British Literature Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 26)

Greetings!

We had a good class today.  I enjoy starting my teaching day with this class.  Thinking about complex pieces of literature is a wonderful way to wake up our minds.

This semester, we will spend two weeks on poetry.  This week we covered some Romantic poetry; next week is Victorian poetry.  Poetry can be hard to understand.  It takes a lot more read and digest a piece of classic poetry.  Today, we read two of Blake's poems, "The Chimney Sweeper" from the Songs of Innocence and "The Chimney Sweeper" from the Songs of Experience.  Both were sad poems that dealt with the themes of injustice, religion, and poverty.

We also read Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," a poem depicting the almost perfected beauty of a young lady as she is compared to various aspects of Nature.

Our final poetry selection is one of my favorites, John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."  I felt we ran out of time, but we were able to make it all the way through it.  The poem is an artful paradox of the human figures carved on an ancient piece of pottery:  they are both free from time and frozen in time.  The poem then makes these figures live again through the words.  I've included a couple of links to some further analysis of the poem.  Personally, I think life is richer when you take the time to think deeply about this poetry, 

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the Victorian poetry handout.  We will especially be discussing:

     Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott"

     Browning's "My Last Duchess"

     Carroll's "Jabberwocky"

     Hopkins' "Pied Beauty" and "God's Grandeur"

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Poetry of John Keats

SparkNotes -- Ode on a Grecian Urn

Ode on a Grecian Urn Analysis

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 19)

Greetings!

We had another good discussion this week in British Lit.  We've come to the end of our longest selection, Great Expectations.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I asked the students how they would rate this book among others that they have read.  We seemed to be split between those who would give it 8-ish, and those who more inclined towards a 4 or 5.  While I recognize that not everyone will love this book, each year when we reach the end, I am newly amazed at Dickens's writing ability. 

For those of you who don't know, this book, Great Expectations, was written in installments.  In other words, he wrote a section and had it printed in his magazine.  Then he wrote the next section and had it printed.  His genius is in the cohesiveness of the plot and character development.  As is common for Victorian novels, all of the details are wrapped up in the final chapters.  No loose threads.

The students brought great questions to class, and I felt that we had a satisfying final discussion.

Our next unit is Romantic poetry.  I gave the students a handout of the poetry that we'll be reading.  In addition, I gave them a handout explaining the poetry of that time and one that discusses how to read poetry.  For next week, we will focus on a few poems, but I will pull out lines or stanzas from others in the handout.

Before reading the poems,  The students should read the Interpreting Poetry handout before they read the poems.  Also, they should read the questions that go with poems before reading each poem.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the handouts, Interpreting Poetry and Responding to Romantic Literature

-- Read the following poems:

     Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper"  (both poems)

     Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"

     Coleridge's "The Aeolian Harp"

     Byron's "She Walks in Beauty"

     Shelley's "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"

     Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

-- Note:  We will especially work through the Keats poem

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Interpreting Poetry

Responding to Romantic Poetry

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 8 (March 12)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  Our book, Great Expectations, has had some fascinating plot turns.  The characters are becoming more developed and the various themes have had a variety of expressions.  The students came prepared with great discussion questions.  In fact, we had a good variety of questions.    We compared persons and situations that seem similar, but had key differences.  For example:  Startopp and Drummle, Estella and Biddy, Pip and Herbert, the love relationships of Wemmick/Skiffin, Herbert/Clara, Pip/Estella, Joe/Jaggers/Magwitch.

We will finish the book this coming week.  The action of the plot will be picking up.  Students should give themselves plenty of time to read so that they don't run out of time.

Once we've finished our Victorian novel, we will head into Romantic poetry.  I will have handouts for the class next week.  A couple of students may be gone next week, so I've attached the file with the poetry readings.

It's beautiful out.  Have a glorious weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 7 (March 5)

Greetings!

The weather people say that Thursday was, most likely, our last really cold day. It's March and we're half way through the second semester at CHAT -- it could be that Spring is really on its way!

We are approximately half way through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  By this point of the book,we have a good sense of the characters ans some of the themes.  In our discussions, we can analyze more deeply many of the relationships and decisions of our characters because Dickens has done a thorough job of presenting the actors in this story to us.

The plot, on the other hand, continues to twist and turn.  This novel was one that Dickens published in monthly installments of his periodical, All the Year Round.  It was important that he write a "page turner" so that people would buy his magazine.  Students, be prepared for some surprises as you continue reading.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read p. 191 - 286

-- Bring 3 discussion questions to class -- at least one that is theme-related.

Links for this Week

(Some are repeats from previous weeks, but might be helpful for this week's reading, too.)

Great Expectations -- Audio Versions

Plot, Themes, and Style for Great Expectations

Great Expectations at a Glance

Great Expectations Videos

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Great Expectations Videos

Great Expectations has been remade into a number of movies.  One of my favorites is the 1946 version.  I think it stays most faithful to the book.

Below are some links to video versions.
Great Expectations (1946)

Great Expectations -- BBC  (1999)
     Part I and Part II

Netflix also has a 2012 version.