Creating a Vertical Coherence for English Curriculum

Every high school student in every state must take English classes. The number of English credits required for a high school diploma may differ according to legislation  state by state. Regardless of the number of required credits, the subject of English is defined in the Glossary of Education Reform as  a core course of study: A core course of study  refers to a series or selection of courses that all students are required to complete before they can move on to the next level in their education or earn a diploma.   Most states have adopted requirements of four years of English classes, and in many  states,  the local school boards may adopt additional graduation requirements beyond those mandated by the state. Most schools will design their four year English course of study so that it has a vertical coherence or a progression from year to year. This vertical coherence allows curriculum writers the opportunity to prioritize learning, so that  what students learn in one lesson, course,  or grade level prepares them for the next lesson, course or grade level. The following descriptions provide a general overview of how four years of English is organized.   Grade 9: English I English I  is traditionally offered as a survey course that serves as an introduction for the rigors of high school reading and writing. As freshmen, students participate in the writing process by  constructing thesis  statements and  writing essays  in multiple genres (argumentative, explanatory, informational). Students in grade 9 should be explicitly taught how  to research a topic using valid sources and how to use valid sources in an organized manner as evidence in making a claim. In all written responses, students are be expected to be familiar with  specific  grammar rules  (ex: parallel structure, semicolons, and colons) and their application in writing. Students also learn both academic and content-specific  vocabulary.  In order to participate in both  conversations and collaborations, students should  be prepared to speak and listen  daily in class based on the activity (small group work, class discussions, debates).  Ã‚   The literature selected for the course represents multiple genres (poems, plays, essays, novels, short stories). In their analysis of literature, students are expected to look closely at how the authors choices of literary elements have contributed to the authors purpose. Students develop skills in close reading in both fiction and nonfiction. Close reading skills should be developed so that students can use these skills with informational texts in other disciplines. Grade 10: English II The vertical coherence established in the curriculum for English I should build on the major principles of writing in multiple genres. In English II, students should  continue  to focus on the skill sets for formal writing using the writing process (prewriting, draft, revision, final draft, editing, publishing). Students can expect that they will be required to present information orally. They will also learn more about correct research techniques. The literature offered in grade 10 could be selected based on a theme such as  Coming of Age or  Conflict and Nature. Another format that may be used in selecting the literature may  be  horizontal coherence, where  the texts selected are designed to complement or be associated with another sophomore-level course such as social studies or science. In this arrangement, the literature for English II may include selections from world literature texts that may be  horizontally coherent  with social studies coursework in global studies or world history course. For example, students may read All Quiet on the Western Front while studying World War I. Students continue to focus on increasing their comprehension skills by analyzing both informational and literary texts. They also examine an authors use of literary devices and the effect an authors choice has on the whole work. Finally, in grade 10, students continue to expand (at minimum  500 words annually for each year in high school)  their academic and  content-specific  vocabulary. Grade 11: English III In English III, the focus may be on American studies. This focus on a particular literary study will provide  teachers another opportunity for horizontal  coherence,  in which  the literature  selected may complement or be  associated with materials for required social studies coursework in American history or civics. Students may be expected to successfully complete a research paper this year in English or in another discipline, such as science.  Students continue to work on their formal forms of written expression in multiple genres (EX: personal essays as preparation for the college essay). They should understand and apply the standards of English, including the use of the hyphen. In grade 11, students practice speaking and listening to conversations and collaborations. They should have the opportunities to apply their  understanding of rhetorical style and devices.  Students will be expected to analyze informational and literary texts  in multiple genres (poems, plays, essays, novels, short stories) and critically evaluate how an authors style contributes to the authors purpose.   Students in the junior year may choose to select a course in Advanced Placement English Language and Composition  (APLang) that could replace English III. According to the College Board, the AP Lang course prepares students to read and comprehend rhetorically and topically diverse texts. The course prepares students to identify, apply, and finally evaluate the use of rhetorical devices in texts. In addition, a course at this level requires that students synthesize information from multiple texts in order to write a well-organized argument. Grade 12: English IV English IV  marks the culmination of a students English course experience after thirteen years from kindergarten to grade 12. The organization of this course may be the most flexible of all high school English classes as a multi-genre survey course or on a specific genre of literature (ex: British Literature). Some schools may choose to offer a senior project selected by a student to showcase a set of skills. By grade 12, students are expected to have mastered the ability to analyze various forms of literature including informational texts, fiction, and poetry. Seniors can demonstrate their ability to write both formally and informally as well as the ability to speak individually or in collaborations as part of college and/or career ready 21st Century skills.   AP English Literature and Composition may be offered as an elective (in grade 11 or 12).  Again, according to the College Board, As they read, students should consider a works structure, style, and themes, as  well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of  figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone. Electives Many schools may choose to offer English elective courses for students to take in addition to their core English coursework. Elective credits may or  may not serve for English credits required for a diploma. Most colleges encourage students to take the required core classes, which may or may not include electives, and college admission officers generally look for a student to complete academic requirement before expressing their interests through electives. Electives  introduce students to a completely new subject to challenge themselves and stay motivated throughout high school.  Some of the more traditional elective offerings in English include: Journalism: This course exposes students to the basic concepts of reporting and non-fiction writing. Students work with various article formats. Journalistic ethics and bias in reporting are generally included. Students write news to develop and improve their writing in a variety of styles and formats. Journalism is often offered with a school newspaper or media platform.Creative Writing:  Ã‚  Either through assignments or independently, students participate in creative writing to write fiction, narratives, using  description  and dialogue. Works by established authors may be read and discussed as models for student writing. Students may complete  in-class  writing  exercises and  comment on each others  creative  work.Film and Literature: In this course, students may explore texts to their film versions to analyze the narrative and artistic decisions of the writers and directors and to better understand the art of storytelling and its purposes.   English Curriculum and the Common Core While the curriculum for high school English is not uniform or standardized state by state, there have recently been efforts through the  Ã‚  Common Core State Standards  (CCSS) to identify a set of specific  grade-level skills that students should develop in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The CCSS  have heavily influenced what is taught in all disciplines.  According to the introduction page of the literacy standards, students should be asked: ....to read stories and literature, as well as more complex texts that provide facts and background knowledge in areas such as science and social studies. Forty-two of the fifty U.S. states adopted the Common Core State Standards. Seven years later, a number of these states have since repealed or are actively planning to repeal the standards. Regardless, all secondary school level English classes are similar in their design to promote the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening needed for success beyond school.

Flotek Industries Inc. Financial report Example

Essays on Flotek Industries Inc. Financial report Assignment Flotek Industries Inc. Flotek Industries Inc. is an international company operating in the drilling and related product industries, most especially taking a specialty in chemical and oilfield drilling services (UOIG, 2). Started in 11985, Flotek Industries Inc. has been offering both products and services in three segments of the oil and mining industries. First, the company offers down-hole drilling product tools used in both the mining and the chemical industries, and is currently operating in several regions globally including the USA, the Middle East, South America and Central America, as well as Mexico, Asia and Canada (FTK, 1). The other business of the company is to provide the energy and mining companies with specialty chemicals to be used in the mining and oil drilling processes. The last area of specialization of Flotek Industries Inc is in the artificial lift segment, where it offers the management of bulk mineral or oil materials in a logistical process of handling, loadi ng and blending (FTK, 2). The three major competitors of Flotek Industries Inc include Baker Hughes Incorporated, Schlumberger Limited and CARBO Ceramics Inc. (FTK, 4). Despite the fact that these companies compete in the same industry, locations and countries with Flotek Industries Inc , the company has been able compete effectively with the other competitors through diversification into the three segments, which ensure that the company does not depend on revenue streams from one commercial segment as does some of its competitors (UOIG, 2). The other competitive advantage for Flotek Industries Inc is that it provides customized and individualized technologies for its customers, making the customers loyal to the company. Further, with only around 500 employees, Flotek Industries Inc benefits from reduced expenses and thus beats competition through specializing in a few but large customers such as the government and major private companies, which accounts for the bulk of the company’s revenues (FTK, 2). Profitability assessment of Flotek Industries Inc. indicates that it is a highly profitable company, since the company has shown a growth in both gross profits and net profits for the last financial periods. The gross profit of Flotek Industries Inc increased by 8.90% in 2013 compared to the 2012 gross profits, while the net profits increased by 18.755% in 2013 compared to the company’s net profits in 2012 (FTK, 22). Flotek Industries Inc has shown consistent growth in revenues and profitability throughout the history of its operations, such that for example the company had total revenue of $ 100 million by the close of the fourth quarter in December 2013, but the revenues have grown to $117 million for the third quarter closing April 2014 (UOIG, 2). Similarly, the gross profit for Flotek Industries Inc has also increased from $39 million in December 2013 to $46 by April 2014, while the net profit for the same period has increased from $11 million to $ 14.4 million (UOIG, 2). The same trend has been registered for the years before, where Flotek Industries Inc. revenues increased by 19% in 2013, compared to the 2012 revenues, while the revenues have grown by 152% since the year 2010 to 2013, which indicates a compounded annual revenue growth of 36% (FTK, 17). Additionally, the company has shown huge strides in financial value growth, with the shares of the company appreciating by 23% in 2011, followed by a share appreciation of 28% in 2012 and a remarkable share appreciation of 65% in 2013 (FTK, 22). The solvency position of the company is also good, owing to the fact that the company has consistently grown its revenues when compared to its liabilities, such that revenues of the company for the year 2013 were $376 million compared to the cost of revenues of $223 million (FTK, 22). This then means that the company has a healthy operating cash flow that allows it to cover for all its costs and still remain with more revenues in hand. Further, the operational costs of the company decreased from 21.2% in 2012 to 21.1% 2013, while the operating cash flow increased from 39.8% in 2012 to 42.1% in 2012 (FTK, 30). This serves to indicate a healthy solvency position for Flotek Industries Inc, which is capable of decreasing the costs while managing to increase the comparative operating revenues. The liquidity position of the company is also healthy, since when the current assets of Flotek Industries Inc are compared to its current liabilities, with the current assets for the company in 2012 being $2.1 Million compared to the accrued liabilities of $1.9 million, indicating a liquidity ratio of 1.105 (FTK, 35). Any liquidity ratio that is equal to 1 or more than 1 indicates that a company has the ability to cover its short-term liabilities using the current assets without the need to borrow or dispose the company’s long-term assets. Flotek Industries Inc is an efficient company, owing to the accounts receivable comparison with the accounts payable, increased inventory and the change in the tax obligations for the last financial period of the company. Thus, Flotek Industries Inc efficiency is indicated by the fact that the company has increased its inventories from $9.4 million in 2012 to $11.1 million in 2013, to be able to meet the demands of the customers without falling short of inventories (FTK, 35). Additionally, Flotek Industries Inc is efficient, since it has been able to reduce the accounts payable from $5.0 million in 2011 to $2.5 million in 2012, while managing to reduce the tax payable from $1.6 million in 2011 to $0.9 million in 2012 (FTK, 35). All these statistics serves to show that the company is increasing its revenue earning capability while reducing its revenue burdens, thus showing that the company is increasingly becoming efficient. There are certain risks that Flotek Industries Inc faces. First, there is the risk of severe drop in the oil and gas prices, which means that there is likelihood of the revenues of the company decreasing (UOIG, 7). The other risk that the company faces is the risk of decreasing demand for fossil fuels, while the green energy is increasingly gaining attention and demand. This also means that Flotek Industries Inc may lose its business to the green energy competitors. Finally, there is the risk of new government regulations in both oil and chemical industries (UOIG, 7). These regulations include the regulations on mining and drilling environmental impact and oil emission regulations, which may adversely affect the mining and oil industries. Nevertheless, Flotek Industries Inc is a good investment prospective, owing to the fact that the company is increasingly growing in both revenues and profitability, while also growing the shareholders returns through the appreciation of the company shares from 23% in 2011, to 28% in 2012 then by 65% in 2013 (FTK, 22). Additionally, the liquidity, solvency and efficiency states of Flotek Industries Inc. are healthy, meaning that it is a company moving in the right track, despite the risks facing the industry in which the company operates. Thus, for these reasons, Flotek Industries Inc is a good company to invest in. Works Cited Flotek Industries Inc. (FTK). â€Å"2013 Annual Report† Form 10-K†, December 31, 2013. 1-90. Print. University of Oregon Investment Group (UOIG). â€Å"Flotek Industries Inc: Investment Thesis†, April 4, 2014. 1-18. Print.

Romanticism in American Literature Free Essays

string(146) " first happens at their second meeting when he is overwhelmed by her royal appearance, her foot on a tame leopard, before they ride out together\." Tennyson, in â€Å"The Princess† describes, under the diagnosis of catalepsy, probable temporal lobe epileptic dreamy states with deterioration which serve as a adaptor of sexual and moral ambivalence, the poem’s central theme. It seems that Tennyson knew such seizures from his own father who had been given a diagnosis of catalepsy. Poe gave his Bernice in the novella of the same title a diagnosis of epilepsy as a reason for a premature burial. We will write a custom essay sample on Romanticism in American Literature or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, there was a good deal of unlikelihood in this, and when he came to this theme in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and in â€Å"The Premature Burial† he chose instead a diagnosis of catalepsy which fitted better with the plot. The fits of the title character in George Elite’s Sills Manner, ignored as catalepsy, would today rather be seen as epileptic twilight states. It would seem that this author drew from contemporary dictionary descriptions which described conditions similar to Manner’s fits under the heading of catalepsy. In Elite’s â€Å"legend with a realistic treatment†, the twilight states are a central factor in the plot and explain Manner’s reclusion and passivity. In Poor Miss Finch by English realist Willie Collins, the postgraduates seizures of Oscar, one of the main characters, their cause, their treatment with silver nitrate, and the subsequent disconsolation of his kin are central supporting elements of a perfectly constructed plot. Collins gives an exact description of a right aversive seizure with secondary generalization, and how to deal with it. In none of these works seizures are seen in a negative light. They rather evoke reactions of sympathy and support. Keywords: Anglo-American literature, disease in fiction, romanticism, realism, Tennyson, Poe, George Eliot, Willie Collins. INTRODUCTION The romantics were fascinated by unusual behavior and exceptional psychic phenomena. Psychiatric illness was threatening and unexplored UT also had the attraction of the morbid and was a poetic treasure chest. For the literature in the realistic period, illness remained an important theme in general because the dark sides of life were not to be neglected, and we can thank the great English realists for sometimes being the first to give us De- tailed descriptions of pathological conditions, such as developmental dyslexia in Dickens’ Bleak House Jacob, 1992). For this reason it is not surprising to find epilepsy represented in literature written in the middle of the nineteenth century. Here we also meet the term catalepsy and a relationship between the two diagnoses warrants our examination. Address correspondence to: Peter Wolf, Plenipotentiary Bethel, Kline Mar l, Marriage 21, D – 33617 Believed, Germany. Tell: +49-521-1443686. Fax: +49-521-1444637. E-mail: panorama. De. EPILEPSY CATALEPSY IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE 287 ALFRED TENNYSON: â€Å"THE PRINCESS† Alfred Tennyson (1808-1892) was one of the main literary figures in the middle of the last century in England. The pair of terms seizures and catalepsy in his â€Å"Princess† (1847-1851), a long narrative poem, has gently been pursued by an American philologist, Barbara Herb Wright (1987), who is married to a neurologist. The Princess† first appeared in 1847, and in a reworked second edition in 1848. In the third edition in 1850, six songs were added between each of the chapters and in the fourth edition Weird seizures’ are mentioned for the first time but then as an essential element of the composition. The literary studies’ dispute about this element’s artistic val ue and function, as well as the author’s refusal to comment on the question, has been depicted in detail by Ms Wright. Tennyson called his work a ‘medley. The structure is multifaceted, and it has allegorical, discursive and ironic elements. The story uses the story-in-story technique. On the first level, the story narrator and a group of fellow students visit the castle of one of the students. The student comes from a very old family and has found an ancestor in his family tree, a lady who, ‘miracle of noble womanhood’ (p. 154), has defended the fortress in full armor and weapons against its foes. At a garden party Lila, his friend’s sister appears, ‘half child, half woman’ (p. 55; the half ND half motif, the ‘inebriate’ is a basic motif of this work), and decorates the statue of a warlike ancestor with her head scarf and silk stole while talking about women’s oppression and the founding of a radical Amazon state. In the next seven chapters the seven students tell the story of such a community: The prince and princess of two neighboring kingdoms have been engaged to marry since thei r childhood. When the father of the prince sends for the bride-to-be with pomp and presents, her father writes a letter saying she wants to live alone with her women, and not wed. When the elderly king, father of the prince, hears this, he wants to declare war but the prince sets off to clear up the situation himself. Two friends accompany him, also to help him in the event that he should have seizures. The seizures are the result of a curse on his family, laid on them long ago by a man who a former ancestor had burned as a sorcerer because he cast no shadow: none of their blood should know the shadow from the substance, image from reality, and one ‘should come to fight with shadows and to fall’ (p. 1 57). For this reason Waking dreams were an old and strange affection of the house’ (p. 57), and the curse manifests itself in the prince as Weird seizures’ (p. 157) which are marked with deterioration experiences. The prince hears from the princess’ gentle, peace-loving father that she has withdrawn to their summer castle, founded a women’s university and now holds a purely female court: no male being may enter the area under penalty of death. But the prince and his friends dress up as girls and go there. They are discovered and have to flee. The fact that the prince has saved the princess from drowning does not help. During this time period the prince has two seizures without the princess noticing. The first happens at their second meeting when he is overwhelmed by her royal appearance, her foot on a tame leopard, before they ride out together. You read "Romanticism in American Literature" in category "Papers" During their excursion his love, previously unnoticed, blossoms. The second seizure happens when he lets himself be despicably thrown out by her, even though he not only saved her life, but is also convinced by and willing to accept the equal rights of women. Both times the princess appears to him as a shadow in his seizures, whereas otherwise he admires her for her uncompromising consistency and loves her because she sticks to her cause in a more straightforward manner than others. War is declared, the prince and one of the princess’ brothers defending the princess fight against each other along with 50 of the best knights on both sides. The prince remembers the prophecy that one of his family will fight against shadows, gets a seizure, and goes into battle although he is still in a dreamy state. He and his group of men lose the battle. He is seriously injured, and experiences his long recuperation period as a continuation of the seizure. After clearly winning the war, the princess becomes less rigorous in her attitude and takes care of the 288 PETER WOLF prince and all of the other injured on both sides. The prince and princess forgive each other and the question of dream or reality, shadow or substance, becomes a question about who the princess really is, what her essence is. Is it the masculine unwillingness to compromise with which she tries to demonstrate her rationality or rather the other side, which allows for feelings of pity, gratitude, love, and duty? As this is decided, the prince’s seizures cease and he changes into a stronger, more masculine person. He can convince the princess that her holding a purely female court was not right for her, not genuine, only a copy of the male world. The prince and princess, until then both a cross between male and female, discover one another. They also both find their own selves in the recognition that man and woman remain incomplete, only half of a whole, as long as each attempts to be whole alone, or as long as one sees the other as the dominate or superior one. The court physician diagnosed the prince’s seizures as ‘catalepsy (p. 1 57). We now know that Tennyson used, or at least owned, Quinsy’s medical dictionary of 1804 (Wright, 1987)), which defined catalepsy as ‘a sudden suppression of movement and perception where the DOD is immobilizers (freezes’) in its present position’. This comes in seizures, lasts a few minutes, seldom up to a few hours, and at the end the patients do not remember anything that has happened during the seizure. It is as if they awake from sleep (Wright, 1987). Interestingly enough, the prince’s seizures are described completely differently: Others notice nothing, he even fights in a battle during a seizure. Only his perception is altered. This change in perception usually only lasts for a short time. It seems to him as if he is surrounded by ghosts and he himself only a shadow of a dream. The princess appears to him as an incomplete sketch, her leopards as a fantastic painting, other people as empty masks. Things are present and not present at the same time, a scene Just experienced happened and at the same time did not happen. He is unable to tell the difference between reality and illusion. Ms. Wright (1987) was the first to suggest that epileptic seizures were being described here and she is without doubt correct: These are focal seizures of the temporal lobe with illusionary experiences of De-realization and diversification – a type of seizure that was underscored in medicine at Tennyson time. How did Tennyson know about them? There were several cases of epilepsy in his immediate family, for example his father, as can be seen by a letter describing his situation which fits the diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. We also know that doctors told the family that his seizures were ‘catalepsy rather than epilepsy (Wright, 1987). This could have been intended to calm the family or make the diagnosis sound less threatening. On the other hand, it is also unknown how clearly a distinction between the terms catalepsy and epilepsy was made in the early nineteenth century (Teeming, 1971)1. Trances also play a securing role in the rest of Tennyson work, and it is well known that he often set himself into trances by repeating his own name. But the description of the subjective seizure experiences in the â€Å"Princess†, whose origin and terminology seem to be explained by Wright, stands alone, and the seizures have their special literary sense as metaphor for the indecision and insecurity that leads to the main theme of the story. EDGAR ALLAN POE: â€Å"BERNICE†, â€Å"THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER† AND â€Å"THE PREMATURE BURIAL† The possibility that Poe was also a model for Tennyson and the use of catalepsy as a motif in his writings cannot be excluded. Tennyson was deeply affected by Poe, admired him, and contributed substantially to the literary acceptance of the American in England – in nineteenth century something not to be taken for granted. (The 1 . Something similar may have been true, in the public mind, for the terms epilepsy and apoplexy. Thacker in Inanity Fair† seems once to have mixed them up (Wolf, 1995), and simple-minded Joe Gagger, in Dickens’ â€Å"Great Expectations† says his father went off in a purple elliptic fit, obviously meaning apoplectic. † 289 other way around, Pope’s lyric was influenced by Tennyson. Poe created a figure with he diagnosis of epilepsy, Bernice, in the story carrying her name in 1835. The story belongs to a group of dismal fatalistic novellas, and he needs a progressive physical and mental illness for Bernice, which would also make it plausible for her to appear dead. The story is told in the first person from the point of view of Usages. Usages live s in a lonely mansion with his beautiful cousin Bernice. Bernice has ‘a species of epilepsy not infrequently terminating in trance itself – trance very nearly resembling positive dissolution’ (p. 172). In a reversal and projection that is not typical for Poe, Usages does not explain these trances but rather his own, which are trances or daydreams induced by concentrating on coincidental objects or meditation on trivial words. Bernice and Usages become engaged. In the progression of her disease Bernice loses her beauty. One day in her altered condition she silently stands in front of him. In an unexpected smile of peculiar meaning her splendid white teeth which have remained perfect are exposed and their overleaf image becomes the focus of a monomania, a daydream of his lasting several days. During this time he is vaguely aware that she has seizures one ironing. In the evening she appears to be dead and so is buried. His state of trance continues. Finally, he awakens out of his trance with a bad feeling, a vague recollection of a deed, of the shrill cry of a woman’s voice. He learns from a menial who is wild with terror that Prince’s grave has been violated, and that she has been found in her grave still alive: There is a spade leaning on the wall next to him. As he opens a little box that he finds on his table without knowing how it got there, dental surgery instruments fall out together with thirty-two small, white, and ivory-looking substances’ (p. 77). Behind the similarity of Usages’ and Tennyson self-induced daydreams and trances no hidden allusions should be suspected. These things are a part of the type of psychic experiments that the romantics were enthusiastic about. Nevertheless, the affinity in motif and the relationship to epilepsy that both authors created are worthy of being mentioned. Poe must have noticed that it was unlikely for someone known to have epilepsy to have seizures in a familiar environment in the morning and on the same evening to be declared dead and buried. He prepares the reader by mentioning some pages fore that Bernice, in most cases, recovered from her seizures surprisingly rapidly, but the construction remains dubious. Perhaps this is the reason he gives Madeline of Usher another diagnosis to allow her to be mistakenly buried alive a few years later in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† . She has transient affections of a partially cataleptic character’ (p. 82), and this leaves more room for the unlikely. Madeline appears only once before her apparent death. The narrator, a friend of her brother Redbrick, talks about her appearance: she ‘passed through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared’ (p. 182). She is not described in more detail (unusual for Poe); foremost i s the feeling her appearance leaves in the narrator and her brother observing her: ‘A sensation of stupor oppressed me as my eyes followed her retreating steps’ (p. 182). Her appearance causes her brother to sorrowfully bury his face in his hands. Later they lay her in her coffin although there still is ‘a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, as usual in all maladies of strictly cataleptic character’ (p. 186). In spite of the improbability, Madeline manages to fight her way out of the coffin, and presents herself in silent reproach to her brother who must have suspected she had not really been dead. Poe must have been virtually obsessed with the idea of being buried alive: It plays an important role, for example, in the early tale â€Å"Algeria†, and later became a theme in a own story with the title â€Å"The Premature Burial†. This begins with reports about actual live burials and leads to describing the fear associated with waking up in a coffin after being buried. The narrator, who believes that such things happen more often Han people suspect, tells his own story of being ill with increasingly frequent and long cataleptic seizures, trances, semi-syncope, and 290 his growing fear that he will be buried in such a state. He takes extensive organizational precautions to prevent such an incident, but it does not calm him in the least. He talks about a further symptom, a disassociated awakening with very slow reorientation, preparing the scene for a cathartic experience ending the entire terrible episode: He awakens one day in a tight wooden chamber in total darkness with the smell of damp earth around him, and experiences the real horror of being ride alive. He remembers that he had been on a hunting excursion when a storm arose and that he fled to a barge laden with garden McCollum and went to sleep in a very tight berth. Now he can shake away his fear – and he also loses the catalepsy which had perhaps been less the cause than the consequence of his fears (p. 271). Here the construction of the disease history – especially with the final considerations – is really convincing. Nevertheless, this tale is one of Pope’s less familiar stories and literally not fully satisfying due to the approximate balance between reported facts ND fiction being only loosely connected. Poe apparently did not use Quince for his catalepsy motif, but another source, since his descriptions are completely different. They seem to be based on a tradition that Could and Pyle (1896) summarize: ‘Catalepsy, trance and lethargy, lasting for days or weeks, are really examples of spontaneously developed mesmeric sleep in hysteric patients or subjects of incipient insanity. It is in this condition that the lay Journals find argument for their stories of premature burial’. GEORGE ELIOT: â€Å"SILLS MANNER† In contrast, it seems that George Eliot (pseudonym or Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880) also used Quinsy’s Medical Dictionary or a similar source to describe the seizures of the title figure in Sills Manner (1861), because her description corresponds much more exactly to Quinsy’s definition than Tennyson. In Sills Manner the seizures of the title figure, a poor linen weaver, are an important structural element of the story. They are conditions that can last from a few minutes to an hour or more, and which are described in the book as trance or cataleptic seizures. When Manner has such a seizure he falls into an unconscious and snootiness stiffness with an empty look in his eyes. The seizures leave him with amnesia and Manner is not even aware of having had a seizure. At first, his community, a ‘narrow religious sect’, the middle point and content of Manner’s life, where he is respected for his faith and exemplary life style, interpret the seizures as a mark of his being specially chosen by God, as visitations of divine origin. But as the man who Manner thinks of as his best friend becomes his rival, he uses Manner’s seizures to discredit him in the community by indicating his seizures might also have satanic origins (p. 0). Furthermore, he deals a devastating blow by blaming Manner for a theft that occurs during a death wake when Manner is in a trance. Manner is exiled and emigrates to a faraway region where he sets up his weaving loom in a hut at the edge of the village (up. 11-15). There he lives a secluded hermit-like existence for 15 years. Despairing of God and his fellow man, he only thinks of his work and of his treasure of gold, sovereigns, that he has managed to scrape together by living so frugally. In this village he is also known for having fits and this contributes to his role as an outsider. When Manner leaves his hut on an errand one stormy evening, someone steals his treasure, leaving him empty-handed for the second time. But in contrast to the first time, he becomes integrated into the community because the members have pity on him (p. 03). Then a third event happens, when he is in a twilight state which falls over him while standing in the open door of his hut: When he awakens from the trance he perceives a vague, golden shimmer in his hut that he at first believes must be the expected return of his gold coins; but it is the golden hair of a little orphan girl who has sought shelter in 91 the hut (p. 1 51). He accepts the child and raises her with the help of a neighbor and a happy time starts now and last s into his old gage. The treasure is also found again. It is discovered – and the reader is told this early in the story – that the father of the child and the thief are the same person. All these motifs are woven together in a very complex manner and build into an artful design interwoven with the golden threads that make a legend. In a letter to her publisher, John Blackfoot, George Eliot characterized the work as ‘a sort of legendary tale’ which she ‘became inclined to give] a more realistic treatment’ (Karl, 1995). The disease is of utmost importance in explaining the necessary static and passivity of the title figure which would normally be unnatural. It also allows for unexplainable events to happen which contribute to the story’s legendary quality. Sills Manner is one of the most perfect of the literary works in which an epileptic disease is an essential stylistic element. Today we use the term catalepsy to describe a condition of motionless rigidity which can occasionally be observed over a longer period of time with androgenic psychosis or with severe life-threatening brain diseases. The seizures with impairment of consciousness from which Sills Manner suffered would today no longer be classified as catalepsy but as twilight states, and epilepsy would primarily be considered the cause. A recent biographer of Eliot (Karl, 1995) talks about Manner’s epileptic fits as a matter of course. It seems as though Eliot did not use direct observation in describing catalepsy but relied on the lexicographic definition. This included certain epileptic phenomena and catalepsy and epilepsy were probably not strictly separated at that time. Earlier, catalepsy had even been considered a variant of epilepsy (Teeming, 1971). AS we have seen in the case of Tennyson, catalepsy may sometimes have been used as a euphemism for epilepsy (see above). WILLIE COLLINS: â€Å"POOR MISS FINCH† Willie colitis (1824-1889), a mend of Charles Dickens, is considered together with Dickens and George Eliot to be one of the great English realists of the nineteenth century. His Poor Miss Finch (1872) is one of the books in which epilepsy plays a key role in the construction of the plot. Oscar loves the beautiful, capricious, and blind Lucille who also loves him. His twin brother, the ruthless Nugent tries to be his rival. Their voices are indistinguishable and they have he same features to someone who looks at them or touches them. An eye specialist appears on the scene who is able to make Lucille see by operating on her. Like some blind people, Lucille can imagine colors, loves everything light and hates everything dark. This almost leads the bad Nugent to succeed because he argues that when Lucille will see Oscar she is sure to despise him: His skin is disclosure to a blackish blue as a result of the treatment of his epilepsy with silver nitrate (p. 3). Oscar fears the day she will be able to see him but argues nevertheless unselfishly and generously for the controversial operation. Lucille then reacts completely different than expected and there is a happy end. In this novel Collins was particularly interested in the discoveries that had been made throughout the 18th and 19th century about what people born blind or who became blind in ear ly childhood could sense or experience and how, after successful operation on their eyes, they reacted and learned to create a visual environment. These reports deal extensively with theories about the conception of space and the construction of visual space, and with Molybdenum’s problem, whether a congenitally blind person who had learned to extinguish and name forms like a sphere and a cube by touch would be able to distinguish and identify these forms visually if the faculty of sight was recovered (v. Sender, 1960). Collins was more interested in the sys- 2. The village doctor who has been called to the scene is mildly made fun of by the author: the sages of the village urge Manner strongly to smoke a pipe â€Å"as a practice ‘good for the fits’; and this advice was sanctioned by Dry. Kimball, on the ground that it was as well to try what could do no harm – a principle which was made to answer for a great deal of work in that gentleman’s medical practice† (p. 91). Manner follows this advice faithfully even though he actually dislikes tobacco and it doesn’t really help. 92 ecological and moral responses of his characters to such an event. His description of the tests and tasks that are given his heroine by her doctor shows that he conducted thorough research for the story. Likewise, the epilepsy is not Just there but the result of a brain trauma (p. 68) from a robbery which has its own function in the carefully constructed story. In order to make the blackening of the skin more credible people with the same coloring appear marginally twice in the story (up. 3,269). Is that exaggerated? Apparently not. The treatment of epilepsy with silver nitrate was very common until the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the affected in Collins’ book says there are hundreds of people disclosure as I am, in the various parts of the civilized world’ (p. 84), and the English neurologist Todd complained that so many patients showed in the disconsolation of their faces the indelible marks of the ineffective treatment they had undergone (Teeming, 1971). Collins thinks better of Oscar and allows the treatment to be successful: His epilepsy is cured (p. 0). CONCLUSIONS Four authors from two consecutive epochs of literature in the English language gave four completely different pictures of illness: In Poe, the romanticist, the epileptic and cataleptic conditions are more conjured up than described, whereas not the seizures themselves but the motif of a slow physical and mental deterioration are a point of focus. The epileptic and cataleptic states are essential elements to the gloomy mood that seem to drive these stories into inevitable fatalistic catastrophes. Tennyson depicts subjective perception of seizures and has resalable found an authentic source so that we can correct the diagnosis of catalepsy. Eliot probably followed a lexicographic definition for her description of ‘cataleptic’ semi-conscious or trance states fairly exactly, but this definition subsumes symptoms of a condition which would nowadays be classified as epilepsy. Collins is furthest away from Poe. He virtually gives us a clinical case study with a matter-of- fact description of a seizure which begins with a wrenching aversive movement towards the right and the calm attitude of the doctor mastering the situation at hand. The diagnosis is given n a short and concise sentence, the etiology and therapy are a part of the case history in this realistic novel. Whereas with the earlier authors the distinction between epilepsy and catalepsy appears somewhat blurred, which may be typical for the time, Collins’ description of (post-traumatic) epilepsy and a focal seizure is fully correct. These four significant authors from the middle of the nineteenth century also handle the function of the seizures in the structure of their works very differently. Poe uses seizures as a reason for the supposed death and subsequent live burial. Tennyson uses De-realization during seizures as a metaphor for his basic motif of half and half, and for the indecision in the main characters. Once these are overcome, the seizures disappear. In Elite’s work, the occurrence of recurring seizures is necessary for the plot of the story, they are an important element for the legendary aspect and a reason for Sills Manner’s timidity and resolution to fate. For Collins, who like Dickens laid special value on clean construction in his books, Scar’s epilepsy is a central supporting element which combines many associations in a perfectly structured story. In none of the authors’ works are the seizures indifferent, a mere curiosity or spectacle. Nor are they seen in a negative light. They rather evoke reactions of support, and sympathy with 3. A frightful contortion fastened itself on Scar’s face. His eyes turned up hideously. From his head to foot his whole body was wrenched round, as if giant hands had twisted it, towards the right. Before I could speak, he was in convulsions on the floor at his doctor’s feet. ‘Good God, what is this! ‘ I cried out. The doctor loosened his cravat, and moved away the furniture that was near him. How to cite Romanticism in American Literature, Papers