Ode on a Grecian URL

The list of persuasive answers to the ID questions is now complete! This is pretty much the end of my updating this blog, unless I find some dreadfully fun Henry James things to link to.

Please, please keep in touch! I'd love to hear what you are up to in future semesters, or to chat about books or classes over coffee. I'm always happy to write letters of recommendation, or to read over drafts of papers for other classes. I should be at the University for at least two more years (hopefully not much longer than that), and even after that my email address won't be changing. I hope to hear from you!

If by the middle of next semester you've become desperate to write a hebdomadal or two, you're welcome to read my blog for English 216 (again with Prof. Ortiz-Robles).

Here are a few links to the resources I point to on the Further Reading (etc.) handout I passed around last week.

Podcasts

• Podictionary is a word-of-the-day podcast with a wonderful amateur etymologist. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a way to better understand our language. (iTunes link, podcast feed link.)
• The New York Times Book Review is one of the premier American book-reviewing organs, and their podcast is strangely light-hearted and delightful. (iTunes link.)
• On Words With John Ciardi is a fantastic, somewhat silly weekly etymology lesson with the American poet who created probably the best translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Blogs

• Bookslut is pretty much required reading these days if you're interested in filtering through the thousands of books published every year to those few books that are really worth reading. There is a Bookslut blog that provides daily comments and links if you're not as interested in the long-form review.
• Arts and Letters Daily was envisioned, I'm guessing, as a portal for readers. It has links to pretty much every interesting or important argument or commentary about literary culture. To be honest, I don't read it any more -- I just have too much other stuff to read -- but I found it enormously fun for several years.

A couple magazines

• Bitch magazine is at the cutting edge of contemporary pop feminism. It comes out quarterly and its prose is as stunning as its commentary. Seriously, buy a copy the next time you're at Borders -- it's a wonderful read.
• The Virginia Quarterly Review may have a stuffy name, but in the last few years VQR has transformed itself into the New Yorker for the under-40 set. Its issues are 300-page tomes, but they're packed with seriously exciting short stories, poems, plays, paintings and photography, and generally some astute cultural criticism and news analysis. If you want a taste of the sort of work they publish, read through "Shepherdess", by Dan Chaon.

A few books

On the handout I listed probably dozens of books, somewhat indiscriminately. If you want a somewhat shorter list, try this one:

• If you liked Pride and Prejudice, try Middlemarch or The Age of Innocence
  
• If you liked Great Expectations, try Bleak House or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
  
• If you liked Wuthering Heights, try Love in the Time of Cholera
  
• If you liked The Moonstone, try The Woman in White or Special Topics in Calamity Physics
  
• If you like The Portrait of a Lady, try The Ambassadors or Mrs Dalloway or Swann's Way

Helen (312) emailed me a couple days ago to say that this list looked all well and good, but that she was going to be reading The Golden Compass, which I have to say is an excellent recommendation -- it's a little Hardy-ish, a little Collins-y, a little Dickensian.

I've linked to the Oxford World's Classics editions of most of those books not because the OWC editions are inherently superior to others, but because they tend to be accurate and cheap editions. If you're toying with the idea of majoring in English and you want to get a sense of the editions majors read, look for Norton Critical Editions instead -- here's a link to the Norton edition of Middlemarch.

If, on the other hand, you are a sane person, go to your local Barnes & Noble and grab one of their Barnes & Noble Classic Editions -- you can almost always get super-cheap hardcovers of classic books if you're not interested in footnotes and lengthy introductions.

As a culture, we Americans have invested maybe a little too much cultural capital in reading. We've built it up to such an extent that it's considered pretentious or intellectual or silly or scary to be seen reading fat nineteenth-century novels in public -- you are more than likely to get strange looks if you're publicly reading a book that isn't obviously some bestseller with a shiny cover and a massive head shot of the author on the back. This in itself is sort of irrelevant -- all of you have braved public opinion a thousand times by now -- except that it sort of feeds back into our self-opinion, so that we start thinking of ourselves "Am I being too pretentious? Should I be reading The Ambassadors in secret, or at least swap the dust jacket with the cover of some Grisham novel?"

It doesn't help me to think of these novels as bestsellers themselves -- Dickens and Collins together sold hundreds of thousands of books during their lifetimes -- although you can try that. What you need, maybe, is to find a reason you are reading. Perhaps you're looking for a way to annoy the next dipshit who starts hitting on you at a party -- start dropping casual literary references and he can't help but feel his own dipshittiness; or perhaps you are looking for a way to avoid your family (this was always my reasoning) -- after all, they'll feel a little more shamed about making you hang out and do dreadful family things if you're clearly being literary in the corner of the room.

There's a lot to be said for the generic goal of "increasing your vocabulary" -- the only permanent way to do so is to read voraciously, and in particular to read outside your comfort zone. Books can also do a great deal to increase your understanding of character: although they can't increase your people skills (trust me), they can help you better understand the Isabel Archers of your life. Books play a genuine role in teaching us about sympathy, in teaching us how to better understand each other. (This might seem at odds with their ancillary function of removing us from those around us; however, books remove us from our contemporaries only to introduce us to new kinds and classes of people. At least, good books do this. Spend enough time with Henry James novels and you can't help but like people a little bit more, and understand them a little bit better.)

This is all a bit pedantic and rambly, I know, but for years I have struggled with finding a vocabulary to explain the basic life-changing power of reading. Why do you read? How do you read?

I was up until 4 am this morning reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics -- it's always rare and wonderful to find these books that just pull you through, these books that refuse to let you turn out the light. Maybe, at heart, all good books are like this: we don't need to have some complicated excuse system to explain why we read them -- they just leap at our eyes and hold them open until we've turned the last page.

Labels: blogs, books, podcasts, recommendations

If I'm reading my Faculty Center correctly, it looks like your grades are officially submitted and available for your to read. Congratulations on a successful semester, everyone! You are one of the most talented and hardest-working groups of students I have had the opportunity to teach -- you made this semester a real pleasure for me.

Please don't hesitate to contact me in the future! I'm always delighted to write letters of recommendation, to serve as a reference, or to help you work through essays you write in other classes. Or just email me if you have a question about literature or essay-writing! I'm always delighted to hear from former students.

Labels: grades

Essay grades on the final were slightly stronger than those on the midterm -- averaging 29.2/35 on the final compared to 24.5/30 on the midterm -- which suggests that your improvement in textual analysis exceeds my expectations. Rather than post strong examples of essays written in answer to these topics, I'll offer some general remarks about success and failure on these prompts.

1. Masculinity. (16 answers; average score: 30.0/35.) Although I was fairly bored with hearing echoed back to me the sorts of answers we began developing in discussion last week, for many of you our conversation about this prompt served as a kind of foundation for much more interesting observations. One particularly strong essay suggested that the sorts of domination we see play out inside the narratives of these texts is replicated by the texts themselves -- for example, Jane Austen's use of epigrams suggests a sort of verbal or textual violence at the heart of masculine authority.
   
2. Narrative gaps. (18; 27.4/35.) These answers were on average weaker than answers to other prompts because so many writers neglected the prompt's italicized injunction to "examine the thematic importance of narrative gaps." So many blue book pages were dedicated to discussions of how gaps keep the reader coming back for more that I was inclined to wonder whether there was some gap in the middle of the essay question to account for this astonishing commonality. This is not to suggest that all the answers to this prompt missed the point -- one particularly strong response began with the idea that in some texts these narrative gaps serve two thematic purposes: to excise conventional events (engagement, marriage, rape, murder) from readers' considerations of unconventional characters, and to suggest the comparative unimportance of events when we could instead look at the effect of events on characters.
   
3. Liminality. (14; 29.8/35.) This was my favorite prompt, and it inspired some of the most interesting essays. One favorite of mine used houses as exemplars of liminality -- Longbourn, for example, was in a state of suspens as it would not remain in the Bennet family; logically, then, this liminal space is inhabited by women who are themselves between houses. Satis House -- itself suspended between life and death -- functions similarly as a liminal space that transforms Pip from a comparatively happy future blacksmith to a miserable wannabe-gentleman, and which later transforms him from an emotionally satisfied lover of the inaccessible Estella into an emotionally satisfied friend to the same.
   
4. Reading reading. (14; 29.5/35.) We addressed this topic so frequently in class that answers were likelier to be boring than bad. One of the more interesting treatments of this question paralleled Franklin Blake's self-discovery in The Moonstone to Elizabeth Bennet's self-discovery in Pride and Prejudice -- different kinds of rereadings, but with several procedural similarities that suggest, the author suggests, the larger emotional and intellectual relevance of texts as portals of self-discovery.

Labels: exam

The average ID score was fairly low -- 4.3/6 or about a low C -- mainly because I was fairly stringent in my evaluation of what constituted a theme and in my expectation that after our near-weekly practice of writing IDs that it would be easy to craft strong answers.

I will use this entry to post some particularly successful answers to these prompts. This entry will be expanding as I get permission back from more students to share their work.

By the way, I apologize for any glaring misspellings you see below -- they're my fault, not the student writers'.

Passage 1 (13 answers; average grade: 4.0/6)

'I should like awfully to be so!' Isabel secretly exclaimed, more than once, as one after another of her friend's fine aspects caught the light, before long she knew that she had learned a lesson from a high authority. It took no great time indeed for her to feel herself, as the phrase is, under an influence. 'What's the harm,' she wondered, 'so long as it's a good one? The more one's under a good influence the better. The only thing is to see our steps as we take them -- to understand them as we go. That, no doubt, I shall always do. I needn't be afraid of becoming too pliable; isn't it my fault that I'm not pliable enough?'

To be honest, I had to look up from where in Portrait this passage came -- England or Italy? -- and because of this passage's (relative) obscurity I was a little kinder in grading what you wrote for its context.

Another quick note: James here uses the word "aspect" in about the only way you ever should; c'est à dire literally: "the positioning of a building or thing in a specified direction" (Oxford American Dictionary) -- in this case, the positioning of Madame Merle in a (figurative) direction that catches the light. Increasingly I see the word "aspect" turning up in essays in its more pedestrian sense, "a particular feature or part of something" (OAD): in other words, "a thing." Please don't use the word in this sense, as doing so renders your writing vague and unpleasant.

Kat (313) doesn't dwell on this particular word, but she gets at the themes and problems of this passage quite well:

1. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
2. This occurs just after Isabel has met and spent lots of time with Madame Merle at Gardencourt. Isabel feels, not negatively, that she is becoming very influenced by Madame Merle, and wishes to be like her.
3. This passage reflects the theme of pictorialism and portraiture. The narrator describes Merle's traits as 'catching the light' as you would speak of a work of art. We are also, in this passage, introduced to the confusion of choice and manipulation. Isabel is choosing to be under an influence, but one that will make her "pliable."

Passage 2 (29; 4.5/6)

At this time, no unpracticed eyes would have detected any change in him. But, as the minutes of the new morning wore away, the swifts/subtle progress of the influence began to show itself more plainly. The sublime intoxication of opium gleamed in his eyes; the dew of stealthy perspiration began to glisten on his face. In five minutes more, the talk which he still kept up with me, failed in coherence. He held steadly to the subject of the Diamond; but he ceased to complete his sentences.

Tim (312) offers this answer:

Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
This is Ezra Jenning describing Franklin Blake after opium was administered to him, ~3/4 through the book
Jennings' reference to "unpracticed eyes" alludes both to his status as a doctor with practiced eyes and foreshadows the role of observation and surveillance in the novel. Here Jennings's eyes observe Franklin under opium and can establish the necessary authority in the community to exonerate Blake whose character is under question since honorable Rachel saw him steal the diamond. This raises the question: is character enough to free one from blame?

Passage 3 (19; 4.3/6)

'And remember this,' he continued, 'that if you've been hated you've also been loved. Ah but, Isabel -- adored!' he just audibly and lingeringly breathed.
'Oh my brother!' she cried with a movement of still deeper prostration.

Jon-Erik (312) offers this strong answer:

1. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
2. The first speaker is a dying Ralph, and the second is Isabel's response. This is at the end of the novel when Isabel is [married] to Osmond and Ralph is dying
3. This passage is important because it shows Ralph's confession to Isabel. When he says "if you've been hated you've also been loved," he is referring to the wickedness of Osmond. Even though Osmond may see her as just another work of art in his gallery, Ralph loved her for her independence. The fact that Ralph is "lingeringly" holding on to life can be paralleled to Isabel's struggle to stay independent, instead of succumbing to social responsibility. When she cries "Oh my brother!" she may realize what she has done, but has already committed to Osmond and is already under the influence of societal assimilation.

Passage 4 (29; 4.4/6)

"Poor darlings -- to suppose myself the most miserable being on earth in the sight o' such misery as yours!" she exclaimed, her tears running down as she killed the birds tenderly. "And not a twinge of bodily pain about me! I be not mangled, and I be not bleeding, and I have two hands to feed and clothe me." She was ashamed of herself for her gloom of the night, based on nothing more tangible than a sense of condemnation under an arbitrary law of society which had no foundation in Nature.

Typing this passage out, I wonder whether there is a reason Tess speaks in the strange mix of dialects we see here. She talks about being "in the sight o' such misery" -- a sort of pseudo-cockneyism -- but then goes on to use a sophisticated subjunctive with "I be not mangled," etc. Hmm.

Esther (313) offers this strong response:

This takes place in Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Tess encounters several pheasants that have been hunted down after she escapes to the forest from a man who had recognized her associations with Alec.

The significance of this passage lies in Tess's realization that her sense of misery has no basis in Nature and is merely the result of an "arbitrary law of society" while the pheasants suffered physically as a result of the cruelness of man, and were nearing their deaths, Tess comes to realize that her sufferings were temporary and that she was capable of recovery unlike the birds in front of her. This is when she comes into realization that though renewal and purification may not be found in society, Nature offers her an opportunity.

Passage 5 (12; 4.2/6)

'I made a private inquiry last week, Mr Superintendent,' he said. 'At one end of the inquiry there was a murder, and at the other end there was a spot of ink on the tablecloth that nobody could account for. In all my experience along the dirtiest ways of this dirty little world, I have never met with such a thing as a trifle yet.'

It's interesting to me that this is the passage that attracted the least attention. Was it too obscure? Was its connection to the thematic ideas of The Moonstone a little too difficult to articulate? While there were several sturdy answers to this passage, there were no especially strong ones. I will attempt to sketch one out now.

1. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
2. Sgt. Cuff's response to Superintendent Seagrave upon the latter's remark that the smudge on the frame of Rachel's door was a "trifle," recorded in Gabriel Betteredge's first narrative.
3. The reading practice of deduction, of which Cuff is here the exemplar, forces the suspenseful overreading of textual details. This textual practice is encoded in the formalization of suspense: to wit, Betteredge begins paying an excess of attention to trifling details and thereby fails to pay attention to the sorts of analytical or evaluative reading practices that might allow readers to dismiss or ignore the trifles to which Cuff cleaves. We see, then, a thematic problem underscored by Cuff's interest in deduction: attention to trifles (facts / acts) comes at the expense of attention to character; it is only through attention to character -- Rachel's, Franklin's, Gregory's -- that the mystery is ultimately understood.

Passage 6 (13; 4.8/6)

Mrs. Osmond, at present, might well have gratified such tastes. The years had touched her only to enrich her; the flower of her youth had not faded, it only hung more quietly on its stem. She had lost something of that quick eagerness to which her husband had privately taken exception -- she had more the air of being able to wait. now, at all events, framed in the gilded doorway, she struck our young man as the picture of a gracious lady. 'You see I'm very regular,' he said. 'But who should be if I'm not?'
'Yes, I've known you longer than any one here. But we mustn't indulge in tender reminiscences. I want to introduce you to a young lady.'

Helen (312) offers this answer:

The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
Isabel and [Ned Rosier] converse at one of the Osmonds' Thursday night parties after Isabel and Gilbert have been married many years. The phrase "framed in the gilded doorway" poses an ironic statement to use to describe Isabel. Earlier in the novel, Isabel rejected Lord Warburton's proposal in fear of being trapped in a "gilded cage" and losing her independence. The reuse of the word "gilded" reveals that despite her efforts, Isabel lost her independence to conventional society. Through the irony of the repetition of "gilded," James suggests that conventional society can overpower one's individual identity despite one's conscious attempts to retain independence.

Passage 7 (20; 4.4/6)

A little way forward she turned her head. The old grey wall began to advertise a similar fiery lettering to the first, with a strange and unwonted mien, as if distressed at duties it had never before been called upon to perform. It was with a sudden flush that she read and realized what was to be the inscription he was now half-way through--

THOU, SHALT, NOT, COMMIT --

Ellen (313) offers this strong answer:

1. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
2. Tess was just raped by Alec, and she sees this painter putting these words across the countryside
3. This passage reveals the relationship between religion and nature. The "fiery letters" create an image of hell, and these painter's words strike fear into the heart of Tess. These words seem to destroy the beautiful landscape, revealing how Hardy feels religion tries to overpower nature.

Passage 8 (20; 4.0/6)

If there is such a thing known at the doctor's shop as a detective-fever, that disease had by now got fast hold of your humble servant. Seargeant Cuff went on between the hillocks of sand, down to the beach. I followed him (with my heart in my mouth); and waited at a little distance for what was to happen next.

While this passage (and, to a lesser extent, passage 5) inspired several comments about suspense, it was generally left unclear how suspense functioned thematically -- its emotional effect on the reader is somewhat less interesting than its connection to the thematic problems of the text. Kelsey B. (313) connects the appearance of suspense to the thematic questions of resolution in this strong answer:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
This is after the disappearance of the Diamond when Sergeant Cuff and Betteredge go to the schore area to look for evidence about Rosanna Spearman.
The passage clearly illustrates the intense effect of suspense portrayed throughout the novel. This suspense, in being described as a "disease," represents the underlying theme of anticipation of death. When the suspense is over and the Diamond is found the book ends. Similarly, in life the anticipation of death is only fulfilled in the finality of death.

Labels: exam, examples, grading, IDs

Hi, all!

I've managed to grade the finals and calculate your final scores in this class. However, because of some weirdness beyond my control it might still be a day or two before your grades get submitted. If you would like to know your score in the interim, feel free to send me an email and I'll be happy to get back to you with your grade breakdown.

Check back here later this week for some comments about the finals and for links to podcasts, blogs and books. I hope your winter vacations are off to a wonderful start!

Congratulations on surviving an absurdly early-morning final exam! It will probably take me the rest of the week to grade the exams -- I will post a note on this blog when I am done. Because of incompletes and other delays, I might have your grades ready a day or two before I'll be able to post them; if that ends up being the case, I will invite you to email me to find out how you did.

Also, if you would like to retrieve your final exam from me at the beginning of next semester, please let me know! I usually make minimal marks on finals, but I will be happy to provide you with more feedback if you're interested in reading my comments.

You have made it a wonderful semester for me! I'm really excited to get to work reading your final pieces of analysis.

Labels: exam, grading

The last hebdomadal topic is posted below.

Over the course of the semester, I have had the opportunity to read some spellbindingly good hebdomadals. Now that we are at the end, I wanted to share with you some of your classmates' excellent writing. Reading your peers' arguments is an excellent way not only to review for the final but also to get ideas about how to deploy exciting analytical arguments during the exam.

An answer to Hebdomadal 12, by Tim (312):

Discuss the differing representations of spatial logic in Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. Drawing from knowledge of the authors and their backgrounds as well as the British literary landscape at time of publication, suggest a reason for the difference.

A constant theme in novels is the manner in which authors confront spatial logic, the arrangement of characters in relation to plot and theme. Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights both utilize spatial logic in their respective story lines, but differ in use to affect the novel's central question or conclusion: in Pride and Prejudice, spatial logic supports this conclusion; in Wuthering Heights, it disrupts the conclusion.

The most illustrative example of spatial logic in Austen's work is the introductory paragraph of Volume Three, in which Austen describes the valley of Pemberley Estate, Darcy's home. The sparse physical description throughout the novel stands in contrast to the large, emphasized description of the valley of Pemberley; Austin thoroughly details Elizabeth's journey down into the valley, and her final arrival at Pemberley House. When Elizabeth and Darcy later meet, they physically come together over a bridge, and symbolically unite as Elizabeth realizes she loves Darcy.

In Pride and Prejudice, spatial logic insists that the two characters must be brought together at strategic intervals in the novel, including the times when Darcy proposes. The physical distance that must be traveled in joining the characters parallels the emotional distance that must be reduced through change in the characters characters'. In this novel, spatial logic is part and parcel of the central argument that people can change.

The two estates of Wuthering Heights are spatially separated, but similar to Austen, Bronte pairs this spatial separation with another form of separation, in this case, cultural difference. The Grange is home to the cultured Lintons, who clash with primal Heathcliff and his assorted "inmates" at the Heights. The novel confronts class difference, and its ultimate conclusion is found in Cathy and Hareton's marriage, and the symbolic swallowing of the Heights and its Natural power by the Grange's culture.

While the culture comes to dominate nature, spatial logic seemingly throws off this conclusion: while the cultural difference and space has been eliminated by the joining of the families, the physical difference remains--the estates are still separate, and the Heights's natural power is maintained by its seedy guardian, Joseph. The novel's ultimate conclusion is hampered, rather than helped, by spatial logic.

In both novels, the theme of love and its repercussions are powered by spatial logic. The physical synthesis can only arise from physical situation of two characters. Both novels explore this dependence on spatial logic in love, but while their use of spatial logic as a fuel is common, their respective fires are different in scope: Austen answers questions of character and personality, where Bronte seems to confront the broader questions of society's interactions. Perhaps it is less the authors' different backgrounds and literary environments that led them to use spatial logic in different fashions, and instead their differing goals and themes.

An answer to Hebdomadal 11, by Kelsey B. (313):

“Mrs. Touchett might do a great deal of good, but she never pleased. This way of her own, of which she was so fond, was not intrinsically offensive—it was just unmistakeably distinguished from the ways of others. The edges of her conduct were so very clear-cut that for susceptible persons it sometimes had a knife-like effect.” (35)

For this hebdomadal I will use assume the following definition of interiority: interiority refers to an author's relatively full and non-judgmental rendering of the internal consciousness of a character.

Henry James narrates gently in describing Mrs. Touchett’s harsh character, and in doing so, reveals a perspective of exteriority. James first writes, “Mrs. Touchett might do a great deal of good, but she never pleased.” James first gives a complement about Mrs. Touchett’s good deeds before giving the criticism that she never pleases others. The comma separating the complement and the criticism shows James pause and apprehension about saying anything bad about Mrs. Touchett. It is as if the narrator himself is afraid of Mrs. Touchett’s wrath/harsh response for writing something negative about her. Since the narrator hesitates to say what he truly means in fear of Mrs. Touchett, the reader can infer that other characters in the novel will respond to her likewise.

Then James goes on to write, “This way of her [Mrs. Touchett’s] own, of which she was so fond, was not intrinsically offensive—it was just unmistakeably distinguished from the ways of others.” Again the narrator is overly careful in his description when he describes Mrs. Touchett’s behavior as “not intrinsically offensive” and “just unmistakeably distinguished” from others. However, the dash, like the comma in the previous description, separates the narrator’s attempt to be gentle and his explanation of the harsh truth. The description implies that Mrs. Touchett is harsh because her behavior is not offensive “intrinsically,” or by nature, but probably comes off as offensive to others. It is apparent that James is not writing with a perspective of interiority because his hesitance to describe Mrs. Touchett’s harsh personality in too harsh a manner shows his judgment of her behavior as harsh and frightening. The exteriority can also be seen when James writes, “This way of her own, of which she was so fond.” He does not reveal her thoughts from an unbiased omniscient perspective, as if he is inside her thoughts, but rather as an observer who judges Mrs. Touchett as liking to have things her way.

As the narrative continues, James becomes bolder with his description of Mrs. Touchett revealing a more severe judgment of her. He writes, “The edges of conduct were so very clear-cut that for susceptible persons it sometimes had a knife-like effect.” The phrases “clear-cut” and “knife-like” are punctuated the same way, which draws attention to the pun created by the two phrases (Mrs. Touchett’s conduct is clear-cut like the cutting of a knife). James makes this pun to reveal the folly in Mrs. Touchett’s belief that her sharp behavior is just her straightforwardness. This sentence also contributes to the exteriority because the narrator is making a pun about/making fun of the character’s thoughts rather than presenting them in a non-judgmental way.

The exteriority of the passage gives the reader an impression of how Mrs. Touchett is seen by other characters and by society which is more useful in the novel because it is a story about the social interactions of a group of people not the emotional development of Mrs. Touchett.

An answer to Hebdomadal 10, by Laura S. (313):

The effects of opium in The Moonstone are quite similar to the effects the suspenseful book has on the reader, specifically the first effect of opium. “The action of opium is comprised, in the majority of cases, in two influences – a stimulating influence first, and a sedative influence afterwards (388).” Through a little research to understand opium more, I found that opium stimulates and activates receptors in the brain, spinal cord, stomach, and intestine; basically, opium wakes up one’s entire body into a euphoric state where problems are temporarily forgotten (Opium). Likewise, when one reads a suspenseful novel, our own bodies are woken up. Our heart beats faster, our brain races, and butterflies flutter in our stomachs. Just like opium, a suspenseful novel produces a full-body effect. “Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach, sir? and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? …I call it the detective fever (300).” Betteridge is feeling a full-body effect like that of opium by simply being associated with suspenseful acts.

Opium also has addictive qualities, as we see that Ezra Jennings is an opium addict. This is consistent with the effects of sensation fiction. Just as one needs progressively more opium when one is addicted, as one reads a novel such as The Moonstone, one always wants to keep reading and to understand and figure out more and more. The more one reads, the more one needs and wants – much like an addiction.

The pleasant euphoria opium creates is also consistent with opium effects. The happiness opium creates and how it leads one to forget their problems is similar to the effects of reading. Getting lost in reading allows temporary escape from the problems of life. Similarly, getting lost in the pleasant effects of opium also leads to a temporary escape.

As I thought about the similarities between opium and suspense, I wondered one thing – why opium? Why didn’t Collins choose to get Franklin drunk or use some other drug? Similar effects to that of opium – the euphoria, bodily “awakening,” forgetfulness – could have been produced by other means. What is so significant about opium? While doing research on opium in general, I stumbled on an interesting connection. Beginning in 1757, the British East India Company launched a territorial invasion into India to pursue an opium export and production monopoly there. This had a significant effect on the cultivating peasants, as they were offered or pressured into cash advances on crops to promote cultivation. The product, opium, was sold at auction in Calcutta and then snuck into China. The British East India Company then used the profit from selling the opium to purchase the teas that were in high demand in Britain (Opium). This is an interesting connection to the colonialism of Britain in India and the use of India for Britain’s ends that we talked about in section last Friday. I think opium is important to the novel, not only because it produces similar effects to that of suspense, but also because it alludes to yet another way Britain uses India somewhat exploitatively to get what it wants.

A Crude Work Cited:

Opium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium

An answer to Hebdomadal 7, by Tony (312):

"The event of Tess Durbeyfield’s return from the manor of her bogus kinsfolk was rumoured abroad, if rumour be not too large a word for a space of a square mile. In the afternoon several young girls of Marlott, former schoolfellows and acquaintances of Tess, called to see her; arriving dressed in their best starched and ironed, as became visitors to a person who had made a transcendent conquest (as they supposed); and sat round the room looking at her with great curiosity. For the fact that it was this said thirty-first cousin Mr d’Urberville who had fallen in love with her, a gentleman not altogether local, whose reputation as a reckless gallant and heart-breaker was beginning to spread beyond the immediate boundaries of Trantridge, lent Tess’s supposed position , by its fearsomeness, a far higher fascination than it would have exercised if unhazardous.

Their interest was so deep that the younger ones whispered when her back was turned; “How pretty she is—and how that best frock do set her off! I believe it cost an immense deal, and that it was a gift from him.”

Tess, who was reaching up to get the tea-things from the corner-cupboard, did not hear these commentaries. If she had heard them she might soon have set her friends right on the matter. But her mother heard, and Joan’s simple vanity, having been denied the hope of a dashing marriage, fed itself as well as it could upon the sensation of a dashing flirtation. Upon the whole she felt gratified, even though such a limited and evanescent triumph should involve her daughter’s reputation; it might end in marriage yet, and in the warmth of her responsiveness to their admiration she invited her visitors to stay to tea." (pg 95)

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After reading the greater part of Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, I would like to answer the question of how Hardy relates society to the individual. In this, I would like to pose the idea that through a representation of Tess and how she is treated by her surrounding society, the individual is not valued in Hardy’s world. Individual ideas or accomplishments are viewed as meaningless if they do not fit societal standards and ideas. If you were to not fit in with your social class and their beliefs, there was something wrong with you and you were ostracized.

While this can seemingly be a very obvious statement, I would like to argue that it goes into much greater depth because Hardy’s portrayal of a society is a very intolerant one. It does not accept Tess merely because she has been raped and “tainted” by living with a higher class. This passage is filled with gossip, the idea that everyone talks behind Tess’s back and considers her changed, a person that is not one of them. By looking at a close reading, we get this gossipy feeling—her story is “rumoured abroad” with little ones that “whispered when her back was turned”. Tess is declared different and assumes the role of being the center of attention: people merely “sat round the room looking at her with great curiosity”. She is changed. Tess is something to be talked about because she was not one of them anymore—she is not a part of society.

In this passage, Hardy’s style helps to shape the very gossipy feel by relating to the reader as a member of his society in order to stress his point of ostracizing Tess. His style of writing in a personal and conversational manner allows the reader to feel as if they are gossiping right along with the town. Right in the first line—mentioning that her behavior was “rumoured abroad, if rumour be not too large a word for a space of square mile”—establishes a personal relationship. Before the comma, Hardy introduces and states a fact, that the town was gossiping. After it, he is explaining and quantifying the extent of the gossip, a seemingly justification of just how bad the gossip is. It is presented in a very story or gossip telling manner. Additionally, the later parenthetical use “(as they supposed)” is another afterthought used after the sharing of the fact to explain the unsure reasoning behind the visitors’ stay. Again, the parentheses are mastered as another aside—much
like the use of parenthetical notes in everyday text. It is not so much a central statement as it is additional and justifying information. This idea of very personal writing not only includes the reader into the created society but helps to demonstrate more concretely the ostracizing of Tess. In this passage, we feel as if we are also gossiping about her, that we should hold the same negative and excluding attitude that everyone else in the story is holding.

For my writing style analysis and comparison text, I used Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. In Gaines’ novel, I would argue that society is again viewed as a cruel one—a place where people do not accept others because of different beliefs or past events in their lives. The main character, Jefferson, is ostracized, put on trial, and then death row for his supposed involvement in killing a store clerk. Society judges him behind his back and does not base their judgments on knowledge but rather simply rumor. The difference between Gaines and Hardy, however, would be their use of style and relationship to the reader—while Hardy seems to include the reader in his society in order for them to understand the cruelty and the negative and ignorant effect ostracizing the individual has, Gaines approaches the reader as someone who doesn’t understand, someone who will never understand because they will never be part of that society. For example, in a passage found on pg 142, Gain
es describes a scene of the town and the hardworking black population. He phrases his sentences continually by writing “you could see”, “you might be able to see”. These phrases are passive and seem to suggest things that could or might be, but won’t. He seems to offer in his thoughts, that if the reader might have been around they could experience and see the same cruelty he saw, but since they weren’t there they will never know.

In this way, I think that Hardy is pointing out the negative aspect of society’s view of the individual in hopes that society may one day change when realizing its wrongdoing. His writing is almost satirical. Gaines on the other hand uses his view and style as a sealing of fate: he seems to express to the reader that this is the way of life, it will never change because you never will understand.

An answer to Hebdomadal 4, by Glenn (313):

The paragraph, starting with “with your aid that may be avoided…” on page 131 contains a scene between Nells and Heathcliff, is an especially acrimonious scene. It gives an excellent sense of the volatile nature of the story up to this point.
Nell is attempting to keep Heathcliff from trying to see Catherine again by essentially insisting that any such visit might kill Catherine, if he encountered Edgar again. The argument between them is expressed in inflammatory rhetoric. Heathcliff, allegedly an uneducated, socially inferior savage when he fled Wuthering Heights as a youth, has become not only educated, but skilled in society and its vageries and understands the impact of what he says and how he says it. Heathcliff attempts to manipulate Nell in his effort to see Catherine one more time, and she has said unequivocally that Catherine might die as a result of his coming to the “Grange” again.

He says that with her (Nells) aid, Catherine’s demise might be averted, attempting to get her to conspire with him. His request is premised on Nells’ belief that if Heathcliff gets anywhere near Catherine all hell will break loose if he encounters Catherine’s husband. Heathcliff says in a graceful manner that had he been in Edgar’s place, he would not have treated him (Heathcliff) as poorly as Edgar in fact, has done. Here he is claiming that he in fact is a gentleman and is using his speaking skills in a supplicating fashion that would seem to give him some reasonableness. However, just in that same breath he states that he would “…have torn his [Edgar’s] heart out, and drink his blood…”, if he thought that Catherine no longer had “regard” for him. The power of this sentence and the vision that it places in the mind is of a virulent hatred and self degradation ( in a sense Heathcliff is talking about tearing out his own heart and drinking his own blood). The phrase amplifies the deviant nature of the relationship that Heathcliff sees as his due with Catherine. That relationship being one of possession, as he was treated as a low caste possession not good enough for the “Heights”, he would “drink the blood” of those that would deny him that which he desired the most.

The not so subtle notion of cannibalism and the religious defilement of blood drinking almost subsumes or excuses the other undercurrent here that is incest.

The high pitched emotional fervor of this passage is an exemplar of the current, thus far, of the novel. The behaviors of the characters and the way they interact is meant to shock and repel. The malevolent personality of Heathcliff is clear and explains the dark nature of the opening of the novel and seems to dispel any notion that things will improve.

Labels: essays, exam, hebdomadal

In case you've lost your copy of the possible essay questions for the final exam, here they are!

• Word document
• RTF document
• PDF document

Reading through last week's hebdomadals, I'm noticing some fairly consistent problems that might translate into weak exam essays. Here is a short list of things you might want to keep in mind as you outline, practice and write these essays:

1. You need an interesting thesis. It's not enough, as I note in my previous blog post, to say "These two texts have differences and similarities," or even "There are three significant differences between these two texts." A strong thesis should...
• ...engage with the themes of the two texts involved, and not (just) the plots or characters
  
• ...connect to ideas that have come up in lecture without repeating those ideas
• ...offer a new way of understanding the texts, or a new way of understanding the role of novels in the nineteenth century
  
2. Details are crucial! Obviously you don't have to memorize passages from the novels we've read this semester; however, the more detailed you can be in your essays the better. I always privilege details that are relevant to the argument and that haven't come up repeatedly in lecture and discussion. You should feel free to take details from the passages in Part I. Here are some kinds of details you might want to consider including:
• A repeated word ("independent woman")
• An important phrase ("'What have you to do with me?'")
• A scene (Tess's flight to Stonehenge)
• A dialogue (Betteredge's discussion with Jenkins)
3. Listing details isn't enough! Use your reference to this word, phrase, scene or dialogue as a way to begin a short close reading: "Isabel asks Madame Merle what she has 'to do' with her just as she realizes the relationship between doing and being," or "Betteredge's resistance to Jenkins's instructions about laying down the old carpet and refurnishing Blake's apartment suggests the private sphere's resistance to outside forces forcing it to change. Yet, Jenkins's instructions are problematically conservative: he is asking Betteredge not to change the Verinder estate, but to reproduce it."
4. Don't tell me things I already know. While it is a good idea to ground your arguments in ideas that have already come up in class, it is not a good idea to make your whole argument a rehashing of previous lectures and discussions. Remember that this exam is specifically testing your literary analysis skills: the better you demonstrate you ability to analyze literature anew, the better your grade will be.
   
5. Don't be afraid to take risks. An interesting, innovative argument that makes good use of details will always do better than a tired old argument that is obviously true.
   

Labels: essays, exam

Hi, all! I want to echo what Prof. Ortiz-Robles suggested in lecture this afternoon: the best way to study for this exam is in pairs or in small groups. It's not nearly enough to read through the questions and think out loud about your answers; the way to do well on this exam is to (a) prepare as wide a range of answers as possible, and to (b) actually write through one or two of those answers. The more you actually write about the texts, the more concrete and sophisticated your arguments will become.

There will also be a few opportunities this week to review for the final in the company of a TA:

1. This Thursday (12/14) from 6 to 7:30 pm, my fellow TA Emily will be leading a review jam in Helen C. White 7191. She asks you to bring the following:
   • Your exam instructions and essay questions
   • Questions you have regarding the exam (please keep in mind that there are certain questions that I cannot answer)
   • The usual accoutrements for working/studying in class
   • snacks (optional)
2. 15 minutes of discussion this Friday will be dedicated to answering questions you have about the final exam; this can include working through what a good outline or thesis would be for an exam essay.
3. This coming Saturday, I will be in my office for a few hours to answer questions or guide study.

This hebdomadal is due before discussion on Dec. 15th.

Topic 1: Practicing for the final

Answer any one of the 10 exam essay prompts that were passed out in lecture today. There is only one restriction: One of the texts in your answer must be The Portrait of a Lady.

Try to reproduce exam conditions as best as you can: spend a good deal of time plotting out beforehand how you will answer the question, selecting detailed chunks from both texts to discuss. Then, if you can, let some time pass between that outlining and your writing this hebdomadal. When you sit down to write the hebdomadal, give yourself only 45 minutes to answer the question and write for the entire 45 minutes.

When you write your answer, try to avoid the two most common (and most boring) argument structures:

1. Text A and Text B have some differences, and some similarities
2. There are there important differences between Text A and Text B: X, Y, and Z

Topic 2: The natural in Portrait

There are 173 occurences of variations of the word "nature" in The Portrait of a Lady, almost exclusively in reference to characters' behavior. (E.g., on p. 499 Ralph is dismayed that he sees Isabel's "natural face" only momentarily.) Pick one moment in which this word appears. What is natural behavior in Portrait, and why is it (thematically) important?

This hebdomadal is due before discussion on Friday, December 8th.

Although we don't yet have the list of essays that will appear on the final exam, we do know that they will force you to compare ideas across texts. These topics are meant to give you a chance to begin practice this comparative work.

Topic 1: Comparing comparisons

Subtopic A: As Prof. Ortiz-Robles suggested in lecture today, figures of speech (metaphor, simile, irony, metonymy, synecdoche, anacoluthon, catachresis) are fundamentally comparative, and they are at the heart of all of these novels. Compare one use of one of these figures from The Portrait of a Lady to a use of the same figure in any other novel we have read this semester. How is the difference in the way this figure is used suggestive of the thematic differences between these texts?

Subtopic B: In the novels we have read, characters are often explained in contrast to other characters; e.g. Isabel Archer is understood partly in contrast to Madame Merle; her three suitors -- Caspar Goodwood, Lord Warburton and Gilbert Osmond (and, possibly, Ralph Touchett) -- are explained by comparison with each other, and so on. Look at one pair of characters from Portrait and compare that comparison with a pair of characters developed in any other novel we have read this semester. How do we better understand thematic or ideological differences between James and this other author by comparing these two modes of comparison?

Topic 2: Comparing hebdomadals

Look back through the hebdomadals you have written this semester. Apply a hebdomadal prompt that you answered in reference to another text to Portrait, and then compare the conclusions drawn by your earlier hebdomadal to the conclusions you draw in this new hebdomadal.

Topic 3: Writing the exam

Subtopic A: Write an exam question! Here are the instructions that Prof. Ortiz-Robles sent the TAs:

The prompts should be general enough to be able to accommodate at least three or four novels, but narrow enough to generate coherent arguments. The topics can be thematic, formal, or, better yet, a combination of both, in keeping with the general tenor of lectures and discussions.

Your exam question will differ from the real exam questions in that yours has to be at least 300 words long, but otherwise you should follow his prompt as best you can. You might think about posing a general question, listing briefly how this question could be answered in reference to different texts, and then concluding with a series of deeper and more sophisticated subquestions that these essays might pursue.

Subtopic B: Write a short essay question that suggests a thematic and/or formal comparison of two of the text we have read this semester, and then answer than exam question. (This, by the way, is one of the best ways to prepare for the final exam this week.)

Are you curious about Jane Austen's life? UW-Madison's very own Prof. Emily Auerbach has just published a book that explores the contrast between Austen's texts and her life. What's more, she will be speaking about and signing copies of her book at Borders at 7 pm this coming Thursday, December 7th.