Just a Little Taste: My Paper-in-a-Post

What is the Primary Text?

The digital age opened up the interpretation of literature that has made obsolete our original definition of what makes up a primary text.

            Hugo made the claim that “The one will kill the other.”  That is to say, one medium, in this case the printing press and literature, will kill its predecessor, architecture.  Relate the cathedral of Notre Dame, if you will, to our impression of a primary text.  The cathedral was a symbol for Hugo of adapting mediums from architecture to literature.  That idea is paralleled today by the emergence of the digital age.  Hugo said one would “kill” the other, but that is not the case today.  It is merely the pedestal upon which one medium is universally more preferable than another that has been killed. 

            I have looked at eBooks, graphic novels, audiobooks, children’s, translations, apps, amateur video adaptations, remixes, parodies, derivative stage/musical works, derivative photography/visual arts, kitsch/material culture, commentary, etc., and am convinced that not only do these different mediums give us a different perspective on the original work, they often influence and color our impression either before, during, or after we read the original textual work.  We have several different layers of influence and interpretation available to us now because of the digital age.

            A couple examples of social proof:  Gideon Burton was vastly helpful in taking my original idea, a critique of the influence of different mediums of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and transforming them into an argument that we have come to an age of multiple primary texts.  He said, “In the digital age, we have phenomenon of genres or categories that literature and its various forms [that] get put into (curated lists, discussion forums, etc.) interpretive communities not available before.”

            Christophe Vacher said the animators hadn’t even read the book.  He said they just knew the story from having lived in Paris.  Their interpretation to create an adaptation of the book, never even originated from the book.

            Jess, the founder of The Hunchblog, found the book through the musical.  That medium colored her perception of the book when she read it.

            The digital age has created a world where the idea of the textual work as the primary medium for interpretation is obsolete.  We live in an age of multiple primary texts.  You cannot read in isolation.            The interpretive community has opened up to include a much more varied and vast audience.

            We must examine our perception of the primary text.  The literary canon has opened itself to other medium sources, or there is a medium/format canon being created, a hierarchy is already underway.  So, in the classroom, I think we should start incorporating multimodal adaptations of the works of literature studied, not in a way that would overwhelm, but in a way to get a taste of how that work of literature is being perceived by those not studying it in class.  

Google Hangouts and Notre Dame Cathedral

I did my first successful Google hangout with Erica Oldroyd, Professor Burton (and friends), and briefly Sam Jenkins.  What a rush!  They helped me talk out my ideas for my paper, gave me more ideas on different approaches I could take, and gave me examples of how I could better organize and construct my final paper.  It is always so helpful to be able to talk out my ideas with others and get direct feedback.

Erica helped me break down my idea into three different categories.  There is the large scale, mass cultural phenomenon, the classroom, and the individual's experience with literary work through the digital media.  I aim to focus more on the changing phenomenon, that no one can read a piece of literature, or experience any of these mediums, in isolation, and how that is and should be influencing how we teach literature in the classroom.

Professor Burton took my analogy that when we try to read in isolation, it is like limiting ourselves to being in Paris looking at the cathedral, and expanded it to a broader idea.  If I understood his idea correctly, he suggested that in order to feel like we have really been to a place, to feel like we are taking something with us as we leave, we must document our travels by taking pictures.  Going even farther than that, we then feel obligated to post those pictures on Facebook, or other social media sites, in order to feel validation for having been somewhere.  Can you really say you've been somewhere without being able to relive the experience though digital proof?  He said when he went to the Notre Dame cathedral, he and his son took pictures from the top overlooking the Eiffel Tower in the distance, but he realized they never actually have record of them at the cathedral, only a view from the top.  Does that illegitimate his experience?

LinkedIn

Here is my public advocation for LinkedIn.  It is a social networking site that helps you build your professional contact list, linking you to businesses, professionals, alumni associations, etc.  I am still trying to figure out how it works, but I've already connected myself with 15 people including family, friends, co-workers, and professors.  I was surprised to see how many people I knew were already connected with LinkedIn.  I am still working out how to navigate it exactly and how to utilize all its various resources.  It has been another one of my attempts to get social proof, but I believe it will help me throughout my educational and future professional career.  If you haven't set up an account, I recommend it!

Remediation: Isolation and Immediacy

A medium in our culture can never operate in isolation, because it must enter into relationships of respect and rivalry with other media.  There may be or may have been cultures in which a single form of representation (perhaps painting or song [or book]) exists with little or no reference to other media.  Such isolation does not seem possible for us today, when we cannot even recognize the representational power of a medium except with reference to other media (98).

Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. Print.

Remediation by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin is a little outdated, but many of the ideas presented are pertinent to my research.  These ideas link back to my previous post "You Can't Read In Isolation".

The power that all of these various mediums of communication have generated has competed with the power of the press.  We are no longer in the "Age of the Press".  We belong to the "Age of Media".  

These different mediums have added layers upon layers to our sense of reality.  Bolter and Grusin address the idea that this has, in turn, increased our sense of need for immediacy.  Each layer adds to our immediate perception of a work of literature, and by default, our perception of any given medium.  A blogger put it this way:  "Immediacy is the idea that the viewer desires the medium to be transparent, or that the mode of representation should disappear entirely when viewing the subject."

She goes on to talk about how these mediums are not replacing print, but are enhancing it:  "This is not to say that the old media will disappear, but it will take on new forms to adapt to the demands of the new technologies available to it...Print is still valuable and needed in new media, but it takes on a different representation and a different vehicle of communication when it is incorporated into other modes." 

This is my main argument here.  The past mediums that society has been functioning with are no longer all that is available.  Nor do they have the ability any longer to work separate from the new technologies that have advanced.  The way we perceive and experience literature has changed and adapted to work with the new mediums.  It is not separate from them.  They all have come to work as primary texts, in a given circumstance.  They all operate on the same solar system plane, if you will, with an adaptable center of gravity (post).

Victor Hugo said "This will kill that."  That hasn't been the case, however.  Sure, literature has been kicked off its omnipotent pedestal as the embodiment of all human thought, expression, and emotion, but it has landed into a web that incorporates of all these other mediums that enhance and expand our virtual experience.

The Tree and the Planets of the Digital Age

I've been playing around with several ideas in regards to creating a visual element for my topic (what is the primary text?)  With the help of my cohort (Emily and Whitney) and my professor, I have heard a couple that I rather like.
ONE:  The Tree
Think of a tree, and the base of the tree as long as the printing press had been around, was the "primary text" in its traditional sense-->the original textual piece of literature.  Everything else stemmed from that core, that center.

With the emergence of the digital age, that base has been changed.  Well, let's say moved.  Literature has moved up and out and has become an appendage (a branch).  What is at the core you ask?  What is holding this tree together?  An idea, a truth, a piece of beauty and humanity that Hugo said was encompassed, during the Middle Ages, in architecture (see my previous post).  That architecture became an appendage when literature kicked it out of its place, and now literature is moving out of the center, too.  It resides as a branch, along with architecture, art, and all these other mediums (audiobooks, blogs, movies, drama, opera, musicals, comic books, foreign translations, you name it).  These are all branches that link back to this embodiment of humanity at the core.  The more the art work represents this idea of humanity, the closer it is to the trunk, but no one medium exemplifies and embodies all these truths any longer.

TWO:  Dynamic Solar System (contribution of Dr. Burton)
Ok, with that vision in mind, let us "boldly go" out to space next.
We have the solar system, with the sun in the middle and all the planets rotating around this center of gravity, all on the same plane.  The sun representing literature (as it once was), and the planets representing all the other mediums aforementioned).

I propose that the digital age has taken that center of gravity and has made it moveable.  Sure, at one point, everything revolves around literature, but depending on your purpose and aim, that center of gravity to change to film, and everything revolves around that medium, or music, or drama.  Different "planets" get their turn in the spotlight.  The orbital system becomes dynamic.  All these modes become a primary text in their turn.

I'm trying to come up with a way to actually make these ideas into an animation, but I will need the assistance of someone much more technologically savvy than myself.
Tell me what you think!

Collaboration is a Blessed Thing: annotated contact list

For the past several months, my classmates and I have sought to expose our writing process to the digital world and have petitioned others to respond and give their feedback.  This idea of collaborative writing was something with which I was not entirely comfortable at first, but I soon found the benefits of utilizing the ideas of those I contacted.  I searched on social media sites including Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.  I did general Google searches looking for anyone interested in and talking about The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  I researched conferences through conferencealerts.com that pertained to my interests and research.  I looked up blogs.  I went on Youtube, Slideshare, Vimeo, and Librivox.  I searched Google Scholar.

Each of these sites were helpful in varying degrees.  I encountered the most success in contacting people with Google+, Facebook, conferences, blogs, and Google Scholar.  I found some people with whom I have kept in contact and with whom I am excited to share my developing ideas.  These are the sites and resources that I plan to continue to gain social proof.  The most useful resource, however, that I used in reaching out for social proof was good, old-fashioned face-to-face conversation.  Being able to talk with people directly to try to articulate and expand my ideas was definitely where I got the most social proof and where others seriously influenced the development of my ideas.

Some of my contacts are listed as follows:

My Homie/enthusiast 
Kyla Mercier
She was my roommate Freshman year and in a personal conversation with her, she expressed interest in my research and asked if she could read my blog (Yes!).  She has looked at it both because she wants to support me, and also because she loves French studies.

My cohort
Whitney Simons (post and another)
Emily Coleman (post)
These two lovely ladies, and their work on Pride and Prejudice and Gone With the Wind (respectively), have been extremely helpful in my development process.  They have helped me do research, and to talk out my ideas.  We had an especially good conversation May 23.  Emily helped me see some of the weaknesses of my argument and how I can better articulate my ideas.  Whitney mentioned a possible visual image to help make sense of the whole thing (which I plan on posting about later today).  My ideas would never have gotten half so far without their help.

My professor (see blog posts here and here and here)
Dr. Gideon Burton
On two occasions, my professor has really helped me to expand and develop my ideas.  One on May 21, 2012 where he helped me to see how to relate my work more to the digital age.  The other, I spent upwards of two hours on May 22, 2012 talking with him about my topic.  This was definitely the most useful social contact I have had in developing and concreting my ideas.  He helped me to work out a lot of my underdeveloped ideas on The Hunchback, and to connect it with other works.  It was so helpful to be able to talk face-to-face and get immediate feedback as I tried to articulate my ideas and to understand his.

An enthusiast/peer 
Jessica Nalbandian
I found Jess's Hunchblog through my searches on Google+.  She has posted a lot of information regarding The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its different mediums.  We have emailed back and forth as enthusiasts and peers.  It's been interesting seeing how she got interested in the work and what she has posted on her blog.  I also "liked" her Hunchblog page on Facebook.

An enthusiast/expert 
Christophe Vacher
He is an animator that has worked on several Disney and Dreamworks productions.  He helped with the animated Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  As I have contacted him, through Google+, I have gained insight into the behind-the-scenes process in creating a film adaptation of a work of literature.

An expert (blog post)
Dr.  Kathryn M. Grossman
Dr. Grossman is a professor of French Studies at Penn State.  I found her through my scholarly research.  Her article came up several times as I was searching MLA Bibliography, Project Muse, and Google Scholar.  She wrote "From Classic to Pop Icon:  Popularizing Hugo" that I used in my research.  I have emailed her and am still waiting for a response, but I believe she would be interested in my work because I am discussing many of the same issues she has done.

As I have said, these people and the other sites I have looked at have had a serious influence in the development of my paper.  Before their influence, I was planning on going the very traditional, critical analysis of the book route, but with their help, I have been able to see parallels that link The Hunchback of Notre Dame as almost a prediction of the digital age.  I'm asking questions like:  "What is the primary text?"  "Is there a medium canon developing?"  It is much more interesting and pertinent to modern research.  I am excited about my research, and honestly, how many people can ever say that about a school assignment?

Revolution of the Primary Text

In the digital age, it seems like we are getting multiple primary texts.  Not only do new mediums (including apps, eBooks, graphic novels, translations, video adaptations, parodies, visual arts, commentary) enhance the first text, but in some cases, they become the dominant text.  They are the lenses through which the greatest number of people experience the work.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an excellent example of a work that has become one of multiple primary texts.  Few people read the original French version of the text first.  Their perception is colored by first being exposed to the Disney version, or the musical Notre Dame de Paris, or the English edition.  Furthermore, if you really think about it, the cathedral was around long before the novel.  Is the novel a secondary text to the architectural work that has become a primary text?


Another example to illustrate this point:  Gone With the Wind (to see a blog dedicated to all your GWTW fancies, click here).
When most people think of Gone With the Wind, they do not think of the original text.  They think of the 1939 movie with the charismatic Clark Gable and captivating Vivien Leigh as Rhett and Scarlett.

People are having discussions about Gone With the Wind, but not in reference to the book, in reference to the movie.  The movie is their first impression of the book, and it colors their perception of the book.  Sorry Margaret Mitchell, but in this case, the movie has dominated the text.  In a sense, it has become the primary text.  Few people read the book and watch the movie in that order.  It is the movie that persuades people to tackle the massive textual edition.

The digital age has revolutionized how we see and perceive primary texts.  There really is no single primary text.  You can't read in isolation.  Some way or another, you will find the book in a different format that may or may not come to compete with the original text as the "primary" source.

A Spring of New Ideas: Media and the Literary Canon

Ok, since my discussion with Professor Burton, I have a lot of new ideas swirling around in my head.  Where to begin?  I plan on making these ideas more clear with time.

Have you ever read a book and immediately began thinking of the book in terms of a movie?  Even before the era of movies, some books carry cinematic qualities.  The dialogue, scene changes, and character description lend themselves easily to movie adaptation.  In fact, a movie can represent the book to such a degree that it, rather than the book, is thought of as the primary text.  The digital age has propagated a shift in primary textual perception.  In order to make this idea more clear, let me compare it with an example with which most of you are probably familiar.

The A&E version of Pride and Prejudice--how many times have I been criticized for liking any movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice rather than the "classic," rather than the "original"?  Now I am not dissing on the A&E version by any means.  I love it.  But wait a minute...isn't the A&E movie secondary to the actual book as is the Keira Knightly version?  We are comparing movie to movie in reference to the text.  It seems to me that some people have so fixed in their minds that the A&E movie is the living embodiment of the book that they begin to disregard the book as the primary source, saying to watch that movie and to read the book are virtually the same thing.

In addition, now when you read the book, do you see Colin Firth as the dark and daunting Mr. Darcy?  Or the charming Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennett?  How many of you saw the movie before reading the book?  How many of you read the book because you saw the movie?

In my own experience with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I realized I was reading a secondary text to the original.  I read the English translation.  Only then did it dawn on me that even my perception of the "original text" wasn't actually the original at all.  That secondary text acted as the primary text.  Does that make the English translation any less valid?  Because a book is in movie format, does that make it any less valuable?

The digital age has opened our perception of what is and isn't counted as a primary text, whether it be a translation of the print version, the ebook, the audiobook, or a well-made movie adaption.

I propose that the literary canon is opening up again, but this time not to incorporate female or ethnic minority writers, but to include different formats of the literary work.  Or rather, maybe there is a separate, but closely linked, canon being created of digital media, a hierarchy among adaptions (think of the A&E Pride and Prejudice being compared to the Keira Knightly version, or the Disney adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in comparison with the musical, book, or e/audiobook for that matter).  Is there a new literary canon forming made of digital media?  What think ye?

You Can't Read In Isolation

In the digital age, you cannot read a book in isolation.
What does that mean?


Think to that last time you read a book without any prior knowledge of it, thinking you had stumbled across something extraordinary that only you knew about.  Now remember that Google search you did of said book and realized that there were already a million and a half people talking about it.  In fact there were several movies adaptations (which then led you to a Youtube search), blogs, and reviews on it.

Or you saw a movie, or watched a play, or listened to a soundtrack and later realized it was a book, so you picked it up in order to see how the [insert digital medium] compared with the "real" story.

There seem to be two options nowadays:  either you picked up that book you thought no one knew about and realized your ignorance as you climb on the bandwagon, or you picked up that book because of some other medium through which you had experienced the novel.

The digital world is changing the way we go about experiencing literature.  There is hardly a classic work out there that has not been made into a movie, a play, inspired music, written about in some form or another, the list goes on.  Every work of literature we experience has been influenced by this changing digital culture.  You don't have to rely on only the text anymore.

In my own research of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I realized I hadn't even experienced the work of literature in its primary text.  I read an English translation.  The work was already a secondary source when I picked it up.  Now I have seen secondary and tertiary sources regarding this work of literature to an extent that I could not have predicted.  I have listened to the audiobook, toyed with blogs, seen it performed on stage in dance, drama, and musical adaptations.  All these versions have influenced the way I see and read the novel.  I am not relying on the words, but am drawing conclusions about the words through imagery and audio.

All these mediums have added to the way one experiences The Hunchback.  The digital world is expanding and enhancing the literary world.  Should we resist it because it is not the book or should we embrace it because it is a different way of experiencing the book?

A Scholarly Search of Hunchback: What I Found

This may not seem all that exciting, but anyone interested in researching The Hunchback of Notre Dame (or any other major literary work) and its connection with digital media should take a look at what I found.

Projected Thesis statement (or a very, very rough draft):   Creating a multi sensory experience of Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo by translating it into different mediums changes the way the reader or viewer sees and interacts with the original text.

Annotated Bibliography:

Nassiboullina, Lira. "Comparative Analysis of the French, English, and Russian Versions of the Musical Notre-Dame De Paris." - Spectrum: Concordia University Research Repository. Concordia University, 09 June 2011. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/7512/>.

This is a Master's Thesis I found through Google Scholar that compares the French, English, and Russian musical adaptions of Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris.  I am using it to supplement my own research of the musical Notre Dame de Paris and how that medium compares with other media adaptions of Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 Grossman, Kathryn M. "From Classic to Pop Icon: Popularizing Hugo." JSTOR. American Association of Teachers of French, Feb. 2001. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/399430>.

I found this section of the book French Review through the HBLL Library website through JSTOR. It is a critical analysis of the pop culture effects of the media adaptations of Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris. I have read this because it directly addresses many of the same issues I am researching regarding The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the media.

Szwydky, Lissette L. "Victor Hugo's Notre Dame De Paris on the Nineteenth Century London Stage." Taylor and Francis. 30 July 2010. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10509585.2010.498952>.

I have looked at this journal article that I found through Google Scholar.  It is a critique of the adaptations of Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris as it has been taken to the stage.  I have mainly looked at it for the change of character analysis it gives, as novels get adapted to the stage.

Ridington, Robin, et al. "Ethnopoetic Translation in Relation to Audio, Video, and New Media Representations." (2011): 211-41.MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://search.proquest.com/mlaib/docview/913260572/136C73786C22842E85C/1?accountid=4488>.

This article I found through MLA Bibliography.  It describes the translation from media to media, which is why I have been looking at it, as I am researching the media to media translation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Killick, Rachel. “Notre-Dame de Paris as Cinema:  From Myth to Commodity.” Victor Hugo: Romancier De L'abîme. Ed. J.A. Hiddleston. Oxford: European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford, 2002. 41-62. Print.

I checked this book out of the Harold B. Lee Library.  The section that interested me was chapter three, which is about the translation of Notre-dame de Paris onto the movie screen.  It goes through some of the details of that process and how that differs from the book, which matches my research.

Hales, N. Katherine. "Translating Media: Why We Should Rethink Textuality." The Yale Journal of Criticism. Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/yale_journal_of_criticism/v016/16.2hayles.html>.

Through Project Muse I found this scholarly article from The Yale Journal of Criticism.  It discusses my topic of translation of text into the media.  I am looking at it for a more general understanding and insight into that field and applying it to The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Decker, James M. "Literary Text, Cinematic "Edition": Adaptation, Textual Authority, and the Filming of Tropic of Cancer." College Literature. West Chester University Press, 2007. Web. 19 May 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/college_literature/v034/34.3decker.html>.

This is another article I found on Project Muse by using search terms such as “hunchback of notre dame” and “media to media translation”.  It is another more general look at the process and criticism of translating a work of literature into different media sources.  It caught my eye and interest because of its focus on “adaptation” and “literary text”.

Hugo, Victor, and Isabel Roche. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print.

This is the primary text of The Hunchback of Notre Dame that I have used for my research. I purchased this copy at Barnes and Noble. It is this text from which the rest of my research is branching.

Reflection:

I have spent the last several weeks looking online for information about translating a literary text into a film or stage adaptation and had had little success.  These searches however, by using MLA Bibliography, Project Muse, Google Scholar, and the Harold B. Lee Library’s resources helped me to find articles and scholarly journals that directly addressed the topic I am studying.  I had no idea the information that was already out there.  It was really interesting how the same articles and journals would appear when I used a variety of search engines.  I feel like I have a better grasp on what I want to be researching and writing about now that I have found these sources.

My Experience With a Webinar

I wanted to write about my experience listening to my first webinar.  I listened to Steve Hargadon's webinar with Mark Bauerlein entitled:  "Mark Bauerlein on Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking."

I liked the set up Hargadon had.  He would show occasional pictures as he and Bauerlein would talk. He showed a picture of a world map and had all listeners put a star next to where they were tuning in from.  It was really cool.  There were people in China, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and all over the US listening to this webinar.  There was also a chat feature set up so anyone could chime in and say what they were thinking about the speaker, or whatever.  There were so many layers of information being presented.  Many people put up links to what the speakers were talking about, or to their own blogs or research, etc.

As amazing as it all was, it was hard to try to wrap my head around all the different layers of conversation that were going on.  I would be paying attention to what people were chatting and totally miss what the speaker was actually talking about, and then I would go to one of the links and again lose the conversation.  If I could go back, I would have prepared myself a little better for that part.

One really interesting thing I saw was that there was a lot more hesitation with merging traditional literature and social/digital media than I originally anticipated from those listening to a webinar.  There was a lot of talk about the psychology behind reading a physical book you hold in your hand vs. looking at a computer/ebook screen.  I had thought everyone would be avid digital literacy advocates and liberal with the world of technology and literature, but there were a lot of conservative comments made on the subject, which was surprising.

All in all, it was a really great experience to be involved in a live webinar, chatting with people from all over the world.  I wish I had been on the ball enough to connect with some of the people participating, but I was too absorbed in trying to find my way through all those layers of information to add yet another layer of social networking.  I would definitely recommend that anyone participate in a webinar, if only to have the experience.

Linking Austen and Hugo in the Digital Age

Ok, Whitney Simons's posts about Pride and Prejudice, relationships, and the digital age got me thinking about some of my own ideas with my research on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, namely how these works of classic literature are being represented and retold in the media.  In order to better delve into the ideas behind the media and literature, I watched a bit of the Bollywood movie Bride and Prejudice.

I had anticipated cringing throughout the movie and feeling like it was an insult to Jane Austen's memory to have her work so utterly perverted.  However, because I have become more inculcated into the digital world, and have formed my own ideas about its merit, I actually found myself enjoying it.  Though this rendition doesn't hold a candle to the original, and though you can hardly keep from laughing during the whole of the movie, I kind of liked seeing the general story of Pride and Prejudice taken totally out of it's original context and applied to a world so completely different (i.e. India).  It was fun, colorful, and playful, typical Bollywood.  It gave the original story a fiery, Indian spice to it, and not an unpleasant one at that.

Ok, now, how does that apply to Hunchback?  Well, I have had the same kinds of ideas as I have explored the different ways that The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been infiltrated into different forms of media.  Being a passionate advocate of the original (well, translated) text, I didn't think that I could ever accept the other forms of media's renditions/interpretations of the story if they did not exactly correspond with what I thought.  However, my ideas have changed.

Not only do these different forms of media give a new light into the story itself (both for Hunchback and Pride and Prejudice), but maybe the most important and useful thing these mediums, these "translations" if you will, have done is make these great works of literature more accessible to a larger populous.  Someone may not have any interest in 19th century British customs and traditions (though I can't imagine why), but maybe they have a passion for Indian culture and dance.  Bride and Prejudice may then introduce this person to the original book in a way that would get them excited about reading it, and the same thing goes for the Hunchback.  All these things tie back to one another.  Maybe the digital humanities is not so detrimental to classic literature as I once thought it to be.

Comparing French and English text

Ok, I could really use some help on this one from any French speakers.  I am comparing the original French text of Notre Dame de Paris to the translated English text of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Here is one of my favorite passages:

French Text (sorry I can't figure out how to do the accents/correct punctuation):
"Elle s'approcha, sans dire une parole, du patient qui se tordait vainement pour lui echapper, et, detachant une gourde de sa ceinture, elle la porta coucement aux levres arides du miserable.
Alors, dans cet oeil jusque-a si sec et si brule, on vit rouler une grosse larme qui tomba lentement le long de ce visage difforme et longtemps contracte par le desespoir.  C'etait la premiere peut-etre que l'infortune eut jamais versee."

English Translation:
"Without a word she approached the sufferer, who vainly writhed and twisted to avoid her, and loosening a gourd from her girdle, she raised it gently to the parched lips of the miserable wretch.
Then from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, a great tear trickled, and rolled slowly down the misshapen face, so long convulsed with dispair.  It was perhaps the first that the unfortunate man had ever shed."

How well does the English communicate the French text?  Are there any discrepancies between the texts?  Are there any different ideas communicated because of the discrepancies?

I for one, with the very little French I can decipher, notice some structural differences at least.  I'll be looking more into this as well as how other mediums "translate" the text.

Lost and Found in Translation

I've been doing a little brainstorming to find some common themes I am seeing in my research on The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  From reading the English translated text, looking at blogs, movies, ballets, musicals, listening to the audiobook, etc. one common element I have found is that of translation.  Each of these different mediums of communication have added and taken away from my original impression of the novel.  They are all different translations.
I have put these different mediums into three categories that I am going to be looking into farther:  audio and visual, and a combination of both.

Audio
Audiobook

Visual
Dance
Text (original French, and English translation)
Blogs

Both
Musical (Notre Dame de Paris)
Youtube video montages
Movies

I hope to draw conclusions from what each of these mediums add to and take away from the original French text, and see whether one or another method of translation is better.  Let's get to work!

Follow Up on Conferences

Remember how I emailed the Literary London 2012 conference guy?  He originally emailed me back to say thanks for my interest and to stay in touch, which did not seem very promising.  He emailed me again with the programme for the conference!  This still doesn't really mean that much when it comes to actually getting over to London and helping, but it is a step in the right direction.

I also got a reply from the Reading Reproductions Conference that I contacted.  The lady said that although they do not "offer any travel bursaries to help," I was still welcome to attend as a delegate.  Well, I don't have the funds to fly off to Great Britain to attend a conference, but it was still worth a try.

Dance, Drama, and a Little Bit More

I've been looking up some videos on less popular sites than Youtube and have had some success.
Vimeo showed me a video of a group in England that was getting ready to do a musical adaptation of Hunchback--http://vimeo.com/9477475.  That was an interesting take on the story from a modern British perspective.

Another video I found (http://vimeo.com/9834440) is a modern retelling of the story by nonprofessional, school aged kids that looked like they had nothing better to do with their time.  This one is not great quality, longer, and really kind of weird, but it is still a good depiction of how people today would retell the story so it applied to our time.

In addition, here's a trailer for a modern, gothic stage performance:  http://vimeo.com/26351468 as well as a trailer for what looks to be a movie  http://vimeo.com/31476141.  Both are interesting (the first being rather creepy looking), but the second looks more promising than the first.

This last one from Vimeo is my favorite that I found.  It is a ballet adaption of The Hunchback of Notre Dame's Esmeralda.  It is really quite beautiful, and definitely not something I expected to find.  The art, dance, and music bring a totally new dimension, and evokes a new set of emotions.  http://vimeo.com/19396868
It turns out there is a much larger video industry than what can only be found on Youtube:)

Progress of My Research of Hunchback

I found some really cool conferences that are happening this spring and summer on conferencealerts.com. I made an account, and typed in different things I was interested in (victorian literature, french literature, Victor Hugo, nineteenth century literature, etc.), and then I indicated in which countries I wanted to see different conferences (US, UK, France), and it came up with a lot of interesting events happening in the next couple months.
Here are some of my findings:

Literary London 2012--an organization that will be hosting events annually dealing with British literature on all subjects.  I emailed the contact person, and he emailed me back saying to keep in touch so I can be involved in future events http://www.literarylondon.org/conference/cfp.html
Sensualising Deformity:  Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment-- an event all about physical deformities and how they are portrayed in literature and the media
http://sensualisingdeformity.blogspot.com/
Reading (Re)productions of the Long Nineteenth Century in Period Drama--an event focusing on how the nineteenth century has been portrayed in the media, etc.  I'm still waiting to hear back from them.
http://www2.hull.ac.uk/student/graduateschool/reading_reproductions_conferen.aspx

As great as all these events were, they did not really address my topic of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so I went to some other sources.

Diigo--well, I just couldn't quite figure that one out.

OERCommons--on typing in "victor hugo hunchback," it came up with an article titled "Martin Luther's Reformation in Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."  Though this was more promising, it still was not the angle I was looking for.
YouTube--has some great videos from the musical Notre Dame de Paris, an example of which I gave in a previous blog post but here it is again:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbKYksxeXh8

Some sites were more helpful than others, but I'm still looking.  Any suggestions on how I can make my searching more effective?

Book Review: The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Book Review: The Art of The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I found this cool blog that goes through a visual display of the story of the Hunchback.  It adds a new element to see others' interpretation of the novel and to see the words in pictures before you.  Check it out!

The Hunchback on Screen

A few weeks ago, I came across this musical adaption of Notre Dame de Paris.  (One song is "Les Cloches," translated as "The Bells," sung by Quasimodo:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbKYksxeXh8 .) These songs, along with the screenplay and the visual imagery is what got me to pick up the book again.  It was this musical that sparked my interest in learning French as well (any tips would be greatly appreciated:).

I have been thinking of the different mediums through which literary works are being portrayed.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame has had several media adaptions not the least of which being Disney's movie interpretation, the Notre Dame de Paris musical, audiobook, and several other movies have been made based off of this book.  It has been interesting to see how different mediums have chosen to represent the textual basis of this novel, how the intended audience changes the interpretation of the novel and the way it is presented, and how each medium (visual, music, voice recordings, etc.) adds a different element to the story.

For example, the tragic ending of the story and the extent of Quasimodo's hideousness has to be changed for he Disney movie in order to lighten the mood and appeal to a younger audience, while the musical, for obvious readons, refrains from making Quasimodo deaf.  I think it is really interesting how visual and audio adaptations to literature change the way we see and interpret the original text.

"This Will Kill That"

I have come to the conclusion that the way we interpret literature and share it with others has drastically changed over the course of the lifetime of the computer/internet.  The internet has revolutionized the availability of information.  Books are not the only, or even the most convenient or reliable resources to find up-to-date information on any given subject.

In the Middle Ages, Victor Hugo argues that the invention of the printing press had, what I can see nowadays, the same effect on architecture as the internet has had on the world of literature.  Back then, literature replaced architecture as the greatest representation of thought, ideas, and beauty.  Has the emergence of the internet and other media (i.e. movies, social media, blogs etc.) come to replace literature as the medium through which these things are shared to and by mankind?  As I look at blogs, social sites, watch movies, etc. and compare that with some of the popular culture literature being published today, I tend to think yes.

The Beauty of the Hunchback

I first read The Hunchback of Notre Dame for my ninth grade English class.  I had seen the Disney animated version of the story once or twice when I was little, so I was familiar with the story...or so I thought.

At first the length of the story intimidated me, but I soon found myself absolutely lost in the world Victor Hugo painted.  His writing captivated me.  I was sucked into 1482 France, admiring the beauty and grandeur of the cathedral of Notre Dame, hearing Quasimodo ringing its bells.  I was exploring through the streets of Paris with Gringoire and the backroads with the gypsies.  I closed the book with tears in my eyes, my heart swelling.  Never before had I experienced such a beautiful and intrinsic plot.  Never before had I sympathized with or felt such malice towards characters in a book.  Victor Hugo took me in and even with the end of the story, never let me go.

When I talked to my friends and peers about the book, I was surprised to find that I was one of only maybe a handful that enjoyed the book.  Many people were sharing their bitter, spiteful criticism of parts of the book that I particularly admired.  I found myself having to defend the book time and time again, but not really knowing how because I could hardly articulate my admiration for it.  Yes it is sad.  Yes Claude Frollo is a creeper.  Yes Phoebus is a scoundrel, but that is the whole point!  It is in such tragedy that the beauty is found!

My experience with The Hunchback of Notre Dame taught me some very important lessons:  there are things more important to literature than a happy ending.  A story can be both beautiful and tragic.  Characters are not always painted black and white, good or evil.  These are the things I love about this book.  These lessons have helped me to appreciate other literature that I would never have been able to appreciate otherwise (i.e. Wuthering Heights, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Macbeth, and so on).  So here is my public thanks and salute to Victor Hugo for not being afraid to create something so beautiful as The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

Goodreads

I'm on Goodreads!  It's really fun to be able to look through and rate the books you have read, what you are reading, and what you are planning on reading.  You can look through others' reviews of books you want to read and get recommendations.  Check it out!  www.goodreads.com

Thoughts on Notre Dame

Change of plans.  Has anyone else read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo?  It is one of my favorite nineteenth century novels.  There is a really great discussion in that novel about how the printing press replaced the beauty and grandeur of architecture.  I want to discuss how the computer has replaced the printing press in terms of expressing the human condition.  Any thoughts?  Any other angles I could take?

Freedom and Security--What are we giving up?

As I have been reading Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge, several interesting ideas have struck me.  One idea in particular that struck my interest was when Tommie Parker said that the people of that age had "traded freedom for security" (114).
What does that mean exactly?  Does not having a more digitized world where information and entertainment is constantly available, and reality is layered through a virtual world, give more freedom because more information is accessible?  Would not security be what is compromised as more and more personal information is readily accessible along with all other data?

Then I got to thinking how maybe the freedom they are talking about is a compromise of the freedom to live with or without technology, the ability to go a day without "wearing" or in our day, perhaps, without a cell phone, etc.  Are we becoming less and less able, as we enter a more digital age, to make our own decisions without the aide of external, technological devices?  Or is the technology available to us actually increasing our freedoms by allowing us to access information on any given subject at any given time?  To whom are we giving our control?  Who has the power?
What do you think?