Difference between revisions of "Robert Browning"
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(Created page with "==The Ring and the Book== * Bk 1 ln. 84-90: (422) Here it is, this I toss and take again: Small quarto-size, part print part manuscript: A book in shape but, really, pure c...") |
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Give it me back! The thing's restorative | Give it me back! The thing's restorative | ||
I' the touch and sight. | I' the touch and sight. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==My Last Duchess== | ||
| + | *rhymed couplets - invoking that rococco Pope heritage subtly | ||
| + | * dramatic monologue | ||
| + | ** 1st person lyric with implied interlocutor | ||
| + | ** a scene in which a reader is asked to figure out the full story | ||
| + | ** psychological | ||
| + | ** what the speaker says isn't usually clearly aligned with the author | ||
| + | * two levels - a double poem ([[Armstrong 1993]]) | ||
| + | ** poem working in two ways: ideological work (here, a critique of a very scary man) alongside lyric expression | ||
| + | * what is the poem asking and how does it answer? | ||
| + | ** how couldn't you flinch or run screaming? Because of the Duke's power, the system they're locked in | ||
| + | * the speaker is Alfonso II, the Duke of Ferrara - RB's early readers didn't have such notes | ||
| + | ** talking to the Count of Tyrol's agent about his next wife | ||
| + | ** duke higher up than count | ||
| + | **talking about dowry: the count is such an open-handed man that I don't need to specify terms - the girl is, of course, my object | ||
| + | * what does complete conversational/situational control look like | ||
| + | ** a social situation the agent can't escape | ||
| + | ** we'll go together because normally you'd be 5 steps behind | ||
| + | * the duchess's perspective: the male gaze literally objectifying -- a painting and the daughter is my next object | ||
| + | ** it is an art object so could be related to discourses about collecting as social control: [[Black 2000]] | ||
| + | * the duke makes the law: what he's done could be perfectly legal | ||
| + | * '''Can you truly control another person?''' | ||
| + | ** the threat of female vitality, emotion | ||
| + | ** blushing is involuntary | ||
| + | *courtesy | ||
| + | ** courtliness | ||
| + | ** flattery | ||
| + | *So, you can, but it's a pyrrhic victory because the duke doesn't truly possess her | ||
| + | ** formally the duchess and the agent are controlled and silenced | ||
| + | ** does he succeed with the next wife, assuming the agent does his job? | ||
Latest revision as of 17:32, 21 March 2018
The Ring and the Book
- Bk 1 ln. 84-90: (422)
Here it is, this I toss and take again: Small quarto-size, part print part manuscript: A book in shape but, really, pure crude fact Secreted from man's life when heart beats hard, And brains, high-blooded, ticked two centuries since. Give it me back! The thing's restorative I' the touch and sight.
My Last Duchess
- rhymed couplets - invoking that rococco Pope heritage subtly
- dramatic monologue
- 1st person lyric with implied interlocutor
- a scene in which a reader is asked to figure out the full story
- psychological
- what the speaker says isn't usually clearly aligned with the author
- two levels - a double poem (Armstrong 1993)
- poem working in two ways: ideological work (here, a critique of a very scary man) alongside lyric expression
- what is the poem asking and how does it answer?
- how couldn't you flinch or run screaming? Because of the Duke's power, the system they're locked in
- the speaker is Alfonso II, the Duke of Ferrara - RB's early readers didn't have such notes
- talking to the Count of Tyrol's agent about his next wife
- duke higher up than count
- talking about dowry: the count is such an open-handed man that I don't need to specify terms - the girl is, of course, my object
- what does complete conversational/situational control look like
- a social situation the agent can't escape
- we'll go together because normally you'd be 5 steps behind
- the duchess's perspective: the male gaze literally objectifying -- a painting and the daughter is my next object
- it is an art object so could be related to discourses about collecting as social control: Black 2000
- the duke makes the law: what he's done could be perfectly legal
- Can you truly control another person?
- the threat of female vitality, emotion
- blushing is involuntary
- courtesy
- courtliness
- flattery
- So, you can, but it's a pyrrhic victory because the duke doesn't truly possess her
- formally the duchess and the agent are controlled and silenced
- does he succeed with the next wife, assuming the agent does his job?
