To:
All English 1301 and 1302 Students
From:
M. Hall
Subject:
Spring Projects
Date:
2 March 2013
Via:
Angry Verbs and BlackBoard
All
Sections: You may take your mid-term
exam on Monday night, 5:30 P.M. – 8:40 P.M., 18 March, on Tuesday morning, 0900
– 11:05, and / or Thursday morning, 0900-11:05.
The exam will not be offered at any other time; three opportunities are
generous in the extreme.
Your
mid-term exam is 25% of your final grade.
English
1301:
Please
find and review the requirements for your persuasive research paper given to
you on the first day of term in January.
You should make a list of possible topics (avoid the subjective and the
emotional; this is research, not op-ed) and consider the accessibility of
sources.
Please
know that I will not accept any sources you don’t bring to me in printed form
(I’ll give them back within the hour) to be approved by me in writing. Books and scholarly journals may be difficult
to find and check out, so know your topic and your sources. If you are using a ‘net source, print the first
page of the document, the last page of the document, and the specific content within
the document to which you mean to refer, and bring it all to me for my approval
(again, you’ll have it back within the hour).
The
reason for this heavy lifting (which, depending on your sources, might not be a
metaphor) is the reality that in our “infotainment” culture most people really
do not understand the concept of accurate sources: such people will deny the
advice of an attorney because of something a famous person said on a
telescreened (allusion to Orwell’s 1984)
talk show. Such people will ignore a
physician and employ treatments based on a ‘net search. Popular culture, gossip, demagogues,
entertainers, and opinions are useless; you need knowledge for various aspects
of your live, and knowledge comes from authoritative sources. A physician, nurse, or other health care
professional is an authoritative source regarding diseases; the first babble-site
that pops up from the glowing electric box that makes noises is not. An experienced welder with multiple
certifications is an authority on metallurgy; someone who in high school once
spluttered a bunch of rods onto a cracked metal gate is not. We’re going to have lots of talks about
sources. As a high school teacher asked
me (in brilliant red ink) a long, long time ago, “How is it that Winston
Churchill is one of your sources on the American Civil War?”
I
will give you a timeline of specific tasks to be accomplished, and will sign
off on them – if they are completed – each week. The timeline I gave you in January is now
off; I will rebuild it for you, but note the sequence.
If
you turn in your research paper NLT the beginning of class on 15 April, I will
award you ten extra points.
If
you turn in your research paper NLT the beginning of class on 22 April, you
neither gain nor lose points; this is the official due date.
If
you turn in your research paper NLT the beginning of class on 29 April, you
lose ten points – the paper was due the previous week.
If
you run breathlessly into the room five minutes late on 29 April you have a
zero.
We
will use some class time for mutual aid, but most of research writing is
outside of class.
Your
research paper is 25% of your final grade.
Without it, you cannot pass the class.
English
1302:
You
will enjoy a cafeteria selection for your play: Jean Anouilh’s Becket, William Shakespeare’s Henry V, or Robert Bolt’s A Man
for All Seasons. I have work packets
(with much writing, Hannah!) and DVDs for all of these, and after you have
watched at least some of each, make a decision as to which one you want to work
up from a packet of assignments for a series of grades.
Henry V is in blank
verse, which you have studied, and develops themes of statecraft, the
Augustinian just war theory, the duties of man to the state and the state to
men (the term is gender-inclusive), patriotism, and the “band of brothers”
theme. Lawrence Olivier’s 1944
Technicolor version was financed by the British government (is government
funding bad?) as propaganda (emotional appeal – is that bad?) during World War
II. In this one read the French as
Nazis. The outdoor scenes were filmed in
Ireland (and that Ireland chose to remain neutral does not speak well of that
country) so that the large, colorful sets and hundreds of actors wouldn’t be
attached by German warplanes.
The
recent Kenneth Branagh version of Henry V
is by a for-profit company (is that bad?), and is decidedly anti-war. The famous “Non Nobis” scene after Agincourt
is beautiful, ironic, and sad rather than triumphant. Thus we have two versions
of one play, using the same words, but with two different viewpoints – and,
yes, that’s all good.
Henry’s
“We Band of Brothers” speech is now a regular feature of Remembrance Day /
Veterans’ Day commemorations. Set pieces
from Henry V (“Brother John Bates, is
that the sun…?”), Hamlet, and other
Shakespearean plays frequently appear in Star
Trek films. This is because the
themes transcend cultures and eras.
We
also have two versions of A Man for All
Seasons. Robert Bolt, a professed
agnostic, was fascinated with the idea of a man allowing himself to be executed
rather than foreswear his faith, and wrote this play in the 1950s as a sort of
exploration of ideas and courage. The
play and its dialogue follow William Roper’s biography; the presentation of More’s
defense in court is said to be very accurate.
The
1966 version, directed by Fred Zinneman, won six Academy Awards. It is a big-budget production that differs
from the original play mostly in losing the part of The Common Man, a sort of
Greek chorus / narrator. Be warned that
around the middle of the film there is one (blank-blank-it) by More’s best
friend, Thomas Howard. I’m sorry it’s
there; I think it’s unnecessary. The
lesser-known 1988 version, directed by and starring Charlton Heston, was also
filmed on England but on a much smaller budget.
This is far closer to the play as written, with the restoration of the
important role of The Common Man. This
made-for-television version is less-known, but Charlton Heston (World War II
bomber-gunner, btw) loved this role and acted it on stage numerous times. You know him best from The Ten Commandments (which Glenn Beck, for reasons best known to
himself, mocked on the radio late in February of this year) and Planet of the Apes, but he made dozens
of movies in all sorts of roles, including cowboy shoot-‘em-ups. He loved Shakespeare, and his 1971 Antony and Cleopatra is a work of
genius.
In
the 1966 film, Anne Boleyn is played in a brief cameo by Vanessa Redgrave. In the 1988 version she is super as Thomas
More’s wife. Redgrave is a Communist, an
anti-Semite, and anti-American, but Heston felt sorry for her and gave her a
job. Sir John Gielgud is onstage all too
briefly as the deliciously wicked Cardinal Wolsey.
Only
one film version was made of Becket,
in 1964, produced by Hal Wallis, who also made Casablanca and True Grit. This play was written in the 1950s by Jean
Anouilh, another agnostic, who was interested not only in the story of Thomas Becket but in issues of tension
between church and state. King Henry II
is played by Peter O’Toole, and Becket by Richard Burton. Sir John Gielgud has another cameo as the
tricky, tricky King of France. T.S.
Eliot wrote the story of Thomas Becket about the same time as Jean Anouilh, in Murder in the Cathedral; to my knowledge
this has never been filmed. Eliot’s
versification can be obscure, but his characterization of the four murderous
knights as self-excusing government bureaucrats is excellent.
Thomas
Becket…Thomas Becket…now how does he connect to The Canterbury Tales?
Research
papers: some of you have not yet met your research paper requirement, so you
will be somewhat busier than others. Do
not be shy about letting me know if you are sinking; I can modify the drama
(meaning the plays, not the struggles of life) for you. Your research paper is 25% of your final
grade.
