Menu
To examine the representations of otherness and exoticism in early modern literature a post-colonial critical interrogation of the language and roles given to the sub-alterns will hopefully provide the most compelling conclusions on the respective representations of oppression and otherness. This essay will compare Othello (1604) and The Tempest (1611) by William Shakespeare adding historical context drawn from The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoueries of the English nation (circa. 1580-1600) compiled by Richard Hakluyt. Othello and Caliban will be analysed as characters oppressed and labelled by western attitudes and hegemony; Caliban by the invading Prospero ('abhorred slave', 'Hag-seed', 'filth as thou art'. Act 1, Sc. 2. ln.498-520) and Othello through his 'moor' ancestry ('Moor', 'thick-lips', 'old black ram', 'Barbary horse'. Act 1, Sc. 1. ln.57-113) in Venetian culture. By interpreting their language and behaviour as methods of subverting power through either 'mimicry' or 'hybridisation' (Bhabha, 1994) the essay will focus on the bestial allusions as indicative of hegemonic oppression through dehumanisation. The dehumanisation process allows, as Bandura (2002) postulates, for a lack of moral self-sanctioning when treating other people and, as such, is a method by which the ruling classes are able to righteously persecute the 'others'.
0 Comments
We were asked to create something useful for students, so I made a database for storing and categorising quotes. LazyCite was made with Apache open office and so if free for download and use. Current database size: 46 records.
A presentation on the postmodern concerns of Oscar Wilde and how this challenges the concept of periodisation. There was also a handout giving basic information on the subject (click read more or download word version here)
Modulations of dissonance and consonance between narrator and character aid in the empathetic or ironic relationships forged betwixt reader and reflector. To facilitate these forays of active interpretation the narrative situation 'is one of the most useful strategies possessed by fiction writers' says Keen (2003). Focusing on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses the critical foundations of narrative situation, as defined by Cohn, will be implemented in the analysis of the text; Psychonarration, Quoted 'interior' monologue (& Self-quoted monologue), and Narrated monologue will conflate meanings categorised as empathic affect or ironic effect. These positions polarised by consonance and dissonance will skirmish debate surrounding Stephen's position as the artist. My initial assumption as to Portrait's key ideas and conflicts relates to identity and vocation as would be common to most Künstlerroman. The textual analysis foci are the times where the narrator's imperative is to draw us closer to Stephen's so as to question the circumstances that elicit sympathy and juxtapose them with times when we are, perhaps meant, to object to Stephen subjectively. The ambiguity of irony can be found in various situations and I will endeavour to provide context, as objectively as possible, to elements that appear arbitrarily as irony (such as judging a book by its cover).
Chimeras oppose the 'naturalness' of the world and in doing so challenge human identity juxtaposing science with morality, and self with other. The following paper treats The island of Dr Moreau (Wells, H.G.1896) as remaining contemporary in its relevance to science fiction and, briefly mentions, the Alien franchise (Alien 1979, Aliens 1986, Alien 3 1992, Alien: Resurrection 1997) to relate the anxiety faced by cultural masculinity when confronted with social chimera. Following Pendrick's experiences on the island this paper parallels his response to a culture contrary to the hegemonic order he had previously occupied, this same effect is mirrored in Kane as he becomes host to the alien offspring. The chimera is a multi-faceted creature comprised of different entities, some with human qualities, and symbolically it may be interpreted as a gender redefining image. This image rebukes the ontological values and prestige of the socially dominant ideology and dispenses alternative markers for power. Weiss' statement that “Monsters symbolize alterity and difference in extremis. They manifest the plasticity of the imagination and the catastrophes of the flesh” supports a consideration of the mutability of gender in the plasticity of chimeric orientation. The chimera can appear as a scientific development of the fragmented subject, common to early 19th century Gothic, amalgamating parts that are not envisioned as a harmonised whole by, and within, society. The 'normative', termed by Judith Butler, is antagonised by the appearance of intelligible gender yet as seen through Pendricks eyes the normative “takes its colour from the average hue of our surroundings” (Ch. 15). |
Archives
November 2019
Categories
|