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(Jessika Thiele: William Blake, Tuesday, 14th December, 2007)
(Jessika Thiele: Art as violence...or artistic violence?, FRiday, 21st December, 2007)
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==[[User:Jessika Thiele|Jessika Thiele]]: Art as violence...or artistic violence?, FRiday, 21st December, 2007==
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==[[User:Jessika Thiele|Jessika Thiele]]: Poetry as an underestimated ability of our society, FRiday, 21st December, 2007==
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Monday evening ends with some controversial thoughts about the linguistic 'homework' and music by Patricia Kaas in the background (forcing my dislike for France into deeper roots).
 +
Anyway, my thoughts about the poetic session tomorrow froze during Christmas and it's slowly heating up again.
 +
I am still ashamed of myself that I seem to be the only one who took the more complicated text by Robert Markley to make an excerpt. Still I dont regret it...I love the 18th century and some things written by Markley were quite new to me: as an example Newton couldnt prove his theories by experiments.He just wrote down what he thought is right. (Our world order would be up side down when every scientist does that)
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Well, there is an even worse shame but this one is not mine.
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How is it possible that there is only one lecture about poetry!?
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I hope it's not a simple mistake. So I may think it has a concrete reason.
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When I link this reason to my basic question 'What is(was) poetry?' then I partly feel on the right way. I am pretty bad in math but as I see this case it should be calculated that way : poetry = drama/opera -> and this leads to the solution that we only concentrate on drama (where we wasted two lectures).
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There is another fact which I want to complain about: the choice of poems!
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How are such choices made?
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'Wasteland' was a good choice, no doubt, but (although I love the poem deeply) 'Jerusalem' is just taking too much time to be understood in its infinite roots. Actually we should read 'Milton' too and then need to understand Blake's philosophy.
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With hope for changes and fear that the lecturer will judge my existence as a poet I curiously look forward to the lecture tomorrow.
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==[[User:Jessika Thiele|Jessika Thiele]]: Art as violence...or artistic violence?, Friday, 21st December, 2007==
  
 
This will be the last entry of the year 2007 and so far I am very satisfied with my studies and the literature.
 
This will be the last entry of the year 2007 and so far I am very satisfied with my studies and the literature.

Revision as of 18:28, 7 January 2008

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England, the two-taps Country, Joern Esch 13:35, 16 December 2007 (CET)

Its been a while, hasn't it? Well, I forgot my adapter at school, thus I was not able to use my computer until Friday. Friday I did not write anything, because I was at school and went to a poker tournament afterward...I finished 4th and won 105Pounds...YEAH! Yesterday an old friend of mine came by, so this is actually the first opportunity to write something. Nothing much is - in fact - happening at the moment. I will have to work Monday and Tuesday and then I am on my Christmas vacation. I will leave Leeds on Wednesday in the evening and take a plane from Stansted at 7.40 in the morning. It'll most certainly be a quite tiring journey, but that's alright...I guess, since I really look forward to see my family again. The two days at school I will have to give some information on Christmas in Germany; reproducing stereotypes, re-enforcing them, overgeneralising, and so on...you get the picture. Today I will just relax on the couch and watch funny English TV. Well then, I guess I will be chattier tomorrow,

cheers

have fun - and thanks for the entertainment. £ 105 - how nice of them to stay out of the Euro zone. --Olaf Simons 13:54, 16 December 2007 (CET)

England, the two-taps Country, Joern Esch 17:52, 11 December 2007 (CET)

Unfortunately I am not able to write much today, because I am (fortunately)going to see a - most certainly - brilliant concert by Minus the Bear today. School was alright today. I had two of my favourite classes and the year 7 lunchclub, which is always a pleasure, since them (in Leeds you say them instead of the when you refer to people) kids are sooooo nice! The year 10 fasttrack group (i.e. they are doing their GCSE and their A-levels a year earlier), which we told that I am absolutely ignorant regarding the English language, are about to find out that I am quite alright with my English. I gonna tell them next week anyways and give them the reasons why we pretended I did not understand them. I thought that it would be good for them to overcome their shyness to talk to native speakers in the foreign language and, alas, towards a German they had to talk German, if the German claimed he did not understand a word. I realise that I made many (...) sentences today. Might be due to all the things going around my head at the moment. I will leave a longer entry tomorrow...hopefully,

cheers

England, the two-taps Country, Joern Esch 19:13, 10 December 2007 (CET)

Christmas shopping...oh dear. Every year it is the same nonsense and every year I jeopardise my good intentions of not buying too much rubbish whose way of being produced is almost impossible to retrace. I will not be such a bore and go into detail how much we compromise the idea of Christmas by following our capitalistic yearnings. It I just quite interesting that there seems to be no difference between the way English and German Christmas shoppers go utterly berserk when it comes to buying the last piece of manufactured crap. The reason this similarity strikes me is not because I have perceived of the English as an entirely different culture, but I have seen them as rather reserved in their way of going about publicly visible things;i.e. if they are sober and not however involved in a sport event. Everybody you just merely touch on the street immediately apologises; any given occasion where you have to wait for anything: people form a proper cue (even if it is raining and there is no roof). For the most of you this might not be new. Neither is it to me, thus I was really surprised on the absolutely aggressive way the English handle their Christmas shopping, which is so similar to an Advent weekend in Oldenburg's pedestrian precinct. Before I went to buy presents for my dear ones, I was at school. Today I assisted in two year 11 (age 15-16), a year 10 (age 14-15) and a LOVELY year 8 (age 11-12) groups. All of these groups are - in their own ways - really nice and fun to teach. Asking the same questions over and over again, however, is not so much fun. I will not be able to lead a smalltalk conversation in Germany when I return, since I am sick and tired of questions on name, age, home, hobbies, and favourite music. Well, this is what the teachers want me to do; this is what I am being paid for; and this is what the kids are going to be tested at.

I have to go now, since I am quite hungry and the Simpsons are about to begin,

cheers

England, the two-taps Country, Joern Esch 16:48, 9 December 2007 (CET)

Nothing much has happened today, since I spent most of the day in the kitchen reading and correcting a dissertation (not a PhD Thesis) of a friend of mine. Initially I wanted to start writing things for my thesis in History, but the correction took quite a while. I also went to the Tesco nearby to get some things for the house (toiletpaper and milk etc.). Tesco is one of the biggest supermarket chains in England, and - as almost everywhere else - one is always asked for a clubcard. Quite annoying and I really don't feel like giving away my personal shopping habits, thus I do not own a club card. I am fully aware of the fact that customer anonymity is rather an illusion, but I do what I can to preserve my private sphere. I am still quite uncertain about how I will stucture my final thesis and in how far I can employ Foucault's and Bourdieu's theories, thus I decided to start of from a descriptive approach and see how far I can get from there. Tomorrow I will be working at school again. I work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, so I have some sort of a "mid-week second weekend" which is quite nice, so I can go to concerts or play poker tournaments in a nearby casino. My work basically includes preparing games or other small speaking activities for the pupils and walking around the classroom and helping with exercises. It is quite alright t work like this and the loan is fairly decent. I will head home at the 20th and stay at my mom's place. Christmas obligations and seeing my family are the main reasons for that. I do look forward to say "moin" again to people without being looked at as if I were some kind of major weirdo. Mostly all of the other assistants are from southern Germany, so they do not know how to communicate adequately :) As I have said before, nothing much has happened and my thoughts on my final thesis cannot be discussed here, thus I conclude with wishing all of you all the best,

cheers

England, the two-taps Country, Joern Esch 16:49, 8 December 2007 (CET)

Well then, Blog... dunno really how to do this. I have recently found out about myself that I tend to find out about how to do a thing before I do it. Before I cook, I consult a cookbook or a recipe; before I write something academic, I read theories and theories about the topic; thus, I should actually have read something about how to blog, before I began writing this...but i decided I won't. So you will have to cope with my blog as it is and if I do not write in agreement to the rules for blogging, i.e. if there are any, well, bear with me. It is already more than two months ago that I left Oldenburg and went to Leeds. The major advantage for me, in comparison to other exchange students or foreign language assistants (FLA), was that I already knew somebody here. I had met Naomi three years ago on a surfing trip to Biarritz and we stayed in touch since. As soon as I heard about my provisional implacement in Leeds (where she studies contemporary dance) I texted her and she offered to live in her house, since there was a vacant room.

Alright, Leeds it is!!! Leeds as a city is fairly difficult to describe. It has, as most English cities, these brick, terraced houses, which I am particularly fond of. Leeds will most certainly never become a touristy place like York or other cities where you can go sight-seeing. There are, apart from some exceptions like the Town hall, few pompous buildings that people can take pictures of. Leeds' architectural charm is rather subtle. If one looks up to the houses' gables, one can find a very nice Victorian touch. One can see little variations in most of their architectural style, the applications used, etc. Generally speaking, Leeds seems to quite suiting for my aesthetic preferences. Leeds is one of the cities in Yorkshire which grew rapidly during the Industrialisation. I really like things that show men's manipulation, thus a city with the 'fingerprint' of the industrial revolution meets my gusto.

I will end with these impressions now,

cheers


2007_london_detail.jpg


Jessika Thiele: Poetry as an underestimated ability of our society, FRiday, 21st December, 2007

Monday evening ends with some controversial thoughts about the linguistic 'homework' and music by Patricia Kaas in the background (forcing my dislike for France into deeper roots). Anyway, my thoughts about the poetic session tomorrow froze during Christmas and it's slowly heating up again. I am still ashamed of myself that I seem to be the only one who took the more complicated text by Robert Markley to make an excerpt. Still I dont regret it...I love the 18th century and some things written by Markley were quite new to me: as an example Newton couldnt prove his theories by experiments.He just wrote down what he thought is right. (Our world order would be up side down when every scientist does that) Well, there is an even worse shame but this one is not mine.

How is it possible that there is only one lecture about poetry!?

I hope it's not a simple mistake. So I may think it has a concrete reason. When I link this reason to my basic question 'What is(was) poetry?' then I partly feel on the right way. I am pretty bad in math but as I see this case it should be calculated that way : poetry = drama/opera -> and this leads to the solution that we only concentrate on drama (where we wasted two lectures). There is another fact which I want to complain about: the choice of poems! How are such choices made? 'Wasteland' was a good choice, no doubt, but (although I love the poem deeply) 'Jerusalem' is just taking too much time to be understood in its infinite roots. Actually we should read 'Milton' too and then need to understand Blake's philosophy. With hope for changes and fear that the lecturer will judge my existence as a poet I curiously look forward to the lecture tomorrow.

Jessika Thiele: Art as violence...or artistic violence?, Friday, 21st December, 2007

This will be the last entry of the year 2007 and so far I am very satisfied with my studies and the literature. Still there are the traces of the last lecture lurking in my head. Besides that I was mostly not concentrated because I have read and analysed Wycherley's Country Wife already before...I was interested in the violence in Bond's Saved. Well, I need to admit I didnt read that book but still...it seems the cruel death of a baby describes violence best. Isn't death...violence ...I may mention saddism and masochism as well...that what makes art so special!? Feeling pity and pleasure. Such lines might be dangerous in public but still ...as you see in many examples of literature...violence sells just as sexual pleasures do. Maybe it's not at all the act of violence itself which attracts us but the death. In my opinion it's very positive when we think and confront ourselves with the topic death...and especially during art, so in an indirect way, we get the positive aspects of death and can imagine what will happen to us when we will die. Well, When I heard the words violence in art I immediately thought of Francis Bacon (No, not the philosopher and politician of the 17th century)...I mean the saddistic,masochistic painter Francis Bacon. I watched a movie about him a while back and there was a scene when he imagined that a family had a car crash and every member of the family was lying dead on the road...to Bacon this scene was simple art in its purest shape! I could never forget the adoration he has put in that saddistic and pathetic love to death. With those words about a special perspective of art I will wish you a pleasant Christmas time and a joyful new year 2008!

Jessika Thiele: William Blake, Tuesday, 14th December, 2007

In regard of my preparation for the next lectures I noticed something very interesting. Well, T.S. Eliot's poem is quite long indeed and divided into different parts with different contents.I have read The Waste Land or some people also call it The wasteland (I suppose because this is the original title)...a month ago when I was looking through the list of things we need to read. It is an interesting poem for sure but right now I would prefer to keep my impressions of William Blake in here.

I just read Jerusalem some minutes ago.I like poems who are short and still would keep every student busy for many many years. Jerusalem is one of those poems and as Mr. Blake has been a painter too he also made some wonderful paintings of this topic. As I went through some of the books in library I found some other poems by him.One strange and still fascinating word caught my eyes. It was the word Albion. I looked it up in a normal dictionary.I couldnt find any entry. Well, I looked it up in an older dictionary of the origins of words. There I found only an entry about the beginning of Albion but with a question mark. That confused me even more. Curiously I continued seeking the meaning of this fascinating word...On the internet I found the answer which could only partly satisfy me.

As William Blake has been very deep into mythology he used it in his works. In fact Albion has different meanings. It's said that Albion is an old celtic word which describes the Islands of Great Britain. And in regard of Blake's writings it's a figure of Greek mythology. Albion is the Giant son of the Greek sea god Poseidon. Albion founded a country on the British Isles and ruled this country.He is divided into Four Zoas(in fact good and bad virtues).

Of course,Albion is not mentioned in the poem Jerusalem but this knowledge about the interest of Greek mythology by Blake might help us to get the meaning of Jerusalem.

I refrain from giving my opinion at this moment.There should be still some excitement and surprise left for the weekend and tuesday.

Jessika Thiele: Shakespeare's heritage, Tuesday, 11th December, 2007

Actually I already tried to sleep but I couldnt...there was the thought of the today's lecture... Yes,that was a lecture which I liked and needed after three weeks. It felt as if Shakespere's ghost was watching us...quietly but not in peace. Sometimes I felt as if I saw some scenes of his life at the grey wall...at those moments my mind was drifting away from the words which were said...dirfting to the 16th and 17th century.

When the lecturer showed pictures of the Globe theatre in London my heart filled with pride cause once I was standing there...on this stage; not as an actress but as a curious poetic student who felt Shakespeare's spirit there stronger than today.

There is one question which really does not want to leave my mind: How can a poor man ,as Shakespeare has been, write such plays? Yes, thats the question!...

As I see writing (or in this case dramas) as a part of the great field art...I can see Shakespeare as an artist and every artist puts his soul into his creation. Of course, there is no doubt that Shakespeare has put some heart in all these plays...but today it is definitely almost undoubtly impossible to prove who Shakespeare really was.

Shamefully artists mostly become famous after their death...that leaves the question : Whats the difference between a dead famous author and a living famous author? Well, definitely the money to spend and the joy linked to it...BUT when an author gets rich during his live time...then something must be wrong. Art takes a lot of time to develop ...and with develop I dont mean the different editions or prints or kinds of performance...No!

I mean, the sensitivity of our society.

As we also heard today...Drama is mostly living through social phenomenas. With society, Drama changes...art changes. And this change made Shakespeare a wealthy man already during his life time!

Those who carefully listened today know that Shakespeare lived in a time of change...but,oh, what a drastic change!? From joy and lovely plays to cruelity,violence and hate.

As we know that clearvoyants dont exist...we can see Shakespeare as a very lucky,and even clever, man of this changing times. He knew how to handle the changes and how to bring them on the stage.

Maybe that's the reason why we shall respect this gentleman and his works of such ancient time.

Jessika Thiele: On Poetry, Tuesday, 11th December, 2007

Last weekend I went through the complexity of Wycherley's The Country Wife.It was not as simple as I thought...though it is definitely a funny play I had my problems with forcing all thoughts into an excerpt. I could talk about this Comedy for some hours...every little detail seems to be important but...still we are not allowed to write a whole essay about it. The last two lectures of Literature honestly...how to say it...bored me. The topic 'novel' is definitely not my favourite one and I am glad that we continue with Shakespeare today and with Wycherley next week. Desperately I try to write the excerpt and other things before Christmas days.I see I will never succeed. It just already took me too long to write the first excerpt. It's some kind of shame that we only can use one text of the two for the excerpt. I was really interested what Markley said in this Rise of Nothing and when the teacher puts one text already on the site then the fairness should allow that the second text is there too. Well,maybe it's only a matter of planning and a matter of time which I learned in here is more complicated than anywhere else. I cant even plan some kind of holidays for two weeks because I never know when I will write tests (so called Klausur) in the free time after the semester. So,one is chained to this place and the studies for three years. But some things cant wait for three years. I need time to publish my book...to correct the mistakes first and then find someone who publishes it. I need time to write poetry and besides all this I need time to write all the other things which the teachers want me to write. That reminds me that Literature cant be that boring...because I never had time to write a poem during that lecture. Though it definitely is an enrichment to my knowledge and my poetry. I will see what's said about Shakespeare today and will lean back to enjoy the words about this great gentleman.

Jessika Thiele: On Poetry, Wednesday, 21st November, 2007

Somehow in the lecture yesterday there was a deep unrest in the room...It was pretty hard to concentrate on the lecturers words. I tried to be specially attentive because sometimes it happens that I turn my back to the topic 'Novel'. I am an author myself and it's also interesting to see the roots of Novels...at least there is the same mess of names as in Poetry. But frankly my thoughts are still with a totally different word... Already at last weekend, when I had a look at the topic 'The Rise of the Novel' the word 'Rise' made me think. Obviously some students expected to hear about the total beginning of the Novel...(Oh sometimes we wish it would be so simple in history...get an exact day and exact name of the author and exact name of the title...We would keep it all in mind...write it down in the written test and get our perfect mark for it.)Nevertheless we shall be glad that history is not that simple...so we can open a debate about everything. Well, back to the rise...I would like to copy the definition of the word I found in my dictionary: rise,rising,rose,risen :1 to get up from a lying,sitting,or kneeling position; 2 to move from a lower to a higher position or place. That may be enough as a definition of this word.So rising is not the beginning though a lying position' can also be some kind of beginning. So now I suppose the rise is meant to be the beginning of the debate about Novels. So what was before Robinson Crusoe? Novels, romances, dramas!? All together!?

Maybe Robinson Crusoe deserves an own category of literature...It's not a typical romance neither a typical novel. Perhaps that was the special trick of DeFoe's writing...it looks as if it is a romance and shocks the readers with its signs of a novel(in my eyes that's what makes a book interesting: special elements of writing which differ from every other book of the past.) We try to force the book into a category...instead of having endless discussions about which category it belongs to ,we can keep it easy and give it an own category. It would demand some more work and confusion to invent some more categories of literature but it may help us in our discussion.

Mr. Simons mentioned another point which attached my attention immediately...female authors! I honestly doubt that we shall put Robinson Crusoe into this area ...so called proto novels most prominently by female authors(third version). Female authors deserve a special seperated part of literature. Perhaps a good point to seperate the rise from novels written by men from the rise of novels written by women. The problem we just face here again when we start dividing and dividing...we can also continue cutting the writers into seperations (rich or poor; educated or uneducated (in the time we are talking about there rich and educated was definitely linked))

Before I close this article I may find some more words about the end of the lecture (the questioning time) The audience laughed about Mr.Simons word higher educated readership. What was there to laugh about? At university we are part of a higher educated readership and it's indeed a part of our lecture to differ between fictional and non-fictional writings. Of course,it takes a lot of reading till we really can see what's true and what's fiction but with every book (mostly modern novels-the topic of our following lectures) we get a little closer to this aim.

Jessika Thiele 11:50, 21 November 2007 (CET)

Jessika Thiele: On Poetry, Wednesday, 14th November, 2007

Here we go...at a cold cold Wednesday night...Recovering my impressions from the yesterday's lecture and from a line of a friend of mine: She said that Literature is the most confusing course of the whole English studies. Frankly, I can understand her but only because I know that literature is such a wide field and that's why it seems complex. I also admit that after the lecture of literature I was even more confused about my main question...

What is Poetry?...

And what's the difference to Poesy?

Why do you use two different words? Poesy so soft and Poetry so strong...almost an illusion because Poetry is mostly fragile. I fear I need to find out first

'What WAS Poetry?'

Was it Opera? No, not at all...

There was more than Opera and more in the Poets heads than a play on a stage. (Sometimes poetry should be hidden in a small chamber and never get out...especially not on a stage...you can compare it to a prisoner whose head will be cut off in front of hundred people)

I try to figure out what the Poets of that time thought. Were they happy with the stage? And another question rising in my head: What about Drama? So all Poets in that time got a connection to Drama (or at least to a play on a stage in a theatre)?

I suppose I already asked far more questions than one can answer...some surely will be answered by the tutors in the lectures and some will be answered by myself. I dont know...when I think of Drama and a theatre then Shakespeare comes into my mind. Even the hundred years old books of Shakespeare's plays on my bookshelf may not give the answer to my dearly beloved questions. Simply because Shakespeare was not a poet...though...he wrote some poems I dare to say he was definitely not a poet as we know the word 'Poet' today...

So was he called a Poet in his time!?

So far the tutors in any English course were avoiding Shakespeare...his character...his time and his surroundings. I remember something my English teacher said last year: 'When I was studying I hated Shakespeare and I still hate him.' As an admirer of this great man I was shocked.

How can an English teacher ever dare to say she/he doesnt like Shakespeare?

Sure, I confess his plays and thoughts are not modern today BUT in his time his plays and thoughts were a revolution!

Well, I guess in the end literature is worth a discussion about its own definition...but it's not worth having a debate about the beauty of literature because every piece of Literature is beautiful!

Jessika Thiele 20:21, 14 November 2007 (CET)

Jessika Thiele: On Poetry, 6th November, 2007

I am not sure what this blog is for but somehow I felt a strong urgent to write something in here...about the lecture of this afternoon. The word 'Literature' in the historic background...it deeply fascinated me that we all talked about the same thing hundred years ago...just had another word.

Frankly there was one moment when I almost cried during the lecture...not because I was desperate or so sad or fed up with the content. No!

I deeply sighed when the tutor asked the rhetorical question: Why do we give our attention to poetry? I am studying English in the first semester and I am a poetess myself.Started writing some years ago.I even dare to say I am a good poetess...modern but good...and my first day in Oldenburg I spent in the library ... stumbling across books which tried to give me an answer on: What is poetry?

I found a book about Keats therories of this topic...that he used the word 'Sensitivity' to describe this rhythmic expression of feelings.

For so many years I was writing verses...lines...deeply meant to be philosophical...and suddenly at my first day in Oldenburg I was confronted with the question of my entire being.

I suppose it's obvious now that I really love poetry and it's not only verses or rhyme or any other well written nonsense to me. I appreciate English language in its deep sense and it strucked me deeply inside when I heard people laughing about this language...making fun of it.

Doesnt this language deserve our respect?

Pityful I thought about this question for a while and I came to the conclusion that all the people there had a reason why they took those English courses...in a modern way this reason can be defined as respect. I admit my respect towards language is quite different...

Anyway, I return to my first lines and to the question why we give so much attention to poetry...I may answer it one day when I found a satisfying answer on 'What is Poetry?' or I will just get an answer from the tutors in further lectures...I hope that the tutors will come to the simple end that they say 'Poetry deserves our attention because it reflects the feelings of individuals towards a hidden topic in a special time of history...in a special period.'

Jessika Thiele 20:02, 7 November 2007 (CET)


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