En/Ar/Mu 333 Prof. Emeritus Stephen Gottlieb

Essay #3 October 19^th, 2000

Note: I will discuss this assignment in class on Thursday, October 19^th. On Tuesday, I will present the due dates for the assignment.

Write a 3-6 page essay on one of the following topics. If you choose to write a longer essay (6 page minimum), then take some extra time to make it special, and I will count it for double credit if it receives a B or higher. In either case, you may wish to use this essay topic to explore your final course project. In this essay, I would like you to be scrupulous in your editing and documentation. In the case of the paintings, I have included the correct documentation for each Turner painting. Below are the relevant Web sites for this assignment:

Essay topics for a specific paintings, when there is a topic for that painting, will appear below each painting. I will work on these topics this weekend, and use some suggestions from today's class meeting.. In addition, there is a set of instructions called, "Writing an Essay on an Artwork." These instructions may be used to study any one Turner painting in depth. These instructions and the Turner topics and paintings may be seen by going to the following URL:

http://home.comcast.net/~stephen.gottlieb/romantic/thumbs/index.htm

In addition, as models for including images within your essay, and as models of well-organized studies, select interesting student essays on artworks can be seen by going to:

http://home.comcast.net/~stephen.gottlieb/romantic/projects.html (not available now)

The password is "KLINGSOR" - all caps, and without the quotation marks.

As you know, the main page for this course is:

http://home.comcast.net/~stephen.gottlieb/romantic/romantic.html

I have placed the following books on reserve in the Bernhard Library. The first is the definitive descriptive catalogue, and decent plates, for most of Turner's paintings. The second is a very good, recent biography of Turner. These books provide useful information, and in the case of the Butlin/Joll volumes, essential information for each painting. Note: If you write on Turner, you will need to consult the volumes by Butlin and Joll.

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll. The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner. New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Tate Gallery by Yale UP, Rev. ed. 1984. Vol 1 (Text) and Vol. 2 (Plates).

Anthony Bailey. Standing in the Sun: a life of J.M.W. Turner. [New York?]: HarperCollins, 1998.

E. T. A. Hoffmann Essay topics:

A. Examine three Hoffmann tales to establish the ways in which these stories are about vision, perspective, and insight. In what ways are these three categories distinct? In your essay, consider one or more of the following issues. In what ways does Hoffmann ask that the reader, as well as the chief characters, see beyond what is "real," or normal? In these tales, examine how some realities are replaced by other realities. In what ways are Hoffmann's characters absorbed, or perhaps consumed, by their own imaginations or by the imaginings of others? What is the cost of vision?

B. Hoffmann often writes with a comic tone, and displays an interesting, sometimes bizarre, often macabre sense of humor and of life. In what ways is this humor essential to our understanding of the main themes in Hoffmann's tales? In what ways do you think the comic effects are related to the tragic effects and serious themes in Hoffmann's tales?

C. Make a list of the characters whose selves are split in two, or who have another self (a double), or who are estranged form their "normal" selves, or who die because they somehow transcend who they were. Examine the various meanings that you find in all this rich and deep examination of the human character.

D. Make a list of the normal people who do not see the magical, imaginative worlds that Hoffmann creates. Why do they not "see" these worlds? Is their world the safer for their lack of vision? What are these characters left with? What have they missed out on?

J. M. W. Turner and E. T. A. Hoffmann Essay topics:

Note: If you write on Turner, you will need to consult the volumes by Butlin and Joll that are listed above. The information provided on each Turner painting is essential as a foundation for writing about whatever painting(s) you consider.

1. Examine Turner's pair of paintings, Peace, Burial at Sea, and War, the exile and the limpet, as a set of "contraries" in light of William Blake's concept of contraries and, perhaps, in light of Hoffmann's doubles, illusions, and split personalities.

2. Compare and contrast the ways in which both Hoffmann and Turner create visions of the world that transcend our daily lives. By what means do they express visions that normally are not seen, perspectives that are fantastic or sublime? What is the value of these transcendent visions for our understanding of the human condition?

3. Develop what you find to be a common theme, or meaning, or manner of expression in Hoffmann's tales and in select Turner paintings.

Note: Format for documentation under the images:

Figure 1: J.M.W. Turner. Tivoli, with the Cascades. 1819. Pencil and Watercolor. 252x404 (9 7/8 x 15 7/8). Tate Gallery.