Week 7 Blog Summary by Bill and Scott

Johnny: “Looking and Seeing in Mansfield Park”
Work: Mansfield Park (Vol I)
Sees Fanny as a decidedly shy and dull character. Only Edmund is willing to befriend her, and he takes her under his wing. The novel contains a number of irregularities, such as Fanny leaving her home to be raised by her aunts. The Bertrams struggle with how to make Fanny feel welcome while maintaining the necessary class distinction between them and her. Perhaps the only answer for Fanny lies in marriage. Much of the book is concerned with the problem of seeing and remembering. It’s a defect that appears to cross gender and class lines. The problem appears to be particularly pronounced in the Bertram family, as in the case of the morally-astute Edmund’s failure to see through Miss Crawford.

Amber: “Innate or Acquired?”
Work: Mansfield Park
Finds issue of nature versus nurture paramount in novel, with Austen emphasizing nature as the dominant influence in determining a person’s character. Thus despite Maria and Julia having been raised in a rarefied environment, they develop boorish characters, while Fanny blossoms despite having spent the first eight years of her life being raised by raucous and neglectful parents. Finds it odd, though, that the characters have such a diverse range of personalities since so many are descended from the three Ward sisters, and that the Ward sisters themselves should make such radically different life choices. Yet it was fascinating to see how all these different natures played out though the course of the novel.

Juliana: “Manipulation of Natures”
Work: Mansfield  Park
Also sees nature versus nurture as an important theme. Appears to agree that the novel emphasizes the influence of nature, as epitomized by the Bertram daughters’ imperviousness to the gentlewomanly values with which they were raised. But at the same time Austen contrasts the values inherent from being raised in the city versus the country; the Crawfords, who grew up in the city, are schemers and manipulators. Yet, in the scene in which Mrs. Grant and the Crawfords discuss their views on “schemes of happiness” in marriage, it seems that this demonstrates may be a family trait. The novel also underscores the unfairness of society’s allowance of men to emerge unscathed from scandal while women are stained for life, as evidence by the future foreshadowed for Henry Crawford and Maria Beatrice.

Rosana: “Nature in Mansfield Park”
Work: Mansfield Park
Was skeptical before reading the novel because of having learned in class that Fanny is an uninteresting character, but found that she is nevertheless an intriguing. Sees novel as paralleling the way society cultivates social values with the way people cultivate landscapes. The novel also raises several interesting questions, such as, if the natural environment is tampered with, is it still a natural setting? Or is it human nature for Man to cultivate landscape in the same vein that it is human nature for Man to create class distinctions? In the nature versus nurture dichotomy,  an argument can be made for the efficacy of the latter because Fanny’s initial shyness evidently sprang from the neglect she suffered from her parents. Then when characters like Mr. Crawford take an interest in her, Fanny breaks out of her shell.

Bill: “The Sound on the Page”
Work: Mansfield Park
Finds the comic characters of Mr. Price and especially Mrs. Norris extremely engaging, but finds it depressing that, unless a woman wants to be a buttinsky like Mrs. Norris, the only moment of high drama in her life is the decision of which suitor’s offer of marriage to accept, providing she is fortunate enough, in terms of her family wealth and physical attractiveness,  to receive an offer of marriage. Austen was ahead of her time in several of her stylistic devices. She will often allow her characters to describe themselves by virtue of the rhythm and construction of their speech. She also uses a device that Nabakov calls the knight’s move, which occasions a sudden shift in the emotional tone of a character from one extreme to another.

Zully: "Man's Nature: Absolutism"
Work: Cosgrove's "England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes" and William Gilpin

Zully attempts to meld the concept of absolutism, the political theory that the monarch held absolute power, with perception as it applies to landscape theory. She begins with Cosgrave's discussion of the rise and fall of absolutism in his article, which includes a section on the development of absolutism under Henry VIII.

 Zully goes on to argue that landscaping itself is a type of absolutism, in that landscaping is man's attempt to assert their will upon nature. She relies upon the works of William Gilpin, an influential "improver" who wrote several foundation works for what is now known as landscaping, for her understanding of landscape.


Jeff Anderson: "Landscaping Gothic Allusions in Cosgrove’s England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes"
Works: Cosgrove's "England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes" and The Castle of Ontronto

Jeff concentrates on the Gothic aspects of Cosgrave's article.  The introduction of the Gothic elements found in William Kent's landscapes is, according to Cosgrave, "gothic liberty" versus "roman authority." Jeff discussed Kent's landscaping at Rousham, the house of  General James Dormer. Jeff expands on Cosgrave's idea that Gothic Literature was an expression of the idea that modern civilization was the product of roman and gothic collision of values by discussing how this was manifested in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Ontronto, the first Gothic novel.

Dimitrious Sotiriou: "Landscape Ideology"
Works: Cosgrove's "England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes"
Dimitrious concentrated Cosgrave's overview of the "changes and revaluations" of the political aspects of landscape over time, from absolutism to republicanism. However, Dimitrious notes that the liberty implied with the republican theme was really only liberty for the upper classes - the poor continued to be excluded from these discussions.

Jane Dubzinski: "Ideas of Escapism"
Works: Cosgrove's "England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes"
Jane focuses on Cosgrove's discussion of the movement to create green spaces within cities. Cosgrove used Bath, a popular resort town, as an example of a place that incorporated green spaces within the city. Jane ties this to her own experience as a New Yorker and shared her fond memories of afternoons in the park - the urban getaway for those who have neither the time nor the money to escape the concrete jungle.