Literature/Desire


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Weeks 7-9: Romantic Revival

1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples from Blake's  Songs of Innocence  and  Songs of Experience . 2. How do Blake and Rousseau's ideas align and differ (themes to consider are slavery, religion and education)? 3. See what you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816... 4. 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). 5. 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). 7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) jugg...
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Weeks 10-12: post-/modernism

Modernism What does  The Wasteland  mean (Lol)? OK, well, let's unpack that: 1. How has it been interpreted? Use citations. 2. What are some of its key features? 3. In what ways has it been influential?? PoMo 1. What common qualities do the "Beats" share? Why were they so-named? 2. On what grounds was Ginsberg's HOWL accused of being obscene, and on what grounds was it defended? 3. In what ways are Beat poetry and rap linked? 4. How was Bob Dylan's song Master of War involved in controversy during the Bush administration? 5. What kinda protest song/rap/other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
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Weeks 1-3: Dragon Slayers

1. What genres do the following texts belong to, and how do their intended period contexts, purposes, and intended audiences differ? Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbi t and  Lord of the Rings . Remember to give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc). 2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in  Voluspa , according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances? 3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to cite from the original texts). 4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his  The Hobbit  and  The Lord of the Rings  fanta...
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