Weeks 7-8

1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...

2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?

3. Can you find some colour plates of the poems to upload?

4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?

5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?

6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?

7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.

8. What was the impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on
Blake?

9. How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?

10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti??

tbc...

Week 4 (wk 3 reading)

1. What is a fabula, and in what sense is 'the loathly lady' theme one? (you can google this one...)

2. What does Carter (2003) have to say about Chaucer's 'feminism'? In what sense is the Wyfe of Bath's Tale and in what is it not 'feminist'?

3. What according to Hahn (1995) are some critical issues around The Wedding of Sir Gawain...?

4. What does Hahn identify as its Celtic influences?

5. How do each of the three versions I've given you differ, especially in relation to the choice the knight/king must make?

Happy Blogging :-D