Ph.D. Research Writing - 'ONLY' in English Language: UGC, New Delhi, India

Post by Dr. Dilip Barad.

How to teach poetry? : An Enigma!

How to teach Poetry

(One of th M.Phil students Alpesh Parmar posted message on FB asking to share something on 'how to teach poetry?'... this note is written extempore for him... which may be helpful to others as well... I request all the readers of this note to contribute something by sharing your experince of teaching poetry by commenting on this note)

Dear Friends,

Teaching poetry is not everyone's cup of tea. There is no fun in the world as great as teaching it to those who love it... there is nothing as boring as teaching poetry to those who hate it. It is so because (to quote Yuri Lotman) - ‘A poem is both a system of rules, and a system of their violation’.

Reading/Teaching poetry is not as easy as one thinks. It necessisates undertanding of culture (in/for which it is written), history (historiography of metaphors, semantics etc) and above all linguistic competency.

Here is the list of books and websites which may help teachers and students in reading/teaching poetry:

• Books:

1. Terry Eagleton: How to read a poem? Blackwell Publisher (2006). TERRY EAGLETON’S book seeks to teach its readers how to read poems through a combination of literary history, theoretical discussion, and leading by example. The book develops a simple and unshowy working definition of poetry (‘a certain memorable or inventive use of language, and a moral insight into human existence’), but at the same time suggests a correspondence between the best poetry and a kind of productive contradiction … (read Jonathan Baines's  full article on http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/57/1/151.full)
2. I.A. Richards: Pratical Criticism (1920) From his practical experiments into 'reading poems' at Cambidge University, I A Richards drew 'a list of principle difficulties that may be encountered by any reader in the presence of any poem. This analysis was in part intended to develop educational method to teach poetry in the classroom. (read Robert Shaffer's full article on http://www.jstor.org/pss/40012942)
3. Elaine Showalter: Teaching Literature Blackwell Publisher (2003). Drawing on 40 years of international teaching experience, as well as the real life experiences of friends and colleagues in the field,Showalter offers original and provocative reflections on teaching literature in higher education, and addresses practical, theoretical, and methodological issues.

• Websites:

Whenever students come with such questions which can't be answered, the easy way is to give him 'list' of books - whcih are unattainable... there are at least two benefits of doing this - (i) As teachers, we can create a favourable impression - of knowing names of so many books and we speak on those books with such an air of authority - as if we have written it or 'read' it - (ii) it helps in establishing superiority over student's lack of knowledge. But the best of all is - students will never dare to come agian to ask for anything.

I believe, if teacher 'really' want to 'share' with students, he should give books instead of lists - or atleast photocopies of important pages. I find easy way in sharing weblinks. Click and go...

Well, these weblinks are not as goos as the books listed above but it will serve the purpose of two-minute-maggie to hungry child - just as maggie does not give nutritions but helps in satisfying hunger - similarly, these weblinks are not 'nutritious' but it surely will cater the needs of hungry mind - i would be glad if it makes you more hungry to read the books.

1. http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/poetclass.html
2. http://www.ehow.com/how_2179046_teach-poetry-high-school-students.html
3. http://www.slideshare.net/mungo13/teaching-poetry
4. http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/Showalter/004.pdf (read chapter 4 on Teaching Poetry from Elaine Shawalter's book 'Teaching Literature')
5. http://www.hstreasures.com/articles/poetry.html

Post by Dr. Dilip Barad.

Literary Theory and Criticism in the Digital Age

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Worksheet: Film Screening - Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party

Worksheet: Film Screening 

Film Screening: ‘The Birthday Party’ - a British drama film (1968)- directed by 

William Friedkin (The Birthday Party) -  based on an unpublished screenplay by 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, which he adapted from his own play The Birthday Party (Pinter, The Birthday Party).

Click here to download the play

Online Quiz on 'The Birthday Party'

Pre-Viewing Tasks:

• ·         Harold Pinter – the man and his works (Pinter, The Birthday Party)
• ·         Comedy of Menace: Whose plays are known so? Who termed it? What are its peculiar characteristics? How is it different from Absurd Theatre?
• ·         Explain ‘Pinteresque’ – Pinter pause and use of ‘Silence’ in the play: a particular atmosphere and environment in drama.
• ·         ‘The Birthday Party’ – an allegory of ‘artist in exile and other interpretations
• ·         ‘The Birthday Party’ as a Political Play with reference to Harold Pinter’s Noble Speech: ‘Art, Truth & Politics[1]’. (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture)

While – Viewing Tasks:

• ·         Harriet Deer and Irving Deer’s article[2] on Pinter's "The Birthday Party": The Film and the Play. (Deer and Deer)
• ·         A comparison of the film and play versions of ‘The Birthday Party’ affords us a rare opportunity to gain insight into how a reconception of a play into film may affect the dramatic experience it communicates. Mark the way Pinter treats the texture of the play.
• ·         Observe how Pinter gives us the texture-the sounds and sights of a world without structure, which is the heart and soul of the play also.
• ·         How many times the ‘knocking at the door’ happens in the play? Is it creating menacing effect while viewing the movie?
• ·         How are ‘silences’ and ‘pauses’ used in the movie to give effect of lurking danger – how it helps in building the texture of comedy of menace.
• ·         Comment upon the use of things like mirror, toy drum, newspapers, breakfast, chairs, window-hatch etc in the movie. What sort of symbolic reading can you give to these objects?
• ·         How effective are scenes like ‘Interrogation scene’ (Act 1), ‘Birthday Party scene’ (Act 2) and ‘Faltering Goldberg & Petey’s timid resistance scene’ (Act 3) captured in the movie?
• Post-Viewing Tasks:
• ·         Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?
• ·         Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?
• ·         Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text
• What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.
• Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera? 
• "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?
• ·         How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like painteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?
• ·         With which of the following observations you agree:

o   “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."

o    “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”[3]. (Ebert)

• ·        If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
• ·         Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
•      Do you see any similarities among Kafka's Joseph K. (in 'The Trial'), Orwell's Winston Smith (in 'Nineteen Eighty-Four') and Pinter's Victor (in 'One for the Road')?  

The famous interrogation scene from the movie 'The Birthday Party':

The film version of the play can be viewed here:

Want to listen amazing video-speech by Harold Pinter on the occasion of his being awarded Nobel Prize in 2005? 

Kafkaesque?

Bibliography

Deer, Harriet and Irving Deer. "Pinter's 'The Birthday Party': The Film and the Play." South Alantic Bulletin 45.2 (1980): 26-30.

Ebert, Roger. Movie Review: The Birthday Party. Ed. Roger Ebert. 23 Sept. 2013 <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-birthday-party-1969>.

Pinter, Harold. "Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture." World Literature Today May-Jun 2006: 21-27.

—. The Birthday Party. New Delhi: Faber And Faber (penguin India), 1960, 1991.

The Birthday Party. By Harold Pinter. Dir. William Friedkin. Perf. Robert Shaw, et al. Prods. Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky. Continental Motion Pictures Corporation, 1968.

The film can be viewed online here: http://www.fulltvguide.com/the-birthday-party.html

---

[1] Art Truth &Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture Author(s): Harold Pinter. Source: World Literature Today, Vol. 80, No. 3 (May - Jun., 2006), pp. 21-27Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40159078.

[2] Pinter's "The Birthday Party": The Film and the Play. Author(s): Harriet Deer and Irving Deer. Source: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 2 (May, 1980), pp. 26-30Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3199140

[3] http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-birthday-party-1969

Story Writing Skill: English Language Writing Styles

This was the writing task given to the students to work in a group. They were asked to develop a story from the given image. It was famous Panchtantra fable - The Lion and the Rat. The story written was to be submitted in 'Comments' section below the blog post.
You will find three comments below the blog and all three have different writing style. It ranges from simplistic writing in matter-of-fact style to highly literary style of giving an effect of emotions to environment. I hope you will enjoy reading the difference in three styles of writing.

Visit this 'Blog 4 Teaching & Learning: Story Writing' to give your comments.
The content of this blog with comments are copy-pasted here:

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Story Writing

Develop below given points into a story:

Write your story in the 'comments box'. To write in the 'coment box', clik on 'comments' at the end of this blog. Wait for the new page to open. Write in the given space and publish your comment. Use your google account for log in and identification. Publish one post named as 'Feedback on Story Writing'. Teacher's comments on your story will be published in the 'comments' of your blog.

* Lion sleeping beneath a tree - rat came to play - climbed over the body of the lion - unknown to dangers, rat started playing with whiskers of the lion - lion wake up - angrily roared - rat trembled - lion ready to savour the rat - the rat begged to be pardoned - promised to help him in the hours of need - arrogance of lion smugged at rat - left alive - lion trapped by hunter in the net - roared for help - rat came with fellow friends - lion saved - friends forever.

The moral of the story is:

1. Friend in need in friend indeed.

2. Never trust mousy friends.

3. One never knows how one can be helpful to others.

Worksheet - 'Hamlet' Movie Screening

Worksheet

Screening Movie: Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Hamlet’. Based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’

Please click here to appear in Online Test on 'Hamlet'

Pre-Viewing Tasks:

• · View presentations on Hamlet: 

http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2014/09/presentations-on-william-shakespeares.html

•          Genre of the Play – Tragedy  > Shakespearean Tragedy > Revenge Tragedy
• ·         Plot Overview of the Play
• ·         Play as Renaissance Text – Renaissance Humanism: “What a piece of work is man . . .”
• ·         Why delay in taking revenge? Moral anxiety, uncertainty of truth, appearance and reality, human predicament. Oedipus complex.
• ·         Plot Structure of the Play: T.S. Eliot: ‘artistic failure’ & Freytag’s pyramidical plot structure.
• Various approaches to Hamlet: i) Textual Analysis, ii) Genre Study, iii) Historical & Biographical Study, iv) Moral Philosophical Approach, v) Psychoanalytical Approach, vi) Mythological & Archetypal Approach, vii) Feminist Approach, viii) Cultural Studies, ix) Formalist Approach: Dialectic as Form

While - Viewing Tasks:

• ·         Hamlet’s Madness – his dual personality – when with himself/Horatio (Ego/alter-ego) and when with ‘Others’.
• ·         The beginning. Symbolic significance of Ghost Scene.
• ·         Scene: This too too solid flesh . . . Frailty, thy name is women.
• ·         Scene: What a rogue, slave ass am I . . . bloody, bawdy villain!  Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain! , vengeance! . . . The spirit that I have seen  May be the devil
• ·         Scene: Play within the play
• ·         Scene: Polonius – the father: a man of practical affairs – his advises to son and daughter – spying son.
• ·         Scene: To be or Not to be, that is the question!
• ·         Scene: Nunnery Scene: Mirror Scene
• ·         Scene: Claudius’s Prayer Scene & Hamlet’s moral dilemma: Pray can I not -
• ·         Scene: Gertrude’s bedchamber scene: Second appearance of Ghost – visible only to Hamlet and murder of Polonius.
• ·         Scene: Ophelia’s madness
• ·         Scene: Laertes’ s anger & motives to avenge his father’s murder
• ·         Scene: How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more . . . O, from this time forth, 
• My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
• ·         Scene: Grave Digging Scene
• ·         Scene: Fencing scene: Duel between Hamlet and Laertes.
• ·         Scene: The End: Fulfilled the call for sacred duty to avenge the murder of father.

Post – Viewing Tasks:

(Give responses to these questions in the comment section below this blog-post)

• ·         How faithful is the movie to the original play?
• ·         After watching the movie, have your perception about play, characters or situations changed?
• ·         Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?
• ·         Do you feel ‘catharsis’ while or after watching movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?
• ·         Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the play?
• ·         Was there any particular scene or moment in the movie that you will cherish lifetime?
• ·         If you are director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of movie on Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’?
• In the beginning of the movie, camera rolls over the statue of King Hamlet out side the Elsinore castle. The movie ends with the similar sequence wherein the statue of the King Hamlet is hammered down to the dust. What sort of symbolism do you read in this? (Clue: In Book IX of 'Paradise Lost', Satan reflects on his revenge motive:       "But what will not ambition and revenge; Descend to? Who aspires must down as low; As high he soared, obnoxious, first or last, To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils." Is it not King Hamlet's ambition to avenge his death responsible for the downfall of his kingdom which is symbolically pictured in last scenes?)
• While studying the play through movie, which approach do you find more applicable to the play? Why? Give reasons with illustrations.
• Which of the above mentioned approaches (in Pre-viewing task) appeals you more than other?Why? Give reasons.
• Take this QUIZ on the play 'Hamlet' to check your understanding of the play:
  

Bibliography

• Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh. Prod. David Barron. Warner Home Video, 1996.
• —. Hamlet. Ed. Charles Kean. 10 January 1859. 24 August 2013 .
• Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Mrogan, Jeanne C Reesman, John R. Willingham, ‘A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature’, OUP. 2006.
• Eliot, T.S. Hamlet and His Problems. The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism.  1922.
• Freytag, Gustav. Die Technik des Dramas (Technique of the Drama). 1863
• The Films of Kenneth Branagh by Samuel Crowl. Shannon Blake Skelton. Theatre Journal, Vol. 58, No. 4, Film and Theatre (Dec., 2006), pp. 714-715 (article consists of 2 pages) Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.2307/25069943 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069943
• Shakespeare at the Cineplex: The Kenneth Branagh Era by Samuel Crowl. Peter Parolin, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 1185-1186, (article consists of 2 pages) Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal DOI: 10.2307/20477651. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20477651
• Thank You, Kenneth Branagh. Brenda Walton. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Vol. 49, No. 7 (Apr., 2006), pp. 556-559. Published by: Wiley. Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017622
• A Touch of Vaudeville. Steve Vineberg. The Threepenny Review. No. 71 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 19-21.  Published by: Threepenny Review. Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/4384659
• Sharing an Enthusiasm for Shakespeare: An Interview with Kenneth Branagh. Gary Crowdus and Kenneth Branagh. Cinéaste, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1998), pp. 34-41. Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc. Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/41689105
• HAMLET by Kenneth Branagh. Manuel Quinto. El Ciervo. Año 46, No. 556/557 (julio-agosto 1997), p. 38. Published by: El Ciervo 96, S.A.. Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/40821727
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