Othello: ambition, jealousy, racism?

The conflicts between the main characters in Othello provide much of the tension and action in the play. Which is the force at the heart of these conflicts: excessive ambition, deep-seated jealousy, or racial prejudice? Alternatively, are there other, even more compelling forces at work? Give at least one textual reference to support your opinion, and write at least two meaty paragraphs (Remember to use Shakespeare's original text in your quotations, even if you have used the No Fear Shakespeare version to help you understand the language).


Trivia question of the week: What was historically spectacular about one of the productions of Othello in 1660?

Jenny

Great Expectations: Personification / Dehumanization, or Bildungsroman

The brilliant literary critic Dorothy van Ghent presents a way of looking at Great Expectations in her book The English Novel: Form and Function (1953):

Dickens lived in a time and an environment in which a full-scale demolition of traditional values was going on, correlatively with the uprooting and dehumanization of men, women, and children by the millions - a process brought about by industrialization, colonial imperialism, and the exploitation of the human being as a "thing" or an engine or a part of an engine capable of being used for profit...People were being de-animated, robbed of their souls, and things were usurping the prerogatives of animate creatures - giverning the lives of their owners in a most literal sense.

Can you find examples of the personification of things (objects being given human qualities or descriptions, particularly through the use of verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and simile or metaphor), or the dehumanization of people (their personal or physical qualities being compared to objects)?

What do you think of this idea of dehumanization or personification through language or style? Do you think this is indeed Dickens' intent?

Or, if you prefer: give several examples from the text (including quotes) of how Great Expectations fits into the category Bildungsroman, and comment on whether you thing this process is successful in the novel.
Bildungsroman:

A Bildungsroman is a novel which concerns itself with the development of a youthful protagonist as he or she matures. It is analogous in many ways to the "Apprenticeship Novel" (the so-called Erziehungsroman) or "Education novel," which explores the youth and young adulthood of a sensitive protagonist who is in search of the meaning of life and the nature of the world.

www.victorianweb.org/genre/bildung.html

Finally, the trivia question of the week: When Dickens wrote his first book (a compilation of articles), which pseudonym did he use?

Don't forget to post your comments before class.

Welcome to the Literature blog 2017-2018!

This blog is an educational and literary teacher training project, and your participation will ensure its success (and your passing the course). That means commenting on each one of the works of literature we will be reading in the coming months - a day before class, so that your teacher and the other students have the chance to read your thoughts.

TIP: write your blog comments in a Word document first (which you save, of course) and then copy & paste your comment into the blog. If for some reason the blog is not working correctly at that moment, you won't lose your comment.
Each student in the HR Literature course is expected to post or comment - in the correct week - on each of the works of literature we will read in Blocks 1 and 2. Please make sure you comment on the right book, under the right post; we will all get confused if Othello gets comments in the middle of A Clockwork Orange. If you quote another source directly, put the quote in quotation marks and give the source (such as the author and title, or the URL). If you paraphrase someone else's words or ideas, indicate what ideas came from someone else, and give the source. One of the requirements of the course is to systematically acknowledge your sources, also here!
Always put your first name and your class (VENS3A, DENS3A, etc.) at the top of your comment so each teacher can find his or her students' comments easily.
To comment, click on "comments" under the relevant post and leave your comment (which you have saved in a Word doc. first) in the text box which will appear. Follow any other instructions and your comment will be visible on the blog under "comments" after a few minutes. Don't forget to add your NAME (first name) at the end of your comment; if it only appears as "Anonymous", we have no way of knowing that you have commented.
Please note: Posts or comments which I consider to be offensive or wildly disrespectful will be deleted.

Tthe full-time and part-time Literature courses will use the same blog topic (and posting/commenting space) for the novels, plays, and short stories, so there should be close to a hundred comments for each work.

You may find it interesting to check the world map at the very bottom of the blog (when it's working...) to see where the blog visitors come from.

Each week there will be one or two trivia questions, just for fun: the early bird gets the worm!

And now for this week's quiz questions:
The photograph at the top of this post is of which building?
Name some of the famous figures who have used this facility.