Introduction to the Victorian Period

In this post you can find some additional information to what we discussed in class.

For more information on the Victorian Period, access The Victorian Web.

• The Poor Law

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/shp/britishsociety/thepoorrev1.shtml

• Thomas Falkner

About him

To read his diary, click here.

• Leopoldo Brizuela

An interview

Synopsis: Inglaterra, una fábula

• Macauly Act

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html

• "Lie back and think of England"

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/close-your-eyes-and-think-of-england.html

• Realism

http://www.online-literature.com/periods/realism.php

• Symbolism

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-symbolism.htm

The Creation of the Monster

1. Edison's Frankenstein

2. James Whale's Frankenstein

3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

 
4. Igor

Other interesting things to watch

Bride of Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenweenie

Penny Dreadful

Frankenstein, M. D.

More on "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

"Kubla Khan" by Samuel T. Coleridge

• To read the lyrics of Rush's song based on "Kubla Khan", click here.

• To read the ballad "The Demon Lover", click here.

• To read the story "The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen, click here.

• To read the novel Doña Flor y sus dos maridos by Jorge Amado, click here.

• To read about the Pombero, click here.

• To read about the Peixe Boto, click here.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel T. Coleridge

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-)

Poet, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958.
Benjamin Zephaniah’s background seems unlikely for a poet: a dyslexic who left school unable to properly read and write; a black British Brummie whose teenage years of petty crime culminated in a prison spell.

However, Zephaniah has ended up the people’s poet. Today he holds a handful of honorary degrees. In 2008 he appeared in The Times list of top 50 post-war writers. 1

• Official Website

• British Council

• Official Twitter Account

• Official Facebook Page

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same Concert, Live At Madison Square...

Examples of Modernist works of art discussed in class

• "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd

Lyrics: http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/another-brick-in-the-wall-lyrics.html

• Man Ray

http://www.manraytrust.com/

• "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso

http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp

• "Revolution Number 9" by The Beatles

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/revolution9.html

• Chaise Longue & Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier

http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/02-131484/chaise-longue-lc-4-le-corbusier

http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/02-58394/ville-savoye-le-corbusier

• La Sagrada Familia by Gaudí

http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/docs_instit/arquitectura.php

• "Es infinita esta riqueza abandonada" by Edgar Bayley

Es infinita esta riqueza abandonada

esta mano no es la mano ni la piel de tu alegría

al fondo de las calles encuentras siempre otro cielo

tras el cielo hay siempre otra hierba playas distintas

nunca terminará es infinita esta riqueza abandonada

nunca supongas que la espuma del alba se ha extinguido

después del rostro hay otro rostro

tras la marcha de tu amante hay otra marcha

tras el canto un nuevo roce se prolonga

y las madrugadas esconden abecedarios inauditos islas remotas

siempre será así

algunas veces tu sueño cree haberlo dicho todo

pero otro sueño se levanta y no es el mismo

entonces tú vuelves a las manos al corazón de todos

de cualquiera

no eres el mismo no son los mismos

otros saben la palabra tú la ignoras

otros saben olvidar los hechos innecesarios

y levantan su pulgar han olvidado

tú has de volver no impota tu fracaso

nunca terminará es infinita esta riqueza abandonada

y cada gesto cada forma de amor o de reproche

entre las últimas risas el dolor y los comienzos

encontrará el agrio viento y las estrellas vencidas

una máscara de abedul presagia la visión

has querido ver

en el fondo del día lo has conseguido algunas veces

el río llega a los dioses

suben murmullos lejanos a la claridad del sol

amenazas

resplandor en frío

no esperas nada

sino la ruta del sol y de la pena

nunca terminará es infinita esta riqueza abandonada

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/960719-es-infinita-esta-riqueza-abandonada

• "Drawing Hands" by M. C. Escher

http://www.mcescher.com/

• "On the Eastern Front" by Georg Trakl

On the Eastern Front

The winter storm's mad organ playing

is like the Volk's dark fury,

the black-red tidal wave of onslaught,

defoliated stars.

Her features smashed, her arms silver,

night calls to the dying men,

beneath shadows of November's ash,

ghost casualties heave.

A spiky no-man's-land encloses the town.

The moon hunts petrified women

from their blood-spattered doorsteps.

Grey wolves have forced the gates.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/18/poem-of-the-week-georg-trakl

• "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;  

Petals on a wet, black bough.

http://www.bartleby.com/104/106.html

• "Sea Poppies" by H. D.

Sea Poppies

Amber husk

fluted with gold,

fruit on the sand

marked with a rich grain,

treasure

spilled near the shrub-pines

to bleach on the boulders:

your stalk has caught root

among wet pebbles

and drift flung by the sea

and grated shells

and split conch-shells.

Beautiful, wide-spread,

fire upon leaf,

what meadow yields

so fragrant a leaf

as your bright leaf?

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177768

• "A Coat" by W. B. Yeats

A Coat

I made my song a coat  

Covered with embroideries  

Out of old mythologies  

From heel to throat;  

But the fools caught it,

Wore it in the world’s eyes  

As though they’d wrought it.  

Song, let them take it  

For there’s more enterprise  

In walking naked.

http://www.bartleby.com/147/31.html

• "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Humanities%20and%20Social%20Sciences/EMS/Readings/139.105/Additional/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants%20-%20Ernest%20Hemingway.pdf

• Un chien andalou by Luis Buñuel

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

• Polanski's Tess

   

• TV Movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126100/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_14

 

"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

Introduction to the Victorian Era

I include in this post some of the things mentioned in class in the introduction to the Victorian Era.

For more information on the Victorian Era, you can acces The Victorian Web.

To read the poem "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling, click here.

To read more about Jemmy Button and the Fuegians, click here and here.

To read more about El placer de la cautiva by Leopoldo Brizuela, click here.

To read The Virgin and the Gipsy by D. H. Lawrence, click here.

Dread Poets' Society - Benjamin Zephaniah

The Creation of the Monster

1. Edison's Frankenstein

2. James Whale's Frankenstein

3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

4. Igor

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Presentation on Lord Byron

Bright Star

BY JOHN KEATS

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—

         Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

         Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

         Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

         Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—

No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

         Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

         Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

The Demon Lover

A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

"Kubla Khan", Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


To read the ballad called "The Demon Lover", click here.

To read the story "The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen, click here.

To watch the movie Doña Flor y sus dos maridos, click here.