Monday 30 October 2023

Para a aula de 2 de novembro: recensão a Twice-Told Tales e início da leitura de The Narrative of the Life of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Como sempre, tentar responder a pelo menos uma das questões:

1. Vê pontos em comum entre a teoria do conto implícita na recensão de Edgar A. Poe a Twice-Told Tales, e o método de composição do poema exposto em "The Philosophy of Composition"?

Vamos começar pelo prefácio e os dois primeiros capítulos, e aqui vão duas sugestões de leitura/escrita, em resposta a este post:

2. O Prefácio - o que se pode extrapolar da palavra "ruse" usada na p. 3 em termos de construção de narrativa, especialmente pensando na construção de uma figura autoral para esta narrativa? (dica: comparar com o prefácio a "Rip van Winkle" de Washington Irving.

3. Investigando um pouco sobre a expressão "nautical gothic" (por exemplo aqui, https://thenauticalgothic.wordpress.com/), escolha excertos dos dois primeiros capítulos em que lhes pareça que esta categoria sobressaia, explicando porquê.




3 comments:

Beatrice Berto said...

Based on brief research and on the website provided, Nautical Gothic seems to be a Gothic subgenre involving the use of Gothic elements like darkness, mystery, and the supernatural, but with a focus on maritime settings and themes. It focuses on the eerie and unsettling aspects of life at sea, the isolation and danger of long ocean voyages, and the folklore and superstitions associated with sailors and the sea.
Its key figures can be traced back to Burke, Walpole, and Coleridge whose works, based on maritime existence, are centred around the themes of isolation, secrets, claustrophobia and monsters, while also emphasizing the sublimity of the sea, as a place of pursuit, curiosity and courage. In this sense, Nautical Gothic establishes a connection between the expansive sea and the lonely sailing ship, indulging in the Gothic trope of traditional safety of land in comparison to the sea. A liminal boundary surrounding the power of nature is, therefore, created. The water strives as a dual element “being both reflective and distorting”, bringing the glory of its exploration and sorrows and fears for its obscurity.

The maritime experience of life and death is present in Arthur and Augustus adventure at sea, narrated in the first chapter. In the first chapter, Arthur Gordon Pym expresses his yearning to explore the unknown, to uncover mysteries and experience thrilling adventures, much like the explorers and sailors of the past. However, his “incipient passion for the sea” is soon met with feelings of “terror and dismay”, as a “most imminent and deadly peril” approaches.

The narrative begins by the setting the tone for the episode: “It was blowing almost a gale, and the weather was very cold- it being late in October. […] The wind […] blew freshly from the southwest. The night was very clear and cold.” The breeze, however, turns out to be the beginnings of a violent storm: “The wind, too, had suddenly increased, as we were fast getting out of the lee of the land. […] A storm was evidently gathering behind us; we had neither compass nor provisions; and it was clear that, if we held our present course, we should be out of sight of land before daybreak.” Being met with an explosive storm, the ship rapidly fills with water, with the constant waves clashing and “combing over our counter”. Augustus suddenly realizes the extent of his drunkenness, realizing the danger of the situation and being overwhelmed by “a vague feeling of terror and despair”, which takes “entire possession of his faculties”. Augustus being out, the inexperience Arthur must step up to take control of the vessel. Between the plunging waves, the increasing fearfully wind and the imminent possibility of death at sea, Arthur states: “Never while I live shall I forget the intense agony of terror I experienced at that moment. My hair stood erect on my head - I felt the blood congealing in my veins - my heart ceased utterly to beat.”
This passage comprises Nautical Gothic elements, illustrating a vivid dark and stormy imagery of the sea, marked by its murky depths, its perilous character and its fascinating allure.

Beatrice Berto said...

*Sorry I forgot to state that my answer is related to the third question, evidently.

Yifei Chen said...

O gótico náutico é uma fusão entre o gênero gótico e temas relacionados a elementos marítimos, como o mar, os navios e os navegadores. Nesta obra de Poe, Arthur Gordon Pym of Nuntucket, o mar é representado como um espelho do céu e um mundo a explorar; um lugar de perigo e terror; enquanto o barco representa um catalisador de conflitos com outras pessoas - “My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow and tears, upon some gray and desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown. Such visions or desires- for they amounted to desires- are common, I have since been assured, to the whole numerous race of the melancholy among men- at the time of which I speak I regarded them only as prophetic glimpses of a destiny which I felt myself in a measure bound to fulfil.” O caráter gótico é também evidente não só na descrição do mar, mas em criação de um ambiente claustrofóbico nos dois primeiros capítulos, como mostra neste excerto: "The close atmosphere of the hold might have had something to do with this, and might, in the end, be productive of the most serious results. My head ached excessively; I fancied that I drew every breath with difficulty; and, in short, I was oppressed with a multitude of gloomy feelings. Still I could not venture to make any disturbance by opening the trap or otherwise, and, having wound up the watch, contented myself as well as possible.
Throughout the whole of the next tedious twenty-four hours no person came to my relief, and I could not help accusing Augustus of the grossest inattention. What alarmed me chiefly was, that the water in my jug was reduced to about half a pint, and I was suffering much from thirst, having eaten freely of the Bologna sausages after the loss of my mutton. I became very uneasy, and could no longer take any interest in my books. I was overpowered, too, with a desire to sleep, yet trembled at the thought of indulging it, lest there might exist some pernicious influence, like that of burning charcoal, in the confined air of the hold.”