SENIORS 2011
30 DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION!!!!
English
Test Alert: Prologue, Chapters 1-9
We will continue our study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Please read deeply into Book III.
Additionally, I have reserved time in the computer lab so that you may work on your research paper. This paper is due on the 12th of April (before we dismiss for Spring break)
Shakespeare: We will begin a study of the Tragedies of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear.We will be viewing the cinematic representations of these works. I will be supplying you with supplemental information concerning tragedy itself and historical, socio-economic, and political structures surrounding the plays.
This quote is from The Essence of Shakespeare by David Chandler found at http://www.lcurve.org/writings/Tragedy.htm
"We have said that tragedy deals with one of the great paradoxes of life. It does not propose a solution to the paradox. It does not tell us that life is meaningful in spite of defeat and disappointment, nor does it point to despair and proclaim the worthlessness of our hopes. Rather it affirms the paradox and challenges us with it."
Additionally, Northrop Frye distinguishes five stages of action in tragedy: 1) Encroachment. Protagonist takes on too much, makes a mistake that causes his/her "fall." This mistake is often unconscious (an act blindly done, through over-confidence in one's ability to regulate the world or through insensitivity to others) but still violates the norms of human conduct. 2) Complication. The building up of events aligning opposing forces that will lead inexorably to the tragic conclusion. "Just as comedy often sets up an arbitrary law and then organizes the action to break or evade it, so tragedy presents the reverse theme of narrowing a comparatively free life into a process of causation." 3) Reversal. The point at which it becomes clear that the hero's expectations are mistaken, that his fate will be the reverse of what he had hoped. At this moment, the vision of the dramatist and the audience are the same. The classic example is Oedipus, who seeks the knowledge that proves him guilty of murdering his father and marrying his mother; when he accomplishes his objective, he realizes he has destroyed himself in the process. 4) Catastrophe. The catastrophe exposes the limits of the hero's power and dramatizes the waste of his life. Piles of dead bodies remind us that the forces unleashed are not easily contained; there are also elaborate subplots (e.g. Gloucester in King Lear) which reinforce the impression of a world inundated with evil. 5) Recognition. The audience (sometimes the hero as well) recognizes the larger pattern. If the hero does experience recognition, he assumes the vision of his life held by the dramatist and the audience. From this new perspective he can see the irony of his actions, adding to the poignancy of the tragic events. WE WILL TRY TO IDENTIFY THESE WITHIN THE PLAYS.
CONGRATS ON YOUR SUCCESS WITH THE GRAD EXAM!!!
English 11
We will continue our study of the changing American literary voice. You will need to have your literature book in class each day as you will be reading in class and discussing the texts. In the post-modern period, the multicultural voice begins to exert itself and we will consider the reasons and conditions surrounding the entrance of this voice. Additionally, you will write a comparative essay on Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" and O'Brien's "Speaking of Courage."
This is link for the structure of a basic compare/contrast essay
http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/Com_Con.html
AP Language and Composition
Debrief of study session. Lecture on Things They Carried --understanding rhetorical strategies in the text.
Practice multiple choice, write essay on Things They Carried.
