Doppelganger

A recurrent motif in Gothic fiction, the doppelganger or double has
both symbolic and psychoanalytical implications. In the case of the former,
the duplication or division of a character may serve to emphasize
polemically the moral dilemmas or social disparities around which a didactic
or cautionary narrative may revolve—for example, the fate of one
who resists temptation, as opposed to one who succumbs to it; or, the
lifestyle enjoyed by a character born into privilege, set against the parallel
experience of another raised in poverty. In psychoanalysis, the motif may
emblematize the polarity of the unrestrained id against its ego and superego
counterparts. Thus, the doppelganger may become, variously, a figure
that enacts taboo desires, a seeker of arcane knowledge, or one who
pursues the drive of thanatos rather than that of eros. In both symbolic
and psychoanalytical incarnations (though these demarcations are, inevitably,
capable of definition as much by the critic as the author), the double
may be formed by duplication (where two entities effectively parallel
each other’s actions) or division (where a character is split, physically or
psychologically, into two alternating personalities). Situations such as
disguise, cross dressing, or mistaken identity may also produce contextual
implications that are analogous to doubling.

Hughes, W. (2012) Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature

The Uncanny

The colloquial meaning of the word uncanny—denoting that which is supernatural or merely mysterious by known standards—has been eclipsed in Gothic criticism by a specific Freudian deployment of the term. In a 1919 essay titled “Das Unheimliche” (“The Uncanny”), Sigmund

Freud (1856–1939) distinguishes between the Heimlich (literally, “the homely,” and by implication, the familiar) and the Unheimlich (literally, “the unhomely,” and usually translated from the German as “the uncanny”).

The latter is capable of inducing fear precisely because it is not known or familiar to the perceiver, though Freud extends the range of fearfulness by suggesting that unknown (and thus fearful) things may lie concealed within the most familiar of environments, institutions, and individuals.

Thus, the Unheimlich may be an ambivalent, possibly occluded but certainly frightening, aspect or component of the Heimlich.

The Unheimlich is a concept that is widely applied in modern Gothic criticism because of the genre’s historical associations with the representation of concealment and deceit, its frequent recourse to dramatic modifications in character or behavior, and its effective interposition of the supernatural or the marvelous as a functional presence in the supposedly normal world.

Arguably, the most Unheimlich institution of all is the human body— always on display and yet concealing not merely its mechanisms but its projected disorders also. The body’s uneasy oscillation between health and illness, life and death, and its liminal status as nominally part of humanity yet individual in its destiny, also align it psychoanalytically with the whole mechanism of abjection.

Hughes, W. (2012) Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature. Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press

The Sublime

Term coined by Edmund Burge, he draws a distinction between the Sublime—which is awe inspiring—and the less evocative and thought-provoking beautiful and picturesque. The Sublime instills in the mind of its beholder a sense of smallness or powerlessness—it renders the self both passive and receptive as the grandeur of sublimity floods and enhances the senses. Characteristically, sublimity is associated with monumental size: a mountain can be sublime, as can be a chasm of infinite depth; likewise, a vast, empty plain is sublime, as is an ocean, whether tempest-tossed or eerily becalmed. If extent were not enough, obscurity can equally evoke sublime emotions.

Read more here

Hughes, W. (2012) Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature. Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press

Romanticism

The “Romantic Period” is usually taken to extend approximately from the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789—or alternatively, from the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798—through the first three decades of the nineteenth century.
A movement in European art, aesthetics, literature, and philosophy, romanticism influenced popular as well as elite taste between the 1770s and the mid-19th century. A reaction to the controlled and implicitly secular and predictable world of the Enlightenment, Romantic thought drew on the energy and radicalism perceived in the early days of the French Revolution of 1789, and the lingering influence of the progressive politics exposed by the American War of Independence (1775–1783).

Romanticism is a movement premised on imagination and introspection rather than functionality and the collective mind. It values the selfconsciousness that comes with walking or thinking alone, and the wanderer who is “lonely as a cloud” in the verse of William Wordsworth has his literary parallel in the Gothic Hero who contemplates, alone and obsessively, his sins of excess, neglect, or incest. Such gloomy figures punctuate the Romantic poetry of Lord Byron in particular, but have their novelistic parallel in figures such as the monk Schedoni in The Italian by Ann Radcliffe or Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë.
The Romantic wanderer, though, may equally appreciate and be uplifted by the sublime scenery he encounters in his travels. This convention, certainly, is protracted from the Romantic and into the Gothic, where particularly in the 18th century, authors, most notably in the Female Gothic tradition, favored the spectacular geography of the European Continent. The Burkean Sublime, with its conventions of horror and (more emphatically) terror, may be associated in both Romantic and Gothic thought with an interest in the uncanny and the occult. Supernatural figures such as the ghost enjoy neither place nor function in Enlightenment thought, though they gain emblematic status as affirmations of the enduring mystery of the world even in the context of progressive modernity.

Characteristics:
1. The prevailing attitude favored innovation over traditionalism in the materials, forms, and style of literature.2. In his preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth repeatedly declared that good poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” According to this view, poetry is not primarily a mirror of men in action; on the contrary, its essential component is the poet’s own feelings, while the process of composition, since it is “spontaneous,” is the opposite of the artful manipulation of means to foreseen ends stressed by the neoclassic critics.
3. To a remarkable degree external nature—the landscape, together with its flora and fauna—became a persistent subject of poetry, and was described with an accuracy and sensuous nuance unprecedented in earlier writers.
4. Romantic subjects were the poets themselves or other people, they were no longer represented as part of an organized society but, typically, as solitary figures engaged in a long, and sometimes infinitely elusive, quest; often they were also social nonconformists or outcasts. Many important Romantic works had as protagonist the isolated rebel, whether for good or ill: Prometheus, Cain, the Wandering Jew, the Satanic hero-villain, or the great outlaw.
5. What seemed to a number of political liberals the infinite social promise of the French Revolution in the early 1790s fostered the sense in Romantic writers that theirs was a great age of new beginnings and high possibilities. Many writers viewed a human being as endowed with limitless aspiration toward an infinite good envisioned by the faculty of imagination.

Abrams, M., Harpham, G. (2012) A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston: Wadsworth
Hughes, W. (2012) Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature. Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press

Gothic Literature

The Gothic novel, or in an alternative term, Gothic romance, is a type of prose fiction which was inaugurated by Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764)—the subtitle denotes its setting in the Middle Ages—and flourished through the early nineteenth century. Some writers followed Walpole’s example by setting their stories in the medieval period; others set them in a Catholic country, especially Italy or Spain. The locale was often a gloomy castle furnished with dungeons, subterranean passages, and sliding panels; the typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel and lustful villain, and made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, and other sensational and supernatural occurrences (which in a number of novels turned out to have natural explanations). The principal aim of such novels was to evoke chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety of horrors. Many of them are now read mainly as period pieces, but the best opened up to fiction the realm of the irrational and of the perverse impulses and nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the orderly surface of the civilized mind.

Abrams, M, Harpham, G. (2012). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston: Cengage Learning

Language Change - A Diachronic View

Using graded readers in the Classroom

Virtual Field Trip

Virtual field trips allow teachers to take students beyond the classroom walls without actually moving. They give teachers and students the possibility of visiting places around the world and learning about other cultures through videoconferences.

Visit Jefferson's Monticello

Learning Objectives

• Learn about Thomas Jefferson's ideas that helped shaped a nation
• Learn about Monticello as an architectural icon
• Find out about Monticello as a plantation that was supported by enslaved labor

Activity Description

Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rdpresident of the United States of America. The revolutionary ideas of this man of the Enlightenment were instrumental in the creation of the United States. His home in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an architectural icon, with its neoclassical design drafted by Jefferson himself. But Monticello was also a working plantation, and the home to hundreds of enslaved people. The Founding Father who wrote “all men are created equal” was also a lifelong slave owner. Using images, props, and Google Streetview, a Monticello educator will introduce students to Thomas Jefferson’s world.


If you want to book a place to visit Monticello with your students, or any other field trip visit this site.

Fundamentación del área

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 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.

Language and Culture III - 2018

Use of Graded Readers in the Classroom

Film Session: Analysis

Victorian Times

Short Stories

Rudyard Kipling
Kipling, Rudyard (1865-1936) - An English novelist, short-story writer, and poet who spent most of his youth in India, and is best known for his children’s classics. In 1907, Kipling was the first English writer ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
Lispeth (1888) 
Miss Youghal's Sais (1888)
Thrown Away (1888)

Virtual Class

Assignment # 1: Topic

Language and Culture III – Literary Essay

Choose ONE of the following tasks and develop it thoroughly in an essay.

It should include an introduction, the main body and a conclusion.

Develop the corresponding theory, and account for it quoting from the novel.

1. “Pride and Prejudice” is a novel about women who feel they have to marry to be happy. Taking Charlotte Lucas as an example, do you think the author is making a social criticism of her era’s view of marriage?

2. Define what power is according to the theory of Michel Foucault. Describe the struggle for power between two characters throughout the play.

3. Explain how social class determines the decisions that people make in “Pride and Prejudice”.

4. Explore Austen's portrayal of the women in the novel

5. Explore Austen's portrayal of the women in the novel. In what ways does she sympathize with their plight, and in what ways is she unsympathetic?

6. How are gender roles represented in the novel within Patriarchal Society?

7. How can characters' behaviour or narrative events be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts (Id, ego, superego)?

8. How do Elizabeth Bennet's ideas on marriage differ from social ideas? Which characters in the novel share Elizabeth's views of marriage and which characters reflect society's perspective? Expand on this theme.

9. How do Elizabeth's simplicity and independence represent an attack on the conservatism of characters like Lady Catherine De Bourgh?

10. How do the characters in the text mirror the archetypal figures? (Great Mother or nurturing Mother, Whore, destroying Crone, Lover, Destroying Angel)

11. How does “Pride and Prejudice” criticize customs of the period?

12. How is patriarchal society represented through discourse in “Pride and Prejudice”? Choose two characters from the play to illustrate your point.

13. How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?

14. In what ways does Austen show that family and community are responsible for its members?

15. What conflict can be seen between the values the novel champions and those it portrays?

16. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?

17. What elements of the text can be perceived as being masculine (active, powerful) and feminine (passive, marginalized) and how do the characters support these traditional roles?

18. Which social class does the novel “Pride and Prejudice” claim to represent?

19. Any other: ____________________________________________________________

Assignment # 1

Objective: write a response to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Criteria:

• Evidence of understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Evidence of critical and independent thinking.
• Evidence of careful reading of the novel and investigation on the topic.
• Overall coherence of your writing.

Assessment Rubric: (See link)

Recommendations:

• Avoid using "I, we": use passive constructions whenever is possible.
• Avoid short forms/contractions
• Avoid using biased language
• Direct quotations should be accurate: write what the author wrote. You can omit parts of the quotation using (...).
• Use formal language: whatever is traditionally used in spoken language should NOT be used in an academic paper.
• Use "hedging" language (cautions language) it seems that..., it appears to be.... may...might....could...

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

Poema: “A Satyr against Reason and Mankind” de John Wilmot, “A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General” de Jonathan Swift, “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed” de Jonathan Swift, “The Chimney Sweeper” (en Songs of Innocence), “The Chimney” (en Songs of Experience), de William Blake.

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.

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?