British Literature Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 8)

Greetings!

We had a good discussion in class.  We've progressed almost 600 years from the writing of Beowulf to Shakespeare's late 1500s.  Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.  Although he's known for his rhyming, the play that I've chosen for us to read, Much Ado About Nothing, is not written in verse. 

  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. 

As I mentioned at the beginning of the semester, students will be taking turns leading the discussions.  I've modeled how to discuss the book and tie in the various questions that students bring to class.  Below is the discussion leader schedule:
Week 4 (2/8) -- Mrs. Prichard
Week 5 (2/15) -- Daniel
Week 6 (3/1) -- Mrs. Prichard
Week 7 (3/8) -- Daniel
Week 8 (3/15) -- Caleb
Week 9 (3/22) -- Sam
Week 10 (4/5) -- Mrs. Prichard & Daniel
Week 11 (4/12) -- Mrs. Prichard & Caleb
Week 12 (4/19) -- Mrs. Prichard
Week 13 (4/26) -- Sam
Week 14 (5/3) -- Mrs. Prichard
Week 15 (5/10) -- Caleb & Sam

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Acts III, IV, & V of Much Ado  (Make sure you get your reading done!)

-- Write 3 Discussion Questions

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

Much Ado About Nothing (audio)

Much Ado -- Free Kindle Book

Utah University Much Ado performance (Latin American setting)

Bexhill Theater Performance  (1945 setting)

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Prichard