Research Project Chat

Now is the time to get help and encouragement on your research projects.  Please tell the class what your proposal is and how you plan to prove your point.  This is your chance to collaborate.

Sensation Fiction vs "Literature"

Can you, as a literary critic, determine a difference in quality of the writing between Braddon and any of the other, usually considered more serious, women writers of the nineteenth century?

Also, do you agree with Beth Palmer that the novel seems to be self-conscious (aware) of the place and audience and viability of serialized fiction?

Lady Audley??

In Volume I, the reader immediately becomes suspicious, along with Robert Audley, of Lady Audley. What is suspicious about her and her behavior?  But which of the characters can we really trust?

Maggie's Lovers

The middle half of the book introduces Maggie as a young woman.  It seems to me that Stephen and Philip, while similar in some ways, appeal to very different aspects of Maggie's personality and psyche--and are almost two sides to one whole.  You are certainly free to disagree with this assessment of them, but I ask you this week to consider what each offers to Maggie, what they help her to discover about herself, and how they complicate her life and the story.  And as a side note, how does Tom fit into this storyline?

Just Who is Maggie Tulliver?

What kind of a girl/woman/person do you think George Eliot is presenting/creating/defining with Maggie?  Look at her from a couple of perspectives.  There are plenty of models of womanhood--for better or for worse--that Eliot presents in the novel, with the Dodson sisters, Mrs. Moss and even Mrs. Snelling.   We also have the narrative perspective--how do you think the narrator feels about Maggie (which, of course, can be seen not only in how she describes Maggie, but in how she describes the other women)?  And then you also have the perspective of the men--Mr. Tulliver, Tom and Philip.

Spring Break Week off

Look for the next blog prompt on Friday, March 26.  I bet you all plan to spend your break reading The Mill on the Floss.  I know I am!

Aurora Leigh Take Two

If you agree with Deborah Logan that the poem explores deviations from the "Victorian norm of acceptable female sexuality" do you find anything revealing in that exploration (294)?  Does the deviance defined by Aurora, Lady Waldemar and/or Marian empower them in any way?  What is the effect of any empowerment, if you see it?

Ultimately, it seems, despite the ending of Aurora's marriage to Romney, Logan concludes that the poem is an example of one woman writer (Barrett Browning, not Aurora) who acknowledges the presence of a character like Marian who "demands recognition and articulation on her own terms" in the case of defining her own sexuality, and that Barrett Browning uses Marian to "say the unsayable and think the unthinkable" and posits a "femaleness not bound by social, sexual, or economic constructs" (305).  Does it matter that the poem is not about Marian?  What about how Aurora ultimately defines her sexuality?

Aurora Leigh Take One

We have read about half the verse novel now.  How would you characterize Aurora?  What kind of person is she?  Is she sympathetic? admirable? arrogant? self absorbed? naive?  Do you like her?  Did you feel the same about her in the beginning as you do now?

Then, with that considered, think about the narrative.  This is in first person--so how reliable is she as a narrator?  Can we trust her in her descriptions of Lady Waldemar, for example?

Only a Nurse?

Sorry for the late post!

What did you find the most compelling/revealing about Nightingale's complaint in Cassandra?  How much of what she has to say about women's lives did you find in the other novels we have read--or the poem?

Why Does Ruth Die?

We discussed this in class some yesterday, but I think it bears further discussion.  Why does Ruth die?  This is very different from HOW she dies.  Is her death symbolic?  Why can Richard Bradshaw--who is also a sinner who actually breaks the law of the land, not just social law--survive? And why does Donne get off so easily? Answer this question in part in the context of the Schor article.  Why does she think Ruth dies?  Do you agree?

 Remember that your summary is not an analysis of the article's argument.  Your summary shows that you understand the argument the writer is making, so now you can agree or disagree with it.

As is typical of my posts, I ask lots of questions, but each is not distinct.  Rather, the string of questions is meant to clarify a single question (in the case "Why does Ruth die?").

Ruth and the Fallen Woman

Ruth is the second example of a "fallen woman" that we have read about this semester.  Had the attitude changed toward the fallen woman, as much as you can determine from the novel, in the years between the publication of Pride and Prejudice and Ruth?  How do you you think Austen and Gaskell felt about the characters that they have "fall?" (Remember to give specific evidence of why you think they feel the way they do from the text of each.)

Evolutionary Psychology and Austen

The critical essay you read this week for Pride and Prejudice  is typical of literary criticism in that it applies a theory outside literature to literary characters.  Do you think that is a valid critical method (this one specifically, but also in general)?  Can you impose a reading (a heuristic) on fiction?  Is the fact that the Bennet sisters marry well proof of the validity of  evolutionary psychology?

Austen the Feminst (?)

Can you classify this novel as a feminist novel--one that is concerned with women's issues and the limitations society sets for women?  What evidence is there in the novel to suggest that Jane Austen or her narrator or Elizabeth Bennett is a feminist?  Remember that the story is about marriage.  While it may not be the stated object or goal of ALL the women in the story to get married, what other options in life do they have, according to the novel?  What else can these upper class women DO?