Wednesday, 1/29 - Work Day

• P&P

• Work on reading Leithart and doing J3. If you finish both, you can finish reading Leithart's final installment covering Acts 4-5.

• Tomorrow, we will finish Julius Caesar by watching the film. 

HW: Finish J3

Tuesday, 1/28 - Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears

• P&P

• Continue Act 3 (J3 questions are posted on yesterday's post)

• Finish J3 by block (read Leithart on Julius Caesar through Act 3 and answer questions pertaining thereunto).

HW: J3

Monday, 1/27 - Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause

• P&P

• Continue Act 3

HW: Read Leithart section covering Act 3 and do the following questions:

J3 - JC (Act 3)
1. What is Caesar’s response to Artemidorus’ request to read his petition? What does it mean? Why does Caesar say “us ourself”?
2. Where is Caesar killed? Why is this significant?
3. What is Caesar comparing himself to at the very moment he is killed, and why is this significant?
4. What are some of the outrageous (foolish) statements the killers make to cast the murder in a gracious light?
5. Explain the significance and puns of Mark Antony's statement: "O world, thou wast the forest to this hart; / And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee / How like a deer strucken by many princes / Dost thou here lie!"
6. Why do the killers wash their hands in Caesar’s blood?
7. Explain the numerous ways that Antony’s speech triumphs over Brutus’ and provide several examples.
8. Sometimes scene iii is left out of productions. Why is it an important and appropriate scene with which to conclude Act 3?
 

Block, 1/23 - Let's Meet As a Senate Today

• P&P

• Discuss J1

• Continue Act 2 and begin keeping notes for J2

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)
 

Wednesday, 1/22 - Act 1 . . . dare we finish it today?

• P&P

• Finish Act 1 today . . .

HW: Actually finish J1 tonight, which we will go over tomorrow at the beginning of class.

Tuesday, 1/21 - Finish Act 1

• P&P

• Let's try to finish Act 1 in class today ; )

HW: Do J1 (questions below)

Block, 1/16 - Back in Ackshin!

• P&P

• Continue flick . . . for a fair bit.

• Dig the book

HW: Finish J1 by Tuesday.

Tuesday, 1/14 - Julio Kaiser

• P&P

• Discuss Roman historical background to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

• Begin JC

HW (due next Mon): J1 - Julius Caesar, Act 1 (Reading both JC and Leithart pages 77-83, do the following questions)

1. How does Shakespeare show the division between patricians and plebeians in the opening scene?
2. How does he begin to develop the theme that ingratitude is a root of revolution?
3. How does Shakespeare characterize Cassius (use quotes from the text to support your answer)?
4. Identify and keep track of all fire (flame, spark, etc.) imagery to see where Shakespeare is leading with these images.
5. What significance does Cassius' typology of Aeneas have for his character development?
6. How does Cassius' description of Caesar's mortality betray an ever-increasing decrepitude?
7. When Cassius says he has heard many people wish "that noble Brutus had his eyes" (1.2.62), what does he mean? And how is this related to Cassius' function as a mirror?
8. What does Cassius plan to do to bring Brutus into the conspiracy (1.2.320-327). Also, how is this parallel to his becoming a "mirror" to Brutus?       

Monday, 1/13 - Intro to Shakespeare

• P&P

• Discuss how Sophoclean and Shakespearean tragedy differ from one another.

• Discuss Elizabethan England

• Begin Julius Caesar?  

HW: Read Leithart's Intro to Julius Caesar (pages 71-77) in his Brightest Heaven of Invention (order a copy). If you do not already have it, please read the PDF on Focus.

Thursday, 1/9 - Heavy Stuff

• 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: Snag a copy of Leithart's Brightest Heaven of Invention.     

Tuesday, 1/7 - Let's Kick This Thing . . . Off.

• P&P

• Finish Intro to Oedipus and begin the tragedy already tragic.

Psalm 22:22-31