Dear all,

In the following link you will find a short story by Graham Greene called "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen". We will read it and discuss it in class on Monday, September 15.

http://www.ksh.edu/fileadmin/user_upload/Fachschaften/Englisch/Anita_Kuhn/E-Matura_05_Text_1_.pdf

1. Describe the characters.

2. What do you think about the comments made by the narrator in the story?

3. What role does the narrator play in the story? How do the observations made by him influence the story? the reader? the characters?

4. What role do the Japanese Gentlemen play in the story?

5. Discuss the title of the story.

For Monday 22, please read the following short story by D.H. Lawrence

http://www.literature.org/authors/lawrence-david-herbert/the-woman-who-rode-away-and-other-stories/part-12/index.html

1. What do you think is the main conflict in the story?

2. Describe the characters

3. Discuss the opposition between being lucky and rich in the story.

4. What does the rocking-horse represent?

5. Discuss the ending of the story.

Now, compare the two stories. What elements of realism, modernism do you find in them?

Claudia

Dear all,

This is a short summary that will help you write your post about "The signal man" by Dickens. Remember that the deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday 10 at 8.00 am. Including this post, you should have written four thus far. Tomorrow´s session will be devoted to:

1. Discuss "The signal man" (see questions at the end of this post).














2. Start writing your essay on any of the four topics discussed so far including "The Signal man" (see previous post). Deadline, Sunday 14.

3. Monday 15 will be devoted to discuss an overview of 20th century prose and poetry. I will present you with some of the main writers of the time. I will also leave two short stories by D.H. Lawrence (at the photocopying centre in Agustinas) that you are expected to read for Monday 22nd.

4. Monday 22nd. Analysis and discussion of D.H.Lawrence´s stories.

About Dickens and the Victorian age, as discussed in class, here is some contextual background:

• Keynotes of the Victorian age: progress, expansion, power and mobility (See Poplawski, P. (2008). English Literature in Context. CUP)


• 1830 Opening of railway lines in Britain: advancement, growth and difussion, awareness of interconnectedness, invention.


• Print culture proliferated and literacy rates increased


• Influence of the Romantic era on Victorian writers: ideas of liberty, individualism, the nature of subjectivity, emphasis on the self, emotion, imagination, relationship between man and the natural world.


• Social responsibility of the artist.


• The Victorian age witnessed the boom of economic expansion, transformation and hope in the first period, while in the second, it witnessed uncertainty and doubt.

Dickens´s fiction central metaphors: Fog, contagion, the prison. These three metaphors were best embodied in the word disease, both literal and figurative (cholera was a common disease at the time and it hit working-class communities very hard in the years 1831, 1848, 1853 and 1866). In Dickens´s writings one finds the idea of disease that spread through modern society and it immobilised it. His desire to represent the social realities of urban life are found in most of his writings. In "Oliver Twist" (1837-1838), the author depicts his own suffering during his childhood. At the age of 12 he starts working in a blacking factory. His family is sent to prison due to debt. He isn´t but this traumatic experience would influence his writing very much. At the age of 15 Dickens starts working as a free-lance writer.

"The Signal Man" was written after a railway accident which took place in 1865 that had a great impact on Dickens´s life.

When you write your post think of the following:

• What does the train represent?


• Think of the opposition between isolation and community.


• Think of the issue of social responsibility


• How is modernity depicted in this ghost story?

See you in class,

Claudia

Dear all,

Take a look at the following picture, then read the short story "The signal-man" provided in the following link

Enjoy!

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/3ghst10h.htm

Compare this short story with the film "Oliver Twist".

See you in class,

Claudia

Dear all,
Today´s class was devoted to the analysis of Frankenstein, based on several articles that touch upon themes such as: Knowledge, the birth of a monster and man as a creator/God. Now, please post an entry on your interpretation of the novel and the article that you read.

Also, next session we will watch a film (probably only half of it due to time limitations) about the Victorian age (references to Charles Dickens will be made). The second half of the film will have to be watched on the following session. After watching it, you will be asked to write an essay (30% of the final mark) based on any of the following topics:

1. Romantic Poetry
2. Frankenstein
3. Charles Dickens and the Victorian Age

You will find the marking criteria and the instructions on how to write an academic essay in the following links. The essay should be between 700 and 1000 words long.

http://www.siue.edu/~deder/grrub.html

http://www.siue.edu/~deder/grstand.html

http://www.nd.edu.au/downloads/colleges/arts/res_essayguide.pdf

I´ll be looking forward to reading your essays!!

Claudia

Dear all,
For the class about Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, please read the article provided in the following link.

http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/knowledge.shtml

What aspects of Mary Shelley´s novel does the author of the article want to emphasise?
Claudia

Dear all,

I´m happy to see that most of you have managed to create their blogs. Those of you who didn´t attend the session on Wednesday, please create your blog and send the link to me. As a reminder, please read the poem by Coleridge provided in the link http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/coleridge.html. You are also expected to read the article about Keats http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/07/07/080707crbo_books_kirsch?currentPage=all, google one of the poems mentioned in the article and be ready to discuss it on Monday. Remember to take a look a the characteristics of Romanticism. Which of the characteristics do you think are present in Coleridge´s and Keats's poems?
See you on Monday,
Claudia

Dear students,
As we study the so called "Romantic Poets" let´s first consider what Romanticism means (From English Literature in Context by Paul Poplawski (Ed.), 2008).

• The Romantic period covers the period between the 1780s and 1830s although some authors argue that the period starts in the 1760s and it finishes in the 1850s.
• Romantic refers to a kind of writing in opposition to neo-classicism in which "reason" dominated.
• It marked a profound change in sensibility as a violent reaction to 18th century "reason".
• The most representative British Romantic poets are William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy B. Shelley, John Keats and Lord Byron.
• Romanticism was apparently inspired by te political revolutions of America in 1776 and France in 1789, and therefore the products of Romanticism were often radical.

Characteristics:

• Romantic poets affirm the creative powers of the imagination.
• They introduce us to a new way of looking at nature which becomes the main subject of their work. The "Unity of being" or transcendence can be achieved through communion with nature: mountains, glaciars, storms, strange and exotic settings.
• Romantic poets often write about the nature of the individual self and the nature of individual experience. They also show high regard for the figure of the artists.

Coleridge was one of the so called "the Lake School Poets". They were attacked by liberal and radical writers, including Byron. It was felt that they had turned their backs on their radical youth and had abandoned progressive politics preferring instead to advocate a quasi-mystical relationship with nature instead of an active engagement with politics.

After reading the poem by Coleridge provided in the link, which of the former characteristics do you find? Do you agree with the criticism made in the previous paragraph?

About Keats, please read the following article in the link provided http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/07/07/080707crbo_books_kirsch?currentPage=all

Do you think that his working class origin impacted his lack of acknowledgement in his time?

Now choose one of the poems mentioned in the article, google it, read it and compare it against the characteristics above described. You will be asked to tell us about the poem you have chosen in the next session.