alison flood's articletranslations of grimm brothers' fairy talesAlison Flood presents some of the issues Zipes argues have arisen through the changes made to the earlier editions of the Grimm's fairy tales; which he considers a 'dumbing down' of the tales. Originally there were 156, but to not 'offend a middle class sensitivity', they were revised 6 times by the Grimm brothers, who kept only around 100 of the original tales. They also made drastic changes to the plots, where any mentions of fairies were removed and compensated for with the addition of christian proverbs and the embellishment of the tales. Zipes argues that all these changes were unnecessary, as his translations of the originals still prove to be suitable 'bedtime stories'. The stories are mostly gruesome, but their blunt and unpretentious nature are said to have “retain[ed] the pungent and naive flavour of the oral tradition”, and potentially have an implicit reflection of the sociological conditions that existed during the Grimm brothers' lifetimes. Ultimately raising the question of the need for adding their christian ideology, as their puritanical censorship may have only wiped the readers of their freedom to read about the experiences and struggles of the people in the early 19th Century. THE ART OF THE GOTHIC: Britain's midnight hourprogramme 1: liberty, diversity & depravityThe term 'gothic' was actually invented by the artists of the Italian Renaissance, as an insult of anything that fell short of the civilized worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. In essence, all works of the medieval artists were disregarded and destroyed during the Protestant Reformation for their primitive sense of barbarism'. Nevertheless the Gothic soon gained popularity again with the Georgians, where initially served as declaration of the Englishman's stature. This however also evoked a new style of art and literature, which artists and authors grasped as an opportunity to unleash the 'deepest desires and darkest fears' of the British people. The greatest irony being the fact that many Gothic writers tended to disown their stories, which could suggest a shame carried with exploiting such secrets in their writing. For Horace Walpole, it was more of a way to break the mold and create his own style of Gothic known as 'gloomth'. Most Gothic abbeys and monasteries soon turned into ruins, bringing with it a fear for nature, the ultimate cause of these ruins. This led to the introduction of the Sublime, and also to the age of Enlightenment. During in which many artists were known to paint horrific scenes, which begs the question of whether the Gothic was all about re-enchanting a now superstitiously dead country. programme 2: the city and the soulA new social phenomenon all too familiar to 19th Century Gothic writers, such as 'De Quincey': Escaping your unhappiness by turning to drugs, demonstrated in his book 'The confessions of an English Opium Eater' Dickens: You don't need to consult your imaginations for Gothic horror... You're living in it. Many people ended up in Asylums of troubled minds, for which the Gothic was no cure, as vast institutions became dumping grounds for problem people. Programme 3: Blood for sale, Gothic goes globalBy the mid 19th Century, Gothic had spread to all the ends of the Earth. From the paintings to the monsters. Karl Marx's 'Das Capital': "Capital is dead labour, which vampire-like lives only by sucking on living labour, and lives more the more labour it sucks." Here Marx is using the image of Gothic, and Stoker's character of Dracula, to show Capitalism as goulish and draining of worker's blood. To drive a halt to the new beast of 'consumer capitalism'. One revolutionary socialist who joined him in his fight, was the artists William Morris, who made a big deal of Blake's marxist ideas, in his book 'The nature of Gothic'; which Morris took the liberty to reprint in his home, in the home that people would adopt this new way of thinking of mass production as a tragic end of artistic originality and a source of power to the individual. Something which Morris had a personal prize in, even though his expensive homemade prints were too pricey for even the labourer who he was trying to empower. More than any other medium though, it was cinema which propelled Gothic around the globe. Up until the very modern technology of today, such as mobile phones, which are continuing the fears of Marx, by exchanging people's immediate realities, for a little Gothic - the experience of seeing pictures and music and writing of people who are not even here. Is technology the real Dracula of society?
CONTEXT OF PRODUCTion
Here is a diagram I made to help me understand and compare he differences between variants of a metaphor.
When looking at two extracts from a modernized version of Northanger Abbey today, with the character's names left anonymous like so (XXX), it was still surprisingly easy to distinguish who was talking or being mentioned. Partly due to having remembered particular events in the text from the first time reading the original, but also down to Austen's unique development of each character's persona. Both extracts focus on Catherine's encounters with Miss Tilney, but the first of the two is extracted from Chapter 8, where they are formally introduced to each other, and here we get Austen's indirect account from Catherine's first impression of Eleanor. Immediately in the first sentence, Catherine is made to compare Eleanor to her other friend, Miss Thorpe. Eleanor, who 'without exaggerated feelings of ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence', is deemed by Catherine to have 'more real elegance' than Isabella; whom Austen defines as having an 'air... [of] all that decided pretension, [and] resolute stylishness'. By placing Catherine in a judgmental position of Isabella, Austen likewise is inducing the reader to judge Catherine's choice of friendships as the novel unfolds. In the former quote, Austen uses the adjectives 'exaggerated' and 'inconceivable' to supposedly emphasize the implicit frustration of her friendship with a character like Isabella Thorpe, who from the very moment they met, 'decided' to skip the initial steps of acquaintanceship, inevitably impeding any further growth in their friendship. Quite the contrary to Eleanor's 'more restrained' nature of style and conversation, which results in a stronger bond between her and Catherine. Conclusively, Austen has seen and shows her readers the true value and satisfaction of a slowly acquired yet long lasting relationship, through her 'Bildungsroman heroine'; as oppose to having made Catherine just another 'Gothic heroine' whose oppression and poor discernment always outweighs their ability to perceive clearly, thus concluding their sad lives with death or hopeless suitors - Catherine Earnshaw (from Bronte's Wuthering Heights) is victim to both endings.
In the podcast, Melvyn Bragg begins a discussion about what 'culture' is, by first attempting to define it. The word originates from various forms of the verb 'to cultivate' in Medieval Latin, Latin and French (during the C16th); from which it then arose the more metaphorical meaning of 'cultivation of the mind, faculties or manners' in late Middle English (C17th). It also dates back however, to the use of it in the C15th being exclusively religious.
A drastic contrast to the ambiguity and wide use of the word in modern times (e.g. High culture; Mass culture; Football culture, etc.) Culture & Anarchy, a collection of strongly convincing essays, written by Matthew Arnold in 1869, who wrote that he thought culture was "a study of perfection and the best that has been thought and known in the world, current, anywhere." This portrays culture in a very positive light; whereas someone like Edward Burnett Tylor, the author of a two-volume work called 'Primitive Culture'; is more critical, yet equally sure in suggesting that culture is progressive, as the mind throughout a human's life is progressive; and is simply a collection of abilities, habits and hobbies acquired by a man as a member of society... "which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of society different from that in which they had their original home, and they thus remain as proofs and examples of an older condition of culture, out of which a newer has been evolved." Another view presented in the podcast (not clearly sourced) stated that "everybody has creativity, for it is through our ability to oppress ourselves that we become fully human, and we are not alienated from the 'God-given' nature that forms us." In other words, culture may be a product of our desire to be creative, in relief of the inevitable oppression and to fulfil our humanly lives. This for me is closer to a truer definition of culture than merely a habit continued through time; after all culture is a huge part of a progressive mind's education, and in the words of the podcast: "Education should not just be a body of facts and information handed down; no matter how useful they may be; but should also be a formation of character - an end in itself." In preparation of creating our personal responses, as part of our critical analysis, to our chosen texts , we were told to first consider what exactly it is that forms our 'mental models'. The diagram above shows my notes taken during Ms Jaffray's lesson, which whilst creating, helped raise my awareness of the fact that an individual's impressions and response to a text will differ greatly, just as each and every one of our mental models differ. It has also taught me just how beneficial it is for one to be educated in context, before being able to critically think about the substance of a text; thus recognizing 'context of production' to be just as significant as 'context of reception'; leading me to conclude that the most important questions I need to ask about texts whilst reading them are:
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