it slipped from out my hands, and fell heavily, and burst into pieces, and from it, with a rattling sound, there rolled out some instruments of dental surgery, intermingled with many white and glistening substances that were scattered to and fro about the floor. Gradual revelation into the nature of the transgression carried out by the narrator. The reader has ultimately a horror vision. It begins with a field of terror. To shriek = to scream. The atmosphere is gloomy, the menial ( serviteur ) is pale etc… Moreover there is a crescendo in the scene of the terrible, writing of confusion which of course is here to confuse the reader even more and make them wish to know what really happened. Poe keeps the mystery until the very end. Conclusion To conclude in this almost inaugural short story of horror, Edgar Allan Poe introduces the idea of pathological love pushed to extremes. The shocking final effect of the tale is constructed by a disturbed and disturbing narrator paving the way for more tales of madness to come such as the Tell Tale Heart. Week 3 Tell Tale heart Probably one of Poe's most famous stories, and one of his most efficient ones. The single effect. It is a really short piece of story but a very intense one. It was published in 1843 in the Pioneer Journal. The major difference is the language. Connected with that American way of seeing things. Most American children have read it and studied it. The tell tale heart has been suggested in many other media. It is adapted to many transformations. Is it fully original ? Some people such as Charles dickens. The text we have in which depicts a very intense and incredible energy. Madness is one of Poe’s specific themes. Madness today is seen more like a mental illness because we are used to seeing psychiatry departments. In time of poe it was only the beginning ( modern psychiatry ). There were some romantic thoughts about madness ( linked with poetry ) that being mad was a way to have upper lucidity. Is it madness or is it genius? Question of the stylistic madness that Poe kind of invented. Tell-Tale operate as an adjective. (traduit en français par “ le coeur révélateur” ) Confession of a murderer, confession of OUR narrator. The idea of confession wasn't created by Edgar Allan Poe. It started to emerge as a sort of evil confession.. In 1823, James Hogg wrote an interesting book named Confession of a justified sinner. Confessional narratives are told in the first person by an eye. In Poe’s text the Eye is really present. The tale is also an address, which has a sort of grip on the reader. An address to the reader who becomes a sort of jury that is listening to the confession of the murderer ( confessor ). He is very much involved in the text. Last but not least a retrospective on what happened in the whole situation. Lot of erratic, (something doesn’t seem quite right) all those dashes, question mark and exclamation mark and especially the contradiction in the narrator’s thought created an erratic sense. The lexical field of stress is present ( acute, nervous, acute…) We can see directly that Poe used the language to promote the idea of contradiction. In the second paragraph we are introduced with the idea of the old man ? Who’s that old man, why the narrator is sharing a house with him etc. There is no answer, perhaps we don’t need any explanation. Something immediately present is the old man’s present eye. A pale blue eye, repeated three times to see the obsession of the narrator. The mechanics of the tale enters the story in paragraph three. We are told about the narrator's preparation for murder. It is a premeditated crime, an obsession. There is a sort of lucidity in the narrator’s telling which is thriving. Paranoia has not been imposed. The tale is actually full of repetition, he is establishing patterns of repetition ( can be linked with his behavior ). He comes in full sight of that eye, that intense term: “ the evil eye “. The evil eye is actually the evil I of the text ( same pronunciation ). He discards and rejects his madness but we cannot deny his madness. Dull doesn’t shine. The light is upon the eye, the hideous eye. ( horror register ) The moment just before the crime. There is no beating of the old man that he can hear, it is surely his disease that “ sharpened ” his senses. (il est taré en gros) Terror is a driving force, on the other hand horror is freezing you. Difference between terror and horror = a movement engagement while horror freezes you. Terror is dynamic, presumably this terror is inside his head while the old man’s still sleeping. We follow the narrator’s terror. The dash marks the crime. The heart sound is going to replace the eye’s obsession. Hysterical form of fright. Which makes our madmen very excited. (just before the officers arrives) “the noise was not within my ears” → starting of the second hallucination. The narrator’s man dysfunction. To the word “fancy” we understand that he is losing his mind again. Poe made a difference between fancy and imagination. Imagination is powerful, creative and can generate beauty while fancy is a kind of delusion. The writing of madness is in fact very much constructed by many repetitions in the text (strategic one) that probably repeats the beating heart the narrator is so obsessed with. “this I thought and this I think” → he will crack. ‘I shrieked’ the apocalypse of the conscious told by the unconscious. The narrator already used this verb in the past when he was on the verge of a crisis. A perverted rhetoric. As readers we constantly deconstruct the madness that we can identify. This text is really intense. In 2015 a certain Raul Garcia realized “ extraordinary tales ” which are inspired from Edgar Allan Poe. Week 5 The Fall of the House of Usher The original tale ( 1839 ) It's both a tale of psychological terror as well as an aesthetic manifesto for the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It is also the most emblematic haunted house of US literature and culture. It relies on the romantic trope of the “ objective correlative “ ( TS Eliot ) creating a resonance between the setting and the protagonist’ mind. Though told in the first person by an intradiegetic narrator, the tale focuses on the figure of Roderick Usher, suffering from what he terms an “ over-acuteness of the senses “, pushing him to the brink of madness. The story also revisits the figure of the departed beloved through the figure of Madeline Usher, buried prematurely and whose visit at the end of the tale sends the whole house down, into irremediable chaos; The tale has been given many interpretations and remains also an instance of Poe’s powerful poetic prose. 3 characters = The narrator, present in the text but we dont know its name = intradiegetic = he’s our access point to the protagonist Roderick Usher Madeline Usher 😉) When does it take place ? = “ in the autumn of the year “. And that’s it. Ref avec fall ( le titre Where does it take place ? Within the house of Usher, described in many symbolic term and for most of the tale, we never leave the house = seclusion Outlines for analysis I- Symbolic resonances: architecture and melancholy II- Roderick Usher, artist and madman III- The narrator’s ambiguous role I- typical gothic strategy to associate space, architecture more especially with that characterization that is mostly negative. Poe makes sure that he uses this connection between the two. The connection between architecture and the structure of the mind occur in the very first description of the story. This first passage is a literary performance of a picture ( l. 1 to 34 ). Lexical field of “ gloom", " darkness" “ and “ decay “. It is haunted and it invites us to come inside with “ the vacant eye-like window “ = humanisation of the house. The house is also a face and we’re invited to look out this face. It is finally written, the poet is also at work, first sentence = alliteration in D. then alliteration in S. The description is characterized by virtuality. L 14 = utter depression of the soul. It can be the picture of a big house but also the dynamic of the virtually going down. But we know that it's going to be the house. Page 54 = paragraph 2 Physique and moral = main idea Roderick was convinced that the construction of the house has a certain effect on his moral state = mental state. In this paragraph there is evidence of Poe’s objective correlative. What John Ruskin would call = “ Pathetic Fallacy “. It's very well used because he puts on the same level the physique and the moral of the house. It therefore sustains its strategy throughout the storm. The underground of the house is where the vault is. Page 59 , paragraph 3 They bury Madeline in the vault / crypt. The Greek for crypt = secret. So the presence of the crypt which has been for centuries is also connected to the dark secret of Roderick himself. Page 51, paragraph 2 Symbol of the fissure = crack mind and also architecture because when the house collapses it is from the fissure. II- Roderick is very unlikely as a name. He's the most remarkable presence of the tale. Roderick is not the narrator, he's the object of the narrator, curiosity and observation. The narrator is an old friend of Roderick. Page 52 , paragraph 3 yet the… - forgotten Dignity in its appearance but it's also with the softness and the want ( un deficit ) of moral energy. Roderick is an artist, a man of many traits = music, painting, reading and writing poetry. Page 55, paragraph 3 + page 59 These titles exist but there are ancient worlds that are imaginary stories. He is also a sick man. He is defined as hypochondriac ( affliction mantale à l’époque ), he has a disease even though it's never totally characterized. On page 61 “ restrain hysteria “. There is no doubt that Roderick is characterized by pathology even if at no point were totally sure of the nature of the disease. Finally he's a destroyed lover Even if we can never be sure of the nature of Roderick's condition, something is suspicious as regards the relation he has with Madeline. Madeline, like Berenice, is ill and dies. Her dicease is the true cause of her disease. When Madeline returns from the grave, her embrace of her brother leads to dissolution ( page 64 ). = maybe romance between the two. Roderick is a doomed artist and the last survivor of his family. When he falls, the house of Usher also falls. III- To conclude = the role of the narrator He's an intradiegetic and not the protagonist. His presence is quite strong. He's the only one who remains at the end of the tale. It's slightly ambiguous. Does he play any part or is he just a helpless observer ? To the same extent, the narrator seems to have been infected by the general atmosphere of the house = page 60. Furthermore he becomes possessed, then occurs in page 61. Ultimately he can not reason anymore, in the final moment of panic he tries to be rational ( page 62 paragraph 2 ). It's already there in the text, Roderick is doomed. Page 63 paragraph 5. Even its fancy is defeated. So he hears her before Roderick does. Overall as far as the narrator is concerned, he seems to have been a victim of an affection / Possession. The contamination is complete and in fact it occurs early in the text but we can't notice it. Page 52 ( on one of the … - master. ). To usher someone = take you to your seat but here is almost as if he had been usherized = contaminated. The narrator who is also ushered can not be taken entirely as a reliable presence, his role is ambiguous and so is his perception. What happens at the end page 65, paragraph 3 = at the end of the tale nothing remains except the l sound = alliteration. What if all this has been a mental picture ? After all, the text brings images like hallucinations. The material devastation contrasts with the sense that it might have been just a nightmarish vision experienced by the narrator. Week 7 Intermedial versions of The House of Usher From Jean Epstein’s emblematic French avant-garde surrealist movie La chute de la maison Usher (1928) to more distant – and recent- adaptations such as Mike Fianagan’s Netflix mini-series (2023), the story has been adapted dozens of times The Transmedial transformations go on… The Corman Cycle In 1960, film director Roger Corman opened his 8- installment series of Edgar Allan Poe’s works with an adaptation of « The Fall of the House of Usher », inaugurating a specific gothic and colorful aesthetics. Indirect (allusive) adaptations = Crimson Peak by Guillermo del Toro 2013 Grotesque, arty adaptations, = The fall of the Louse of Usher, by Ken Russel, 2002 Exploitative adaptation ( for adults only ) = by David de Coteau, 2008 For further reading Edgar Allan Poe: une pensée de la fin Spectres de Poe dans la littérature et dans les arts. Re-imagining in popular culture. The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether (1845) A tale of the grotesque and the comic Unlike most of Poe’s famous tales of « psychological terror » or poetic ambition, « Tarr and Fether » is firmly anchored in the comic, the bizarre and also parody; the playful transformation of earlier material. Tarr and Fether » does begin as a self-parody of « Usher » Hop Frog, Loss of Breath, the Man that was used up, are other comic tales of our collection: 3 Grotesque combines a sense of disgust with laughter. Bizarre in English refers to extreme eccentricity and oddity. Mask of the Red Death (should read!!!) 129 mentions the bizarre The “ Maison de Santé “ is a gothic field by Poe in its contemplation, especially because it’s called a château. Active form of the verb « Usher », Poe is playfully constructing an echo with his previous work. Derivation from « tar and feathers », a humiliating practice started during the American Revolutionary Period, « tarring and feathering » remained in use in the later centuries. Some cases were observed until the 1970s The 1840’s and the Age of Asylums Our narrator is visiting a lunatic asylum, or a halfway house; the system of the doctors is explained to the reader on page 269. Their system is opposite to what we’d think of an asylum; it's the time when psychiatry was born and asylums were built in mass in America. In France is where we find the new basis for the Psychiatrist revolution. Philippe Pinel (1745 – 1826) « Another Revolution ? » it was decided that the man (the mad) should be treated as an individual and not a prisoner. Freeing the inmates was a revolution, this is often seen as a founding moment. Esquirol’s Heritage A student of Pinel’s, Esquirol was the founder of a new therapeutic approach to psychiatry, also known as the « moral treatment » of madness. He was highly influential in French politics and had the important 1838 law on asylum passed. (the doctor on which Tarr and Fether were based on) Even if it is a grotesque and imaginative tale, it is linked to the actuality of its time. Benjamin Rush (1746 – 1813) One of the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution, Benjamin Rush was also a pioneer in the development of medicine, and mental health in the United States. In 1812 he wrote the first treaty of « psychiatry » ever published in the United States. He was a physician in training. Rush’s legacy, the « Moral Thermometer » and the « Tranquilizing Chair » failed inventions. Pliney Earle (1808 – 1873) An acquaintance of Poe’s, Pliney Earle was one of the very first « psychiatrists » in the USA. He was also an occasional poet. After a trip to Europe in the late 1830’s he published: A Visit to Thirteen Asylums for the Insane in Europe in 1840. It is very likely that his experience influenced Poe in the writing of his tale.The tale may also be seen as a reflection on what is it to be mad Poe’s Tale A tale of comic exaggeration The “ Maison de Santé “ may be seen as a curiosity / opportunity, which is also combined with a sense of fear ( “ too good to be lost “ ). This visit however will gradually show itself to be a scene that had been inverted. The exaggeration constitutes the dynamic of the text. Meal = chaotic scene. Things go worse and worse until they find out that the lunatics have taken control of the asylum. Page 80= “ why… “ = lexical field of violence, and there’s a bit of confusion in Poe’s writing between what the orchestra plays and the settings. Uproar = soulèvement = moment d’émeute = anger/ agitation. A carnivalesque moment A carnival goes all the way back to medieval times, just before lent (carême) originally medieval it consisted in dressing up, but also in a reversal of the order of things, for a brief period, carnivals were made for rules to be broken, rejected, for order to be discarded, for confusion and chaos to replace the natural order of things. The carnival has to be regarded as a moment of freedom unleashed, of excess, a moment when madness becomes a possibility. M.Bahtim a théorisé que les carnavals sont les forces motrices des romans. P. 271 = lexical field of abundance, multitude. Poe concentrates his writing to create an effect of barbaric profusion, beyond civilization. « Wasteful Expenditure » P.278 = Poe builds up the chaos, « jested » « laughed » then musical elements, pandemonium ( assembly of demons ). The lunatics have taken power, rebelled, opened all the wine bottles and have this gigantic feast they locked the medical attendants away too. Is Poe suggesting that the world should be turned upside down or not ? For sure what he observes is a reversal of the world order, it invites us to consider the possibilities of a world upside-down. Finally, the role of perception in this tale, the narrator is intradiegetic, he’s a sane man, a curious one, he will be our reliable vantage point in a world of illusions, the story multiplies remarks about misunderstandings. All through the tale the narrator will wawer ( to lose strength, determination, or purpose, especially temporarily ), hesitate. The tale becomes an invitation to decode the world in a manner that might be able to tell what is mad and what is not. The narrator in this tale is very similar to the one in The Fall of the House of Usher, trying to make out the afflictions of his friends to decipher a world that has gone senseless. Legacy and rewritings « The Lunatics have taken over the asylum » is almost idiomatic. Week 8 William Wilson “ House Masquerade “ = short story published in 1837 by N.Hawthorne Connect with the final moment with William Wilson in Venice during the carnival. William Wislon is also the only poem that has an autobiographical dimension, it's found in the early pages of the story. For instance the recollection of the school ( l.-2, paragraph 2 ). “ Fancy “= weak memory, something dangerous that can take you from reality. Page 71 = playfulness with these autobiographical elements. It is a tale of duplication where we meet the figure of the double also known as the “ doppelganger". It was very popular in the 19th C. A double is a figure that is enigmatic and confusing, in WW the identity between the two is extremely striking. First of all he is introduced as “ name sake “ then becomes “ a twin “ and then becomes “ a figure of rivalry “. The figure of the double ( Dr. Jekyll and mr.Hyde , The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 ) which is a repetition with the difference, both the same and not the same, has been really efficient in the cinema ( fight club, black swan ). In our story, which has not been adapted much in cinema, WW is a frightening reflection of the narrator = same name / birthday / curriculum = he became a haunting twin. Page 74, paragraph 2 - enter them again = he’s in boarding school, intense physical proximity. This is a mirror-moment with oneself. This is very carefully brought. It looks like The tell-tale heart. The word “ horror “ “ iciness “ and lexical field of “ fear “. In that moment of reflection, our narrator has an impossible image of himself which is at the same time “ horror “. In Greek mythology, Narcis was obsessed with his appearance. The narrator has a narcissistic crisis. The resemblance creates a lot of control and the narrator loses his senses. The confrontation with the reflection generated a narcissistic crisis. What is interesting is that Poe was writing before psychology and everything. When the “ horror “ grasps our narrator, he is said to be processed with an “ intolerable horror “ which is “ objectless “. There's no object because it's all about the subject and it's all subjective. So the double is not only used as a figure of authority and it's not a prop but a narcissistic crisis, and that is an important moment. The function of the double in William Wisson: The double appears as a force unleashed, the double generally stands for the savage / brutal. In fight club, the double is fighting and everything. In William Wilson, the double is “ a rival “ = an antagonist who has a supervising function. He is suggested to describe that. “ distasteful supervision “ “ he’s impertinent supervision “ “ imperialist domination “ = omnipresence and omnipotence ( you can do everything ). In that construction William Wilson has a “ super-ego “. Poe’s paranoia. After all WW is constantly there, no matter what the narrator does, WW catches up with him. Page 81, first paragraph = He is the other within the same. He will always be present. Page 82,paragraph 2 - end = We have got the extremity of terror where he confronts Wison at the end. We also have a second mirror-moment, it appears to an extremity at the same. The final effect is a brutal one but the question remains about who murdered whom. For many critics, WW is emblematic and Todorov thought that what makes a novel fantastic is the fact that you can’t decide. Many questions are raised after the publication of this short story. Conclusion WW is a remarkable tale using the motif of doppelganger, in a truly “ fantastique “ manner. Furthermore, the story stresse primarily existential terror and ends with an ultimate hesitation. Week 9 The Black cat Published in the Saturday Post in august 1843 Expended variation of “ the tell-tale heart “ Another tale of confessional madness with a hint of the supernatural. A domestic tale of hellish proportions. What reading for such a story ? The opening paragraph = p.230 Awe = l’effroi qui peut être bien ou terrible. We can notice the very strong insistence of the first person narrator. I with no name = recurrent in Poe’s writing. = Almost a saturation. Line = the necessity for the narrator to “ unburden his soul “ = confession of somebody who seems close to death. Intensity and solemnity. Also a sense of control. Introduced to “ horror “ which is set at home ( l.1 ) = “ homely narrative “ = superlatif narration. He created an antithetical ( = antithesis ) reaction between what is wild and what is homy. Like a cat or a pet. The friction between these 2 superlatives we are almost directly introduced to this cat. The ambiguity and this antithesis works also with the narrator “ mad am i not “ = l. 3. By inverting the syntax the reader is also invited to analyze the ambiguity. Strategy of confusion in the black cat, the narrator who denies its madness, will demonstrate it further on and whereas he's nor unreliable as “ the tell tale heart “ will be following him as his descent. Domestic Pet ? Cat and Wife While seemingly focusing on the cat, the narrator repeatedly associates the animal’s presence with his ( unnamed ) wife, who will also be his ultimate victim. Page 230-1 “ I married early - to be remembered “ The cat and the wife will be discreetly yet continuously associated throughout the whole story, until the very end ( 234-235-238 ). Little by little, it seems that the wife becomes more and more associated. The first cat but also the second one. Page 234, paragraph 2. Reverse and paragraph 3 = criminal hatred. The presence of the gallows almost becomes an object of obsession from our narrator. 235, paragraph 2 = intense with exclamation, dashes, capital letters … Here the writing is trying to mimic a fit of anxiety or horror when he recognizes the gallows. Everytime the cat is transformed into a monster there is some kind of association with the wife. Getting rid of Pluto “ The spirit of perverseness “ The account of Pluto’s deliberate murder is an exercise in the writing of cruelty and transgression, a fit of irrationality governed by a sense of guilt blended with demoniacal possession. Moreover Pluto = greek myth = death 231 , paragraph 3 = the act of cruelty is actually the first step into transgression. 232, paragraph 2 = important passage because invention of psychological notion = “ perverseness “. It seems to connect with immorality and transgression. Called it like that to make a more philosophical notion. We find it here the antithesis. Poe is writing about some kind of drives ( une pulsion ) but of course at the time of writing = no such theories. It links to religion. Is it a sin and moral ? Contradictory instinct and irrational moment of transgression and irresistible moment to resist. In 1844, Poe wrote “ The imp of the perverse “ which explained more the “perverseness“. The return of the cat The cat’s “ return “ sets off the mechanics of destructive repetition operating in the tale. The second animal, quickly associated with the wife, also soon turns into an object of hatred. 233, paragraph 2 = “ conscious “ and “ reason “ and “ fancy “. Paragraph 3 = first apparition of the second cat. Fantasy ? Fancy ? “ Phantasm “ The cat turns into an obsession, a dreaded presence and an ultimate foe for the narrator. The narrator becomes a “ droomed “ figure, living in “ absolute dread “ of the animal. 234, paragraph 4 = the cat has become “ a beast “ ( = un fauve ) showing that the narrator is trapped in fancy but also in guilt. 235, paragraph 3 = horror of the animal, the dread which here is for the brute beast which haunts the narrator. Possession and “ Night-Mare “ p 235 Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare ( 1781 ) Fuseli’s painting was first exhibited in London in 1782 and experienced a large success in spite of its scandalous nature and erotic connotations. The tale’s situation might be said to repeat that of the painting A hidden “ revenge “ ? Page 235, paragraph 4 = the wife again after talking to the demoniacal possessions as an unfortunate sufferer of the narrator’s madness Paragraph 5 = what is interesting is that what is presented as an impulse might in fact may be premeditated. If we read on the surface we might think that the wife wasn't at the right place at the wrong time etc but it might be some kind of premeditation. The narrator had remorse The tale’s ending The tale ends on a climatic “ grotesque effect “, associating the wife and the car in a gory picture designed to impress the reader’s mind. It also signifies the irremediable doom and downfall of the narrator. 237, paragraph 3 = a sense of relief because both the cat and the wife disappeared. paragraph 5 - end. Both horrifying and ridiculous at the same time. Lexical Field of human to demoniacal. That final scene it's very much what account of this short story Conclusion Poe’s black cat is one of the most accomplished stories of the author. Blending elements of domesticity with witchcraft, superstition, and evil, it is also a tale in which a sense of personal doom prevails. The tale gave way to many critical responses, some biographical, some psychoanalytical ( Marie Bonaparte in a Freudian perspective ), other religious and mystical. The story was also a great source of inspiration for the Symbolists as well as a pre-text for feminist retaliation, as with Joyce Carol oates’ negative rewriting of the tale. Week 10 The White Cat, Joyce Carol Oates Intertextuality = 2nd degree literature. It challenges the idea of originality. Chat makes an author remarkable is often his singularity, originality, the way of writing but if this was an illusion, what if everything is an adaptation of real stories. The imitation which links to the notion of pastiche ( painting ) = you imitate the style of another author to reach the level of that writing. Plagiarism is a forbidden intertextuality. It is an unacknowledged for or imitation or even reproduction. The forgery which is even more illegal than plagiarism = fake text by an existing author. Can be parallel to a hoax. The transformation of a text = when you transform it, you do not imitate it, it can be serious and have a purpose. Ex = Star Wars is an imitation of “ the searchers “. It can also be playful, what you get is a parody. The notion of influence, Harold Bloom ( most famous theories of literature ), he talked about “ the anxiety of influence “ in a book that he published in 1973. That's a book of emancipation and of overcoming anxiety that takes you to maturity. Edgar Allan Poe became a major figure of influence over the time. Joyce Carol Oates had said at one point that “ who has not been influenced by Poe ? However indirectly, however obliquely. “ Joyce Carol Oates Born in 1938 in Lockport ( New York ), she is one of the most active writers in the United states. Her writings include novels, short stories, plays, detective stories and non-fiction. Her distinctive “ feminine voice “ makes her a unique female writer and a major author of “ American Gothic “. One good book is: “ Blonde “, 2000, fictional biography of Marylin Monroe. The “ White Cat “ as a parody The 1987 short story “ The White Cat “ belongs to the register of second-degree writing. As a playful transformation of Poe’s original tale, it has both a comic purpose and a transformative goal. In the opening section p.73 it is not a manifest intertextuality. The narrative mode is different, the story is told in the third person, extradiegetic. Navigate between the characters and the cat. The introduction of the protagonist is also different, the name is given. “ Julius “ conotes the figure of an empereur so authority and masculinity. What we also learn is that the cat has a name, “ Miranda “ the doctor of the prince in “ the temperance “ written by Shakespeare which is a strong figure. The growing “ animosity “ = “ hatred “, dislike … Animosity = Animal. Little by little, the animosity will take on dramatic purpose. On page 74-75, the word “ fancy “ is important. The repetition of the word “ household “ ( foyer, ménage ) is also interesting. We saw that the black cat was a twisted tale of murder not toward the cat but the wife but here femininity is brought forward = one Alyssa, one female cat and just one man. On page 77, there's a very strong moment face to face with the cat’s eyes = total dimension. Not just the eyes but the iris of the cat. On page 86-87 = crucial moment of the story “ the dream “. “ glaring eyes “ = stare in a nasty way ( regard noir ). As he wakes up between sleep and wakefulness, he notices that Miranda is all over him, not like a nightmare. There's a lexical field of sexual intercourse. At that moment, the dream becomes associated with something that makes him wonder about the possibility of Miranda being an incarnation of femininity “ he could not begin to imagine “. The wife and the cat are the victims. Beneath the cat there's Alyssa, she's like a toy-wife, she's extremely beautiful, prize wife. The association between the wife and the cat is there !! Joyce carol sites explore the differences and twist back to make the man the victim of excessive femininity that he cannot grasp, that leaves him breathless. Interesting feminine twist from Poe. That does not however prevent the tale from slipping into these cartoonish moments that are everywhere in the tale. ( ex: Tom and Jerry ) = page 91. On page 91 “ the tactical error “ is a very dynamic moment, full of verbs of action. We see here that the madness here is not as Poe. Here is the kind of madness that we see in a cartoon or a video = madness of action not of the mind.  On page 94 = suicidal run + elipse = this is it For Mr..Miur, he is paralysed at the mercy of anybody else. Positions of utter powerlessness contradict with the figure of authority of the beginning. There's a final punishment, he has got blind just as Pluto had gone blind. On page 96 we see that he gives up, in the wonderful moment in which he embraces his condition. It finishes with a love declaration for Miranda. If we read between the lines it could be a declaration from Joyce.C.Oates to Poe. Conclusion Written in a very different context than the original story by Poe, Joyce Carol Oates “ the white cat” is a playful and critical variation on Poe's “ The Black Cat “. It is a parody more than a pastiche as it transforms one singular text rather than imitates it. Where JC Oates does not directly condemn Poe’s tale of horror, it certainly aims at “ refunctionning “ it, opting for a welcome feminine twist that pays playful literary justice to the two victims of the original tale ( the cat and the wife ). “ The White Cat “ demonstrates that literature is also a space for adaptability and that even “ monumental “ writers of earlier periods can be played with, and revisited in different contexts. Week 11 The Murders of the Rue Morgue https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section5/ Sherlock Holmes, A.Conan Doyle ( 1890s ) , Grande Bretagne Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie ( 1930s-50s ), Grande Bretagne Philip Marlov, Raymond chandler ( 1940s ), United States They all talk in English and they're all detectives / investigators. They all have the same father, literary figure = Auguste Dupin ( The Murders of the Rue Morgue ). First detective of the history of fiction and literature. Also the inventor of the detective story. I- Narrative of detection Poe call a tale of ratiocination, that all features have the same protagonist = Auguste Dupin Rue Morgue = imaginary street. Promote imagination in the sense of supernatural or fantastic. Poe was not at all a realist writer. These stories invite us to use the mechanic of reasoning to make sense of the tale we are reading. Page 92, 1st paragraph = almost prologue ( theoretical ), what is promoted = mental, acumen, truth, method = lexical field of reasoning. What the writer is putting forward is “ the moral ( mental ) activity “ and there is a word in italics “ disentangles “. The narrative of detection is that smtg he takes for granted, it differs from the fantastic or the supernatural. That modal = to solve things has some similarities with mathematica = use your moral capacity to ratiocinate in order to solve the puzzle … = The literary ancalagon to the mathematical puzzle. He chose Dupin because he was a French mathematician. There is this belief that writing in fiction is a great power of the mind to make sense, finding solutions, to explore anaticaly and its to Poe an important capacity = genius and imagination. Page 94, paragraph 2 = still part of the prologue. It stresses the tensions between being ingenious and analysis. To Poe analysis is the key word = being able to organize fragments, which he called “ analytical act “. In that prologue we are given that the prevalence of the analytical mind makes sense of what can be explained. The use of logic is not detached from the extraordinary. Page 113, paragraph 1 = Dupin rejects the possibility for the “ preternatural “. Here he stresses the almost “ preternatural “ and the very “ extraordinary “ is to be taken seriously. Method which is based on the rejection of the supernatural. II- Dupin’s extraordinary character Page 109, paragraph 2 / 3 = Mode of reasoning = rejection of the supernatural as a basis. The space of a novel. Dupin is some kind of “ alter ego “ to Poe. Dupin like Poe lived as a outsider, he's great intellect in the society, removed from the daily agitation, material concerned of the fellow citizens Page 94-95, paragraph 4 = example of the type of man he is. To stir = to mix something / agitate something. He is a bookish character and detached himself from what is simply organic. “We existed within ourselves alone “ = this stress on the subjective as opposed to the reality of the world. 1st person narrator , secondary function = to comment and observe upon the protagonist and his mind. Same as “ the HOTFOU “. What is noticeable is the presence of the word “ mad “. “ To the rest of the world we would have been regarded as madman “ = figure of exception and exclusion. Dupin is everything but a madman, he's observant, his capacity amazes our narrator. Dupin, who is close to a poet and a madman, is obsessed with truth = major element of Dupin’s character. Which are guided to the quest for what is truth. 113 “ my ultimate object is only the truth “ showing how in fact this character should be read as a philosophical way = mental investigation that leads to the truth. He will adjust his focus to look for it, as the others do not. Page 105, “ thus there is … “ = story about the stars… astronomy, also connected with “ Eurecha, 1846 “ = philosophical poem. III- the MRM as the near-perfect case Poe shows his skill at crafting a mysterious case that seems a perfect case, an extraordinary murder without the shadow of a clue. Page 99, paragraph 3 = introduction which will then be a relay of many testimonies from various people across Paris that is reproduced into the newspaper. Page 100, paragraph 1 = “ clue “ is crucial. Page 110-11 = shows that the counter intuition in Dupin's mind lifts the impossibilities and turns them into clues. The main concern for Dupin is to appreciate how the room could have been left = the crime scene has to find a way out. Dupins goes to the Rue Morgue and operates by going out of the window and not through the door. “ there was escape from this conclusion “ = as Poe no escape from this reasoning mind. Ultimate conclusion = the murders could have nor been perpetuated by a human being. In a tale where the supernatural is excluded = wtf ? Who is responsible for that ? By an animal ( ourang-outang ) = symbol = the contrast to Dupin’s mental strength and ability. It's a way for Poe to claim the superiority of analytical mind. Reading this short story, ultimately the solution of the crime may be less existing that the all method program reading to it.