Pastiche of Hannah

Outside a dark creepy and terrifying castle, a endless rain was falling, the infernal thunder was rumbling, darkness there and nothing more. The castle seemed to be sinister. I, Hannah was seventeen and I had organized a mask ball with high school mates. All the girls from my Sunday school class were coming, and four of the best have boys as well.

The atmosphere in the castle was really strange, strange and strange. The corridor was narrow and oppressive, the floor creaked and we had a humid sensation.

I was dressing in a pink summer dress when suddenly I thought about Tomas Henri Smison and Ralph Wellings.

Tomas was conscientious, lumberingly polite for anything whereas Ralph, who was a strange boy, was a little , fat and wild.

I ran out of the room, worried to look for my mother. When she crossed into the corridor, the light switched off/on, off/on, off/on... I found that strange, strange,strange... I entered my mum's room. Mum was behind the window and she was looking at the gloomy weather. I approached her and took her hand but she didn't move anymore and anymore. Suddendly she dapped her hands and she pushed a frightening howling. There was furious , tremendous , gigantic flash of lightning. I was so surprised that I jumped. My eyes was put on the mirror. A scary vision appeared then I fell back unconscious.

Later, I woke up in a hospital bed. The room was spoiled and very dustyand a foul smell all aroud. When I looked in the room, I saw an unknouwn woman who called me « grandma ».

Je = I

Jeu = game

The "I" of writer: 

    An autobiography is a text in which the author is the narrator, and he/she tells his/her own story.

   A first person narrative is a text in which one of the characters is the narrator.

   A third person narrative is a text in which the narrator is outside the story.

The "I" of writing:

     Writers often have fun:

- They play with words ( they can invents words )

- They play with homophones ( I / eye)

- They play with the setting of the text ( acrostyches )

- They can write distorted texts parodies or pastiches.

   ( extract of Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, CHAPTER 4 )

How do literacy works echo one another ?

Definitions:

Pastiche:

- An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work , artist , or period ( Oxford )

- a piece of art, music, literature, etc. Which intentionally copies the style of someone elses's work or is intentionally in various styles, or the practice of making art in either of these ways ( Cambridge )

- a piece of writin, music, film , etc. That is deliberately made in the style of someone or something else ( Longman ).

Parody:

- An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect ( Offord ).

- Writing, music, art, speech, etc. Which intentionally copies the style of someone famous or copies a particular situation, making the features or qualities of the original more noticeable in a way that is humorous ( Cambridge )

- a piece of writing, music etc or an action that copies someone or something in an amusing way ( Longman ).

Intertextuality:

- The relationship between texts, especially literary ones. ( Oxford )

- 1 the event to which particular text, play, film, work of art, etc. Makes use of references or allusions to another work or works.

  2 the use of this technique by an author, director, artist, text, etc. ETYMOLOGY: 1980s. ( Chambers ).

How do literacy works echo one another ?

Gothic literature: Link 

Then we have studied a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It called " The Tell-Tale Heart" and it is located in Gothic literature.

Summary:

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of an unnamed narrator who insists he is sane but suffering from a disease (nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of the senses". The old man with whom he lives has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye which so distresses the narrator that he plots to murder the old man, though the narrator states that he loves the old man, and hates only the eye. The narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, a process which takes him a full hour. However, the old man's vulture eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do the work".

On the eighth night, the old man awakens and sits up in his own bed while the narrator performs his nightly ritual. The narrator does not draw back and, after some time, decides to open his lantern. A single ray of light shines out and lands precisely on the old man's eye, revealing that it is wide open. Hearing the old man's heart beating unusually and dangerously quick from terror, the narrator decides to strike, jumping out with a loud yell and smothering the old man with his own bed. The narrator dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime. Even so, the old man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police. The narrator invites the three arriving officers in to look around. He claims that the screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man is absent in the country. Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder, the narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room, right on the very spot where the body is concealed, yet they suspect nothing, as the narrator has a pleasant and easy manner about him.

The narrator, however, begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no attention to it. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that not only are the officers aware of the sound, but that they also suspect him, the narrator confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tell-Tale_Heart

To read the short story online look this website: http://www.online-literature.com/poe/44/

Look !!!!!!!

Title: The masque of the Red Death

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Date of publication: May 1842

Setting: The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as "the red death" by hiding in his abbey.

Characters:  - The Prince Prospero: It's an eccentric man but also a person selfish because he abandoned his people when the pestilence has become much dangerous outside !

                     - The Red Death: It's a " person, character " weird because it is no solid. Indeed when the people try to touch her, they don't arrive ! We can said that it " transparent ". It wearing a white mask and a cape.

Then in the short story there are an other people as: the dames of court, the knights.

Main theme: "The Red Death" who's the pestilence. It terrorized and killed everybody...

Summary of the plot: During a long time the pestilence ravaged the country: it "called " The Red Death". It caused in people of sharp pain, sudden dizziness and profuse bleeding. The patients were completed in half in hour. Result the depopulated of his dominions, the prince Prospero gathered in one of his abbeys: Knights and Dame of his court. After, 5 or 6 month of seclusion in abbey, the Prince organized a sumptuous masked ball.

                                  The Prince was an eccentric person. That's why, he had decorated very strangely the 7 rooms where there was the ball. Indeed, each rooms had a specific color. Moreover, the color of the windows corresponded to the decoration. For example there was a blue, a crimson, a green, an orange, a white, a purple. However the 7th was different: she was black and the panes of the windows were deep blood color. It was sinister and dark.

                                  This room inspired fear to the people, that's why nobody wanted to enter. Inside was a large ebony clock that sounded sinisterly every hour; so everybody stopped to talk and the orchestra ceased to play. A trouble was created. Indeed the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. Then, when the echoes of the clock was stopped, hilarity through again the crowd.

                                  The evening, passed well until a strange character come to perturb the people. Dressed a cape and a sinister mask, the character advanced...so.

Personal opinion: I don't like this short story because I found stranve, weir. Moreover I struggled to understand the short story but good...it's a short story original ^^

To read the short story see the link: ( Link )