SBL Summaries & Overview PDF

Session 1: Old English Literature (449-1066) Texts in the reader, pages 9-10: “The Lord’s Prayer” The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [Beowulf (excerpt), just have a look at the excerpt when it is mentioned] LOOKING BACK AT THE EARLIEST KNOWN BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, ONE HAS TO CONSIDER SEVERAL ASPE...

Session 1: Old English Literature (449-1066) Texts in the reader, pages 9-10: “The Lord’s Prayer” The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [Beowulf (excerpt), just have a look at the excerpt when it is mentioned] LOOKING BACK AT THE EARLIEST KNOWN BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, ONE HAS TO CONSIDER SEVERAL ASPECTS: THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN (here: a very short version): Early Britain has a long history of raids and invasions by other peoples and tribes, Picts, Romans, Frisians, Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Norsemen, i.e.Vikings, to name but a few. Originally, there were the Britons, Celtic people who inhabited Britain before the Romans came. The latter turned Britannia into one of their many provinces (42-420 AD). Once the Romans left Britain defenceless behind, the Picts, who lived in what we call Scotland today, increased their forceful attacks and raids. In fact, some of the Germanic tribes like the Angles and the Saxons came to England on request to deal mainly with the Picts. After they succeeded, many of them decided to stay in Britain which was under their control by then. (Germanic invasions, www.awesomestories.com, accessed on 20 April, 2020) We have two text samples in the reader which describe one example of how this came about. Please have a look at the excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle about Hengist and Horsa, reader, p. 9. Here is a translation to help you understand the text: A.D. 449. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Wurtgern, king of the Britons to his assistance, landed in Britain in a place that is called Ipwinesfleet; first of all to support the Britons, but they afterwards fought against them. A.D. 455. This year Hengest and Horsa fought with Wurtgern the king on the spot that is called Aylesford. His brother Horsa being there slain, Hengest afterwards took to the kingdom with his son Esc. (Source: https://archive.org/stream/Anglo- saxonChronicles/anglo_saxon_chronicle_djvu.txt, accessed on 20 April, 2020) By the way, the name of King Wurtgern is sometimes also written “Vortigern“. So Hengist and Horsa were “invited” by King Vortigern to help him with the Picts, they were successful – and decided to stay for good. At the height of the Anglo-Saxon Period, ca. 550 AD, there were seven kingdoms, the so called Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Kent, and Sussex (➔ map, reader, p. 1). Yet political stability did not last forever. First raids and invasions by Vikings destabilised the realm with only the kingdom of Wessex remaining. Yet Anglo-Saxon Alfred the Great, 9th century, became king of all England. Then hereditary quarrels concerning the question who was to be the rightful heir to the throne after Edward the Confessor’s death led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Anglo-Saxon era ended as William of Normandy “the Conqueror” became the next king. THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (an even shorter version): Whoever came to England to stay and managed to gain influence brought their language with them. In the case of Old English which is strongly influenced by the Germanic languages of Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes, we notice that the dominant Late West Saxon version is not easy for us to read: Anglo-Saxon England had developed in the later tenth century its own remarkably consistent form of written English, based on the dialect of Wessex, and it is in this language that most of its literary documents survive; but Late West Saxon is first accessible to the modern reader only as a foreign language, whose grammar and vocabulary have to be learned from books.1 ➔ Have a look at “Lord’s Prayer”, reader, p. 9. You may check the following version of how we think it might have sounded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE71znjuba4 THE PRODUCTION OF LITERATURE: The population at the time was relatively small and only a minority was able to read and write (the clergy, e.g. monks in monasteries). And if they did write something, it was not necessarily in (Old) English: […] the quantities of English verse and prose actually produced during these centuries were, relatively speaking, small. […] It must also be remembered that the literary efforts of this relatively small population were by no means confined to the English language. Authors who aspired to address the larger learned world regularly wrote in Latin; and Chaucer was perhaps the first Englishman deliberately to write for posterity in his native tongue [= Middle English, later!]2 LOST LITERATURE: Many poems, songs, etc., were not written down at all but presented as oral literature. In other words, they were memorised and “performed” in front of an audience, in the mead-hall, e.g. by a scop who is a minstrel, a bard. In other words: Not all of the texts were written down, many are lost. We only know a few surviving texts of the Old English epoch, and even fewer samples which are in Old English, i.e. Late West Saxon: 1 J.A. Burrow, “Old and Middle English. C. 700-1485, Pat Rogers (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, “, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-58; here: p. 3. 2 Ibid, p.1.  A second consideration, also quantitative in character, concerns lost literature. The amount of this can never be determined, but is certainly much greater than in later periods. A literary work in […] vernacular might never get written down at all, or else, if it did, the copies may have been lost.3 LITERATURE THAT FORTUNATELY SURVIVED: Mainly verse (religious) and prose texts (often chronicles and/or religious topics, due to the Christianisation, St. Augustine, 6th century AD). Prose: e.g. the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which was not in Latin as King Alfred the Great especially ordered it to be in Anglo-Saxon. One of its sources is Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede, or Beda venerabilis, a monk, scholar and writer is considered to be the first English historian, a.k.a. “the father of English history”. ➔ Illustration of Beda venerabilis, reader, p. 1. Verse: e.g. “Caedmon’s Hymn” which is included in Bede’s History. One of the most important texts which has survived: Beowulf, the oldest heroic epic poem (700 or 1000 AD), consists of ca. 3,000 lines in alliterative verse. The story is set in Scandinavia, it mixes old Germanic pagan legends and folk-tales and blends in Christian comments/reading of events. Please keep in mind: Alliterative verse, the dominant technique to be found in Old English verse! Based on a common Germanic tradition of oral poetry, going back to a pre-literate age (no writing at all). The alliterative verse line consists of two parts which are bound together by alliteration, i.e. the repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of different words. Effect: it is easier to remember and memorise the verse. 3 Ibid., pp. 2-3. ➔ Have a look at the excerpt from Beowulf, e.g. lines 4 and 5: the repetition of the consonants “s” and “m”, respectively. IN OUR NEXT SESSION, WE WILL BE DEALING WITH LITERATURE IN MIDDLE ENGLISH. Please read: the “General Prologue“ and the “plot summary“, pp. 16 – 18. Have a LOOK at the “Miller‘s Tale“, pp. 19 - 29 2. Middle English Literature (1066-1485) After William of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Britain was ruled by a king and his court who were French. Accordingly, French became the official language at court, while Latin remained the language in church and in administration. In order to communicate there was a slow fusion of Anglo-Saxon English which was spoken by the majority of inhabitants and French: in other words, Anglo-Norman English, gradually developing into what we call today Middle English. As modern readers we still see (and hear) a lot of differences to ‘our’ English after the Great Vowel Shift, but Middle English is already much closer to Modern English than Old English. In the feudal society of the Middle Ages, we find the THREE ESTATES OF THE REALM (“Ständegesellschaft”) which consisted of the first estate (nobility), second estate (clergy), third estate (merchants and peasants). The King was situated above this triangle. Court culture developed and as part of it, the principle of courtly love, which celebrated as well as idealized the chaste relationship between the perfect ladyship and her chivalrous knight. [You may have a look at homepages like http://www.lordsandladies.org/courtly-love.htm if you like] Literature: As far as the developments in Middle English drama is concerned, there were types of play called miracle play, mystery play and morality play. Their origin lies in religious liturgical services to accompany calendar festivals and holidays such as Easter, etc. Later they lost their distinctively religious topics and their link to church services. The most well-known writer of this epoch is Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), also known as the “Father of English Literature”. In times when French and Latin were the official literary languages in Britain, he became immensely successful with his writings in Middle English: “Chaucer was perhaps the first Englishman to deliberately write for posterity in his native tongue.” 1 Apart from Troilus and Criseyde which he composed in RHYME ROYAL (seven- line stanzas rhyming ababbcc), he also wrote the Canterbury Tales. This frame narrative deals with the collected stories of thirty pilgrims on their way to Thomas Becket’s shrine at the Cathedral of Canterbury where Becket, once the Archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered by knights of King Henry II in 1170. Becket was declared a martyr and a saint shortly after his death. The Canterbury Tales are incomplete. According to the story-telling contest of the innkeeper and the group of pilgrims, there should have been 120 tales altogether, but we only have 24 tales, and their planned order is not clear, either. The tales are remarkable since they offer a broad, panoramic picture of society at Chaucer’s time. Each of the chracters comes from one of the three estates of the realm and is presented without adhering to hierarchical order. The narrative style shows great perfection as each narrator tells his or her tale in 1 J.A. Burrow, “Old and Middle English. C. 700-1485, Pat Rogers (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, “, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-58;p. 1. what seems to be a naturalistic, life-like fashion. Some of the tales are very humorous and funny, some also serve to criticize society’s shortcomings. A fine example is “The Miller’s Tale”, in which a bawdy and drunken miller tells an adulterous story that makes fun of the concept of courtly love as well as of members of the first and the third estate of the realm. It is about a carpenter by the name of John, his lovely and very young wife called Alison (both third estate) and two clerks called Nicholas and Absalon (second estate). Blasphemy is also included as the topic of “Noah’s Flood” is brought into play, and, last, but not least, it is a story that ridicules a carpenter, a profession that is often linked with Jesus Christ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er27Hte4xxI Here is a nice summary of the topic courtesy of YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZrBr9DOwA Please read the poems on pages 57-59 for our next session. Session 3: The Sonnet in England (Renaissance I) There are quite a few things you will already know about the Renaissance in general. Looking back at things, the Renaissance is commonly seen as the period of time between the Middle Ages and (more) modern times. This epoch was a complex European series of developments, especially in the wide field of culture. It was inspired by the tendency to look back at the past and learn from highly acclaimed (Greek and Roman) philosophers of old, their values, and appreciate some of Antiquity’s major milestones in literature, architecture, the arts. This loving appreciation or, one might almost say imitation, of days gone by is why we call it Renaissance, i.e. “rebirth”. The rise of humanism at the time is also very important, famous names to know would be Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More. The Renaissance began in Italy around 1350 and reached England… somewhat later. Actually, the time span which is usually mentioned is 1485-1603. In fact, this also happened to be the time of the Tudor realm in England. But before we come to, say, ‘notorious’ King Henry VIII and his six wives, there are other important events which influenced the English version of the Renaissance. In 1476, a man called William Caxton brought the first printing press to England (okay, Gutenberg was faster 😉). America was discovered in the year 1492. As far as the then strongly interrelated topics of religion and politics were concerned, please keep in mind that these were the times of the Reformation in Europe. If you think of Germany, the year 1517 in combination with the name Martin Luther might ring a bell. The struggle between the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant developments in continental Europe was obvious, which is where Henry VIII comes in. Mind you, England’s Catholic King Henry VIII used to be a loyal “Defender of the Faith”, a strong follower of the Pope. But the trouble began when Henry wanted to divorce his first wife, Catharine of Aragon from Spain. The Pope did not agree as the couple already had a daughter, Mary, who later on got quite a reputation herself as “Bloody Mary”. As the married couple had a child, the marriage was valid according to church law and could not be annulled. Henry wanted a son to follow him on the throne though, plus a different wife, namely Anne Boleyn. When he could not get an official divorce, he simply split with the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 and declared himself “Head of the Church of England”. In this function, he could grant the divorce by himself, which he made use of more than once. All in all, Henry VIII had six wives - one after the other though. “And they lived happily ever after” would sound like heavy sarcasm. Divorce, beheading, or death in childbed awaited five of Henry’s wives. Only his final wife, Catherine Parr, managed to outlive her husband. If you want to read more about the wives, have look at: https://www.history.com/news/henry-viii-wives By the way, here is a picture of King Henry VIII: Oops! Sorry, this is actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers starring as Henry VIII in the TV series The Tudors (photo: pinterest.com) Now, this is more like it! A portrait of King Henry VIII (photo: luminarium.org) I guess we can detect a fair amount of ‘poetic licence’ in this example. As we are speaking of literature already, it is time now to have a look at some of the developments in literature of the English Renaissance, here: poetry, or, to drive home the message:The introduction of the sonnet in England! Famous names you should know are Petrarch who was an Italian poet; Wyatt; Surrey; Sidney, as well as Spenser. The Italian poet Petrarch is mentioned here, in case you are wondering, because he proved highly influential for the introduction of the sonnet in England, especially with his sonnets about his idealized woman called “Laura” (Nope, no relation to Mr Wendler’s muse, er, wife). Both English poets Wyatt and Surrey were influenced by Petrarch’s poetry. They introduced the sonnet to Renaissance England which is why Wyatt and Surrey are often called the “fathers of the English sonnet”. A little later, Sidney and Spencer made the sonnet popular, they published their sonnets in the form of cycles (or collections of topic-related sonnets). And then Master Shakespeare took over, some of his extremely famous sonnets will be the subject of our next session. But let’s return to the technical term itself for a moment. What is a sonnet? The Italian word “sonnetto” means something like “little song”, using the word “suono”, i.e. “sound”, or “Wohlklang”. The key characteristic of a sonnet is…? Yes, you know this, don’t you, they consist of fourteen lines! ALWAYS 14 lines! When we talk about the Petrarchan or Italian form of a sonnet, we usually count: one octave of eight lines – or two quatrains of 4 lines – plus one sestet, i.e. six lines, alternatively: two tercets of three lines each, all in all, our legendary fourteen lines according to the following rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde. The first part of the sonnet is normally a question, with the answer to follow in the second part. Or you could see it as: problem – solution I did ask you to have a look at Petrarch’s sonnet “Rime 140” which is about a speaker who is in love, yet his beloved is annoyed about his lack of (self-) discipline or self-control. So, in order to please her, he has to battle against himself and hide his love. You will find this a strange approach to the concept of love really, but I will explain this in a moment. If you compare the first sonnet by Wyatt and the poem by Surrey, pp. 57-58, which similarities and differences do you notice? Yes, you are right! Both are English translations of Petrarch’s sonnet “Rime 140”: Wyatt’s “The Long Love”, is closer to the original. Surrey’s “Love that doth reign” is more like a rephrasing of Petrach’s original, it does not even attempt to translate everything word by word. Now if we compare Petrarch’s sonnet in our text collection to Wyatt’s version on the same page and simply focus on the languages in use, what do you notice? In other words, if you compare, say, the Italian and the English word endings? The Italian vowel endings of the single words are very different from words in English which show fewer vowel endings, but far more consonant endings, hence: If you intend to present your complex ideas in the very compact form of fourteen lines and a very strict and pure rhyme scheme, it seems to be rather difficult to do so in English due to the sound of the language and the many different word endings. Actually, this is one of the main reason why Surrey’s version is more elegant than Wyatt’s, it uses rhymes which simply sound more pleasant. Equally interesting, here is the explanation for the strange behaviour of Petrarch’s/Wyatt’s/Surrey’s speaker in love. In fact, even though we know that the Renaissance was a movement which tried to steer away from the Middle Ages, these sonnets do show that the Medieval concept of love (→ Session on Middle English) was still there, in a way. During the Middle Ages the concept of an ideal courtly love, or “Minne(-sang)” as we call it in German, was established. The lady at court was loved by her knight, but only in a spiritual, platonic way. There was no promise of physical contact, nor sex involved, no encouragement, no hope, there was only room for modest adoration and the knight’s pledge to be on his very best behaviour to honour the perfect purity of his lady in question. This concept of love cleanses love from passion, it adds questions of discipline, morals, improves the knight’s chivalry and enhances the lady’s high and immaculate reputation. Of course, people from the nobility did get married (;-). But the concept of courtly love was seen in a different, a more detached light since the adored lady in question could be married to another but still be at the centre of a knight’s serious admiration. This did not mean adultery - at least not in theory. In the love poetry of the Renaissance, we also find strong aspects of platonising love, namely the sublimation of sexual desires. Here, we can detect another way of explaning things, using notions of the ancient past. If we take the philosopher Plato’s complex definition of love which he sees in different forms, we recognise a struggle in many of the poems: Eros (physical love, sex) versus Agape (benevolent love, love of the soul) It is often a struggle for a higher love. This struggle is often termed “psychomachia”, a war within the soul which is torn between spiritual longing and physical desires. Any such conflict within the soul, or between the body and the soul is called “psychomachia”, this is also true if it refers to a representation of such a conflict, whether artistic or literary. Speaking of which: Homer Simpson’s psychomachia (Photo: Mbird.com) Originally, the psychomachia goes back to the allegorical fight between personified virtues and vice which was described in a poem by Prudentius, a Christian Roman writer. This poem was published ca. 400 AD, consists of 1000 lines and proved to be highly influential in medieval literature and culture as it dealt with oppositions like chastity versus lust, etc. If you read the text excerpts from Spenser and Sidney (pp. 58 - 59) you will detect many more examples of psychomachia. In the excerpts from The Amoretti by Spenser, you will find lines such as: “But this continual, cruel, civil war, the which myself gainst my self do make” (l 5-6). By the way, his preferred rhyme scheme is abab bcbc cdcd ee. The excerpts from Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella are even more graphic. I must admit I find the argument between Virtue and Love as personified potential lovers of Stella’s rather funny: They both bicker about who truly ‘deserves’ this wonderful lady. Virtue claims that although Stella might be beautiful on the outside, her inner beauty is far more impressive. Love, however, has a different opinion: Virtue can gladly have Stella’s perfect inner beauty, as long as he will have the beautiful “rest” – naughty! Less raunchy – here are Sidney’s favourite rhyme schemes: abba abba cdcd ee or, alternatively, abab abab cdcd ee. By the way, in both cases the bibliographical background is quite interesting, too. Philip Sidney’s title is very telling: Astrophil and Stella are not the names of any ordinary couple of lovers. Nope! “Stella” means “star”; “astro” refers to “star” as well, and “phil” is derived from the Greek word for …“love”. This is a cycle of sonnets about a star and a star lover. Yes, no, not really like a star and a fan, a rock star and his groupie, a celebrity cum stalker (a rather sordid combination, really). In fact, “Phil” Sidney was very much in love with a woman called Penelope Deveraux, they were even engaged when they were very young – until her family opted for a “better” choice and she was married to somebody else. Later on, she was “eligible” once more, but this time she decided herself against Sidney – and married somebody ELSE once more. It does not come as a surprise that our ‘Astrophil’ was not amused. Spenser’s cycle of sonnets, the Amoretti, are love poems which he dedicated to his later wife, Elizabeth Boyle. They are the literal proof of his best intentions, his serious courtship, so to speak. Now, this speaker’s struggle for a higher love does not end in defeat as in Petrarch’s “Rime 140”, or its English translations by Wyatt and Surrey. It does not end as a complete desaster as with “Phil” Spenser’s speaker and his ‘love interest’, either. No, Spenser’s beloved lady says “I DO!”, when he pops the question. So, in this case, one could say “All’s well that ends well”. Which reminds me – in next week’s session we will be dealing with love triangles, love and hate, all this by courtesy of Master William Shakespeare. Take care! Summary: Shakespearean Sonnets (Renaissance II) William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Here we have one of the literary heavyweights – who does not know his name? Actor, dramatist and poet – was there anything this guy could not do? Fact is there are many people, sorry: experts who believe that “the Bard” did not write all these fabulous texts by himself, but that he simply allowed, say, a nobleman with literary inclinations who wanted to keep a low profile to use his name. His very own patron, Edward de Vere the 17th Earl Oxford, is one of the favourite candidates, but there are even more possible names involved as far as the conspiracy, sorry: controversy about the authorship of Shakespeare’s texts are concerned. If you are interested in this topic, just google it and you will have enough to read for yonks. One of the many examples is http://www.bardweb.net/author.html Well, it is not for me to decide, but I actually prefer the idea that our William was an outstanding as well as prolific genius. In this session, we will have a look at Shakespeare’s poetic oeuvre. Apart from his epic poems, Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece, William Shakespeare is famous for his Sonnets, his cycle of sonnets was published in 1609. Often quoted, often recited,even today, after more than 400 years, Shakespeare’s sonnets seem to be a timeless treasure. 1 The conditions of publication are not perfectly clear, the texts might have been pirated as there are many errors and mistakes. All in all, we know of 154 sonnets with a typical, Shakespearean sonnet structure: Three quatrains (of four lines each) plus a final couplet of two lines which equals (again;-) our fabulous FOURTEEN lines. Shakespeare’s favourite rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Last, but not least, the final couplet (gg) may function as a forceful summary of or even as a surprising “turn” to what has been discussed in the quatrains. 1 Time for a funny anecdote: Way back when, British Musician Sting published an album called Nothing Like The Sun, the title of which might remind you of Sonnet 130. Actually, he even uses the first line of Shakespeare’s sonnet for the lyrics of his song “Sister Moon”, which is also on this album. In fact, the musician loves telling the following story: "One night I was walking on Highgate Hill when a drunk accosted me and kept asking, 'How beautiful is the moon' I replied, 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun...' He said that was a good answer, and lurched off. Shakespeare works quite well with drunks, I've found." (Spin, 12/87); (https://www.sting.com/discography/album/18/Albums; accessed: 24/11/2020) In Shakespeare’s cycle of sonnets, certain characters can be singled out: the poet (normally the speaker) the beloved boy (a.k.a. the fair youth) the dark lady the rival poet The exact order of all 154 sonnets is not perfectly clear but there are good reasons for assuming that the numbers as you will find them are likely to be correct. We had a good look at Sonnet 130, which is about the dark lady who does not in the least resemble the ideal Renaissance beauty. All the beautiful attributes and qualities a lady in those times should have had are described in the two examples of a blazon on page 64. In these poetic lists of pleasant attributes the ideal beauty should have, we find a fair (not to say: pale!) complexion, blond or red hair, a high hairline, red lips, impressive eyes. Surprisingly, the ideal Renaissance beauty looked a lot like… Queen Elizabeth I! (or: on the right, Cate Blanchett performing as Elizabeth in the movie of the same name). (source: https://www.tobis.de/blog/original-oder-kopie-die-hohe-kunst-des-schauspiels/ date of download: 12/5/2020 Well, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, as some clever person once said. By the way – can you imagine what fashionable noble ladies did to follow this ‘royal trend’, especially if they rather resembled the lady of Sonnet 130? If you are interested in this topic and not of a squeamish nature, have a look at the following link and find out: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html And if you are shaking your head in disbelief, now that you know all the Renaissance secrets like applying poisonous lead, mercury, urine, and Belladonna, please do not forget that some contemporary methods for ‘enhancing’ one’s [idea of] beauty, like having Botox injected and/or plastic surgery, are not really harmless, either 😉 Let’s return to our sonnet! Shakespeare would never have dared to make (obvious) fun of his queen, but he took the traditional blazon and made fun of that, and some of his fellow poets who wrote these idealized and sometimes very pompous love litanies about female love objects that seemed as realistic as, say, your standard “Barbie” doll, fashionista edition. We also had a look at Sonnets 20 and 144. Sonnet 20 is about the poet’s (= the character called the poet) love for and admiration of the beloved boy, sometimes also called the fair youth, whereas Sonnet 144 deals with both the beloved boy and the dark lady. Just for your information, there are two more Shakespearean sonnets in your reader: Sonnet 80 focuses on the poet’s rivalry with the fourth character, the rival poet, who also writes about the beloved boy (how dare he! ;-). In Sonnet 129, the poet harshly discusses the - according to him - destructive power of sexual love, in which he is indirectly referring to the dark lady again. The diagram above is a postmodern edition I devised especially for you, my dear students. Please keep that in mind, it is not a good idea to mention in a term paper, oral exam, or just in another course that Justin Bieber (or Harry Styles in the newer Survey edition) was the Beloved Boy, Ed Sheeran (“Hue of You”) was the Rival Poet or that the Dark Lady was Gaga. 😉 TEXT FOR SESSION 5: Please have a look at the first Act of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. This text is not part of the reader, so please have a look at a free online version. Take care! SURVEY Summary Session 5: Shakespearean Drama (Renaissance III+; Elizabethan/Jacobean Drama, 16th-17th Century First things first: key words! Drama, here we have a splendid definition: „In general any work meant to be performed on a stage by actors.”1 Drama is linked with the development of the theatre. In the Middle Ages there were groups of actors touring the country, performing plays. There were three major types of play: mystery play: “The Mystery Plays of the Middle Ages were based on the Bible and were particularly concerned with the stories of man’s Creation, Fall and Redemption. […] The earliest dramatizations were presented on the greater festivals of the Church: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Corpus Christi.”2 miracle play: “dramatized saints’ lives and divine miracles”3 morality play: e.g. Everyman, ca. 1500, allegorical. Main characters: God, Death, Everyman, Good Deeds, Knowledge, Beauty, Wisdom… During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the first theatre companies were established in London. Theatre at the end of the 16th century: theatre companies performing in playhouses of their own, new development: the apron stage (you will see one in a sec). One of the actors, playwrights, dramatists: William Shakespeare (him again!) Name of his company “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”, v. successful, later royal patronage. Under the reign of King James I the name changed to “The King’s Men” Name of his playhouse: The Globe Theatre (1599). Other theatres: The Curtain, The Rose, The Swan On the following page you will see The Globe Theatre, first in form of a plan explaining all the details (source: tadshakespeare.weebly.com). Additionally, there is a photo of the reproduction of the building, so you can imagine what it must have been like to go and see a play (source: Encyclopedia Britannica). Have an educated guess where the people with the cheapest tickets had to go to. 😉 1 s.v. “drama“J. A. Cuddon (ed.), The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, fourth edition, London: Penguin, 1999, p. 237. 2 s.v. “mystery play”, Penguin Dictionary, p. 524. 3 s.v. “miracle play“, Penguin Dictionary, p. 512. Apart from all his sonnets, some of which you already know (I hope 😉), Shakespeare wrote, all in all, 37 plays, namely: comedies, e.g. All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It histories, e.g. Henry V, Richard III tragedies, e.g. Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth tragicomedies, e.g. Much Ado about Nothing, The Tempest Other major dramatists at the time were Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus) Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedie [sic]) Conventions of the Elizabethan/Jakobean theatre: Believe it or not, only male actors were allowed on stage! Very young male actors played the female roles but – for obvious reasons - only before the voice broke! General revision of technical terms – yes, I know you remember them all from your Course “Introduction to Literary Studies”, so here we go: dialogue monologue soliloquy aside comedy vs. tragedy happy ending tragic hero + tragic flaw catharsis comic relief (in a tragedy. Today, it is also the name of a British charity organisation4, ➔ MACBETH (Act One) I did ask you to get hold of this text and read it. Shakespeare wrote his tragedy Macbeth in the years 1605-06, during the reign of King James I (1603-1625) who was already King of Scotland (King James VI) when he received the English crown. Queen Elizabeth I had died in 1603, naturally, this was the end of the Elizabethan epoch – and the beginning of the Jacobean (“James” in Latin: “Jacobus”, in German: “Jakob”) era. As Shakespeare continued to write which he did for a living, he simply had to keep up with the times. By receiving royal patronage from King James I, you can imagine that this might have more than slightly influenced Shakespeare’s writing from then on. At least, it is quite 4 Comic Relief was founded by British comedians in 1985, initially, to fight famine in Africa. (https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/Comic_Relief). In a way, it followed the idea of the Band Aid project by famous British pop and rock musicians. Who does not know the Christmas song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” from 1984, which even managed to keep Wham’s (then) brand-new single release “Last Christmas” off the top chart position in that year. The first ever, even simultaneous Live Aid concert in both London and Philadelphia followed in the summer of 1985 – and, as already mentioned, the first charity event on British TV by Comic Relief which was around Christmas ’85. It has become an annual event raising funds for numerous charities. obvious in the “Scottish Play”, which is another name that is often used for Macbeth, especially in the world of the theatre itself. Macbeth deals with a topic of Scottish history, namely the death of King Duncan in the 11th century. The text is loosely based on Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Shakespeare’s character by the name of Macbeth, who starts out as the Thane (i.e. feudal lord) of Glamis, has no right to the throne at all, but becomes seduced by ambiguous prophecies of three witches. Moreover, his wife is extremely ambitious. In the play she does not have a name of her own, she is simply called Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth comes across the already mentioned three witches who greet him as the future “Thane of Cawdor”, even as the future king, he is amused, even a little flattered. But when the first prophecy comes true almost immediately, the trouble begins…. The first prophecies also involve Macbeth’s friend Banquo, whose children are said to rule Scotland in the future. Now, how can this be? First of all, old but healthy King Duncan has two sons who would be next in line should he die. And if Macbeth really becomes the next king, how could the kids of his friend possibly follow in his footsteps and inherit HIS crown? You see why Macbeth is beginning to lose his nerve. Pushed by his better half, he secretly kills good old King Duncan in his sleep who happens to stay with Macbeth and his Lady M. that night. After having killed his king, Macbeth blames the king’s (drugged) servants who were with Duncan at the time. Pretending he is so ‘upset’ upon finding his dead king, he simply kills the alleged, but innocent murderers on the spot eliminating any chance of questioning or investigation. Still friends, Banquo (on the left) and Macbeth, i.e. actors Martin Shaw and Jon Finch from Roman Polanski’s controversial movie adaptation of the same name (photo fopp.com) But even when Macbeth becomes the new king, his mind is still not at ease. To be on the safe side, he sends assassins to have his old friend Banquo and his son Fleance killed, but the latter – according to the witches possibly the first in the next line of future kings – manages to escape the killers. And who could Macbeth ask for advice now? Yes, you have guessed it: he contacts our three supernatural ladies again. The only problem is, they still don’t like sharing their knowledge in an easy to grasp, influencer-style manner. This is what they tell Macbeth: They warn him to beware of another character called Macduff. Okay, but on the other hand Macbeth gets to know that no one who was born by a woman could harm him. At the same time, there is an apparition showing a long line of future kings stemming from poor Banquo’s son who, as we know, is fortunately still alive. Last, but not least, Macbeth is informed that he will not be defeated unless Birnam Wood walks up Dunsinane Hill, where his castle is situated. Well, does it sound like any of that is likely to happen? No. But, yes, you re right again: Macduff is the one who finally defeats and kills Macbeth. In those times, there were hardly any births by caesarean section (or “Kaiserschnitt”), but Macduff was born this way (not quoting Lady Gaga here). The walking wood turns out to be the slowly approaching army camouflaged with branches and twigs of the local forest. Finally, Duncan’s son Malcolm is the next proper king and the rightful order is restored. Okay, but what about Banquo’s son Fleance and his legacy, you might wonder? I will give you the answer in a moment 😉. Macbeth is a very dark tragedy, dealing with fate and witchcraft, ghosts, betrayal and bloodshed, greed and ambition, murder, regicide, remorse and despair. We can find one “positive” aspect though, namely the necessary re-establishment of order and hierarchy, dynasty, the Great Chain of Being. Once Macbeth is slain, the rightful king, successor of Duncan’s, can be crowned. So, we have here a Scottish play written for a new king who was at the same time the King of Scotland, but why does it deal with witchcraft, ghosts, spooky apparitions you may wonder? It was no secret at the time that King James I had written a book called Daemonologie in 1597. It was was all about witches and how to deal with them, i.e. witch hunting, quite a strange hobby for a British royal one might say. If you are interested in this topic you might have a look at the following link about the North Berwick Trials: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/North-Berwick-Witch-Trials/ In other words, James I was quite paranoid about anything that seemed “supernatural” to him. Then why – I am sure you want to know now – why did Shakespeare write about this topic in the first place? By emphasizing poor Banquo’s important position as the ancestor of the next long line of kings – including King James VI of Scotland, i.e. King James I, Shakespeare managed to create a hereditary “connection” to his own king and patron, who was related to Banquo’s Scottish family bloodline. It is true that James was the closest relative to Elizabeth I, when he followed her on the throne, but he was not her son. By creatively legitimizing the long lineage of the Scottish Stuart dynasty as future kings, Shakespeare’s play must have pleased him a lot! Fact versus fiction (you will be surprised!) In fact, all names of the major characters of the tragedy were taken from people who really existed! As mentioned before, Shakespeare borrowed a lot from a chapter of Scottish history as presented in Holinshed’s Chronicles, the murder of King Duncan. In Shakespeare’s version King Duncan is an old and wise, even beloved king who is brutally murdered by Macbeth for his own evil as well as selfish reasons. Lady Macbeth of the play is considered to be one of the most evil female characters ever. She is often regarded as too ambitious and extremely callous, a wife who pushes her husband to kill the king when he is their guest staying at their home which is a severe violation of the universal guest right. According to the ancient laws of hospitality, no guest may be harmed while he is under his host’s roof. It does not make things any better that this guest is asleep AND the rightful king. But when we look at Holinshed’s Chronicles we discover a different story, one might almost call it: A Scottish Game of Thrones? According to Holinshed’s Chronicles, the historical King Duncan is a young, inexperienced, completely ignorant and therefore “dangerous” king, as he is unsettling the political situation and endangering peace. On the other hand, Macbeth is the one who is experienced and wise, plus: his wife Gruoch (so Lady M. did have a name of her own!) has strong hereditary rights to the throne herself. Moreover, there is a son out her first marriage, Lulach. Macbeth killed Duncan in battle, not in bed. This constellation is telling us a completely different story, which would not have pleased King James I though. Mind you: Even the “weird sisters”, i.e. the witches, and their prophesies are mentioned in the Chronicles. Which is a nice link to the next aspect of the “Scottish Play”: Magic Allegedly, Shakespeare used “real” spells in his script, which would explain the countless catastrophes associated with performing Macbeth live on stage. One of the many examples would be stage props turning out to be the real thing, like the dagger that King Duncan is supposed to be killed with on stage, perforating the unfortunate actor performing as Duncan instead. There is still a lot of superstition about “the Scottish Play”, it is said to bring bad luck among actors and theatre people if the name of the play is uttered aloud inside a theatre, during rehearsals or performance unless the script says so. You are interested in this topic? Have a look at the following homepage which also offers a quick way of “breaking the spell”: https://www.rsc.org.uk/macbeth/about-the-play/the-scottish-play The TV series Blackadder also shows a variation of the topic; however the following clip is set much later, at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, when two actors intend to visit George, Prince of Wales (Hugh Laurie), but they have to deal with his butler (Rowan Atkinson) first: ”Never say Macbeth“, Blackadder, BritBox, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2a2zqzit5A Despite – or rather: because of? - the “Curse of Macbeth”, this tragedy has been popular ever since. There are many versions for the big screen. The version by Roman Polanski (1971) was considered to be shocking at the time as it showed the brutal details in a realistic manner and stayed close to the original script. Did you have a look at the most recent movie adaptation from 2015, starring actor Michael Fassbender? From the Movie Macbeth (2015), fakescottishaccent, courtesy of YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10_QwgR7mA As a special treat: I simply love this brilliant “Macbeth to Go”-adaptation by Michael Sommer and his Playmobil Gang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHQRGB1wYIs If you have any questions, please contact me. Next week, we will e.g. be dealing with love poetry again – but with a twist, or two! Our first poem features a shy mistress as the speaker’s “love interest” and the weirdest way of paying compliments. Did I say “weirdest”? Sorry, I think the second poem takes things even a step further. Our second example is about sucking blood as an act of love, resulting even in marriage, but please don’t expect anything like Twilight. Curious? Both poems are part of your reader. FOR NEXT WEEK: Please read “The Flea” by John Donne, “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell; have a look at John Milton’s “To the Lord General Cromwell”, (pp. 97-100) as well as at Rochester’s “Satire on Charles II” (p. 110). Until then, take care! SURVEY Summary of Session 6 Metaphysical Poetry (& friends 😉) (17th Century Literature) But before we get started… Let’s talk about: A century of political changes Do you remember the political chaos, confusion and mayhem of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth? It was published right at the beginning of the 17 th century, again reminding us how fluid the “boundaries” between the allegedly fixed epochs of our British literature really are. Now, this century is marked by serious political changes, and – as always – these developments find their echoes in cultural life and literature. In the seventeenth century England is ruled by, all in all, five kings, one of whom (Charles I) gets executed, and one queen (who does not, fortunately). There are two civil wars resulting in Puritan Oliver Cromwell becoming the country’s Lord Protector. But this strictly Republican or Commonwealth phase ends briefly after his death, when a new king is crowned and the monarchy is restored (c.f. Restoration). Problems between king and parliament are never completely solved. But when a male heir is born to King James II and the century’s king No. 4 appears to be steering too strongly towards a Catholic England, he has to give way to two Protestant contestants on the throne, namely his daughter Mary and his son-in-law, William. In 1689’s Glorious Revolution, William III (of Orange) and his wife, the aforementioned queen, Queen Mary II, become the new joint monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland (You might have realised by now, I am very fond of bold typing today 😉). Some famous writers of the 17th century (to name but a few…) John Donne (1572-1631), essayist, philosopher, poet; Metaphysical Poetry John Milton (1608-1674), Puritan, essayist, poet, dramatist, political office under Oliver Cromwell; Paradise Lost (1667, 10.000 lines about Satan’s struggle with God, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man) Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), author and politician, Metaphysical Poetry John Bunyon (1628-1688), preacher and writer; Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), poet, satirist. Now, here we go: Metaphysical Poetry Today’s main topic is a new and innovative form of 17th century poetry. Metaphysical poetry uses a weird kind of “trick”, it uses an unusual, surprising comparison of a metaphysical – that is, spiritual, abstract – quality to a concrete, physical object. One example might be the combination of the, well, “intangible” quality of “DESIRE” and the physical, tangible object of a “flea”, which is somewhat unconventional, if you ask me 😉. A metaphysical poem tends to be very funny and witty, it uses puns and paradoxical ideas. It does not necessarily attempt to be ‘soft-spoken’ and sweet in sound, often tries to imitate the patterns of ordinary speech, i.e. the diction is simpler than in e.g. Shakespearean poetry, which some of you might like. Metaphysical poetry heavily relies on its splendid conceits, namely metaphysical conceits. Here we can find a conceit that uses a farfetched comparison which combines two strikingly different things one would have not thought of at all. The combination comes as a surprise, maybe even as a shock as it is totally unexpected. It is unpredictable, tends to be intellectually interesting though and a change from more “foreseeable” similes and metaphors of old. The form that is used very often is an argument, e.g. with a potential lover as the example “To His Coy Mistress” from Andrew Marvell, written during the Interregnum in 1650, shows. Andrew Marvell (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/andrew-marvell) When you have a look at the poem, you notice its structure, the speaker’s line of argumentation to convince the female object of his desire that they should enjoy life to the full, which is a sexually embroidered “carpe diem” poem. In other words, this speaker’s motto is “seize the day”, meaning make the most out of it while you still can. It also hints at the reminder “memento mori”, i.e. “remember that you have to die”. In the first part of the poem the speaker tells his ‘shy lady’ how he would court her if only there was enough time. To flatter her he enlists to what great lengths he would spend endless time on each of her attractive physical attributes to pay his due respect – which is a funny, utterly exaggerated version of a blazon, really. Remember? We had the topic before, in our Shakespearean sonnets’ session (alliteration, by the way ;-). The Bard makes fun of the standard blazon’s often pompous ideal of love by contrasting it with his Sonnet 130 which is about the Dark Lady and her natural, ‘ordinary’ attractiveness. Here, the speaker of Marvell’s poem pokes fun at the sheer endless litanies about female beauty. He exaggerates the temporal aspect and makes the catalogue of beautiful assets a lady could have sound silly. Unlike the speaker of Sonnet 130, he does not feel something remotely like love for his “shy lady”, but lust. In the second part of the poem, he reminds her that life is too short to wait forever, in the literal sense of the word. He does so by using highly graphic imagery, e.g. worms taking advantage of her and her virginity in the grave. Finally, he pleads to her it would be best if they used the time as long as they could make the most of it. This is a very funny and somewhat shocking example of metaphysical poetry which also reveals its impatient, passionate young speaker (≠ Marvell) as irresponsible and selfish. The speaker presses his sweetheart, well, his “love object” really, to be his lover by speaking of sex rather than love. “The Flea” by John Donne works in a similar way. John Donne (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-donne) Here the speaker also tries to seduce his “love interest”, but again, there is nothing really sexy about the idea of a flea as a love child or even as a “marriage temple” allowing the speaker and his lady to have sex without any qualms. It does not come as a surprise that this rather disgusting line of argumentation to seduce the lady in question turns out to be a complete failure. One does not even have to be a feminist, to see that. Still, this metaphysical poem is a rather funny version of conventional love poetry making fun of all the subtleties and compliments one might expect by combining it with the “itchy” aspect of real (17th century!) life resulting from the (then!) normal lack of hygiene. We could leave it at that, but I though I mention some more details about 17 th century literature, this is just for your information, okay? We are leaving the funny world as seen by the metaphysical poets behind now! “And now for something completely different”, as the fabulous Monty Python gang would have it. John Cleese, Monty Python, almost showing us the full monty, so to speak. (https://www.pinterest.de/pin/99008891778342116/). Puritan Writing If you have a look at the poem “To the Lord General Oliver Cromwell” by John Milton, you will see what a broad range of literature could be found in the 17 th century. This poem shows how political thinking entered poetry, combining a message that might be have been fit for a political pamphlet at the time, with a flattering religious, biblical line of argumentation. Don’t you worry, there will be neither fleas nor any other corny attempts of seduction (unfortunately, no photos of John Cleese, either) in this one, but some ‘bloody’ facts and – again – a variation of the “carpe diem”-idea. John Milton (photo: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-milton) The poem was published in 1652, just one year before Cromwell became Lord Protector. The speaker offers a list of Cromwell’s military successes from the not too distant past and choses rather drastic examples such as the river Darwen being drenched with blood of dead Scots defeated by Cromwell and his soldiers (l. 7). He glorifies him as God’s first warrior and justifies his deeds at the same time. The speaker positions himself as one of Cromwell’s most loyal supporters. He also demonizes and derides any opponent he can speak of. Even though the whole poem is very flattering in tone and content – if you are a military man, that is - it also offers a piece of advice, a humble warning, reminding the Lord Protector to be that the time of struggle is not over yet. The speaker refers to alleged changes intended in the important field of religion by “the proposals of certain ministers” (as it is mentioned in the complete title of the poem), involving questions of spreading the gospel, i.e. religious matters, in combination with secular financial aspects – an idea which the strict Puritan Cromwell abhorred! And there’s more... If you compare our two metaphysical poems and this Puritan one as far as topics and style are concerned, you will notice how radically different they are. If you like, you might also have a look at some examples of the Restoration Comedy, which became very popular when theatres were opened again after Cromwell’s death and the end of the Puritan period: “It is also referred to (…) as comedy of manners and was chiefly concerned with presenting a society of elegance and stylishness (…). Witty, urbane and sometimes licentious, it dealt with the intricacies of sexual and marital intrigue and therefore also with adultery and cuckoldry.”1 One example would be Wycherly’s The Country Wife (1672). But there’s even more… Cromwell would NOT have been amused by the writings of: A Restoration Rake: John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester Far from being a perfect example of fine aristocratic behaviour himself, Rochester wrote a “Satire on Charles II”. Is a hot-tempered attack directed at the King in person, accusing him of being sex-obsessed and utterly useless as a sovereign, wasting the nation’s money. You must know that Rochester was financially dependent on the King, basically. Nevertheless, he kept offending him. Allegedly, this poem was delivered to the King “by mistake”. Charles II was eager to read one of Rochester’s – ahem – witty poems by the title of “Signor Dildo” which was about ALL the ladies at Court. Considering Rochester’s self-destructive tendencies, this “mistake” might well have been on purpose. If you want to read more about Rochester, have a look at the following homepage: https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-earl-rochester/ 1 S.v. “restoration comedy”, J.A. Cuddon (ed.), The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 3rd ed., Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991, p.789. Next week, it’s NOVELS (Hooray!) Take care! SURVEY Session 7: The Rise of the Novel (18th century) Hm, what exactly is a novel? Well, first of all, it is a relatively long narrative text in prose, no rhymes included 😉. I am sure that you have dealt with the novel in your lecture cum course “Introduction to Literary Studies”, and yes, you know all the details, but how about a very short revision of key words? What is typical of a novel? A very brief summary In absolutely EVERY novel, the author creates a fictional world, i.e. he establishes the so-called “Welthaftigkeit”. He chooses characters and setting (= the existents) of a novel. He combines existents plus events and creates a story. Do you remember that good old saying, whoever speaks in a poem is not necessarily the poet, but the “speaker”? Quite the same rings true for the novel. Of course, it is obviously the author who writes the text, but if we have someone who seems to be telling the story, why, that tends to be the narrator, or a narrative voice. We can have a great number of different types of narrators and narration which shape the text, of course! A narrator can be reliable or unreliable. He or she can be a visible narrator; e.g. a first- person narrator who is a character telling his or hers - or somebody else’s – story. It can also be an authorial, omniscient, godlike narrator who does not seem to belong to the fictional world of the characters but who knows everything about them. Have a look for the indicators of an authorial narrator in the following passage, which I invented just for you: Little did our pretty heroine know that she was about to meet her future husband, when she opened the door to the Lady’s and out stumbled young Fraser who was extremely shortsighted these days as he had mislaid his glasses at a party last weekend. In fact, his very expensive glasses were on their way to Africa already. Someone, a sweet old lady by the name of Dorothy Marble, had found them but not their owner, so she decided to donate them. But that is an entirely different story, dear reader, so let us return to our heroine, her name is Gigi by the way. (KHL, 2020) We could also have a form of narration that seems to stem from an anonymous, hardly noticeable voice informing us about what is going on. If we look at our previous sample again now presented as a third person narrative, it might be something like this: Gigi opened the door to the Lady’s and was startled when this guy almost bumped into her. He gave her a deep and meaningful, grave look. Why was he staring at her like that? Was her eye makeup smudged? Had he never seen a woman? Not very likely. Or did he think she was sooo beautiful that he simply could not help it? His eyes were nice, though. Grey. Long, dark lashes she envied him for. Just when she began to consider the idea that she quite liked him, the young man cleared his throat and said: “Er, excuse me, this is the Gent’s.” (KHL, 2020) In fact, the way the story is narrated (by whom? how?) is called DISCOURSE. STORY plus DISCOURSE influence the PLOT, i.e. the way the story is shaped by Discourse: how it is arranged, how it functions, how it is ordered, linked, etc. We also talk of STORY TIME (length of time which passes in a story) versus DISCOURSE TIME (time needed to narrate the story, sequence of events), their relationship can strongly shape the text. For example, a novel of 400 pages that deals with just one day in the life of a character will be very different from a novel of the same length which is about, say a dynasty of famous merchants in the 18th century. Which reminds me: Here is today’s topic! The development of the novel in the 18th century There are some earlier developments of the novel, of course. A forerunner, an early form of the novel is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) which proved very popular at the time, describing the allegorical struggle of the main character, or protagonist, by the telling name “Christian”. As you might have already guessed, The Rise of the Novel, which is also the title of a famous book (1957) by Ian Watt about this topic, begins in the eighteenth century. The development of the novel as a new form of writing is strongly influenced by a major shift in thinking/philosophy, namely the Enlightenment. The name of the highly influential French philosopher René Descartes and his idea “cogito ergo sum” (‘I think, therefore I am’) will ring a bell. In general, one could say that the Age of Reason meant for many the idea of steering away from the old, (God-)given truths about life, focusing on the individual and its experiences instead. Reason, or rationality, was seen as the key to experiencing the world. Consequently, we detect a new, a more scientific way of looking at life and “truth”. In writing, this trend leads to realism, here: portraying an individual character’s life in a detailed way which seems (more or less) credible, describing his experiences in certain places at certain times! In the 18th century, the novel tends to be written mainly for and by the middle class, a major group within society which is itself on the rise at the time, gaining influence and importance, power, but the novel as such becomes very popular in general. It still is in demand! I did ask you to read some pages from our three examples of early novels: 1) Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719) 2) Samuel Richardson: Pamela, or Virtue rewarded (1720) 3) Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy (1759-1766) 1) Let’s begin with Robinson Crusoe This novel by Daniel Defoe is often called “the prototype of the novel”. It has been very popular ever since, right from the start. Robinson Crusoe set the standard for many novels to come, as it does not “re-tell” old, well-known stories about ancient heroes, gods and goddesses, kings and queens, nobility, etc. Instead, it presents a new ‘contemporary’ (well, at the time) hero, an individual character the readers of the middle class can identify with. The protagonist’s particular experiences are told in great - even exhaustive! - detail, aiming at a realist, life-like, autobiographical effect. In Crusoe’s case, there is a certain reason for this flood of details. Daniel Defoe really tried to pass his novel off as autobiographical at first, in a way ‘borrowing’ the example of a guy called Alexander Selkirk who was really shipwrecked. His fate was all over the news. People were interested in Selkirk, his experiences and adventures in foreign exotic countries, so Defoe jumped on the bandwagon, so to speak, and invented his Robinson Crusoe. The terms and conventions of the desert-island-story or “robinsonade” are still in use today, also in tv productions, movies and streaming. This picture is from a slightly more modern movie version, Tom Hanks starring in Castaway (2000) (https://www.google.de/search?q=robinson+crusoe&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjD3q2NhtDtAhXUs6QKHYQXAj0Q2-dw.com) Now let us return to the “original” Robinson Crusoe in literature. According to the Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature we are informed that: Of several claimants to the title of our first true novel, the strongest is The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) by the fifty-nine-year-old Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), who had himself known many adventures in the financial and literal senses. He apparently meant to pass off as genuine these memoirs of a shipwrecked sailor […] Crusoe’s tale has many different levels: the trial of the castaway’s practical ingenuity and emotional resilience, a spiritual progress based on repentance for the sin of leaving home against the paternal wish, and the individual’s re-enacting of species’ slow progress from primitivism to productivity and order. It combines the exotic with the prosaic or familiar, but it is the exotic calculated to appeal to citizens of a mercantile and colonial country. 1 2) Now, this is Pamela! As an epistolary novel, this novel is presented in the form of letters only. Mind you, Pamela deals with a topic we have heard about a lot, recently: The heroine is a beautiful young woman who has to fend off sexual harassment caused by her new employer. After her kind, old employer Lady B. has died, the 15-year-old Pamela has to ward off Lady B.’s youngish son, Mr. B., who is her new boss, a bachelor (nope, neither the degree nor the tv programme). We get to know about her new master’s testosterone-laden advances from all the letters Pamela keeps sending to her poor 1 Isobel Grundy, „Restauration and Eighteenth Century (1660-1780), in: Pat Rogers (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp.214-273, here: p. 253. parents. You get their replies as well, so you know that they are close to having a heart attack when they read that our Pamela is so happy that Mr. B wants to be her “friend” and that he keeps giving her lots of expensive presents like nice dresses and fine stockings. Ahem, yes, our Pamela really is a bit naïve, but she eventually realises what her boss is really after. Instead of becoming a victim to his lust, she manages to gain his respect and – believe it or not! – she wins his heart which ends in marriage. Which reminds me: Moving up (or down) the social ladder by getting married is also a popular topic at the time, as it steers away from a fixed, rigid understanding of society’s hierarchy. According to the Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature: […] the printer Richardson was asked to compose an elementary letter-writing manual. He got so interested in a group of these model letters (from a father advising his maidservant daughter on how to fight off sexual harassment) that he laid them aside to write, at hot-white speed, a different book. These fictional letters, from Pamela Andrews to her honest, poverty-stricken parents, gives a breathless, blow- by-blow account of how she resists her master’s first advances, his bribes, his psychological pressures, and finally her own growing response to him; how when he once has learned (from her letters, how else?) to appreciate and respect her nature, he proposes marriage in earnest. […] Pamela (1740) caused a furore. It went beyond Defoe in naturalism, and depicted a prolonged instant of temptation, with resistance yet unassured.2 (Joseph Highmore, “Mr B. finds Pamela writing”. (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/highmore-i-mr-b-finds-pamela-writing- n03573) Right from the start when Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded was first published, the readers loved it! But some fellow writers thought that Pamela’s taming of Mr. B. was a bit too far-fetched. The heroine’s moral superiority does seem rather hypocritical. Despite everything that has happened, i.e. sexual harassment, near-rape, abduction, imprisonment, lies, manipulation, Pamela finally falls in love with Mr. B?! And she forgives him?! Nowadays, one might think of the Stockholm Syndrome. But even though Pamela falls for her young master, she still stays virtuous, ALL THE TIME. You might think, okay, she is keeping her virginity just like the “coy lady” and the flea-killing lady of last week’s session 😉. In Pamela’s case it somehow seems that our heroine – sorry: pun alert – deals with her virginity, as Mr. B. only gets what he wants if he marries her FIRST. So, her “virtue (is) rewarded” by marriage, which is the main message of the book. Okay, but what kind of ‘reward’ is it if the husband has a history of abuse like Mr. B.? This is definitely the ultimate point where any similarities with the “Me Too” movement end. One writer who also thought that this was simply too much was Henry Fielding. You might want to have a look at his extremely funny parody Shamela (1741) in which he pokes fun at the manipulative use of double standards. Nope, don’t expect any “political correctness” in this one. 2 Ibid, p. 255.  3) Who the heck is Tristram Shandy? Speaking of parodies: In a way, Laurence Sterne’s masterpiece Tristram Shandy can be seen as a kind of parody of the new genre itself, at least it makes fun of the still young conventions of the novel at the time. Please keep in mind, in the 18th century we have the novel, this new kind of text which deals with an individual character’s life, be it that of a shipwrecked protagonist looking back at his life, or that of a young woman at the beginning of hers, trying to find her way in life despite all its imminent dangers. But here, here in Tristram Shandy, we have a character who intends to tell the WHOLE story of his life, EVERYTHING! Tristram is really starting from scratch – or even earlier 😉. In other words: He begins his narration even before his own “beginning”, i.e. with his conception. All in all, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy consists of nine (!) novels, and Tristram finally manages to catch up with his own birth in the third (!) volume. Whereas Robinson and Pamela are reliable narrators, Tristram is extremely unreliable! And you never know what to expect! By the way, what did you make of the “black page” in the excerpt? There are many interpretations, e.g. that this shows how Tristram mourns for his deceased friend Yorick, finding no words for his sadness. If the name rings a bell, Yorick also “features” in William Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet, hinting at intertextuality, something that we consider to be a typical characteristic of postmodern literature – which came into existence more than 200 years later!!! In fact, Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy is so innovative and truly ahead of its time that is often called a forerunner of postmodern writing. Please read the following entry in The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature: In 1759 the novel form was hit by a bombshell, all its developing and its youthful conventions exploded, in the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) […] The title ‘Life and Opinions’ is ironic, since much of the story pre-dates Tristram’s birth. Sterne digresses freely backwards and forwards in time as the topics of discourse […] drag it, always avoiding what would normally be central and highlighting incongruous peripheral detail. […] Still the mixture remains the same: the free-floating narrative alights now and then in the novel’s present tense to mention Tristram’s various disasters […]. The novel’s extremely complex time-scheme produces a sense of timelessness; its endless cross-purposes about the senses of words threaten meaninglessness; […] identity is unstable, a constant flux of perceptions. 3 Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Tristram Shandy - these are only three examples of novels, there are many more, of course! Which reminds me, there are many different types of the novel, or “sub-genres” if you want to impress your friends, or examiners, etc. The following list and remarks about genre are not relevant for the exam! Just some of the many sub-genres and “labels” we can think of today (Anglophone examples, yes, American texts included, for once 😉): detective novel: Sherlock Holmes by Sir Conan Arthur Doyle, careful: there are also Sherlock Holmes-short stories; the Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (= J.K. Rowling 😉) fantastic novel (the Harry Potter-series by Joanne K. Rowling) Gothic novel (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Bram Stoker’s Dracula) historical novel (Rob Roy, Waverley by Sir Walter Scott) robinsonade (Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe) 3 Ibid, pp. 260 f. No bold print in the original. romance (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen) Bildungsroman/novel of education (Great Expectations, Charles Dickens) utopian novel (Sir Thomas More, Utopia) or dystopian novel (1984, George Orwell; The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins) science fiction novel (The War of the Worlds; The Time Machine; H.G. Wells) epistolary novel (Pamela, Samuel Richardson; Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding) romantic novel (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen) feminist novel (The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood) magical realist novel (Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok; Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter) modernist novel (To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Ulysses by James Joyce) postmodern novel (Maggie Gee, Dying, in Other Words; Kate Atkinson, Human Croquet; David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks) postcolonial novel: (J.M. Coetzee, Foe cyperpunk novel (William Gibson, Idoru) steampunk novel (Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials Trilogy; Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker at Filigree Street) to name but a few! In fact, these sub-categories may frequently overlap! Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a romantic novel, but it also includes feminist ideas. The same is true for Kate Atkinson’s novel Human Croquet. It is a postmodern novel which can also be read as a fantastic text or as a Bildungsroman, plus a bit of romance. Sometimes, it depends on the approach you use, what you read is what you get! Okay, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe will never be a cyberpunk novel no matter how hard you twist it, which means you simply cannot read or analyse it this way. But somebody might re-write it and change its direction? Sure! The South African author J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize, wrote a new version of Robinson Crusoe and chose a very ambivalent title for his postcolonial novel, namely Foe, which plays with the name “Defoe” and has the alternative meaning of “enemy”. And it includes feminist ideas, believe it or not, by a male writer. This is just one of many possibilities. 😉 Please keep in mind the novel is NOT a static narrative genre but keeps developing. Do contact me if you have any questions! Cheers, your lecturer, Kerstin Hamacher-Lubitz Summary Session 8: Romanticism à la Wordsworth (1790-1830) What is romanticism? The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory1 1 offers a helpful definition: Many hold to the theory that it was in Britain that the romantic movement really started. At any rate, quite early in the 18th century c. one can discern a definite shift in sensibility and feeling, particularly in relation to the natural order and Nature. […] aspects of romanticism in the 18th century c. are: (a) an increasing interest in Nature, and in the natural, primitive and uncivilized way of life; (b) a growing interest in scenery, especially in its more untamed and disorderly manifestations; (c) an association of human moods with the ‘moods’ of Nature – and thus a subjective feeling for it and interpretation of it; […] (e) emphasis on the need for spontaneity in thought and action and in the expression of thought; (f) increasing importance attached to natural genius and the power of imagination; (g) a tendency to exalt the individual and his needs and emphasis on the need for a freer and more personal expression […] 22 Famous names in literature are: Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Sir Walter Scott. As we have just mentioned Mr Wordsworth, let’s have a look at his poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, surprisingly also known as “Daffodils”, p. 177. (Photo: Barney OŽFair/pixelio.de) In “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, the speaker takes us for a walk. At first, he is in a melancholic, somewhat dark mood. But then he comes across a great number of daffodils and this simply makes him feel happy, the sheer sight cheers him up. His mood changes, and this happy little moment has a lasting effect on him. As he states 1 The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, fourth edition, London: Penguin, 1999. 2 s.v “romanticism“. J. A. Cuddon (ed.), The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, fourth edition, London: Penguin, 1999, pp. 767-771; here: pp. 769-770 (emphasis added). at the end of the poem, whenever he is in a pensive mood, he simply has to think of this pleasant occasion to relive it, and it will make him feel happy again. This poem is about “ordinary things from everyday life”, the language is quite “normal”, easy to understand. The choice of words is neither ‘pompous’ nor contrived, arty. But the speaker does not simply “describe” the daffodils plus scenery, he gives us his own reaction to it. He enhances the incident in his own special way, using his imagination. He turns it into a poetic pleasure which can be experienced more than once. And this is just a perfect example of romantic poetry à la William Wordsworth. In a pensive mood again it seems, Mr William Wordsworth (picture: historic-uk.com) I did ask you to read the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”, mind you, which is just an EXCERPT! 😉 (pp. 175-176). Lyrical Ballads is a collection of poems written by Wordsworth and his fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was first published in 1798 and is often regarded as the beginning of English romanticism. The “Preface” was added for the second edition, after receiving mixed reactions, so to speak. This Preface can be seen as a manifesto explaining the poetics of romantic poetry according to Wordsworth. It might not seem unusual to you and me in the year 2021, but when it was first published it was considered to be innovative and controversial. This manifesto definitely turns away from earlier concepts and the established conventions of (neo-)classical poetry. Wordsworth states that: Poems are about ordinary things from everyday life. The language used to describe these incidents is not artificial or contrived, but “language really used by men”, i.e. ordinary, everyday language. But: the incidents are enhanced by the poet’s heightened sensitivity and imagination, i.e. they are “presented to the mind in an unusual way”, evoking emotion(s) and various pleasures. Like I said, you might not consider this to be exactly revolutionary, but Wordsworth did irritate many of his contemporaries. Maybe the following comparison will help you understand: Romantic Dos and Don’ts (short version): Well, if you want to be in for a surprise, please have a look at the diagram on p.178 of your reader which tries to show in great detail how the “Poetic Theory of Wordsworth” ‘functions’. Okay, I will insert a screenshot, wait a minute. Ahem, isn’t it somehow ironic? Wordsworth would have been somewhat, er, “surprised”, to say the least, about this purely scientific and rational (!) approach to his concept of composing poetry. 😉 Please keep in mind: Romantic poetry is not seen as a simply “descriptive” mirror, i.e. mimetically reflecting nature and the real world. No, Romantic poetry is an expression of the poet’s inner self of the world, illuminating it in his own special way. In other words, it is regarded as an autonomous creation. More important facts: The Romantic Movement can be seen as a strong reaction to the beginning Industrial Revolution. It also opposes the major shift in thinking towards the preference of the rational as well as scientific deductions to discover life and an objectified “truth” (→SESSION 7 “The Rise of the novel”). Take care! 9. The Victorian Age (1830-1901) This is again an epoch in our survey of British literature that is named after its reigning sovereign: (source:www.historyboard.com) Queen Victoria ruled over Great Britain from 1837 until 1901. Under her outstandingly long reign – only surpassed by Queen Elizabeth II -, there was time for a multitude of developments and changes: Technology was on the rise in a massive way (steam engines, London Underground, British Railway, factories, electric lights, and telephone) Industrialisation and urbanisation causing social problems, poverty, unemployment, poorhouses (workhouses), a new social class: the proletariat Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, in other words: the human being is no longer the God- given “pride of creation”, but has a lot of wild relatives (some of whom live in the local zoo 😉). Utilitarianism as normative ethics/philosophy (Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill). Utilitarianism aims at reaching the best possible results for the common good. Which sounds nice, but the individual’s own personal happiness is not important. Actions are estimated in their moral value according to their outcome. Political and social reforms: e.g., schools for everyone were introduced! Imperialism: Britain was the world’s most powerful nation at that time. By the end of Victoria’s reign, the British Empire encompassed almost one fifth of the earth and “included” a quarter of the world’s population. In the field of literature, a lot of things were going on, as well: Literature published in the weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly periodicals, novels in cheap monthly parts, or poetry in illustrated annuals, were to have an unprecedented influence largely because of unprecedented social circumstances. An increase in the population automatically seemed to imply an audience, a steady expansion of education, both for the poor and the rich, ushered in what appeared to many to be an age of enhanced political and cultural awareness, above all, the efficient application of technology meant cheaper printing, lower prices, and speedy circulation. 1 Huge success of journals and periodicals, a wide range of readers: Athenaeum Household Words (ed. Charles Dickens) Quarterly Cornhill Magazine (ed. Thackeray) (Only) some famous writers: Charles Dickens (a very prolific writer, many novels and texts! Social criticism): The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, The Christmas Carol, to name but a few. (photo: biography.org) The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne: Charlotte B., Jane Eyre Emily B., Wuthering Heights Anne B., Agnes Grey George Elliot: Middlemarch 1 Andrew Sanders, “High Victorian Literature. 1830-1880”, J.A. Cuddon (ed.), The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, fourth edition, London: Penguin, 1999, pp. 327-378; here: 327. Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book, The Man who would be King Thackeray, Trollope, Tennyson, E. B. Browning, Wilkie Collins… HARD TIMES I did ask you to read the excerpt from Hard Times, by the famous writer Charles Dickens. The novel Hard Times was originally published 1854 chapterwise in Dickens’s weekly magazine Household Words. This novel is set in a fictious industrial city by the telling name of Coketown, which is interesting as Dickens normally preferred London settings. Nope, not what you might be thinking now: Drugs are not involved, “Coke” does not stand for “cocaine”, but the product of coal, mind you, which is telling in so far as it is an industrial city. In the chapter you had to read we meet Mr Thomas Gradgrind (a telling name! Again!), a School Supervisor and later Member of Parliament, a wealthy middle-class merchant of hardware (what else 😉). He talks to the teacher Mr Choakumchild, wow, yet another telling name! Something like “Herr Würgdaskind”, which does not really encourage anything like spontaneous trust in this teacher’s didactic skills, or does it? So, Mr Gradgrind gives a little speech in front of the teacher’s class instructing the children to learn the facts of life, at least how he sees them. When he speaks of facts, we soon understand that there is no place for beautiful things, or anything pleasant or “fanciful” in his world: No imagination, it’s facts ONLY! His rigid and cheerless view does not allow for any exceptions. You have noticed that his description repeatedly uses the word “square” which has several meanings and connotations. All his facial features are described as square, there is nothing even in the least round, soft, pleasant, mild about his looks – nothing sophisticated, either. He is like a brick of stone. His mind is set on facts, concrete facts (sorry, a pun, I could not resist 😉). In fact (yet another pun, sorry), his mind is about as flexible as a wall made of bricks. Mr Gradgrind loathes anything “extra” that might distract him from his mechanical way of thinking and his suspicion of anything outside of his deliberately limited world (view) has turned him into a boring, dull, “square” character without any sense of humour. But: The narrator makes fun of him! How Mr G. treats Sissy “Call yourself Cecilia!” Jupe is a fine example of where his fixed view of the world might lead. First, he calls her “girl number 20”, because she is new in class and he does not know her name. But she is the twentieth pupil in the class room, this is a fact he knows. Asking for her name, he does not like the answer that she gives him. “Sissy” is NOT a correct name, he insists, he even tells her to inform her father that he has given his own daughter a wrong name.Just imagine the outcry nowadays if a teacher might say that about a pupil’s fanciful name, say, “North”, “Saint”, “Stormy”, “Emma Tiger”, or “Neo” and “Trinity”. (I know a few “Keanu”-s, by the way 😉). As Mr G. asks Sissy about her father, he is shocked to hear that her dad is part of a travelling circus, the rather exotic site of joy and fun! No, no, no, he does not want her to explain the fanciful (!) details of what Sissy’s father might be doing there, instead he suggests that he certainly has to do with horses? In other words: horses are useful, which is why they exist in his world view, whereas clowns do not. Mr. G. immediately takes Sissy’s very polite but vague reply as a confirmation of his idea. He quickly turns her father into a vet, a doctor for animals. He declares him to be a veterinary surgeon who takes care of the horses, which is an ‘honourable job in the real world’ by his books. In other words, he simply explains away the fact that Sissy’s father might be a clown, who has no place and legitimation in his view of the world. This example shows Mr Gradgrind is so self-righteous and ignorant in his fun-hating ways that he even paradoxically creates new facts which are not true at all – a Victorian version of the distortion of facts or ‘fake news’. Fortunately, there existed no Twitter at the time 😉. Spoiler-alert: Mr. G. comes to see the error in his ways later! And kind Sissy helps him. Aaah! To sum up, the topics of the excerpt are: facts versus fancy: the alleged importance of facts in contrast to imagination which is thought of as superfluous and of no value, even unhealthy (what would William Wordsworth have said?) the mechanisation of the soul In Hard Times, a great example of social fiction, Charles Dickens offers severe social criticism aiming at utilitarianism, the blind belief in the allegedly superior power of science, facts and progress. He shows the negative side effects of urbanisation and the horrible living conditions of the poor. Dickens was a prolific writer, you will find he attacked a lot of the problems of the Victorian society in his many novels and short stories. His social fiction often deals with poverty, which might lead to crime or – one of the negative side effects of the new Poor Law System - which could end you and your family up in a poorhouse if you were in debt. Mind you, they would tear the families apart! Children in need are also a major concern in Dickens’s writing - possibly, because the author personally knew what he was writing about. Dickens himself experienced a lot of hardship in his early years. You will find many “echoes” in his social fiction. To cheer you up a little bit, I will upload “The Queen Victoria Handicap” (a horse race!) by Monty Python. Take care, my dear students! SURVEY Summary of SESSION 10: War Poetry (Modernism I) Modern Times It was the end of a long era full of ground-breaking inventions, technological progress, massive territorial expansion, and severe social problems due to industrialisation and urbanisation, which influenced the mood at the dawn of a new century. What would the future bring? I know I did not ask to read the next poem that is mentioned, but if you have a brief look at “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy (p. 287) you might get an idea how many people felt at the very end of the “old” century. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature offers the following view: Literally the last word on the nineteenth century was uttered by Thomas Hardy in his poem “The Darkling Thrush”, which is dated 31 December 1900 (which Hardy regarded as the last day of the old century). Hardy conveys a sense of chill, shrunken uncertainty on this portentous date; then the mood changes as an old bedraggled thrush [a small singing bird] begins to sing cheerfully in the winter dusk, as if expressing ‘Some blessed hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware’. A few days later, in the first month of the twentieth century, Queen Victoria died; an era had finally ended.1 The end of the long and relatively stable Victorian era after Queen Victoria’s death, the beginning of the new century – you can imagine how this influenced the way people thought about the future. Uncertainty, doubt, disillusionment can be considered as some of the typical reactions to “the chaos of twentieth century-experience”2. For instance – the rapid progress in technology had shown to produce negative side effects, such as poverty and unemployment. As the third insult to humanity3, Sigmund Freud stated that the human psyche was split in three: superego/ego/id. Accordingly, the individual could no longer be seen as a “whole” entity, safe, ruled by reason. Instead, Freud proved that the human psyche is nothing more than the constant site of struggle, hence the insult: “Der Mensch ist nicht länger Herr im eigenen Haus”, i.e., ‘man is no longer the master of his own house’, i.e. in control of himself. He will always be subjected to desires, drives, wishes, influenced by the unconscious. [➔ You may want to check Freud’s “iceberg metaphor”] Speaking of icebergs - the belief in the absolute power of progress, in the superiority of technology over nature, was seriously shaken when the “unsinkable” passenger liner RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage in 1912 after the collision with an iceberg. The Zeitgeist of the early twentieth century was also coined by the horrors of war. Apart from the Anglo-Boer War which was in distant Southern Africa (1899-1902), World War I (1914-1918) confronted the people with the horrors of war on a global scale, its lethal machinery of war, trench warfare and the devastating use of mustard gas, and so on. 1 Bernard Bergonzi, “Late Victorian to Modernist. 188-1930”, Pat Rogers (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, “, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-58; here , pp. 379-430; here: 402. 2 Ibid., p. 408. 3 Insult No. One: Copernicus and his discovery that the planet earth is not the centre of the universe. Insult No. Two: Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, dethroning mankind as privileged and designed “in the image of God” ➔ Session on the “Victorian epoch”. Billions of people were killed or wounded. “Shell shock” was a common reaction of the soldiers, now also known as “post-traumatic stress disorder”. War Poetry I asked you to read “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke and “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen. In your Moodle course, you will also find a poem by the title of “The Call” by Jessie Pope. Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) (photo:www.poetryfoundation.org “The Soldier” is full of patriotic pride! The soldier, i.e., the speaker envisions his possible death should he fall in action during the war. He would be proud to die for his country if necessary and asks his family and friends not to be sad should this be the case. He is convinced that his sacrifice for England would even turn him into a better man. A solemn sonnet, somewhat formal in language and style, personifying England as the glorious mother country – “The Soldier” is one of the poems which are often recited during memorial service on Remembrance Day to pay tribute to those who unfortunately did not return from the battlefields. The first World War was still young when Brooke who volunteered wrote this poem. Like the speaker of his poem, he did not know for sure he was about to die in the war. He could not know how he would die, either. It was a mosquito bite which turned septic that killed Brooke in 1915, early on in the war, in the Mediterranean. If you look at the next poem, you can see how a deep feeling of patriotic pride at the beginning of World War I (Brooke) soon turned into disillusionment, mortal fear and trauma (Owen), once one was really confronted with the horrors of war in person. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) (photo: www.worldwars.com) “Dulce et Decorum est” is the complete opposite of Brooke’s famous poem. Just look at its fast and breathless description of the horrors during a mustard gas attack! There is no dignity in risking one’s life just to become human cannon fodder. There is nothing desirable or even faintly glorious about being exposed to – and killed by - mustard gas. There is nothing humane about war. Even if it does not kill the speaker of this poem, it still traumatises his mind, haunting him to relive the ghastly experiences in recurring nightmares. Wilfred Owen knew what he was writing about. He was severely wounded and certainly suffered from PSTB as we would now call it. After treatment in hospital, he returned to active service and was killed in action in France, just one week before the war ended. The title of his poem, “Dulce et Decorum est”, is a quotation of Horace’s “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, meaning ‘it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country’. We do find this idea in Brooke’s poem “The Soldier”, but also in many other texts of the time. “The Call” by Jessie Pope is one example of a poem which celebrates the idea of “going to war” in an extremely aggressive, insulting way. In fact, the speaker calls everyone a coward who might have second thoughts about joining the army. The speaker literally sneers at everyone who is male, but not a soldier! Strong words coming from a speaker created by a female writer who could never have joined the forces herself at that time. Pope was rather famous for her “motivational” war poems. In fact, Wilfred Owen originally dedicated the first draft of his bitter “Dulce et Decorum est” to Jessie Pope. Jessie Pope (source: allpoetry.com) Now his words of the final stanza take on a rather personal meaning as the speaker basically confronts the addressee with the bitter outcome of writing pro-war poetry! If only she had seen what war really was like: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (l. 25-28)” Posthumously published in 1920 without the dedication to Jessie Pope – Owen had finally decided against it - the poem still drives home its anti-war message in a drastic way; in fact, it can be read as a universal warning not to glorify war, let alone start one. Like Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen did not live to see the Second World War – however, Jessie Pope did. The end of World War II, adding yet another ghastly dimension of horrors of its own, is generally seen as the temporal endpoint of the era of modernism (1900-1945). To sum up, the conditions of modern life led to a feeling of epistemological uncertainty4, i.e., the urge to deal with questions like ‘where can I find my place in this (unpredictable) world, how can I know about it, how can I deal with it at all?’ [➔ epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and (justified) belief] This feeling of uncertainty also led to a new way of dealing with things, new ways of writing, as well – which will be the topic of next week’s session: James Joyce – Two Sample Texts. Take care! 4 Cf. Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction, London; New York. Routledge, 1987, p. 3. Summary of Session 11: James Joyce (Modernism II) Yet more modern times… Please remember from last week’s session on War poetry: Uncertainty, doubt, disillusionment can be considered as some of the typical reactions to “the chaos of twentieth century-experience”1. To sum up, the conditions of modern life led to a feeling of epistemological uncertainty2. In other words, many people - including writers - felt the urge to deal with questions like: ‘where can I find my place in this (unpredictable) world? How can I know anything about it, how can I deal with it at all?’ After our examples of War poetry last week, two more texts are on our agenda, an excerpt of the novel Ulysses and the short story “Eveline”, both by the famous Irish author James Joyce. I asked you which text you found easier to read. Let me guess: “Eveline?” Okay, let’s begin with the difficult one! 😉 1. Ulysses (pp. 303; 306) This is a highly complex novel dealing with just one ordinary day, 16th June, 1904! Ulysses consists of 18 chapters or episodes, involving a great number of characters. The three main characters are: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom (not Orlando, unfortunately) and his wife, Molly Bloom. 1 Ibid., p. 408. 2 Cf. Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction, London; New York. Routledge, 1987, p. 3. By the way, epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and (justified) belief. There are many references to Homer’s Ulysses (in German: “Odysseus”), and his Odyssey, just look at the titles of chapters. But in comparison to Homer’s masterpiece, the events in Joyce’s novel seem rather ordinary, trivial, even irrelevant. In fact, here, it is Leopold Bloom who is on tour, so to say. He is wandering through his home town, Dublin, on said 16 th June. It may seem like there is not much going on,