III. Texts
New Criticism(2): Stories on Death and Human Relationship

A Rose for Emily
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Comparison

The animation "Charles and Francois"
Themes for reflections (I): different views of self and death

A. "A Rose for Emily"
an elegy for an older generation       

1. tensions: contradictory attitudes: "a tradition, a duty, a care"; an eyesore between two generations; feeling sorry for her, (242); vindicated (243)--pity (upon her father--s death)--believed that she was fallen (with Baron)-- see her as a disgrace--glad that she is going to get married--surprised battle of will: between E and the city authorities; about the smell; between the pharmacist and E

2. poetic elements: of antiquity: the house, images of death: fallen monument; the smell, her body, dust, iron-gray (245, 247); image of gold and silver, and rose older people--s view of time:

3. narrative elements: point of view--a man--s, p. 240; 243 "we"; 244

4. connotations: title

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B. "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"    

1. denotation/connotation --

"jilting" vs. Weatherall--by George to face the priest in marriage alone, Hapsy''s death, John''s death,  and when dying, blow out the blue light by herself.
-- What survives and weathers all? everlasting hatred? Or Granny''s life force?

between doc Harris and GW, between GW and Cornelia (good and dutiful), GW''s character as an opinionated woman,--long-living--as a strong, hardworking woman--

--proud, strong, independent, and survived some diseases,
-- does not admit that she''s sick and tired, a lot to do tomorrow, until the very end
-- hates being seen as deaf, dumb and blind, hates being whispered behind the back
--proud of the housework she''s done

But in GW''s mind, there are contradictions:

-- between forgetting George and being obsessed by him ("George--find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him");
-- between being satisfied with her life and being regretful (pride in her work--"hardly ever losing one"<-->"all you made melted and changed and slipped"; "something not given back"; Hapsy);
-- between wakefulness and drowsiness (not remembering what to do)

3. poetic elements:
images: eyes like a dark curtain; images of housework 380 everything clean and folded away; 381 with sick horses, negroes and children and hardly ever losing one; fog, lighting the lamps

4. Narrative elements: free indirect speech--free association in her mind--she does not speak out much

5. clues to her mental state: how silly she had been once (380); it''s bitter to lose things; she seemed to be talking but there was no sound (382); repetition of "float"

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C. Comparison:
How do the women deal with their being "jilted"?
 

Emily--jilted by her father and her lover;  isolated	GW--jilted by George, John and God  Saved by John, marry again, bear children,   isolated at the end
kill to possess   earn respect	learn to love, work hard, and survive
point of view no access to her mind	active, thinking, blew the light herself

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 More about Granny as a subject
      in comparison with the other modern/postmodern subjects--

D. The animation "Charles and Francois"--43  

1. theme:
How is communication possible?--swapping heads, experience the same thing, be of the same age?

Love, death and life

plot--

• a.  Differences--between two generations, stars and computer, death and life                         
• b. conflicts--from sympathy to antipathy, to gradual understanding
• c. attempts at communication--                            

1). women''s role--speaking out--"When life is made new, we call it love. When love is unmade, we call it death. When death remade, we call it life."
2). keeping company at the park--Death--"When you are there, you are at peace." "Where you let go of your heart?"
3). sympathy    

2. Techniques:
the use of paper puppets, paper cut-outs (e.g. butterfly), paper trees, paper background, the changing of scenes--exposed, fluid (continuous shot), symbols--stars, country life and city life,

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A. different treatments of death--
Wordsworth''s ("a thing with Nature"), Keats (artistic ecstasy as death and immortality) Dickenson''s (conscious, quiet, non-human and endless journey toward eternity=immortality?), Tibetan Buddhist (a great liberation of mind/soul from the body, waiting for the next reincarnation), liebestod (love and death): Emily in "A Rose for Emily" (an attempt to possess and keep love), "My Last Duchess," "Porphiria''s Lover," Granny Weatherall (something clammy and unfamiliar, death as being jilted by God)

B. different views of self
    19^th century Romanticism--individualism, organicism (man close to Nature), immortality of Art, e.g. Wordsworth, Whitman, Keats
--female poets--death as a space of freedom e.g. Emily Dickenson, Christina Rossetti

"I Heard a Fly..."

1. What effect is achieved by juxtaposing the fly with "the Heaves of Storm," "the King" and making one''s will?  Why does the poet associate death with a fly?
2. What can the "Windows" in the last stanza refer to?  What does "I could not see to see" mean?

"Because I Could Not..."
1. Characterize death as it appears in line 1-8.
2. How does the poet look at the living world?  (E.g. Why do the Children "strive" instead of "playing"?  Why do the Grain "Gaze"?
3. How is death experienced in the last three stanzas?  (What is the "House" in stanza 4?  And why do the Horses head toward eternity?)

20^th century Modernism--individualism (individual consciousness), fragmentation of culture and society, art against chaos or industrialization e.g. stream of consciousness technique, "A Rose for Emily," "The Jilting"
post-modern--the self as being reproducible, fragmentary, composed of different texts (commercial, TV, computer, etc.)  e.g. the music video "The First, the Last, the Forever" and a lot of other music videos; animation "Tango" and cyborgs in sci-fi films.

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