Wednesday, 1/30 - Let slip the dogs of war

". . . let slip the dogs of war."

• P&P

• Check HW: Leithart notes 

• Further incentive to take good notes

• Finish Act 3 . . . watch film?

HW: (due Mon)

1. Take notes on the remaining Leithart 
2. Procure a copy of Leithart's Brightest Heaven of Invention   

Monday, 1/28 - Et tu, Brute?

• P&P

• Check J2 briefly and continue Act 3

HW: read Leithart (92-98) by Wednesday. Take notes.

Wednesday, 1/23 - HW Check and begin Act 2

• P&P

• Check J1 and discuss

• Begin Act 2 together in class 

HW:(due Monday)

1. Read Leithart (85-91) 
2. Do J2 below, which covers Act 2

J2 - Julius Caesar (Act 2)

1. Explain the basic outline of Brutus’ argument for why “It must  be by his [Caesar’s] death” (lines 10-34).

2. What is the significance of the serpent imagery in the same passage?

3. Explain Brutus’ soliloquy that begins, “Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar / I have not slept” (2.1).

4. How is “the conspiracy” (the conspirators) “To mask [its] monstrous visage” and why? 

5. What is the disagreement over Cicero? (Who claims what about him?)

6. What is the disagreement over Mark Antony? (Who claims what about him?)

7. How does Brutus want everyone to think of their killing of Caesar? 

8. Compare and contrast Portia’s dialogue with Brutus and Calpurnia’s with Caesar. (Feel free to make a chart/Venn diagram to keep it short)

   

Tuesday, 1/23 - JC DVD

• P&P

• Julius Caesar DVD cont'd

HW: Finish J1 - Julius Caesar. Questions are below. 

Wednesday, 1/16 - How to Read Shakespeare

• P&P

• How to Read Shakespeare (and eText for Julius Caesar)

• Read Leithart's Brightest Heaven of Invention (71-77) 

HW: Read Leithart 71-77 (PDF posted on Focus) 

Tuesday, 1/15 - Shakespeare! Ha, HA!

• P&P

• Today we take a quiz on Oedipus!

1.     What is the significant difference between how the ancients viewed crime and how moderns view it?

2.     According to the ancients, what is the cultural significance of killing one's father?

3.     Explain how Oedipus develops the philosophical conundrum "the one and the many."

4.     In contrast to us moderns, the question "Who am I?" for the Greeks was closely linked to the question "_______________?"

5.     How is Creon a foil to Oedipus?   

• Now, let's discuss what you know about Shakespeare and Elizabethan England

 HW: procure a cheap paper copy of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. We will begin it tomorrow ; )  

Monday, 1/14 - Review the Horror

Antigone Leads Oedipus out of Thebes - Charles Francois Jalabert

*P&P

*Begin discussing Leithart on Oedipus.

HW: 

1. Finish reading Leithart on Oedipus.
2. Please respond to the survey from last semester and email your responses to me. Due tonight. Thanks!

Wednesday and block, 1/8 - The Pharmakos

• P&P

• Let's continue with Oedipus today and then review some of the highlights from Leithart.

  
Highlights and questions from Heroes 

• What is one of the major ways that Oedipus has affected modern society, modern thought? Freud!

• "Oedipus embarks on a time-reversing quest that returns him to the womb--of his wife." 

• Oedipus Tyrannus operates on a political level 
• Tyrannus, though it means king, could mean tyrant, or could at least refer to a benevolent king with absolute power.

• Several cultural oppositions serve to inform the work
• City and wilderness
• Civilization and savagery

• Oedipus is a study of what happens when a godlike hero comes to a city - he destroys it

• Oedipus is a dramatic rendering of the Greek religious rite of the pharmakos   

• The imagery of the play associates Oedipus with the cultural and scientific achievements of ancient Athens, yet Sophocles reverses these things:
• Hunter hunts himself
• Ship's captain loses control of the ship
• Physician is sick and infects everyone
• Plowman plows in a field he ought not and causes sterility

• The theological dimension: While "man is the measure of all things," Oedipus learns that "man is measured by the gods." 
• Man tries to measure the gods' prophecies
• Unfortunately, he mis-measures ; ) 
• Prophecy proves reliable

• Some Greek dramatic terms (Heroes bottom of 312-313):
• Hamartia - a tragic fault, a mistake, a false judgment, an error
• Hubris - pride that seeks to exceed human limits

• The pursuit of knowledge becomes a sort of incest, a transgressing of unnatural boundaries:
• Oedipus' self-knowledge does not set him free: it indicts him
• His knowledge affirms he is incestuous: his relationship undermines the fundamental structure of the life of the city, of the polis.

HW: Read Heroes "City of Confusion" (pgs. 315-324) and be ready to discuss review questions.         

Wednesday, 1/9 - The Raging Cows! Mooooooooooo!

Raging Cow

*P&P

*Let's continue with our bovine tragedy of the raging cows . . . and Oedipus, of course, who's hot on the tail, I mean, trail of himself.

HW: Begin reading Leithart's chapter on Oedipus Tyrannus in Heroes.

Monday, 1/7 - Welcome to Shakespeare and . . .

William Manley Maxwell Reno (7 lbs. 10 oz. 20 1/2 in.)

It is with great joy that Mr. and Mrs. Reno announce the birth of our new son: William Manley Maxwell Reno was born on December 28 (his due date), a day historically known as Childermas or Feast of the Innocents, the day the church remembers Herod's slaughtering of the first "martyrs": all the sons in Bethlehem two and under.

William ("Great Protector") - after his late cousin Will Reno, father-in-law's middle name, and Shakespeare, of course.

Manley ("Man's Meadow") - after Gerard Manley Hopkins, Victorian poet extraordinaire, one of Reno's favorite poets of all time (and one of Beniam's favorites, too). Don't worry, you'll be memorizing a "Manley" sonnet during 4th quarter.

Maxwell ("Great Spring") - after my grandfather Max Reno, whom I never met but whom I wanted to honor. Max passed away when my father was nine years old.

Now . . . welcome to the Shakespeare portion of Classy-Shakey. With that said, we are going to begin by reading a Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex (the King). But before we begin that, let's discuss what we know about Classical Athens and its theater (or theatre if British).