Victorian Web and "The Lady of Shallott"

Here's a link to the victorian web and the painting The Lady of Shallott by Waterhouse. http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/mariotti12.html

And to information on the poem and story of the Lady of Shalott. http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/mariotti12.html

Glossary of Literary Gothic

Douglass H. Thomson, Professor of English at Georgia Southern University compiles a Glossary of Gothic Literary Terms: http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html

The Sister Arts: British Painting, Architecture, and Poetry, 1700-1832

Lisa L. Moore, Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, maintains this site on British culture, including Gothic, Sublime, and Picturesque:

http://www.en.utexas.edu/Classes/Moore/index.htm

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Dicksee 1902)

John Keats' poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (1819)

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

I.

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.

II.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! 5

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full,

And the harvest’s done.

III.

I see a lily on thy brow

With anguish moist and fever dew, 10

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

IV.

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful—a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light, 15

And her eyes were wild.

V.

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look’d at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan. 20

VI.

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery’s song.

VII.

She found me roots of relish sweet, 25

And honey wild, and manna dew,

And sure in language strange she said—

“I love thee true.”

VIII.

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore, 30

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

IX.

And there she lulled me asleep,

And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!

The latest dream I ever dream’d 35

On the cold hill’s side.

X.

I saw pale kings and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci

Hath thee in thrall!” 40

XI.

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gaped wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill’s side.

XII.

And this is why I sojourn here, 45

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Waterhouse, 1893)

Date: 1893

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 112 x 81 cm

Location: Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she gaz'd and sighed deep,

And there I shut her wild sad eyes -

So kiss'd to sleep.

Preparation Week Assignment

Dear Students, Welcome to Narrative Form: the Gothic. I'm happy to see many names that I know on the roster and look forward to meeting some new students.

We'll be looking at the Gothic as a genre that crosses cultural form, including the visual arts, poetry, short story and popular culture.

For your preparation week assignment, I've selected some more familiar terrain that fits with the spirit of Halloween upcoming: read Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." As you read, consider how the story relates to this definition of the Gothic:

Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto introduced the term "gothic romance" to the literary world in 1764. While it presented, at first, a topic for argument and inflammatory rhetoric, over the years the gothic has come to be respected as a venerable albeit still controversial genre. However, due to its inherently supernatural, surreal and sublime elements, it has maintained a dark and mysterious appeal. Since 1764, many authors have followed in the footsteps of Walpole, including such diverse names as Anne Radcliffe, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson. This vide variety of viewpoints, however, is what makes one single, all-encompassing definition of gothic literature so very difficult to ascertain.

So then, what is "the gothic"? Generally speaking, gothic literature delves into the macabre nature of humanity in its quest to satiate intrinsic desire to plumb the depths of terror. Here are seven descriptors that frequently appear in works called 'gothic': 1) the appearance of the supernatural, 2) the psychology of horror and/or terror, 3) the poetics of the sublime, 4) a sense of mystery and dread 5) the appealing hero/villain, 6) the distressed heroine, and 7) strong moral closure.

Please bring into class on the first day, an answer to the question: "How does 'The Fall of the House of Usher' relate to the seven descriptors listed above?" I would expect your response to be around 400 words in length. Bring a hard copy to class the first day.

I'll send each of you a word document of Poe's short story. Or you can look it up www.gutenberg.org. (Look under author "Poe").

Looking forward to seeing you and I hope to make this a very engaging and erudite course for all of you. Please enjoy your break, -Anna J.