Student
Seminar Work - Spring 1999
Student Seminar #1: Romanticism & William Blake
Student Seminar #2: Literary Realism & Gustave Flaubert's "A
Simple Heart"
Seminar #1: 
Romanticism & William Blake
| Romanticism’s Characteristics | Examples in William Blake |
| Not limited to visible world, imagination allows access to mysteries beyond the rational; Anti-Enlightenment (rationalism, empiricism); seek to reveal invisible truths | "The Lamb," "The Tyger" (poses questions but not trying to answer) |
| Honest & deep expression of oneself (blunt, expressionistic, subjective) | All Blake’s poetry seems subjective, all very individualistic |
| Emotions & feelings;
passion Poetry as spontaneous overflow of deep emotions–[ later Wordsworth: "emotion recollected in tranquillity"] |
"The Chimney Sweeper"; Songs of Innocence asserts importance of emotions, (e.g. overwhelming happiness) |
| Seeking self-understanding;
celebration of visionary, spiritual enlightenment. Turn
inward for enlightenment - introspection explorations of
deeper dimensions of the self—including the dark
side of human nature. Poet-seers / visionaries / sages Unbounded aspiration (Napoleonic ambition) – Quest can be dangerous |
"The
Lamb"/"The Tyger" who made thee…;
Darkness of Songs of Experience eventually leads to
enlightenment because one becomes more in touch with
self/true nature. Tyger = fearful but inspiring
spirituality/"symmetry" uniting opposites Blake’s credo: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." |
| Age of contradictions,
opposites, paradoxes Contradictory impulses (e.g. democratic ideals of French Revolution end in Napoleonic dictatorship) |
Tension between innocence and experience co-existing, both necessary dialectical stages – fall inevitable to progress to salvation |
| Question, reject tradition, received authority, institutions; reform the corrupt world – man’s inhumanity to man; church just for show/hypocrisy | Blake fought against structured guidelines—"mind forg’d manacles" -challenges institutions- Blake opposed slavery, child abuse ("Chimney Sweeper"), hypocrisy of church ["make up a heaven of our misery"]; for liberation of women |
| Age of Revolutions: break
with predecessors’ commitment to reasoned and
gradual/evolutionary change American, French Revolutions, Industrial Revolution key events: individual & social results generate idealistic visions of a better world, but also realistic disillusionment |
Literature & arts express revolutionary changes in consciousness; reject "decorum" and poetic rules for organicism, freer literary forms, "hybridization" |
| Idealize dynamic individualism & spirit of humanity – but disillusion/social problems (Industrial revolution’s abuses turn people into time-serving machines); Learn about humankind by uniqueness we all have in common | Blake severely critical of established authority, institutions, abuses |
| Poets as Non-conformists, alienation from society, rebels, outlaws, Prometheus | Blake emphasizes independence; created his own religion—an unorthodox Christian – had to create his own system/religion or be enslaved by another man’s; Blake as visionary "Bard" of Songs of Experience |
| Both innocence & experience lead to synthesis; see society as organic & dynamic expression of elemental opposites and primal forces that surfaced in revolutions | "The Chimney Sweeper" (experience through sweeping chimneys); "The Tyger" uses contrasts [Tyger burns bright in dark forest], brings opposites together to fulfill a purpose; Could both the Lamb and the Tyger be made by the same God/person?—a "fearful symmetry" |
| Nature in relation to human as well as physical world – picturesque & the sublime; emotion/insight nature evokes in humans attuned to it | "The Tyger"; wild valleys of "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence |
| Common people & language | "The Chimney
Sweeper" – working class, industrial
revolution; Use of childlike rhyme, simple language Blake’s unique writing style, going against "rules" |
| Children, noble primitive, rustic/untutored, "natural" can teach adults much about forgotten spiritual truths: "the child is father to the man"—Wm.Wordsworth; children have not yet been cut off from (true, good human) "nature" nor taught to suppress "natural" impulses | Blake celebrates Innocence & Children= untouched by political ways of the world, & the innocence/goodness we are all born with; vs. mature/adult cannot feel child’s unsuppressed "natural" feelings & teach the child to sing in woe. |
Songs of Innocence |
Songs of Experience |
HO: Joy,
Innocence reproaches us with errors of acquired folly |
HO: show
negative forces in life Explore justifications & reinforcements of jealousy & fear of love |
HO: highlight
by contrast each state’s strengths & weaknesses |
|
"Chimney Sweeper" |
"Chimney Sweeper" |
| Alone (Mother has died; sold
into labor), but accepts it; speaker still has hope and
trust; sees God as good and loving Child is more accepting |
Alone, and feels abandoned (by parents & church); speaker has lost hope & trust (in God & the church?) …"And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King/Who make up a heaven of our misery" (p. 874) |
| Dark beginning: moves from
Bad to Good; Reality vs. Passion/Dreams, hopeful views of
children [But dreams may not be enough to keep child
"happy and warm"] Outwardly happy yet struggling with inner turmoil of sweeping |
Moves from Bad to Worse;
critical & sinister view of adults; realities of
working class life; Child now aware of false/naïve
beliefs, hypocrisy that his parents did "good"
to sell him as labor Literal/Figurative levels: "little black thing among the snow" – lit. soot-covered, fig. snow/white=purity blackened soul struggling with inner turmoil while parents sit smugly in church with God |
| Tom cries when (white) hair is cut (loss of innocence?), but reassured that experience won’t change him—dreams of dark coffins but Angel comes to free children, go to heaven to laugh, wash, play in sun—must awake to dark, but memory of heaven keeps Tom "happy and warm" | Tom questions why he sweeps chimneys – adults changed his joyful song to one of woe, experience has changed Tom; church, God, king, parents blamed for making a heaven out of his misery – emotional, focus on individual |
Songs of Innocence |
Songs of Experience |
"The Lamb" |
"The Tyger" |
Voices of
the poems are different |
|
| The question, where we come
from/who created us, is answered – 2nd
stanza answers question – God made thee Innocence creates acceptance |
Entire poem composed of
unanswered, puzzling question(s) – where do we/Tyger
come from? Who created us/Tyger? HO: no longer have all
the answers Experience creates questions – Blake wants reader to question, make readers think |
| HO: Lamb is key symbol/Christianity/Jesus – explores emotional power of church/religion (Jesus’ teachings) | Tyger is key symbol: what
does the Tyger mean/symbolize? HO very helpful on "The Tyger" |
| lyrical | Lyrical, carefully crafted/drumbeat rhythms (HO); tensions between lights/darks |
| God created a sweet gentle Lamb (but Jesus/Lamb must eventually be sacrificed to achieve human salvation) | God created a fiery, awe-some beast-Tyger |
| Light of good, innocence, purity; child born good (vs. in sin)– close to the Lamb | Darkness, scary reality |
Interplay of light and dark in both |
|
Seminar #2: Literary Realism & Flaubert's
"A Simple Heart"
| Literary Realism’s Characteristics | Examples in Flaubert/"SimpleHeart" |
| Realism is concerned with
the practical, pragmatic; the everyday lives of ordinary
people (middle and lower class characters). Characters
are not "larger than life" Realists like Balzac, Flaubert, Zola try to depict life as it is. Such ordinary characters can become sympathetic protagonists—or can be viewed as representations of average lives that accomplish nothing--? |
Protagonist = Felicite, a humble life, a "simple" servant, poor, uneducated - who, e.g., has "a love affair like any other" & we dive deep into routine of her life (1020). Mme Aubain upper-middle class woman fallen on hard times, has to sell property to pay off debts & care for children (1019). Felicite--a sympathetic character (?): good-hearted, pure, simple, a kind of ideal woman—undercut by the shortcomings of her life and loves. A tragic character? (loved but is not loved in return). A heroic character? doesn’t dwell on entrapment (by circumstancesclass/gender), perseveres, selfless, not vengeful re: wrongs done her |
| Accumulations of realistic detail create a plausible fictional world; captures immediate "air of reality" | E.g., detailed, realistic descriptions of settings, places; given "slice" of Felicite’s ordinary life (p. 1019). Lapaire: Flaubert’s "painstaking attention to detail" |
| Cynical and/or objective
views of human life that are not uplifting; examines
"human limitations" World is not depicted as a secure moral universe: the good are not necessarily rewarded nor the bad punished; Ambiguous endings subject to different interpretations. Irony used: many discrepancies between appearances and realities (beneath surfaces) |
Ironic name: Felicite =
"happiness," but hers seems an unhappy, dreary
life; Victor "always instructed to get something out
of her" (1026). Sad irony: in all her unselfish caring & compassion, she never finds love, she is not rewarded in the end. (Varied interpretions ending & whether story is ironic) Felicite described as/appears to be "made of wood," others look at her as a machine: F. doesn’t express her own feelings but she always loves, selflessly, always worrying about others, has feelings, capacity for passion |
| Objective narration (disappearing author: a distanced, impersonal, disembodied "objective" narrative voice – expresses no emotion, mostly reports what happens without editorializing or telling readers what to think/feel) = inclination toward literal truth, realistic portrayals. | Narrator doesn’t go too far into characters’ minds/emotions, e.g., after Felicite discovers Theodore is married she busts into uncontrollable grief, but shortly thereafter narrator reports she’s okay again (readers must speculate for themselves how/whether event had a lasting impact?). |
| Question posed re: Flaubert’s view of the story (handout): says he’s "tender-hearted," & writes to offer "consolation" not "desolation" for George Sand: how then is Flaubert’s "tender-hearted[ness]" expressed—or is it--within framework of "objective narration"? | |
| Realists use their art to
make a point about or criticize society and human life.
Criticism is implied by the story. (Art’s critical function) Disdain for the material world? |
What is the point of
"A Simple Heart? Is Flaubert trying to educate readers about life of the times, or say that happiness does not depend on material possessions & status? (or both?) Lapaire (handout) on class differences: others’ insensitivity to Felicite Felicite trapped by gender, but doesn’t realize it/just accepts her fate, perseveres |
Interpretations
of "A Simple Heart" much debated: e.g., |
|
| Two views: (1) Felicite’s loss and exploitation throughout her life is testimony to futility of faith and religious dogma; or (2) A testament for undying faith and unwillingness to give in to despair. Your viewpoint may depend on whether you have a pessimistic or optimistic view of Felicite | Ending: Is Felicite
"saved" in the end, or is she just there and
not saved? Is Felicite set free in the end, does she die
happy, is she rewarded? Or is her death just the ending
of a useless life? Depends partly on how readers answer this question: Is Felicite truly religious? E.g., she understands nothing of religious doctrines, and doesn’t even try to understand them. Felicite’s (senile) "confusion" parrot & Holy Ghost: ironic? |
| (Romantic themes)
"innocence"=sweet; "experience" =
cold, not likeable The only "romance" in this story is in the end: vibrant descriptions of flowers, whole idea of Jesus |
Key themes to interpret: Parrot & Holy Ghost; simple heart, social class & gender, Felicite & happiness, Felicite & religion - faith, female goodness, love & being loved, is Felicite "tragic"? |
| Rewarded for selfless love
in the end . . . VS. i.e. She dies smiling and seeing the parrot as the Holy Ghost |
Mocked as victim of love unrequited? Ending concludes a useless life? |
| Futility of faith & religious dogma . . . . . . VS. | Simple declaration of faith in human spirit & its undying capacity for love |
| Madame (Emma) Bovary .
. . . . . . . . . . . VS. = unlikable, unsympathetic |
Felicite = "pure female goodness" - there is nothing for Felicite to fight against so F. could be nothing but good? Is there no struggle between good and evil? F.=good "simple" character with no real depth? |
Something
[else] to think about: "Note how long it takes the
critics to say [in handout] that this is a
‘simple’ work and how critics analyze every
aspect of the story |
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ENGLISH 109: Western World Literature (late 18th-20th c.) |
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ENG 109 Syllabus
(Home Page): http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng109/index.htm |
| ENG 109 Site
Map: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng109/sitemap.htm |
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URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng109/e109seminars.htm
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