British Literature Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 26)

Greetings!

We enjoyed another good discussion about our literature this week.  We've reached the end of a classic from the turn of the century, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.  As we read  quality works, we not only discuss themes, character development, and plots as they appear in the literature, but we also talk about the same ideas and how we see them reflected in our own lives.

I appreciate the discussion questions that they bring to class.  Every week, each one of them has a good set of insightful questions that promotes our lively discussions and helps us unpack our reading selection.

We are beginning our final book for this class:  The Thirty-Nine Steps.  This adventure novel written by Scottish author, John Buchan, is one of the first espionage thrillers.  His main character, Richard Hannay, has been described as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond.  It first appeared in 1915 as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine.  According to one commentary, this book would not have been a success "without Buchan's brisk characterization, loving evocation of Scottish landscape and his switchblade prose."    

I forgot to mention in class that for the last week I will be assigning the students a reflection paper.  This is their only writing assignment for the semester.  Also, we will have a final test on the last day.  But no worries, it will be in the form of a game!

Assignment for Next Week:

-- Read p. 1 - 42

-- Write 3 Discussion Questions

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Pygmalion -- 1938 film

My Fair Lady (with Rex Harrison & Audrey Hepburn)

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Alfred Hitchock, 1935)

The Thirty-:Nine Steps (Full Audio Book)

The 39 Steps (BBC, 2008)

The Thirty-Nine Steps Teacher's Guide

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 19)

Greetings!

We are once again in the realm of drama, reading George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.  The title of the play is taken from the Greek myth about the Pygmalion, a man who hated women.  However, he found himself lonely, so he carved a statue of a woman.  Then, he fell in love with the statue and whined to Venus to give the statue life.  Venus did, and Pygmalion and his lady statue lived happily ever after.

For this week we read the first three acts of the drama.  Unlike Shakespeare, Shaw includes lots of stage directions and editorial commentary.  Our discussion questions had us talking about what changes might happen to Eliza and what Higgins was like.  We read aloud a number of passages.  For next week, we'll read the the rest of the play.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Acts IV and V

-- Read the ending, p. 72 - 82.

-- Write 3 Discussion Questions

Links for This Week:

Class Notes

My Fair Lady Pronunciation

Why Can't the English Learn to Speak

Horse Race Scene (dialogue from Mrs. Higgins's visiting day)

"Wouldn't it Be Lovely?"

Pygmalion (1938)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 12)

Greetings!

This week in British Literature is one of my favorites for a number of reasons:  I love talking about poetry, we talk about one of my favorite poems, "The Lady of Shalott," and students spend part of the class time illustrating the poem, coming up with their own unique renditions.

Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shalott" is about a woman confined to a tower on a small island in a river that runs towards Camelot.  She can't directly look out of the window, but she watches the world go by via a mirror.  She weaves what she sees into a tapestry.  Finally, she "tires of shadows" and looks out the window.  (You'll have the read the poem or ask your student to find out what happens.)

For our class period, each student took a  portion of the poem to illustrate.  

     

   

This marks the end of our poetry section, and we are on to our next book, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.  If you are familiar with the musical My Fair Lady, then you will know this story.  They are to read the first half of the play for next week.

Assignments for next week:

-- Read Acts I, II, and III

-- Bring 3 discussion questions to class

Links for this week:

-- Class Notes

-- "The Lady of Shalott"

-- Pygmalion Commentary

-- Pygmalion Introduction

-- Pygmalion on Librivox

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- Week 10 (April 5)

Greetings!

We had a good class discussion this week.  Every week, the ability to analyze the literature (prose and poetry) and the comfort level in the class increases, resulting in great insights and discussions.

This week students read poetry from the Romantic period, and in class we focused on four poems:  "The Chimney-Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence and "The Chimney-Sweeper" from Songs of Experience (both by William Blake); "She Walks in Beauty" (Lord Byron); and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (John Keats). 

I love talking about the Keats poem because it has some good visual images but it also challenges the readers to contemplate

art within art

real time vs. slow'frozen time

the consequences of an action the never stops or never happens

What is art?  the urn, the poem, or our imagination?

Next week, we will be discussing Victorian poetry.  As with last week, studnets should read all of the poems but concentrate on the following ones:  

The Lady of Shalott (Tennyson)

My Last Duchess (Browning)

God's Grandeur (Hopkins)

Links this Week

Class Notes

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard