'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray - Notes

1. From The Thomas Gray Archive
2. With annotations
3. With related resources
4. From Representative Poetry Online - with extensive notes

Note: I will be circulating photocopied material tomorrow on 'Elegy...' and 'Rape of the Lock' through the class reps.

'Tyger' and 'Lamb' by William Blake

The Lamb (1789)
1. From Wikipedia
2. Write up by Ralph Dumain

The Tyger (1794)
1. From Sparknotes
2. From Wikipedia
3. Lecture on Youtube
4. 'Understanding William Blake's "Tyger"'

'The Lamb and the Tyger: Binary Archetypes' by Dr Sebastian Mahfood
Note: I wanted to mention in the class today that Blake married Catherine Boucher, an illiterate, whom he taught to read and write, and to help him in engraving and printing.

IFEP OE CIA 3 Test

Tomorrow between 11 and 12 there will be Optional English CIA 3 Test on Northanger Abbey. The questions will include objective types, fill in the blanks and true or false. There will be 20 questions in all carrying one mark each. All the best.

Kubla Khan notes

1. From Representative Poetry Online
2. From enotes
3. From Sparknotes
3. From ....

Resolution and Independence notes

1. Tenets of Wordsworth in Resolution and Independence
2. An analysis

To Sir with Love Script

Please click here to view the complete script of To Sir With Love

Enhancing Quality of Answers - Presentation

What does a question test?
• Comprehension of the question
• Logic of answering- sentences, paragraphs
• Spelling, punctuation
• Expression within the given word limit

Common Mistakes/Errors

Mistakes/Errors	Appropriate Usage
english	English
actually, basically	???????????
tough	Difficult, challenging
don’t, can’t	do not, cannot (Contractions)
called as	called
eg, for eg,	e.g.
Yours Faithfully	Yours faithfully
Your’s	Yours

• Difference between speaking and writing
• No religious symbols – Malpractice
• Draw margins and write question numbers outside the margin
• Make paragraphs for longer answers
• Do not write answers in points
• Single inverted commas for titles of poems or essays
• Underline titles of books, plays, films
• Names begin with capital letters
• Quote only if you know exactly
• Avoid use of green or red ink

To Sir with Love - Presentation

Why film?

• Shift from print to visual culture
• Different from other texts

Trivia

• Sidney Poitier- First African- American actor to win Oscars (1963)
• Poitier in Blackboard Jungle (1955)
• Sequel -To Sir With Love II (1996)
• Based on the memoir of E R Braithwaite
• Broke box-office records in 1967 in the US

The Film
Title: To Sir with Love (1966/7)
Director: James Clavell
Producer: James Clavell
Script: James Clavell (from the novel by E.R. Braithwaite -1959)
Cinematography: Paul Beeson

The Cast
Sidney Poitier -Mark Thackeray
Christian Roberts -Denham
Judy Geeson -Miss Pamela Dare
Suzy Kendall -Gillian Blanchard
Ann Bell -Mrs. Dare
Faith Brook -Grace Evans
Chris Chittell -Potter
Geoffrey Bayldon -Weston
Patricia Routledge -Clinty

The Story

• Why does Mr Thackeray take to teaching?
• His early experiences of the school, of students, and staff
• “Ah, so you're the new lamb for the slaughter - or should I say, black sheep?” – Weston
• The classroom experience
• Mr Thackeray learns! Or students teach him (Thackeray loses temper)
• The realisation and the change (books find a better place!)
• The test of the new relationship
• Too fat to jump - Thackeray becomes PT teacher
• Seal’s mother dies
• Pamela’s issue
• The museum visit

• Survival training
• Thackeray gets a letter
• The farewell party
• The dance
• The gift
• ‘To sir with love’
• The next term’s class – mission incomplete

DVD Chapters
1. The start
2. North Quay Secondary School
3. The staff
4. Mid-day dance session
5. Hackman’s classes
6. The silent treatment
7. Their proper places
8. Seales
9. Studying South America
10. Pranks & filthy games
11. Responsible adults
12. Questions and answers
13. Thackeray’s story
14. The museum trip
15. Miss Dare’s move
16. Surviving training
17. Mark & Gillian
18. Too high for Fats
19. Passing the hat
20. Mrs Dare
21. “I got me a job”
22. Counselling Miss Dare
23. A boxing lesson
24. The Seales’ funeral
25. The celebration begins
26. Ladies’ choice
27. A little remembrance
28. Next term’s class

Themes

• Racial issues
• Inspirational teacher
• Education as a catalyst
• Teenage angst
• Mr Thackeray v students
• Mr Thackeray v other teachers
• Pedagogy
• Leadership

Thackeray’s Battle

• Against
• Narrow-minded administrators
• In-bred social ideas – race, difficult children
• Pessimistic colleagues
• Student crush
• Many more….

Some Questions

• How does Thackeray help his students to break out of the pattern of intolerance and roughness into which the society had placed them?

• What are the preconceived ideas that Mark Thackeray and his students have of each other? What makes them change these ideas?

• The concept of human beings able to alter their ways is a crucial element in the film. How far do you think is it possible in the case of rural as well as urban India marked by rigid social structures like caste, family tradition, parental pressure, and market driven society?

• What could be the social and environmental conditions that are responsible for the condition of the children in the film?

• In what ways can the film be adapted to the Indian situation?

• Critics argue that the film portrays a simplistic, commercially palatable rather than a realistic image of the challenges of teaching, leading the viewer to a distorted perception of the implications of the various discourses employed. Do you agree with it?

• What are the different notions of education (discourses) at work in the film?

• Is the notion of education prescribed in the film problematic, practical or idealistic?

• Thackeray’s character has been accused of making students conformists and not critical thinkers. Do you agree with this view? Did Thackeray have a choice?

• Attempt a character sketch of Mark Thackeray?

• Do we have such disadvantaged schools and children? What can we do to bring them to the mainstream?

Gurudakshina

• Switch off the lights
• Close the taps
• Throw the cups in dustbins
• Do not misplace books in the library

Grateful to…..

• YOU
• Rajan
• Mr Kennedy, Ms Ramaswamy
• The Dept of Media Studies
• Vice-Chancellor, Dean
• Other dept heads and teachers
• Akshay Rajmohan

YOU become a TEACHER -with a difference.

Notes on Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly

1. From Sparknotes
2. Filmic adaptation of the poem
3. Analysis

Notes on Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn

1. Analysis
2. Analysis
3. Meaning in the Conclusion
4. From Sparknotes

III PSEng Questions on Psychoanalytic Criticism/Essays

The III PSEng students may post their questions on the essays on Psychoanalytic Criticism here. In addition you may also try to respond to others' or your own questions.

I Semester Optional English Q Paper - Mid Sem 2008

Christ University, Bangalore
I Semester BA Optional English

Paper I: British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to the Present

Note: You are encouraged to keep the answers as brief and concise as possible. Answers exceeding the prescribed word limit may be penalized.

I. Answer any six of the following in not more than 200 words each. 30 marks
1. Locate Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Defoe and Goldsmith within the ‘Print culture and Rise of Nation-States’ framework through the texts you have studied.
2. How is the world that comes across in the Prologue of the Wife of Bathe different from that of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
3. Critically examine the concept of courtly love as exhibited in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
4. What problems do we encounter in making a comparative study of the description of Wife of Bathe and ‘the young man’?
5. What does the essay “The Man in Black” tell us about the socio-political situation of England?
6. Trace the imperial rhetoric in Robinson Crusoe.
7. Write a note on the Greek concepts of Drama.
8. Differentiate the style and content of the two essays you have studied.

II. Answer any two of the following in not more than 250-300 words each. 20 marks
1. Write a note on rise of English Drama with reference to the Miracle Moralities.
2. What is the central argument in the sonnet ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’? Discuss.
3. Write a note on the concept of the Metaphysical conceit.
4. Write a note on the rise of the genre – novel.
5. Explore the ideas of ‘God’ as they come across in Robinson Crusoe, keeping in mind Defoe’s own religious inclination.

Feedback on Mid Semester question papers

HI
Can I have feedback on I Semester Optional English mid-semester question paper? Could you email your comments to me on ajpinto42 at gmail dot com?

“An Introduction” By Kamala Das notes for II JPEng students

Some propositions on the poem.

The poem, “An Introduction” by Kamala Das, has strong existentialist moorings proposed by Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir. Although it is unlikely that Das has read either Kierkegaard or Satre, it is most likely that she has read The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir.

The assertion of the self against the various given social roles, identities and communal demands is an indicator of the existentialist leanings of the poet. The first person narrative of the poem also reinforces the idea of the asserting self. The assertion in terms of the issues and the roles it is rejecting presents the inverted pyramid structure of the poem. The use of the indefinite article ‘An’ in the title is also indicative of the fluid but resisting and self-determining position of the poet.

Here are some interesting write ups on the poem and her poetry in general. Click on the links to go the the specific sites

1. Split-Self And Self Assertion In The Poetry Of Kamla Das

2. Calling Kamala Das Queer: Rereading My Story

3. Kamala Das

4. The Histrionics of Kamala Das

5. IGNOU Interview with Kamala Das

Shakespeare's Sonnets - material + replies to Questions Raised in the classroom

Here is some material on Sonnets.

The site contains reliable interpretation/analysis of the sonnets. Please click on the sonnets to get to the site.

Three I JPEng students had asked for the explanation of three lines from sonnet 74. Those lines have been explained in the link provided below. Should there be further doubt on those three lines, please get back to me via blog.


Sonnet 18 : Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?


Sonnet 74 : But be contented when that fell arrest


Sonnet 116 : Let me not to the marriage of true minds

A question on litotes in the comment section below led me to this fascinating site on figures of speech. Please click on the link below and search for Shakespeare's sonnets that are prescribed for you. You may also use the short cut key : Ctrl F

Sonnet Sqeezing