Film Session

From Hell

Tasks: you will be assigned ONE task to carry out while watching the film and to share to your partners the following class.

1.      Define what eurocentrism is and mention all its characteristics in form of binary oppositions. How is it made manifest through: (Select a scene and analyse it)

1- mise-en-scene

2- editing

2.      How is ethnicity presented in the movie? Select a scene where the topic of conversation is ethnic differences. Analyse the dialogue from the following perspectives:

          1- editing

          2- power relations

As far as point 2 is concerned, you are expected to apply the Foucault’s approach taking into consideration the definitions of power, discourse and the gaze.

3.      How is femininity presented in this text? Using gender studies as the field of study which supports the present analysis select a scene where the life of the prostitutes is depicted in relation to patriarchal ideology.

4.      Analyse the context of culture presented in the movie. In order to do so you need to work on the following concept: imperialism. Provide a brief history of the British Empire. This should be expressed in your own words. Include a map where the colonies are clearly shown during the rule of Queen Victoria.

5.      From Hell may be considered a hybrid from the perspective of genre classification. On the one hand, this text may be considered as a horror film. On the other hand, it may be considered as crime fiction/detective fiction. Taking genre theory into consideration elaborate two lists of what you consider are the textual characteristics of both genres.

6.      Using narratology as the starting point of the analysis of the narrative structure of the film, select two flashbacks and analyse the following elements:

·         The use of colours

·         The soundtrack

·         The contributions made by the flashbacks to the understanding of the character of inspector Abberline

7.      Prepare a brief report on the case of Jack The Ripper. Try to find information about:

·         Who the victims where.

·         The nature of the killings. 

·         The repercussions the murders had on Victorian society.

8.       There are many theories which have tried to account for the Whitechapel murders in 1888. One such theory is the conspiracy theory upon which the film is based. Explain what this theory is about and select one scene from the movie, which illustrates this theory.

9. How is the medical profession presented in this film? What kind of power do doctors exert on the female body? Use gender studies and Foucaut’s approach to analyse one scene where the manipulation of the female body at the hands of science is shown through editing and mise-en-scene.

10. Who was the Elephant Man? Why does he appear in this film? What were the Victorians afraid of? In what ways can you say that From Hell provides the spectator with a sociological analysis on Victorian society from the perspective of the 21^st century?

Composed upon Westminster Bridge

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;


And all that mighty heart is lying still!

The Chimney Sweeper

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

A lego stop-motion animation of William Blake's poem, "The Chimney Sweeper".

Final Exam

Some instructions...

* Choose one or several texts

 - audiovisual: one film, one or more episode from a TV series; s

 - one or more short storie(s) form same author or from different ones

* Use at least 2 critical theories to analyse the texts. 

* Include a biography of author (if applicable or crucial for the analysis)

 * Mention Context of Culture & Production (somewhere within XVIII, XIX c.)

* The presentation should not be longer than 15 minutes. 

* Prepare some visual aid: powerpoint, prezi, poster.

Some options: (This list is not exhaustive)

 * Films: Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Frankeweenie, Les Miserables, The Secret Garden, Oliver Twist, Sherlock Holmes, The War of the Worlds.
* TV Series: Poldark, Victoria, War & Peace, Lost in Austen, Sherlock Holmes.
* Short Stories (Authors): Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Grimm Brothers, Thomas Hardy, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde.

Victorian Age

3 minute history

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray: Literary analysis

1) The Preface: The purpose of Art

The first edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. However, it was not well received by Victorian society, who criticized it as scandalous and immoral. Wilde, disappointed by his novel’s failure, decided to revise it and publish a second edition in 1891. One of the changes he included was the addition of a preface. Read and analyse “The Preface” in The Picture of Dorian Gray and answer the following questions justifying your answers with quotes from the text:

a) What is the purpose of the Preface?
b) What does it tell us about Wilde’s beliefs in Aestheticism?
c) What does it tell us about the nineteenth century Victorian society?
d) What does Oscar Wilde caution us against?
e) Do you think that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a form of “useless art” or does it serve a purpose?


2) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Psychoanalytic Criticism

The reinterpretation of The Picture of Dorian Gray in the light of Psychoanalytic Criticism gives us a valuable insight into the novel. Freud highlights three parts of the Unconscious, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id is what influences our desires, our libido, the force that drives us to seek pleasure; the Ego deals with reality, it strives to balance the Id and the Superego and, last but not least, the Superego is the area of the Unconscious which houses judgment (of ourselves and others).

Besides, Jaques Lacan developed the idea of the "mirror stage", stating that infants of about 6 months old recognize themselves in a mirror or other symbolic element which induces apperception (turning of oneself into an object that can be viewed by the child from outside).  By the early 1950s, thi idea evolved from infancy into adulthood, as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of "Imaginary order".

Taking the theory into account, discuss:

a) Are there specific characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray who represent the three areas of the Unconscious? Which ones? Justify providing quotes from the text.
b) Which area of the Unconscious dominates Dorian Gray’s life? How? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.
c) What does Dorian Gray’s picture represent? What does it remind Dorian of? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.
d) Which event marks the beginning of Dorian’s downfall? Does he manage to suppress his Superego by performing this act? Justify providing quotes from the text.
e) Is Dorian able to find a balance between finding pleasure and doing the right thing? Provide quotes from the text to justify your answers.

f) How can you relate the "mirror stage" with Dorian's own relationhip with the portrait?


3) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Gender Studies

Gender Studies explore issues of sexuality, power and marginalized populations (women, as well as others, such as homosexuals, bisexuals, etc.). Let us examine the manner in which gender and sexuality are represented in The Picture of Dorian Gray:

a) How is the institution of marriage portrayed in The Picture of Dorian Gray? Provide quotes.
b) Do women play a significant role in the novel? What is Lord Henry’s view on women? Provide quotes.
c) Are there any homoerotic bonds between men in the novel? Which one(s)?
d) Does Dorian Gray have a happy sexual life all along the novel? Provide quotes to justify your answer.
e) Can we associate Dorian Gray to the mythological character of Narcissus, always longing to possess the person he sees reflected in the water? How? Provide examples from the text.
f) In chapter two, pages 25, 26 (Penguin Popular Classics) Lord Henry claims:

"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream -- I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal -- to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful."

Explain this quote considering Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic values, his own sexual preferences and the context of Victorian England.


4) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through the Gothic tradition.

The Picture of Dorian Gray can be analysed as a nineteenth century Gothic novel, as we can find many of the elements that characterize this genre. For example, we can find the presence of:

• The scary atmosphere (setting and characters that contribute to XIX century gothic)
• The Crossing of the Threshold
• The bargain with the devil
• The Supernatural
• The Uncanny
• The feeling of entrapment
• Haunting
• The Doppelgänger motif
• The sudden break-out of violence
• “Sinister” science
• Magical objects
• Abjection

Provide examples of these elements along the novel, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate.

5) Reinterpreting The Picture of Dorian Gray through Postcolonial Studies

Postcolonial studies examines the global impact of the European colonialism, from its begginings in the fifteenth century up to the present. The book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was published originally in 1891, a time when Queen Victoria was still the leading monarch in Britain and a time when people were still extremely patriotic. Besides, Britain was  the leading empire in the world, owning 25% of the landmass of the world.

Even though Wilde was a colonial author, colonial hints may be collected in his novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray expands on the idea of  negative and destructive consequences that are brought about after the influence from/on people, which can be defined in terms of the colonizer and the colonized.

a) To what an extend do Lord Henry's colonialist actions and behaviour represent the powerful force of the western civilization?
b) Is Dorian Gray the symbol and representation of the colonized, with its final annihilation?
c) Can Dorian represent the colonizer later on in the novel, leading to the colonization and destruction of other characters?
d) To what an extend do Dorian's actions and behaviour correspond to his devotion to hedonism, beauty and search for pleasure? How can colonial discourse account for this answer?
e) Pay special attention to Lord Henry's (colonial)discourse. Can you find instances of eurocentrism in the text?

Provide examples, quoting from the text whenever it is appropriate.

Assignment: Historical Periods

Read about the following historical period you have been assigned and prepare a 10-minute-presentation for Wednesday, 5th

• Coalition Wars (1792-1815)
• The Restoration in Europe (1815-1820) [The Congress of Viena (1814-15)]
• The Age of Revolution (1820-1848)
• The Unification of Italy (1815-1871)
• The Unification of Germany (1815-1871)

Use the following presentation as a guide.
Remember to have your sources at hand! (webpages or books from which you obtained information)

Narratology

Post-Colonial Poem

Colonization in Reverse
By Louise Bennett

Wat a joyful news, Miss Mattie,
I feel like me heart gwine burs'
Jamaica people colonizin
Englan in reverse.

By de hundred, by de t'ousan
From country and from town,
By de ship load, by de plane-load
Jamaica is Englan boun.

Dem a-pour out o'Jamaica,
Everybody future plan
Is fe get a big-time job
An settle in de mother lan.

What a islan! What a people!
Man an woman, old and young
Jusa pack dem bag an baggage
An tun history upside dung!

Some people don't like travel,
But fe show dem loyalty
Dem all a-open up cheap-fare-
To-England agency.

An week by week dem shipping off
Dem countryman like fire,
Fe immigrate an populate
De seat o' de Empire.

Oonoo see how life is funny
Oonoo see de tunabout,
Jamaica live fi box bread 
Outa English people mout'.

For wen dem catch a Englan,
An start play dem different role,
Some will settle down to work
An some will settle fe de dole.

Jane say de dole is not too bad
Bacause dey payin she
Two pounds a week fe seek a job
Dat suit her dignity.

Me say Jane will never find work
At the rate how she dah look,
For all day she stay pon Aunt Fan couch
And read love-story book.

Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But I'm wonderin how dem gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse

Post Colonial Studies

The world has been affected by 19th Century European imperialism.

Postcolonial analysis makes clear the nature and impact of inherited power relations and their continuing effects.

The structures of power established by the colonizing process remain pervasive, though often hidden in cultural relations throughout the world.

Read the following concepts and think how the can be applied to our reading of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

· Abrogation: rejection by post-colonial writers of a normative concept of what is correct or standard.
· Appropriation: the process of English adaptation. The way in which post-colonial societies take over aspects of imperial culture.
· Ambivalence: adapted into post-colonial discourse by Homi Bhabha. Describes a complex mix of attraction and repulsion that characterises the relationship between colonizers and colonized. The relationship is ambivalent because the colonized subject is never simply and completely opposed to the colonizer. There is an empty imitation of English manners.
· Binarism: De Saussure claimed that signs have meanings not by a simple reference to real objects but by their opposition to other signs. Colonizer-colonized, white-black, civilized-primitive or savage, advanced-retarded, good-evil, beautiful-ugly, human-bestial, teacher-student, doctor-patient.
· Cannibal: eater of human flesh.
· Centre vs margin or periphery: imperial Europe became defined as the centre, everything outside is margin or periphery of culture.
· Colonial desire: sexualized discourse of rape, penetration and impregnation. Transgressive sexuality: obsession with the idea of the hybrid, interracial sex.
· Colonial discourse: instrument of power. Coined by Edward Said who analysed Foucault’s discourse. System by which a dominant group in society constitutes the field of truth by imposing specific knowledge disciplines and values upon dominated groups.
· Colonialism: exploitation that developed with the expansion of Europe over the last 400 years
· Ethnicety: human variation in terms of culture, tradition, language social patterns and ancestry.
· Eurocentrism: conscious or unconscious process by which Europe and European cultural assumptios are constructed or assumed to be the normal natural or universal
· Exotic/exoticism: alien, introduced from abroad.
· Going native: colonizers’ fear of contamination by absorption into native life and customs. Construction of native culture as primitive or degenerate.
· Hegemony: coined by Antonio Gramsci (1930’s) when investigating why the ruling class was so successful in promoting their interests in society. It stands for the dominance of one state within a confederation. The power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests are the interests of all. This domination does not occur by force, or persuasion but a more subtle and inclusive power over economy, or status apparatus like education and media. Consent is achieved by the interpellation of the colonized subject by imperial discourse so that the Eurocentric values, assumptions and beliefs and attitudes are accepted.
· Hybridity: creation of new transcultural forms within the contanct zone produced by colonization
· Imperialism: practice, theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory. Said differenciates it from colonisation which is the implanting of settlements on a distant territory. The term imperialism for the purpose of acquiring colonies for economic, strategic and political advantage did not emerge until 1880. Used to describe the government of Napoleon III.
· Metonymic gap: cultural formed when appropriations of a colonial language insert unglossed words, phrases or passages from a first language or concepts, allusions or references that may be unknown to the reader.
· Mimicry: when colonial discourse encourages colonized subject to ‘mimic’ the colonizer, by adopting the colonizer’s cultural habits, assumptions, institutions and values. Reproduction of those traits.
· Native: the indigenous inhabitants of colonies. Pejorative sense: inferior to the colonial settlers.
· Neo-colonialism: coined by president of Independent Ghana Kwame Nkrumah (1965) to refer to countries such as USA who continue to play decisive role through international monetary bodies, through fixing prices on world markets, multinational corporations, etc.
· Orientalism: (Said) the process by which orient is constructed by European thinking. Relationship between Orient and Occident: relation of power, domination, various degrees of complex hegemony.
· The other: anyone who is separated from one’s self. The existence of others is crucial in defining what is “normal” and in locating one’s place in the world. (Sartre: Being and nothingness, Freudian analysis of formation of subjectivity, Lacan: other –the other who resembles the self, Other: symbolic other in whose gaze the subject gains identity)
· Othering: Spivak coined this concept as the process by which imperial discourse creates its “others”, the excluded or mastered subject created by the discourse of power.
· Race: Classification of human beings into physically, biologically and genetically distinct groups, transmitted through the blood. Pure and mixed race distinctions.
· Subaltern: of inferior rank (term adopted by Gramsci to refer to groups in society who are subject to the hegemony of ruling classes). Peasant, workers, among others.
· Ideology is perpetuated according to Althusser, by ideological apparatuses such as church, education, police which interpellate subjects.

McRae, J. & Carter, R. (1997). Post-Colonial Studies, Key Concepts. London: Routledge.

Post Colonial Studies

The world has been affected by 19th Century European imperialism.

Postcolonial analysis makes clear the nature and impact of inherited power relations and their continuing effects.

The structures of power established by the colonizing process remain pervasive, though often hidden in cultural relations throughout the world.

Read the following concepts and think how the can be applied to our reading of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

· Abrogation: rejection by post-colonial writers of a normative concept of what is correct or standard.
· Appropriation: the process of English adaptation. The way in which post-colonial societies take over aspects of imperial culture.
· Ambivalence: adapted into post-colonial discourse by Homi Bhabha. Describes a complex mix of attraction and repulsion that characterises the relationship between colonizers and colonized. The relationship is ambivalent because the colonized subject is never simply and completely opposed to the colonizer. There is an empty imitation of English manners.
· Binarism: De Saussure claimed that signs have meanings not by a simple reference to real objects but by their opposition to other signs. Colonizer-colonized, white-black, civilized-primitive or savage, advanced-retarded, good-evil, beautiful-ugly, human-bestial, teacher-student, doctor-patient.
· Cannibal: eater of human flesh.
· Centre vs margin or periphery: imperial Europe became defined as the centre, everithing outside is margin or periphery of culture.
· Colonial desire: sexualized discourse of rape, penetration and impregnation. Transgressive sexuality: obsession with the idea of the hybrid, interracial sex.
· Colonial discourse: instrument of power. Coined by Edward Said who analysed Foucault’s discourse. System by which a dominant group in society constitutes the field of truth by imposing specific knowledge disciplines and values upon dominated groups.
· Colonialism: exploitation that developed with the expansion of Europe over the last 400 years
· Ethnicety: human variation in terms of culture, tradition, language social patterns and ancestry.
· Eurocentrism: conscious or unconscious process by which Europe and European cultural assumptios are constructed or assumed to be the normal natural or universal
· Exotic/exoticism: alien, introduced from abroad.
· Going native: colonizers’ fear of contamination by absorption into native life and customs. Construction of native culture as primitive or degenerate.
· Hegemony: coined by Antonio Gramsci (1930’s) when investigating why the ruling class was so successful in promoting their interests in society. It stands for the dominance of one state within a confederation. The power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests are the interests of all. This domination does not occur by force, or persuasion but a more subtle and inclusive power over economy, or status apparatus like education and media. Consent is achieved by the interpellation of the colonized subject by imperial discourse so that the Eurocentric values, assumptions and beliefs and attitudes are accepted.
· Hybridity: creation of new transcultural forms within the contanct zone produced by colonization
· Imperialism: practice, theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory. Said differenciates it from colonisation which is the implanting of settlements on a distant territory. The term imperialism for the purpose of acquiring colonies for economic, strategic and political advantage did not emerge until 1880. Used to describe the government of Napoleon III.
· Metonymic gap: cultural formed when appropriations of a colonial language insert unglossed words, phrases or passages from a first language or concepts, allusions or references that may be unknown to the reader.
· Mimicry: when colonial discourse encourages colonized subject to ‘mimic’ the colonizer, by adopting the colonizer’s cultural habits, assumptions, institutions and values. Reproduction of those traits.
· Native: the indigenous inhabitants of colonies. Pejorative sense: inferior to the colonial settlers.
· Neo-colonialism: coined by president of Independent Ghana Kwame Nkrumah (1965) to refer to countries such as USA who continue to play decisive role through international monetary bodies, through fixing prices on world markets, multinational corporations, etc.
· Orientalism: (Said) the process by which orient is constructed by European thinking. Relationship between Orient and Occident: relation of power, domination, various degrees of complex hegemony.
· The other: anyone who is separated from one’s self. The existence of others is crucial in defining what is “normal” and in locating one’s place in the world. (Sartre: Being and nothingness, Freudian analysis of formation of subjectivity, Lacan: other –the other who resembles the self, Other: symbolic other in whose gaze the subject gains identity)
· Othering: Spivak coined this concept as the process by which imperial discourse creates its “others”, the excluded or mastered subject created by the discourse of power.
· Race: Classification of human beings into physically, biologically and genetically distinct groups, transmitted through the blood. Pure and mixed race distinctions.
· Subaltern: of inferior rank (term adopted by Gramsci to refer to groups in society who are subject to the hegemony of ruling classes). Peasant, workers, among others.
· Ideology is perpetuated according to Althusser, by ideological apparatuses such as church, education, police which interpellate subjects.

Graveyard Poetry

 

The Gohic Tradition

How to add a presentation to your blog

John Keats

When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

By John Keats

(written in 1818, published posthumously in 1848)

When I have fears that I may cease to be 

Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, 

Before high-piled books, in charact’ry, 

Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain; 

When I behold, upon the night’s starred face, 

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, 

And think that I may never live to trace 

Their shadows with the magic hand of chance; 

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, 

That I shall never look upon thee more, 

Never have relish in the faery power 

Of unreflecting love—then on the shore 

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think 

Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Poetry

Metrical Feet: a lesson for a boy

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1806)

Trochee trips from long to short;
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks, strong foot!, yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl's trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long.
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.
One syllable long, with one short at each side,
Amphibrachys hastes with a stately stride --
First and last being long, middle short, Amphimacer
Strikes his thundering hoofs like a proud high-bred Racer.

If Derwent be innocent, steady, and wise,
And delight in the things of earth, water, and skies;
Tender warmth at his heart, with these meters to show it,
WIth sound sense in his brains, may make Derwent a poet --
May crown him with fame, and must win him the love
Of his father on earth and his father above.
My dear, dear child!
Could you stand upon Skiddaw, you would not from its whole ridge
See a man who so loves you as your fond S.T. Colerige. 

Poetry

The French Revolution

Created by Andrea Dallape, Anabella Geijo, Rita Meza, Jennifer Segovia

Literary Essay

Jornada de Lenguas

Programa

Film Session:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

• 2009 parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.
• It is a mashup combining Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of modern zombie fiction, crediting Austen as co-author.
• The novel was adapted into a 2016 film.
• Director: Burr Steers
• Cast:

Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet
Sam Riley as (Fitzwilliam Darcy) Mr. Darcy
Jack Huston as Mr. Wickham
Bella Heathcote as Jane Bennet
Douglas Booth as Mr. Charles Bingley
Matt Smith as Mr. Collins
Charles Dance as Mr. Bennet
Lena Headey as Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Suki Waterhouse as Kitty Bennet
Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley
Aisling Loftus as Charlotte Lucas
Dolly Wells as Mrs. Featherstone
Tom Lorcan as Lieutenant Denny
Ellie Bamber as Lydia Bennet
Millie Brady as Mary Bennet
Sally Phillips as Mrs. Bennet
Jess Radomska as Annabelle Netherfield
Hermione Corfield as Cassandra

• Deconstructive-postmodernist version of the source text. Considering that postmodernism has permeated deeply into our popular culture, many contemporary works of art are the result of the appropriation of previous forms for the tranformation to postmodern hybrids.
• Dialogue between Hypertext (Text B or target text) and Hypotext (Text A, source text, earlier text). Terms coined by Gerard Genette (Structuralist) 
• Parody: A parody imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject. (Abrams, 2012: 38)
• Gothic: “Gothic-postmodernism is the clearest mode of expression in literature for voicing the terrors of postmodernity; a mode that is far from dead and in fact rejuvenated in the present context of increased global terrorism”. (Beville, 2009: 8). 
• Monstrosity: “a monster is an embodiment of a certain cultural moment –of a time, a feeling or a place” (Cohen, 1996: 4) 
• Mash-up: a mixture. A literary mash-up is a hybrid; half creative fiction in its own right, and half criticism or commentary on the original work. 

Activities:

1. Why does the film start with that introduction?
2. How is Mr Darcy visually presented?
3. What is the significance of the soundtrack?
4. Can you recognize any well-known actors/actresses?
5. Body Language: the Gaze. Who looks? Who is looked at?
6. Why has Austen’s text been rewritten as a zombie mash up?
7. What do Zombies stand for?
8. Cinematography:
a. Light and shadows
b. Camera shots (Long, Close-up shot)
c. Angularity of the camera:
d. Sound editing

e. Mise-en-scene




Retrieved from http://www.uncanny.ch/2016/06/07/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies/ on June 20th 2016.

Literary Theories

Guidelines for your presentations

* Include a timeline with most relevant events

* Mention origins, development and consequences of the event under study.
* Mention the philosophical/political/economic influence behind the topic

* Contextualise the event within British history (what was going on in Britain, who was the monarch)
* Mention the changes it brought in the social, economic, political and cultural aspects as well.
*For the French Revolution presentation (include brief explanation of the ascension and fall of Napoleon, his intentions regarding France)

* For the Georgians: mention the previous period and the one that came after it.

Make sure the ppt/prezi works well. Send it to me before so that I download it in my computer or bring it in a pendrive.

If you are planning to show a short video, remember to download t before, just in case connection doesn’t work

Watch the following presentation, it gives some hints on how to prepare a successful ppt

What is a Patriarchal System?

A patriarchal social system can be defined as a system where men are in authority over women in all aspects of society. In the past, men were often the established gender of authority and exhibited control in all situations.

The etymology of the word patriarchy allows us to understand the meaning of the term. The term patriarchy comes from the Latin words pater, which means “father”, and archein, “to rule”. Also, patriarchy derives from the Greek terms patriarches (“chief or head of family”) and patria (“family, clan”) Therefore, it refers to male political power within society and the father’s authority within his family.

Malpas and Wake (2006) claim that:

Patriarchy is a term used – especially but not exclusively in feminist theory – to analyse male dominance as a conventional or institutionalized form. Literally the ‘rule of the father’, patriarchy historically describes systems in which the male has absolute legal and economic control over the family. The patriarch is the male head of a tribe, religion or church hierarchy. (...)

Patriarchy was stablished as a system, defeating the ‘mother right’ and controlling women’s sexuality in order to establish paternity and protect private property. (Malpas and Wake, 2006: 237)

Characteristics of a Patriarchal System 

(male dominance, male centeredness, obsession with control, male identification)

Firslty, a patriarchal society is male dominated, which does not mean that all women are powerless, but the most powerful roles in most sectors of society are held by men,whereas the least powerful roles are held by women. 

Secondly, it is organized with men at the center, while women occupy the margins. This is so because of the assumption that women need men's supervision, protection, or control because they are fragile or vulnerable. 

This takes us to the thrid characteristic, which is the obsession with control. Men living in a patriarchal system or society must be in control at all times. They have a desire to control all social and family situations and must make all decisions regarding finances and education.

Finally, it is important to mention those aspects of society and personal attributes that are highly valued and which are generally associated with men, while devalued attributes and social activities are associated with women. Men are concerned with identification that includes qualities of control, strength, forcefulness, rationality, strong work ethic, and competitiveness.

Reference:

Malpas, S. and Wake, P. (eds.) (2006) The Routledge Companion To Critical Theory. London: Routledge

Patriarchy. (2016, June 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:16, June 12, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patriarchy&oldid=724372009

Retrieved from blog "Language & Culture II"

Gothic Concepts

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An Introduction to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Assignment # 2

Here you'll find a tutorial on how to work collaboratively on a presentation.
You can use Google presentations or Prezi.

July 1st: French Revolution
July 6th: The Georginas
July 6th: 1st Industrial Revolution
July 8th: 2nd Industrial Revolution

Assignment # 1

According to Moon (2010) a reflective blog empowers students with a "voice", a vehicle for self-expression to a wider and more authentic audience. It also fosters communication and discussion among blog readers. We are going to keep a e-journal to publish the work done in class as well as the reflections and ideas that come to our minds regarding Language and Culture III. Feel free to publish other pieces of work you are proud of, from any other subject, or from your work experience. 

This blog should be useful for your future career!

Create your own blog and make your first post. You should write the term from the enlightenment era that you defined in class.

Share the blog URL in the facebook group.

Poetry & Satire

A satire is a genre which "can be described as the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation". (Abrams: 2012)

A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General

By Jonathan Swift

(1722)

His Grace! impossible! what dead! 

Of old age too, and in his bed! 

And could that mighty warrior fall? 

And so inglorious, after all! 

Well, since he’s gone, no matter how, 

The last loud trump must wake him now: 

And, trust me, as the noise grows stronger, 

He’d wish to sleep a little longer. 

And could he be indeed so old 

As by the newspapers we’re told? 

Threescore, I think, is pretty high; 

’Twas time in conscience he should die 

This world he cumbered long enough; 

He burnt his candle to the snuff; 

And that’s the reason, some folks think, 

He left behind so great a stink. 

Behold his funeral appears, 

Nor widow’s sighs, nor orphan’s tears, 

Wont at such times each heart to pierce, 

Attend the progress of his hearse.

But what of that, his friends may say, 

He had those honours in his day. 

True to his profit and his pride, 

He made them weep before he died. 

Come hither, all ye empty things, 

Ye bubbles raised by breath of kings; 

Who float upon the tide of state, 

Come hither, and behold your fate. 

Let pride be taught by this rebuke, 

How very mean a thing’s a Duke; 

From all his ill-got honours flung, 

Turned to that dirt from whence he sprung.

™Abrams, M. (2012) A Glossary of Literary terms. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage learning.

Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.

By Henry Jenkins

See more at his webpage

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is an American single-frame web series which has been adapted from Jan Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The story is conveyed in the form of vlogs (video blogs). It was created by Hank Green and Bernie Su. It also has Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

Literary Techniques

Regency England, key concepts

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The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment, key concepts

Write the concepts you've developed in class on this mural:

The Scientific Revolution

Contenidos

Eje Temático # 1

1.    Revolución Científica e Ilustración (1650- 1790)

Precursores de la Revolución Científica: Newton. La Ilustración: nuevas ideas económicas. Pensadores políticos.

2. 1ra Revolución Industrial (Fines S. XVIII y XIX)

Progresos técnicos. Nuevas fuentes de energía. Mejoras en vías de comunicación. Cambios en la agricultura y en el trabajo. Consecuencias sociales, políticas y económicas.

3. El texto realista, el surgimiento de la novela y su relación con la consolidación de las clases sociales. La emergencia de lo gótico y su ambigüedad: entre la denuncia y la reproducción de la sociedad.

Recursos

Texto: “Pride and Prejudice” de Jane Austen.

“Pride, Prejudice and Zombies”, de Jane Austen y Seth Grahame-Smith [Selección de capítulos].

Poema: “The Chimney Sweeper” (en Songs of Innocence), “The Chimney” (en Songs of Experience), de William Blake.

Serie de TV: “Lost in Austen” dirigida por Dan Zeff

Película: “Pride, Prejudice and Zombies” dirigida por Burr Steers. Análisis del “mashup”.

Eje temático # 2

1.    La revolución Francesa (1789-1815)

La Revolución Francesa: causas y etapas. Cambios en el gobierno. Resultados y trascendencia. Napoleón. El Imperio. La restauración. El Congreso de Viena.

2.    Inglaterra durante la Revolución Francesa

Participación inglesa contra Napoleón. El  “Sistema Metternich”. El imperio británico y el balance de poder en el siglo XIX.

3.    Romanticismo: la imaginación atravesada por la naturaleza, la re-evaluación romántica de lo sublime. La vida industrial como objeto repulsivo. Recuperación de lo medieval, oposición al neoclasicismo y recomposición de lo gótico.

Recursos

Texto: “Frankenstein”, de Mary Shelley

Poema: “Written Upon Westminster Bridge”, “The Daffodils” de William Wordsworth.

Cuento: Comparación con “La casa de Asterión”, de Jorge Luis Borges

Película: “Frankenstein”, dirigida por Kenneth Branagh (versión de 1994)

Eje Temático # 3

1. Absolutismo y liberalismo 1815-1870. Nacionalismo 1850-1870

La reacción conservadora 1815-1830. El liberalismo: la revolución de 1830. El movimiento de 1848 en Francia y otros países. Nacionalismo y liberalismo: Prusia, Austria e Italia. Formación de nuevos estados nacionales: unificación de Italia y de Alemania.

2.    Inglaterra Victoriana y 2da Revolución Industrial

Disturbios laborales. La reforma parlamentaria de 1832. El movimiento cartista, 1838-1848. Legislación reformista. Las organizaciones obreras. La reforma de 1867. El reinado de Victoria (1837-1901). Desarrollo político y económico. Orígenes y desarrollo del socialismo. Robert Owen. Karl Marx. Características y consecuencias sociales y políticas de la segunda revolución industrial. El nuevo capitalismo y el nuevo imperialismo.

3.    Exploración de la relación entre la dimensión literaria y la social retratada en la novela gótica y victoriana. La crisis de Fé: Marxismo, Darwinismo y Psicoanálisis en la Literatura.

Recursos

Textos: “Wuthering Heights”, de Emily Brontë.

“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, de Robert Louis Setevenson.

Película: “Mary Reilly”, dirigida por Stephen Frears (1996).

Short Stories: “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Masque of the Red Death” de Edgar Allan Poe (Gothic).

“The Outsider”, “The Terrible old man” De H.P. Lovecraft (Cosmic Horror).

Poema: “Dover Beach” de Matthew Arnold.

Fundamentación

El espacio de Lengua y Cultura III corresponde al tercer año de estudios, es correlativo a Lengua y Cultura II y es pre-requisito para cursar Lengua y Cultura IV.

El propósito de esta cátedra, como herramienta instrumental y formativa, es ofrecer a los futuros docentes la posibilidad de estimular una sensibilidad estética, adquirir un bagaje cultural, y de desarrollar estrategias de lectura crítica y de análisis discursivo que les permitan lograr un entendimiento más acabado sobre la estilística, la cultura y el uso de la lengua en cada uno de los textos a trabajar. Se propone entregar al alumno herramientas para la (re)construcción y (re)creación de significados, tanto en el contexto de producción como recepción, inmediata y posterior. Lengua y Cultura III apunta a la creación de un perfil profesional crítico y reflexivo no solo a través del lenguaje, sino en él.

De esta manera, esta asignatura tiene como objetivo acercar a los futuros docentes al ámbito de las expresiones artísticas, los acontecimientos históricos, los fenómenos culturales y literarios acaecidos durante los siglos XVIII y XIX. Para ello, se proveerán redes referenciales, un marco crítico y técnicas de análisis que hagan más accesible la cosmovisión de la relación entre el sujeto, el mundo y el lenguaje.

Lengua y Cultura III tiene como finalidad seguir desarrollando las múltiples habilidades adquiridas por los futuros docentes mediante el enfoque de los fenómenos históricos y literarios por estudiar, para así contribuir a sus propias prácticas críticas y reflexivas como lectores, escritores, comunicadores y futuros formadores.

El estudio de la lengua y la cultura será abordado desde dos perspectivas diferentes pero integradas: por un lado se analizarán los principales eventos, ideas y movimientos que tuvieron lugar durante los siglos XVIII y XIX. Por otro, se analizarán manifestaciones y fenómenos literarios y fílmicos contextualizados en período a estudiar. Estas piezas ofrecerán a los alumnos la posibilidad de apreciar la belleza de las mismas así como también de tener una exposición intensiva y extensiva del  idioma inglés  Además, la discusión de las problemáticas, los argumentos, los personajes y los hechos apuntan a ejercitar  la lengua oral.