Slide 1RecapAmerican Short StoryNathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)GothicFor TuesdayThe ManteCONTAGION BEFORE GERMSENGL 123.003, Fall 2016Thurs, 9/1/16Recap•Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year•Power to suspend civil liberties and decide who is disposable•Morality as related to infection and power•Spread of disease made visible through Bills of Mortality•Authority of official reports, rumors, and/or the narrator•History and fictionAmerican Short Story•How is a short story different from a novel?•Most popular in the US from Civil War to WWI•Serialized novels less popular due to national mobility•Magazines had room for shorter, self-contained fiction•Copyright laws made it difficult for authors to make money before CW•Poe tried to elevate the form to high art; Hawthorne saw it as entertainment•William Dean Howells, editor of The Atlantic MonthlyNovel = long, fictitious prose narrative Short story = fictitious prose narrative that can be read in one sittingNathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)•Editor and author most famous for The Scarlet Letter (1850)•Born in Salem, Mass. to family with prominent Puritan ancestors•Father died of yellow fever in 1808•Attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine•First success with publishing in literary annuals•Twice Told Tales (1837)•“Lady Eleanore’s Mantle” published in The United States Democratic Review (1838), but set in Mass. around 1720Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)•Editor, poet and author best known for “The Raven” •Born in Boston to actors•Taken in by John Allan after his father abandoned family and mother died•Attended the University of Virginia & West Point•Tumultuous personal life and professional career •Believed that poems and stories should be read in one sitting to maximize effect•“The Masque of the Red Death” published in Graham’s Magazine in 1842, but likely set in Middle AgesGothic•Gothic = Dark Romanticism?•Romanticism was a C18 & C19 reaction against rationalism of the Age of Reason •Imagination can lead to the threshold of the unknown•Emerged in Europe the mid C18; elements in American writing by C19 (i.e., Poe)•Lost popularity after Civil War; resurgence in American South in C20 (i.e., Faulkner)•Gothic Characteristics•Mysterious, ominous, gloomy•Omens and foreshadowing •Supernatural beings•Exotic setting•Character double•Innocent heroine•Mysterious disappearances•Death & events surrounding death•Character actions inspired by negative emotionsFor Tuesday•Read first 9 chapters of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (pg. 1-91 in Penguin Classics)•Keep in mind:•Narrator(s) – Who is telling the story and how?•The setting/environment and its effects•Descriptions of charactersThe Mante•The mantle symbolizes Wealth, posterity, but poisonous; death, •Why didn’t … not get the plauge? •The people who saw try beauty in lady elenore rather than the beauty of the mantle•Doctor•Lack of vantiy