Eccentric Authors

Eccentric Authors and Timeless Works

            When first starting this assignment I thought I would write about how many of the authors we have read this semester were reviewed poorly by critics of their time. It seemed strange that these works that were lambasted by the critics are now celebrated as some of the greatest works of all time and are taught in schools two hundred years after they were written. As strange as it seems though, this is not uncommon throughout history. From the Greek philosophers to Emily Dickinson there has always been and will always be work that goes unappreciated or unnoticed in the authors lifetime only to become fundamental later on. I began to think about why these works have been treated this way. I wondered: Do these author's have anything in common? I came to the conclusion that the majority of the authors we have read this semester  were unique and eccentric people during their lives, and that these eccentricities are present in their writings. I cannot say that this is the reason their work has become to essential over time, but it certainly adds to appeal of the work. Learning about the lives of the authors and drawing connections to the work has been the most enjoyable experience for me this semester.

Clare's Madness

            One of the most prominent instances of an artist's eccentricity affecting their work is John Clare. Like Hogg, Clare was a poet "shaped by the language and customs of rural life" (Black 795). Clare's rural upbringing shaped his early work, he wrote extensively about nature. His later madness also had a large influence on his work. Reading  "Don Juan A Poem" it is clear that Clare was not mentally well when writing it. He is angry and bitter yet, as we discussed in class, there is a shift in the poem where his former self shines through. When writing about women and politics Clare seems like a tumultuous storm yet when she shifts to writing about a natural scene he seems calm and serene. This juxtaposition really highlighted the nature of his illness. His two "I Am" sonnets also functioned the same way. The first sonnet seems to be written by someone with a God complex while the second seems to be written by a man who has dejectedly accepted his fate.

Keats the Lover

            Keats could pass as a character created by Shakespeare. His work is so expressive and vulnerable, after reading it you feel you really know him. Keats seemed to me to be the author who bared the most and put the most of his own life into his work. "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be" especially stands out to me as confessional. His metaphors are accessible and he outright states his fears. There is no real way to misinterpret his meaning in the poem and that made the poem more effective. Keats' expressive style makes his work resonate more deeply inside the reader. We all have fears of death and being forgotten. What makes his work seem so much more poignant is that Keats died thinking he was a failure. Keats died with his fears justified only for them to proved unjustified over time. This adds another layer of sorrow to his work.

Coleridge's Drug Addiction

            Samuel Taylor Coleridge was addicted to laudanum, or tincture of opium, and openly admitted that it affected his work. In his paper "De Quincey, Coleridge, and the Formal Uses of Intoxication" Cooke states that for De Quincey and Coleridge "the primary need served by the opium is the need to overcome the double sense of the inadequacy of life for them and of their own inadequacy to life" (Cooke 26). Addiction is something that effects every facet of a person's life. According to Coleridge it was a drug induced dream that gave him the visions of Xanadu which he wrote of in "Kubla Khan." He also wrote about the pains of opium withdrawal in "Pains of Sleep." I found this to be a great example of how something almost entirely detrimental can lead to great and sometimes uplifting art. Almost like a cancer patient writing a heartwarming account of their final days.

I found looking at this recent image of Xanadu while reading "Kubla Khan" to be interesting. You can see the  area marked out which Coleridge refers to in the poem. Coleridge's descriptions are so lively and verbose you can really get an idea of what he saw in his dream.

Wollstonecraft's Feminism

            Mary Wollstonecraft was an outspoken feminist, not something entirely common for her time period. Her feminism entirely affected her work as we discussed in class. As BG12 stated in their post "Marriage and Slavery" in Maria "we're only presented with the kinds of marriage where women are horribly wronged and beaten down." Maria does make strong statements on marriage's unfair effect on women. Yet Wollstonecraft chose to get married anyways. Wollstonecraft knew marriage did not have to be unfair and detrimental to women, but that it often was. She used her work to raise awareness and further a cause that she believed in greatly while living a life that could be used as an example.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli was shown during the presentation on Wollstonecraft. I thought the discussion on where the creature is sitting was interesting. The creature is holding the woman down and he is seated on her womb. It could be ventured that the woman is held back by the fact she is a woman. Maybe a child is her nightmare because she knows it will take away the little independence she has.

Wollstonecraft's Views by Subject

Hogg's Lack of Education

            James Hogg was not only derided by critics, but also by his friends and contemporary authors.  His close friend and fellow author Sir Walter Scott wrote in a letter that: "Hogg's Tales are a great failure to be sure. With a very considerable portion of original genius he is sadly deficient not only in a correct taste but in common tact" (Black 197). Hogg was acclaimed when he was first published and hired to write for a magazine, but "as the magazine gained in popularity and influence, Hogg found himself marginalized and excluded by more cosmopolitan and politically savvy writers" (Black 197). Hogg's prose stood out to me though as some of the easiest material to read this semester. That's not to say that Hogg's work was any less meaningful than the other authors, but he seemed to write more straightforward. Hogg did not rely on overly flowery language and his work seems more straightforward to me. This could be the lack of "correct taste" and "common tact" that Scott speaks of. Hogg's lack of early education might have served him better in the long run. What may have seemed crass and unpolished at the time appears more accessible today.

The Abolitionists' Dilemma

            Writing about slavery the way Cowper and Southey did reflects an intense interest in abolition. Firstly, writing about abolition wasn't the most popular thing to do at the time so they were already making a bold statement just by writing. But they did so much more than that, Southey's "The Sailor who had Served in the Slave-Trade" is a moving and haunting example of the guilt associated with the slave trade, Cowper's "The Negro's Complaint" is a humanizing view of slaver from the enslaved's point of view, and "Sweet Meat has Sour Sauce: or, the Slave Trader in the Dumps" is a cutting satire that disgusts the reader with its title and words. The personal impact of Cowper's and Southey's views might have been the most important we read all semester because they pertained to a practice that affected most of the world.

            The common thread among these author's is not just that they had unique or eccentric aspects. These authors either intentionally or unintentionally incorporated their flaws, beliefs, ideologies, ideas, and themselves into their work, and that is not unique either. Every artist incorporates themselves in their work. The artists themselves are what is unique. What they have incorporated into their work has struck a chord with people through generations and will continue to do so. Humorous personal touches also add to the character of these pieces. Walpole claiming his work was an old work that he translated added to the mystique. Byron's snarky comments in the dedication of "Don Juan" gave the reader a great sense of his personality. Without personal touches these works would obviously be more bland and they would probably not make the statements that they do. All of this is of course obvious, but learning about the author's behind the work and how their personal experiences influences has been the most eye opening aspect to me this semester.

Works Cited

Black, Joseph, ed. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2010. Print.

Cooke, Michael G. "De Quincey, Coleridge, and the Formal Uses of Intoxication." Yale French Studies 50 (1974) : 26-40. Web. JSTOR.

(Presentation notes) Women and the Law; Addressing Inequality, Imprisonment and Madness

Women were viewed by society to be the weaker sex, and faced unequal treatment regarding rights by law, job opportunities, and education. Men had the ability to sue their wives for adultery, gain full custody of children in the case of divorce, as well as a full range of educational and legal resources at their disposal. Women on the other hand were unable to sue their husbands (unless attempting to prove physical danger - which was RARELY proven), were seen as the property of their husbands (along with any assets they owned prior), and faced a lack of educational resources and occupational options.

Mary Wollstonecraft is seen by many critics to be the ‘Mother of Feminism’, drawing from many of her own life experiences to form the basis of many of her feminist and ‘radical’ writings. Mary advocated for the rigorous education of young girls into their adulthood, something that was lacking in her time. She also rejected the idea that women were inherently weaker or less capable than men, and strongly fought against the subjugation of women, both in marriage and society. Coming from a family composed of a violent father and a submissive mother, she strove to avoid facing the same ills, but like many others before her- also faced her own demons when it came to her personal life. Pregnant and unmarried (Mary Shelley is the wonderful result of this pregnancy) Mary Wollstonecraft surrounded herself with friends who strongly supported her publications as a means of supporting herself independently, and only later met someone with whom she found herself an equal. 

“The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria”- the asylum setting parallels the lack of physical and mental freedoms that women experienced in society (i.e. the protagonist is imprisoned by her husband unjustly)

“Was not the world a vast prison, and women born slaves?” ( pg. 167)

Mary felt that by denying women serious, rational pursuits, society relegated them to a lifetime of vanity and weakness/inequality. She uses fiction to address feminist ideas of education and morality, medical theories of the mind, and gender differences in a way that is approachable and instructive to the women readership. This novel also helped to pioneer the celebration of female sexuality and cross-class identification between women. 

The heroine’s inability to relinquish her romantic fantasies of life and character reveals women’s collusion in their oppression through false and damaging ‘sentimentalism’. The novel criticizes the patriarchal institution of marriage and the laws that protect it by aligning women with the insane: a minority to be championed in Romantic society. 

This representation reflects a Societal view rather than an Individual view; addressed the wrongs done to women (repression), and by women (sentimentalism).

'Mary Wollstonecraft' by John Opie

 'A Rake's Progress' by William Hogarth (Bedlam depiction)

 'Mary Wollstonecraft' by John Opie

'The Nightmare' by Henry Fuseli

WORKS CITED:

Black, Joseph, ed. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature- The Age of Romanticism. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2010. Print.

Blake, William. "Drawings for Mary Wollstonecraft's "Original Stories from Real Life"" (c. 1791): Electronic Edition. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.

"Mary Wollstonecraft." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 July 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Mary, A Fiction and The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. Ed. Michelle Faubert. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2012. Print.

John Clare's Don Juan: In Your Face

I found John Clare's Don Juan very abrasive.  What really came through was Clare's cynicism.  It's overwhelming.  I've never felt a negative emotion come through so strongly in a poem.  Women are portrayed as overly sexual and untrustworthy.  One excerpt I wanted to focus on:

"Children are fond of sucking sugar candy

& maids of sausages—larger the better

Shopmen are fond of good sigars & brandy

& I of blunt— & if you change the letter—

To C or K it would quite as handy

& throw the next away—but I'm your debtor

For modesty— yet wishing nought between us

I'd hawl close to a she as vulcan did to venus"

This is a great example of Clare's abrasiveness.  Clare simplifies the desire for a woman to simply the desire for "cunt."  I had to reread this several times to make sure I was interpreting it correctly.  I was not sure if that word was even in use at the time, but a little research confirmed my suspicions.

If that wasn't offensive enough, there is an obvious sexualization of the maids shopmen... with the most disturbing sexualization being that of the children "sucking sugar candy."  John Clare seems like he's trying to point out that sex is everywhere.  Something about the format...the way he presents it, maybe, reminds me of John Wilmot, 2nd Early of Rochester as he was portrayed by Johnny Depp in The Libertine: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfTPS-TFQ_c

It's the wit and the animalistic sexuality mixed with cynicism.  It's upsetting, but in an almost entertaining way.

Byron the Sass Master

Lord Byron's snarky opinions make Don Juan an amusing read, in part because of his criticism on the literary market of the time. In stanza 178, for example, he says that tact keeps "a lady distant from the fact" when "pushed by questions rather tough (1421-1422). While this of course is a direct reference to his own scandalous lifestyle and the rumors spread because of it, and the fame that both he and Don Juan received as a result, it also raises an interesting commentary on the truthfulness of literature. It is almost as if he is asking if politeness and "tact" are of higher value than candid, honest writing. He is critical of flowery, pastoral writing, calling Wordsworth's writings "unintelligible" (720). He seems to mock writers who "find materials for their books" "within the leafy nooks" of nature (717, 715). By using a snarky tone to criticize other writers and styles, Byron seems to be defending the candid nature of his works, and suggesting that truthfulness is more important than style.

Clare's Madness

After reading John Clare’s first I Am it seemed to me that he thought of himself as an eternal spirit that was not shackled by time or by body. This would explain how he thought he was Byron. Yet Clare’s Don Juan A Poem, seems to not be similar to the portion we read of Byron’s Don Juan. Both poems contain spite yet Clare’s poem seems to be more pointed and hateful. The poem seems to shift focus frequently. Whatever Clare's focus falls upon could either be praised or lambasted seemingly on a whim. Clare's second I Am seems as if it were written with a clearer head.  A man plagued by illness is locked away and abandoned by his friends and family. He longs for peace with God like the peace he knew in childhood. The selection of Clare's work is a very interesting representation of his disease. The work displays the anger, hubris, and vulnerability of a troubled mind in a way that is totally unique to me.

Coleridge, De Quincey, and Opium Presentation Info

Cooke, Michael G. “De Quincey, Coleridge, and the Formal Uses of Intoxication.” Yale French Studies 50 (1974) : 26-40. Print.

De Quincey, Thomas. Coleridge and Opium-eating ; and Other Writings. Endinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1885. Print.

Hayter, Alethea. Opium and the Romantic Imagination. Berkeley: University of California, 1968. Print.

Blog post about Xanadu

Coleridge's Pains of Sleep

Fears and Regrets

In John Keats' poem "When I have fears...", he discusses two things that make him stick out in our hearts, and connect on a different level with him; he discusses fear and regret. We all have some fear or fears, and he isn't too afraid to admit that he is afraid: he is afraid of death, of dying at such a young age, and he is afraid of missing opportunities. The opportunities he has already missed make him regret that he never pursued them. How many people can say "I have no regret?", and truly, madly, mean it? There are next to none who can. I personally cannot say that. But what was Keats really trying to tell us, underneath all of this fear and anguish and regret from this poem? Maybe he was telling us exactly what could happen, if you just stop being afraid, and take the leap of faith. Or maybe he's trying to warn us NOT to take that leap, because it could lead to regret and remorse.

Keats' Obsession

"When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be" by Keats is a poem of missed opportunity.  Fame, love, and life are all beyond his reach and power to control.  He believes death will prevent all of his desires from coming true.  His fear of the lack of fame, "before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain" is a lifelong struggle for him.  This is something that is actually quite justified since he was not received well critically during his lifetime.  His fear of the lack of love is due to the female subject of the poem.  He saw a woman one day at an amusement park, never spoke to her, and yet idealized her for years afterward.  His lack of action and subsequent obsession with her helps his idea of love being another thing he did not accomplish...even though he became engaged to Fanny Brawne later.  Life is the final element he can not control.  He sees death approaching.  His family history pretty much guarantees his early death.  He knows he cannot fight it.  Love and fame are both gone with his life. "Till live and fame to nothingness do sink."

Love as Subject to Time; Keats "When I Have Fears"

I think that one of the most interesting things about Keats' poem 'When I Have Fears...' is that fact that not only does it deal with large ideas of love, accomplishment, and time... It also seems to embrace the idea that there may not be anything wrong with not accomplishing all. The concern with time is supported throughout, especially with the repeated use of the word "when"- but it is his emphasis on love as subject to time that strikes me as interesting. Love is referred to in brief terms- his love is the "fair creature of the hour", and in fact- this stanza is more compressed than the others, suggesting that it (like love) is short-lived. It seems that by the end of the poem Keats has accepted the fact that in death, one is essentially alone ("I stand alone", in contrast to "the wide world"). This solitude places him in a position of reflection regarding his own emotions, and leads him to reach a point of acceptance. This crossing over, if it can be called that, seems to be represented in the imagery of the shore. As a place where two separate worlds collide (the sea and the land) the shore acts as a bridge between Keats initial desire for love and fame, to an acceptance of their unimportance upon time of death; an end to his endless fear of not having done enough or been enough.

Hogg's Scottish Elements

I agree with dep’s post. The text pretty much explicitly says that James Hogg was unappreciated in his own time. Ironically he was illiterate for much of his life, and teased about his accent. This is ironic considering part of the allure of his writing is its Scottish elements. The dialogue in The Brownie of Black Haggs is written in Scottish dialect. It is nearly impossible to read the story without recognizing the author’s heritage. Hogg closes the story with the tale of the fox and the hound that sounds as though it could have been passed down orally. For me it added an element of familiarity to the text. It makes the entire story seem as though it was told to you by a friend. It makes it seem as if it could almost be true, like a neighborhood myth, the beast in the Sandlot. Hogg’s last sentence about not believing the tale makes you wonder if there are any details you can believe within the story, which makes the gothic elements of the story more entertaining.  

Shock Value in "the Slave Trader in the Dumps"

Looking back on Cowper's "The Slave Trader in the Dumps", it is interesting to note just how often shock value was used in famous works of that time period. He disturbs us with this narrator who seems to delight in the misery of the slaves. Jonathan Swift  told the poor to feed their babies to the rich in A Modest Proposal, and Robert Browning creeped out his readers with the sinister implications in My Last Duchess. Shock value seems to have been a typical way that points were gotten across to audiences back then. It certainly got my attention.

Cowper's Veiws

After reading "The Negro's complaint" and "Pity for Poor Africans" I found it fascinating how he approached each poem. The first poem, he takes on a different perspective by writing as a black man who is trying to understand why he is a slave, why it exists and why there has to be suffering so that other people can profit. In "Pity for Poor Africans" is another character who lets the reader know that slavery is bad, yet doesn't want to change it since it's so beneficial to society. I'm just curious as to how the readers of the time took each of these poems concerning slave trade, because they are both so powerful. And also, it seems as though Cowper was almost nontraditional in a sense by displaying such concern for free trade and slavery issues.

James Hogg

According to the biography on pages 197-8, James Hogg is one of the unfortunate writers whose rise to prominence did not occur until after his death. Even his friends and contemporaries felt his work was substandard. Sir Walter Scott once stated in a letter: "Hogg's Tales are a great failure to be sure. With a very considerable portion of original genius he is sadly deficient not only in correct taste but in common tact" (197).I however found Hogg's works to be just as, if not more so, gripping than the other works we have read this week. Why is it that despite being looked down upon by his contemporaries Hogg has found himself in their company all these years later? My guess is it was not Hogg's work that was found lacking, but rather his background. It was a well known fact that Hogg worked as a shepherd and was illiterate in his early life. His fellow Romantic authors who spoke so boldly about the aristocracy seem to have some of their own preconceptions of class and worthiness.

Why must you lie to us Horace?

Did anyone else find the "Preface To The First Edition" a bit strange? If you haven't read it, it is essentially Horace Walpole saying that this story was found, and that he translated it rather than wrote it. In fact, the original title was:

THE CASTLE of OTRANTO, A STORY.

Translated by WILLIAM MARSHAL, Gent. From the Original ITALIAN of ONUPHRIO MURALTO, CANON of the Church of St. NICHOLAS at OTRANTO.*

This meant that, originally, he didn’t even claim authorship for the work. Normally, pseudonyms and other deceptions were used when the author was writing something particularly controversial, or if said author was a controversial figure him or herself. However, there doesn’t really seem to be anything that controversial in the book, and the author was male and of the upper classes, so writing was completely acceptable for him. Any thoughts on this?

* Found at "http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004864584.0001.000/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext"