OIB with MrsC

 Thursday 23rd November, 2021 1. What is the Synoptic Topic ? Quick answer: it is part of your oral exam and is on the Gothic Topic. See handout and see your allotted key questions. 2. Understand you need to create a blog entry 3 times before June 2021 (see blog entry on how to create a blog entry!). 3. In your teams, watch this trailer for the British Film Industry's "Gothic Heart of Film" Trailer (two or three times).  What elements of this trailer form a link with your Key Issue? Provide feedback to the class... Here are all of the film clips used in the trailer, in order: Night of the Demon (Tourneur, 1957) Rebecca (Hitchcock, 1940) The Innocents (Clayton, 1961) The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2011) The Devil's Backbone (Del Toro, 2001) The Shining (Kubrick, 1980) Queen of Spades (Dickinson, 1949) The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2011) The Innocents (Clayton, 1961) Nosferatu (Herzog, 1979) The Ghoul (Hunter, 1933) The Mummy (Freund, 1932) The Devil's Backbone (Del T...

 Three times before the summer holidays, I will ask you to create a blog post on your Key Issue. Entry number one. Deadline: December 17th 2021 ((10points on Pronote) 1. Write a paragraph (in your own words) explaining your topic to a group of naive readers (eg: you classmates !). For example, how is gender represented in Gothic fiction? Are the woemn strong and determined? Do they balance fancy careers with six children? Are they unattractive and not very sexual? If course not ! Indeed, the answers to all these questions are NO. So, explain how women are generally presented in Gothic films and literature 2. Create a list of resources... with the links. When I  post your blog, I will include the links to open on a new page.  3. Write a short paragraph or use bullet points to explain your connection to Dorian Gray.  Entry number two Deadline: end February (20 points on Pronote) Write a one page essay (individually or together) explaining the link between your Key Issu...

Melodrama and realism in Gothic writing Melodrama and Realism are two main concepts that Gothic authors used and explored to bring the readers into the atmosphere they created.  Melodrama The Melodrama movement was born in France, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as part of the Romantic literary period. The romantics wanted to express their emotions through art, inspired by imagination, individuality, and nature.  The word Melodrama is made from two different Greek words: Melos meaning music and drama meaning action.  A melodrama is the foundation of every American movie of our time, as it contains a story with conflict coupled with music .  This dramatic form also shows a battle between Good and Evil in three major plot elements:  1. provocation, whatever provokes the villain to act devilishly to the hero;  2.pangs, the pains that the hero suffers through because of the villain’s evil;  3. and the penalty, the denouement, the last part of the...

Key Issue Seven: Power and menace in Gothic writing (Alexis / Liam / Malo) Closely linked together, power and menace are both fundamental for Gothic Literature . Even though they are not the first criteria someone would think about after watching a Gothic movie or reading Gothic literature, power and menace are nearly always presented in Gothic art. I. Power Looking at power portrayed through Gothic writing, we can already declare that power can come in different forms: fear, torture (violence), psycological aspects (mental), etc.  Power is dependent on a constraint, someone or something that needs to feel or be submissive to this powerful character. In Gothic writing, we can see this through vulnerable characters being driven by fear, for example Lucy Westerna in Dracula.  In Gothic literature, villains (humans or creatures) usually always hold the power, and they use this power over the other characters through violence and fear, for example, Dracula, or Frankenstein....

Heroes and  Villains In Gothic writing, a specific atmosphere prevails in which heroes and villains are easily distinguishable from other literature genres.  The hero-villain relationship is often ambiguous, and in a number of works of Gothic writing, attraction and love between the two characters might even occur.  Within heroes, boundaries opposing morality and immorality tend to be vague.  In fact, heroes of Gothic writing—oftentimes characters of high social ranking—could be described as morally “grey,” as it is their own goodness—the hero’s tragic flaw—that brings them, through decadence, to villainy. On the other hand, the antagonist is, from his very outset, portrayed as a flawed, lonesome, or outcast figure who must overcome obstacles in order to re-join society.  Generally, Gothic Villains represent one of two archetypes: the Evil Father or the Dangerous Lover. Villains who embody these figures include, respectively, Victor Frankenstein and Heathcliff...

  Chiara, Kelvin and Sana. Fear, terror and horror in Gothic writing     Fear, terror, and horror are the main goals of Gothic work : The atmosphere: dark, unknown, presence of creatures = generates fear  The location setting: unclear, uncomfortable Explores idea of being unsafe: confronted to a being defenseless Afraid of death and what comes after  Did you know that:  Fear mostly comes from our imagination, from that little voice in our head. In fact, you aren’t afraid of being alone in the dark, you are afraid of not being alone.Gothic horror is the battle between humanity and unnatural forces of evil within an oppressive, inescapable, and bleak landscape. Key quotes :   “ Gothic has always been more about fear of the supernatural than the supernatural itself”  ~by Radcliffe “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.”  ~by Stephen King “Courage has gone out of our race … The terror of society, which is the basi...

Monster and monstrous The word ‘ monster ’ means ugliness, irrationality and unnatural events. It is the opposite of neo-classical values of harmony and unified composition.  During the eighteen th century, the world became better known through scientific studies and experimentations, thus monsters disappeared from studies of nature and medicine step by step. Monster and monstrous in Gothic literature However, at the same time, they were becoming popular in the Gothic genre, which was starting at that time. This genre portrayed monsters and monstrous characters, and focussed on their deformity and irregularity. It involved works that crossed the boundaries of reason and morality , presenting excessive and viciously improper scenes and characters. Gothic literature needed negative and socially unacceptable features: the use of monsters and the use of the notion of monstrosity permitted Gothic authors to darken the atmosphere of their novels, while bringing fantasy. T...