english 1 - sophocles
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wednesday, january 9 (1)
Welcome back. What were your goals last semester? What do you want to do differently this semester? Set a new goal for yourself.
Last semester we focused on narrative fiction—short stories, a graphic novel, a novel. These are forms of a storytelling form we call diegesis. This semester is quite different—we’ll begin with drama, a storytelling form we refer to as mimesis, and then move to poetry, both lyric and epic. We begin with a very famous Ancient Greek play, Oedipus the King. It’s found in your Literature to Go anthology.
First, I’ll set the vocabulary words for units 11-12. Then we’ll move to the main work of the day:
(1) What is drama, and how is it different from long-form fiction? How did drama get started, probably?
Drama not only imitates real life but transcends it. That's kind of what theatre is: a heightened version of real life. All poetry, Aristotle argues, is imitation or mimesis. Aristotle imagines that poetry springs from a basic human delight in mimicry. Humans learn through imitating and take pleasure in looking at imitations of the perceived world.
(2) What is Ancient Greek Theatre?
(3) What is Ancient Greek TRAGEDY? Why is tragedy so alluring?
(4) The Theban Legend; or, Kubus spoils everything
HOMEWORK: Everyone loves a good sitcom. First read this article from The Atlantic, "Cracking the Sitcom Code," wherein the author marks all of the formal plot features of most episodes of a standard 22-minute sitcom. I hope you like Parks and Rec. Then I want you to take some time to think about one of your favorite shows, be it a sitcom or a drama and write in your notes about a feature of the plot that you've noticed recurs again and again. Law and Order-like shows work really well for this. What are the main components of each episode's plot? Lastly, walk us through why you think people watch a show if there's a formula like the author of this article suggests. What do people look for in a plot?
thursday, january 10 (2)
“Cracking the Sitcom Code”
More conventions of Greek Drama
Structure, Space, Terms for Tragedy, the function of the chorus
Who is Aristotle, and what does he think about drama?
HOMEWORK: Read the introductory portions of Oedipus, pages 601-608. Then, read the Prologue (lines 1-174), the Parados (lines 174-224), and the beginning of the first Episode, just before Tiresias enters (lines 225-316).
(1) Are there any indications that Oedipus subconsciously knows he's the murderer of Laius?
(2) What does the playwright have to do keep the audience in suspense at any given moment? What questions do you, as an audience member, have about what is going on? Why such confusion?
(3) How does the Chorus feel about Oedipus in the Parados?
monday, january 14 (4)
Today we’ll discuss the beginning of the play, most likely after we take a short quiz. What did you think? What are we to make of the chorus’s role in the play? There’s a video I’d like us to watch to help understand its function.
Today we’ll also begin watching two very distinct productions of the play, one from the 1980s with Michael Pennington and one from the 1950s directed by Tyrone Guthrie.
HOMEWORK: Read the next episode with Teiresias, the blind prophet, and the choral ode that follows (lines 316-565).
tuesday, january 15 (5)
Today we’ll continue discussing Oedipus the King. Please remember to prepare for the vocabulary quiz.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
thursday, january 17 (7)
Vocabulary Quiz, Units 11-12; Sentence-level writing boot camp DAY 1
HOMEWORK: Read the next episode and choral ode of Oedipus the King (lines 566-974).
tuesday, january 22 (1)
Set Units 13-14 Vocabulary Words; Set Oedipus the King Writing Assignment
Then we’ll discuss the episode with Creon and Jocasta.
No new reading for our next class.
wednesday, january 23 (2)
Today is a day to catch up with our discussion of the play and to begin the writing assignment.
HOMEWORK: Read the next episode with the messenger and Jocasta followed by the short choral ode. (lines 975-1175).
friday, january 25 (4)
Today we’ll discuss the next section of Oedipus.
HOMEWORK: Four our next class I’d like you to finish the play.
monday, january 28 (5)
Today we’ll finish up our discussion of Oedipus. Please remember that we will have a vocabulary quiz during our next class.
wednesday, january 30 (7)
Vocabulary Quiz, Units 13-14; Oedipus wrap-up and review
friday, february 1 (1)
Oedipus the king, Short answer test
what's due?
Thursday, January 17 - Vocabulary Quiz, Units 11-12
Wednesday, January 30 - Vocabulary Quiz, Units 13-14
Friday, February 1 - Oedipus the king, Short answer test
Wednesday, February 6 - Oedipus the king, Writing Assignment
current text to bring daily
Oedipus the King Study Links
Fate, Freedom, and the Tragic Experience
David Mikics' Definition of TRAGEDY
Terms for Studying Greek Drama
anagnorisis, catastrophe, catharsis, chorus, comedy, deus ex machina, dialogue, drama, hamartia, hubris, metadrama, miasma, mimesis, monologue, peripeteia, stasimon, strophe, tragedy, tragic flaw, tragic hero
ongoing extra credit
Required reading can at times feel like drudgery. And while it's important to do the reading I set for the class, I fully recognize that you'd rather have a say in what it is we read. Unfortunately the freshman curriculum has little student choice built in, so your ongoing extra credit gives you the opportunity to read an outside text in your own time at some point during the semester. I'm very happy to reward you with additional course credit if you take it upon yourself to read a text outside of class and meet with me to discuss it. A few things:
(1) This must be a text you've never read before.
(2) It should be imaginative and of recognized literary merit. The text must be approved beforehand.
(3) The amount of credit awarded is variable depending on the chosen text and how our follow up conversation goes.
(4) While you may read as much as you'd like, I will only award extra credit once per semester.
enjoying literature
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
