Today’s Agenda
Papers Due this Friday in class
Final Exam: I believe it is Wednesday of Finals Week, 1250-250
The final examination will test your ability to apply the major concepts we have addressed this semester to several, if not all, of the major readings. My primary goal in giving you this exam is to test your comprehension and retention of course material. While no one is going to have to be able to quote anything verbatim (though it is cool if you can), you will need to demonstrate a solid understanding of our readings and how they relate to the major concepts we have addressed this semester.
Last class, we began to think about how some of the concepts we addressed early in this class – the wheel of fortune and humanism – relate to Frankenstein and Jane Eyre. Today we are going to take some of the concepts we learned about near the end of the semester and apply them to some of the early texts we read in this course.
I asked you to come to class today with your copy of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It has been a while since we have read out of this text. Let’s open up to the Wife of Bath’s tale, and take a few moments to become familiar with it again. Let’s just focus on the prologue right now.
Journal: What kind of person is the Wife of Bath? Let’s identify five specific statements she makes in this portion of the narrative that you think reveal a lot about her personality.
Group Discussion
Okay, now what I want us to do is to consider what kind of questions these statements raise about her personality.
List questions
Okay, now I want us to think about how we might use the following theories we discussed in class to answer some of these questions. Feminism/ Postcolonial theory/ Journal work/Group work/ Class Discussion.
Now let’s do the same with the Knights tale, specifically with one of the knights – you can choose which knight. We will be focusing on psychoanalytic and Marxist theory.
Can this also be done with Columbus? What is gained? What is lost by analyzing literature this way?
Homework:
I will begin accepting papers as early as Wednesday, if you want to submit earlier, but will of course take them on Friday as well, though no later than Friday.
For Wednesday, re-read and annotate the Columbus assigment — I want you to see how much it has changed now that you read so much more.
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