A Peek Into Fever 103

Hello wonderful students! Here is a link to a university student's commentary about Sylvia Plath's poem "Fever 103". I thought you might find it useful and she has some interesting ideas.

http://www.ashokkarra.com/2008/10/jersey-girls-find-poetic-justification-on-sylvia-plaths-fever-103/

Lady Macbeth's Decline...

Okay folks, here is the place where you should post a comment about Lady Macbeth's decline throughout the play. Remember to reference the pair of lines you have chosen from your handout, and comment about what those lines reveal about Lady Macbeth's transformation. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts!

The Climax of Macbeth

After carefully re-reading Act 3:1-3, please comment on the following question. In answering the question, please use textual evidence (precise textual evidence!!) to back up your response.

And the question is... "Why could the murder of Banquo (and the banquet that follows)be considered the climax of this play?"

Iambic what???

Please follow these two links to read up on metre in poetry, and how we can identify and name the metre or rhythm patterns in poems. It's pretty cool!

http://www.windowsproject.demon.co.uk/wbweb/wwbh1.htm

http://www.burtonsys.com/metre2.htm

Comparing Dickinson's Ideas about Death...

On Edline, you will find a folder under "Assignments and Power Points" called "Dickinson's Poems". Please read "I Felt a Funeral In My Brain" and "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died". Compare the imagery of death in these poems to the images and ideas about death conveyed in "Because I Could Not Stop For Death". Do you see any connections between the poems? What are your thoughts?

Appreciating Atwood...

Hi folks...

Here is a link that explains basic biographical information about Atwood, as well as some of the major concepts related to her work (novels and poems) you will need to know. I promise this is a very accessible article, and one that will (hopefully!) help you understand some of Atwood's themes a bit better. Happy reading!

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth03C18N390512635243

Intertextuality & Meta-Narrative

As you read this week, in the excerpts from David Lodge's book, The Art of Fiction, intertextuality and meta-narrative are two intriguing techniques that authors of fiction will sometimes use. The first - intertextuality - refers to when an author references (or mimics or gives a tip of the hat to) another book within their own work. Meta-narrative refers to when an author acknowledges the reader of the text (they refer to the reader as "you" and perhaps have a side conversation with the reader, like an aside in drama). Based on the novels and movies you know, please list two examples of works you are familiar with that use each technique (one example per technique). If you would like to comment on the effect of the technique in each work, please do so. That will be very valuable in discussions we have about intertextuality and meta-narrative in the future.