WORLD LITERATURE
Monday-Friday
Periods 3
Purpose: This course, designed for college-bound seniors, will assist students in their preparation for the SAT's by providing them with instruction and opportunity to increase their comprehension and analytical skills, and focus on vocabulary development through analogies, context clues, etymologies, and deifnitions. The course will also stress specific comprehension skills of main idea, inference, detail prediction of outcomes and point of view. Upon completion of the course, students will have gained proficiency in test taking skills and vocabulary acquisition skills. A broader vocabulary will enhance collegiate success and enhance personal word banks.
The literature aspect, while continuing to develop language and test taking skills, will explore classic and contemporary world literature, integrating both reading/writing activities. For example, students will examine literature of the Classical World, noting the influence of Aristotlian (Greek) tragedy upon Renaissance dramatists, such as William Shakespeare, as well as modern playwrights, such as Jean Anouilh, whose work is found in recent literature. Students will similarly digest and connect great works of literature from the ancient East, the Middle Ages, Neoclassicism, Romance and Realism, and Modernism. A study of the comic graphic novel will enhance a more modern means of communicating literary ideas. The senior research project will involve the selection of a non-English or non-American author and the analysis and/or interpretation of his/her works.
Ideas, beliefs, philosophies and settings vary chronologically and geographically as is evidenced by the readings. The works of literature will be analyzed from the perspective of attitudes, applications, and interpretations with a continuous perspective upon relevance to the individual students in today's complex society.
The literature aspect, while continuing to develop language and test taking skills, will explore classic and contemporary world literature, integrating both reading/writing activities. For example, students will examine literature of the Classical World, noting the influence of Aristotlian (Greek) tragedy upon Renaissance dramatists, such as William Shakespeare, as well as modern playwrights, such as Jean Anouilh, whose work is found in recent literature. Students will similarly digest and connect great works of literature from the ancient East, the Middle Ages, Neoclassicism, Romance and Realism, and Modernism. A study of the comic graphic novel will enhance a more modern means of communicating literary ideas. The senior research project will involve the selection of a non-English or non-American author and the analysis and/or interpretation of his/her works.
Ideas, beliefs, philosophies and settings vary chronologically and geographically as is evidenced by the readings. The works of literature will be analyzed from the perspective of attitudes, applications, and interpretations with a continuous perspective upon relevance to the individual students in today's complex society.
Weekly Assignments
Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Octavia Butler
(1947-2006)
Octavia Butler is one of the more famous African-America writers of the late 20th century. More impressive was her choice to utilize the science-fiction genre as her canvass to compose stories that dealt with hierarchal thinking that leads to intolerance, violence and eventually destruction. Other prominent themes focused on the remaking of the human, the hero as survivor and alternative communities. Butler won all of the highest and prestigious honors in science-fiction including the Hugo-Nebula awards. She also received the MacArthur Fellowship best described as the “Genius Grant.”
Famous Works: Kindred, Xenogenesis Trilogy, the Patternist series, the Parable series.
Octavia Butler web-site
World Literature
turn-it-in.com
Period 1
ID# 11316416
Password: dante
Period 3
ID# 11316421
Password: oedipus
Noodletools
click here
Shakespeare on-line: Great resource for all things Willy click here
hamlet_sgo_essay.docx | |
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File Type: | docx |
do_now_hammy.docx | |
File Size: | 503 kb |
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oedipus_rex_essay.docx | |
File Size: | 22 kb |
File Type: | docx |
writing_good_paragraphs.pptx | |
File Size: | 84 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
summer_reading_prompts.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
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Vocabulary
Click Here
Gilgamesh
The First Epic
Gilgamesh
Complete Text
gilgamesh_study_guide.docx | |
File Size: | 23 kb |
File Type: | docx |
gilgamesh_study_guide_2.docx | |
File Size: | 23 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Ancient Greek Theatre
The Foundation of the Western Dramatic Tradition
- Ancient Greek drama descended from an oral tradition of storytelling that included dancing, chanting and singing
- Eventually individuals began acting out episodes of a story-the actor was born
- Eventually large performing areas for these live plays was developed, including: seats engraved onto a hillside, an upraised performing area (a stage), an area for religious rites (the orchestra) and a building that doubled as a back stage area along with large painted tapestries as back drops. Thus was born the early theatre house.
- A complex format of script-writing that included some of the deepest and most philosophical complex works in the Western tradition.
History of Theater
Oedipus the King
Sophocles
Full Text of Robert Fagles translation
oedipus_opening_monologue_writing.docx | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
File Type: | docx |
oedipus_part_1_character_guide.docx | |
File Size: | 18 kb |
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Hamlet
To be, or not to be? That is the question--
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep--
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
Modern English Translation (No Fear Shakespeare)
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the catch: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly something to worry about. That’s the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long
After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don’t? Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. But shh, here comes the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray
To be, or not to be? That is the question--
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep--
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
Modern English Translation (No Fear Shakespeare)
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the catch: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly something to worry about. That’s the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long
After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don’t? Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. But shh, here comes the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray
Timeline of World Literature
The Ancient World
Gilgamesh
Anonymous
ca. 4,000 B.C.
The Bible
Old Testament
ca. 1,000-250 B.C.
The Classical World
Oedipus Rex
Sophocles
425 B.C.
"On Friendship"
Cicero
44 B.C.
The Middle Ages
Marie de France "Fables"
1150
The Divine Comedy
Inferno
Dante Alighieri
ca. 1300
Gilgamesh
Anonymous
ca. 4,000 B.C.
The Bible
Old Testament
ca. 1,000-250 B.C.
The Classical World
Oedipus Rex
Sophocles
425 B.C.
"On Friendship"
Cicero
44 B.C.
The Middle Ages
Marie de France "Fables"
1150
The Divine Comedy
Inferno
Dante Alighieri
ca. 1300