Hello all,
On Friday we continued our investigation into Keats' narrative techniques in TEOSA, with much of interest being drawn out- I'm glad to see so much thought going into homework, and hope that you can see the benefits that this brings to the quality of discussion we can then have in the lessons.
Some of the aspects we considered:
- Keats' treatment of religion, particularly through the bleak, cold setting at the beginning, the presentation of the beadsman, and the (slightly unconvincing?) veneration of Madeline by Porphyro, where Keats uses religious imagery and allusion to show P's worhipping of her. We discussed the way that, in the later stages of the poem when reality kicks in, Keats turns to more pagan imagery, perhaps suggesting an incompatibility between Christianity and the reality of life / love? It would be interesting to explore Keats' view of religion further: here's a quote to get you started:
"I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that."
Let's discuss, but if anyone was able to do some research into Keats' views, that would be great.
- the setting of Madeline's bed chamber, and the use of contrast in the imagery and description we find here against much of the setting elsewhere. We thought particularly about the connotations of the fruit and flowers, which led to a most interesting discussion about the reproduction in flowers, and the perilous state of the bumblebee- see this link for more details on this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/09/animalbehaviour - very alarming!
- We also considered the characterisation of Madeline herself, and Keats' representations of love- do we interpret this as a positive celebration of young love and passion, or as a sneering, satirical mockery of love's naivity?
Next steps are to organise all this discussion into an coherent form- there are various ways to do this which we will discuss on Monday. Also, we need to consider other aspects of narrative such as the poets' voice, use of time and sequence and the impact of the ending- all of which we have discussed to an extent, but we need to get some notes down. On Monday, we will aim to wrap up our study of St Ag for the time being, and move on to look at Lamia- if you are able to read this, or at least the first few stanzas, over the weekend, so much the better. Otherwise, if you haven't yet made steps towards redrafting your coursework, you need to do so as a matter of priority so that we have a chance to discuss before you hand in your final work.
Have a good one and thank you for your contributions on Friday,
Mr Boulter
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