The Tempest in a chart

http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-tempest

This is really, really useful. 

The Tempest - In Our Time

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03h6px5


Here are your categories of topic as they appear in the programme.
Write them down in boxes, or with some space underneath them. You'll only need two or three bullet points per category.


They appear in roughly this order but sometimes you'll want to jump back to add info to an earlier box. It's a conversation so it jumps around a bit.


In case you ever want to reference this (which you will), note that the speakers are:
Katherine Duncan-Jones (terrifying posh woman)
Erin Sullivan (youngish, normalish sounding woman)
Jonathan Bate (man not asking questions)
And the whole thing is with Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time on BBC Radio 4, November 2013.


Overview

Political background

Theatrical advances

Exploration and discovery

Lamontaigne's essays　

Utopia　

Structure　

Characters (Prospero, Caliban etc)

Magic　

Law, order, government

The Nature of Theatre

Texts inspired by the Tempest

Michel de Montaigne - big influence on Shakespeare?

New Statesman article on Shakespeare's debt to de Montaigne:
http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/07/montaigne-and-shakespeare-two-great-writers-one-mind


Summary of de Montaigne's essays and ideas:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/montaign/

Frankenstein: Gothic, Romantic, or Sci Fi?

Frankenstein and Gothic Horror (Cliff notes)


Frankenstein and Sci Fi (Hard but excellent)

How a teenager invented science fiction

Useful reminder of Mary Shelley's life up to and after writing Frankenstein.... More about the teenager than about the science fiction, but still good biographical context:


http://qwiklit.com/2014/07/28/how-a-teenager-invented-science-fiction-the-story-of-mary-shelleys-frankenstein/

The Tempest - useful A Level study site

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/shakespeare/tempest.htm#2

The War Correspondent - full poem and bio of Carson here

http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3423000024/war-correspondent.html

The best sci-fi site in the world?

http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/

Literary Science fiction...

The most literary science fiction novels? Then maybe Frankenstein should be on here!
https://litreactor.com/columns/17-of-the-most-literary-science-fiction-novels


Defining science fiction:
http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/SF-Defined.htm


Also: in defence of science fiction:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/18/genre-debate-science-fiction-speculative-literary

Wordle for the Waste Land: most frequent words are biggest

Science and society - holiday homework

Holiday homework

 

Pick at least one film, one tv show and one book from the list below. In each case, consider the following questions as you watch… then answer them when you’re done.

 

Note down your answers and bring them into school for discussion.

 

How has science progressed in this film from the current world you live in?

Which current, actual scientific advances does this film exaggerate?

Which current social problems become exaggerated as a result?

Are there any individual humans whose character traits make things worse, or better? What are those character traits and what effect do they have on other people?

 

 

TV shows:

 

Black Mirror  - you’ll find it here

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/on-demand

Watch:

Series 1 episode 2

Series 1 episode 3

Series 2 all the way through

And the Christmas special.

 

Films:

Ex Machina

Never Let Me Go

Her

Children of Men

Terminator 1 and 2

 

Books:

Make sure you read  The Handmaid’s Tale, and answer the questions above.
There will be a test on your reading of the Handmaid's Tale during the first lesson back.

Philosophy in a Nutshell

Huge philosophical ideas squeezed into tiny little nutshells:
http://curiosophy.org/2014/03/19/philosophy-in-a-nutshell/

A Minor Role - interesting notes on the poet

U.A. Fanthorpe’s death in 2009 was felt as a genuine loss by the many fans of her cleareyed,

humane poems, including Carol Ann Duffy who described her as ‘an unofficial,

deeply loved laureate’.

U.A. Fanthorpe (b. 1929) spent her earliest years in Kent. She attended St Anne’s

College Oxford, afterwards becoming a teacher and ultimately head of English at

Cheltenham Ladies’ College. However, she only began writing when she turned her back

on her teaching career to become a receptionist at a psychiatric hospital, where her

observation of the ‘strange specialness’ of the patients provided the inspiration for her

first book, Side Effects (Peterloo Poets, 1978).

Following that relatively late start, Fanthorpe was prolific, producing nine full-length

collections, including the Forward Prize-nominated Safe as Houses (Peterloo Poets, 1995)

and the Poetry Book Society Recommendation Consequences (Peterloo Poets, 2000).

She was awarded a CBE in 2001 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2003.

Talking of her war-time childhood, Fanthorpe said, ‘I think it's important not to run

away’, and on the surface her poetry seems to encapsulate those traditional, stoic

English values we associate with the period. Certainly England and Englishness are

central themes in her work, but such a reading misses the wit and sly debunking of

national myth which mark Fanthorpe's sensibility.

MapWoman - mini homework for Tuesday

Four to five sentences for each of the questions below, please.

Focus on clear, accurate analysis.

1) Analyse the first stanza closely as it contains many of the stylistic features which are

maintained throughout the poem. Identify these and discuss how they affect the tone

and momentum of the poem.

2) What techniques does the poet use to make the surreal situation convincing?

3) Look at images and modes of travel in the poem. What do these suggest about the

woman’s past and her attitude towards it?

4) Think about the town which is mapped onto the woman’s body. What kind of a place is

it? What words would you use to describe it?

5) Discuss the concept of layers in the poem.

The Furthest Distance I've Travelled: links

This disarmingly frank article by Flynn charts a shift in her work from a post-modern reluctance to acknowledge individual identity to a more open accommodation of the self:

http://edinburgh-review.com/extracts/article-leontia-flynn/

Hear Flynn reading this poem on the Poetry Archive:

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/furthest-distances-ive-travelled

The Guardian’s review of her most recent collection, Profit and Loss, explores and amplifies many of the qualities found in ‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/02/profit-loss-leontia-flynn-review

Flynn’s own website has a range of other articles and resources:

http://leontiaflynn.com/

Deliverer poet - Tishani Doshi - and some of her more recent poems

http://www.tishanidoshi.com/

Thesis on Ezra Pound's Imagist influence on Eliot and The Fire Sermon

http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1209&context=senior_capstone

Sex and the Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXFLQftgJGY

History