Reading, Writing and Everything In Between

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Hoffman, E T A - An A-Z post

E T A Hoffmann was born in Prussia in 1776. He endured an erratic career as a civil servant and had to exploit his interest in music, both composition and journalism, to make a living for himself in Warsaw.
From here he was deported by the French authorities to Berlin, prompting a move to Bamberg and then Dresden.

He somehow got caught up in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813 and then the Battle of the Nations in October of the same year.

Along his travels Hoffmann began producing a large amount of writing and his first collection of short stories was entitled Fantasiestucke, published in 1813.

Extensively read in both German and French translations, his works weren't converted to English until into the middle of the 19th Century.

The theme under which Hoffmann is studied in this course is Romantic Lives, and his work is largely considered to be the culmination of German Romanticism.

Notable works include 'A New Year's Eve Adventure'(1815), 'The Sandman' (1816) and 'Councillor Krespel' (1818)

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This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. To get involved and check out other blogs taking part just click here. You won't be disappointed!

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Monday, 8 April 2013

Gronniosaw, James Albert Ukawsaw - An A-Z post

James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was a one-time African slave, who published the story of his journey from Africa to the Americas, and then finally to Europe as A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, Written by Himself in 1770.

Born in the kingdom of Bornu, at the age of 15 Gronniosaw was duped by a traveling merchant into traveling with him to the Gold Coast where he was eventually sold to a Dutch captain. He was then bought by an American and was taught to read and brought up as a Christian.
He was bought by a Dutch minister, and remained with him for thirty years until the ministers death. Gronniosaw then spent time as a privateer on British ships, and a servant for a merchant.
Eventually making his way into Europe, he met his wife Betty who was a weaver in London.
He traveled to Amsterdam and spent time living there, in Norwich and finally settled in Kidderminster.

The autobiography follows a three-stage sequence. The first phase is his African childhood, where he lived in unhappiness, ignorance and a state of confusion.
The second phase of the journey is a spiritual one, with his conversion to Christianity.
The final phase carries on his spiritual journey, but his life is thwarted at all corners by hardships and disappointments. These trials he believed were tests set to him by God, and ultimately strengthened his faith.

The theme of this particular text is 'journeys in the long eighteenth century', and this is the first biographical piece to be looked at. Following on from the fictional works of Aphra Behn and Voltaire, it demonstrates how such non-fictional accounts were used to bring the realities if the slave trade into the minds of the public.

Saturday, 6 April 2013

Fritz Lang, Metropolis - An A-Z post

Photo courtesy of www.listal.com

Fritz Lang was a German director, famous for the 1927 silent movie Metropolis. He first conceived of the idea for the film following a visit to New York in 1924. The sight of the skyscrapers filled his imagination, and this is seen clearly in the movie he went on to create.

The film started out as a book written in 1925 by his then wife, Thea von Harbou. Far from being an inspiration for the film though, the novel was written specifically as a tried-and-tested publicity device for the film that would follow.

Metropolis is a futuristic dystopian fantasy with elements of science fiction thrown in, and I've noticed on the forums for this course that opinion is divided about it.
I for one definitely enjoyed it, and didn't even notice its running time of over 2 hours.

The film centres on the rich leader of the city, living above ground and looking out over it's skyscrapers. He represents the Head, in charge of the smooth running of the city as a whole.

Picture courtesy of www.flyanddandy.com

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the workers, living beneath ground and doing the actual work to make sure the city thrives. They are the Hand of the city.

The moral of the film is that the Heart is what connects the Head with the Hand, the Heart being a mediator to bridge the social gap between the workers and leaders.

It was odd and eerie, and the characters and actors in it kept me mesmerised throughout. I was drawn the most to Brigitte Helm, who portrayed both the 'original' good natured Maria, and also her evil robotic replacement. The two characters were polar opposites in every way and her interpretation of them both was excellent.

The theme for the study of this film is 20th Century cities, and this film shows much disparity between the rich living in the supraterranean part of the city, and the workers in the subterranean levels.

This film has been going around my mind a lot this week, the next assignment focuses on this film alongside Dubliners by James Joyce and various New York poems and stories. But more on those later!

Friday, 5 April 2013

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights - An A-Z post

Photo courtesy of claudialucia-malibrairie.bl...

Wuthering Heights, now considered to be among the classics of English Literature, was the only novel penned by Emily Bronte. Published in 1847, it first appeared under her pen name Ellis Bell.

Emily was one of six children, but only four of them survived to adulthood. One of her elder sisters is Charlotte Bronte, famous for her novel Jane Eyre.

Upon first release, Wuthering Heights was met by a mixed reception, and many believed it to have been written by a man due to its violence and passion.

Wuthering Heights in A230 is studied with the theme of home and abroad in mind, one that does not seem obvious at first thought.
The 'home' refers to both homes in the story, Wuthering Heights itself and Thrushcross Grange.
The 'abroad' however, refers more to their geographic position. Mr Lockwood, the first character of the tale, is not originally from the north where the story is set, and so he feels somewhat like he has ventured abroad, to places unknown to him. This was the attitude by many people from London and the south.
Heathcliff's character is also relevant to the theme of abroad, as his origins are unknown and his travels between visits to the Heights sent him to far lands and places.

Of all the set texts, Wuthering Heights was one I was looking forward to reading. I have read it once before but I have loved the study of going deeper into the meaning and thoughts within the story itself. This is definitely going to be one of my options on the exam.

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Duchess of Malfi, John Webster - An A-Z post

Picture courtesy of www.amazon.it

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster was the second set text of study, following the theme of love and death in the Renaissance.

A tragedy play, it has the unusual factor of the hero being a woman, the Duchess of the title. She is a widow, which has granted her power which she would not have otherwise gained, having been under the influence of her father, brothers and then husband.
Now that she is free, as it were, from all of these dominating male figures, she should be able to live her life how she wishes.

As in tales such as this though, it is never as simple as that. She has wishes to marry again, but her brothers are concerned that she will marry beneath her and dilute their pure bloodline. They make it clear that she is not to undertake such a decision, but she does anyway in secret.

Inevitably, the tale ends badly for many involved, with the death count seeming to rocket.

This play is studied alongside Shakespeare's Othello, of which you will have to wait to hear about in a later post!

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur - An A-Z post

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is so well known he hardly needs any introduction. He was the man behind probably the most famous detective of them all, Sherlock Holmes, and brought the detective fiction genre hurtling into the homes of the public.

Image courtesy of travelbetweenthepages.com

I had never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories before, and my first foray into his world was through The Sign of Four.

The story is set around the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, with the theft of priceless treasure the main driver behind the plot. Between murder and theft, the treasure changes hands many times before ending up at the bottom of the Thames river. Those involved include British colonists and the native Indians, all claiming to have some stake or other in the loot.

The theme of The Sign of Four, in terms of my OU study, is home and abroad in the Victorian age. How the British colonists are represented in India, and how the foreign land is described back home have been central in the reading of the text.

The Sign of Four was first published in February 1890 in a Philadelphia literary journal, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
It appeared alongside another well known author, one Oscar Wilde, whose novel The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in the same edition. I wouldn't mind owning a copy of that!

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Bishop, Elizabeth - An A-Z post

Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet of the 20th Century, and the collection being studied in this course is Questions of Travel, published in 1965.

Photo courtesy of http://www.poets.org

The theme in which her works are considered are of migration and memory. This period of history was filled with large-scale movements of people across the globe, migrating to other countries easily thanks to the ease and speed of travel. Migration goes hand-in-hand with memory, as those that did relocate held on to their memories of what they have left behind.

As an adult, Elizabeth Bishop emigrated from the United States to Brazil, and she uses her poetry to reflect on issues of identity and belonging through this experience, reflecting in particular on her own early childhood in Nova Scotia.

Her father had died and her mother suffered a mental breakdown and died, so Elizabeth was shuttled between relatives in Nova Scotia and Boston. This gave her a sense of being divided from quite young, between different cultures and places.

Bishop wasn't a particularly prolific writer, but it was her central preoccupation. Her work was highly praised by others such as Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, who themselves were significant and widely-praised poets.

One of the poems being studied is The Sandpiper:

Sandpiper

The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.

The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.

- Watching, rather, the spaces of sand between them
where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains
rapidly backwards and downwards. As he runs,
he stares at the dragging grains.

The world is a mist. And then the world is
minute and vast and clear. The tide
is higher or lower. He couldn't tell you which.
His beak is focussed; he is preoccupied,

looking for something, something, something.
Poor bird, he is obsessed!
The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray
mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.

(Taken from http://www.poemhunter.com)

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