Excited to be Excited

Excited to be Excited by Literature

            Often times, people scoff at survey classes because they encompass such large periods of time (periods rich with history, development, change and culture) that students often feel that they aren’t really immersed in the literature and the material that is presented.  How can you condense gobs of talent and history into a time slot as small as a semester? Well, that is simple, it isn’t possible.  But, what is possible is to get small doses and exposure to many genres, works, authors, point of views and perspectives throught literature in history.  Some works might fall on deaf ears with little to no connection and then, pow, something hits home.  A piece resonates with a student and gets them excited about something they never would have come across without a survey course.  Since we are supposed to use this blog to communicate with our classmates what we are taking away from the course and discuss things that we don’t have time for in class, I would like to take this opportunity, then, to express my feelings about what we are learning.   

            I will be honest and I believe I have mentioned this before.  I hated Brit Lit I.   I have always loved to read nearly anything I can get my hands on. So, naturally when I went back to school that is the route I chose.   I have zero idea what I will do with my English degree, but I love to discover different forms and pieces of literature that inspire me and make me appreciate the art form of writing (I love to write and create) as well as the journey of literature throughout history.  I seriously wanted to poke my own eyeballs out in Survey of English Literature I.  Much of the time I thought that perhaps I should rethink my major, that maybe I was mistaken and I didn’t love literature. But then a piece comes along, that I love, and I get excited all over again.  With the exception of a few pieces, like sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Dream on the Rood I seriously doubted that I was interested enough to continue on the path for an English degree.  For the exposure to many time periods and authors, I am truly grateful because I have felt so encouraged and inspired this semester. 

            I loved the romantic period more than I thought I would and was thrilled with the Victorians (loved “The Moonstone”), loved the Lady of Shallot and absolutely lost my mind over Aurora Leigh.  I have ordered it from amazon.com and I can’t wait to get it in the mail and read the whole thing.  How awesome that Elizabeth Barrett Browning was such an innovator and a forward thinker.  She was smart and educated and passionate about her craft, in a time when it was not what was expected of women.   I can’t help but wonder what someone like her could create if she was born in a different time and place; born into an environment of education, culture and support.  I don’t consider myself a feminist, but I am a woman writer who is passionate about writing, but can’t put bread or butter on the table with my prose or poetry.  I carry Elizabeth Barrett Browning in high regard.  I am thrilled that I found an author who has reconfirmed for me that I do in fact love literature and desire to someday create a  work that people will study years down the road and revere as a piece of literature that is thought provoking and layered and most of all special. 

            I am having a difficult time deciding my favorite part.  I love the, in Book two pages 385-446, how Browning compares and contrasts using mostly subtext what her aunt “likes and dislikes,” and what Aurora actually is by that standard.  The section is clever and witty and so well written.  I love it!  I also love the beginning of book two where Aurora discusses her confidence and passion for her craft and who she is and who she has the potential to become.  For a relatively young girl in a time where certain expectations sat on the horizon for her, she knew she was meant for more.  I love it!   

            Thank you, Dr. Hague for selecting this excerpt for us to read.  I don’t feel like I have read enough of Aurora Leigh to make a detailed analysis of the piece but I could already easily talk about writing techniques (a novel in verse, repetitive word choices, attention to detail, similes, etc.) and there effect on the story and the examination of gender roles.  I can’t wait until it comes in the mail!  The reading selections this semester have thus far been stellar and really exciting.  I am beyond relieved. I am excited!

 

Girls Rule

 

In the Victorian era, a time when men ruled the world and women were supposed to fade into the background or fulfill a supporting role to men, Wilke Collins produced a novel filled with women who break the stereotype for Victorian womanly behaviors and actions.  I love these characters for how modern they come across.  As a woman, I would like to think, that if I  had I been around at the time, I would have been one of these forward thinking women who had an opinion.  I love that the female characters are really the driving force behind the story; they are really the ones that propel it forward. 

Rosana Spearman is such an interesting character.  She is represented as “other” in so many ways.  Even though she is a servant she is different from all of the other servants.  She doesn’t behave the way a woman should or the way a servant should.  She is a unique and dynamic character who finds a voice from even beyond the grave.  Her tenacity to cover for Franklin whom she believes to have stolen the moonstone is atypical behavior for a female or a servant.  She goes to extraordinary lengths to cover for him.  Her intentions were not as pure as they originally seem however.  She thinks this knowledge that she has over him will be an equalizer.  It is so unfortunate that she kills herself because she thinks he has slighted her, but she is melodramatic and rash.  What a great female character though, she is defiantly not a traditional role fulfilling Victorian woman.

Lady Verinder is also a character who doesn’t fit into the “proper Victorian woman” box.  She does represent the “older” or traditional roles in some sense.  She is a lady and acts like one.  She is a proper widow and a devoted mother, but she also handles the affairs of their estate as the head of the household. She is left to handle the finances and always has an opinion and isn’t shy about expressing it.  She is a wonderful female character who subverts the typical gender roles of the time.

Rachel Verinder is at the heart of the whole story; she is integral to the plot and movement of the novel and like Rosana, doesn’t properly fulfill her role in class or in gender.  Her behavior, as a well to do woman in Victorian society, would be expected to be lady like and proper and Rachel is anything but that.  She is loud and obnoxious.  The slamming of doors, the loud outbursts and fit throwing are not the actions of a proper English lady.  She is so critical to the story though and although she is a complete brat, she is written in a way that readers still like her.  Her outspoken behavior and non-traditional straightforwardness seem to be praised in this book.

 The female characters that fulfill the more traditional roles in the story seem to be ridiculed for their behaviors because while they are meeting the Victorian standard of what a woman should be at the time, they come off looking bad.  The greatest example of this is Miss Clack.  She is on the page as the “ideal” Victorian woman.  She pays heed to her sense of Christianity and proclaims to be the ideal lady type but her overblown sense of propriety, obvious sexual frustration and her disgust for Rachel’s forwardness comes off as hypocritical.  Collin’s seems to be criticizing women who aren’t forward thinkers; women who seem traditional but are really repressed and frustrated.   This criticism then would seem to celebrate the women who can think and speak for themselves. 

Collins seemed to be ahead of his time in terms of the women’s movement.  At this time in life and in literature, women were not supposed to be so “manly.”  As a modern woman it is hard to imagine a time when things weren’t as equal and trying to fulfill the role of a soft spoken woman who knew her “place.”  It sounds down right ridiculous. The women in this novel play pivotal roles in the plot and creating suspense. Had these women been the “typical” Victorian woman, the story would  not have been the same and I don’t think as powerful.  This novel, filled with wonderful developed atypical female characters is awesome!  Way to go Collins, representing for women in a time when that wasn’t cool.  I love it!