ENGL-2130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Mania
Document Summary
Father: italian ex-pat(cid:396)iot, italia(cid:374) (cid:272)hai(cid:396) at ki(cid:374)g(cid:859)s college, lo(cid:374)do(cid:374) Mother: former governess; educated all four children at home. Literate upbringing, family newspaper, plenty of books, encouraged to write from early ages. Fa(cid:373)ily fo(cid:396)tu(cid:374)e (cid:396)e(cid:448)e(cid:396)sed: fathe(cid:396) ga(cid:271)(cid:396)eiele ossetti(cid:859)s health (cid:272)ollapsed i(cid:374) 18(cid:1008)(cid:1007) I(cid:374) 18(cid:1008)(cid:1009) (cid:894)1(cid:1009) yea(cid:396)s old(cid:895) ch(cid:396)isti(cid:374)a(cid:859)s (cid:272)ollapse in health. Biographer jan marsh conjectures suspects suppressed sexual trauma (paternal incest: recurring bouts of depression, lifelong sense of sinfulness, recurring motif of unnamable secret. One half of her poetic output is devotional and virtually all her later prose and poetry are devotional. Common criticism: superb form, diction, and style but too facile, lacking death. Signature rosssetti themes: longing, loss, resignation, death, inconstancy, corruption. Feminist interest peaked on rossetti in las t quarter of 20th century. Tone: sarcastic: (cid:862)(cid:448)e(cid:396)y s(cid:449)eet it is to k(cid:374)o(cid:449) he still is (cid:449)a(cid:396)(cid:373) tho(cid:859) i a(cid:373) (cid:272)old. (cid:863, he has a la(cid:272)k of feeli(cid:374)gs fo(cid:396) hi(cid:373) (cid:374)o(cid:449) that she is dead a(cid:374)d (cid:858)(cid:272)old(cid:859)