ELIT 17 Class 19

AGENDARecitationsClass CountdownDiscussion: The Tempest and “Of Cannibals” Introduction to Essay #2Introduction to Terms List #3

AGENDA

Recitation

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Class 19 (today) Finish The Tempest Introduce Essay #2Class 20 Hip-Hop and

Shakespeare? Discussion: Homework

GradesFriday, week 10 at noon Essay 1 Revisions due

via Kaizena

Class 21o Homework Self-Assessments

dueo Exam 3 Preparationo Final paper discussion

Final: See website countdown calendarEssay #2 Due Before Classo Exam #3 Comprehensive

Of Cannibals by Montaigne

Montaigne lived in an age of adventure and exploration, and, as a result, he heard many tales of strange and fascinating people elsewhere. One such tale originated from the explorer Villegaignon. During a French expedition to South America in 1557, he encountered a tribe of cannibals in Brazil (then referred to as “Antarctic France”). The crew returned with some of those people they had come across, and Montaigne was lucky enough not only to meet one of these cannibals at Rouen in 1562 but also to employ a servant who had spent a dozen years living among them in their native land.

Based both on his first hand knowledge and the interviews of his servant, Montaigne reverses the egocentric European belief in the superiority of Western culture. “Of Cannibals” asserts that the cannibals are not simple, ignorant, and barbarous as some claim, but rather live in harmony with nature, employ useful and virtuous skills, and enjoy a perfect religious life and governmental system. Montaigne asserts it is the European who has bastardized nature and her works, while the “savage” lives in a state of purity.

Clearly, as authors were to do for centuries afterward, Montaigne romanticizes “the noble savage” in his essay. He idealizes the life of Brazilian tribal peoples; nonetheless, he sees the dignity, nobility, intelligence, and harmony of their lives. He is one of the first great thinkers to question the Eurocentric view of human behavior, the notion that the standard for human behavior is white, Christian, and European. Montaigne forces the readers to confront themselves and their own social behavior; he points out the distance in character between the cannibals and his audience. Montaigne tries hard throughout his essay to find fault with the cannibals’ behavior and way of life but can offer only one, slightly humorous, observation: They do not wear trousers.

Let me ask you!

1. At the beginning of this essay, which some see as an early example of cultural anthropology, what does Montaigne say about who we think the “barbarians” are?

2. What does he say is the normal “criterion of truth and reason” for most people?

3. What did the one witty cannibal say when inviting his captors to eat him?

4. In his description of cannibal society, Montaigne keeps comparing it to the European society of his day — what is he suggesting through this comparison?

5. What are two criticisms of the European society which the three cannibals make at the end of the essay?

In Groups

Discuss your answers to the homework questions and your QHQs.

Gonzalo, as Act 5 shows, has never approved of what was done to Prospero. In his speech in 2.1 (on the ideal commonwealth, echoing Montaigne’s essay Of Cannibals), he expresses distaste for the more cynical and divisive features of government and society—exploitation of labor, expropriation of land and extremes of luxury, poverty, drunkenness, gluttony. Discuss Gonzalo’s speech in the context of Montaigne’s essay.

GONZALO: I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contrariesExecute all things, for no kind of trafficWould I admit; no name of magistrate;Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,And use of service, none; contract, succession,Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;No occupation; all men idle, all,And women too, but innocent and pure;No sovereignty—[…]GONZALO: All things in common nature should produceWithout sweat or endeavor; treason, felony,Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engineWould I not have; but nature should bring forthOf its own kind all foison, all abundance,To feed my innocent people.[…]GONZALO: I would with such perfection govern, sir,T’ excel the Golden Age.

2.1.164-184

Questions

The play can be read as Shakespeare’s commentary on European exploration of new lands. Prospero lands on an island with a native inhabitant, Caliban, a being he considers savage and uncivilized. He teaches this “native” his language and customs, but this nurturing does not affect the creature’s nature, at least from Prospero’s point of view. But Prospero does not drive Caliban away, rather he enslaves him, forcing him to do work he considers beneath himself and his noble daughter. As modern readers, sensitive to the legacy of colonialism, we need to ask if Shakespeare sees this as the right order; what are his views of imperialism and colonialism? What are our twentieth century reactions to the depiction of the relationship between the master and slave, shown in this play? How does Montaigne’s essay complicate our view of colonialism?

Questions

The theme of Utopianism is linked to the explorations of new lands. Europeans were intrigued with the possibilities presented for new beginnings in these “new” lands. Was it possible to create an ideal state when given a chance to begin anew? Could humans hope to recreate a “golden age,” in places not yet subject to the ills of European social order? Could there be different forms of government? Consider both Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Montaigne’s Of Cannibals in your response.

Sonnet Terms

Terms: List #3

1. Alliteration: The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds beginning words, in close proximity. Example: pensive poets, nattering nabobs of negativism.

2. Allusion: Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognize.

3. Assonance: The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity. Example: deep green sea.

4. Caesura: A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry. 5. Consonance: is the counterpart of assonance; the partial or total identity of

consonants in words whose main vowels differ. Example: shadow meadow; pressed, passed; sipped, supped. Owen uses this "impure rhyme" to convey the anguish of war and death.

6. Elision: the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's, e ' en ).

7. Enjambment: A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line.

8. Explication: A complete and detailed analysis of a work of literature, often word-by-word and line-by-line.

9. Foot (prosody): A measured combination of heavy and light stresses: monometer (1 foot) dimeter (2 feet) trimeter (3 feet) tetrameter (4 feet) pentameter (5 feet) hexameter (6 feet) heptameter or septenary (7 feet)

10. Heroic couplet: two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter; the second line is usually end-stopped.

11. Iambic pentameter: Iamb (iambic): an unstressed stressed foot; it is the most natural and common kind of meter in English.

12. Meter: The number of feet within a line of traditional verse. Example: iambic pentameter.

13. Onomatopoeia. A blending of consonant and vowel sounds designed to imitate or suggest the activity being described. Example: buzz, slurp.

14. Scan (scansion): the process of marking beats in a poem to establish the prevailing metrical pattern. a. Anapest: unstressed unstressed stressed. Also called "galloping

meter." Example: 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

b. Dactyl (dactylic) stressed unstressed unstressed. This pattern is more common (as dactylic hexameter) in Latin poetry than in English poetry. Example: Grand go the years in the Crescent above them/Worlds scoop their arcs/ and firmaments row (Emily Dickinson)

c. Iambic: Unstressed stressed. Example “I think that I shall never see”

d. Spondee: stressed stressed. A two-syllable foot with two stressed accents. The opposite of a pyrrhic foot, this foot is used for effect.

e. Trochee (trochaic): stressed unstressed. Example: "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright"

15. Sonnet: A closed form consisting of fourteen lines of rhyming iambic pentameter.

16. Shakespearean or English sonnet: A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, composed of three quatrains and a couplet, often with three arguments or images in the quatrains being resolved in the couplet. Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

17. Petrarchan or Italian sonnet: 8 lines (the "octave") and 6 lines (the "sestet") of rhyming iambic pentameter, with a turning or "volta" at about the 8th line. Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (or cde cde)

18. Quatrain: a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.

19. Repetition: a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer. 

20. Rhythm: a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. "Ruth listened to the rhythm of his breathing”

Essay #2 Othello or The Tempest 100 pointsDue: before our “Final” class beginsPrompt IntroductionIn a thesis driven essay of three to six pages excluding the Works Cited page, respond to one of a variety of prompts on Othello or The Tempest. You may also craft your own prompt if you like. Please see me for approval. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other primary or secondary texts or film productions as additional support. Remember, you can also draw on your own knowledge to discuss, explain, and analyze your topic. Your essay must be formatted MLA style with appropriate citations. There are no research requirements for this essay, but you must include a works cited page that includes any text you use in your essay. The Works Cited page for this research project will include at least one of Shakespeare’s Plays. If you use other sources, including other primary or secondary sources from class, please list those too.

HOMEWORK

• Choose your essay topic: Othello or The Tempest

• Post #19: Your prompt and a one paragraph answer: focus on your thesis. Work on your essay!

• Learn: Terms List 3