ENG 380 NOTES
Prof. Gould
Alex Consentino
Eng 380 ................................................................................................................................. 2
Jan 11 ............................................................................................................................................2
Jan 13th .........................................................................................................................................3
Four major sources ..............................................................................................................................................3
Antoine Galland ...................................................................................................................................................3
Structural issues ...................................................................................................................................................3
Jan 18th HW notes -reading the spectator.......................................................................................3
Jan 18th class notes .......................................................................................................................4
Acts of union 1707 ...............................................................................................................................................4
Addison’s “The Spectator” ...................................................................................................................................4
Jan 20 reading hw ..........................................................................................................................4
Class notes Jan 20th ........................................................................................................................5
Stereotypes ..........................................................................................................................................................5
Self  Other ....................................................................................................................................................5
Edward Said .....................................................................................................................................................5
Stereotypes of Orientalism .............................................................................................................................6
Stereotypes associated with Muslims today ...................................................................................................6
Ottoman Empire...................................................................................................................................................6
Feb 1 reading Charoba ...................................................................................................................7
Class notes Feb 1............................................................................................................................7
Common themes and Abraham ...........................................................................................................................7
Understanding Charoba’s Character ....................................................................................................................7
Feb 3 class notes ............................................................................................................................8
The story of the two sisters ..................................................................................................................................8
Patter of threes ...............................................................................................................................................8
Levels of the story/ monsters ..........................................................................................................................8
Feb 8th class notes ..........................................................................................................................9
Frankenstien.........................................................................................................................................................9
Interpretation ..................................................................................................................................................9
Romanticism ....................................................................................................................................................9
Relation to Arabian Nights ..............................................................................................................................9
Creature or Monster .......................................................................................................................................9
Frankenstein’s view of the monster ................................................................................................................9
Feb 10th class notes ........................................................................................................................9
Frankenstein.........................................................................................................................................................9
Narrorators ......................................................................................................................................................9
Why Safie.......................................................................................................................................................10
Marry Wollstonecraft- Sexual Character............................................................................................................10
Topics ............................................................................................................................................................10
Feb 22nd ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Favorite place on campus ..................................................................................................................................10
Robinson Crusoe ................................................................................................................................................10
Traveling ........................................................................................................................................................10
Feb 24th ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Olaudah Equiano(1745-97) ...........................................................................................................................10
March 10th ................................................................................................................................... 11
Aladdin ...............................................................................................................................................................11
Evidence that Galland wrote the story ..........................................................................................................11
Evidence against him writing it .....................................................................................................................11
Ring Genie .....................................................................................................................................................11
March 17th ................................................................................................................................... 11
Rhetorical Analysis .............................................................................................................................................11
March 24th ................................................................................................................................... 12
Aladdin (2019) ....................................................................................................................................................12
Themes ..........................................................................................................................................................12
Costumes- Aladdin ........................................................................................................................................12
Genie scene-sound ........................................................................................................................................12
April 5th ....................................................................................................................................... 12
April 19th...................................................................................................................................... 13
Genie .............................................................................................................................................................13
Arabian nights ...............................................................................................................................................13
Sultan.............................................................................................................................................................13
Alibaba...........................................................................................................................................................13
how do you want to continue growing .........................................................................................................13
How to improve .............................................................................................................................................13
Eng 380
Jan 11
Genie-Aladin
Alibaba- website
Sultans of swing
Goals for this semester,
1: maintain a good GPA in the class and not fall behind on the readings and assignments
2: develop a stronger understanding for literature as it’s not something I have a lot of
experience with.
Arabian nights reading
Jan 13th
Susanians
Two sons, chahiria worthy
Schahzenan prince
Describer as alf Layla wa Layla – a thousand different stories
Book starts in Persia, goes to arabia, then to india and china
Four major sources
 Persia 9th-10th century
 Baghdad stories 10th-12th centuries
 Cairo stories 12th-14th
 Orphan stories added by Antoine Galland 18th
Cairo stories had more involvement with magic (genie stories)
Antoine Galland
 20 years in Constantinople collecting manuscripts
 Begins to translate and publish in 1704
 First 7 volumes wildly successful, ended up with 12 volumes
 Took some liberties with his translation
 Met with Syrian monk in Paris and added stories but proofs aren’t known
 Most known stories aren’t known if popular stories are actually Arabic or not
Edward Lane, Richard Burton, John Payne
Most recent translator of the stories
Structural issues
 Stories and nights not aligned- leaves cliff hanger
 Repetition
 Dinarzade repeating the same ideas
 Themes
Frame tale- one story that has others embedded, layers that allow parallels to develop
Jan 18th HW notes -reading the spectator
The general, statesman, philospopher are characters we may never resemble, but the dying
man is one whom we will all resemble
Antiphanes quote about not grieving over death but completing ones journey and that we will
join the deceased soon in a great places of gathering
Jan 18th class notes
Acts of union 1707
 Unites Scotland and England
Addison’s “The Spectator”
 Everyone wanted to be upper-class
 Was supposed to educate people
 Especially women
 “enliven morality with wit, and temper wit with morality”
 The speaker is Mr. Spectator, combines narratives, philosophies, and personal
observations to offer advise and reflections on society.
The goal of the book was to make people more educated and have insight into the desireable
upper class. Part of being education is having a world perspective and living outside of the
realm of ones current reality.
What brings you into the story, what does it make you reflect on?
The introduction imposes the notion of that while he is a famous writer and philosopher and
writer, he comes into the coffee shop every day just as these people who are reading the
spectator thus removing himself from his prestigious role and becoming a normal person.
The moral makes one think that while you may not be rich and famous, what you complete on
your journey is more important than wealth and notoriety. Death is the all equaling factor, and
when ones time comes, other shall look back on if you completed your
Jan 20 reading hw
The Orient was Orientalized not only because it was discovered to be “Oriental” in all those
ways considered common place by an average nineteenth-century European, but also because it
could be-that is, submitted to being-made Oriental
I myself believe that Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic
power over the Orient then it is as a veridic discourse about the Orient (which is what, in its
academic or scholarly form, it claims to be).
The idea that the Orient was static and unmoved by the forces of modernity directly fed the
myth of the supposed “Oriental mind.” Because “Orientals” had remained stuck in a stage of
intellectual, cultural, religious, and political development essentially unchanged since the days
of the pharaohs, Orientalists felt confident in making sweeping pronouncements about how
modern-day peoples of the region thought and acted. There was no need to speak to
contemporary people living in Egypt, Iran, or Arabia, because all one ever needed to know
about them could be found in the treasure of ancient artifacts and manuscripts that Orientalist
anthropologists, historians, and philologists eagerly devoured.
Thus, there was an eternal and fixed “Oriental mind.” And, in the Orientalist interpretation, this
“Oriental mind” was incapable of the kind of objectivity and rationality that would enable the
people of the region to develop enlightened European institutions like science, representative
democracy, capitalism, and the rule of law. Instead, it was and would forever be rooted in the
subjective and transactional mental structures of the ancient world. Therefore, as a people,
“Orientals” were vengeful, emotional, dishonest, and violently obsessed with shame and honor.
In its methodology, Orientalism was highly textual, relying heavily upon ancient writings and
inscriptions as the source of all knowledge about the Orient. This approach contributed to the
dehumanizing tone and attitudes that pervaded so much of Orientalist discourse, treating
human beings—indeed, even enormously complex human societies—as reducible to what texts
had to say about them. For the Orientalist, the story of the East was fundamentally one of
texts—not people.
This methodology had real-world consequences, as Orientalists sought to apply ancient texts to
address the problems of the modern Orient, fully consistent with their belief in an unchanging
East—and in their unique role as its interpreters.
Class notes Jan 20th
Stereotypes
 Imagined geography is a perception of area that is derived form stories myths and tales
from that place that combines into a stereotype
o Orient- French term, to describe countries to the east where the sun rose
o Carried across to Brittan
o Term shifted to all of western culture is Asia and middle east
Self  Other
o Creating sense of identity, by defining differences or “I am not”
Edward Said
o Born in Jerusalem in 1935
o Professor of literature at Columbia
o Activist
o Orientalism is used in a variety of fields, not just literature

“An entrenched structure of thought or patter of thinking that generalizes
and misrepresents the non-western world in order to hold power over it”
Stereotypes of Orientalism

It will be clear to the reader (and will become clearer still throughout the many pages that follow) that by Orientalism I mean several
things, all of them, in my opinion, interdependent. The most ‘read adily accepted designation for Orientalism is an academic one, and
indeed the label still serves in a number of academic institutions. Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient-and this
applies whether the person is an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist-either in its specific or its general aspects, is an
Orientalist, and what he or she does is Orientalism. (pg. 10 E-text)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Despotic in positions of power
Sly in positions of service-cannot be trusted
Sexually perverse
Women locked up
Mystical religious devotees incapable of rationality
Stuck in the past
Exotic
Related to this academic tradition, whose fortunes, transmigrations, specializations, and transmissions are in part the subject of this
study, is a more general meaning for Orientalism. Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological
distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident.” Thus a very large mass of writers, among whom are
poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have accepted the basic distinction
between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, epics, social descriptions and political accounts
concerning the 11 Orient, its people, customs, “mind,” destiny, and so on…. the phenomenon of Orientalism as I study it here deals
principally, not with a correspondence between Orientalism and Orient, but with the internal consistency of Orientalism and its ideas
about the Orient (the East as career) despite or beyond any correspondence, or lack thereof, with a “real” Orient.
Stereotypes associated with Muslims today
o Terrorists
o Veil
o Violence
o Sharia Law
o Radical or fanaticism
o Misogynist
o Oppressed women
o Isolated
o Backwards and uneducated
 Modern day stereotypes
 9/11
 Bin Laden

1798-Napoleon enters Egypt
Ottoman Empire
 Very aggressive
 Europe was afraid of the Ottomans
 One of the most powerful countries
 1583- queen Elizabeth the 1st set up trading with the Ottoman Empire
o They agreed they had more religious ideals in common than France
o They believed Catholics were worshiping Idols
 1699- treaty of carlowitz
o Ottomans agree to a boundary
o Set up flourishing trading
o Sparked fascination of Arabian Culture
Feb 1 reading Charoba
Charoba is daughter of king totis (Egypt)
Sarah wife of abraham
After Totis’ death, Charuba inherits the throne, but a tribe of giants settles in Egypt and
threatens to usurp the kingdom.
As a ruse, Charuba demands from the king of the giants, Gebirus, to build a city on the place of
Alexandria. During the day the giants build the city, but at night nymphs from the Nile destroy
it, so as to endlessly postpone the completion of the town. Then a shepherd falls in love with
one of the nymphs. Gebirus dresses himself as the shepherd and finds out the secret of
Charuba. The tale is not a pastiche of the Thousand and one nights, but contains several motifs
of Nights’ stories, such as the giants, the jinniyyas and the king dressing up as a poor lad.
Class notes Feb 1
Common themes and Abraham
Morality
lesson to learn
commitment,
authority
monotheistic
worlview
bible
interpritation
understainding
Abraham, the
patriarch
islam, jusaism,
christianity
Understanding Charoba’s Character

Evil
Poisoning the king

Good
Honors his death

She deceived him when she poisoned
him





Engraves his name
Gave him his last words
Sends Abraham gifts, shows
generosity, Snuck unwanted items in
the treasure
Contrasted with father as peaceful
Pg 209-211
Feb 3 class notes
The story of the two sisters
Patter of threes
Pearls
boundires/
containment
names
Pattern
of 3's
mosnters
objects
Levels of the story/ monsters
Level 1
 Scheherazade and Schahriar
o The sultan- his actions against women turn him into a monster
 His behavior and lack of morality
Level 2
 The three sisters Sultaness and Khosrouschah
o The sultaness becomes the monster
 Stories told about her/ prejudices

Not a monster in terms of behavior
o Stories told lead to prejudice
Level 3
 Stories of the Children
o The appearance
 Needed a haircut
Feb 8th class notes
Frankenstien
Interpretation
 Robert Walton
o Viktor Frankenstien -telling stories
 The monster/creature
Romanticism
 Literary movement from 1770-1850
 Begun in Britain
 Turned towards nature and the interior world of feeling
o In opposition of formalism and enlightenment that proceeded it
Relation to Arabian Nights
 Frame tale
 Education and women
 Repetition
Creature or Monster
 Maker
o Intricacies, process, human materials
 Machine
 Parts vs whole
 8ft tall
o Large in every aspect
 Like himself/ god complex
o Image of creator
 Animal/ human
Frankenstein’s view of the monster
 He thinks is beautiful before it becomes alive
 But its alive he freaks out
Feb 10th class notes
Frankenstein
Narrorators
 Walton- letters
o Frankenstein- simple narration
 Creature/ Monster – oral stories

Safie- letters
Why Safie
At the time there was still a strong fascination with the orient. The story includes so much
magic and mysterious acts similar to those found in stories told of the orient at the time. Thus
tying in an Arabic woman makes this stories mystique.
Marry Wollstonecraft- Sexual Character
Topics
Feb 22nd
Favorite place on campus
My favorite place has to eb heroes garden, I always feel so peaceful when I go up there due to
its beauty and its secludedness from campus. Furthermore the meaning behind it adds an
additional aura to its mystique
Robinson Crusoe
Traveling
 Brazil
o
 London
o Hub for the story
o Home
o Origin point
o
 Barbary coast/ Morocco
 African coast
 Ocean
o Crusoe offers everything for his salvation
o Slavers capture him
o He is inexperienced
o Seeks those with more knowledge
Feb 24th
Olaudah Equiano(1745-97)
 Born in modern Nigeria and sold into slavery at age 11
 Spent time on plantations in Barbados and Virginia before being sold to british naval
officer
 Final master allowed him to buy his freedom
 Became a merchant and explorer
 Published the interesting narrative in 1789
o Swayed public opinion on slavery
Spiritual autobiography
Slave narrative
Examines different religions
Hypocrisy of Christianity
His conversion
Different appeal to the audiences emotions->
sentimentality
Descriptions of instances of violence
Separation
Desire for education and freedom
March 10th
Aladdin
Evidence that Galland wrote the story
 Heavier on stereotypes
 Collapsing identities
 Dramatic and exotic
o Vague descriptions, location, heavy emphasis on magic)
 Depiction of women
o oppressed and sexualized
 obsession with wealth
 Rags to riches
o Common trope in fairy tales
Evidence against him writing it
 Patterns
 Magic
 Intertextuality
Ring Genie
 Enormous size
 Beat down
 Slave
 Doesn’t think independently
March 17th
Rhetorical Analysis
Bush 9/11 speech
“We will direct every resource at our command--every means of diplomacy, every tool of
intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary
weapon of war--to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network.” (Bush pg 4
paragraph1)


Repetition
Parallelism
o To show that we are going to put everything into this
o Maximum effort
o Emphasis on the full effort of the American people/ government
“This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom.
This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in
progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.” (Bush pg. 4 paragraph 9)


Anaphora
o Showing that this is the worlds fight, for those who believe in ced morals
Repetition
President Bush’s use of parallelism and anaphora’s stress the fact that the United States is not
alone in the fight against terrorism alongside our governments full commitment to protect the
freedom and sovereignty of the American people.
March 24th
Aladdin (2019)
Themes
Costumes- Aladdin
 Long messy hair
 Dirty clothes
 Rolled up sleeves
 Tattered hat
 Wears opposite as monkey
Genie scene-sound
 Mysterious music
 Bellowing voice in the beginning
 Once he addresses Aladdin the music shifts
 Floating noises as the Genie moves around
April 5th
It is apparent that this isn’t spying in the traditional james bond sense, rather in a more litetal
application. By putting these descriptions in the voice of someone other than himself, it makes
it feel more mysterious and adds an additional element to the story that makes the reader
become more involved on a greater level.
April 19th
Genie
 Large magical creature that originally portrayed as a monster
Arabian nights
 A compilation of stories forma variety of regions including areas that aren’t Arabic
Sultan
 the king in the arabian nights
Alibaba
 the story
how do you want to continue growing
 I learned a lot about the prejudices that western ideologies promote about middle
eastern and Asian cultures. I found myself backtracking on facts that turned out to be
mis-portrayed and or false aspects that were made up in the sake of
How to improve
Pay more attention, focus on getting assignments in early rather than last minute