Tackling Poetry

We will dive right into poetry this week, and begin our great journey into analyzing it and loving every minute of it. ;) I know the class as a whole is divided on the idea of poetry. Some of you can't wait to discuss the nuances within each poem, and many of you are sighing and dreading these days in class. I promise that it will be fun. We are not only going to cover the basic poetry you see within textbooks, we are also going to cover contemporary poets and music artists. Music after all is poetry. If you go into it thinking about it that way (music is poetry), you'll probably enjoy it more and understand it more. Now I will say that we will not cover rap artists (sorry but I just can't get behind them), but we will cover some other genres of music. So now that I have you all a twitter with what we'll be covering, I'm going to throw another bombshell at you. Poetry is one of the best ways to learn about author's theme, purpose, and use of literary devices. It's short, sweet, and to the point. You don't have to cover massive amounts of text to get your answers. So see, there are benefits. It also keeps you in the mindset of looking for them as you read. It's all about making analysis second nature, and poetry is going to help us achieve that goal. Happy poetry all!

Anglo-Saxon's and Beowulf

This week we are going to start learning about the Anglo-Saxon era, and begin reading Beowulf. You can all thank J.R.R Tolkien for pushing through the importance of Beowulf in our literary history. One of the oldest known British stories that has survived history, it is believed that it may have been created between 650-800 AD. The oldest known manuscript is from 1000 AD, and the story still holds up strong today. There have been many movie adaptations of the book. Neil Gamain wrote the script for the movie that came out in 2007. He took the story, used actual passages from the text, and added his own twists. His twist being that the monsters in the story were a great example of the sins of the father are visited on the son. There was also a great adaptation in 2005 with Gerard Butler called Beowulf and Grendel. This version held more toward a semi-authentic view of the era it was written in. I can't wait to see what you all think of this poem as we read and discuss it in class.
 

Literary Theory

              This week you will be researching and creating a presentation for your classmates over a literary theory. Literary theories date all the way back to Plato and Aristotle.  Two amazing philosophers who looked at the world and all art forms from a unique perspective.
              In Plato's Republic (C. 380 BC), he discusses the allegory of The Cave. Prisoners are chained to a wall in the cave, and they are shown shadows on a wall. For example; they are shown a chair. The prisoner does not actually see the chair, he only sees the shadow of the chair, yet he calls it a chair. Plato argues that he really isn't seeing a chair but only a shadow so his naming is wrong. His argument is that they are only seeing mirror images or copies. This is what he believed artists did. They held up a mirror image or copy of nature. He believed that if they did not teach moral or ethics than their work was useless and only harms the reader or audience. Therefore, a careful examination of art had to be made.
             In Aristotle's Poetics (C. 335 BC), he considers poetry and art to be a part of a productive science. Since it was productive, it had to serve a purpose for the audience. In his text he lays out some guidelines for artists. He believed in organization of ideas, literary devices, and structure within a piece of writing. All of this was to help the reader reach a kartharsis with the work.
            Now your groups won't be going back as far with literary theory, but it is the key stone to all literature.  These two minds managed to come up with something that is still discussed today, and they have influenced so many great writers and theorists. All of the theories that you are researching have a starting influence with Plato and Aristotle. I can't wait to see what you guys produce from your research. These will be theories that we will use all year long.