Your assignment for Thursday is to post a critical question about the reading (Theatre Histories 1-39 OR “Contraband”).
A critical question is a question that engages with the reading and prompts discussion. You can make a point, raise a problem, pose a scenario, respond to a debate, or ask a clarification question about a specific concept or passage. A good critical question is one that can lead to discussion. If you can easily answer the question, it’s not a great critical question. Critical questions should be 1-2 sentences long and may consist of just a question or a question plus explanation.
Remember, your job is to pose a question, not to answer it! That being said, if you’d like to respond to a classmate’s question you may comment on the blog. Online commenting will boost your participation grade for this course.
Post your critical question by going to your Blogs@Baruch “Dashboard” for this course, then clicking on “Posts” and “New Post.” Please post your question before 10 AM on Thursday.
First Critical Question
In regards to the Vedic chanting rituals (pg 22)- why were they considered so important even though the teachers and students had “little if any intellectual understanding of the meaning of the text”? Why have bodily instruction with something that is not understood, is there a subjective truth obtained through the chanting?