WHY DOES "BARTLEBY" BOTHER ME?

"Barleby," again.  I have to confess that I don't like this story. It's dark and oppressive, it leaves us with no anwers. Why does Bartleby refuse to write?  Is the story a reflection of Melville's own disillusionment with wrting after when, after he published his masterpiece Moby Dick in 1851, he was ignored by the public until his death? The story is one of the most nihilisitic literary texts, nihilism being, according to the OED,  " a total rejection of current religious beliefs or moral principles, often involving a general sense of despair and that life is without meaning-" Doesn't this sound familiar? This is exactly what our society is going through at the moment: we find no sense in life, many people feel they have nothing to live for, when they are being expelled from their houses for not paying their mortgages. Bartleby also lets himself die: he refuses to care about money, food or drink. Is he thus subverting the conventions of Calvinistic capitalism of the Wall Steet setting of the story?  It might be worth noting that the equivalent of the 15-M Spanish movement is called "Occupy Wall Street. Bartleby stubbornely rejects any kind of authority: "I would prefer not to," an enigmatic formula: he neither refuses, nor does he accept; his phrase is intriguinly ambiguous. Many people act and speak in similar ways nowdays.
The text with its open ending puts forward doubts and different intepretations. Melville introduces a mysterious passage which provides certain biographical information about Bartleby. What do these letters have to do with Bartleby's behaviour? What is the meaning of his last words in the story (Ah Barleby! Ah humanity!) And you, what do you think about Barleby? And about the narrator-lawyer? What is your own interpretation of the story?

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY GURINDER CHADHA

 Because it is the 200 anniversary of the publication of  Jane Austen’s novel  Pride & Prejudice and you will have read much about the novel on the internet. In April 2003 the BBC Big Read began to search for the “nation’s best-loved novel.” The reader could submit their nominations and famous personalities championed for the great novels by presenting them on BBC. The Lord of the Flies would obtain the most votes. Surprisingly, a classic came in position two, and it was Pride & Prejudice, which has often been adapted into film and television. One of the most popular was the mini TV series by the BBC with Colin Firth as the tenebrous Mr Darcy. This connection between the actor and the s character was exploited in another film which is a version of Austen’s classic, Bridget Jones’ Diary, in which Colin Firth starred again as another Mr Darcy, this time a contemporary one, but with multiple connections with the Austen’s arrogant character.

 

The novel has been turned into two interesting movies, one of the classic sort, directed by John Wright and realized in 2005, presenting the then rising star Keira Knightley. The other, the one we are going to show now, was released in 2004 and is a mesmerizing Bollywood adaptation, which promoted the taste for transculturation, starring Miss Universe, the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi (the Indian Elizabeth Bennet) and the equally handsome actor Martin Henderson  as the American Will Darcy. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha, the director of the successful film, Bend it Like Bechkam.. Austen’s social prejudice is read in terms  against Western imperialist prejudice against developing nations like India.  The film also criticizes how Indian culture (its food, clothing, dances, music, traditions) is marketed for Western consumption,  although Western. But most of all, The film is very funny and is full of dance and music, and captures very sell  the essence of Austen’s movie, translating it to our contemporary world of travel, email communication and internet dating. So enjoy!!     See an appetizar! Dance Scene

Did you like the film? Please publish your comments here!

LINCOLN (AND WHITMAN)

As I mentioned in my classes a couple of weeks ago one of the films running for the Oscars this year is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with Daniel Day Lewis starring as President Abraham Lincoln. Why would the director of such spectacultar films as E.T. , Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones: Riders of the Lost Ark have made such a dark, austere film as Lincoln?
I think it is because Lincoln is an American hero.  But, unlike other books and films about him, in Spielberg's movie  he is  a "normal hero," not a Superman. He is a man with his weaknesses and doubts, like most leaders are,like and all of us, no matter what position we occupy in life.

The film shows how Lincoln was not even sure what the consequences of abolishing slavery were; and in the film he admits that he does not know enought about black people , but his moral intuition told him that it was morally right and that he had to fight for it, no matter the personal and political costs. You also learn that this self-evident truth "that all men are created equal," proclaimed in The Gettysburg Address" was even worth having to bribe some members of the Democratic party in order to obtain the votes to pass the 13th Amendment.

The popularity of the film has also motivated National Geographic to produce a documentar ("Killing Lincoln")y about Lincoln's death -a scene which is, interestingly, omitted from the film.  L
See the links:

Lincoln trailer

Gettysburg Address YouTube video

Killing Lincolm

Walt Whitman wrote a poem dedicated to Lincoln's death titled “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”:

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,

And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,

I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,

Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,

And thought of him I love.

 

You may read the entire poem here:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174748

NEW TOPICS:
Did anybody go and see the film "Lincoln"? And what were you reactions to "Leaves of Grass"?
Did you like it? Did you think it was a great bore?

Thank you to those of you who published your responses on Emerson's essays. "Self-Reliance" has clearlu become the favourite of the two. Now keep up with the next entries and do encourage other people to join our blogging community!

TRANSCENDENTALISM FOR TIMES OF CRISIS

I am kind of ashamed to say that when I was a student of Filología Inglesa years ago now, I never had a chance to read the American Transcendentalists.
 It was later during a stay abroad in the US that I started to become acquainted with 19th century American Literature. But I really got to enjoy them as I had to teach a course about this subject in the new Modern Languages and Literatures Degree.
My colleagues had warned me that it was a impossible to make students read these texts, yet I discovered that they -and I- enjoted them immensely!. But this year , as I face a new position as Head of Department, they even make more sense to me. Obviously, Transcendentalism makes more sense for people who are believers -of whatever faith-´who think that everything does not end in this world and that there is "a Beyond," but they appeal to everybody at these times of crisis when we need to believe that there is a sense in doing what we have to do in life. Anyway, I here are some of my favourite sentences:

From "Self-Reliance" by R.W. Emerson: 

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think."

"Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself."

"Whoso would be a man, must be a non-comformist."

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages."

"Live ever in a new day. Trust your emotion."

"Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life."

From "The American Scholar":

"The one thing in the world of value is the active soul"

...genius looks forward: the eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead: man hopes: genius creates. Whatever talents may be, if the man create not, the pure efflux of Dei


And so on... and also see how much in current American culture and politics comes from the thought of these philosophers, writers, lovers of Nature who dreamed about creating a new Nation and a new Man. See for example, Steve Job's Stanford University Address and you will see abundant connections with The American Scholars.

Read  Emerson's  essays on the Gutenberg Project Site:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE

MAVIS GALLANT: THE WRITER AS EXILE

Next Monday we shall be speaking in the course  about Mavis Gallant, (born 1922) a writer who, although she was born in Montreal, has spent most of her life in Paris. She also lived in Spain in the early fifties' and this is what the two stories you are going to read are about. She almost returned to Spain in 1999, but did not make it... However, I was lucky enough to interview her in Paris.
Here is the link to the interview, published in Atlantis, the journal published AEDEAN, (Spanish Association for Angloamerican Studies):
http://www.atlantisjournal.org/HTML%20Files/Tables%20of%20contents/22.1%20(2000).htm

Mavis Gallant essay: "What is Style?" (1982)
http://www.mrbauld.com/gallant.html

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Does Gallant's description of Madrid in the early 1950's correspond to what your parents/granparents have told you about this period? What "horizon of expectations" do you bring to your reading of the stories (films, TV series, previous readings...)?

Here are the other promised links:

Video about The Paris Stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFh_A_unK1s

My article on autobiography in "When We Were Nearly Young":
http://jsse.revues.org/index533.html

Thank you all for your contributions to the course. It's been pleasure having you a students!
Keep on reading Canadian Literature!

MORE MATERIAL ON ALICE MUNRO

In 2007 the Canadian actress and film director Sarah Polley adapted the story "The Bear Cane Over the Mountain" for the screen. You may remember Sarah Polley as the actress starring in Isabel Coixet's film La vida secreta de las palabras. She is currently working on a film adaptation of one of Margaret Atwood's novels, Alias Grace.
Here are some useful links:


Trailer from "Away from Her"

Children's song "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"

Alice Munro's about censhorship

SHARE YOUR REACTIONS TO ALICE MUNRO'S STORIES

What are your personal reactions to Munro's stories?  Do you connect it with any personal memories/experiences? Lives of Girls and Women was removed from the school curricula in Huron Country, the region where the story is set  because it was considered obscene: how do you feel about the description of sexuality in this story? Do you find it crude or realistic? What do you think about the portrait of sexuality/male-female relationship  in "The Bear Came Over the Mountain?" How does Munro's style contribute to your reactions to the stories? Do you think it has evolved from the earlier one ("Lives of Girls and Women") to the later one ("The Bear Came Over the Mountain")