R A 07 (336)

Travis Quattlebaum's Class Summary

Being the third to last class where reading is assigned, Dr. Foss does not miss a chance to reward us with an absolutely amazing reward quiz. As always Foss does phenomenally in his reading of all the questions, stumbling over his shorthand no more than ten times! After many graceful thanks from the students for another challenging intellectual wake-up call, we instantly jump into our newly titled small group game now titled “BOOM BOOM BOOM” (number of booms is dependent upon number of groups Foss feels fit to perform this fun activity). Today there were three “booms.” One “boom” was Coleridge, Kendall, and Meynell; a second was Meynell again, Pfeiffer, and Blind; and the third was Field and Levy. Within each boom, it was the group’s goal to compare and contrast each poetic partnership with respect to how each poet writes about Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen in the late Victorian era. Within my group we argued that women during the Late Victorian Period did not have a uniform attitude towards the continuing inequality of the sexes.

For the first boom, my small group focused mainly on the relationship between Coleridge and Kendall’s works. Both women are working for women’s rights and equality. However, the tones the two women take are completely opposite. Coleridge is more passive in her hopes that women will become equal to men. She states that “[t]he dying flame of life’s desire, / Made mad because its hope was gone” is how the narrator feels (VWP 287 lines 20&21). She decides that not she is dead on the inside yet she also feels as if “[s]he had no voice to speak her dread” (VWP 287 line 18). Kendall’s poem is more empowering however, more of a “call to arms” poem than an observational poem like Coleridge. Coleridge calls for all to “rouse to a lifework – do something worth doing!” (VWP 319 line 27). The anger at women for their inability to desire better rights for themselves. When it came to both poems however, we believed that the narrator of Coleridge’s poem was older than the narrator of Kendall’s poem which is what led to the differing opinions. The age difference is yet another reason why women could not decide whether to actively resist the social norm or to passively wait out the norm and hope for change to come.

BOOM! (Foss temporarily leaves room after round one begins to gather old papers to hand out).

The second round of “Boom Boom Boom” left my group with the grouping of Pfeiffer, Blind, and Meynell. When it came to this group of poems, more questions were raised than anything else. The poems did not lend themselves too much comparison like the first collection. Each poem however seems to take a stand in how a direct male-female relationship affects a woman. “Any Husband to Many a Wife” by Pfeiffer, which was written in response to a Browning poem, argues that a man needs a woman to feel successful in life. Within the poem, Pfeiffer takes on the role of a male and states that he “scarcely know[s his] worthless picture, / As seen in [his wife’s] soft eyes” (VWP 109 lines 1&2). Meynell’s narrator in “Renouncemen” denies her lover because she believes that her love for a man will come to nothing. The narrator does still keep love alive though; for she, “[w]ith the first dream that comes with the first sleep” dreams of she and her lover together (from poem supplied by Foss line 13). While, sadly, Blind’s “Noonday Rest” portrays a woman completely ruined (the decision of whether or not she was already dead or just dying could not be 100% agreed upon) by “[m]an [who] had no pity on her – no, nor God” (VWP 206 line 19). Within these poems it is evident that the views towards women and men relationships are completely different. While one keeps love for a man she cannot be with another dies because she is not accepted by man. The completely opposing views on relationships proves that women are still unsure about how to react to the poor inequality between the two different genders.

BOOM!

The final poetic duo both has multiple poems that were much more overtly sexual than any of the other writing. The first writer ‘Michael Fields’ was actually two women writers who were believed to be homosexual. They clearly believe that sexuality (although Dunn has already done this) should be allowed within poetry. Because they do not outright state that they are lesbian lovers (something illegal at the time) they are still following the social conventions and thus not so outgoing about a desire for a change in women (and homosexual) rights. The second poet, Lexy, in “Sinfonia Eroica” is outright dedicated to a female and seems to be more open about homosexuality. Although the reader was to assume that the narrator is male, we all know that assumptions are never good when it comes to “great” literature. Thus, even when relationships are taken out of there heterosexual form, the women of the Late Victorian Era could not decide whether to be proud of their sexuality or timid.

BOOM!

After an amazing small group discussion series, Foss brought us all back together again for a big group discussion. Since it was the last day to discuss our topical focus of “Ladies and Gentlemen” a lot of comments focused on the development of women writing throughout the entire Victorian Era. It was generally agreed upon that during the Early Victorian Era women mainly focused on the domestic sphere yet progressed to argue about sexuality and social discontent. However, the difficulty for a women writer to be published stayed consistent throughout the entire Victorian Period. We also discussed the transition of Victorian Literature into “Modernist” Literature and how Yeats, Conrad, and Wells (all “modernist” authors) were writing in the time of Queen Victoria. As a last comment of “Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen,” Joe offered that no matter what, Victorian lit seemed to evolve around one form of love or another.

With the Last minutes of class Foss discussed how the Final Exam would be laid out (found here: http://umwblogs.org/wiki/index.php/Final_Examination_Preview_333_F11) He also offered a helpful hint:

•	Have all four topic points written on the top of a piece of paper. Put the three eras equally distributed space wise on that piece of paper. Put each writer and work under his/her respected section. Choose your writers based off of those papers.

If you want to be nice to Foss continue reading: during elementary school, in the “great state of Minnesota,” crazy people during the cold winters would eat paper! So, since Foss’ preferred grading area in upstairs and the kitchen is so illogically placed downstairs, leaving the edges on your perforated pages would save Foss from having to travel downstairs and thus make him happy while grading your paper.

Camille's Class Summary