Welcome to 2018 AS Literature!

Hi people, Teacher Matt checking in for the new year- watch this space for things to come...

Welcome back! New essay:

Hi everyone,


Here's the next essay question:

In what ways, and with what dramatic effects, does Shakespeare contrast Antony and Octavius Caesar? 

Make critical judgements, then use all the best evidences from the text to back up your conclusions.

Let me know if you'd like any further suggestions.


- T. Marcus

Practice exam questions

Discuss Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of loyalty and betrayal in Twelfth Night.

Discuss Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of the relationship between Antony

and Octavius Caesar in the play.


These are pretty standard question types and styles from Cambridge.  Enjoy.


- T. Marcus

Antony & Cleopatra essay focuses - Egypt

Hi everyone,


As promised, here's those notes I showed today.  Hope it helps, let me know if you have any questions.  Have a crack at other paragraphs!

Discuss Shakespeare’s dramatic presentation of Egypt in the play ‘Antony & Cleopatra’.

Possible topics to cover:

What characterises Egypt?

            Cleopatra

            Excess without restraint

            Wealth & Luxury - exotics

            Fleshly pursuits  (Food, sensuality, & entertainment)

            Pleasure

            Danger

            Change & deception

            Immorality

            Mysticism / godlessness / paganism (Egyptian gods)

What makes these characteristics stand out?

            Contrast with Rome; juxtaposed through structure of scene arrangement

            Language focuses, interests

            Drama, passion, emotion

            Emphasis on Egypt as a location for play’s action

            Imagery

            Its effect on others, particularly Antony

Other considerations:

            Gender powers (Rome is dominated by a male authority, Egypt by female)

            Gender roles / gender swapping (and comedic vs tragic conventions)

            Hierarchy & conduct (social, militia, personal)

            

- T. Marcus

Term Two study break

Hi everyone,


Hope you're being strategic about getting some down-time and still getting done the things that need to be done!

To that end, here's what I expect to be done:

• Read Antony & Cleopatra (main play text)
• Read Intro to Antony & Cleopatra, at least through first 15 pages (main play text)
• Read summary & analysis for all scenes in Antony & Cleopatra (study guide)
• Revise and consolidate ALL notes for ALL other texts - these should reduce your notes to core basics for all poems, chapters, and scenes.
• Choose the four poems you will be memorising in preparation for your examinations, and begin memorising.  At least two of these should be memorised before we return to Term Three.

And no essay for the holidays!  I know; I'm amazing.  :)

Enjoy.


- T. Marcus

Twelfth Night - Week 6 reading

Hi everyone,


This week's readings:

Main text-

• If you haven't finished it yet, do.

Study Guide-

• 'The Pangs of Laughter', 'Antonio's Agony'; p45
• p83, 85-87

Also, you should start going back through the study guide and developing your scene notes.


- T. Marcus

Twelfth Night - Week 5 reading

Hi everyone,


This week's readings:

Main text-

• Act 4, Scene 3 - end; p143-162 (sorry, last week's pages were meant to read 119-142)
• Intro, p36-46 (Stage history)

Study Guide-

• Act 4&5 summary / analysis; p50-54
• Using Critical Interpretations & Perspectives, p98-105

Sorry this one is so late!



- T. Marcus

Twelfth Night - Week 4 reading

Hi everyone-


This week's readings:

Main text-

• Act 3, Scene 4 - Act 4, Scene 2; p143-162
• Introduction, p34-36

Study Guide-

• Act 3&4 summary/analysis, p44-49
• Characters: p60-61, 66-67
• Contexts & Critical Debates, p79-82

We will be discussing in class this week what you're getting out of the above.
I will be focusing on notes from:

• Characters
• Contexts & Debates
• Intro pages

Have fun!


- T. Marcus

Twelfth Night - Week 3 reading

Hi everyone,

This week's readings:

Main text-

• Act 3 Scene 1 - Act 3 Scene 3, p 107-119
• Intro, p27-34

Study Guide-

• Act / Scene summary, p37-43
• Characters, 56-59 & 62-65

Have fun!

- T. Marcus

Essay - just in case..

Hi everyone,


I added this onto the previous blog post, but in case you haven't read it yet:

Your new essay is an 'open text' essay:

Rosedale asks, 'Why should I mind saying that I want to get into society?'
In light of this comment, discuss Wharton's presentation of social ambition in the novel.

Hope that's all clear.  :)


- T. Marcus

Shakespeare, Act 2 readings

Hi everyone-


Sorry, thought I'd already published this one.  Hm.

SO, this week's reading:

Main Text-

• Act 2- pg 81-107
• Introduction- pg 15-25

Study Guide-

• Themes- pg 68-74
• Writing essay responses- pg 90-91

UPDATE-
Your new essay is an 'open text' essay:

Rosedale asks, 'Why should I mind saying that I want to get into society?'
In light of this comment, discuss Wharton's presentation of social ambition in the novel.


There!  Enjoy.


- T. Marcus

Shakespeare, part 1: Twelfth Night

Hi everyone,


Well done again on getting through The House of Mirth!  Make use of those teacher notes, and good luck deciphering the Book One notes.  I will pray for you.  :)

NOW.  Shakespeare!  This week's readings:

Play-

• Intro, pgs 6-15
• Act 1, pgs 56-81

Study guide-

• Act 1 summary / analysis, pgs 12-23

I'll always let you know what you need to be reading for the week.  Stay ahead of me so if there's anything that confuses you, you can bring it up in class!

Tomorrow I'll release the readings for NEXT week.

Enjoy!


- T. Marcus

John Milton - Evening in Paradise (from Paradise Lost)

As stated in class, this is from Book IV, and as I found in this link, is lines 598 - 632.  Yikes.

Focus on IMAGERY.  This is the key for the entire poem.

Themes to look at are the power, importance, and reward of Sleep.  There is a potential mirror to works being the way to heaven (i.e. sleep/rest is the reward for earthly labour).

Mr. Sir and Sparknotes both have interesting things to say.  For Mr. Sir, particularly note paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Context section.

Enjoy.  :)


- T. Marcus

Welcome back to Term Two!

Hi everyone,


I hope you're all fully rested and ready to go!

Remember to do planning on your essays TONIGHT.  We will be discussing it in class tomorrow.

Again, my apologies for the No Post During Term Holidays.  Fortunately, I'm sure you were all diligent enough to get things done as requested.  :)

We have 4 weeks left of the novel-

Use the Cliffsnotes to make sure you understand the basic plot structure, characters, and themes
Use TheBestNotes for further detail
Make sure you're tracking the different settings

By now you should know the various character foils.  Now figure out WHY they're so different!  What is it that sets them apart?  In what way is Lily a foil for herself?  (To begin answering that last one, consider the influence of her mother)

Enjoy.


- T. Marcus

Samuel Johnson - The Vanity of Human Wishes

Hi everyone,


How'd you like to be able to look at a dictionary and use the old Star Wars line, "I am your father!"??

I know that's a bit weird, but it's quite a cool thought to me anyway.

Wiki to the rescue again, have a look at the sources for this poem.  Add to your notes.  Samuel Johnson himself is also an interesting read, though Mr. Sir has the most comprehensive one-stop-shop on this poem.

A general Google of the poet and the title brings up many options to explore, including Shmoop and eNotes, which I suggest you look up.

Enjoy.


- T. Marcus

John Keats - Ode on Melancholy

Hi everyone,


I know I'll have mentioned the Greek mythology element, and you certainly should find a way to mention it in your essays due to Keats' consistent focus on the legendary / mythological.  Consider the atmospheres that are evoked by this technique, and how these references establish a foundation from which to view and compare the other two stanzas.

For the whole story of Psyche, this is quite informative.

You could look up the Catholic rosary if you want to firm up your understanding of that image.

The search to more clearly understand Negative Capability is a deep dark hole that I don't know if I really want to go down, in fear I might not emerge alive.  After you.  :)

All that said, there are various great places to look into Keats' life and this particular work.  Mr. Sir recommends the Shmoop and Sparknotes pages.  I thoroughly agree.  Remember to look at the bit on Sparknotes regarding the original 1st stanza.

(No, I didn't conveniently link those sites for you here.  Hah.)

Mr. Sir himself has some good observations, and you may find that we tend to agree.  Overall.  You should definitely check out the final paragraph of his Language & Techniques section.

Meanwhile, I'm still chewing on that 'shade to shade' line.  Lots of possible interpretations, and I'm not sure I'm happy with any of them.  Which brings me back to negative capability.  (argh)


- T. Marcus

Alexander Pope - extract from An Essay on Criticism

Hi everyone,


This one had SCREEDS of information available.  Apparently Pope gets re-evaluated reasonably regularly, so there are lots of opinions about his work in general.  But I think mine's right.
(GET IT??!?)
(...aw, nevermind)

Wikipedia and Mr. Sir are your "go-to" sites for this one.  This one was interesting, too.

That said, I think you'll really want to make sure you've got your heads around the main points of the Augustan age.  Of course there are the links off to the side, yet also check out this page.

Have fun!


- T. Marcus

Latest essays

Hi everyone,


Getting better and better!  Here's some thoughts for helping hone our essay technique.

Primarily, there are two issues that seem to be emerging:

1. General essay structure
2. Ability to integrate knowledge of context

First things first:

Structure.

When comparing / contrasting two poems, if you're looking at how the poets do things separately, make sure you emphasise that.  Example- when beginning analysis of the second poem, you might start by saying something like,
"While Scott has put more weight on personification, a 1st person narrator, and concrete structure, Stevenson has chosen to employ epitaphic form, and to alternate between use of a 1st person narrator in the first stanza and 3rd person narrator in the second."

Then you could discuss the effects of these choices.  Alternatively, you could save this discussion for the conclusion section.

And for the love of all that is good and makes cookies in this world, learn the difference between 'apart' and 'a part'.


Integrating context:

When you've explained the effects of a particular language feature, or combination of language features, extend the idea in your paragraph by adding another sentence or two, explaining how the context makes your observation more meaningful.

Example.

"This pain of loss in love is particularly touching in that the author was experiencing marriage difficulties at this time.  The sense of betrayal is keenly felt in the semantic field, with words such as..."

That sort of thing.

In the conclusion, you could also further your observations by discussing how the author's contexts balance against the key concerns of the question.

'Context' should now include English Literature eras.  Find out what era each of these poems was from, and try to discern which eras most influenced the authors.  Occasionally you will discover a conflict, which may be meaningful.


Hope that helps.


- T. Marcus

Elinor Morton Wylie - Now Let No Charitable Hope

Hi everyone,


Interesting lady!  And very interesting life choices.  Poor thing.

I've covered most of the context which I freely admit came from the world's best source of possibly unreliable material, Wikipedia.  Here's a great quote from there on the anthology this poem came from:

In Black Armor (1923), "the intellect has grown more fiery, the mood has grown warmer, and the craftsmanship is more dazzling than ever.... she varies the perfect modulation with rhymes that are delightfully acrid and unique departures which never fail of success ... from the nimble dexterity of a rondo like 'Peregrine' to the introspective poignance of 'Self Portrait,' from the fanciful 'Escape' to the grave mockery of 'Let No Charitable Hope.'"

What you SHOULD be doing right this second is looking through that paragraph to determine the key growths of the poet's style in this particular anthology.  It will make you sound smart in essays.  :)

SO.  Check that link out if you want to see more.  Good stuff.

You're going to want to check out the Romanticism link over on the right, because as I said in class, Wylie was heavily influenced by this.  You don't have to know it all, but I would read the following sections of that link:

• The intro bit,
• The Basics characteristics section of Defining Romanticism,
• The intro bit for Romantic Literature, 
• and the sub-section there called Influence of European Romanticism on American writers

Though by no means exhaustive, this analysis occasioned some good thoughts on some of the imagery present in the poem.

And what era of English literature would this poet actually be from?  How does that match up with her Romantic Era interests?

Have fun.


- T. Marcus

Alun Lewis - Song

Hi everyone,


So, I hope you brought your tissues.  Sad story on this guy, huh?

If you'd like to read more about Lewis and his life, this is a pretty interesting read, and short; Wikipedia has much more information.

I stumbled across this site, which unfortunately requires a paid account to see the rest (much like enotes).  Still, what's there is FANTASTIC for context.

Consider that long quote we wrote down re: Lewis' poetry in general and his quest for meaning in the hopelessness.  Measure that thought up against other things that don't seem to fit a given pattern.  Rhyming pattern?  Enjambments and open-ended lines?

You'll find your own thoughts, but I thought I'd get you started.  Do some google searches and challenge my conclusions with your own!


- T. Marcus