Happy Birthday Vera!!!

Happy 17th Birthday Vera!!!

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Vera...

Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Day #4: Monday

Publication chronology of films/plays for our course:

1594 The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)
1813 Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennesse Williams)

1962 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Edward Albee)
1961 Revolutionary Road (Richard Yeats)
1600 Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Today we started out with the Film Pride and Prejudice (2005). A little about the lady herself:


Jane Austen (1775-1817)

- Setting: England, gentry (minor aristocracy), Victorian Age/Regency

- her father was a priest (a reoccurring character in her novels)

- New Realism (moved away from Romanticism and the Gothic novel)

- Dependence of women on marriage to secure income and social standing

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Themes: Love, Social Status, Class

Mr. Darcy: upper class, wealthy, uses language to show class, gestures (ie: everybody bows to him when he enters the ball) stubborn, loyal, handsome, aloof
Elizabeth: stubborn, strong, educated, independent, sociable, protective, loyal, proud, quick to judge, witty, lively

Caroline Bingley: likes entertainment, snobby, cares about reputation

Accomplished young ladies in society can draw, paint, sing, dance, read literature and speak foreign languages.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy must overcome:
-the Bingley and Wickham misunderstandings
-their own prideful ways and prejudiced thoughts (ie: Elizabeth judges Mr. Darcy harshly and holds to this first impression; Mr. Darcy is prejudiced against Elizabeth for her lower social status)
-Lady Catherine’s will for Darcy to marry her daughter
-Lady Catherine’s disregard of Elizabeth’s family and social Standing

Messages:

Love is independent of social forces!

Fight for love (realize illusion vs reality)

You can’t always trust your first impression

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Status Game:

In the status game, each student get's a number on a post-it attached to their forehead. Each post-it has a number written on it, 1-5 (1 is the highest status, 5 the lowest). Without knowing their numbers, the students have to guess based on how other students treat them... quite fun!

[Am I high in society or low??]

[Caro and Lukas are both #1s]

[Natalie and Annika]

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Tagline for Pride and Prejudice:

First impressions aren’t always true.
In a time when everyone married for money, she dreamed of romance.

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A Streetcar Named Desire  by Tennesse Williams (1947)
Blanche – younger sister, unsettled, puts on airs, vain, complains
Stella – older sister, married to Stanley (Polish), feels unsupported/unappreciated by her sister

Watched the first scenes and then read excerpts from the play:

BLANCHE: You must be Stanley. I'm Blanche.
STANLEY: Stella's Sister?
BLANCHE: Yes.
STANLEY: H'lo. Where's the little woman?
BLANCHE: In the bathroom.
STANLEY: Oh. Didn't know you were coming to town.
BLANCHE: I - uh -
STANLEY: Where you from, Blanche?
BLANCHE: Why, I - live in Laurel.
STANLEY: In Laurel, huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, in Laurel, that's right. Not my territory. Liquor goes fast in hot weather. Have a shot?
BLANCHE: No, I - rarely touch it.
STANLEY: Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often.
BLANCHE: ha-ha.
STANLEY: My clothes are stickin' to me. Do you mind if I make myself comfortable?
BLANCHE: Please, please do.
STANLEY: Be comfortable is my motto.
BLANCHE: It's mine, too. It's hard to stay looking fresh. I haven't washed or even powdered my face and - here you are!

Day #3: Sunday

Sunday hiking excursion...

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[Caro, Lukas, Julia, Therese & Lena]

[Julia, Annika, Natalie]

[Anna-Lena, Julia, Tara, Julia]

After we finished watching the end of 10 Things I Hate About You, we discussed the differences between the original Taming of the Shrew and the newer adatptation of 10 Things I Hate About You. Here's what we found:

- Padua HS
- Pat Verona = Petruchio, interested in money
- Bianca can date, as soon as Kat does
- Kat is more likable - she really loves her boyfriend
- Cameron/Luciento as a disguised tutor, fell in love at first sight
- Quotations from Shakespeare "I burn, I pine, I perish"
- Absent mother
- Overprotective, worried father (preference for Bianca)
- Cameron likes Bianca for herself, not just her beauty
- Kat and Pat are both outcasts, Petruchio is in society
- The characters for 10 Things are developed further than Shakespeares
- Kat and Bianca's relationship is deeper than Katherina and Bianca's
- Kat cares for and is protective of Bianca, unlike Katherina, who hates Bianca
- Kat actually wants to be in a relationship with Pat, Katherina was forced into her relationship
- Kat and Pat are equals at the end of the film

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And we may be performing a song at the closing ceremony of our summer academy:

Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me.

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At the end of the film, Kat reads out a sonnet she's written for Pat (a version of Elizabeth Barrett Browing's Sonnet Number 43 - as we read on the handout):

I hate the way you talk to me,

and the way you cut your hair.

I hate the way you drive my car,

I hate it when you stare.

I hate your big dumb combat boots

and the way you read my mind.

I hate you so much it makes me sick,

it even makes me rhyme.

I hate the way you‘re always right,

I hate it when you lie.

I hate it when you make me laugh,

even worse when you make me cry.

I hate it when you‘re not around,

and the fact that you didn‘t call.

But mostly I hate the way I don‘t hate you,

not even close

not even a little bit

not even at all.

Since Kat could write such a heartfelt poem for her beloved, we too will be writing sonnets! Here below are instructions on how to write our very own sonnets (and poems to follow....)

How to Write a Sonnet

1) Subject – love, philosophy, life/death… modern sonnets have many subjects!

2) Divide into two sections

1 – present the situation or thought to the reader

2- conclusion or climax of the situation or thought

3) Form: a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g (iambic pentameter, if you like)


SONNET 114



Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, (a)
Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery? (b)
Or whether shall I say, mine eye saith true, (a)
And that your love taught it this alchemy, (b)

To make of monsters and things indigest (c)
Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble, (d)
Creating every bad a perfect best, (c)
As fast as objects to his beams assemble? (d)

O,'tis the first; 'tis flattery in my seeing, (e)
And my great mind most kingly drinks it up: (f)
Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing, (e)
And to his palate doth prepare the cup: (f)

If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin (g)
That mine eye loves it and doth first begin. (g)

 

[Time in the computer room - writing trailers and sonnets]

Day #2: Saturday

The morning began with a lovely warm up game - grab a partner, pick a sound and seperate. One partner closes their eyes and tries to find the other by sound.... such as: moan, whistle, cough, shriek, pant, yawn, fart, laugh, hiss, hiccup, snore, sigh, sob or yelp. It went pretty well... although it felt funny to walk around the room snorting.

 [sniff.... sniff]

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After that we started with our core material, the film The Taming of the Shrew by Wiliam Shakespeare:

[staring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor]

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Historical Backgound:

• written between 1590-1594 and published in 1623
• one of his romantic comedies, which contain elements of light-hearted humor, disguises or deception and happy endings
• written during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) daughter of infamous King Henry VIII, husband to six wives, two of whom he had beheaded 

Themes:

• Marriage as an economic institution: dowry, men of wealth/standing
• Social Roles and individual happiness: happiness depends on everyone playing their roles
• Disguises: can a person change their social role by changing their clothes? No.
• Domestication: "taming of Katherina", curing her anti-socialness

                                        Taming of the Shrew

                                              Stereotypes

               Female                                                                 Male

 Blondes - well tempered & innocent                               superior

           Dark Hair - dominent                                                   hero

           daughter = treasure                           ´                         active

                big breasts                                                          no manners

              veil = secrecy                                                       tempremental
                 passive                                                            money orientated
                self- control                                                       intellectuals (tutors)
good behaviour welcomed by society                                academic education
    want children and a clean house                                               bandit
                     victims
                modest /virtous

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Dialogue Match:

Like with our sound game this morning, we played another close-your-eyes-find-your-partner game. This time, students found important two-line passages from The Taming of the Shrew and each pair chose one passage, each student chose one line. Seperated and blind, the students had to find each other by calling out their lines. Madness ensued!

Act III Scene II

Katherina: "I see a woman may be made a fool if she had not a spirit to resist."

Petruchio: "They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command. Obey the bride, you that attend on her."

Act III Scene II

Lucentio: "Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister?"

Bianca: "That being mad herself, she's madly mated."

Act III Scene II

Hortensio: "Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister."

Gremio: "A husband? A devil."

Act III Scene II

Katherina: "Pray you sir, is it your will to make a stale of me amongst these mates?"

Hortensio: "Mates, maid, how mean you that? No mates for you unless you were of gentler, milder mould."

Act III Scene II

Petruchio: "Come, come you wasp!"

Katherina: "If I be waspish, best beward of my sting."

Act III Scene II

Katherina: "Call you me daughter, now I promise you you have showed a tender fatherly regard to wish me wed to one half lunitac."

Petruchio: "Father, 'tis thus - yourself and all the world that talked of her have talked amiss of her."

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Taglines:

A tagline is a short phrase found at the bottom movie posters designed to entice people into seeing the filmand they, to an extent, summarise the film. We had the students come up with Taglines for Taming of the Shrew:

Student's Taglines:

• 
  
  Love, obedience, fight - how love can change.
• 
  
  A battle of wills.
• 
  
  "I love to hate you."
• 
  
  Mad-woman meets Mad-man."
• 
  
  A story of extremes.
• 
  
  And will you, nill you, I will marry you.
• 
  
  She burrowed her way into his heart.

The Taming of the Shrew (1967) Original Tagline:

A romantic film amorously devoted to every man who ever gave the back of his hand to his beloved...and to every woman who deserved it!

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Original Tagline:

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.

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10 Things I Hate About You

Watching the film with our beamer... we had a few technical difficulties, but once the movie got going, we were all engrossed!!!

[just enough light to take notes...]

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THURSDAY NIGHT 19:30 ROOM 2CHL: *English* Poetry Slam

Day 1: Friday

WELCOME TO SOAK IN SEMMERING!

Everybody arrived safely today in Semmering. Our hotel (Hotel Zauberberg) is nice and we all have shared rooms. The area is really beautiful, with lush green trees and tall mountains. There is something offered here everyday, from golf to jogging, swimming to soccer.

 [The view from the hotel]

After the opening ceremony we had an hour of ice breakers with our new classes. We played a nice ice-breaker game, where one simply writes numbers on the white board, and the rest of the class must guess what these numbers mean to the person who wrote them. Pretty successfull! 

 [Monika at the board]

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Our Numbers Game:

Monika:         1984 = year she was married

                           4 = number of children

                         8B = her favorite class 

                          2  = how many siblings she has

Alysha:               1 = sister, Amy

                  98372 = postal code of Seattle, WA

                          8 = age of her cat, Jamie Katze

            11.6.1983 = her date of birth (Nov. 6) 

  

Julia F.:               2 = pet cats, Susie & Mollie

                    2214 = postal code

                          8 = day in July when she was born

                    1993 = birth year

Annika:            442 = number of books she has

                          62 = number of dvds she has

                     39/40 = shoe size

                    -15.12 = her bank account balance      

Lena:                   4 = years old when she moved from Bhutan

                           5 = number of instruments she can play

                        7Ai = her class (i = instrumental)

                            3 = number of sisters

Lukas:                     1 = one brother, Ben

                 7/30/1993 = date of birth

                      A2753 = postal code

                           308 = his room number here in Semmering

Caro:                      3 = number of languages she speaks (french, english, spanish)

                      04121 = Area code

                            15 = age of her brother

                              7 = number of years she's played the guitar

Tara:                      3 = number of instruments she plays

                            38 = pairs of shoes

                        2830 = songs on itunes

                          169 = her height in cm

Julia S.:             0 = she's an only child

                         5 = number of musicals she's been to in Stuttgart

                         4 = day in July when she was born

                 72379 = postal code

Julia B.:            22F = seat in airplane on the way to Vienna

                          18 = age

                            1 = grandma

                          23 = age of her sister Ann

Anna-Lena:            3 = how long she's known her friend from Spain

                              4 = number of times she's been on the NYC Harlem Gospal tour

                              9 = bus number where she met her best friend 

                            18 = age she'll turn on July 20th

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After we had a good lunch of soup, salad and pasta, we rejoined our class and played a drama warm up. Since our topic is about gender, the students were asked to find a partner and then think of one phrase that often comes up between partners. Then they took turns both repeating the phrase with different emotions. The phrases they chose were:

• "You never listen to me."
• "We need to talk."
• "Shut up."
• "Where were you last night."

Very intersting that each group came up with a phrase that had to do with communication between the sexes. It goes to show just how important good communication is, no matter the relationship! 

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We also brainstormed what we thought of when asked about the theme: "Battle of the sexes." We came up with these suggestions:

1. communication
2. inequality (ie:career)
3. weakness (women)
4. power and dominance (men)
5. universal
6. equality
7. feminism
8. stereotypes
9. oppression
10. role models
11. biological aspects
12. patriarchal/matriarchal
13. feelings/emotions

We will compare this list with one that we draw up at the end of the course. 

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And "zum Schluss" we played some charades! 

All in all it was a pretty good day! 

Othello next week!

Hey guys! 

I saw this poster outside my apartment in Vienna and had to post it. 

I'm excited to meet you all tomorrow! 

Alysha

Why I decided to make a blog for our English class...

Dear Students, 

I just wanted to outline my thinking behind setting up this blog for you. Three days from now our journey together will begin and I anticipate using this blog as a means of recording all of our thoughts, discussions, exploits, grand ideas and good times. As you know, we will be discussing the very important topic of male/female gender relations using some of my (and Monika's) favorite texts and films. We will also be visiting Vienna to see the play "Othello" and will be acting out our own various scenes during class. 

I intend to update this blog every evening during our course. You are free to comment on each post and if you have anything that you yourself would like to post, please let me know. I hope to document important passages and quotations, photos and videos taken during class and discussion excerpts on this website for you all - as a way to reflect on our week together. And of course, for you to show your friends and parents what you learned!

Looking forward to meeting you!

Alysha