Understanding & Interpretation

Add to the shelf: Classic authors in context

9 Jul 2012

2 Comments

Blackwell’s Companion to Romanticism
I’ve had this book on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time but was being held back by the price. I finally bit the bullet on it and I’m relieved to find I’m really enjoying it. This companion to Romanticism contains 52 essays on all aspects of the Romantic movement. Part 1 of the book puts Romanticism in context with chapters on movements leading up to Romanticism and historical context, including the French Revolution. Part 2 has 23 essays discussing individual novelists and poets. Part 3 discusses genres of Romanticism; the novel, gothic, travel writing, etc. Part 4 is more eclectic with essays on various issues and debates. Feminism, historicism, psychological view points plus comparisons and influences such as England and Germany, Shakespeare and the Romantics, Milton, etc.

I’m currently on Chapter 5, Britain at War, and so far I’ve found the essays very well written. The authors seem to know their subject very well and express their points clearly with factual information to back it up. I’ll compare this to what I feel are some lesser and more jumbled essays next.

David Hume had taken the skepticism of the Enlightenment to its logical conclusions. In his Treatise of Human Nature Hume argued that the notions that we have of cause and effect are simply linked to the way which we experience the events in space and time and that such notions of causation have no objective existence. Thus, one’s knowledge of causation is a matter of habit or custom, not a logical certainty. Hume expressed radical skepticism about the nature of the human self, concluding that what one called the self was merely an ever-changing ‘bundle of sensations’. It was this position that ..laid the foundations for the Romantic Idealism
~Peter Kitson, Beyond the Enlightenment

 

The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel 
I purchased the kindle version of this book and I’m glad that I did because I’m not very impressed with it. Unlike the Blackwell companion, the essays in the Cambridge companion can’t seem to express a complete thought or theory. This book has 11 essays putting the Victorian novel in historical context, discussing the industrial revolution, gender roles, race, etc. So far I’ve read 6 of the 11 and most of the essays are less about sharing with the reader “actual information” and more about the authors musings. I often felt like the authors were not expressing their opinion clearly and they jumped on to another topic or aspect of their topic before they had fully expressed or gave any backing evidence for their first opinion. The exception to this sort of scattered writing was chapter 2, Simon Eliot’s The business of Victorian publishing. Eliot seemed to know his topic very well and shared much interesting information and perspective.
I’m not sure if I will go ahead and finish this book or not. I was pretty disappointed with it but maybe the last couple chapters will surprise me.

 

The Cambridge Companion to The Brontes 
Now after the Companion to Victorian novel mess, I was concerned that this title would also be a total flop. I bought this book on Amazon used for about $2.50, so at least I didn’t have much invested in it lol. To my relief though, this Cambridge companion is great. I haven’t been able to put it down. When I saw that the very first essay was by Juliet Barker my spirits and hopes where lifted. I have the humongous The Brontes by Juliet Barker on my shelf. I haven’t read it yet but I know she is one of THE experts on the Brontes. As expected her essay, The Haworth context, was very interesting. She gave me a whole new view point on the Bronte’s father Patrick.
I am now on Chapter 6, Shirley and Villette, so excited to read this today. Probably my favorite essay so far was Angela Leighton’s The Poetry. It lead me to looking up Emily Bronte’s poem Remembrance which I posted the other day. The first line: Cold in the earth- and the deep snow piled about thee, is still running around my mind.

‘Cold in the earth- and the deep snow piled above thee’, doubles not only the fact but also the sensation of cold. The line gets colder. It probes the buried source of coldness, making cold felt. By piling on snow as well, the poet transforms the sensation of cold into literal weight, as if to force or hold something down. Snow buries the dead doubly ‘deep’, as if earth itself were not deep enough.
~Angela Leighton, The Poetry

Jane Austen in Context, the Cambridge edition
I bought this title used from Amazon as well, in the hardcover. My edition, Jane Austen in context, is just one of the series that cover all of Austen’s novels, her juvenilia, and letters. I’ve flipped through the other titles online, and it looks like each includes a lengthy introduction, numerous notes on the text, and in some cases several appendixes. Not sure if I will make it a goal to collected each but I am tempted. ;)
JA in Context covers in Part 1: Life and works, a short biography, essays on Austen’s language, literary influence, her poetry, etc. Part 2 Critical fortunes includes the reseption of Jane’s work, publishing history, and the cult of Austen. Part 3, Historical and cultural context, is the longest section. It has several essays detailing all aspects of Jane Austen’s times, Agriculture, Dress, Education, Money, and Rank, etc.
I read through the first essay, the biography. It was short but well written and it made its main focus something that is often over looked in other Austen bios, her personal finances. I’ve read snips of some of the other chapters and so far, they all look very interesting and well researched.

Edward Austen (Jane’s brother) eventually enjoyed an income greater than Mr. Darcy’s, nearly £15,000 a year, but he was not at first remarkably generous to his mother and sisters after his father’s death in 1805 left them virtually homeless. Still, his initial pledge or £100 a year did almost double his mother’s income, and eventually he housed her and his sisters in the cottage at Chawton that has become the Jane Austen museum.
~Jan Fergus, Biography Jane Austin in Context

If you are interested in flipping through any of these books you can find them in my Classics Book shop, under Companions and Context. Well, you won’t find the Cambridge Victorian companion becasue I don’t recommend that one lol but you will find the others plus some other goodies to boot. The Classics book shop is just a project I am working on for fun. It is an Amazon affiliate store that I don’t really expect any traffic on but it is hella’ fun picking out my favorite books to add to it lol.
You can find additional companions, literary criticism, and biographies in the book shop under the Lit movement category pages and under the individual authors. Note that the list price for each book is just the Amazon price, click through to check for deals on used editions. The main link for the Book Shop, if you feel like browsing, is at the top of the blog home page.

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Classic literature, Non-fiction, The Romantics, Understanding & Interpretation, Victorian Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Literary analysis of The Picture of Dorian Gray

16 Feb 2012

6 Comments

This is going to be an epic post. Well, maybe it’s not as long a read as it was a long write. Each time I write a long post I think “whoa now THIS one is epic and I must start making my posts more manageable!”
I thought about breaking this into two posts but that would just cut off a thought midstream. Besides, this is a book blog, so I am just going to go ahead and assume you enjoy a novel ;)

Here I’ve used the elements of literature analysis I posted about the other day and this post is a perfect example of the analysis rabbit hole I mentioned. I actually thought I was done with this Monday when I wrote it down on paper. But as I typed it up more and and more thoughts came into my head about the story.

Note that as always with ‘book reviews, analysis and interpretation’ this is just my own view of Dorian Gray. And when I say something means or IS this, I simply mean it is today, to me, and tomorrow it may be something completely different.

Finally, spoilers abound. Sorry but it can’t be avoided in detailed analysis.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Published 1890

Plot Summary

Exposition/Intro:
Meet Basil Hallward painter and admirer of Dorian Gray. Meet Lord Henry, aka Harry, Basil’s hedonistic and quotable friend. Meet Dorian Gray a beautiful and unaffected youth.
All three men admire a portrait Basil has painted of Dorian. Lord Henry makes Dorian aware of his own beauty, power, and potential for pleasure.
Dorian, now self conscience of his beauty and youth, wishes the painting would age in place of himself.

Rising Action:
Lord Henry and Dorian meet again at a party where Henry deepens his corrupting influence over Dorian.
Dorian meets and quickly becomes engaged to a Shakespearian actress Sibyl Vane.
Dorian Basil, and Harry attend Sibyl’s play. Her acting is terrible because knowing real love she can no longer pretend.
Dorian is mortified and disillusioned, he cruelly dumps Sibyl.
When he returns home, Dorian sees that the painting bares the brunt his cruel actions.

Turning Point 1:
Sibyl kills herself because Dorian no longer loves her
Lord Henry convinces Dorian it’s not that big of a deal.
Dorian indulges his narcissism and choses to view Sibyl’s death as merely an artistic ending.

Falling Action
Basil is disgusted with Dorian’s reaction to Sibyl’s death and Lord Henry’s bad influence on the young man.
Basil admits his love/obsession to Dorian and attempts to act as a good influence but Dorian ignores him.
Lord Henry gives Dorian the Decadent book A Rebours. Dorian becomes obsessed with its message of living for the senses.
Dorian spends the next 20 years or so living only for pleasure.

Turning Point 2:
Basil confronts Dorian and tries to warn him about the consequences of sin.
Dorian mocks Basil’s morality and shows the painter how he managed to escape the tell-tell signs of sin.
Dorian becomes angry at Basil for creating and acting as his conscience and murders him.

Falling Action 2
Dorian blackmails a friend into getting rid of the Basil problem.
Dorian goes to a party and enjoys living a double life.
Dorian visits an opium den where he is spotted by Sibyl’s brother James who has sworn revenge.
Dorian escapes death because his youth makes him appear innocent.
James realizes his mistake and continues to pursue Dorian.
Dorian has much forboding but before James can get to him, James is shot and killed by a rabbit hunter
Dorian is elated that once again he escapes consequences.

Denouement/Conclusion
Dorian brags to Henry that he has begun a new virtuous life by not corrupting a girl he met.
Dorian visits the painting hoping to see an improvement but when the painting is as evil as ever he realizes that he was only kind to please his vanity and for the novelty of feeling.
Dorian attempts to finally kill his conscience by stabbing the painting.
Servants hear a scream and thud, finding in the attic a beautiful painting and a loathsome old man with a knife in his heart.

Setting

London, England late Victorian period
Society in general is very conservative and self conscience. Contrast this with the Decadent/Aesthetic movement which was at its high point. Aestheticism was a reaction against industrialization, Romanticism, and Realism. It espoused art for art’s sake or in other words, Art independent of use, moral, political, or social concerns. For some, Aestheticism may also include embracing artifice over the natural world and living for the senses/experience.

With in the text, Dorian moves back and forth between the rich aristocracy of the West End and country estates and the opium dens of the poorest areas of London, specifically Bluegate Fields.

Character Analysis

Protagonist: Basil Hallward
Basil is the protagonist because his is the most sympathetic character. Also he creates the conflict by introducing Lord Henry to Dorian and by painting Dorian’s portrait.

Focal Character: Dorian Gray
All action is centered on Dorian but his self centered nature does not induce sympathy.

Antagonist: Lord Henry
Henry is the antagonist because he pulls Dorian down the path of self destruction with his hedonistic preaching and by giving Dorian the book A Rebours.
Henry opposes Basil by acting as a bad influence while Basil acts as a good, moral influence.

Deuteragonist: Lord Henry
It is interesting that Lord Henry is the side-kick as well as the antagonist.

Tritagonist: Basil Hallward
Playing the 3rd most important character, illustrates Basil’s powerlessness and the hopelessness of good prevailing.

Foil Characters:
Lord Henry: Amusing, Flippant, Superficial, Does nothing, Immoral

Basil: Boring, Serious, Sensitive,  Creative, Moral

Lord Henry and Basil represent the two paths that Dorian could take.

Adversaries: James Vane
James is Dorian’s adversary because he attempts to make Dorian reap the consequences of his actions.

Narrator: 3rd person limited

Themes

Sin-Debachery
Art-Aestheticism
Youth-Aging-Beauty
Myth of appearances-Double life-Homosexuality
Narcissism-Selfishness
Good-Evil influence
Wealth-Degradation
Obsession-Love-Illusion

Symbolism

Character symbolism
Basil: The Good Artist
Basil’s painting is pure and beautiful, existing only to give pleasure to the viewer, until it is acted upon by an outside force and put into a role that is unnatural.
The artist is blamed and sacrificed for his art.

Lord Henry: Aestheticism Misunderstood
Lord Henry acts as a superficial mouth piece for the Aesthetic movement. Because his is simply words with no action, Henry is not effected by any of the events.
Henry is words without understanding.

Sibyl Vane: The Greek Tragedy
Sibyl is a prophecy of the results of narcissism and the pursuit of pleasure without responsibility.

James Vane: Guilt
James represents the pursuit of our conscience, but perhaps also the injustice in a chaotic world

Object symbolism

The Painting: The Soul
The painting represents Dorian’s soul. It is born beautiful and pure but slowly grows uglier, corrupted by selfishness and vice. It acts as Dorian self conscience. No man can live without his conscience.

The Book: I’m kind of a big deal
The book given to Dorian by Lord Henry is the Decadent novel A Rebours (translated to: Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. The book acts as an extension of Henry’s influence and emphasizes Dorian’s homosexual awakening. The book represents an appreciation for beautiful things and self reflection to the point of obsession.
A Rebours may also represent society’s marginalization of homosexuality. Prejudice pushes homosexuality to the fringes causing a fetish behavior and forcing gay men to lead a secret double life instead of allowing open meaningful relationships to form.

Conflict 1

Dorian Vs Himself
An internal conflict made external with the use of the painting
Dorian’s external beauty contrasts with his inner ugliness. At the turning points of the story he has the opportunity to choose between vice or virtue. Dorian could take a path of responsibility, empathy, and morality but instead he choses superficiality, egoism, and the emotional shallowness of a psychopath.
Dorian starts out young, beautiful, and innocent but is corrupted by his unchecked pursuit of pleasure
Leading to the Moral: Excessive pursuit of pleasure corrupts the soul

Conflict 2

A second conflict exists between the Protagonist and Antagonist
Basil Vs Lord Henry
Relational conflict
Basil represents morality in art and Lord Henry is the aesthetic ideal of art without reference to morality. Through out the story Basil attempts to act as a positive influence. He is an example of art as useful and morally directing. Basil’s ending illustrates the inevitable failure in this way of thinking.

Lord Henry’s aesthetic philosophies are continually called immoral by characters in the book but his opinions actually do not have a bad influence on the other characters, his quips simply entertain, amuse and may even be said to enlighten. The only character who is negatively impacted by Lord Henry is Dorian. It is Dorian’s choice to use Lord Henry’s philosophy as fuel for his selfishness and narcissism.
Leading to the Moral: Art is immoral because it exists outside of morality. Art reflects society’s principles and actions rather than forming them.
____________________
Having written all this I am now going to pull a Wilde and refute everything I just said.
A third conflict can be seen in the novel in which Dorian is the protagonist and a sympathetic character

Dorian Vs a homophobic society
In this view Dorian is less in control of the events of the story because once he chooses to accept his homosexuality his personality is torn in two (inner and public selves) and he is pushed into the role of criminal by Victorian society’s views and laws against homosexuality. 

Sibyl represents Dorian’s inability to form a relationship that will conform to society’s expectations. Because of who Dorian is and what he cannot change about himself, the death of this relationship is inevitable and not within Dorian’s control or his fault.
Now we see James Vane as a representative of the law hunting down the gay man and Jame’s death as symbolic of society’s inevitable failure to police human nature.

In this analysis Lord Henry is almost a heroic character because he awakens Dorian to himself and embraces Dorian as a friend no matter his actions or nature. Basil is a sadder and repressed character. We know longer feel a sympathy towards Basil because he encourages Dorian to live a false life that conforms to society’s “morals”.
We can now see the ending as symbolic of the impossibility for Dorian to live as a complete man with in Victorian society.

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Finis, analysis and reviews, Understanding & Interpretation, Victorian Tags: , ,

Elements of Literature Analysis

14 Feb 2012

10 Comments

The following is a template I put together for formal or classic literature analysis. (Not to be confused with Formalist lit criticism.) It does not favor any particular school of literary criticism, it is simply the bare bones elements for analyzing a story. When used in group discussion it is commonly called Socratic literary analysis. I’ve noticed in home schooling communities it might be called the ‘teaching the classics’ method. It is also referred to in the book Deconstructing Penguins. (Note that I have not read Deconstructing Penguins yet, nor have I read the Teaching the Classics curriculum, so I can’t say how far my interpretation may differ.)

Anyway, although I consider most posts here on the blog as some form of literature analysis, I have never used a formal analysis template nor deliberately thought about each and every aspect of a story as I have listed below. I usually just let it all float around in my head and end up seizing on one theme or conflict that catches my attention.

Those of you that studied literature are probably very familiar with this type of analysis. Some people, maybe those that never studied lit or those who were forced to write many a paper in this form lol, may feel that this type of literary analysis is incredibly boring. That it sucks the joy out of reading or that it leads to out of thin air responses by whoever is analyzing, but I don’t think so. Call me a nerd, but I find it sort of fun ;) Rather than hemming you in, it can open up a completely new view of a story. Once your mind gets going with character symbolism and themes, it can be like falling down a rabbit hole.

Yesterday I used the template to map out Oscar Wilde’s A Picture of Dorian Gray. After reading Dorian, I actually didn’t plan on posting about it at all. I really enjoyed the story but I didn’t think there was anything interesting to be said about it. The themes, the characters all seemed so obvious.

Now mapping the plot of Dorian Gray I didn’t find all that exciting. I did think it was funny how backwards and forwards the plot had gotten jumbled in my brain. But the plot summary did not really lead to any revelations for me. However, doing the Character, Theme, and Conflict analysis did lead me to some very interesting thoughts and I did appreciate the story more. I’ll be posting my formal analysis of Dorian Gray tomorrow, for now here is the analysis template I used.
_______________________

Elements of literary analysis
Plot Summary
Setting
Character Analysis
Theme
Symbolism and Metaphor
Conflict
Moral

Plot Summary
The narrative structure of a story is divided into 5 parts. Organize, by list or diagram, the events of the story into the following points using as few words as possible.
(Complicated stories may have multiple turning points.)

#1 Exposition (introduction)
Introduces the main characters, setting, and conflict.

#2 Rising Action (conflict complicated)
Secondary conflicts arise. Secondary adversaries hold protagonist back from his goal.

#3 Climax (turning point)
The turning point, for better or worse, in the protagonists affairs. When we first realize the conflict will be resolved.

#4 Falling Action (loose ends tied up)
Headed towards resolution, maybe with a final moment of suspense.

#5 Denouement (conclusion)
Characters return to normal state or resolution. May close with marriage or death.

Setting
The setting for a story includes the time, place, and social reality with in the story. Also includes how time passes with in the text.
The historical and social context in which the story was written should also be considered. Each tale is a product of its time and place.
The author’s biographical info can also be considered as context.

Character Analysis
Map the story’s characters by type

Protagonist: The main character(s) that causes a sympathetic reaction from the reader. Also the character that moves the action in the story forward. The protagonist is not always the primary focal character in the story (see below).

Focal Character: The focal character may be easily confused with the protagonist. The key difference is a reader should feel sympathetic towards the protagonist where as a focal character will trigger excitement and interest but not an emotional response. (Ex: Sherlock Holmes is a focal character)

Deuteragonist: The second most important character in the text, often the side-kick. (Ex. Ron Weasley in Harry Potter series)

Tritagonist: The third most important character in the text. (Ex. Hermione in Harry Potter series)

Antagonist: Character or group that opposes the protagonist. Often the villain but not always a character that is aware that they oppose. (Ex: Voldamort in Harry Potter. Ex 2: Patriarchal society in Jane Austen or Bronte novels)

Adversaries: Secondary to the antagonist, also opposes protagonist or focal character.

Foil Characters: Character opposites who highlight the differences between themselves, the protagonist, or the different routes the protagonist may take.

Narrator: Consider the narrator of the story as he/she relates to the characters. Narration may be 1rst person, 3rd person limited, or 3rd person omniscient. Is the narrator reliable or unreliable?

Theme
Themes are the subjects and topics addressed in the story. Not to be confused with the Conflict or the Moral.
Common themes include:
Friendship-Family-Individuality-Prejudice-Growing Up-Society-Love-Marriage-Lies/Deceit-Fear-Morality-Compassion/Sympathy-Justice-Foolishness/Folly-Greed-Courage-Money-Class-Memory-Isolation-Gender-Education-Religion-Death-Nature-Ageing-Revenge-Madness-Art/Culture-Jealousy-Dreams-Innocence

Symbolism and Metaphor
Separate from classifying the characters as literary types, you can decide if each or any of the characters symbolize something greater than themselves, a universal type, theme, vice or virtue.

A metaphor compares two distinctly different objects pointing out how the are alike.
Symbolism uses a person, place or thing to stand for a complex abstract idea, truth, feeling, or experience.
Both metaphor and symbolism are used to create a new and deeper meaning beyond the surface text.
Look for symbolism and metaphor in inanimate objects, weather, nature, colors, politics, religion, architecture, and art within the art (ie: references to other books, painting, etc)

Conflict
The Conflict is the challenge that the Protagonist and/or Focal character faces. A conflict may be internal, relational, or external.
Universal conflicts include:
Character Vs Self – Character Vs Nature – Character Vs Society
Character Vs Character – Character Vs Supernatural – Character Vs Fate

Moral
From the author’s perspective, the moral of the story is the message about the human condition, or the world that we live in, that he/she hopes to illustrate with the text.
The reader may arrive at the author’s moral with a careful analysis of character, setting, theme, symbolism, and conflict. A reader may also see a completely different moral than the author, based on his or her own experiences.
As Oscar Wilde said, “in art there is no such thing as a universal truth”.

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Finis, analysis and reviews, Self education, Understanding & Interpretation Tags: , , ,

Learning together: Language and poetry

2 Feb 2012

6 Comments

While I was researching afterschooling curriculum for my daughter, I can across the Michael Clay Thompson language arts program. The MCT level 1 series includes: Grammar Island- an intro into the parts of speech, Building Language- teaches Latin stems, Sentence Island- more details about the eight parts of speech, and Music Hemispheres- an intro to poetry.

The Level 1 series is aimed at 7-9 year olds with lots of silly stories and illustrations. But behind the pretty pictures is a very detailed education in language. I wouldn’t expect Dd to absorbed all the info on the first go round but I like giving her an early intro to be built on later. From the Building Language book..

The goal of this book is, in the most profound way, to give elementary kids the right vocabulary start. We want students to know, from their earliest thinking, that their world is not new, and that they did not come from nowhere

I love that bolded bit, it is something we really try to get across to Dd.

As I looked through the lesson books online, I thought “Damn I want these for myself!” Even as an adult I can see there is much I could learn from these books. The poetry book and the Latin stems look particularly fun.

Here is a sample of what is taught with the program. I love that word supercilious and how funny that it means over hair or raised eyebrow!

And excerpt from the Poetry book

(Opening lines from Percy Shelley’s The Cloud)

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.

So, I love these books. BUT…..Dd and I already have a couple afterschooling books we are working through and I don’t want to add anymore subjects making the whole experience overwhelming. Also, buying the complete Level 1 set is quite expensive. What I think I am going to do is save up and buy it for summer. Perhaps make language arts and poetry our main focus for summer with only a little math and spelling on the side to maintain what Dd has learned. She loves books and has a newly developing love of poetry. The MCT curriculum seems very informal, there is very little workbook work, so I think it will make a nice fit for the school break. We can just pull out the books when she gets bored or at the end of the day when she is burnt out on outdoor play.

Now even though I am holding off on adding any language lessons for Dd until summer, that doesn’t mean I can’t buy a little something for myself, right ;) After all the teacher has to know what she’s on about. I am particularly interested in learning how a poem is built. As it stands, I know nothing about poetry. I can appreciate a pretty sentence but that’s as far as it goes. One of my goals for 2012 was to read more, * cough* some, poetry. I had Byron and Shelley in mind specifically. Plus I wanted to read Paradise Lost this year. It makes sense to do a little preparation so I call appreciate these great poets.

So I went to Amazon in search of an adult lesson in poetry. Several of the books (or even online resources) I found looked very dry. But then I came across Mary Oliver’s Rules for the Dance..

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance,” wrote Alexander Pope. “The dance,” in the case of Oliver’s brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet’s ear and a poet’s grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work – and enables readers, as only she can, to “enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem’s narrative and its ideas.

That sounds lovely!

Now I’ll have you know, I went right to my Ipad in search of an Ebook version. But no go. And none of the other poetry books available as ebooks looked remotely interesting, plus most of them were more expensive. Now I really tried hard not to have to buy another book. Next I went to my library’s website. The LIBRARY even! You see how dedicated I am to not cluttering up my shelves. Going to the library might seem completely natural to you but not so for me. And this case is the perfectly example why, they didn’t have the book.

So what can I do? Fate is forcing my hand. One woman against the universe, etc, etc. I’ll probably order Oliver’s book from B&N with a coupon or look for it at Elliott bookstore on Friday.

In the meantime, if you have any understanding poetry resources, I would love to hear them.

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Afterschooling, Non-fiction, Poetry, Self education, The Classics for Kids, Understanding & Interpretation Tags: , , , , ,

Classics Challenge January: All about the author

4 Jan 2012

21 Comments

 I am participating in a year long Classics Challenge hosted by November’s Autumn. The challenge is to read at least 7 classic works in 2012. On the 4th of each month Katherine of N.A. will pose a question for challenge participants to answer regarding whatever classic book  they happen to be reading at the moment.

_____________

January’s questions are all about the author:

  • Who is the author?  
    This month I am reading The Tempest by William Shakespeare

    • What do they look like? 
      We do not know for sure what Shakespeare looked like, “none of the portraits qualifies as a verified likeness of him, for no evidence exists that Shakespeare actually sat for a portrait. Artists could have executed their portraits from memory or from descriptions of Shakespeare provided by persons who knew him. Even the so-called authentic likeness of Shakespeare–the 1623 Martin Droeshout engraving of him that appeared in the First Folio, the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays–is suspect. The artist was only 15 when Shakespeare died in 1616. Apparently, Droeshout completed the portrait shortly before the First Folio publication.”  [1]
  • When were they born? Where did they live?
    Shakespeare was baptized on the 26th of April 1564. A baby had to be baptized on the Sunday following his or her birth, unless the parents could give a valid reason for not baptizing immediately. Therefore we can safely assume Shakespeare was born earlier that week. Shakespeare spent his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon. The family was believed to live on Henley Street in the home shown below. The home has been under the care of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust since 1847

 

 

  • What does their handwriting look like?
    Six signatures of Shakespeare are known

    Image via Lawpundit

    There is also a play by Anthony Munday called Sir Thomas More, that is said to contain an addition written in Shakespeare’s hand, this is controversial though.

  • What is an interesting and random fact about their life? 
    Something I find interesting about Shakespeare is that it is widely said he was uneducated, or more specifically he did not go to college. Yet, Shakespeare’s father was a politician in their town of Stratford upon Avon and therefore Shakespeare and his siblings were eligible for a grammar school education at no cost to the family. There is no reason to suppose the family would not take advantage of this and it seems likely Shakespeare went to school from the ages of 7 to 14.
    Now a grammar school education in Elizabethan times was very different from the elementary school subjects taught now. Shakespeare would have been taught Latin and practiced translating Latin to English and English to Latin. A basic education included 7 to 11 hours a day studying the works of the great classical authors and dramatists such as Ovid, Plautus, Horace, Virgil, Cicero and Seneca [2] The type of education provided in grammar schools of the 16th century could be compared to a degree program in the classics today. In my opinion there is no reason to doubt that Shakespeare had the knowledge, ability, and historical education to write his plays.
    One other thing I found interesting is that Elizabethan schools were not big on handwriting. If it was taught, it was by a specialist teacher who visited the school for only a few weeks. [3] Also the English language was very much in a state of flux at this time. So, Shakespeare’s handwriting and spelling are really not a reflection on his intelligence.

________

Visit the November’s Autumn blog for links to more classic challenge January participants!

By: Shannon Category: Classic literature, Renaissance, The play's the thing, Understanding & Interpretation Tags: ,
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