Recently we have done Prezi presentations of literary eras. My group's presentation was over Naturalism, Realism, and the Victorian era. It was nice to see the transition between the eras laid out, as well as gaining a more in depth understanding of each individual era. The most interesting part of it for me was seeing the way science and current events had a profound effect on the literature produced during these eras. I think its safe to say Darwin's The Origin of Species is one of the most influential pieces of literature ever written, and not just for its scientific impact. It was highly influential in both the naturalism and realism movements, and spurred the political movement known as Social Darwinism.
Our most recent in-class essay was great practice. I'm more worried about closed prompts at this point because I'm confident that because we are spending so much time on works like Death of a Salesman and Ceremony that the real challenge will lie in the closed prompt. I'm good at deriving meaning from the poems that are given to us. However I struggle when it comes time to show how they used literary techniques to enforce their meaning. I also miss most of the subtle points the author tries to make, most of my interpretations are begat through brute force.
Ceremony has been a great book thus far. I have really enjoyed the imagery the author employs. I can already its chockful of motifs and themes. Can't wait to break it down during class!
You had a better era for the Prezi presentations..my group had Classical Antiquity and Medieval and it was boring and I didn't like it very much. I think the closed prompts are really hard, but I'm the opposite from you in that I can find literary techniques easily but struggle with the bigger picture and themes. Ceremony does seem chockfull of motifs and themes. I feel as though we are going to be analyzing it for months upon months.
ReplyDeletehey Doug, Nico again. I too enjoyed seeing how the eras of literature flowed into one another, because in past classes i've learned about all of them, but the context of them all together is lost. Your opinion on closed vs open prompts is irrelevant because you used the word "begat" successfully, so thats 10 points to Gryffindor. I too enjoyed ceremony. we are alike you and me.
ReplyDeleteYour era does seem pretty interesting--I had Classical Antiquity and Medieval like Ginger, and there definitely wasn't as much exciting progress being made back then. I agree with your sentiments on closed prompts--especially writing so many open prompts on these blogs, closed prompts will seem more daunting right now, so writing more of them would make me feel a bit more confident about it.
ReplyDelete