Friday, February 6, 2015

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 5)

Greetings!

Again this week, we had a lively discussion about our literature selection, Much Ado About Nothing.  The students brought great discussion classes for us to work through.  We began our discussion with a quick overview of the plot and the characters.  While this is not one of Shakespeare's more complex plays, I feel that as a group we are able to dig a little deeper into the motivations and themes.  This week we discussed Benedick's and Beatrice's relationship, the idea of lies, spying, and overheard conversations, the theme of masks and mistaken identity, and character development.

For those who are interested, Librivox has an audiobook for the whole play.  Feel free to listen to this recording with the book in hand.

Next week will finish Much Ado and introduce Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  I handed out copies of the next book, in case they want to get started reading this.   You'll note the difference in length, compared to our previous two books.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Acts III, IV, & V of Much Ado
-- Write 3 Discussion Questions

Links for this Week:
Class Notes
Utah University Much Ado performance (Latin American setting)
Bexhill Theater Performance  (1945 setting)

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Prichard

No comments:

Post a Comment