keats essay

intro texts

jane campion’s 2009 biopic bright star, john keats 19th century romantic poetry

intro context

campion reinterprets keats poetry through 21st century feminist and postmodern lens, exploring forces which shape his context, elevating them through cinematic form, making concerns accessible to contemporary audiences

intro la belle

campion subverts idealisation of the feminine, rejects femme fatale archetype, deepens appreciation of relationships which shaped his poetry

intro when i have fears

human desire for permanence, campion grounds from sublime into micro level implications, ephemerality of life

la belle thesis

campion brings female voices to the forefront, privileging experiences in contrast to romantic ideals around the feminine

la belle context

1819 poem, romance with fanny brawne, campion draws from own experience as female in male dominated field, fanny as artist in own regard

la belle evidence

1. “sedge is withered” “harvest’s done” pathetic fallacy sickness and death, fanny as saviour from anxieties not cause, red vs dark backdrop and keats costuming, close shots of designing and cutting clothes, fanny as maker

2. “faery’s child” frames women as aimed to disarm and seduce, “she took my poem in her teeth and shook it apart” gives fanny agency
   3. “alone and palely loitering” repetition of opening language, breeding of butterflies, painterly framing, woman erased by final stanza, grecian urn butterflies mirror tonal shift after stanza 4 stillness associated with emptiness

when i have fears thesis

human desire to transcend mortality, campion grounds transience of life in interpersonal relationships

when i have fears context

1818 shakespearean style sonnet, regency era preoccupation with legacy

when i have fears evidence

1. anaphora of ‘before’ in first quatrain, toots symbol for cycle of life, “there is no autumn here” observational shot with only toots in frame, campion brings death from abstract to tangible, ode to autumn contrastingly doesnt resist mortality, ephemerality of life doesnt undermine abundance

2. “never have relish in the faery power” motif of thread and fabric, fanny snipping thread allusion to fates

3. “till love and fame to nothingness do sink” last line of couplet following volta, seasonal structure of film, rich saturated colour palette at height of relationship vs inverted colour palette of winter mourning