My Analyzing and Annotating
With the focus in class, I've been working on recognizing all the different themes in the play instead of focusing just on one or two. As I highlight and make notes, I try to keep an eye on how each theme (blindness, knowing oneself, nature, loyalty, familiar bonds) develops both within the play as a whole and between particular characters. I also have been working on doing more rhetorical analysis since I generally do that less, and have found that even something as simple as noting if someone is speaking in verse or prose can be very revealing.Peer and Source Influence
There has been a lot of influence from other literature in our discussion on Slack, and my peers made connections I had never considered before: for example, Poe's "The Raven" was brought up, as was The Stranger. There has also been screenshots and posts from social media sites such as Facebook and Tumblr, which has really served the purpose of making me realize that Shakespeare doesn't exclusively have to be about Shakespeare: it really connects with all kinds of modern culture. Our discussion about connecting Shakespeare to the apps on our phones had the same effect.
My Working Claims
[policy claim] King Lear should be read as a commentary on self-knowledge as the highest attainment a person can have.
[definition claim] Cordelia is the embodiment of love in the play King Lear.
[comparison claim] King Lear's suffering is like the suffering of Gloucester, both because of the sins of their children and their reluctance to trust the others.
[evaluation claim] Though both support Lear, Kent is a better example of loyalty than the fool because of his frankness with the king and his efforts to stay physically by his side.
[causal claim] Suffering in King Lear is a result of misplaced trust.
It's great that you were able to get so much out of the discussions. I like your claims, although I think you could definitely expand on them. I think you could do a lot with the trust theme, especially if you go into why some people are trusted while others aren't. I also think discussing Kent and the fool could be great.
ReplyDeleteI like that you said noting prose or verse can be helpful, since I didn't do that as often as I would have liked. It's a good thing you did! Also, I think your claims are good, but maybe could be expanded, with rationale and qualification statements like from the video. But I think your policy claim in particular could lead to some interesting ideas.
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