Literature V4, term 2

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Welcome, week 46

Literature V4

An introduction to the PO on the literary time periods

Literature, what is it and why do we teach it?

Literature: 'All written work'

BUT: The name has traditionally been applied to those works of poetry and prose (=geschreven/gesproken tekst) distinguished by the intentions of their authors and how well they were perceived by the audience. 

- Relevant and important - we can agree in general - yet it is subjective -

This literature?

Or this?

What do you consider Literature?

Which of the previous two works do you consider literature and why?

Literature

We value certain stories more than we do others. What is a valuable story and what not has long been decided by rich, powerful men who could just say “this is a good novel” and “this is a bad novel”. Now, we consider the works of Charles Dickens, such as Oliver Twist, a literary classic. But when it first came out, it was considered low-culture; purely enjoyable but with no real value. 

Often, what we value in literature is the deeper meaning of the story. These meanings are also called themes. If you read Animal Farm, quite literally the story is about a set of animals on a farm who are sick of their living conditions. Even though talking animals are far removed from reality and real events, still, the novel is considered literature. This is because it has deeper meaning, one of them is criticism on the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. 

A lot of literary works can be distinguished in a genre. A genre is a characteristic of a novel, the type it belongs to; Animal Farm falls in the satire genre. While for example Harry Potter is a fantasy.

We learn about different times through literature.

Your poster presentation will be about a literary time period

1. The social, historical, cultural background

2. What are important genres/subjects/writing styles of your time period? 

3. How does the literary time period follow the previous time period (reaction or follow-up) 

4. Promote 2 famous authors and their best-known works. Why were they so important in your time period (see appendix 2). 
No complex language!!

In groups of 3-4

Choose from: 

Medieval period (500-1500)  

The Renaissance (1500-1670)  

The Enlightenment period (1700-1800)  

The Romantic period (1796-1830)  

The Victorian Period and the 19th century (1832-1920)  

Realism (1820-1920) 

The Modern period (1910-1945)  

The Post-Modern period (1945-today)  

The social, cultural, and historical context​

Global conflict
WWII​

Cold war​

Vietnam war​

Korean war​

Gulf war​

9/11​

Rise of terrorism

The social, cultural, and historical context​

Technological innovations​

TV​

Mass media​

Computers

Phones/Wifi

Social media

The social, cultural, and historical context​

Social protest/changes

Civil rights movement​

Male vs Female (gender)​

Women’s rights movements​

Gay rights movements (sexuality)​

Black vs White (race)​

Consumerism​

People driven by greed  

Main ideas: there is no unified truth, we construct our own reality​. We 'believe' that things are the way they are, we don't 'know' that.

The truth can be something different later...

When scientists or philosophers discovered something new, it would always make society a little bit better. They thought that social progress could not be stopped. Modernism especially believed this. But postmodernism says that there is no real social progress. It says that while some things about the world change, people only want to believe that the world is better than it was. It changes but does not get better, because there is no 'better.'

Make groups of 3-4 (V4A: 7x4 and 1x3)

And choose from: 

Medieval period (500-1500)  

The Renaissance (1500-1670)  

The Enlightenment period (1700-1800)  

The Romantic period (1796-1830)  

The Victorian Period and the 19th century (1832-1920)  

Realism (1820-1920) 

The Modern period (1910-1945)  

The Post-Modern period (1945-today)  

Domain: 

Research the social, cultural, historical background of your literary time period (hand in via SOM after this class!!)

The assignment is on the SPELO

Practice listening (use Woots.nl)

Luisteren HAVO examen 2019/2020