Halloween 2011

It was on a dreary night of November [...]. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open ...

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

The Black’s long march to freedom

From Oroonoko to Cinque



Upon reading Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko it is hard to not think about the abolition of slavery in the United States after the American Civil War (with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865) and the end of the shameful South African Apartheid after the multi-racial democratic elections in 1994. Somewhere in the middle of this “Black” road to Calvary which goes from the buying and exploitation of African slaves in America on behalf of the Europeans –so realistically portrayed by Aphra Behn— to their emancipation, is the story depicted and narrated by Spielberg’s film Amistad.  The dream Oroonoko had when he rebelled against his owners, becoming one of the first martyrs, became a reality in Cinque when he managed to convince the jury that Blacks have the same dignity as Whites, as it is contemplated in the revolutionary text of the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

Mary Rowlandson’s diary: A Precedent for Aphra Behn's realism?

In The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration, the diary that Mary Rowlandson wrote during the time of her captivity, after falling prisoner to the hands of the Indians in one of the wars fought between them and the White man, we find descriptions of the Indians’ way of life. Rowlandson’s Narrative is so rich in detail and narrated in such simple English that it is truly a precedent for the technique and realist language that would make the rise of the novel possible.  This diary and the quintessential contribution of the narrative work of Aphra Behn, who had most likely read Mary Rowlandson’s testimony, enrich that tradition of realistic accounts which would spawn the great novel of the eighteenth century.

The following fragments are telling evidence of the technique and manner in which they are written (or the manner in which the above are written):

“My master had three squaws, living sometimes with one, and sometimes with another one … ” (The Nineteenth Remove)

“the water was up to the knees, and the stream very swift, and so cold that I thought it would have cut me in sunder” (The Sixteenth Remove)

“About two hours in the night … on Feb. 18, 1675” (The Third Remove)

“They eat also nuts and acorns, artichokes, lilly roots, ground beans, and several other weeds and roots, that I know not.” (The Twentieth Remove)

From A to Z along a Black Cavalry

The Alphabet of Slavery is – a poem published in The Poetry of Slavery (1764-1865) Harvest Films/The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum –, is an excellent reminder of the endless list of grievances that remains alive in the black communities historical memory. Perhaps it would be useful to have a look at it in order to better understand the issues at stake in novels like Oroonoko and in films like Amistad.

The True Meaning of the Word 'Puritan'

The semantic evolution of the word ‘puritan’ has not done justice to the influential group of Scottish and English Calvinists who, from the very beginning of the Restoration, considered themselves to be the purest brand of Protestantism. Today, as everybody knows, this term is quite pejorative if not insulting. This is obviously due to the fact that people (the speech community) refuse to accept those who think of themselves to be the best, the “chosen ones”, as the Puritans did. Historical memory, though, is much fairer and recognizes the enormous contribution of the Puritans in many important aspects. For Christopher Hill:

“The Puritans had high ideals of integrity, of service to the community. Their preachers taught a doctrine of spiritual equality: one good man was as good as another, and better than a bad peer or bishop or king.” (The Century of Revolution 1603-1714. London: Cardinal, 1975, p.78).

Autumn is finally with us!!!

It is a pity that quite often the best translations are not known by the Spanish reading public. This can be said about Tomás Ramos Oreas’s excellent version of “Ode to the West Wind” by Shelley.

“Oda al viento del oeste”

Tienes alma otoñal, viento poniente.

De tu presencia inédita, en huida

se aleja, fantasmal, la hoja yaciente,

negra, pálida, gualda, enrojecida,

como hueste vencida y apestada.

A su cama invernal oscurecida

transportas la semilla fría alada:

yerta estará en su baja sepultura

hasta que la vernal brisa azulada

–tu  hermana— el clarín toque y con hartura

(capullos en tropel, color viviente)

llene de dulce olor monte y llanura.

Tomás Ramos Orea

http://tomasramosorea.com/Documentos/ARTICULOS.pdf

“Ode to the West Wind”

O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being  

Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead  

Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,  

 

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,  

Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou          5

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed  

 

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,  

Each like a corpse within its grave, until  

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow  

 

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill   10

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)  

With living hues and odours plain and hill;

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Everyday Lexicography - Literary technique

As a result of what Stonehenge and the Druids evoke, regarding mystery, religion ..., I have to admit that I find the history of the Celts rather fascinating. As a philologist I take great interest in knowing that some Celtic languages are still spoken in England, like in the Highlands; Gaelic, Welsh, Irish ... vestiges of the past. And I am led to believe that the autochthonous language of Cornualles (the Conish language) was spoken until well into the nineteenth century when the last Cornish speaker died. My main interest is in the many Celtic languages (and the literature produced with them). In terms of this, I would like to share some Celtic placenames that still exist in Britain, especially river-names. Apparently, they are among the oldest words in the language. And the fact that many rivers still have a Celtic name futher proves the importance of the Celts (and therefore, the Celtic languages) in what we call Britain today.

Why?

Because the new settlers tend to respect and maintain the old placenames, especially rivernames, we still can enjoy them. Intrinsic in the Celtic term (name) is the fact that they are rivers.

1. The river 'Avon' in Canterbury is a word that means 'river' in the Old Celtic language.

2. 'Don', which is in Scotland, from the Celtic word 'Devona', means 'Goddess'. 'Devona', 'divina' in Spanish, is usually referred by some scholars as the old term to say 'God' and structurally the pre-term of 'Devil' (devona > devil).

3. 'Esk', which is in Lake District, comes from 'iska', an Old Celtic word that means 'water'.

4. 'Dove', in Derbyshire, is connected with the Old Celtic word 'duvo', which means 'black' and/or 'dark'.

5. And the river 'Tame' --related to the Londoner river Thames, of course--, in the area of Manchester, comes from the Celtic word 'tame' and means: 'dark'.

Open Literary Discussion - October

Hello everyone!  

Following Joe Clarke's comment in the "Dangerous Liasons" section I have taken on board his request and am therefore going to create a monthly "Open Literary Discussion" section in which you are all invited to share with our fellow bloggers any literary interests that you may have.  I shall look forward to your posts.

Dangerous Liaisons - A clip to enjoy

For those of you interested in the epistolary novel. Enjoy this clip --with a wonderful background music-- from a film based on a French epistolary novel.

The Restoration: The Plain English Movement (The Royal Society) II

‘They have therefore been rigorous in putting in

ejecution, the only Remedy, that can be found for this

extavagance: and that has been, a constant Resolution,

to reject all the amplifications, digressions,

and swellings of style: to return back to

the primitive purity, and shortness,

when men deliver’d so many things almost

in an equal number of words.

They have exacted from all their members,

a close, naked, natural way of speaking;

a native easiness: bringing all things as near

the mathematical plainness, as they can: and preferring

the language of Artizans, Countrymen, and

Merchants, before that, of Wits, or Scholars.’

Bishop Thomas Sprat,

The History of the Royal-Society of London

(1667)

Image: Frontispiece to The History of the Royal-Society of London

by Thomas Sprat. National Portrait Gallery (London).

The Restoration: The Plain English Movement (The Royal Society)

           

            ‘The scientific movement had another result: it led to the cultivation of a plain style of writing, and a suspicion of the ornaments of rhetoric. After a century or more had been spent in the pursuit of eloquence in English, there were people in the late 17th century who began to suggest that eloquence was a bad thing. Earlier, there had been an anti-rhetorical movement among the puritans: preachers like William Perkins (1558-1602) cultivated a simple style of preaching, free from ornament, while anti-puritans like John Donne cultivated a high rhetorical style. But in the later 17th century it was above all the natural scientists who advocated plainness and led the attack on rhetoric.’

                                                Barber, Charles. Early Modern English. London: André                                                            Deutsch, 1976, p. 131.

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Picture: Cover of Charles Barber's Early Modern English. (2nd ed.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1976.

¿Por qué "Heofones gim"?



El subtítulo de este blog es un conocido kenning anglosajón, con cuyo significado se intenta aquí resaltar esa dimensión inefable, transcendental... sublime, para utilizar un término de la estética kantiana de la literatura. Esa es la connotación con que se utiliza en esta metáfora el término del antiguo inglés “heofona” (cielo). La literatura, por ese poder que atesora de despertar y potenciar las más altas emociones, es una joya preciada, una ‘gema del cielo’. Algunas de las definiciones de kenning son:

‘[a] poetic compound, a traditional form of concentrated metaphor.’ (E.B. Irving Jr.)

‘… a condensed metaphor or simile, for example, “hron-rad” (whale road) for the sea, “sund-wudu” (sea wood) for a ship, “isern-scur” (iron shower) for a flight of arrows, “hildegicelum” (battle icicle) for a sword, and “hædstapa” (heath stepper) for a deer. Other noun epithets verge on the kenning, but many are literal descriptions. All of them share the characteristics of being compounds, and they most frequently occupy an entire half line of verse. They form by far the greater part of the “building-block”  material of Old English poetry.’ (J.D.A. Ogilvy y D.C. Baker)

‘… a two-member (or two-term) circumlocution for an ordinary noun: such a circumlocution might take the form of a compound, like hronrãd “sea” (literally “riding-place of the whale”), or of a phrase, like fugles wynn “feather” (literally “bird’s joy”).’ (Kemp Malone)

Obras Citadas:

Irving Jr., Edward B. Introduction to Beowulf. Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey): Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969. (ISBN: none -- LC number is 77-79447.)

Ogilvy, J.D.A., and Donald C. Baker. Reading Beowulf: An Introduction to the Poem, Its Background, and Its Style. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. (ISBN: 0-8061-2019-3.)