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What has been your favourite text on the ENGLISH IN TRANSITION module and why?

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What has been your favourite text on the ENGLISH IN TRANSITION module and why?

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In your opinion, what is one of the most significant moments in the play Waiting for Godot and why?  

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In your opinion, what is one of the most significant moments in the play Waiting for Godot and why?  

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Please find here the link to a BBC podcast discussing both Beckett's life and work. Enjoy!

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Steven Connor at the University of Cambridge Laura Salisbury at the University of Exeter Mark Nixon at the University of Reading The Samuel Beckett Society Samuel Beckett - The British Library Samuel Beckett Endpage - University of Antwerp Samuel Beckett - Wikipedia READING LIST:
Samuel Beckett, Texts for Nothing and other Shorter Prose, 1950-1976 (Faber & Faber, 2010)

Samuel Beckett, Murphy (first published 1938; Faber & Faber, 2009)

George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn and Lois More Overbeck (eds.), The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 2. 1941-1956 (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn and Lois More Overbeck (eds.), The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 3. 1957-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn and Lois More Overbeck (eds.), The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 4. 1966-1989 (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck (eds.), The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 1. 1929-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Andrew Gibson, Samuel Beckett (Reaktion Books, 2010)

S. E. Gontarski, A Companion to Samuel Beckett (Blackwell, 2010)

Hugh Kenner, A Reader's Guide to Samuel Beckett (Syracuse University Press, 1996)

James Knowlson, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (Bloomsbury, 1997)

James Knowlson and John Haynes, Images of Beckett (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Christopher Ricks, Beckett's Dying Words (Clarendon, 1990)

Laura Salisbury, Samuel Beckett: Laughing Matters, Comic Timing (Edinburgh University Press, 2015)

Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon, Samuel Beckett's Library (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

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BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Samuel Beckett

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot

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Here is a link to Professor Geoff Ward's talk, 'Why is Modern Poetry Difficult?', which I thought might be helpful to listen to before next week's tutorial. Enjoy!

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Why is modern poetry difficult? Talk by Professor Geoff Ward

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Provide one example of Oscar Wilde's witty comments in Lady Windermere's Fan. Is Wilde simply showing us how clever he is or is there a serious point underneath the witticism and, if so, what is it?

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One of Browning’s most entertaining monologues in my opinion is, “The Labratory,”
I have posted a link to the full poem on this post. Browning’s (and indeed the Victorian public’s) fascination with violent macabre narratives is prevalent in this poem, as it is based on the real life story of a psychotic alchemist who decides to poison her lover. The dramatic monologue as a poetic form is perfect for allowing the reader to get inside the mind of twisted individuals and here it is no different. My favourite example of where we can see the truly demented mindset of this woman is when Browning conveys her excitement in creating her poison, as she refers to the array of poisons as ‘treasures’.  And refers to the contents of the room as a ‘wild crowd of invisible pleasures!’ But the whole poem is rich with these types of dark linguistic features. Personally I believe this poem to be the best example of Brownings dramatic monologues due to the setting of the apothecary and the character of the perfume maker being so uniquely twisted. It appears to be an obvious influence on one of my favourite novels, “perfume” by Patrick Suskind, so anyone who got enjoyment out of this poem, I would recommend giving that novel a read

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Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly,

May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely,

As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy-

Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?

He is with her, and they know that I know

Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow

While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear

Empty church, to pray God in, for them!-I am here.

Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,

Pound at thy powder,-I am not in haste!

Better sit thus and observe thy strange things,

Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's.

That in the mortar-you call it a gum?

Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!

And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,

Sure to taste sweetly,-is that poison too?

Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,

What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!

To carry pure death in an earring, a casket,

A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket!

Soon, at the King's, a mere lozenge to give

And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live!

But to light a pastile, and Elise, with her head

And her breast and her arms and her hands, should drop dead!

Quick-is it finished? The colour's too grim!

Why not soft like the phial's, enticing and dim?

Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir,

And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!

What a drop! She's not little, no minion like me-

That's why she ensnared him: this never will free

The soul from those masculine eyes,-say, "no!"

To that pulse's magnificent come-and-go.

For only last night, as they whispered, I brought

My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought

Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall,

Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does it all!

Not that I bid you spare her the pain!

Let death be felt and the proof remain;

Brand, burn up, bite into its grace-

He is sure to remember her dying face!

Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose;

It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close:

The delicate droplet, my whole fortune's fee-

If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me?

Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill,

You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!

But brush this dust off me, lest horror it brings

Ere I know it-next moment I dance at the King's!

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The Laboratory by Robert Browning | Poetry Foundation

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Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly, May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely, As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy- Which is the poison to poison her, prithee?

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The University of Oxford have generously provided a series of podcasts on Oscar Wilde, including one which focuses on his plays. You will find the link to all five podcasts below.

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/oscar-wilde

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Not strictly related to poetry, but Melvyn Bragg's informative podcast discusses EBB's Aurora Leigh, which some of you might be moved to read after our recent discussion about her fabulous sonnets. Enjoy!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0745d37

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Margaret Reynolds at Queen Mary, University of London Daniel Karlin at the University of Bristol Karen O'Brien at King's College London Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Wikipedia READING LIST:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (ed. Margaret Reynolds), Aurora Leigh (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (ed. John Bolton and Julia Holloway), Aurora Leigh and Other Poems (Penguin Classics, 1995)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (ed. Kerry McSweeney), Aurora Leigh, (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Josie Billington and Philip Davis (eds.), Elizabeth Barrett Browning - 21st Century Oxford Authors (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Alison Chapman (ed.), Victorian Women Poets (D. S. Brewer, 2005)

Margaret Forster, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Doubleday, 1989)

Daniel Karlin (ed.), Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: The Courtship Correspondence, A Selection (Oxford University Press, 1989)

Daniel Karlin, The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett (Oxford University Press, 1999)

Angela Leighton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Key Women Writers Series (Indiana University Press, 1986)

Angela Leighton, Victorian Women Poets: Writing Against the Heart (Prentice-Hall, 1992)

Scott Lewis (ed.) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Letters to Her Sister Arabella (Wedgestone Press, 2002)

Dorothy Mermin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry (University of Chicago Press, 1989)

Marjorie Stone, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Macmillan, 1995), especially Chapter 4, 'Juno's Cream: Aurora Leigh and Victorian Sage Discourse'

Virginia Woolf, Flush (first published 1933; Penguin, 2016)

Virginia Woolf (ed. Andrew McNeillie), The Common Reader: Second Series (first published 1932; Mariner Books, 2003)

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Margaret Reynolds at Queen Mary, University of London Daniel Karlin at the University of Bristol Karen O'Brien at King's College London Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Wikipedia READING LIST: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (ed. Margaret Reynolds), Aurora Leigh (W. W.

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Robert Browning: What are some of the interesting features of Browning's dramatic monologues? 

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Robert Browning: What are some of the interesting features of Browning's dramatic monologues? 

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I wanted to share a link to this very interesting podcast about Victorian poetry. It does focus quite a bit on the texts of Matthew Arnold, however, you do get a good sense of the main issues writers were addressing during this period.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007d9k6

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This week you had the opportunity to suggest additional poems for our class discussions. So, during our next tutorial we will examine:

Thomas Hardy's poem, 'In the British Museum'. When reading this poem, think about how Hardy explores the meaning of objects and how objects mean different things to people from different cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese. Focus particularly on sonnets 3, 22, 29 and 43. When reading Barrett Browning's sonnets think about how the sonnet form is reworked.

Robert Browning's poems 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'My Last Duchess'. What are the interesting features of these poems?

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Week Five: What are some of the characteristics of Blake and Barbauld's poetry?

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Week Five: What are some of the characteristics of Blake and Barbauld's poetry?

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I wanted to share this BBC podcast on William Blake with the group - a good starting point for your research into his poetry this week:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gh4pg

-Rhonda

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Hi all,
following out discussions yesterday about Othello, I wanted to flag up a very interesting article by Ian Smith which investigates our assumption that Desdemona's handkerchief was white, arguing that it was, in fact, a black handkerchief. Smith then goes on to link that assumption to the prevalence of racist ideologies in society today. Definitely worth a read!

Smith, Ian. “Othello’s Black Handkerchief.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 1, [Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Association of America, Inc., The Johns Hopkins University Press, George Washington University], 2013, pp. 1–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24778431.

- Rhonda

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What is the significance of music and song in the play and how do they contribute to Shakespeare's thematic concerns?

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Week Three: Shakespeare and the Soliloquy

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Week Three: Shakespeare and the Soliloquy

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What are the possible implications of the fact that Iago delivers more soliloquies than any other character in the play?

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How does the form of the sonnet 'The Forge' (1969) by Seamus Heaney create meaning?

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Keeping in mind James Hirsch's article on the history of the soliloquy (see readings for week three), can you define the 'soliloquy'?

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What are some of the rhetorical devices used in a sonnet you have carried out a close reading on this week?