Littérature en langue étrangere

Füssli - The nightmare.

( 1781 )

This picture was painted in 1781 by Johann Henrich Füssli, a painter and writer. Since its exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1782, it became very famous.

We are going to present the different characters and try to understand the different interpretations of this painting:

Firtsly, we can see a  woman lying, she's wearing a long white dress, her neck is bare and it shows the vulnerability of this character. Moreover, we don't know if she's sleeping or if she's dead because of her limp wrist and her head which is thrown back, there are no signs of life . 

On the left, we can establish a link between the woman and the vials which are on a small table; they are empty and we can think that she has just drunk them.

Next, we can see a character sitting on the woman, it's an incubus ( a devil who is taking the body of the woman when she's sleeping, he's fed by her desire ). He seems angry, as if we had just suprised him in his action, he's looking at us as if we interrupted him, the spectator becomes actor of the scene. 

The bottom of the painting is dark, the light is thrown onto the scene by the spectator as if a door had been opened on the scene, there is a communication between the scene and the spectator. We can see a mare which comes out from the darkness she's white and she's also a spectator of the scene, she stares at the woman. We can establish the connection with the name of the painting : The nightmare and the mare on the bottom (play on word), we can only see her head, and her body is in the dark. 

I can appreciate this picture because of the innocence of the woman and the fact that we are actors of the scene but the incubus is very fightening when he's looking at us.

 ».  Jacqueline Woodson

I've read the short story "My Crazy Beautiful World" by Jacqueline Woodson, it's the first time i'm reading a book from this author. She used a very descriptive style, for example when she describes herself or the others characters like her Mother or her little brother, we immediatly see them in our head and i think that it's very important to imagine these characters from the first time she evokes them.

She delivers the story of her childhood by putting herself in another character named Angela. Jacqueline Woodson uses a technique to capture several thematic of the different part of her short story like the Freedom evocated when it's the summer or the thematic of the Family wich is very present all along the story.

Indeed, we can feel a very strong link between Angela's and her Grandmother when we are reading the passage where she describes the intimate bond existing between herself and her Grandmother. This passage can illustrates the author's approach to literature as a way of speaking of lineage. Finally we can understand that Jacqueline Woodson wanted to make us feel the family feeling in her book.  I've come to appreciate this book for what she knew how to make us feel different thematic like the family's link, freedom .. 

I can recommend this book for people who like reading books with a very precise description and who like feel something by the literature.