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In the seminal essay by Geoffery H. Hartman "Romanticism and ‘Anti-Self-Consciousness" (1968), Hartmam discusses a theory of self-consciousness espoused and internalized by Romanic, Victorian and Modern poets.
The dejunction afflicting John Stuart Mill in his twentieth year was alleviated by two important events. He read Wordsworth, and he discovered for himself a view of life resembling the "anti-self consciousness theory" of Carlyle. Mill describes this strangely named theory in his Autobiography (You can read Mill’s Autobiography Chapter 5 in the Norton Anthology: The Victorian Age p. 1166-1173):
Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat, not happiness, but some end external to it as the purpose of life. Let your self-consciousness, your scrutiny, your self-interrogation exhaust themselves on that" (Mill, Autobiography, Chapter 5, emphasis mine).
It is not surprising that Wordsworth’s poetry should also have served to protect Mill from the morbidity of his intellect.Like many Romantics, Wordsworth had passed through a depression clearly linked to the ravage of self-consciousness and the "Strong disease" of self-analysis. Book XI of the Prelude, chapter 5 of Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus, and other great confessional works of the Romantic [and Victorian] period[s], show how crucial these maladies are for the adolescent mind. Endemic, perhaps to every stage of life, they especially affect the transition from adolescence to maturity; and it is interesting to observe how man’s attention has shifted from the fact of death and its "rites de passage," to these trials in what Keats called "the Chamber of Maiden-Thought," and more recently still, to the perils of childhood. We can say, taking a metaphor from Donne, that "streights, and not but streights" are ways to whatever changes to mind must undergo; and that it is the Romantics who first explored the dangerous passageways of maturation.
Two trials or perils of the soul deserve special mention. We learn that every increase in consciousness is accompanied by an increase in self-consciousness, and that analysis can easily become a passion that "murders to dissect." These difficulties of thoughts in its strength question the ideal of absolute lucidity. The issue is raised whether there exist what might be called remedia intellectus: remedies for the corrosive power of analysis and the fixated self-consciousness.
The Writing Situation:
How is the self-consciousness of the poet of fictional "I" constituted in the literary work? What is the effect on the poet or persona regarding self-consciousness that turns into intense self-scrutiny? Arguably, the psychology of the self can be a theme that can be delineated from the Romantics to the Moderns. Hartman’s critique of the self calls attention to the issue of self-consciousness at stake in the literary texts.
The Writing Task:
In a coherent and cogent FOUR page research essay (1,200 – 1,500 words with 4-6 sources, your analysis will need to discuss evidence of the theme self-consciousness evident in Romantic, Victorian, and Modern writers, Geoffrey Hartman posits:
Two trials of perils of the soul deserve special mention. We learn that every increase in consciousness is accompanied by an increase in self-consciousness, and that analysis can easily become a passion that ‘murders to dissect’ (Hartman, 47).
In your discussion of Hartman’s theory regarding SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, your essay will need to analyze ONE literary text by a writer from either the ROmantic, Victorian, OR Modern Period. Your paper must take into consideration Hartman’s theory of self-consciousness, which has been derived from his study of Carlyle and Mill, and its application to your own critical analysis of your own self-selected literary text. Choose one and address the following issues.
My topic of selection is: Shelly’s Frankenstein Volume 2 Chapter 4, 5 and 7(no ch.6)
– What do you think Hartman means by his theory of self-consciousness (paraphrase Hartman’s Theory)? In other words, for the writers, how does an obsession or fixation on one’s self-consciousness turn into a self-thwarting or self-crippling form of self-consciousness: self-disease and self-depreciation? Do you agree or disagree with Hartman’s theory? Why? or Why not?
– How is the self-consciousness of the poet or persona evident in the fictional (i.e fictive) "I" depicted in the literary work? How does the writer characterize the self-consciousness through the poetic tone, imagery, diction, or literary allusions in the text (You need to cite, quote, and interpret specific lines from the primary text and secondary critical texts as evidence)?
– What is the effect on the author or persona when the self-consciousness turns into a self-scrutinizing critical self-analysis? To what extent does the self remain stable or unstable(i.e. fragmented,distorted, or subverted) in the text.
The following link is a copy of the text. If the link does not work please email me and I will scan the book to the writer.
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/1818v2/f2401.html
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