1. Read the first paragraph and think about what makes it ironic on the one hand and how Austen uses irony to introduce the main conflicts in the novel on the other hand.
2. Think about possible categorisation of the novel as a romantic comedy, a novel of education and as a novel of manners, and list examples from the text.
3. Find elements of sentimentalism, romanticism and realism in the novel
4. What does the title mean? Who is proud and who is prejudiced? Is there a way of extending these adjectives to other characters too?
5. List and examine the main characters in terms of their place in the social hierarchy: who is on top, who is in the middle, etc… Is there a way to cross class barriers? If yes, what is it?
6. Think about the moral standard applied to women as represented in the novel: are the same standards applied to men? If yes / no – why? What happens to a girl when she falls into disgrace? Who has the power to save her reputation, or: does anyone really has the power to save her reputation?
2007. december 1., szombat
2007. november 30., péntek
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
What is the form and the genre?
Who is the protagonist and why is he ‘ancient’ rather than ‘old’?
Find adjectives to describe his journey in general terms
What are the different stages in his journey?
Find animals, beast and creatures and think about what they might symbolise.
What do you think of the last three stanzas?
What is your interpretation of the poem?
List Romantic features from the poem
List Gothic features from the poem.
2. ‘Kubla Khan…’
What do we know about the birth / creation of the poem?
Is it really a fragment or not? Why is it emphasised in the title? What do you know about the Romantic taste for fragments? Can you bring parallels from the arts and architecture?
Who is the main character? What do we know about him? What has he done? What is the result of his work?
List manmade objects in the poem: What do they symbolise?
List natural objects in the poem: What do they symbolise?
What do you think about stanza 4? (Do not forget the check unfamiliar words.)
How does this poem compare to ‘I Wandered Lonely’?
3. ‘Frost at Midnight’
What is the dramatic situation (setting, characters, place and time)?
What is the difference between the childhood self of the speaker and his own child? What is this ‘other knowledge’?
What is ‘eternal language’ and what can the ‘secret ministry of frost’ be?
Think about the sleeping baby in terms of being a symbol: what could it symbolise?
What is the conclusion?
4. Biographia Literaria (1817)
Think about what Coleridge has to say in Biographia Literaria about the joint poetic venture of Lyrical Ballads and try to argue for or against the differences between his and Wordsworth’s poetic methods:
‘During the first year that Mr Wordsworth and I were neighbours, out conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination….The thought suggested itself…that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real….For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such, as will be found in every village and its vicinity….In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure [“obtain”] for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural. By awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand.’ (Chapter 14)
What is the form and the genre?
Who is the protagonist and why is he ‘ancient’ rather than ‘old’?
Find adjectives to describe his journey in general terms
What are the different stages in his journey?
Find animals, beast and creatures and think about what they might symbolise.
What do you think of the last three stanzas?
What is your interpretation of the poem?
List Romantic features from the poem
List Gothic features from the poem.
2. ‘Kubla Khan…’
What do we know about the birth / creation of the poem?
Is it really a fragment or not? Why is it emphasised in the title? What do you know about the Romantic taste for fragments? Can you bring parallels from the arts and architecture?
Who is the main character? What do we know about him? What has he done? What is the result of his work?
List manmade objects in the poem: What do they symbolise?
List natural objects in the poem: What do they symbolise?
What do you think about stanza 4? (Do not forget the check unfamiliar words.)
How does this poem compare to ‘I Wandered Lonely’?
3. ‘Frost at Midnight’
What is the dramatic situation (setting, characters, place and time)?
What is the difference between the childhood self of the speaker and his own child? What is this ‘other knowledge’?
What is ‘eternal language’ and what can the ‘secret ministry of frost’ be?
Think about the sleeping baby in terms of being a symbol: what could it symbolise?
What is the conclusion?
4. Biographia Literaria (1817)
Think about what Coleridge has to say in Biographia Literaria about the joint poetic venture of Lyrical Ballads and try to argue for or against the differences between his and Wordsworth’s poetic methods:
‘During the first year that Mr Wordsworth and I were neighbours, out conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of poetry, the power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination….The thought suggested itself…that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, the incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real….For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life; the characters and incidents were to be such, as will be found in every village and its vicinity….In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure [“obtain”] for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural. By awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us; an inexhaustible treasure, but for which, in consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, ears that hear not, and hearts that neither feel nor understand.’ (Chapter 14)
2007. november 20., kedd
Sir Walter Scott
1. Scott describes Waverley as a ‘historical romance’, and proved his own definitions:
- romance is ‘a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents.’
- novel: ‘a fictitious narrative, differing from the Romance, because the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events, and the modern state of society’. Some narratives, Scott suggests, ‘partake of the nature of both’. (1824)
Find elements of both in the novel.
Find modern definitions of the terms and compare with Scott’s definitions. Can you suggest any similarities or differences?
2. Define the term ‘historical novel’ and find examples from Scott’s novel.
3. Describe the main characters and their relationships: Waverley, Flora, Rose, and Fergus. Then make a list of side characters in terms of their ideals, political affiliations, and behaviour.
4. Think about the conflicts within Scott’s view of Scotland: what positive and negative features of Scottish identity does he represent in the novel? What does he say about the inner division of Scotland?
5. Today the novel is called a ‘novel of compromise’. Why? What does the term mean?
- romance is ‘a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents.’
- novel: ‘a fictitious narrative, differing from the Romance, because the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events, and the modern state of society’. Some narratives, Scott suggests, ‘partake of the nature of both’. (1824)
Find elements of both in the novel.
Find modern definitions of the terms and compare with Scott’s definitions. Can you suggest any similarities or differences?
2. Define the term ‘historical novel’ and find examples from Scott’s novel.
3. Describe the main characters and their relationships: Waverley, Flora, Rose, and Fergus. Then make a list of side characters in terms of their ideals, political affiliations, and behaviour.
4. Think about the conflicts within Scott’s view of Scotland: what positive and negative features of Scottish identity does he represent in the novel? What does he say about the inner division of Scotland?
5. Today the novel is called a ‘novel of compromise’. Why? What does the term mean?
2007. november 15., csütörtök
William Wordsworth
1. Preface to Lyrical Ballads:
How does he define the ‘poet’?
What does he say about the spontaneity of composition?
What does he say about the language of poetry and in what way does that represent a democratic turn in poetry?
2. ‘Lines: Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey…’:
What is the form and the versification?
What is the situation and where is the speaker?
What happens in the first stanza (here: verse paragraph)? What are the keywords?
What happens in the second stanza? What happened to the speaker while he was away? What had he got from the landscape before he left?
What is the situation in stanza four? What has changed since his youth? What was nature for him then and what is it now? How does he describe the relationship between man and nature?
What is in the focus in stanza five? Who is he speaking to? What is his relationship to nature like?
Define the term ‘pantheism’ and relate it to the poem.
Make your interpretation of the last sentence.
3. ‘I Wandered Lonely and a Cloud’
What is the situation? What is the speaker doing? What is his position and what is the setting?
Look up these words in a dictionary: ‘alone’ and ‘solitary’. Are there any differences between the meanings? How does that difference relate to the mood of the poem?
Look at the way the tenses of verbs change from the first to the last stanza. What does that say about the time of composition?
Go back to the Preface, find the phrase ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’, read the explanation, and try to explain Wordsworth’s technique of poetic composition.
4. ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge…’
What is the form and genre?
What is the setting (time, place, situation)?
What is the connection between the place and the speaker’s mind?
Why is the exact time and place of composition given in the title?
5. Find instance of the sublime and the picturesque in various poems.
6. Find ballads and examine the stanza form, the dramatic situation, the characters and the tone.
How does he define the ‘poet’?
What does he say about the spontaneity of composition?
What does he say about the language of poetry and in what way does that represent a democratic turn in poetry?
2. ‘Lines: Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey…’:
What is the form and the versification?
What is the situation and where is the speaker?
What happens in the first stanza (here: verse paragraph)? What are the keywords?
What happens in the second stanza? What happened to the speaker while he was away? What had he got from the landscape before he left?
What is the situation in stanza four? What has changed since his youth? What was nature for him then and what is it now? How does he describe the relationship between man and nature?
What is in the focus in stanza five? Who is he speaking to? What is his relationship to nature like?
Define the term ‘pantheism’ and relate it to the poem.
Make your interpretation of the last sentence.
3. ‘I Wandered Lonely and a Cloud’
What is the situation? What is the speaker doing? What is his position and what is the setting?
Look up these words in a dictionary: ‘alone’ and ‘solitary’. Are there any differences between the meanings? How does that difference relate to the mood of the poem?
Look at the way the tenses of verbs change from the first to the last stanza. What does that say about the time of composition?
Go back to the Preface, find the phrase ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’, read the explanation, and try to explain Wordsworth’s technique of poetic composition.
4. ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge…’
What is the form and genre?
What is the setting (time, place, situation)?
What is the connection between the place and the speaker’s mind?
Why is the exact time and place of composition given in the title?
5. Find instance of the sublime and the picturesque in various poems.
6. Find ballads and examine the stanza form, the dramatic situation, the characters and the tone.
2007. november 14., szerda
William Blake
Read the poem "Introduction" to the Songs of Innocence and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. Who or what can be the speaker? What other characters can you find in the poem?
4. In what terms is the poet and the process of poetic creation itself represented? What is the role of the poet?
5. What is the genre of the poem?
6. What is the "story" in the poem?
Read the poem "Introduction" to the Songs of Experience and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. Who or what can be the speaker? What other characters can you find in the poem?
4. In what terms is the poet and the process of poetic creation itself represented? What is the role of the poet?
5. Can you find a "story" in the poem?
6. Identify the biblical allusions in the poem
7. Try to visualise the poem. What kind of mental image can you see? Is it different from or similar to the world of the other "Introduction" poem?
8. Find Blake's illustrations to both poems at http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/ and compare them. Write your comments on the similarities or differences between them in one short paragraph.
Read the poem "The Lamb" in the Songs of Innocence and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. What characters can you find in the poem? Who can be the speaker? What is the relationship between the speaker and the addresse like?
4. Find these words in a dictionary: thee, thou, thy.
5. Characterise the syntax of the poem. What is the modality of the individual sentences in the two stanzas? What is the argumentative structure like? Can you point out any kind of symmtery between the two stanzas?
6. What does the lamb symbolise? How do you know that? can you find literary or other soures that support your opinion?
7. Is there a "story" behind the poem? If yes, what is it?
8. Point out biblical allusions in the poem. Do these allusions coincide with what we know about the story of the Creation from the Bible?
Read the poem "The Tyger" in the Songs of Experience and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. What characters can you find in the poem? Who can be the speaker? What is the relationship between the speaker and the addresse like?
4. Characterise the syntax of the poem. What is the modality of the individual sentences in the two stanzas? What is the argumentative structure like? Can you point out any kind of symmtery in the poem?
5. Find a definition for the term "Rhetorical question." Do you think this is a term that could be validyl applied to the poem?
6. What does the tyger symbolise? How do you know that? Can you find literary or other soucres that support your opinion?
7. Can you point out any similarities of differences between the concept of "creation" as represented in "The Lamb" and "The Tyger"?
8. Try to visualise the poem. What kind of mental image can you see? Is it different from or similar to the world of "The Lamb"?
8. Find Blake's illustrations to both poems at http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/ and compare them. Write your comments on the similarities or differences between them in one short paragraph.
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. Who or what can be the speaker? What other characters can you find in the poem?
4. In what terms is the poet and the process of poetic creation itself represented? What is the role of the poet?
5. What is the genre of the poem?
6. What is the "story" in the poem?
Read the poem "Introduction" to the Songs of Experience and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. Who or what can be the speaker? What other characters can you find in the poem?
4. In what terms is the poet and the process of poetic creation itself represented? What is the role of the poet?
5. Can you find a "story" in the poem?
6. Identify the biblical allusions in the poem
7. Try to visualise the poem. What kind of mental image can you see? Is it different from or similar to the world of the other "Introduction" poem?
8. Find Blake's illustrations to both poems at http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/ and compare them. Write your comments on the similarities or differences between them in one short paragraph.
Read the poem "The Lamb" in the Songs of Innocence and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. What characters can you find in the poem? Who can be the speaker? What is the relationship between the speaker and the addresse like?
4. Find these words in a dictionary: thee, thou, thy.
5. Characterise the syntax of the poem. What is the modality of the individual sentences in the two stanzas? What is the argumentative structure like? Can you point out any kind of symmtery between the two stanzas?
6. What does the lamb symbolise? How do you know that? can you find literary or other soures that support your opinion?
7. Is there a "story" behind the poem? If yes, what is it?
8. Point out biblical allusions in the poem. Do these allusions coincide with what we know about the story of the Creation from the Bible?
Read the poem "The Tyger" in the Songs of Experience and answer the following questions:
1. What is the versification of the poem (rhyme, rhythm, metre)?
2. What is the style and the tone like (happy or serious, elevated or conversational, etc.)?
3. What characters can you find in the poem? Who can be the speaker? What is the relationship between the speaker and the addresse like?
4. Characterise the syntax of the poem. What is the modality of the individual sentences in the two stanzas? What is the argumentative structure like? Can you point out any kind of symmtery in the poem?
5. Find a definition for the term "Rhetorical question." Do you think this is a term that could be validyl applied to the poem?
6. What does the tyger symbolise? How do you know that? Can you find literary or other soucres that support your opinion?
7. Can you point out any similarities of differences between the concept of "creation" as represented in "The Lamb" and "The Tyger"?
8. Try to visualise the poem. What kind of mental image can you see? Is it different from or similar to the world of "The Lamb"?
8. Find Blake's illustrations to both poems at http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/ and compare them. Write your comments on the similarities or differences between them in one short paragraph.
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