Difference between revisions of "2007 BM1-E Introduction to Literature, Part 2"

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This is a sub page of 2007 BM1 Introduction to Literature, Part 2

Session 1: A Poem (April 18, 2007)

First session conducted by Anna Auguscik and Olaf Simons

Session 2: Poetry and Poetics (April 25, 2007)

Work to be done for this session - read:

• Sir Philip Sidney, "Not at first sight" from Astrophil and Stella
• William Percy, "Sonnet II" from Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia
• Christina Rossetti, "I wish I could remember" from A Pageant and Other Poems

Please read these texts in the text base Anna provided - the copies offer the better editions.

Session 3: Poetry and Poetics: Speaking about Beautiful/Artful Language (May 2, 2007)

Group Reading Merchant of Venice (May 6, 2007)

Group reading of William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (1600). Download the original text (or read the Arden edition). If you join us you can facilitate our planning by registering unter Current events#May 6, 2007: Merchant of Venice.

Session 4: The different Plots of the Play - Outline (May 9, 2007)

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (1600)

Session 5: Characters and Characterisation (May 16, 2007)

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (1600)

• What is an act?
• What is a scene?
• Locations can change within acts.
• Some remarks on the quarto edition which did not note scenes and acts.
• Close Reading of Act II, Scene ii Clown and Father.

• Monologue
• Soliloquy
• Aside (here with clear interaction between Clown and audience)
• Characterisation of the Clown - Language, Foolery
• Remarks on the role of the Clown (Hans-Wurst, Harlekin, Kasper) - who developed from country simpleton to our stock character circus clown.

• Handout: Analysing Dramatic Communication

Session 6: Rhythm of the play (May 23, 2007)

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (1600)

• What kinds of scenes do we have, how are they arranged - there is a flow of scenes with a dramatic rhythm. On the blackboard: A short list of the scenes from I.1-II.vii: Locations change within Acts, the mood changes. We jump from place to place to get certain pieces of information (yet not only this: Belomont, the different scenes where competitors have to choose the right casket are kept apart - we should speak about that next session, and we should reconsider how the themes are knitted together)
• Rhetoric: We spoke about a speech (once more words: Monologue/ Soliloqui/ Speech/ Aside) and its rhetorical devices and about the role of speeches in general. Handout: Rhetoric. Close reading of the court scene act IV. Debate: Disposition of arguments. Portia has to lead the Jew through a passage of answers so that she can reach him with her final argument - he has to make it clear that he is ready to kill Anthonio in the event. The sequence of statements on all sides is, furthermore, used to characterise the protagonists.

Session 7: Discussion of Merchant of Venice (May 30, 2007)

Defend a position - and prepare your argumentation with arguments to be taken from the text:

• The play is overall antisemitic
• The play is rather designed to arouse sympathies towards Jews
• Is Anthonio a Homosexual?
• The question of homosexuality should not bother us as literary scholars

I'd be happy if people who prepare their argumentation left their names underneath the topic of their choice (log in and sign with ~~~~ to leave your signature).

What I should teach? Characters (what sorts of?), character developments etc.

Assignment II given due Wednesday 6th, June 2007. See also our page Survive Assignments

Session 8: Drama and Fiction (June 6, 2007)

Session 9: Fiction 1 (June 13, 2007)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne. "Young Goodman Brown (1835)." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. B. Fifth Edition. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 2258-2267. (Source not noted on the pdf-scan. Please add source yourselves.)
• Katherine Mansfield. "The Voyage." The Garden Party and Other Stories. London: Constable and Company Ltd, 1922. 168-181.

Movie: Pulp Fiction (June 19, 2007)

The lecture room turned into a cinema: Pulp Fiction

Session 10: Fiction 2 (June 20, 2007)

The three texts we will discuss:

• Nathaniel Hawthorne. "Young Goodman Brown (1835)." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. B. Fifth Edition. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 2258-2267. (Source not noted on the pdf-scan. Please add source yourselves.)
• Katherine Mansfield. "The Voyage." The Garden Party and Other Stories. London: Constable and Company Ltd, 1922. 168-181.
• Robert Coover. "Magic Poker." Pricksongs and Descants. Fictions (1969). New York: New American Library, 1970.

Questions will deal with the narrator's/author's position.

Session 11: Film (June 27, 2007)

Session 12: Beyond the Canon 1 (July 4, 2007)

Session 13: Beyond the Canon 2 (July 11, 2007)

Session 14: Term Paper Projects (July 18, 2007)