Lockdown Literature 13.1

Oh hi,

Thanks for the survey responses last week. It seems that you lot are loving the Keats and Kite. Who knew? Most respondents also feel that lockdown learning is going okay and most are feeling on top of the Lit work. If you haven’t done the survey yet and have a different story to tell, it’s still here.

In a week’s time, I’m going to be asking for you to make a solemn pledge and confirm to me what you will read over the summer. This is an important step as you MUST have done some coursework-related reading by September as we’ll be having one-to-one meetings to plan coursework. It’ll be too late by then for you to start reading.

 

Anyway, here’s your work (for Thursday):

1) Do this coursework questionnaire. This will help me to help you with suggestions, resources, links etc. You don’t need to have made any major decisions; I’m just interested in the ideas that are starting to form in your minds.

2) Do this Othello extract annotation task. This is a great revision exercise. Just follow these steps:

1. Click the link above and make your own copy of the extract doc.
2. Without your copy of the text, annotate the extract as you would in the first 10 minutes of the exam.
3. In particular, you need to make notes on a) aspects of tragedy; and b) Shakespeare’s methods
4. When you’ve done what you can, open up your text and see if you’ve missed anything important.
5. Send me a link to your annotated doc.
6. Optional extra task: have a go at the question!

3) Continue to do some research, reading and thinking about coursework options. All the info and docs you need can be found in Lockdown Lit 11.

Optional extras:

4) Want more great short stories? Let’s try some Ray Bradbury. If you went to BHS, you’ve probably already read ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ from The Martian Chronicles. If you haven’t read it, you really should. It’s great!

Another famous collection by Bradbury is The Illustrated Man. Like The Martian Chronicles, these stories are short, fast-paced, dystopian and weird; some of them are like mini-episodes of Black Mirror.

Check out Zero Hour or Marionettes, Inc. below. There’s also a pdf copy of the whole book here. I’d also recommend The Veldt, The Long Rain and The Fox and the Forest. Many of Bradbury’s short stories, including these ones, were adapted for TV on a show called Ray Bradbury Theater in the late 80s/early 90s. I watched Zero Hour last night. If you like creepy, weird, retro TV in the mould of The Twilight Zone, check them out here.

Here are some very short stories to get you started with Bradbury. (Click the links above if you can’t see the full-screen/download buttons on these embedded docs):

 

Read an article about Bradbury’s short stories here.

5) If you haven’t already, listen to this lecture/podcast by Emma Smith at the University of Oxford. It's excellent revision material for Othello. It’s also available to download on iTunes (search ‘Approaching Shakespeare’). It’ll give you a little insight into life as an undergrad Lit student!

That’s all for today. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be back with another blogpost at the usual time on Thursday.

Mr M