CRITICAL READING AND CREATIVE WRITING - Nice Work

I’ve chosen option 1-C and I’ve used the Hypertextopia tool to do the assignment.  I’ve chosen David Lodge’s Nice Work because it contains plenty of instances of intertextuality and allusions (e.g. to trends in literary criticism). When reading it for the first time it triggered many associations. My intention was to show some of the associations (and research) I performed during the reading process. I divided the original paragraph into three main parts (they have a title) and I added a fragment with the explanation of the new theories at University because they needed a longer text. Then I used three types of links with different colours: blue for expansion (additional information connected to a specific word or phrase), green for the explanation of a specific word and red for personal associations. For example, there is a green link that connects Marxism with a definition of Marxist criticism. In the case of more personal associations (red links), they are pictures, ideas, or phrases I had heard or read before that came into my mind when reading certain words. To conclude, I used a Wordle cloud as the picture of the story.

As regards Hypertextopia, I found it really interesting to work with and very useful for educational purposes (the possibility of a collaborative writing is great!).  This tool allows you to experiment with language and meaning in a new way that is meaningful to students in this high tech society. It took me a short time to learn how to use it as it is quite simple. However, I spent a considerable time trying to discover how to delete a link (I couldn´t find a good tutorial). I’ve also found the “shards” a bit limited as they can only be connected to fragments and cannot be connected to other shards. On the whole, experimenting with Hypertextopia was an enriching experience and I had a great time using it.

This is the link to the story, I couldn´t find an embed code.
http://www.hypertextopia.com/library/stories/2038

IN MEMORIAM

 IN MEMORIAM (sections 54-56)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

After some research I’ve discovered that this poem is part of a very long poem which is a requiem for Tennyson’s friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. I was amazed to learn this poem was written over a period of 17 years. According to Bradley and Johnson we can distinguish four different themes throughout its sections: despair (1-27), doubt (28-77), faith (78-102), and hope (103-131) .

In the sections selected (54-56) the poet fluctuates between faith and doubt. He presents humanity as God’s most beloved creation but at the same time wonders whether there is a purpose, a goal in human existence. Tennyson also portrays Nature at strife with God, Nature does not care about human being’s needs and desires, and suggests the human race might disappear as many other species have extinguished. That’s why I’ve included the pictures of natural disasters. The lines quoted below express human being´s insignificance in comparison to the vast universe.

“But what am I?

an infant crying in the night:

 an infant crying for the light:

and with no language but a cry.

I think everybody has felt like this at least once in their life.

Tennyson also challenges religious certainties. He questions the existence of eternal life, and debates with himself whether we should believe that God is love and that everything happens for a reason, or believing that faith and the pursuit of truth and justice is in vain.

I’ve chosen this poem because I was deeply touched by it when I read it and felt identified with the questions posed by the author. It’s simply marvelous how the poet can express our human uncertainties so beautifully! I found the poem so thought provoking, it reminded me of those moments I find myself daydreaming, wondering about the meaning of life, asking myself what is the purpose of everything I do…

I’ve chosen different sounds for the two feelings the author expresses: “Tristeza de un doble A” (Piazzolla) for sadness and despair, and “Innuendo” (Queen) for a more optimistic view. And I’ve included a beautiful poem that came into my mind when reading In Memoriam: “Adam cast forth” (Borges). In this poem the author also challenges the existence of the Garden of Eden. I’ve posted two versions, the original in Spanish and a translation (I don´t know whether this is the best translation).

In my opinion the reflective tone of the poem can be related to the novel “To the Lighthouse”, especially to Lily Briscoe’s constant considerations about the meaning of life. What’s more, as some critics believe the whole poem “In Memoriam” is an account of Tennyson’s thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief throughout the years, we can relate it to the different stages of mourning that Lily Briscoe undergoes in Woolf´s novel.

Features of postmodernism in “Introduction to Pop Art” and “ Warhol and the 20th century.”:

*A break down between high and low cultural forms: the line between fine art and commercial art is blurred. As pop art uses images of mass-product objects and celebrities that everyone could recognize in a second, it seems that everybody could understand art.

*Pop art makes use of repetition of these images. This is consistent with Baudrillard’s idea that in the postmodern world of mass media the original disappears and only copies exist.

*There is a questioning of what Lyotard calls “grand narratives”: pop art takes cheap, everyday objects and transform them into “art”, questioning the traditional conception that art should represent the most valuable ideas in a culture. Pop art introduced new questions about what art is, how it can be made, and who could make art. In Andy Warhol’s words: “The Pop idea, after all, was that anybody could do anything, so naturally we were all trying to do it all…”

listen to ‘After reading TTL’ on Audioboo

Here's my Audioboo. Hope you can understand it! In case you didn't, I´ve already posted the script...

After reading TTL:

After reading TTL:

“Could the body achieve it, or the mind, subtly mingling in the intricate passages of the brain? Or the heart? Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s knee.” Book I, Ch. IX

I’ve chosen this quotation because I feel identified with Lily’s wondering about how one comes to know truly another person, and what bonds people together… Is it intellect or emotion? It makes me wonder what makes me close to people I love and like… In my opinion Lily’s idea that intimacy is knowledge, and that it can´t be put into word is a very feminine way of understanding relationships. What a wonderful quotation! It reminded me of a quotation by Emily Bronte because this same idea of inexplicability is present: "Whatever souls are made of, his and mine were the same".

Harold C. GODDARD

Harold C. GODDARD

Goddard's essay is considered the most important criticism before Wilson's famous article. Although his article was not published until 1957, his daughter claims he wrote it in 1920, so he is given the credit for being the first to expound a hallucination theory of the story.

In his interpretation Goddard doesn´t employ psychoanalytic terminology, or refer to psychoanalytic literature, but he makes a thoughtful reading of the text itself, he "reads between the lines" and relies on common sense to make a psychological analysis and discover what the characters thought or how they felt.

Goddard says: "When a young person, especially a young woman, falls in love and circumstances forbid the normal growth and confession of the passion, the emotion, dammed up, overflows in a psychical experience, a daydream, or internal drama which the mind creates in lieu of the thwarted realization in the objective world... “

In his criticism, he tries to explain how the governess gathers incomplete pieces of information (about the children, the former guardians, etc.) and creates a story in which she is the heroine who acts with courage to save the children for the man she loves but cannot possess. The governess’s hallucinations are combined with Mrs. Grose ignorance and superstition, especially in the ambiguous scenes in which the ghosts of Mr. Quint and Ms. Jessel are "identified".

Goddard also points out that, as well as the governess hallucination has got a “creative logic”, James also employs “creative logic" as a strategy to make the story credible to the reader, more credible than most stories of the supernatural because readers, even if not consciously, can perceive the real plot: two children in the care of of an insane woman.

In his own words: " he hypnotizes us into forgetting that it is the governess' version of the story to which we are listening, and lures us, as the governess unconsciously lured Mrs. Grose, into accepting her coloring of the facts for the facts themselves."  James makes readers forget that there are no facts, only the governess’s own assertions, that support the existence of the ghostly visions that are a threat to the children.

Goddard believes the story is “susceptible of various readings”. His essay contains very detailed examples that support the hallucination theory and provides bases for readings which combine psychoanalytic, theological, and sociological considerations. That’s why the essay is one of the most outstanding critical responses to The Turn of the Screw in the period prior to Edmund Wilson's famous essay.

When I first read the story I was “hypnotized” (as Goddard suggested) by Henry James and I bought the “ghost story”. However, I felt something was wrong, I couldn´t understand why the ghosts were a threat to Miles and Flora.  After I read Goddard’s criticism, I agreed with his hallucination theory since he provides several examples to support the non-apparitionist view. What’s more, I realized that I couldn´t see the corruption in the ghosts because they were only in the governess’s mind. In the end,  I felt a bit disappointed by the non-apparitionist view because I’m fond of terror and ghosts stories, but I could see that the true value of the story lies in its ambiguity.

Biopoem

Julieta

Pacific, affectionate, tolerant, good listener.

Sister of three wonderful girls, proud daughter of loving parents

Lover of music, camping, dancing and reading.

Who feels happy on sunny Sunday mornings,

angry at herself when she procrastinates her duties,

delighted when tasting a chocolate ice-cream.

Who needs her soul mate’s hugs, naps and silence.

Who fears failure, violence and forgetting that what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Who gives thanks to God for waking up every day.

Who would like to see her children´s children, friends who passed away once more, and a world ruled by love.

Resident of Rosario, Santa Fe

Francescutti

I´ve chosen the biopoem because it is a simple pattern that allowed me to express myself, I really enyojed writing this poem, so perhaps I'll  give the "I am" poem a try! :)