Other Homework Help

• Textbook: Chapter 7, 8
• Lesson
• Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook – for historical/political influences)

Initial Post Instructions
Choose one of the literary movements that you read about this week and at least one work from that movement. Movements, authors, and famous works are discussed in the lesson as well. You do not have to choose authors or works discussed in the lesson, but you may. For your initial post, address one of the following:

Option 1: Examine the movement and specific work in relation to historical and political influences of the movement. Include a one paragraph summary of the plot before moving on to the examination of the work in relation to the movement.

Option 2: Examine a specific artwork influenced by a literary work and how the artist captured the subject or story. Here are a few examples, but you are not restricted to this list:

• Asher B. Durand’s Thanatopsis (influenced by William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”)
• John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott (influenced by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”)
• Sir John Everett Millais’s Ophelia (influenced by Shakespeare’s Ophelia from Hamlet)
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne or The Rape of Prosperina (influenced by ancient myths)
• Ancient Greek vase painting (influenced by various ancient myths)

Follow-Up Post Instructions
Respond to at least one peer. Respond to one peer who chose an option different from yours. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification.

Writing Requirements

• Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
• Minimum of 2 sources cited (assigned readings/online lessons and an outside source)
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references

Student Sample: 

“Option 2: Examine a specific artwork influenced by a literary work and how the artist captured the subject or story. 

The painting that I have chosen is La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Waterhouse in 1893. This piece is inspired by the famous poem by John Keats (Martin, 2018). At first glance the painting looks like a girl is pulling a knight in for a kiss. According to Martin (2018) “It is more than an illustration.” Just by looking at the painting you wouldn’t guess that one of them is doomed for death. “In La Belle Dame Sans Merci, an imitation of a medieval ballad, an alluring, otherworldly damsel has fatally tempted the “knight-at-arms” who is found, at the poem’s beginning, “alone and palely loitering” (Monson, 2011). In the poem the girl appears to have knowledge of medicine or has seen this before, she asks him what is ailing him and proceeds to ask questions regarding the things that she sees wrong with him.  In this era, there was numerous diseases that were uncurable, the main one being Tuberculosis. “I see a lily on thy brow/With anguish moist and feverdew.” The flower, a symbol of death, connects in the next line to another flower, a rose, seen fading on his cheeks, which “fast withereth too” (Monson, 2011). This appears to be symptoms that she has seen before. She knows that death isn’t far from him. According to Monson (2011) “A mysterious poem of seemingly endless interpretations, it uses images of death to straddle the supernatural and make it eerily present.” The girl is portrayed as a fairy who actually ends up saving the knight. “But in this poem the knight survives to tell his story because, ironically, the fairy takes pity on him after showing him in a dream “pale kings, and princes too, Pale warriors, death pale were they all” (Martin, 2018). After researching the poem and looking back at the painting it brings a whole new meaning to me. 

References: 

Martin, F. D. (2018). Humanities through the Arts. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/97812601542… 

Monson, D. A. (2011). Why is la Belle Dame sans Merci? Evolutionary Psychology and the Troubadours. Neophilologus, 95(4), 523–541. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-011-9256-2 “