Monday, January 9 ~ Hello Shakespeare!

Welcome back from break! Any highlights?

To start our conversation about Shakespeare....

• What do you already know about our friend, Willie? 
• Why do you think he continues to fascinate people?
• What has his name and legacy come to mean to modern folks? 
• Let's check out what John Bolton thinks on his TED talk. 
• Journal 1: Create at least five open-ended, essential questions that you would like to learn about Shakespeare. (These should be deeper thinking ideas that you find interesting and wouldn't mind researching.)

Homework: Spend 1/2 an hour researching. Find out as much as you can about Shakespeare and bring your notes to class tomorrow as Journal 2. The person with the most unknown facts may win a bit of extra credit to help on the first journal check. 

*If you would like a hard copy of our next play, I recommend the Folger's paperbacks. Julius Ceasar is up this week. 

Block Day, December 8 ~ No grace for catty teenage girls! Poor Agave.

First, tell Mr. Davis the truth about me...here.

Thank you Billie for today's dank meme winner!
Happy last day of second quarter.

Bacchae Finito!

• Finish reading the play and work through journals.
• Read Leithart's ending and add it as J37. 

Finals Review

• Create game questions from Sophocles, Euripides and tragedy in general.

Greece...here are the two trips I ended up sending in. 

• First Choice: The Ancient Mediterranean 10 days
• Second Choice: Italy and Greece 10 days

HW: Get ready for journal check on Monday

Wednesday, December 7 ~ Leithart on Euripides

Discuss Leithart (J35).

Continue reading Bacchae as far as we can get in class.

Journal 36 ~ Questions for  Bacchae pages 20-29

1. Annotate as you read: Mark lines that continue the conversation of what it means to be wise as well as places that show how Dionysus has turned things backwards or upside down.
2. Is catharsis achieved by this play? Who do you pity most?
3. How does Euripides characterize Pentheus? What is his "fatal flaw"? Why does he want to spy on the Maenads? What is the significance of Dionysus dressing him up as a woman?
4. What sort of god is Dionysus? How is he depicted? What are his attributes? How does he look? Why is it appropriate that he is the god of theater (i.e. are there any connections between wine, madness, ecstasy, sex, dismemberment and theater)?
5. Consider that Bacchus was the god of theater. Literally, his alter is in the middle of the stage. How does this play speak to that concept and what Dionysus/Bacchus means to the Greek/Roman society? 

HW: Nah. We'll finish in class tomorrow. 

Tuesday, Dec. 6 ~ Pentheus the Bacchant?

Discuss Bacchae pages 10-19

• What questions and thoughts did you have while reading?
• How does Dionysus constantly turn everything upside down? (his arrest scene? his conversation with Pentheus? their plan?)
• When the messenger smarts off to Pentheus and claims he is very moody (sort of rude to be talking to a king) and "excessively kinglike" how is that a social commentary on the government?
• What is upside down according to the messenger's report? 
• Track the digression of Pentheus' character from civilized to animal.
• How do you see Pentheus clutching at his power even when it is lost?
• Do you think Pentheus is really this dumb? What can account for his change of heart in his conversation with Dionysus?

HW: Leithart's input

Journal 35: Leithart pages 342-357. Please complete the Review Questions for both sections.