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Literature means analysis.

Nowadays learning English is very fashionable and trendy. However, do we reflect on the way we carry out the teaching of specific topics within the teaching of this foreign language? For example, the way we deal with historical events through English literature has not been taken into account as it should be in order to promote not only long term learning but also a thoughtful attitude in students. I remember that as a student I spent a lot of time searching for information on history that I never really used it. As the years wore on and I kept on studying historical events, I began to ask myself, "Am I really learning?" I never felt I was learning that bunch of information, and after a week or two I just forgot it. Now I finally realized that teaching historical events through literature is an extremely helpful tool for the EFL classroom; due to the fact that it comes to make a change in the current way of EFL teaching practice and also because there are concrete ways to introduce this topic in the EFL classroom.
This essay will describe what I have seen and lived during the years spent on the educational system; in relation to the foreign language teaching. It will also propose some effective ways of introducing historical events to students and finally, I will come up with a conclusion based on all the elements highlighted.
Turning now to the in progress way of teaching English as a foreign language and including the way it deals with the introduction of history issues that are very relevant for our society. It is important to have a clear idea of how English classes are developed in our current reality. From my own experience as an English teacher trainee in different schools I have come to comprehend and be a witness of the present techniques to teach English as a foreign language. Teaching English as an international language has a clear purpose; the well-known “English opens doors” program deals with enabling students to be more in touch with the world in terms of job opportunities. That is why in schools English is taught in a way that students become only passive receptors of messages. Receptive skills are often the main focus of the class; listening and reading are put first over the productive skills such as speaking and writing. In that sense, important historical event are often left aside or covered in a meaningless way.
Now let’s move on to the applicability in the classroom. Reading poems as “September 1, 1939” by W.H Auden; has made me realize that literature can express a lot about a particular historical event such as World War II and what people felt towards that situation. Reading that poem allows the reader to be taken into the scenario in which it was written and inspired.
I think that when we talk about small children, illustrations play an important role. Illustrations are beautiful and easy to follow by little children and they represent a relevant visual aid that can be exploited afterwards. It is crucial to bear in mind that children have no interest in dates, names, treaties and so ever. They are more interesting in knowing more about characters, personalities and places. Moreover, biographies can be a wonderful instrument into history, because if children care about a particular history character then they want to know about wars, treaties, dates, kings and queens, and so on. Once a student has an interest in a famous person, then the child will want to know what was going on in the time in which that person lived. Therefore, we can take advantage of that interest and give students more information about the context.
On the other hand, if we face an almost or an already high school class we could bring more complex text to be openly discuss in the class. If I were to choose a text I would choose “The Waste Land” by T.S Eliot. I deeply believe this poem is a very empowering work since it represents to me a way of expressing a point of view towards such an important topic as government and the effect of it on society. Besides when reading it, it is possible to feel the intention of the author and, in a way it is possible to interact with the writer because of the reactions that make in the readers. Additionally, the text is timeless to me because, even though it was written long time ago it can be definitely applicable to current events and situations. Besides this poems portrays the situation that people lived after the war, people were facing a feeling of emptiness. All the important decisions were not made by themselves but by others. Additionally, there were no means for them to make a change into the style of life and society they faced. Furthermore, the structure of the poem has some metaphors, references, and allusions so in that way students will be learning about history and at the same time about literature and poem’s structure.
In short, using literature to teach history in EFL classes is a highly recommendable instrument since by doing so we can raise students’ awareness on the importance of historical events and in addition make history more meaningful and appealing for them. A sign of the positive effects of this proposal is that the interest among educators in using literature to teach history has risen. What is more, we as teachers need to be the enough smart to make the most of the use of literature inside our classrooms. Following that same line of thought, applying, discussing and going through those works in which a community defines itself through its history, culture, tastes and realities. We might include works mainly as artistic ones as well as music, movies, poems, pictures and anything that can provoke any feeling, sensation and reaction on our students.















Links

• http://articles.famouswhy.com/why_is_literature_important_in_our_lives_/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land
• http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/510iftheshoefits/ljunkin.pdf

Outline

Outline : Teaching historcal events through literature in the EFL classroom

I. Introduction
a. Thesis
II. Current EFL teaching
III. Ways to introduce historical events through literature in EFL classroom
IV. Conclusion

Politics and Poetry.

W.H Auden wrote a poem called September 1, 1939. Why did he call his poem that way? He wrote this poem in the first days of World War II. When the invasion to Poland was taking place He was very critical when writing about the moment he was going through. All the lines of the poem referred to the complex situation that everyone was living. This poem was very important to me because it portrayed what W.H Auden had to say about war, so it really helped me to understand a little more what is was like to be in war times.

The poem started with this line “I sit in one of the dives” and it continued “uncertain and afraid” This two lines meant to me that the author was making use of his own voice to represent the feeling, reactions, fears, uncertainties that ordinary people went through towards war.

Moreover, the entire poem is a helpful tool for the speaker to address the lies he perceives transmitted by all types of government and law representatives. “And the lie of Authority whose buildings grope the sky: there is no such thing as the State” Here it seemed to me that the poet complained that the government fooled people by making them to “believe” that war was the best thing.

W.H Auden is very critical and down at times, although he gave some sorts of answers. “We must love one another or die” is an invitation to return to our human nature and to stop using mistakenly our influence and condition. This is very true, in the sense of human kind destroying ourselves. Illustrations of that are the Nuclear Bomb and terrorist attacks among others. This poem is definitely food for thought and it can be perfectly taught in a high school context.

Paulina's interpretation....

The Waste Land is well known as “one of the most important poems of the 20^th century”. From my point of view I consider it one of the controversial Elliot’s poems. Its complexity and structure has made it difficult to understand and analyze. The poem changes into two or more speakers as well the situations, location and time. However, even though it is a complex poem I have my own perspective of it. After reading The Waste Land I would say that it refers to a land that is isolated, empty and even dead. A land that is not suitable to use it. The land Elliot makes reference is an analogy of people’s live of the 20^th century. In this case is not a coincidence the poet had written about that obscurity that overwhelmed society. Through his characters, the British poet tries to portray a reality in which people's souls are empty, sad, but in deep they are dead as a consequence of their own history. To sum up, Elliot includes a sense of reality in his way of writing combining it with some tones of sarcasm, irony and coldness.

BY PAULINA VALDES

Reading Paulinas’s post about “The Waste Land” made me realize that T.S Elliot played a lot with the different voices of the various narrators of the poem. As well as Paulina, I think that this poem is fair representation of what the author thought about the society in which he was living. I agreed with her when she pointed out that this poem can be categorized as one of the most controversial poems ever. I consider this because it broke the mole somehow, highlighting and raising what society refused to express.

It is true that this piece of writing was not fictional at all. Actually, it was an excellent illustration of reality. He created female characters in the poem to make it more real and touching. Furthermore, it is clear that Marie, Lil, and the unnamed woman in it are sad. Different things have made them be like that, but they have that sadness in common.

Moreover, I share her point of view about T.S Elliot’s writing style. The author used irony, sarcasm and coldness to give the poem an unique way of expressing what he felt like to, but keeping intact the main message of it.

The Waste Land

The Waste Land by T.S Elitot is not an ordinary poem at all. It is very complex to read and quite long to be a poem. So, that is why I’ll do my best to write about my understanding of the poem.

From the very beginning of the poem with the subtitle “the burial of the dead”, I got the impression that it would be a very dark poem. This impression was even assured when I read the first line of the poem which is “APRIL is the cruellest month”. Then, as I kept reading I realized that in the first paragraph there are some contradictory concepts. A clear illustration of so, is snow and sunlight.
Let’ remember that this is a contemporary poem which was first publish in 1992, so it is highly important to take the context into account in order to make a more suitable understanding. World War I had just finished a few years before and this absolutely impacted on the whole society. It is known that eight million people die more or less during the period of time this war lasted. Therefore, men and women became disillusioned or hopeless about their own futures and the nature of humanity.

I think that Eliot tried to evoke and share that feeling of uncertainty. As if life can be vanished all of a sudden. I believe this is a complaining about the kind of lifestyle that 20th century brought. Well, there must be hundred of way of analyzing this poem. What I know for certain is that it needs to be read carefully and with time to think it over.

Real literature...

D.H Lawrence wrote “Odor of Chrysanthemums “and “Rocking-horse winner”. This novel writer represented one of the greatest figures in the 20th century. Even though people say that writers can be separated from the narrator of a novel, so what is being read should be taken from the voice of the narrator of a written work.

I guess this time that theory cannot be applied. I strongly believe that D.H Lawrence clearly influenced his writing by situations that happened directly to him. I mean, his writing is not something far from what people are to face through the course if their lives. Actually, this kind of writing really portrays what happens in real life.

In both short stories there are features of D.H Lawrence’s life. For example the fact that he was the son of a coal miner and “Odour of Chrysanthemums” presents the difficulties that the family of a miner, have to cope with. On the other hand, “The Rocking-horse winner” illustrates the friction of a marriage because of being always short of money; it’s known that Lawrence’s childhood was very poor.

I liked reading this sort of texts because they are very appealing to me; besides issues seen in the novels are very likely to be timeless. Despite the fact that time can pass by, there will be always some situations that might be repetitive through the development of human society.

Women and Writing

Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by me? I think what Virginia Woolf was trying to do by raising these questions has to do with the relationship between women and fiction. So the author of this essay “A room of one´s own” clearly states that conditions for writing are not the same for women and men equally.

Virginia gives examples that point out the few female writers that can have an important role in social status. This arbitrary situation is explained because of the lack of space that women are to face. This limitation is seen as physically as metaphorically. Physically, this is to say, to have space where you can spend some quality time thinking, reflecting and writing uninterruptedly. Metaphorically, a room in society; where your opinion can be taken into account and valued.

I think that Virginia is seeking to highlight that knowledge has to be available for everyone, not just for men or women. That is why she provides examples that help us to visualize situations where is evidently seen this injustice. As the fact that women are not a priority in terms of education and how complicated is for women to walk in a library. All this deals with gender issues; issues that still have a shadow in our society. This type of discrimination lays on archaic wrong conceptions that we need to avoid.

Oliver Twist

Childhood is very important for everyone; even though during the nineteenth century this value wasn´t very relevant. Watching Oliver Twist makes me think about the role of children in our society. I know that we are supposed to live in a developed society but some issues are sort of timeless. I mean timeless because they are still affecting us directly. Oliver Twist goes through a lot and nobody seems to really care about it. That reflects that kids are not kids at all. They are seen as well as an adult. Consequently, Oliver has the same obligations that an already grown person has. Making money was a duty for a child an irrevocable duty. I wonder if this means progress; progress for whom?
Not only children suffer because of progress, but also the quality of life of almost everyone, of course with some exemptions. Images from the movie are eloquent enough to tell that opportunities are not the same for everyone.

The Signalman.

The signal man is a short story, it´s not so easy to understand it though. This masterpiece written by Charles Dickens takes place in the nineteenth century where the dawn of a new world was highly expected. Dickens’ life is absolutely present in the entire story so it´s not difficult to realize that it represents the fears, wishes and points of view of the author.
Reading the story makes me reflect on the quality of life that this progress brings to the society. I really can´t seem to understand what is the purpose of spending a whole life just working. When population is growing amazingly fast, as in the story, it is easy to think that the social side of person can be improved with no trouble. However, we can see that more people doesn´t necessarily mean more company. Sometimes it´s the other way around and quantity doesn´t correspond to quality.
This is to say that mechanization is in some way automating our relationships, feelings and reactions. Loneliness is definitely the possible path of this situation. What I like the most of this reading is the teaching of caring about the real important things in life and give them the right priority.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein junior is the creation of a man who is interested in discovering the secrets of heaven and earth, this wasn´t a very encouraging start for this creature. He is brought to life eight feet tall and enormously strong but with the mind of a just born creature. He is sadly left alone and remained to loneliness because his creator is extremely afraid of having creating him.
Frankie has to face real life by surviving as he can, feeling what any human being would feel in such situation. Comparisons are always present in any context and this is not the exception. “ I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers—their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity”. Knowing the differences you might have with the rest of the “normal” people can help you to improve or inhibit yourself. Not only Frankie wants to integrate himself to society, but also seeks revenge on his creator. This leads him to take justice in his own hands and kill innocent people.
As far as I´m concerned, normality is as subjective as beauty. This means to me that nobody has the right to judge someone by the way she/he looks. On the other hand it´s also important to me to take a look at the internal mirror once and a while and check the way people might be looking at you.

Daffodils and nature

The poem deals with the moments that you have for your own. I got the feeling that those moments of leisure are becoming less and less frequent. William Wordsworth is presenting to us his love to nature, which is highly present in romanticism. You can tell his passion to nature by his repetitive use of words that have to do with nature, such as Milky Way, trees, lake and daffodils themselves.
I had a really great time listening to the poem because I love nature with all my heart and I think it´s essential to take care of it. Nature is so full of colors, colors that make our life livelier than what it is usually. Nonetheless, not only to take care of it, but also to appreciate it daily in every step we take.
When it comes to the stanza “A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company” it is important to bear in mind that natural science has been the inspiration for most f the artists of the last centuries, so in such a joined context loneliness is not present. Inspiration is possible to occur when sensibility and happiness are active in a poet´s mind.

"When I have fears that I may Cease to be".

Fears, fears; what do we understand by fears? My interpretation of fears might not be exact because worries are such personal feelings that it isn’t easy at all to get in to them. Examining the poem I realized that even thought this poem was written so long ago, it can be linked to our reality. Not only fear is present throughout the poem, but also death; which comes together with life. Life and death need each other; I guess Keats isn´t old enough to look back and be please with the life already lived by him. Everyone wants to be remembered and be transcendental, especially for what we do to make a living. Writing can be very appreciated by the world and at the same time it can be forgotten easily. Keats worst fears are the uncertainties that an inexpert young sick man that is seeing his life going away in front of his own eyes. “And when I feel, fair creature of an hour” these words are absolutely representative of feeling as just a minimum irrelevant molecule of this huge speedy world. Romanticism is clearly seen in this poem. God is not an option for the writer, he feels alone and useless.
What I can get from this piece of writing is to live as I were against the clock. It’s essential to leave our past footsteps in the present; to give our best for our wishes.

Kubla Khan

Kubla Khan by Coledridge is a visionary poem which represents perfectly the romantic period. Nothing is too white, nothing is too black. Man´s imagination is as powerful as God´s power. Nature is absolutely predominant in this poem as well as truth, faith, pleasure and imagination. I think Coledridge is a pioneer because he doesn´t write about ordinary topics or irrelevant issues. I guess he goes beyond everybody else during his writing period. His social thought stands for what everyone has ever dream of at least once during our life time. Kubka Khan might be the long expected paradise that is needed to contrast the civilized world where we live in. The green and peaceful piece of land where can be who we truly are, without any prejudices. I feel that this piece of writing has some biblical references; as the image of women, the presence of the snake, and of course the paradise.

The Little Black Boy

I liked reading this poem because it´s not so structured since you can get to perceive what the author wants to say and you have a bound to interpret it. I think that the most present key word deals with the symmetrical relation among all the important concepts through the poem. That is why I relate the poem with the picture of Ford Madox Brown called “Pretty Baa-Lambs” due to the fact the image that this masterpiece projects is as peaceful to me as the message of the poem. Both are full of equality where man plays an important role in the world. The poem talks about a reality where nothing is completely true or completely false. Spirituality and social issues are very prominent in the text so we can learn a lot from it.

Womes´s role in society.

“Literature allows us to understand better the human condition and transforms each of its readers inwardly”(Todorov, 30) I must confess that this quote call my attention enormously. However, this other call it even more “The study of literature is basically the study of man, his relation to himself and to the world and his relation with others”, quote extracted from a report issued by The Association des Professeurs de Lettres. Reading that quote I got the feeling that women and everything related to the female aspect of life and therefore, literature was left aside; that´s why I am so interested in writing about the women´s role in society, taking into account some of the most famous master pieces of literature.
To begin with my topic, firstly I will contrast the portrayals of Miranda by Shakespeare in The Tempest and of Alison or Alice by Chaucer in The Wife of Bath. This is to say to show how different these two characters came to be. On one hand we have Miranda who is a dutiful daughter . The only case of disobedience we see within the play is when she gives Ferdinand her name after her father explicitly forbid her to speak to him. What I think Shakespeare is suggesting that a woman should have intelligence, charm and modesty, but not too much of anything. They should go from the house of their father to the house of their husband. However, it should also be a husband worthy of the woman. Ferdinand proves to be worthy of her by working to win Miranda´s heart and hers father´s acceptance. The other point I can make about this character is innocence. Shakespeare is maintaining the innocence of his female character along the whole play I think Shakespeare portrays Miranda as pretty much a child. This situation is absolutely convenient to her father, Prospero. Perhaps, Miranda wasn´t a central character but she was important. She was described so in many subtle ways and done so in a way not appealing or corresponding towards the women of today.
On the other hand we have Alison from The Wife of Bath, who has a really distinctive voice and a dominant position. Alison is an example of the control that women should have, according to her ideas. She is a strong-willed woman who tries hard to get what she wants and when she wants it. She should not be controlled or told what to do by others, especially by a man. She had five husbands and she is looking forward to the sixth. I think Chaucer is trying to emphasize women´s freedom and sexual liberation. I still remembere about the question raised in class, what do women want? What a difficult question to answer. Alison definitely wants to break the mole and she does it in lots of ways. The image of women we get from the tale is full of bravery. I think that is what women want at some point; to show how brave we are and to live every second as the last one.

After contrasting these two relevant characters of literature, one from the sixth century and the last one from the fourth century respectively; we are able to realize that women´s image and thus women´s role in society has changed as time goes by. Long time ago, women were devoted to issues related to the house. For example in the medieval ages women were totally dominated by the male members of their family. The women were expected to instantly obey not only their father, but also their brothers and any other male members of the family. Disobedient girls were beaten into submission and breaking the rules was seen as a crime almost against religion. So, being a woman was not easy at all. You needed to stick to what was normal and expected from women. Opposite to that, we find the women’s role in the 21 century; a role that might be kind of shocking for some people. Women are present in everywhere we look at. We are a strong and relevant element of this society. It´s not longer weird seeing women who are more concerned about our happiness rather than about other´s. Women who know perfectly what we want and who are determined willed to fight for it.
Tentatively, when we think about literature, we don´t make the link with classroom teaching; in my case, it´s way easier to relate literature with university contexts, and at the most, with high schools environments. I guess this is because of the bad use of the term literature, I just feel we tend to put it away from us. Thinking how to apply literature into the classroom, especially into English as a Foreign Language classroom, it would be a good idea to bring small pieces of writing to the class. Pieces of writing that have a lot to do with what students are going through in that moment; trying to make the reading a more meaningful activity. I think the key is to connect the story or/and the characters with the life of our students. Then to reflect on the issues that text might bring up, for example the role of women. Doing that we can make student to reflect on what happened and what is happening nowadays. It would be a good exercise for students to listen to other people´s points of view so they can be more tolerant.
To sum up, men and the whole society has had to come to terms with women exercising their recently acquired rights in their jobs, in politics and at home. The respective roles of men and women has changed undeniably transforming that way the nature of family, society, culture and politics ; together with economics. Gender inequality has been always an issue in the middle ages and now. The only difference is that now women have the right to speak about what we like and what we dislike. That´s why Fetherolf states, “There will always be social and institutional constructs around what is male and female, but they not need to be unequal in value”. ( Fetherolf, 5). There we can realize that men and women will always be different, the answer is that whatever we do, no matter by woman or man, should have the same value.




Bibliography.



1.Burke, Mary. Reaching for Justice: The Women´s Movement. Center of Concern, Washington, 1980

2.Fetherrolf, Martha. Women, Gender and Work. International Labour Office-Geneva, London, 2001.
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3.Todorov, Tzvetan.What Is Literature For?. New Literary History - Volume 38, Number 1, Winter 2007, pp. 13-32.

4.http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projf983a/charac.htm

FILM REVIEW.

As we might know William Shakespeare is an icon of the world literature. He is well-known by his poems, sonnets and certainly by his plays. Most of his work has been translated into several languages and his plays performed all over the world. He goes through basically for four periods during his writing’s career. All of them mainly deal with current issues for society or topics related to feminism, sexuality, friendship, loyalty, money and of course love, among others. “The Merchant of Venice” is movie based of the Shakespeare’s play; the story is developed during the XVI century.

Two of the main characters are Antonio and Shylock. Antonio, represented by Jeremy Irons, is a merchant in Venice he has a wealthy life and Shylock, performanced by Al Pacino, is a Jewish moneylender. These two people have some differences. The most predominant one is the religious beliefs, the Italian merchant is catholic and the moneylender is Jewish, this means that they are in a strongly opposition. Antonio insults and looks down Shylock so the relationship among them isn’t good at all. Both of them seek to show which one of them is better than the other. This struggle leads them to be in complicated situations; one of these situations is one time when Antonio spit on Shylock’s face. This is one act that represents an indescribable repulsion towards someone else. Later one Shylock states firmly that he is equal to everyone due to the fact he feels as everybody and a lot of examples that express that Jews and Christians should be seen with same eyes.

One of the main conflicts of the whole movie is a money loan. Antonio has to turn to Shylock in order to get a big amount of money to give it to his friend Bassanio. Shylock accepts under just one incomparable reason. He wants one exact pound of Antonio own flesh. Bassanio tries to convince Antonio to forget about the loan. However he decides to go on and accepts this risky condition. Finished the due time to pay the debt, Shylock is hungry for revenge. He takes Antonio into court, which represents a low state for a business man. Bassanio offers to pay the double amount of money but Shylock keeps on wanting his revenge. What the court asks the most is mercy, however Shylock is too blind to see that the court has more arguments against him. After all he loses everything and he is forced to convert to Christianity.

There is the discussion whether this master piece belongs to the tragedy or to the comedy category. It’s important to have an idea of what comedy and tragedy are. Comedy might be defined as light and humorous drama with a happy ending. While tragedy might be defined as where the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. So, this work has elements of both definitions. There are parts that are really tragic and full of sorrow and reflection. On the other hand there are some funny and relaxed scenes.

Seeing this movie has been a reminder to me. A reminder that helps me to understand how powerful and destructive prejudices can be. We all know how relevant religion is for a whole society, because human beings tend to have the need to believe in something. Even though when that belief, no matter which it is, turns into an excuse to segregate and hurt others then it loses all its valid purpose.

I think the work of Shakespeare has the intention to transmit the way things were and in some sense how things still are. The analysis of some values and the concrete acts is fundamental to understand the movie and the reasons why characters did what they did. Also the approach of some interesting issues as sexuality show that this play and movie’s purpose is to raise awareness among its readers or watchers. The ways Shakespeare and the director manage to expose their point of view are completely legitimate. However, it’s true that sometimes it’s no the same reading a play than watching a movie.

I really liked the movie and the discussion my classmates and I had

I. Introduction.

II. Opposition between Antonio and Shylock.

1. Differences between the two characters.

A. Religious differences.

a. Moments of arguing.

3. Money landing.

A. Reasons of it.

B. Consequences of it.

III Tragedy and comedy.

1. What is tragedy?

2. What is comedy?

3. Some of both.

IV Conclusion

Outline

The Faerie Queene

This allegorical work written by Edmund Spencer has a lot of religious and personal issues all over the letter. Moreover the predominant topic is certainly moral. Moral is definitely represented by virtues; virtues that Spencer manages really well. I think Spencer states his point of view and his moral judgment by making the most of the purpose of an allegory. The author hides his literal meaning by giving a symbolic meaning. There are a lot of words used by Edmund, all of them to express what he thinks is correct. The virtues mentioned in the letter (Holinesse, Temperance and Chastitie) lay between a balance in life. Perhaps his message wasn’t about reaching perfection but to find the right measure in existence. His best example is King Arthur, because he considers the knight brave and perfect in the twelve moral virtues that Aristotle devised.

For me reading this letter was a challenge. At times I thought that I couldn’t understand even a line of it. I am not so sure but I am giving a try; I think Spencer’s intentions are in some way to express his own opinion about the current political issues and to share it with Sir Raleigh. So a letter is the smartest way to pass on his message and to defend himself of misunderstandings.

What do women want?

What do women want?

I need to admit that reading and analyzing this tale was not an easy task at all. However, after socializing the reading was way easier to understand the words of Chaucer.

What do women want? What a difficult question to answer. Alison definitely wanted to break the mole and she did it in lots of ways.

The image of women we get from the tale is full of bravery. Allison also shows that women want control of everything around them. She personifies a strong-willed woman who doesn’t like to be defeated. Women want to be dominant of their own body, sexual freedom.

I truly enjoyed reading this tale. I think it’s very important to know more about history and process and reading literature is a very fascinating way to do so.

I try to reflect on the overall meaning of this story. I don’t like the way the protagonist uses sex to manipulate men in order to get what she wants. I think this fact instead of contributing to women’s rights it plays a role of bad used strategy.

TRUTH

Chaucer wants to express what he understands for truth. He also wants us to reflect on his lines, a reflection about the life we have been having.
"Be satisfied with what you have, even if it isn´t much" this is the second line of the text and I think this means a lot. We can apply this to the reality we live in. People are never satisfied with what they have; in terms of everything, material stuff, etc. So, for me this is a calling to stick to the true life that Chaucer believes in. A religious aspect of the human life is also well manifested here. Obedience and thankfulness of what is realy important and relevant for us. "Much joy is spent on trivial matters" I absolutely agree with this statement. After reading this poem I thought about what truth really is. I got to the conclusion that nowadays nobody has the truth of anything. There are just individual pieces of truth.

Truth

Truth

My definition of an epic poem

As Beowulf is one of the first epic poems found in old English I can predict that epic poems have to do with showing or telling what happened during a specific time in history. So epic poems are an important part of the base to understand the roots of what we think we are. After reading chapters of Beowulf I could notice that there are a lot of features from the target culture shown in a fictional piece of paper. So by reading an epic poem we can get to know more about the traditions and customs of a certain group of people. The fact that is a poem means to me that is written in a smooth and beautiful way.

literature what for?

“That the aim of literary analysis is to lear about the instruments that literary analysis uses. Reading poems and novels does not lead to making the students think about the human conditions, about the individual and society, about love and hate, and about joy and despair, but about critical concepts, whether traditional or modern. At school, pupils do not learn what literature talks about but instead what critics talk about”. (What is literatute for. Tzvetan Todorov.Page 18.

After thinking about the real purpose of literature; I realised there is no point in reading a text, whatever its nature is, just to remember dates, characters or facts. So, if we think that literature seeks to stimulate a reaction on the reader; reaction that might be undefined due to the fact it depends on the reader’s point of view. Then teachers are a relevant element to spread the social dimension of literature; a social dimension that needs to have a space inside our classrooms. As Todorov states, schools should give students the opportunity to discover to be critic about what they are reading. Teachers need to let our students know about the importance of a critical reading. It’s good and advisable to analyse whatever we are reading. Perhaps not to share the posture of the writer but to understand that each and everyone of us have a different way of seeing. It’s also healthy for a community to discuss the current issues by reading what some other person has written about them.
After all literature is at the service of people and not the other way around.