I am Susan Gubar

I am Sandra Gilbert

I am Gilbert and I am Gubar

Who are we and who am I? Our most amous work, The Madwoman in The Attic, is now an award-winning and classic study of patterns of influence and indebtedness among women novelists and poets including Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emily and  Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson.  It begins with an extensive 3-chapter critique of the phallocentricism and misogyny of neo-classical and Romantic theories of poetic creation, especially as embodied in the critical perspective of Harold Bloom (who coined the term "Anxiety of Influence). We say that it goes much farther than the Oedipal Struggle of having to fight with our fathers (great writers before us like Shakespeare, Homer, or Twain). Men deal with that more than women because women are in the Anxiety of Authorship faze. We are not struggling with our forefathers as much as we are to gain any type of recognition for having the ability to write, and that is what we have wrote about. Gilbert is primarily responsible for chapters on poetry; Gubar on prose. Gilbert's solo chapters include 6, about Milton's inhibiting influence on subsequent female poets, 7 on  Frankenstein,  8 on  Wuthering Heights, 9 on  Jane Eyre, and 15 and 16 on Emily Dickinson.

What do we look like? In further posts we will continue on our path of exploring more of our ideas, in depth, as well as go into a complex explanation of why we look the way we do. Hope to see you again. -Gilbert & Gubar a.k.a Christopher & Clark

The Reading of Idea of Order at Key West... and a few others

Wallace Stevens reads his own poetry. Stevens was born in 1879, and these recordings were made shortly before his death in 1955. Although he published poetry as early as 1914, Stevens did not receive widespread recognition until the publication of his collected poems in 1954, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Stevens' poems focus on the sound of language, on obscure vocabulary, and on imaginative images.

Part 1 .au format (3 Mb), .gsm format (0.8 Mb), .ra format (0.4 Mb). 
This selection includes "The Idea of Order at Key West," "The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain," and "Vacancy in the Park." The poems are not individually announced.

Part 2 .au format (4 Mb), .gsm format (1 Mb), .ra format (0.6 Mb). 
In this section, Stevens reads "To an Old Philosopher in Rome," which combines religious and secular images.

This Week Is Banned Books Week!

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met. As the Intellectual Freedom Manual (ALA, 7th edition) states:

“Intellectual freedom can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; and second, that society makes an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of information. Freedom to express oneself through a chosen mode of communication, including the Internet, becomes virtually meaningless if access to that information is not protected. Intellectual freedom implies a circle, and that circle is broken if either freedom of expression or access to ideas is stifled.”

Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) is asked why the week is called “Banned Books Week” instead of “Challenged Books Week,” since the majority of the books featured during the week are not banned, but “merely” challenged. There are two reasons. One, ALA does not “own” the name Banned Books Week, but is just one of several cosponsors of BBW; therefore, ALA cannot change the name without all the cosponsors agreeing to a change. Two, none want to do so, primarily because a challenge is an attempt to ban or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A successful challenge would result in materials being banned or restricted.

Although they were the targets of attempted bannings, most of the books featured during BBW were not banned, thanks to the efforts of librarians to maintain them in their collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.

To assist in planning the weeklong celebration, each year a BBW kit is developed. This kit includes three posters, 100 bookmarks, a button and a Resource Guide, which contains suggested activities and ideas for a BBW celebration. Moreover, the Resource Guide contains an annotated list of challenged or banned books and is an excellent reference for conducting research on censorship. (Since 2001, the Resource Guide is published every three years. Between new editions, kits include one List of Books Challenged or Banned since the last BBW.)

Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. Although this is a commendable motivation, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (ALA's basic policy concerning access to information) states that, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.” Censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the First Amendment.

As Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in Texas v. Johnson, said most eloquently:

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

If we are to continue to protect our First Amendment, we would do well to keep in mind these words of Noam Chomsky:

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”

Or these words of "Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 1953, p. 20):

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

For more information on Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please contact the American Library Association/Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.

Modes

Tragic~Comic ~Thematic

Mythic deaths of our foundations/forefathers~ gods having fun !the bible/ true depth

Romantic Romeo and Juliet~ My Best Friends Wedding~ Gone with the Wind

High Mimetic Oedipus Rex ~Lysistrata ~Hercules

Low Mimetic my mother died~ the clown tripped ~my life's purpose

Ironic nothing we do matters ~it all comes back to me in the end ~ all we do matters


So when it came time for me to do this diagram of Modes of Fiction and Themes, I thought to myself, " Why don't I just put down the first thing that comes to mind when I think of each one of these and see what happens." I thought the results were outstanding, actually, because I just can't think of any better way to describe some of these. Some of the works I mentioned were Classical Literature, some of the works I mentioned were modern Movies, and some of the things I mentioned never happened, but if they did happen would fit perfectly into the category of choice. I think that Frye would probably have some choice words to say about my word selection for each choice, but since he probably never will, I think it's turned out quite well. Please leave me a comment if I totally screwed something up or didn't get my thought in correctly. Enjoy!

English 300

I suppose this will now turn into a site of literary importance... nay, IT ALREADY WAS! But.... who knows what will happen now. I just plan on having some fun this semester. Best of luck to all this year and remember to HEED THE WARNING! -Christopher (Oper)