Narrating History: Undergraduate Conference

Koç University has organised an undergraduate conference on the theme of Narrating History, to be held on May 12th. I know some of you were thinking about putting in proposals to present a paper at the Bilkent conference - if you didn't manage to do that, maybe you could do this instead.  If you are doing a dissertation that fits this topic, presenting your research at this conference might be an excellent idea. 

Again, I'm happy to help anyone who wants to put together a proposal. Here is what Koç says about the conference: 

This one-day conference will allow undergraduate students to present any academic work that deals with the issue of how historical events are narrated through both fictional and non-fictional writings, films, photography, and other forms of media and fine arts.

This is an excellent opportunity to interact with students from across Istanbul in a relaxed atmosphere.  By presenting your research you will also gain valuable experience that will be useful in job searches and graduate programs.  Come join us for a great day of food, fun and scholarship!

Students will present a 7-8 page paper or a powerpoint presentation, in English, for 20 minutes, on any aspect of history and narrative.  If you are interested, please submit a one-paragraph summary of your work to edebiyat@ku.edu.tr by March 15, 2011.  This conference is open to all universities and departments. Complete panels (up to four participants) are also accepted.

 Some Specific Examples:

-Personal histories: diaries, auto/biographies

-Ethics and the writing of history

-History in textbooks

-Historiography

-Historical sites in fiction

-Remembrance and Representation

-Travel writings

Or any topics that are related to narrating history are welcome.

More Dylan Thomas / Catch-up class

Here's a link to the BBC Wales website's pages on Dylan Thomas. There are  interviews, introductions to some of his other poems, and various other material you might find interesting and/or useful, including a series of links to other good websites on Thomas.

I've also created a doodle poll to decide when next week we will hold the catch-up class. Please enter your details by Friday morning, and I'll then email everyone Friday afternoon to let you know when the class will take place.

The Sublime and the Picturesque

As promised, here are some images to illustrate these aesthetic concepts, which we discussed today. Firstly, let's take the picturesque. There is a very helpful webpage about the picturesque here, and here are two images by William Gilpin, the father of the picturesque:

Notice in this  first image the ruins, the rocky hill, the tree jutting over the river - all typical elements of the picturesque.

The second image is certainly a picturesque scene, but we might also argue that it has elements of the sublime: those hills rising into the distance, the heavy, threatening sky, the mist that obscures the details.

For a real taste of the sublime, though, we should turn to the artist John Martin. He's a bit of a late Romantic - most of his pictures are painted in the 1830s and 1840s. Perhaps for that reason, he sometimes seems to be trying TOO hard to be sublime (and perhaps ends up just being silly or ridiculous, and thus not sublime at all). Still, his art illustrates the concept of the sublime very nicely. And - guess what? It's Milton again! Here's Martin's picture of The Fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium:

Probably the greatest Romantic painter of the sublime was the German, Caspar David Friedrich. It's really worth getting to know his work, which often features mysterious ruins (the picturesque transformed into the sublime) or spectacular, awe-inspiring landscapes. You might have already seen this image, which is often used to illustrate the idea of the solitary Romantic artist high on a mountain peak:

Another wonderful example of the sublime is The Wreck of The Hope, below. Here human endeavour is mocked by the terrifyingly huge sheets of ice which have crushed and entrapped the ship, which is now only just visible. Can you see it?

You can see an excellent slideshow of his work here.

I hope that helps clarify these concepts and gives you an idea of the work they generated and help to explain - feel free to ask any questions by adding a comment below, or by sending me an email (or simply ask me in class).

Dracula's Guest

Dracula's Castle

Exciting news! I've just discovered that the BBC is dramatizing Dracula for radio, in seven parts. You can listen to the first episode here. It's only available until next Thursday, however, so listen soon. There is also a BBC radio dramatization of 'Dracula's Guest', a chapter Bram Stoker initially intended for Dracula, but which was later published separately as a short story. You can find the text of the story here.

Jane Eyre - which edition?

Unfortunately nowhere seems to have the Oxford World's Classics edition of Jane Eyre in stock. I've therefore decided to stick with the Collins Classics edition, which is widely available from D&R, and elsewhere. We shall use this in class, ignoring or defacing the awful cover and introduction.  If you have a different edition, that's fine, but I'll give references to page numbers in the Collins. I'll also point you towards other good introductions to the novel elsewhere.

Pandora are ordering good numbers of the Oxford World's Classics editions of Dorian Gray and Dracula, so we'll use those when the time comes. 

See you tomorrow (if you are reading this on Thursday)!

Nineteenth-Century Novel II - editions and Friday's class

We have tried to contact Pandora to check stocks of the Oxford World's Classics edition of Jane Eyre. Unfortunately the relevant person will not be at work until Thursday, so we shall speak to her/him then. I should then be able to let you know the situation on Friday.

For Friday, please read the first chapter of Jane Eyre. You can find this online at Project Gutenberg. Enotes also has a useful online edition with notes explaining difficult words (you see, I can speak well of eNotes, even if it's through gritted teeth...). You don't need to do any other preparation for Friday's class. We'll start seminars NEXT week.

We will definitely use the Oxford World's Classics edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. We will almost certainly also use the Oxford World's Classics edition of Dracula. Oxford are issuing a new edition this month, which should be available by the time we begin to read it. This is also, I think, a sign that Dracula's literary importance is increasingly being recognised.

Classroom mix-ups and course reading: Dylan Thomas

Sorry for having had to cancel today's class - the room we were supposed to be in has been mysteriously transformed into a computer lab, and apparently there wasn't another classroom free in the whole building. I will try to arrange a time for a catch-up lecture, hopefully before the end of the week. As soon as I know something, I'll put it here.

In the meantime, you should start to read Dylan Thomas. We will be focusing on the following poems: 'If I Were Tickled By The Rub Of Love' (a poem we should have read together on Valentine's Day!); ‘A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London’; 'Fern Hill'; and 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. There should be enough in these poems to keep you busy, but if you want to explore more of Thomas's work, his Collected Poems 1934-1952 and his radio play Under Milk Wood are available for free download from Project Gutenberg Australia: follow this link or simply go to the home page and search for ‘Dylan Thomas’.

Have a look too at the readings and the documentary I posted in my last blog entry. Here is a link to Dylan Thomas reading 'Fern Hill' - now you have his recordings of all the poems we will focus upon.

Though lovers be lost love shall not...

Three of Dylan Thomas's greatest poems are about the battle with death and the possibility of overcoming it. Here they are, read by the man himself: 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion', and 'A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London'.

I also found a good documentary on Dylan Thomas, made by the BBC and broadcast in 2003. You can watch the whole thing on youtube. Here's a link to the first part. The first three minutes you might find difficult to follow - there's some mumbling, and some strong Welsh accents! - but it gets easier after that. It also includes some of Thomas's best readings of his poems.

Another great Welshman, Anthony Hopkins (you might know him better as Hannibal Lector) has also recorded readings of several Thomas poems. Here he is reading 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. You can easily find other readings by him.

You can find the texts of these and other poems by Dylan Thomas all over the web - here's one site worth looking at.

Bosphorising...

Here are two nice pieces about Istanbul that appeared in the British media recently.

The first is an article from The Guardian which first appeared in Le Monde -  Istanbul Trembles at Pace of Change. It discusses how Istanbul has been transformed by development projects and internal immigration, displacing old communities.

The second is a piece on BBC Radio about the history of the Bosphorus. It also discusses the new verb, "to Bosphorise" - can any of you help improve my Turkish by telling me what this verb is, in Turkish?

More generally, I'd be very interested in your responses to either piece.

I know where is an hind...

Here is an interesting, short radio-essay on the deer  - a subject which I'm perhaps egotistically interested in because of my surname, Hart. In the programme Ruth Padel  mentions Sir Thomas Wyatt's sonnet 'Whoso List to Hunt', which we looked at in the Outlines course last semester (there is a good newspaper article about the poem here). Because of two homophones in particular (deer/dear; hart/heart), deer are often a significant symbol in English poetry  - but there are lots of other reasons, too. Have a listen - the programme begins one minute in.

And on a different, but connected note - do Turkish surnames usually have meanings? I'm guessing that they do. Anyone got a surname with an interesting meaning? Anyone called 'Hart' in Turkish? And does Turkey have a significant deer population?