1 / 22

In the Skin of a Lion (3) : an Urban History with Love and Violence

In the Skin of a Lion (3) : an Urban History with Love and Violence. City Vision and History. Outline. Plot Summary and Starting Questions Some Quotes Caravaggio Maritime Theatre. Plot Summary -- Caravaggio.

lacy-jennings
Download Presentation

In the Skin of a Lion (3) : an Urban History with Love and Violence

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. In the Skin of a Lion (3): an Urban History with Love and Violence City Vision and History

  2. Outline Plot Summary and Starting Questions Some Quotes Caravaggio Maritime Theatre

  3. Plot Summary -- Caravaggio [escape from the prison] Patrick and another prisoner at the Kingston Penitentiary paint the painter Caravaggio blue to help him escape. [escape from the prison] assisted by a young boy Al (182-- 183) Dream  being beaten up in the prison (184--) [escape from the prison] A woman in a canoe

  4. Plot Summary [the prison] Caravaggio notices Patrick C as the young thief learns his craft, gets hurt on his first solo job (190-) hides in a mushroom factory, and meets his wife, Giannetta (192) [escape from the prison] goes into a boathouse and meets Anne (196); used her phone to call Giannetta, talks with Anne One pit in his learning to be a thief, getting August (203) Meets Giannetta – love or violence?

  5. Plot Summary – Maritime Theatre Patrick released; a list of occurrences, ostensibly set in the year 1938 (but actually in 1935): the film of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, and the assassination of Huey Long Goes to join Hana (“[S]he watched him, understanding what kind of love was behind his stare“ 211) Ambrose Small Patrick asleep, getting a call from Clara (236) Harris’s vision of the plant, which forms a triangle with two other spots in Toronto 220-

  6. Plot Summary – Maritime Theatre An image of Caravaggio among the rich (222) Patrick swimming in the tunnel (227-) 1938/7/7 , having Alice on his mind (233) Encounter between Patrick and Harris (235), Harris tells P about his dream, Patrick, Alice’s death Hana and Patrick go off to pick Clara up

  7. Starting Questions What are the functions of Caravaggio, supposing that Patrick is the protagonist whose life we follow most of the time? Are there anything in common among the workers such as Nicholas Temelcoff, Patrick Lewis and Caravaggio? Love and Violence: how are they related in the novel? What do you think about the ending?

  8. Quote: Caravaggio Landscape for Caravaggio was never calm. A tree bending with difficulty, a flower thrashed by wind, a cloud turning black, a cone falling--everything moved anguished at separate speeds. When he ran he saw it all. The eye splintering into fifteen sentries, watching every approach (183)

  9. Quotes: Clara re. Ambrose She saw his world as if she were tied to a galloping horse, caught glimpses of faces and argument and there was no horizon. … Now his face serene. Now his upper torso bent forward long and athletic and the mouth of the heron touched the blue wood floor and his head submerged under the water and pivoted and saw in the fading human light a lamp that was the moon. (215)

  10. Harris to Patrick: "You must realize you are like these places, Patrick. You’re as much of the fabric as the aldermen and the millionaires. But you're among the dwarfs of enterprise who never get accepted or acknowledged. Mongrelcompany. You're a lost heir“ (238) • Patrick: “His own life was no longer a single story but part of a mural, which was a falling together of accomplices.. (143-45)

  11. Theme (1): Love and Violence • Examples of Violence: • Alice’s death – mere accident • Ambrose’s attempt at burning Patrick – manipulative, violence incurred by possessiveness • Patrick’s attempt at burning up the hotel, bombing the water plant – “the rich vs. the poor” cause

  12. Love and Violence • Love • associated with violence: Patrick’s blindfolding himself in his bedroom • obsessive: Patrick after Alice’s death • Gentle observation from a distance: -- Caravaggio and Patrick -- Temelcoff and Alice: “There are long courtships which are performed in absence.” (48); “her absence making him look everywhere” (50) -- Caravaggio and Anne

  13. Theme (2): The laborers empathized and their work aestheticized • Caravaggio: body porous to every noise 184; escapes in blue 179-80; landscape is never calm for him 183; a thief's sense of the world 189 • Common aspects: • physically dexterous, racial minorities • Nicholas -- a tentative man 149; “a spinner. He links everyone” (34). • Patrick--alien, in somebody else's landscape

  14. Being Invisible: a social fact & a choice • Social fact • Patrick feels invisible at the Union Station (210) • Caravaggio (199) “to all around him” • Choice • Hazen Lewis --self-sufficient, as invisible as possible (18). • Patrick • His childhood (91) • As a dissident, “[h]is body tarred, he is invisible except by touch” (228)

  15. Theme (3):Social Network • Patrick and Caravaggio – mutual support at prison and the bombing work • Patrick & Hana • Clara and Alice

  16. Theme (3):Social Network & Minor Characters’ support • Patrick and Caravaggio – mutual support at prison and the bombing work • Patrick encounters: • Elena, a market lady & the Macedonian laborers • Elizabeth, the lady at the Garden of the Blind • A cook • Those that help Caravaggio • Alfred • Anne

  17. Theme (4): Urban History & Storytelling 1) Re-Vision of Official History (Historiographical Metafiction) with Stories of the laborers such as Temelcoff, Patrick and Caravaggio Mixed with dreams, rumors, errors, fictions about historical figures ---and Stories the characters (Temelcoff and Patrick) tell.

  18. Historical References Right top: Al Purdy: Alfred Wellington Purdy, ( 1918 – 2000) [image source ] –help Patrick Right bottom: George Grant (George Parkin Grant 1918 – 1988) [image source] –met Clara Left Anne Wilkinson ( 1910 – 1961) [image source ] – met Carravagio

  19. Historical Events • the film of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, • T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, and the assassination of Huey Long • all occurred in 1935

  20. Do you agree? “In the Skin of a Lion works to transform the consciousness of its readers not only by revising history—which, it insists, can no longer be told from the totalizing point of view of the ruling class—but by revolutionizing representations of labour via the aesthetic. At the same time, however, its patterns of emancipatory imagery naturalize and reinforce a racialized vertical mosaic that compromises its vision of human liberation” (27).

  21. References Barbour, Douglas. "Chapter 8: In the Skin of a Lion." Michael Ondaatje. Douglas Barbour. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. Twayne's World Authors Series 835. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Sept. 2010.

  22. Next time:

More Related