GNED 1201: Death in Literature Flashcards

Introduction to Psychogeography

• Definition: Psychogeography is defined as the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviors of individuals.

• Core Concepts:

  • It explores how environments and settings affect characters' internal states.

  • It involves the way a character projects their mindstate onto an environment.

  • Conversely, it examines how an environment dictates or alters a character's mindstate.

• Historical Origins:

  • The term originated in Paris in the $1950s$.

  • Guy Debord: Attempted to analyze the behavioral impact of city environments on individuals.

  • Comparative Observations: Debord noted that city folk often felt aggressive and closed off, whereas country folk were perceived as laid back and friendly.

• The Activity of Walking:

  • A prominent characteristic of psychogeography for Debord was walking.

  • Figures of the Walker: The wanderer, the stroller, and the flâneùr.

  • Walking through an urban environment enables an individual to stumble upon forgotten or abandoned locations.

Psychogeography in Literature and Philosophy

• Environmental Influence: Throughout literary history, environments have consistently shaped characters.

  • Example: A character lost in a forest. If the character is stressed or scared, the environment is typically depicted as hostile and unfamiliar.

  • Example: Jekyll and Hyde.

• Genius Loci (Spirit of Place):

  • This refers to an environment or setting imbued with a sense of the histories of previous inhabitants and the events played out there.

  • Real-world application: Auschwitz, where the history is palpable despite the physical absence of the victims.

  • Literary application: Hill House or insane asylums.

• The Uncanny (Das Unheimliche):

  • Sigmund Freud's Definition: The transformation of something that once seemed "homely" (familiar) into something decidedly not so, or eerily unfamiliar.

  • Architecture as Uncanny: Architecture can provoke a disturbing ambiguity between the real and the unreal.

  • The Haunted House: These are emblematic of the uncanny. The domestic space—traditionally the most intimate shelter of private comfort—becomes a site of terror when invaded by supernatural spirits or family residue.

Analysis of The Haunting of Hill House

• The Nature of Hill House:

  • The house is described as "not sane" and has stood for $80$ years.

  • The structure is described with deceptive normalcy: walls are upright, bricks meet neatly, and floors are firm.

  • Opening Description: "Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within… whatever walked there, walked alone."

  • Eleanor’s Perception: Eleanor immediately senses the house is "vile" and "diseased," urging herself to get away at once.

• Structural and Atmospheric Dislocation:

  • Objectively Familiar vs. Subjectively Uncanny: Bricks and towers are familiar, but the atmosphere is eerie.

  • Dr. Montague’s Deception: He describes it as a "comfortable country house" with plumbing and central heating, omitting that it is haunted.

  • Faulty Design: The house has an "unbelievably faulty design" where dimensions are chillingly wrong, such as walls being a fraction less than a tolerable length ($p. 36$).

• The Descent Narrative:

  • The physical decline of the grounds (leading "always downhill") reflects Eleanor's psychological descent into madness ($p. 46$).

  • The word "down" references the "drop" or suicide of a previous owner who hanged herself from the turret.

• Psychogeographical Spaces in the Novel:

  • The Car: Initially represents Eleanor’s agency, freedom, and adventure. It later transforms into a space of death and, ironically, clarity during her final act.

  • The Nursery: Contains horror tropes (dusty animals, smiley faces). It represents the "gendered haunting," symbolizing domestic roles (mother/daughter/wife) and Eleanor’s obsession with her mother's death. Luke refers to the house as a "housemother" or "headmistress."

  • The Turret: Correlated directly with death. Here, Eleanor feels she is "home" and refers to the house as "Mother?" ($p. 216$).

• The Uncanny and Repetition:

  • Freud emphasizes repetition as a trait of the uncanny.

  • Hill House features repetitive structures: hallways and doors that slam shut, creating a claustrophobic, labyrinthine effect.

  • Recurring Phrase: "Journeys end in lovers meeting."

Death and the Environment

• Human-Environment Relationship: Humans have objectified and plundered the natural world, leading to an ambiguous relationship.

  • Nature is seen either as a finite source for exploitation or as a life-threatening, unpredictable force.

• Deathscapes: The memory of death can be inscribed in the landscape.

  • Examples: Pompeii, bogs, Chernobyl, and haunted houses.

• Inversion of Power: In the stories "The Veldt" and "Death by Landscape," nature dominates humans rather than humans dominating nature.

Analysis of "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury

• Author Profile: Ray Bradbury ($1920$–$2012$) was an American writer famous for social criticism, runaway technology, and childhood nostalgia. Major works include Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

• Sensory Imagery of the Veldt:

  • Sight: Flat, wide-open African grassland.

  • Smell: Hot straw, cool green water hole, rusty animals, dust like red paprika.

  • Sound: Thumping antelope, papery rustling of vultures.

  • Touch: The shadow of a vulture on a face; sweat from heat.

• The Nursery as a Deathscape:

  • The nursery represents the death of parental control and the death of truth.

  • Symbolism of the Wallet: Represents reality and death.

  • Mechanical Cemetery: The house is described as full of "dead bodies" and acting as a "mechanical cemetery" when the machines are turned off ($p. 12$).

• Psychogeographical Displacement:

  • The children (Wendy and Peter) replace their parents with the nursery.

  • "This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents" ($p. 10$).

  • The children conceptualize death as a tool for control and freedom.

Analysis of "Death by Landscape" by Margaret Atwood

• Author Profile: Margaret Atwood (born $1939$) is a prominent Canadian novelist, poet, and critic often focusing on feminist perspectives. Notable works include The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake.

• The Canadian Wilderness as Deathscape:

  • The environment is imbued with the unknown, death, loss, and the death of innocence.

  • Specific Dangers: Exposure, starvation, getting lost, animal attacks, and drowning.

• The Ghost of Lucy:

  • Lucy disappears without a body being found. Because there is no "box in the ground," Lois perceives her as being "anywhere" ($p. 307$).

  • Living Death: Lois lives a "shadowy life," feeling as though she is living for two people. She embodies a "living death" due to her enduring guilt ($p. 306$).

• The Paintings as Thresholds:

  • Lois’s collection of landscape paintings acts as a threshold between life and death.

  • She projects Lucy’s presence into the paintings: "Every one of them is a picture of Lucy… she’s there, in behind the pink stone island… she is entirely alive" ($p. 70$).