ITALIAN R5B Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Otranto, Gothic Fiction, Ann Radcliffe
12 Oct 2018
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ITALIAN R5B
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
#1 1/19 Friday
Assigned reading: The Assignation, Edgar Allan Poe
● The Stranger is very loosely based on the Poet Lord Byron (a British romantic poet who
lived in Italy and notorious for having love affairs with young women who were married to
older men).
● Dense references to classical themes produces confusion
● This is an early tale by Poe, and very different from his other works
Plot
The narrator is in a Gondola, going down a canal, hears a scream, sees the Marchesa
Aphrodite standing, looking beautiful and servants looking for her child who fell in the water. The
servants begin to give up, but a cloaked man dived into the canal and re-emerged with the child.
He hands the child to a servant, and the Marchesa tells him to meet her an hour after dawn. The
Stranger seems to be looking for a Gondola, so the narrator offered his and dropped him off at
the Stranger’s apartment. The Stranger tells the narrator to meet him early the next morning at
his apartment. The narrator arrives in the morning, astonished by the luxury of the Stranger’s
apartment and they talk about art. The Stranger shows the narrator a painting of the Marchesa
Aphrodite. The stranger is talkative, and suggest they drink wine. The stranger falls asleep on
the couch, and at an hour past dawn, a servant of the Marchesa bursts through the door and
says the Marchesa has been poisoned. The narrator tries to wake the Stranger, but found him
also poisoned.
Confusion/Ambiguity
How the reader is confused
Confusing points:
● Lack of names
● The child falling in the water
● References to art
● How long were the Marchesa and the Stranger lovers
● Why an hour after sunrise?
How does the tale thematize confusion (of the narrator/language)?
● Limit of knowledge, characters have faith to have a rational understanding, that faith is
met with challenge after challenge.
● This tale was first published in The Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesques.
Grotesques are a type of Roman art that includes florals, skulls, and monsters within a
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
decorative scheme. Curve and linear and hard to see where they start and end. The
Arabesques only have plants and not humans, often the theme of many Muslim art.
● The story is like this, we only have a small piece of the whole art and cannot see where
each piece of information leads back to.
● References:
● Venus (Roman) / Aphrodite (Greek): goddess of love
● Orpheus: a poet whose wife died and was sent to Hades, and went to the
underworld to bring her wife back but failed
○ Underworld: reference to child falling in the water and resurfaces to life
● Sparta
● Roman emperors
Setting
Venice
● Sunny, beautiful, magical
● Within gothic literature, it has a sense of melancholy: the bridges cast shadows so you
can’t see everything “In that city of dim visions, thine own Venice” (p.79)
● Ponte di Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs): connecting the courthouse to the prison
● Supplemental Reading
The Stranger’s apartment
● The narrator’s description (pp. 83-84)
● The stranger’s description (pp. 89-90)
● How Poe stresses the overwhelming nature of the apartment to the senses (smells,
sights)
Assignments
● Due Monday
○ Read “Openings” (pp. 1-15 and 35-44) from Terry Eagleton’s How to Read
Literature (in course reader)
○ Re-read first two paragraphs of Poe’s “The Assignation”
○ Free-write approx. 250 words about your “second” impression of the text
○ Read handout
● Diagnostic Essay
○ Close reading essay on a short passage (no longer than six sentences) of your
choosing from “The Assignation”
○ 3 pages, formatted
○ Due 1/29 via bCourses
How to read
● First impression: confused?
● Why that is: why is it confused?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The stranger is very loosely based on the poet lord byron (a british romantic poet who lived in italy and notorious for having love affairs with young women who were married to older men). Dense references to classical themes produces confusion. This is an early tale by poe, and very different from his other works. The narrator is in a gondola, going down a canal, hears a scream, sees the marchesa. Aphrodite standing, looking beautiful and servants looking for her child who fell in the water. The servants begin to give up, but a cloaked man dived into the canal and re-emerged with the child. He hands the child to a servant, and the marchesa tells him to meet her an hour after dawn. Stranger seems to be looking for a gondola, so the narrator offered his and dropped him off at the stranger"s apartment. The stranger tells the narrator to meet him early the next morning at his apartment.
