“Carmilla” continued and “Gothic’s Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’” by Michael Davis

“Carmilla” continued and “Gothic’s Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’”

Once again, don’t feel as if you need to follow the questions below. You can use this week’s blog to expand upon a previous discussion or to respond to another student’s blog. These questions are merely to serve as a guide.

• Michael Davis uses a lot of major psychoanalysts and key terms to help him argue his essay. For this blog, do some background research on one or more of these figures or terms and explain how a more thorough understanding of these figures or terms can help us better understand Le Fanu’s story. Some figures you might want to research are Freud, Lacan, Laplanche, Melanie Klein, etc. Some key terms you could research are manifest and latent content (in reference to dreams), the Other, intromission, and perhaps most significantly—THE GOTHIC!
• Michael Davis draws a great deal from psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche for his essay. What are Laplanche’s major theories and how does Davis apply them to the story? What do you think of Davis’s use of Laplanche and subsequent analysis? Use examples from both the essay and “Carmilla” to support your answer.
• Davis spends a great deal of time analyzing three of Laura’s “dreams.” What is Davis’s reading of those dreams? Do you agree with his analysis of Laura’s dreams? Why or why not? What might you add to his analysis? Are there alternative interpretations of these key moments in the story?
• On page 233, Davis provides an interpretation of Carmilla’s demise. What is his argument about the symbolic meaning behind Carmilla’s death and how would you respond to Davis’s interpretation? Use examples from the text to support your argument.

Carmilla Discussion Questions

As always, these questions are meant to help inspire and guide your reading. Feel free to develop your own questions or respond to another student’s blog.

• Do some independent research on any of the following terms: The Irish Famine, Young Ireland, or Catholic Emancipation. What could an understanding of these historical events bring to a reading of Carmilla? Make sure to quote from and provide links to your research sources.
• The metaphor of the vampire is certainly a capacious one. In terms of this novel, how might we see the metaphor of the vampire functioning in the Irish context? Who (or what) might Carmilla represent in the social, political, and economic sense? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
• How would you characterize the modes of sexuality in this novel? How do we see identity being “queered” or “troubled” in this novel? Use examples from the text to explain your answer.

Castle Rackrent continued and “Maria Edgeworth in Blackface”

As stated before, these questions are here to serve as a guide. Please feel free to deviate from them, develop your own, respond to another student, or continue our discussion from last week if you would rather. Happy blogging!

• In “Maria Edgeworth in Blackface: Castle Rackrent and the Irish Rebellion of 1798,” Egenolf argues, “Despite the fictional claims of authenticity, Maria Edgeworth in fact appropriates the voice of the native Irish Thady, and thus performs linguistic blackface for her English and Anglo-Irish readers” (849). What is the connection Egenolf is making between minstrelsy and “blackface” and Edgeworth’s use of an Irish “dialect” in her novel? Can you point to places in the novel where you see this kind of performance on the part of Thady Quirk?
• Egenolf drops quite a few names and literary references in this essay, including “Swiftian” and “Spenserian” to describe aspects of Edgeworth’s text. Do a little online research and explore these authors and the nature of their work. You should also feel free to explore any other important figures that Egenolf cites such as Harriet Martineau, Luke Gibbons, Marilyn Butler, or even some of the authors of the many 1798 rebellion narratives discussed in this essay.
• In this past week’s posts, many students discussed the treatment of women in the novel. Let us continue that discussion, paying close attention to how women are constructed in this novel, what role they play in the exploitation of the Irish, and what a “raking pot of tea” can tell us about the secret lives of Irish Ascendancy women.
• Egenolf takes time to analyze several footnotes and end notes in the glossary. In your blog, choose one or two particularly rich footnotes and end notes and do a “close reading” of that note. Wikipedia provides a fairly good definition of “close reading” that you can review here. In a nutshell, close reading is the sustained (and close!) reading of a small passage, paying very careful attention to language as it enfolds word by word, sentence by sentence. Egenolf suggests in her essay that many of these notes are “loaded” with political sentiment and social commentary. By closely reading some of these notes, what sort of tone or attitude does the glossary and/or footnotes betray?
• In anticipation for our reading of the vampire novella Carmilla, take some time to reread the scene where Thady throws a wake for Sir Condy (112-113). What is the significance of this scene, in your opinion? Many scholars have noted the proliferation of the “living dead” in Irish novels (vampires, ghosts, people who come back from the dead [re: Finnegan’s Wake]). What is symbolic of this “living dead” moment in Castle Rackrent? Are there are other places where superstition and the supernatural are “codified” in this novel?

CASTLE RACRENT

For your second blog post, read through the entirety of Castle Rackrent (For those of you reading the Penguin edition, you do NOT have to read Ennui. I do, however, recommend reading the introduction by Marilyn Butler. She’s the premier scholar on Edgeworth. The intro might also help give you a little bit of historical background on the novel). Make sure you read the Preface, the Editor’s notes, and the Glossary. Remember that your blog is due on Tuesday at 11:59 pm. It should be between 500-800 words and it should include some quotes from a text, albeit the novel, the David Lloyd essay, another student, or an online source. Make sure that you provide links and that you cite your sources. Below are some questions for discussion. You do NOT have to use them. They are merely here to help you get started. Feel free to develop your own analysis or use another student's blog as a springboard for your own.

1. 
   Do some independent internet research using these three terms as a key word search: Ascendancy, 1798 uprising, and the Act of Union (1800). How does a little knowledge about these key terms affect your reading of the novel? Specifically, how does it change your reading of the Preface? You could also do some independent research on the Catholic middle class, the Penal Laws, and Edgeworth herself if you so choose.
   
2. Castle Rackerent is a satiric, multi-layered, self-reflexive novel. In it, we find Thady’s narrative, the Editor, and then there is Edgeworth, herself. Choose one of these "authors" and find a specific quote or passage that seems to reveal this specific "author’s" perspective. How would you characterize this author’s tone? How does this author characterize the Irish? The English?
   
3. Do you see Jason as a hero or a villain? Explain your response with support from the text.