English 2850 Spring 2024 Great Works of World Literature II

Hi Everyone,

I hope you enjoyed this afternoon’s staged reading of The Tempest. Building on what Professor Kolb asked when she introduced the play, please share (in a comment on this post) one specific moment or element in the performance that surprised you, confused you, or made a strong impression on you.

Don’t forget that your Personal Response Essays are due on Friday, March 15th. You can submit your essay by sharing it with [email protected] as a Google Doc or by emailing it to me at [email protected]. Email me if you have any questions about this.

Looking forward to reading your essays and to seeing you in class on Monday. We will be discussing Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”.

Take care,

Professor Sylvor

As you know, on Wednesday, March 13th, instead of our regular class, we will be attending a 3pm staged viewing of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We will meet at 2:55 in The Engelman Recital Hall (head downstairs or elevator from the lobby of the NVC).

You will enjoy the reading a LOT more if you do some preparation ahead of time to familiarize yourself with the basic plot of The Tempest.

My suggestions are as follows, but you should also feel free to find other video or print sources:

Video Synopsis of The Tempest:

1960 American televised version (around 1hr 15min):

Brief Written Synopsis:

https://tinyurl.com/3tz8475r

1. What is the significance of the information Douglass provides about the early years of his life?
2. What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
3. What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
4. Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
5. How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?
6. Where does slavery persist in our own contemporary world? Give an example.

Just a reminder that on Monday, March 4th, you will be submitting your topics for your first formal writing assignment. The topic can be typed or handwritten and should include the text you have selected as well as the issue, element, or aspect of the text that you will be focusing on in your response. You can find a copy of the assignment here on the blog under the “Writing Assignments” tab. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

• In what sense does “Tintern Abbey” offer readers a “religion of nature”? What are some of the specific ways in which nature works as a substitute for traditional religion?
• Why do you think Wordsworth gives “Tintern Abbey” such a precise and detailed sub-title? What is the significance of this poem’s full titile?
• In the final portion of “Tintern Abbey,” the speaker turns to his “dear friend.” Who is this friend and what role does he/she play in the poem?
• “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” and “The World Is Too Much with Us” are both sonnets. Why do you think a poet might choose to work with such a highly structured form?
• Describe some of the ways in which Wordsworth’s poetry conforms to some of the features of Romanticism that we’ve discussed. What evidence can you find to illustrate this?

1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
2. Compare the mode of creation described in “The Lamb” with that of “The Tyger.” How are they similar? How are they different?
3. In “London”,  the speaker says he hears “mind-forged manacles” (line 8) What do you think that phrase means?
4. What differences do you see between the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems?
5. Choose a single line from any of the poems that made a strong impression on you and share it here.  What is going on in this line in terms of language and meaning?  Why do you think this line resonated with you?
6. The introductory poem to Songs of Innocence refers to a poet/singer/piper who composes “…happy songs,/Every child may joy to hear.” To what extent does this line describe the poems in Songs of Innocence?

1.  What is the narrator’s purpose in writing these “confessions”?  How do you know?

2.  For Rousseau, what is the relationship between feeling and thinking?

3.  How does Rousseau describe his childhood?  What significance can we draw from this description

4. Why do you think Rousseau chooses to include the anecdote about stealing from his employer?

5. Using your own language, how would you describe the narrator, given his self-presentation in The Confessions?

I hope that your understanding of Pope’s “Essay on Man” was deepened and enriched by our class on Wednesday, February 21st.  In a comment on this post, please share your most important “takeaways” from our exploration of the poem together.  What idea made the strongest impression on you?  What lingering questions are you left with?  What did you learn?  How did your view of the work change as a result of our discussion?  (These questions are just suggestions.  It’s up to you to decide what direction you’d like your response to take.). Please share your thoughts at any point after our class discussion on Wednesday (2/21), but no later than Sunday, February 25th.

Here are the groups for the presentations. Please make contact with your group members sooner rather than later, and plan on having a brief conversation with me either before or after class during the week before your presentation.

February 26* William Blake: Belkis, Lola, Stephanie

March 6 Frederick Douglass: Kayla, Mitchell, Tanvier

March 18 Herman Melville: Mardoitchy, Matthew, Sanel

April 1 Rabindranath Tagore: Lames, Umaimah, Joshua

April 8 Lu Xun: Allan, Arezu, Derek

April 10 Franz Kafka: Gilda, Anthony, Farhan, Kevin

May 8 Toni Morrison: Adrian, Joan, Antonio

* Don’t worry if you are in this group. I know that it is very soon. Please plan on speaking with me either before or after class on Wednesday, Feb 21st.

Read Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man”. You can find the text in Volume D of our anthology.  If you don’t have the book yet, you can easily locate it on the internet.  Please come to class prepared to share a few words about the section of the work you’ve been assigned below (Look for the Roman numerals in the poem to find your section.)  Rather than trying to explicate the whole section, you may want to identify a particular line or pair of lines, figure out what you think it means, and then connect that passage to the rest of your section or to the text as a whole.  This isn’t a formal presentation – just a chance to help your classmates find meaning in a work that may initially seem challenging. 

I: Tanvier, Mitchell

II: Lames, Belkis

III: Zilola, Sanel

IV: Arezu, Joan

V: Gilda, Kayla

VI: Kevin, Antonio, Derek

VII: Allan, Matthew, Stephanie

VIII: Adrian, Anthony

IX: Mardoitchy, Joshua

X: Farhan, Umaimah