Author: literature19

Picturesque, Sublime, and Ruin were three concepts that have been recurring throughout the semester. Each of these themes was represented in our poster with the collaged picture of a singular tree based off our own personal interpretations of it. In general, someone’s interpretations are always going to be unique to that person because everyone has different beliefs and morals. Though our interpretations are unique to ourselves they can also help to create a bigger once they are all together. Collectively we thought that our poster represented ruin in the fact that the tree to the naked eye looked as though it was dying but just because of its physical appearance, one couldn’t say that it was truly dying.

            In terms of how our tree looked all together, the sublime element was what stood out the most when talking to our audience. The darker aspects of the tree in the most center areas were the areas that connected with our idea of ruin because the center of many things where the heart or soul of that object rests. Making the connection that the center of the tree is dark it implies that the soul of the tree has darkened or died. In other forms, literature during the 19^th century also showed references to souls “darkening” or becoming black as well. Specifically in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, the story is of a girl named Laura that is tempted by the fruit coming from goblin merchants. Her sister Lizzie constantly warns her that she shouldn’t trust them or their fruit but Laura doesn’t listen, eats the fruit, and soon after finds herself addicted to them. As a result, Laura becomes tainted and is not longer the pure, innocent girl that she was before. In the same way that Laura finds herself in a much darker place than before, the tree my group created has that same fate. Like Goblin Market, Arthur Symons Moulin Rouge also shows a similar representation. The poem talks about a dancer that has a different outlook over herself dancing than others do. The use of mirrors and shadows throughout the poem help to create an idea that the dancer sees herself as being a darker or lesser image than what the audience sees. Essentially, the fact that she believes herself to be a darker being alludes to a reader that her inner self is dark as well. Before we altered the pictures and added our own interpretations, the tree was pure but the end result was a tree that had more sublime-like aspects that created a more “ruined” feel to the overall piece.

            Another aspect of ruin that can be seen throughout our poster was the fact that there wasn’t any greenery present other than the grass at the bottom of the image. This fact alone that implies a sense of wear or destruction is the not having any physical representation of that life. The original picture was taken during a time where there were no leaves left on the tree; they had all fallen to the ground by the time we got around to taking a picture. Even though there is the physical aspect of the tree looking like it’s not in the best condition, by the picture alone one can’t say that it is a fact. In this instance, a reference to literature would be Ann Radcliff’s the romance of The Forest in which she writes about a “supernatural” experience that a woman encounters one night. Generally speaking, the text goes into detail with the scenery about how the woman keeps getting startled by the things that around her and that they aren’t what they really seem to be. In the same way, the tree isn’t exactly what it seems to be either. Since the tree was photographed during the winter when the leaves have already fallen and the skies aren’t as clear as before, the overall look of the tree is that it has been through hell so to speak. The outer exterior of the tree does not represent the inner workings though. The cells deep underneath the surface of the tree are still working away, keeping the object alive. So based upon what one see, they cannot establish the state of being the tree that is or in the text’s case, whether or not there is a supernatural presence.

All three of the texts that were mentioned have one basic concept that connects them to each other and in this case it is the representation of darkness and ruin within each other pieces. In both Goblin Market and Moulin Rouge, both authors portray a sense of darkness that encompasses the main character themselves and changes their perceptions of how they view things. In contrast, the Romance of the Forest takes a different route and talks about the potential of the unknown in darkness, this being the “supernatural” or “suspenseful” aspect of the text. Much like these texts, these similar themes can be found within our group’s tree as well. There are many questions that are still left to answer when looking at our tree with the main one of them being the state of the tree in itself. Not only that but the sublimity of the tree within each of the pictures and how they fit together as a whole shows a darker aspect that allows the viewer to appreciate both the sublime and the picturesque qualities equally. The tree as well as the texts all represent different views on the concept of ruin that can be connection to each other in ways beyond what one would deem the obvious.

– MY

As a group, we believe that we have created a thorough and well thought out blog full of posts that do an excellent job of taking the works we were given in class and comparing them to our topic of literature. Originally there was worry that literature was too broad of a topic for us to choose but we believe that it was the best decision we could have made. Through our topic of literature our group was able to explore the posts on a level that we could connect with as students. The topic of literature gave us the ability to draw from previous knowledge and to research a topic that interested us inside and outside of the classroom. The topic of our blog allowed us to learn even more about the literature and other works of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

In order to achieve excellence on our blog posts we took advantage of the Victorian Web, often using that as our first line of research for finding works to connect to assigned homework. After the initial look at Victorian Web we went beyond that and took advantage of other research sources available to us such as the WSULibs.  Our research shined through in every one of our blog posts because we were able to include references to specific writers from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Since outside research was a big part of our blogs we often cited our sources at the end of our posts.

In addition to the work we did individually on the blogs we worked as a team on almost every blog post. We did this by creating a Facebook group page and taking advantage of the ease of conversing with all of our group mates at once. Once an entry was posted on the blog we would notify our group mates and not only would our primary editor read through it and report back to the poster but all of the group mates read through the post and left a comment on the Facebook page about the posted entry. By using the Facebook page it made it easy for us to contact our other group mates in case help was needed finding sources or inspiration for a post. The Facebook page also allowed us to check up on each other and make sure posts were being made.

Top five post “A Scarlet Ruth”

https://literature19.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/a-scarlet-ruth/

A “Scarlet Ruth” is a post that compared the story of “Ruth” by Elizabeth Gaskell with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlett Letter” and Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”. What I enjoyed about “A Scarlet Ruth” was the idea of bringing more than one work together, and pulling in different themes from the both of those to make one general idea. By being able to bring forward these different ideas from the works that were presented, it showed the beliefs in women within society during the times presented. It also showed the comparison of social views of women compared to men, and how it was obviously unequal. The writer also understands that there has been a huge shift in views since these time periods. By putting in the additional references in the end of the post it helps the readers understand where the writer took the readings from, and helps see the thought process of the writer. It also gives the reader a look at outside resources.

Top five post “The Awakening Society”

https://literature19.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/the-awakening-society/

“The Awakening Society” is post that compared the play “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw to The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This post has been decided as a favorite because not only is it comparing two pieces of literature together it is also connecting the Victorian society to the American society. The post shows how both societies were challenging social norms through the use of literature. This post also takes advantage of multimedia sources by including a YouTube video that can give the reader more insight and understanding to the play by Shaw. This post also gives the viewer insight in to how the times have changed since then and how literature can play a large role in influencing society.

Top five post “Every Rose Must Wither Some Day”

https://literature19.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/every-rose-must-wither-some-day/

Every Rose Must Wither is a post comparing Oscar Wilde’s poem, “The Harlot’s House” to Dostoyevsky’s work “Notes from Underground”. I had read Notes over the summer and thought it was a perfect accent to the theme of prostitution in the 19th century we had been going over in class. This post comments on the fact that prostitutes were more often young women who either felt compelled into the life for money reasons or were drawn into it, and then found themselves unsatisfied. There is a greater focus on the end of “The Harlot’s House” where the tone gets darker and “Notes” where the male main character belittles a prostitute for her poor choices and lack of a future if she remains in the brothel.

Top five post “Rossetti’s Fallen Woman”

https://literature19.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/rossettis-fallen-woman/

The post, Rossetti’s Fallen Woman, begins by showing some excerpts from the poem, Jenny, and how she is perceived as a prostitute, which is one example of a fallen woman. The post goes on to talk about the poem that accompanies the painting, Found, and infers what might be the story behind the subjects of the painting. The post shows a different kind of fallen woman. One who has made a mistake rather than chosen a lifestyle. It is logical, however, that at the beginning of a woman’s time in the sentence of ‘forever fallen’, she may have just made a mistake that may lead to a lifestyle choice. This lends to the idea that Rosetti had sympathy for the fallen woman, and saw redemption for a woman who’d made a mistake, and forgiveness for a woman who chose wrong. Still, it is unclear between these two pieces alone if Rossetti meant to say anything like that. I really liked all of the pieces talked about in this post, and made the suggestions about what might be Rossetti’s intention because it seems so easily linkable.

The post also shows that by taking two different points from the art and literature two different ideas can come forward, you can still compare and contrast the two different points. The writer of the post also poses questions about the reading that are in depth, and also shows their own misunderstandings in the beginning of the post, which I actually enjoyed. By showing misunderstandings, it could clarify or possibly relate to the readers who read the poem and had the same problems.

Top five post “Living the Ruined Life”

https://literature19.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/living-the-ruined-life/

The post, “Living the ‘Ruined’ Life,” discusses the ideas presented in Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid.” Two women are conversing; one is poor, the other rich. However, the rich one is a prostitute. The poor woman wishes for comfort of wealth, while the rich woman felt guilt in being ruined. In searching for the contextual meaning of the work, the post suggests that even a successful prostitute is seen as ruined women, not only by society, but herself as well. In reading many different works on prostitution, I was intrigued by the idea that although the woman was wealthy, she was still unhappy with herself. The post then goes on to describe how this is seen in other literary works. The author draws on the example of Oscar Wilde’s, “The Harlot’s House.” This piece also shows the act of prostitution as bad thing to be ashamed of. The post goes even further to suggest that the poem not only shoes them as ruined, but almost as being almost of the underworld. They are addressed negatively and almost inhuman like. I really liked the ideas presented in the post about the prostitute not finding fulfillment because she believes herself to be ruined. I think there were women who were proud of what they were able to attain, and those who were ashamed of it. The ideas presented in Wilde’s poem were also very interesting considering the different presentation of a prostitute.

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By looking at these posts we hope that the reader is able to gain a better understanding of not only the works we discussed but the blog as a whole as well.

Literature 19

In the story of “Ruth” by Elizabeth Gaskell, the reader follows the life of Ruth Hilton. Since it was first written in 1853 there are similar themes that we’ve discussed as a class since then which can also be found in many other works that were published during this time period. In the case of the book “The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, the reader once again see some of the same themes represented within both texts. These two books show insight as to society’s overall beliefs within the time period.

In the story Ruth Hilton meets Henry Bellingham one night at a ball while fixing a dress that had been torn. After their first original meeting they eventually end up lovers and have sex out-of-wedlock and Ruth finds herself pregnant after Henry leaves her. Hester Prynne of “the Scarlet Letter” goes through a similar story; while waiting for word from her husband she has an affair with the Arthur Dimmesdale who she later thinks is the father of her daughter Pearl. Within both stories the main characters go through series of regret, remorse, embarrassment, and even suicidal thoughts and as a result of having read the two books one can make connections between these two fictional stories and the views that society had as well.

After reading the two works, social views on the subject on adultery are quite clear. In both texts the woman is seen as being weak or of a lower standard than the man involved. In the case of Ruth Hilton, she was an apprentice for a dressmaking business and for Hester Prynne she was known for doing charitable work in the town. On the other spectrum, the men in both stories hold positions that are tied with respect and power. For Henry Bellingham, he was a young aristocrat when the two first met and for Arthur Dimmesdale, he was the town’s distinguished minister at the church. In addition to these two stories, poetry has also captured society’s view at the time.

Robert Browning wrote “Porphyria’s Lover” in 1836 in which the speaker in the poem goes in-depth with an encounter with his lover during a storm one night while at his cottage.

“Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
And laid her soiled gloves by, untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sat down by my side
And called me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread, o’er all, her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me—”

In this segment the speaker’s lover is throwing herself at him by showing her “smooth white shoulder bare”. But later on in the poem the reader finds out just what the speaker does after that happens. For further reading or to see the outcome of the poem click here:   http://www.bartleby.com/101/720.html

As a whole, it is obvious through these works what beliefs society held towards women, adultery, and the higher status of men. In the cases of “Ruth” and “The Scarlet Letter” both women were seen as the lower person and even more so due to their adultery. These beliefs were so rigid that even when Hester Prynne’s husband was gone for years with no word, believed even to be dead, it was still believed she must be loyal to her husband. Through these works and many others from this era, the reader can gain a better idea of the time period and the many shifts in view since then.

-MY

Additional References:

1. http://manybooks.net/titles/hawthornenetext92scrlt12.html

While reading through the photography tips that both Soloway and Guttman provided, there seemed to be the possibility of transforming these tips into something other than the use of photography. Being able to connect these ideas to other works of art seemed to troublesome at first, but then painted a clear picture. Being able to utilize these tips that the artists gave into writing is something that has been used by writers for a long time. The ideas of “finding the small details that display large ideas” (Guttman) or changing your perspective (Soloway), these are all ideas that writers have keyed into their pieces of works and has made some authors succeed in their profession.

An example of people using these techniques is a popular writer from the 19th century, Honore de Balzac. He was a French writer who attempted to write about the French society in its whole entire being, with complexities and all. He was also regarded as the founder of realism in literature. In order to excel at writing about such a dynamic subject, being able to look at it from all different sides (like a photographer with its subject) is a key detail that will present itself in his writing. He wrote about all of the different key features of French society and took each one into detail with his novels.

When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they do not love, they cannot forgive anything, not even our virtues. – Honore de Balzac (1843), La Muse du Departement. 

Even when looking into the opposite gender, he looked at different points of views of the women in which he was writing about. This is just one of the many quotes that he used to help illustrate the complexity of the world he was surrounded by.

 

Bibliography:

“Honore de Balzac”. Online Literature. Jalic Inc. 2000-2012. Web. 28 August 2012.

“Honore de Balzac”. Wikiquote. 2012. Web. 28 August 2012.

In Gilpin’s essay on picturesque beauty he sought to define and categorize picturesque. For artists have often strove to capture the picturesque nature of a scene in their work, so it would make sense for critics and artists to have a guideline of certain details that would guide one to accomplish that feat. He begins with Burke’s theory that stated that beauty stems from a smooth and neat appearance. However, when he applies it to art he points out that the eye is not drawn to a scene that is completely orderly and smooth. Our eye is not drawn, nor would we admire boring group of three smooth and orderly hills, but add a rough path, give the ground and rocks a rough texture, and our eye finds it much more agreeable. He then seeks to define picturesque through the terms of a certain roughness of quality to a painting, but fails to find a universal truth to define what truly captures or creates the picturesque. He ends by saying it is perhaps best left undefined, since no rule seems to be universal, especially when it comes to the picturesque.

I honestly think that this is why the concept of picturesque has been able to last through the ages. It is a adaptable, and changes as the idea or concept of the idea changes within the population or location. The concept of the picturesque may be completely different from someone who lives in Britain versus someone who lives in Africa. This makes the label picturesque changeable, and expandable, allowing it to adapt with the time and culture. I think this can be said of many art terms, as everyone sees and appreciates something differently. What one person finds beautiful, one may find distasteful, such is the same with the picturesque. The open-ended nature of being not entirely definable gives it the ambiguity needed to remain usable, despite the difference in time periods and locations.

The term picturesque, however, need not be only identified to art. It can also be used when speaking about literature. Much like art, the definition of what makes language picturesque or a scene in a book picturesque is just as complicated to define, and what is picturesque to one person, may not be to another. An author will often try to portray that perfect moment in time, such as a moment where everything falls into place, or in some cases, falls apart. An author will seek to use language to capture the moment. However, if an author were to use “smooth” language, it could very likely be considered boring. Just like art, varied sentence structure and word choice give literature texture, that “rough” quality that catches the reader’s attention and draws them it. Literature also, as has art, changes over the centuries. What one may have considered picturesque language three hundred years ago is probably not considered by most to be picturesque today. By having the term picturesque also be undefined in language, it allows it to change as we change, evolving into something new with each change of our perceptions.

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