Blog Question #11 (over and out!)

Using one of the innumerable resources on the web, find a plot summary of Jane Eyre. How does it relate to Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit? Why do you think Jeanette is so upset when she discovers that her mother has changed the ending, and how does that incident relate to a possible theme of the novel?

This will be your last blog question for the term. Thanks for all your hard work! Take the time now to catch up, revise if you like. I will review all entries that I marked as “incomplete,” so now’s your chance to edit and update them. All your blog entries should be completed before the exam period begins.

Blog Question #10 (for week 11)

Choose one of Marlene’s dinner guests – Isabella Bird, Lady Nijo, Dulle Griet (or Dull Grit), Pope Joan, or Patient Griselda. Find out a little bit about her and suggest reasons why Marlene might have wanted to include her. How do aspects of her life/history/etc work with what you can detect so far of Churchill’s themes? What does she order for dinner, and what might that tell you about her?

NOTE: if you have done all the blog questions so far, technically you can stop here. Remember you are going to be marked for the best ten out of all of them. However, even if you do not do any more formally, make sure you read the questions and think about your answers, as they all tie in with things that may turn up on the final exam. Also you WILL be marked on the best 10, so here’s your chance to make up for any lower results.

The Ninth Blog Question (for week 10)

This question relates to Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber.”

1. Read the Perrault original (linked from overview page) of “Bluebeard” and find one or two significant changes that Carter has made to the story. What effect or point do you think she was trying to achieve with these changes?

2. Find out something about St. Cecelia. What does knowledge of this intertextual allusion add to your reading of the story?

Blog Question #8 (for week 9)

The reading questions to go with this are those for Derek Walcott and Eavan Boland (for week 9)

A list of the intertextual references in Derek Walcott’s “Ruins of a Great House” are available in the course notes. Follow some of them up in some depth. Not necessarily all of them, but I strongly recommend at least “Urn Burial,” the Donne and maybe one or two others. Then survey all of them. Is there a theme? Collectively, do they suggest something that Walcott may be getting at? Oh, and I chose this poem because of “Burnt Norton” (hint).

Blog Question #7

Read Seamus Heaney’s essay “Englands of the Mind.” BRIEFLY (in a paragraph or so) summarize his main arguments, focussing on the distinction he makes between Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin. Be sure you articulate and understand clearly the point he makes about language as history – this ties in with our previous reading, and will take us forward to the readings for next week and later in the term.

Service Announcement for Camosun Students

Although some of the Camosun college servers are down, you can still access your online courses by typing in the URL’s directly.

English 150, 160 and 286 are available on the D2L site

Camosun WebCt courses can be accessed at the WebCt site

For your amusement

Hopefully, you’ll “get” this, now that you’ve read the poem…

Originally posted on LiveJournal in “lolauthors.” Used with permission.

Blog Question #6

“Time gentlemen please. It’s time” (Oops! right poet, wrong poem – bonus points for identifying them)

What do Yeats and Eliot have to say about time (include history here)? How does this compare with what Woolf and Joyce might have said? Ooooh, this looks like it might be a significant question…

Blog Question #5

Art, and its relationship to Life (and Death), is an important Modernist theme – as it is in most eras of literature. Do you see any connections between the various authors you have read and the way they deal with this topic? If you have a chance to read ahead to “The Shield of Achilles,” that would add another dimension to your ideas.

For this week and next, don’t worry about the “Reading Question” part of your blog assignment. I would like you to respond to another student – either read someone’s blog or read someone’s comment in the Discussion Forum and reflect on it here.

Blog Question #4

Google: Daedalus nightmare history. Just those three words, and you shouldn’t need to put quotations round them. Be careful with the spelling of Daedalus (you can also use “Dedalus,” which is actually the correct spelling of the name in Ulysses, but you’ll get a better result with “Daedalus”).

You should get a clear and obvious result. What is it? How can it be applied, not only to the Joyce stories that you’ve been reading (I hope), but perhaps also to Mrs D and to the early 20th century, and … well, heck, now?