1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...
2. Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
4. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
ReplyDeleteVilla Diodati Summer
Go online and see if you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...
Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She wed with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, her most famous novel was published.
But what was this novel and how did her ideas for it come about?
Percy was still married to his first wife when he and then teenager Mary fled England together that same year. Mary and Percy Shelley explored around Europe for a period of time. Though they struggled financially and suffered the loss of their first child in 1815. Mary delivered a baby girl who only lived for a few days. The following summer, the Shelley’s were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori. That summer of 1816 Lord Byron stayed in a villa called Villa Diodati on the banks of Lake Geneva.
That summer was named to be ‘the year without a summer’ as the weather was so terrible. They spent most of their time indoors, gathering around the fireplace in Byron’s drawing room. It was said that this small circle of people were titled “the most brilliant and romantic circle of poets, writers and personalities which Switzerland — and Europe — has ever seen.” (Perrottet, 2011.) It was there that during a night of thunderstorms that a chain of events took place. Byron set them all a challenge, to write a ghost story based on German fairy tales that they had previously heard.
After Mary had heard the ghost stories, she could not stop thinking of them. When later writing about that night she confessed that she busied herself trying to think of her own horror story, she said that each morning she would get asked “have you thought of a story?” and each morning she was forced to reply with a ‘mortifying negative’. Mary explained that she listened in to a conversation when her friends talked about the experiments of Dr Darwin, stemming an idea from her mind, she though that perhaps a corpse would be “re animated; perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured and bought together, and endured with vital warmth.” She explained that after she came up with that idea she could not sleep, she said that her imagination was possessed and guided her to successive vivid images. She closed her eyes and pictured a man with his arms and legs stretched out and then some powerful engine that showed signs of life from the man. “Frightful it must be, frightful would be the effect to any human that would mock the stupendous mechanism of the creator of the world.” Mary confessed that the fear of thrill ran through her own self and she wished to exchange the ghastly images in her mind for the realities around.
Mary Shelly was the only one to truly carry out this challenge by publishing Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus in 1818.
References
(2016). Biography.com. Retrieved 12 May 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/mary-shelley-9481497
Beywood, H. The girl who wrote Frankenstein. Retrieved 12 May 2016, from http://divainternational.ch/spip.php?article71
Perrottet, T. (2011). Lake Geneva as Shelley and Byron Knew It. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 7 May 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/travel/lake-geneva-as-byron-and-shelley-knew-it.html?_r=0
Week 7-9 b 166101: Literature / Desire slide show: A romantic Retro (Spective) II
Interesting stuff!
DeleteI think that it may also be interesting to note that Polidori had a degree in medicine and his medical knowledge was included in the discussion regarding galvanism and the principles of animation. Also the atmosphere that was created by the eruption of Mount Tambora which caused “the year without summer” in which thunderstorms were rolling down the mountains and across the lake combined with the copious amounts of alcohol and opium that were consumed were quite interesting as well. If you take note of all the smaller details then you can notice a combination of things that together may have greatly influenced Shelley’s dream.
Buzzwell, G. (n.d.). Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati. Retrieved from www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
Liane, this is a great, full answer.It must have been quite a party! Note that John Polidori wrote the first vampire story at the same time.
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ReplyDeleteDiscuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).
ReplyDeleteIn the summer of 1816, Lord Byron, John Polidori, Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Shelley (Married later that year) stayed at the Villa Diodati where they often spent their evenings discussing literary projects which resulted in the birth of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and John Polidori’s “The Vampire”, both of which are famous pieces of Gothic literature. From the Villa Diodati during 1816 until now, both pieces of literature have remained extremely popular worldwide.
In the 2nd and 3rd decade during the 19th century, the second wave of Gothic literature began coming in. This included Frankenstein and The Vampire. After the release of The Vampire, it became a huge hit as it exploited the gothic horror predilections of the public at the time, which eventually played a part in influencing various other pieces of gothic literature, specifically work in the vampire genre like Bram Stokers Dracula. Frankenstein’s effect on the modern Goth genre is extremely notable as evident by the numerous forms of media involving the result of creation, which has resulted in popular mainstream heroes (e.g. Terminator, The Hulk etc.). The Vampire has had the exact same as well (Twilight, Blade, Interview with the Vampire).
The popularity of these pieces of literature have had a profound influence on the Gothic genre as their popularity has helped immensely in establishing gothic as a modern genre and it’s interesting to consider what the current state the gothic genre would be in if these pieces were never written.
Mullan, J. (n.d.). The origins of the Gothic. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-the-gothic
Buzzwell, G. (n.d.). Mary Shelley, Frankenstein and the Villa Diodati. Retrieved from www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
Shelley, Mary. (1985; 1818). Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, London: Penguin
A good answer.Note that vampires did not become popular until the publication of Dracula by Bram Stoker later in the century.
ReplyDeleteThis is some interesting information as I was going to do this question but couldn't find much info on it! I didn't realize how big of an effect Frankenstein had on other Gothic genres.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: 3. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).
ReplyDeleteThere are many fictional accounts of the night at the Villa Diodati. The first I came across was a form of fan fiction written by Greg Buzwell and published on the British Online Libraries. It was titled Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the Villa Diodati and followed events very close to what appears to have happened, however, it was written as a fictitious story.
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati
There was also the movie Gothic which was directed by Ken Russell. I found this extremely strange and very fictitious, not at all correct to many of the event that happened that summer, more along the lines of the ghost stories they told each other.
I couldn’t embed the link in this post as the video had a copyright restriction.
After searching through google for some time on this topic I came across a mini-opera composed by Mira J. Spektor, called "Villa Diodati," A Chamber Opera. This was an interesting take on the summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3V3eTrCLhs
I found a poem called Villa Diodati 1816 written by Darlene Walsh. I thought I would include this in this post as it tells the story of the summer in few words, yet it is well written.
In a night of storms and darkness
in the summer that never was
a Lord set in motion a horror
which lives in us forevermore
Byron read a poem of fright
and his French was quite a delight
as he finished the scary night
did the listeners words have might
Tell us a story most singular, Lord said
perhaps about a creature that was dead
did its breath come out like lead
with what was this monster fed
The months of that summer passed
in the summer that never was
the words of that summer are history
and will live with us forevermore
The summer was filled with debauchery
smothered in love, lust and treachery
From Lord and Clare was a child begot
On paper, two others conceived a plot
Shelly gave rise to a monstrous assembly
featured in uncounted stories as deadly
Polidori thought of an aristocrat that was dead
progenitor to Dracula and other modern undead
From that night of storms and darkness
in the summer that never was
two pillars of horror were born
to scare and thrill us forevermore
There is also a 72-minute film called Villa Diodati directed by Rob Urbinati. It was created in the United State and was released for the Winter Film Awards, February 2016. However, I couldn’t find a viewable edition of the film.
I also found there is a musical called, Monsters of the Villa Diodati It premiered early this year in Theatre Washington in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g8AEmkJxAI
Washington theater: http://theatrewashington.org/content/monsters-villa-diodati
Villa Diodati 72-minute movie: https://winterfilmawards.com/portfolio/villa-diodati/
Gothic-Ken Russell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5mJw6gQGm8
Darlene Walsh Poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/villa-diodati-in-1816/
All other sources have embedded links.
I really liked your list, super informative! I also think Bram Stocker's Count Dracula had an account of this. Tim Powers, also incorporated some scenes set at Villa Diodati and incorporated writers such as Lord Byron in the Horror/Fantasy Novel ‘The Stress of Her Regard’ 1989. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stress_of_Her_Regard
DeleteHere are a few other examples I found:
-Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn9WYVym9N8
Gothic Tales -- Elizabeth Gaskell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction
Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca (1938)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0gakRWZ03Y
1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the ideological, conceptual and linguistic construction of the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples...
ReplyDeleteThe Oxford English Dictionary has a number of definitions associated with the word sublime. It can be described to mean of great excellence or beauty as well as producing an overwhelming sense of awe or amazement. It also notes the archaic meaning of sublime to be a high level of moral or spiritual purity. Pateman (2004), reinforces this idea of producing awe or amazement. However, it is surmised that this response can be to something of beauty and wonder or to darkness, pain and terror equally (Pateman, 2004). This stands true when reflecting on William Blake's, 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience'.
In order to understand the idea of sublime in context of William Blake and his songs of innocence and experience. It is fundamental to understand his ideological sensibilities. The archaic meaning of sublime is probably the most closely related with Blake's work - which dealt with ideas of spirituality, the falsities of church and the divine (high level of purity or morality). Damon (2013), explains that innocence as defined by Blake was the ecstatic, joyful and pure state of childhood. In contrast, he defined experience as the tragedy that corrupts that freedom of imagination and bliss (Damon, 2013).
The purity of infancy is reflected conceptually in his poem 'Songs of Joy'. " I have no name I am but two days old.— What shall I call thee? I happy am" (Pg. 140). The first three lines taken from the poem show that Blake views this lack of knowing, age and inexperience to mean happiness. Some structural techniques used by Blake to extol the virtues of childhood are repetition of words to resound the positive feelings associated. For instance, the words joy and sweet are repeated many times throughout the poem, "sweet joy befall thee! Pretty joy! Sweet joy but two days old. Sweet joy I call thee:." (Pg. 140) Blake also utilises the repetition of stanzas and rhyme to create a sing-song like effect (Marsh, 2012). For example, "sweet joy befall thee, sweet joy I call thee, sweet joy befall thee" are all spaced equally to create an almost chorus type effect. The aforementioned techniques and ideas work in cohesion to provide this imagery of sublime romanticism in relation to innocence and purity of soul. In turn, this makes the reader feel a sense of awe at the beauty of honesty in a newborn. This reiterates Blake's spiritual ideologies and schemas as central themes.
Contrastingly, 'The Chimney Sweeper' is a poem from the 'Songs of experience' that looks at the transitioning of a young boy from the bliss of childhood to the cruelty of experience due to his parents exploitation of him under the church's doctrine. The conceptual notion of the poem comes from Blake's dislike for the conventional church and social injustices at the time (Damon, 2013). There is a strong sense of imagery in the poem to create a sense of dread and misery. This feeds the notion of the romanticism of sublime by making the readers experience awe or rather shock in this case of the brutality faced by the child. Structurally, this presents itself through metaphors (Marsh, 2012), such as "clothes of death" or the "notes of woe" (Pg.145). The subject, maintains a happy tone throughout the poem "smil'd among the winter's snow" and "happy, dance and sing" (Pg. 145). This invokes empathy from the reader because it highlights the strong antithesis between the unadulterated bliss of childhood to the cruelty of the church and social practices.
References (For question 1 answered above)
ReplyDeleteBlake, W. (1972; 1794). Songs of Innocence and Experience with an introduction and commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, London: Oxford.
Damon, S. F. (2013). A Blake dictionary: the ideas and symbols of William Blake. UPNE.
Marsh, M. (2012). William Blake: The Poems (Basingstoke: Palgrave), p.115.
Pateman, T. (2004, 1991) ‘The Sublime’ in Key Concepts: A Guide to Aesthetics, Criticism and the Arts in Education. London: Falmer Press