Literature Humanities 07-08

"Society has claims on us all."

Austen is often praised for her deft portrayal of the everyday. Virginia Woolf, no ordinary observer of the ordinary, captures Austen's particular gift in her appreciation:

She knew exactly what her powers were, and what material they were fitted to deal with as material should be dealt with by a writer whose standard of finality was high. There were impressions that lay outside her province; emotions that by no stretch or artifice could be properly coated and covered by her own resources. For example, she could not make a girl talk enthusiastically of banners and chapels. She could not throw herself whole-heartedly into a romantic moment. She had all sorts of devices for evading scenes of passion. Nature and its beauties she approached in a sidelong way of her own. She describes a beautiful night without once mentioning the moon. Nevertheless, as we read the few formal phrases about “the brilliancy of an unclouded night and the contrast of the deep shade of the woods”, the night is at once as “solemn, and soothing, and lovely” as she tells us, quite simply, that it was. The balance of her gifts was singularly perfect.

______________________________________

And where exactly was "her province"? Why not take a tour of The Austen House Museum?

______________________________________

Next, an at-a-glance guide to the financial hierarchy of Pride and Prejudice.

______________________________________

Finally, our new weekly image is a portrait of Austen by her sister, Cassandra.

Where's Don Quixote's big red dragon?!

1.  I think I would have been a big fan of chivalric tales.  As a result, I am somewhat disappointed the Don Quixote never gets to have a big, central quest.  I felt like throughout the whole novel, I was waiting for a sort of central story arc to occur which would be of a larger, more geopolitical significance.  Cervantes hints at this idea when Pancho suggests that Don Quixote should try to serve the emperor so that the potential rewards (and risks) of their efforts would be raised.  But then Dox Quixote dismisses the idea by saying that he needs to build up his reputation first.  As a result, I just waited and waited for the time when Don Quixote would feel confident enough to get himself a true chivalric story arc.  The other looming issue was the Holy Brotherhood, who seem to be the big bad guys of the story, but that potential plot line never gets properly fleshed out. Instead, the novel continued along with its relatively disconnected stand-alone episodes.  Why do you think Cervantes chose to not to give Don Quixote a more substantial opportunity for glory? 2. Also, does Cervantes have a anti-Catholic Church sentiment? Don Quixote and Pancho both initially associate the priests with torches with evil. Why? 3.  Finally, is Don Quixote a feminist? Are Don Quixote's version of chivalry and feminism compatible? Don Quixote frequently praises the chastity of women and their right to remain maidens. By today's standards that might seem not to be a big deal, but I believe Don Quixote's radicalism can be shown by how no one respected Marcela's desire to remain chaste and Don Quixote felt the need to provide his backing for her decision to declare herself off limits to men.  Don Quixote believes that though all knights love someone, it is not necessary for the woman to love the knight back.  He also says, "It was for [women's] protection, as time passed and wickedness spread, that the order of knights errant was instituted: to defend maidens, protect widows" (77).  Is Don Quixote the protector of female agency or is he holding women back by asserting that they need the protection of men? -Eric R

The CLDF Story

I am greatly surprised and puzzled by the detailed and long-drawn nature Cervantes gives the CLDF (Cardenio, Luscinda, Dorotea, Ferdinand) story in *Don Quixote*, especially since Don Quixote (DQ) is not its focus and the story is not necessary to move the plot (concerning DQ) along. Although I enjoy the story and appreciate the amount of thought Cervantes puts into the creating such intricate relationships between the four individuals, I feel it distracts from DQ's story. Perhaps, Cervantes is attempting to depict the real world. DQ is the main character in his adventures, but he is just one character in the real world, which is complex, chaotic, and filled with numerous characters and stories. Nonetheless, the CLDF story seems slightly implausible and reminds me of a soap opera because everyone is related in some way and all four of them happen to be at the same inn at the same time. Also, Dorotea and Lucinda are both women of extraordinary and unparalleled beauty like the damsels in the chivalric tales. This causes me to doubt whether Cervantes' stories accurately reflect the society in which he lived. The CLDF story seems to give the book more characteristics of classic chivalric tales, such as the element of true love and beautiful women, in addition to the knight errant and his adventures, which already exist in the book. Perhaps, Cervantes does this so that readers can compare his book to the classic chivalric tales and decide which is better. On the other hand, because the unusual circumstances and situations found in chivalric tales occur in the real world, Cervantes may be suggesting that although chivalric tales seem highly implausible, they have some semblance of reality which may help readers to relate to the characters in them. Even with these possibilities, I remain unsatisfied with my understanding of why this story is in *Don Quixote*. So, please try to help me and consider the following questions. 1) Why does the elaborate CLDF (Cardenio, Lucinda, Dorotea, Ferdinand) story exist in *Don Quixote*? 2) What purpose does it serve in the work? 3) How does the story contribute to the overall work? 4) What are we, the readers, supposed to take away from these tales? 5) (Just For Fun) Which of the four is your favorite character and why? - Jennifer

On how Quixote and Cervantes are one

I am one with Don Quixote, said the narrator of the novel. Whether the narrator is Cervantes or a fictional character he created, I thought that this is so because they both inhabit a world of fiction which they have created for themselves. Don Quixote, just like the narrator, lives in a real world, La Mancha, in which he creates for himself a chivalric fiction. Similarly, the storyteller lives in a real world, Spain, and creates for himself a narrative world of fiction of which he writes about. Similarly, they both seem to create these 'parallel realities' in order to pursue something higher than themselves, and something more sublime than daily life could provide for them. Granted, Don Quixote is believed to have lost his mind, so he didn't really conscientiously aim for something higher, yet his delusion allowed him to believe in a love so perfect that it is eternal (Dulcinea), to demonstrate great courage and to have a name that he believed to be well-known across the land for its nobility: Don Quixote de la Mancha. For Cervantes, my first impression was that his glory would come from the recognition his novel would obtain, but I find this insufficient because a) there was no way Cervantes could know if his book would be a success and b) it gives no reason as to why writing is enjoyable in its process. In Chapter XLVII, the canon says about the writer that through writing he "can display the guile of Ulysses, the piety of Aeneas, the valor of Achilles, the misfortunes of Hector…in short, all of those characteristics that make a noble man perfect, sometimes placing them al in one individual, sometimes dividing them among several" (pg. 413). In this sense, the narrator/Cervantes would write because, like the Don, he can experience great, admired values through it. This satisfaction obtained through writing, feeling that we have done something because we wrote about it reminds me of Hamlet and his play, and how sometimes it felt as though if he performed or pondered on the matter of avenging his father, it was almost as if he had actually done it. So this idea of a discourse or of art (theater or literature) having the power of making a person feel like what they did in their 'parallel world' is something that they actually did, resonates in Don Quixote, and is a common ground between the narrator and the Don. ***How do you think the narrator is one with Don Quixote?*** -Karen Woodin

Picasso's Las Meninas

Click to enlarge.

I tried to dust off my rusty html skills in the middle of class. if this doesn't show up as a picture, the link to the image is: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/p/picasso/meninas.jpg

Love, Zach

__________

I (Jeff) am putting the Velazquez up as well just in case anyone wants it.

Here ya go:

Marcela and Chivalry

Marcela's defense is striking because it is so out of place. But what she says--explicitly on beauty and the pursuit thereof--seemed to me a defense of chivalry. She says on page 98 that "but I return here on my own behalf to explain how unreasonable are those who in their grief blame me for the death of Grisostomo..." Her beauty and Grisostomo's pursuit can just as well be replaced by chivalry and Don's obsession of it. She goes on to say "I do not deserve to be reproved for being beautiful, for beauty in the chaste woman is like a distant fire or sharp-edged sword: they do not burn or cut the person who does not approach them.... Let him who calls me savage basilisk avoid me as he would something harmful and evil; let him who calls me ungrateful, not serve me, unapproachable, not approach me, cruel, not follow me; let him not seek out, serve, approach, or follow in any way this savage, ungrateful, cruel, unapproachable basilisk. For if his impatience and rash desire killed Grisostomo, why should my virtuous behavior and reserve be blamed?" Doesn't these seem like a great defense for the chivalric tales? If the Don chooses to enact them so obstinately, why should these tales be blamed? Why should they be burnt? But perhaps the replacement of beauty with chivalry begins to fall apart when Marcela says "Those whose eyes forced them to fall in love with me, I have discouraged with my words. If desires feed on hopes, and since I have given no hope to Grisostomo or to any other man regarding those desires, it is correct to say that his obstinacy, not my cruelty, is what killed him." The latter sentences fit what I have said before, but the first one is troublesome. The chivalric tales don't discourage people from following them (I am guessing here). But maybe they don't encourage them either... Thomas

Friday Morning Nabokov

From 1953 to 1961, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), butterfly fanatic and literary titan, gave a series of lectures on classic literature at Cornell. These have achieved something like mythic status in the literary world (though not necessarily the scholarly one).

While he is by my estimation the 4th most famous Vladimir of all time (behind Lenin, Putin, and the Impaler), many argue that Nabokov, a Russian emigre, was the best English prose stylist of the 20th century (your instructor would be inclined to agree). So to hear his take on masterworks like Don Quixote is fascinating and I include some snippets here to get you in the mood to finish the reading for Monday. The reading which you have diligently been doing little by little over break as I suggested and not at all put off until Monday morning to cram and try to scrape by the quiz. I thought so.

Anyway, here we go.

On the "real world" in Don Quixote:
We shall do our best to avoid the fatal error of looking for so-called “real life” in novels. Let us not try and reconcile the fiction of facts with the facts of fiction. Don Quixote is a fairy tale, so is Bleak House, so is Dead Souls. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenin are supreme fairy tales. But without these fairy tales the world would not be real. A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.

On the "form":
What we shall witness now is the evolution of the epic form, the shedding of its metrical skin, the hoofing of its feet, a sudden fertile cross between the winged monster of the epic and the specialized prose form of entertaining narration, more or less a domesticated mammal, if I may pursue the metaphor to its lame end. The result is a fertile hybrid, a new species, the European novel.

On its "influence":
Some critics, a very vague minority long dead, have tried to prove that Don Quixote is but a stale farce. Others have maintained that Don Quixote is the greatest novel ever written. A hundred years ago one enthusiastic French critic, Sainte-Beuve, called it “the Bible of Humanity.” Let us not fall under the spell of these enchanters.

On what do take away from it:
We should, therefore, imagine Don Quixote and his squire as two little silhouettes ambling in the distance against an ample flaming sunset, and their two huge black shadows, one of them especially elongated, stretching across the open country of centuries and reaching us here.

Happy La Mancha-ing, Jeff

PS: Jeff's Nabokov picks ---1. Lolita (duh) 2. Pale Fire 3. Speak, Memory

Review Materials

Are you looking for the midterm review materials? Yea? They're just to the right there under the Pages section, cleverly disguised under the pseudonym "Spring 2008 Midterm Review Materials."

Happy Studying. If you're feeling a little stressed out, may I suggest some Chopin, specifically Nocturne in B Major no. 3?

I'm cheering for ya'll...
not-quite-30-Jeff

UPDATE:
I'm importing the exam instructions directly from the course-wide final, just so you know. Here is the language:

Part One – Quotation Identification – 60 minutes

Identify all twelve of the following passages, noting the author, the title, and the speaker (where appropriate). Indicate the occasion or situation in which the passage occurs and, in two or three sentences, its importance to the work as a whole. Remember to record the numbers of the passage you identify in your exam booklet.

Part Two – Passage Analysis – 40 minutes

Write a detailed analysis of one of the following passages. You should address the following issues: 1) the immediate context and the importance of the passage; 2) the particular themes, structure, images, and language of the passage; and 3)  the significance of the passage within the work as a whole.

 

 

 

Mini Midterm Prep Quiz Answers

1.    The Golden Bough.
2.    Venus reminds him he's got bigger fish to fry.
3.    Ambrose
4.    French for "to try"
5.    100
6.    They become trees.
7.   Open topic.
8.   Ignore it.
9.   an "antique Roman"
10. Wittenburg (which was founded by Martin Luther where Luther taught and wrote the 95 Theses btw)

How did you do?

Now, why not do some commenting while you're here?

Updated Reading Schedule

I've updated the reading schedule under the Pages heading.

In short, for Monday March 10, please read the Prologue and Chapters 1-11 of Don Quixote. For Monday the 24th, Chapters 12-41 of Part I; for Wednesday the 26th, Chapters 42-52 of Part I and Chapters 1-3, 16, 18, and 72-74 of Part II.

Note: the reading for the 24th is HEAVY (250+ pages), so don't leave it until Sunday night. As an added prod, we'll have a quiz in class over it. Get excited.