English 232 - Andrew Nicholson
What literary movement did William Wordsworth help found?
Romanticism
Answer the question asked by the title of Immanuel Kant's essay "What Is Enlightenment?"—What Is Enlightenment? Use specific examples from the text as evidence.
Enlightenment is the movement that men should think for themselves and think of their own and not listen or obey an authority who tells them otherwise. "People will remain under lifelong tutelage due to laziness and cowardice, hence never to be free or enlightened in life"
What are the birth and death dates for Dorothy Wordsworth?
1777-1855
Using specific examples from the text, explain the narrator's discussion of revenge and how revenge differs between a spontaneous individual and a man of overly acute consciousness.
He obsessed over revenge, but could never go through with it. Revenge with a spontaneous individual isn't usually planned out over years.
Who wrote "Diary of a Madman?"
Lu Xun
Using specific examples from "Philosophy in the Bedroom" give an account of how the Marquis de Sade appeals to Nature in his defense of murder.
Marquis de Sade talks about how in nature, animals kill each other for territory or food with the "kill or be killed" survival instinct. With this, he questions why murder is a sin when nature does it so often and concludes that if given good reason, murder is justifiable.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was married to what other major writer?
Mary Godwin - author of frankenstein
Chapter One of A Room of One's Own focuses on "Oxbridge" and "Fernham." Using specific examples, describe how these two schools differ from one another and how they connect to the larger argument of the essay.
Oxbridge: men's college, rich funding, nice Fernham: women's college, poor funding Connect to larger argument: has a thesis that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" and it shows men's education was taken seriously while women weren't
The narrator of A Room of One's Own says that her aunt died and left her money at roughly the same time that women gained the right to vote. Between the money and the vote, the narrator claims, "the money... seemed infinitely the more important." Explain why, in the context of the argument of A Room of One's Own, the narrator might value money over the right to vote. Be sure to use specific examples
She values money over the right to vote because of the benefits; she'd literally have a room of her own, wouldn't need to take on odd jobs, free time and freedom to do what she wants.
The narrator of Notes from Underground claims that he is representative of all modern individuals. Using specific examples from the text, explain how the narrator might be right.
personification of enlightenment; modern people tried to think logically and be a personification of "enlightenment"
Percy Bysshe Shelley is usually connected to what literary movement?
romanticism
Explain the example of "Judith Shakespeare" in A Room of One's Own, detailing the comparison between Judith and William Shakespeare and connecting it to Virginia Woolf's larger argument
judith: talented like william, but expected to conform to social norms of women - can only write in free time, no education, forced marriage - runs away, gets pregnant and commits suicide connection: women are just as talented as men but not the same opportunities. "it is unthinkable that any woman in Shakespeare's day should have had Shakespeare's genius"
Using specific examples from Notes from Underground, compare and contrast the story's narrator with Liza. What do these characters show us about how Dostoyevsky believes we should live our lives?
liza: pre-enlightenment era narrator: enlightenment Dostoyevsky: we should live like Liza
Using specific examples from the text, explain how in "Diary of a Madman" the author plays with giving his reader different viewpoints: both the narrator's skewed version of reality and also a more objective view of reality.
narrator's skewed perspective gets worse through hysteria and hallucination as the story goes on. more objective view of reality: brother whose actions we see through narrator's eyes
Using specifics from the text, explain how "Diary of a Madman" is a social commentary on China.
"cannibalism": dog-eat-dog world people lack empathy for taking advantage of others for personal gain
what genre of work is Dorothy Wordsworth most famous for?
Diary
Name three texts we read this semester with unreliable narrators.
"Diary of a Madman," "The Yellow Wallpaper," and "Notes from the Underground"
Name two parables by Friedrich Nietzsche that we read for class this semester.
"On the Three Metamorphoses" and "Parable of the Madman"
Using specific examples from our texts, explain how the ideas of "On the Three Metamorphoses" connects to either the Enlightenment or Romanticism.
"On the Three Metamorphoses" the ideas connect to the enlightenment because the characteristics of each creature has the same characteristics of the Enlightenment era and process before and after that era. The enlightenment era was very rebellious, freedom from the political change, and used logic and reason, which is what the lion had as characteristics. the same could go for pre-enlightenment and post-enlightenment.
William Wordsworth was given what literary honor in 1843?
British Poet Laureate
Using specific examples from the text, give an account of the camel, the lion, the dragon, and the child in "On the Three Metamorphoses." What are these creatures like, and what is Nietzsche using them to claim?
Camel: Represents pre-enlightenment Obedient, resilient, thoughtful, self-less, submissive "The camel that, burdened, speeds into the desert" Lion: Represents enlightenment Rebellious, freedom, confrontational, individualist "A lion who would conquer his freedom and be master in his own desert" Dragon: Represents a house of power (State and/or Church) Powerful, ancient, authority, "all created value" "Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will no longer call lord and god?" Child: Represents post-enlightenment Naive, fresh eyes, freedom, creative "The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning..."
Who wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper?"
Charlotte Gilman
Using specific examples from the texts, compare and contrast how Yeats and Nietzsche view the future in "The Second Coming" and "On the Three Metamorphoses."
Compare: both have a figure, a person or thing that represents the future (TSC: Beast, OTM: Child) Contrast: Yeats believes that the future will go to shit and people can't save themselves from the "beast" that makes its way into view and we need Jesus. Nietzsche welcomes the "child" and thinks of it as freedom, creativity and people have the opportunity to fix the problem themselves
Immanuel Kant is connected to what artistic and philosophical movement?
Enlightenment
In "What Is Enlightenment," Immanuel Kant differentiates the public use of reason from private use of reason. Using specific examples from the text, explain what these terms mean and what degree of freedom Kant gives to each use.
In public, the people have to refrain themselves from sharing their opinion to others while in private they are able to do so without any consequences. Example would be the church leader publicly supporting their church's goal but privately criticizing the way the church's goal is being approached.
What is Immanuel Kant's argument for free speech and freedom of religion in "What Is Enlightenment?" Use specific examples from the text as evidence.
Kant argues for free speech and freedom of religion because he believes that oppression of the people, suppresses said people of their potential which interferes with reaching enlightenment.
Virginia Woolf is most famous as an author in what genre(s)?
Novel and short story
Identify the author and title of the poem from which the following selection is drawn. Explain the significance of the passage, including how it connects to the poems as whole: Dizzy Ravine! and when I gaze on thee I seem as in a trance sublime and strange To muse on my own separate fantasy, My own, my human mind, which passively Now renders and receives fast influencings, Holding an unremitting interchange With the clear universe of things around...
Percy Shelley, "Mont. Blanc" Significance: Shelley experiencing a sublime feeling which is what the whole poem is about - a sublime feeling
Identify the author and title of the poem from which the following selection is drawn. Explain the significance of the passage, including how it connects to the poem as a whole: Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know That things depart which never may return: Childhood and youth, friendship, and love's first glow, Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. These common woes I feel. One loss is mine Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.
Percy Shelley, "To Wordsworth" Significance: Shelley mourned the loss of the young Wordsworth when he was his idol, and a guidance but now he views old Wordsworth as more conservative and less radical and a sell-out.
Immanuel Kant claims that "Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage." What is man's tutelage, how is it self-incurred, and how does Enlightenment free humans from that self-incurred tutelage?
Self-incurred tutelage: following of an authority by lack of self-thinking. Enlightenment frees humans from self-incurred tutelage because it allows the people to think for themselves and better themselves.
Using specific examples, give your best explanation of what the sublime is and compare and contrast the sublime in the poetry of Wordsworth and Shelley.
Sublime: appreciate nature, tranquility
On what experience did Charlotte Perkins Gilman base "The Yellow Wallpaper?"
Suffered from postpartum depression led to "rest treatment" by a doctor which was ineffective
According to Kant, one of the results of humans coming out of their "tutelage" is that they now hold new responsibilities. Using specific examples from the text, explain what new responsibilities and obligations exist for enlightened humans, according to "What Is Enlightenment."
The new responsibilities and obligations that enlightened humans must be held to is that they now must help others become enlightened and take away oppression of the people. The enlightened humans now must also keep thinking freely and continue to improve themselves.
What is an unreliable narrator?
When the speaker of the story is misleading; through hallucination, insanity, lying, bias, or uninformed
Identify the author and title of the poem from which the following selection is drawn. Explain the significance of the following passage, including how it connects to the poem as a whole: but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming" Significance: this is a figurative "End of the World" also written at the end of WW1, connects to the poem as a whole describing "Jesus Second Coming"
Identify the author and title of the poem from which the following selection is drawn. Explain the significance of the following passage, mentioning whom the speaker is addressing and explaining how it connects to the poem as a whole: For thou art with me here upon the banks Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch The language of my former heart, and read My former pleasures in the shooting lights Of thy wild eyes.
William Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" Significance: Present-Day Dorothy reacts to nature in the same way that William did when he was here 5 years ago. He can see his past-self in her.
using specific examples, explain the importance of Dorothy Wordsworth's writing on the poetry of William Wordsworth.
William got his inspiration from Dorothy. He basically copied her writing and claimed it as his own. There is evidence of his writing basically word for word from her diary.
Using specific examples from the text, explain how "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a critique of nineteenth-century America.
Women were subordinate to their husbands. "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction"
Using specific examples from the text, contrast the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" with the woman (or women) she sees inside the wallpaper. In your account, explain how these different characters are used to comment on gender.
believes she is similar to the trapped women and believes she came from the wallpaper too; wants to be free and get out. pattern in wallpaper represent the women of the 19th century- trapped by their submissiveness to their husbands and the male gender.
According to a Room of One's Own, what challenges face any writer, regardless of gender? What does any writer need to create art? How do you think these needs especially affected potential female authors through the early twentieth century? Use specific examples from the essay to ground your answer.
challenges: writing new material, own writing style create art: express themselves and share genius to the world; intellectual freedom affect female authors: women were poor, odds always are against poor poets with no education
Using specific examples from the essay, explain what it means to have a room of one's own in the essay A Room of One's Own. What is the significance of having a room of one's own?
women would feel more unafraind and free to write anything. would not have to hide their work and no distractions; able to write the whole truth ex: Jane Austen hiding her work when people came in, but wrote in a free and unapologetic way.
