Guide Questions for Ballet Philippines Encantada

INSTRUCTIONS:

Work in pairs (preferably a boy and girl)so that both sides of the gender divide will be represented.

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.

1. In what sense does the oppression of women (including sexual oppression, i.e. rape)related to the destruction of the environment? Use a feminist ecocritical framework.

2. How are men (priests and soldiers)and women (the diwata, the babaylan and the other kababaihan) portrayed in Ballet Philippines' Neo-Filipino modern ballet Encantada? Reread the essays of Susan Sontag ("Dancer and the Dance"), Myra Beltran ("The Dance Artist as Babaylan" and Grace Nono Aves ("An Artist Reflection on the Babaylan")to acquire a more informed perspective.

3. Can you classify the performance as Apollonian or Dionysian, or a combination of both? Defend your answer. Read Camille Paglia's thorough discussion of the two concept in her essay "Pagan Beauty" which is included in the Siningcuent(r)o reader.

Deadlines:
for 3POL2 August 22, 2011
for 3ASN2 August 26, 2011

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR TP's BANAAG AT SIKAT

INSTRUCTIONS:

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.

1. In terms of both form and content, rate the overall performance of Tanghalang Pilipino's rendition of Lope K. Santos' Banaag at Sikat from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). Explain the reasons for your assessment.

2. Using Nicanor G. Tiongson's criteria in determining the Philippine-ness of a particular dramatic form/presentation: [1.)that it reflects the Filipinos' culture,2.) that it answers the need of the Filipinos at a given time, and 3.) that it works for the good of the many], how Filipino is Tanghalang Pilipino's Banaag at Sikat? Elaborate on your answer based on what you have learned in class regarding Philippine drama.

3. How does the rock musical Banaag at Sikat depict the class struggles between the rich and the poor? With whom do you empathize?

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR TP's AMERICAN HWANGAP

INSTRUCTIONS:

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.

1. In terms of both form and content, rate the overall performance of Tanghalang Pilipino's rendition of Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). Explain the reasons for your assessment.

2. Using Nicanor G. Tiongson's criteria in determining the Philippine-ness of a particular dramatic form/presentation: [1.)that it reflects the Filipinos' culture,2.) that it answers the need of the Filipinos at a given time, and 3.) that it works for the good of the many], how Filipino is Tanghalang Pilipino's American Hwangap? Elaborate on your answer based on what you have learned in class regarding Philippine drama.

3. What lessons in life or insights regarding the human condition can you glean from Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap as performed by Tanghalang Pilipino?

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR PETA's ANG POST OFFICE/ THE POST OFFICE

INSTRUCTIONS:

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.

1. In terms of both form and content, rate the overall performance of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) in their rendition of Rabindranath Tagore's Ang Post Office (The Post Office) from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). Explain the reasons for your assessment.

2. Using Nicanor G. Tiongson's criteria in determining the Philippine-ness of a particular dramatic form/presentation: [1.)that it reflects the Filipinos' culture,2.) that it answers the need of the Filipinos at a given time, and 3.) that it works for the good of the many], how Filipino is PETA's Ang Post Office (The Post Office)? Elaborate on your answer based on what you have learned in class regarding Philippine drama.

3. What lessons in life or insights regarding the human condition can you glean from Ang Post Office (The Post Office), a short play for children written by the first Asian wordsmith who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913?

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR BM's HALO-HALO NI JUAN

INSTRUCTIONS:

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score. (Read my dance review of Ballet Philippines' Shoes++ to get some ideas on how to write a critical analysis on a dance performance.)

Please edit your paper so that it will merit a higher grade.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.


1. Rate the overall performance of Ballet Manila in their 15th Year Anniversary Crystal Gala titled Halo-Halo ni Juan from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). Explain the reasons for your assessment.

2. Among the various dance vignettes of Ballet Manila's Halo-Halo ni Juan, which one (give the title of the dance number) did you enjoy the most and why?

3. Between classical/neoclassical ballet and modern/contemporary dance, which do you prefer? Give the title/s of the dance vignette/s that caught your attention in explaining your choice.

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR BP's SEPTEMBER GALA

INSTRUCTIONS:

Your reaction must be computer-printed on short bond paper using 12-point font (Times New Roman) with 1 and 1/2 spacing for better readability.

The more profound and well thought out your answers to the questions, the better the score. (Read my dance review of Ballet Philippines' Shoes++ to get some ideas on how to write a critical analysis on a dance performance.)

Please edit your paper so that it will merit a higher grade.

Answer each of the following in two to three paragraphs.


1. Rate the overall performance of Ballet Philippines from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). Explain the reasons for your assessment.

2. Among the various dance vignettes of Ballet Philippines' September Gala, which one (give the title of the dance number) did you enjoy the most and why?

3. According to Susan Sontag, the dancer is the most self-demanding of performing artists since Terpsichore's devotee aims for nothing less than perfection. Which of the dance vignettes (give the title of the dance number) embody this desire to transcend the limits of the human body? Explain your choice.

Poems to be discussed next meeting (August 31, 2010) in my British Literature class...

Sonnet 75
Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washèd it away;
Again I wrote it with a second hand
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
“Vain man”, said she, “that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalise,
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wipèd out likewise”.
“Not so”, quod I, “let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame;
My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew”.



Even Such is Time
Sir Walter Raleigh

Even such is Time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from which earth and grave and dust
The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.



The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd’s swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR BP's NEO-FILIPINO

GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR BALLET PHILIPPINES NEO-FILIPINO 2010

1. What contemporary situations and/or problems are tackled by the eight dance vignettes?
(Elaborate on your answer in 3 to 5 paragraphs.)

2. What particular dance vignette embodies the notion that “dance is a spiritual activity in physical form?” (Elaborate on your answer in 2 to 3 paragraphs.)

3. Among the eight dance vignettes, what is your favorite performance and why? (Elaborate on your answer in 2 to 3 paragraphs.)

Introduction to Drama Preliminary Exam 2009-2010

Regarding Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Answer the following comprehension questions as articulately and accurately as you can.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:

1. Summarize the back story before the play really begins. What actually happens in the play itself? What period of time is covered? How important is setting to this play? In what specific ways?

2. How, exactly, does the chorus function in this play? What is the significance of the chorus being made up of Theban citizens? Which opinions of the chorus are most important to the effects of the play?

3. Characterize Teiresias. How much does the play itself actually tell us about Teiresias? What function does he perform in the plot? In the play’s structure?

4. In what specific ways is the plot of Oedipus Rex tragic?

Choose one of the following writing suggestions and develop it into a three to five page essay.

WRITING SUGGESTIONS:

1. In an essay of about three pages, compare Oedipus at the beginning of the play with Oedipus at the end. Explain the differences in terms of tragic form.

2. Try to recount the events of the play from the point of view of Iokaste. In what sense is the play a tragedy for her? Write a three-page persuasive essay in which you argue that the play is Iokaste’s story.

3. What are the more significant and distinctive elements in the character of Oedipus? In what sense is he responsible for his tragic fate? In what sense is he a victim? How heroic is he? Write a three-page essay appraising Oedipus’s character and assessing his responsibility for the things that befall him.

To be submitted on January 14, 2010. All papers must be written on short bond paper using Times New Roman 12 point font, single space with an empty space between paragraphs.

Guide Questions for Ballet Philipines "Master

1. How does the first part of the show, composed of five dance vignettes and excerpts from full-lenghth ballets, highlight the vibrant diversity of Philippine culture and society? Among the five dance vignettes/excerpts, what is your favorite and why?

2. In what way does the second part of the show, made up of three dance numbers, exemplify Susan Sontag's idea that in the art form ruled by Terpsichore a transfiguration occurs and that "the dancer is the dance"? How do these three dance numbers embody Merce Cunningham and Lincoln Kirstein's definition of dance as "a spiritual activity in physical form"?

For My Art, Man and Society Students SY 2008-2009, 2nd Semester

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS TO SUSAN SONTAG'S "IN PLATO'S CAVE":



1. In what way is photography a new visual code, grammar and ethics of seeing? How do photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at? How do photographs manipulate the scale of the world?

2. Compare and contrast the photographic image with the images in film and television? In what sense are photographs interpretations of the world just like paintings and drawings? Why does a photograph seem to have a more innocent, and therefore more accurate, relation to visible reality than do other mimetic objects?

3. Why is taking a photograph a form of appropriation? Why is there an aggression implicit in every use of the camera? How is the act of taking a picture predatory, a sublimated or soft murder?

4. What are the two ways in which photography furnishes evidence? How do modern states utilize photographs? How does a photograph pass for incontrovertible proof that a given thing has happened?

5. Like every mass art, photography is not practiced by most people as an art. For ordinary people, what then are the three main functions of photography? How important is the camera for the modern nuclear family? In what sense does photography bear witness to an extended family’s connectedness?

6. Why is the camera a necessary gadget for the tourist? In what way is taking photographs a threat to an authentic experience of the world? How does the ubiquity of cameras imply that time consists of interesting events that are worth photographing?

7. In what sense is photography an elegiac art, a twilight art? Why is a photograph both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence? All photographs are memento mori. Explain why this statement in reference to human subjects is true, whether they are grotesque or gorgeous.

8. Why is photography essentially an act of non-intervention, an interest in things as they are, in the status quo remaining unchanged? What are the necessary contexts of feeling and attitude that help create a moral outrage to photographed atrocities? Why does the shock of photographed violence decrease with repeated viewings?

9. How does the camera make reality atomic, manageable and opaque? Why does photography encourage a view of the world which denies interconnectedness, continuity, but which confers on each moment the character of a mystery? In the nineteenth-century, according to the most logical aesthete Mallarmé everything in the world exists to end up in a book. Why does Sontag claim that in contemporary times everything exists to end in a photograph?

2LIT Preliminary Examination

Poem 10
José García Villa

First, a poem must be magical,
Then musical as a sea gull.
It must be a brightness moving
And hold secret a bird’s flowering.
It must be slender as a bell,
And it must hold fire as well.
It must have the wisdom of bows,
And it must kneel as a rose.
It must be able to hear
The luminance of dove and deer.
It must be able to hide
What it seeks like a bride.
And over all, I would like to hover
God, smiling from the poem’s cover.



The Dangers of This Craft
Fatima V. Lim Wilson

How we sing, even as we are boiled alive.
Those who torment us strain to sustain
Our last notes. In a landscape
Of sameness, our crooked towers scrape
Sensibilities, the well-trained eye.
Why when starved, do we thrive?
Remembrance of childhood’s bread
Rising. The taste of dulcified
Droppings of air. Our well-
Meaning friends beg us, please,
Speak in the measured tones
Of the mediocre. Show off
Our mastery of muteness,
The ambidextrous virtuosity
Of work-stained hands. Let
Those knitting needles, heavy
Handled axes fly. Why must
We hear voices? See the moving
Parts of still objects? And so,
We insist we no longer see
Through whitewashed walls.
We confess our dreams of flying
Have ceased. We scheme,
The miracle of money keeping us
Awake. Our pleasure lies
In memorizing the exactness
Of recipes. We are found to be
Most eloquent when quiet, even
As we argue happily with the teeming
Inhabitants opening doors in our heads.
We stare seemingly unmoved at the fire
Of our burning books, all the while
Enthralled, reading secrets in the flames.
They think they’ve killed us off
Even as somewhere, everywhere, a child
Recalls the beat of the ocean womb.
They dance upon our tombs, unaware
Of how they have fallen
Victim to the rhythm
Of our singing bones.

Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes esta noche...

XX


Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: "La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos."

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche esta estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque este sea el ultimo dolor que ella me causa,
y estos sean los ultimos versos que yo le escribo.


- Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines

XX


Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write for example, "The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.


- translated by W.S. Merwin from the Spanish original
written by Pablo Neruda, 1971 Nobel Prize Winner

For 3CA3 (Literature 103)

GUIDE QUESTIONS
Answer in essay form the following questions (50 points total):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. (a) In "Poem on Returning to Dwell in the Country", what is the meaning of Tao's observation that "the life of man is like a shadow-play"? (b) What details in the poem support this observation?

2. (a) In "I Built My House Near Where Others Dwell", why is it paradoxical, or apparently self-contradictory, that though the persona lives near other people he does not hear the "clamor of carriages and horses"? (b) How does he explain this paradox?

3. (a) What does the persona of "To the Assistant Prefect Chang" mean when he says that he plans to "unlearn"? (b) What is the significance of his loosening his robe?

4. (a) How would you describe the mood of "The Hill"? (b) What emotions does the poem evoke?

5. How do the final two lines of "On an Autumn Evening in the Mountains" tie the rest of the poem together?


Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 25, 2008, during the first hour of our class period: 3:00-4:00 PM. I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.

For 3CA2, 3JRN1, 3ECO1 (Literature 103)

GUIDE QUESTIONS:
Answer in essay form the following questions (50 points total):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. (a) In Song 24 ("I Beg of You, Chung Tzu") what is the persona's relationship with Chung Tzu? Support your answer. (b) What internal struggle is the speaker experiencing?

2. (a) In which season is Song 34 ("Thick Grow the Rush Leaves") set? (b) How do the seasons and the natural images relate to the persona's emotions?

3. (a) In "Poem on Returning to Dwell in the Country", what is the meaning of Tao's observation that "the life of man is like a shadow-play"? (b) What details in the poem support this observation?

4. (a) In "I Built My House Near Where Others Dwell", why is it paradoxical, or apparently self-contradictory, that though the persona lives near other people he does not hear the "clamor of carriages and horses"? (b) How does he explain this paradox?

5. (a) What does the persona of "To the Assistant Prefect Chang" mean when he says that he plans to "unlearn"? (b) What is the significance of his loosening his robe?


Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 23, 2008, during the first hour of our class period: 11:00-12:00 AM (3CA2); 3:00-4:00 (3JRN2); 6:00-7:00 (3ECO1). I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.

For 1BES1, 1ECO2, 1JRN2 (Literature 101)

Summary of the Novel Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate)

from SparkNotes


In a style that is epic in scope yet intensely personal in focus, Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita dela Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Through twelve chapters, each marked as a "monthly installment" and thus labeled with the months of the year, we learn of Tita's struggle to pursue true love and claim her independence. Each installment features a recipe to begin each chapter. The structure of Like Water for Chocolate is wholly dependent on these recipes, as the main episodes of each chapter generally involve the preparation or consumption of the dishes that these recipes yield. The details of additional secondary recipes are woven throughout the narrative.

Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita dela Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Tita's love, Pedro Muzquiz, comes to the family's ranch to ask for Tita's hand in marriage. Because Tita is the youngest daughter she is forbidden by a family tradition upheld by her tyrannical mother, Mama Elena, to marry. Pedro marries Tita's oldest sister, Rosaura, instead, but declares to his father that he has only married Rosaura to remain close to Tita. Rosaura and Pedro live on the family ranch, offering Pedro contact with Tita. When Tita cooks a special meal with the petals of a rose given to her by Pedro, the still-fiery force of their love (transmitted through the food) has an intense effect on Mama Elena's second daughter, Gertrudis, who is whipped into a lustful state and flees the ranch in the arms of a revolutionary soldier. Meanwhile, Rosaura gives birth to a son, who is delivered by Tita. Tita treats her nephew, Roberto, as if he were her own child, to the point that she is able to produce breast milk to feed him while her sister is dry.

Sensing that Roberto is drawing Pedro and Tita closer together, Mama Elena arranges for Rosaura's family to move to San Antonio. This separation devastates Tita. A short time later, news arrives that Roberto has died, most likely due to his removal from Tita's care. The death of her nephew causes Tita to have a breakdown, and Mama Elena sends her to an asylum. Dr. John Brown, a local American doctor, takes pity on Tita and brings her to live in his house. He patiently nurses Tita back to health, caring for her physical ailments and trying to revive her broken spirit. After some time, Tita is nearly well, and she decides never to return to the ranch. No sooner has she made this choice than Mama Elena is injured in a raid by rebel soldiers, forcing Tita to return. Tita hopes to care for her mother, but Mama Elena bitterly rejects Tita's good will. She refuses Tita's cooking, claiming that it is poisoned. Not long after, Mama Elena is found dead from an overdose of a strong emetic she consumed for fear of poisoning.

The death of Mama Elena frees Tita from the curse of her birthright and she accepts an engagement proposal from John Brown, with whom she has fallen in love. In the meantime, Rosaura and Pedro have returned to the ranch and have produced a second child, Esperanza. Immediately, Pedro's presence throws into question Tita's love for John. The night that John officially asks Pedro to bless the marriage, Pedro corners Tita in a hidden room and makes love to her, taking her virginity. Soon after, Tita is certain that she is pregnant and knows that she will have to end her engagement to John. The affair between Pedro and Tita prompts the return of Mama Elena, who comes in spirit form to curse Tita and her unborn child. Tita is distraught and has no one in whom she can confide.

In the midst of Tita's despair, the long-lost Gertrudis returns to the ranch as a general in the revolutionary army, at the helm of a regiment of fifty men. Tita is overjoyed at the return of Gertrudis, who is just the companion she seeks. Gertrudis forces Tita to tell Pedro about the pregnancy. He is gladdened at the news, and he drunkenly serenades Tita from below her window. Outraged, Mama Elena's ghost returns, violently threatening Tita and declaring that she must leave the ranch. For the first time, Tita stands up to Mama Elena and, in forceful words, declares her autonomy, banishing her mother's spirit, which shrinks from an imposing presence into a tiny fiery light. As she expels the ghost, Tita is simultaneously relieved of all her symptoms of pregnancy. The light from Mama Elena's ghost bursts through Tita's window and onto the patio below where Pedro still sits, setting fire to his entire body. After rescuing Pedro, Tita is consumed with caring for him and helping him recover. John Brown returns from a trip to the United States and Tita confesses to him her relations with Pedro. John replies that he still wishes to marry her but that she must decide for herself with whom she wishes to spend her life.

Years pass, and the ranch focuses its attention on another wedding, this time between Esperanza and Alex, the son of John Brown. Rosaura has died, freeing her only daughter, Esperanza, from the stricture that had previously forbidden her, as it had Tita, from marrying. With Rosaura dead and Esperanza married, Tita and Pedro are finally free to express their love in the open. On their first night together, Tita and Pedro experience love so intense that both are led to a tunnel that will carry them to the afterlife. Tita turns back, wanting to continue in life and in love with Pedro. Once she does, she realizes that Pedro has already crossed over. Wanting desperately to be with him, Tita attempts to ignite her inner fire by eating the candles that had lit the room until they extinguished themselves at the moment of Pedro's death. When she succeeds in recreating the climate of true passion, she reenters the luminous tunnel and meets Pedro in the spirit world. The final union of their bodies and spirits sets fire to the entire ranch, and the only remnant left of their love is the recipe book in which Tita recorded her wisdom.


GUIDE QUESTIONS:
Answer in essay form the following questions (40 points total):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. Discuss the role of tradition in the novel and the impact it has on the characters' lives. What does the novel tell us about the domestic life of Mexican women? Elaborate. (10 points)

2. The three dela Garza sisters possess different personalities. By tracing their trajectories through the course of the novel, discuss the way each sister embodies a female stereotype. What statement might the author be making through these types about options in the lives of Mexican women? Expound on your answer. (20 points)

3. In your opinion, is Tita a strong female figure? A feminist character? Explain why or why not. (10 points)


Note:Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 22, 2008, during our class period: 8:30-10:00 AM (1BES1); 10-11:30 (1ECO2); 1:30-3:00 (1JRN2). I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.

Use the extra time you have on Thursday after the film viewing to form discussion groups, so that your answers to the questions will be deep rather than shallow.

For 1LM2 (Literature 101)

Summary of the Movie Dead Poets Society

by Jessica See


Dead Poets Society explores the conflict between realism and romanticism as these contrasting ideals are presented to the students at an all boys preparatory school. Welton Academy is founded on tradition and excellence and is bent on providing strict structured lessons prescribed by the realist, anti-youth administration. With the dawning of each new semester, hundreds of parents abandon their sons, leaving them in the tried hands of Welton staff in hopes that they will raise doctors and lawyers. When a replacement English teacher arrives, who happens to be a Welton alumnus, he brings with him a passion for teaching romanticism, thus opening a never-before-seen world to his students.

The story is predominantly viewed through the eyes of Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), a newcomer to Welton, and his roommate Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard). Todd is painfully shy and terrified that what he might say is insignificant and meaningless. This is particularly disturbing to him since he is repeatedly told that he has "big shoes to fill" being the younger brother of a former valedictorian. Neil, on the other hand, is bright and full of ambition, which is unfortunately squelched by his overbearing, controlling father. Mr. Perry dictates every detail of his son's life including extra curricular activities, future plans, and specifically what others think of him.

The new English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) begins his teachings with a fervent lecture on their imminent deaths, explaining to the students that their lives are fleeting so they should seize the day to make their lives count, to leave a legacy of "carpe diem." He continues his teaching by instructing the class to rip out the pages of their books which describe a scientific way to determine the greatness of poetry. He teaches them the works of the romantic poets such as Thoreau and Lord Byron and employs outdoor exercises to warn them of the dangers of conformity and the power of sports as a way which human beings push each other to excel.

Amidst these eccentric activities, the students, intrigued with their new teacher, learn that he was a member of the Dead Poets Society. When asked, Keating describes glorious moments of creating gods, but warns them to forget about the idea. Nevertheless, they repeatedly sneak off campus to convene their own version of the Dead Poets Society. Todd is allowed to attend as an exception: since he does not want to read aloud, he keeps minutes of the meetings. Throughout these meetings, each character is able to develop his own romantic or realist nature.

The shocking clash between realism and romanticism begins to unfold when Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen) prints an obnoxious article in the school news in the name of the Dead Poets. The administration is appalled and begins an investigation. Meanwhile, Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) fall madly in love with a girl who is practically engaged to the son of his parent's friends. He pursues her relentlessly, driven by romantic ideals, in the face of the threats on his life by her boyfriend. Neil realizes that his real passion in life is acting and proceeds to land the role of Puck in a Midsummer Night's Dream at the local theater. He begins to weave a tangled web of deception by failing to inform his father, then lying to Mr. Keating when his father finds out and demands he quit the play. Feeling trapped, after his final performance and a standing ovation, he takes his own life.

This horrible outrage echoes through the hallowed halls of Welton, applying even greater pressure to the Dead Poets Society. When Mr. and Mrs. Perry demand a thorough investigation, Welton administration links the Dead Poets Society, which they determined as the cause for the upheaval, to Mr. Keating. Each member is called before the administration and their parents to sign a confession statement indicating that Mr. Keating filled their minds with these lofty ideals ultimately leading to Neil's suicide. Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), ultimately a realist concerned most with doing what is already determined to be right, signs the statement and encourages the rest of them to do the same. Knowing full well that Keating was not responsible, Cameron lets him take the rap to free himself.

Angered by this betrayal, Dalton punches Cameron in an impulsive fit displaying his final romantic act, only to be expelled. The last to sign, though unwillingly, is Todd, thus removing John Keating from his treasured position. In one final scene, displaying the beauty of a balance between the two ideals, Todd is able to cry out to Mr. Keating, who stopped by the class to collect his belongings, "O Captain, my Captain!" Todd, who previously had no identity, contributed his verse to mankind, climbing to the top of his desk to salute his fallen teacher, who changed his life.


GUIDE QUESTIONS:

Answer in essay form the following questions (20 points each):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. In John Keating's romantic philosphy, why it important to seize the day, "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life"?

2. Explain why women should also practice carpe diem in relation to the poem "To the Virgins, to make much of Time", the most famous piece written by the Cavalier poet Robert Herrick.

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME
by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
and while ye may, go marry;
For having lost just once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.


Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 21, 2008, during our class period (9:00-10:00 AM). I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.

For 1LM1 (Literature 101)

Movie Analysis of Moulin Rouge

by Yazmin Ghonaim


Moulin Rouge (2001) brings to the screen the visual and aural spectacle associated with the famed music hall (inaugurated in Paris in 1889), the home of the exuberant cancan dancers often described as "the most exotic sex market in Paris". Focusing on the bohemian art and lifestyle of the Montmartre-based entertainment center, director Baz Lurhmann (William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet; Strictly Ballroom) employs what he terms the "Red Curtain" style of filmmaking, where the film viewer sees the Moulin Rouge's celebrated stage as the exalted mise en scène of a simple love story.

When the Moulin's most desirable entertainer and courtesan, Satine (Nicole Kidman: Eyes Wide Shut), mistakenly identifies penniless writer Christian (Ewan McGregor: Eye of the Beholder; Velvet Goldmine) as a wealthy suitor and her highest bidder for that evening, the misinformation tricks her into wanting to seduce the lucky lad. Unaware of the misunderstanding and dumfounded by her beauty and her eagerness to please him, Christian fails to deliver the expected performance, yet manages to enrapture Satine with an inspiring song about his genuine love and poetic sensibilities. Soon, however, the appearance of the destined client, the powerful Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh), shatters the enchantment. The ambitious Satine dismisses Christian and decides to clear her mind of the ethereal sentiment he inspired. Yet her heart, as if captured by the artist's saving virtue, would henceforth send the material girl conflicting counsel.

Moulin Rouge invests vastly in depicting the picturesque quality of the world that its characters inhabit. Impressive set designs house the adequately costumed characters, while choreography, color, sound, impatient editing and an active camera capture the extravaganza of the time and the place. Moulin Rouge slightly furthers its raison d'être by insinuating the artistic and social revolution that prompted a democratization of leisure (or a "leveling of enjoyments" where all classes merged) and that lay the foundation for the 20th century's production of mass culture. Appropriately, Moulin Rouge includes artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (played by John Leguizamo), who is known for immortalizing the subjects of brothels, bars and dance halls in his paintings, prints and posters. (In the film, Lautrec is defined as the carrier of the bohemian maxim of "Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Love".) Yet what prevents Moulin Rouge from being classified as simply an amusing representation of the historical setting is its surprisingly effective application of modern songs (by artists that range from the Beatles to Elton John, Madonna to U2). Some memorable songs such as "All You Need Is Love" and Elton John's "Your Song" are interpreted by Kidman and McGregor, whose imperfect voices --rather than categorize the actors as mediocre singers-- seem to express their characters' inherent humility toward their aggrandized notions of love. Furthermore, the new versions of these classic songs refresh the words and accentuate the harmony of their meaning. Although Kidman's personification of the struggling starlet is more convincing than that of the voluptuous cabaret performer, all of Moulin Rouge's players manage to transcend their theatrical persona to embody --within their cinematic reality-- their true identities.


GUIDE QUESTIONS:

Answer in essay form the following questions (20 points each):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. Plato and Aristotle agree that Art is an imitation of Nature, since both classical Greek philosophers subscribe to the Mimetic Theory of Art, which means that all works of art closely resemble life and reality. Pastiche, on the other hand, is a dramatic, literary or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists, often with satirical intent. In Moulin Rouge, does art imitate life or does life imitate art, or does the movie embody both tendencies? Elaborate on your chosen answer as best as you can.

2. The play within the play is an effective literary device in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. How effective is the deployment of "Spectacular, Spectacular" (the play within the movie) in enhancing and emphasizing the doomed love between Christian and Satine, which becomes the main storyline of the film? Elaborate on your chosen answer as best as you can.


Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 21, 2008, during our class period (10:00-11:00 AM). I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.

For 2LIT (Poetry)

THE JOY OF WRITING


Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
For a drink of written water from a spring
whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?
Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?
Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,
she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.
Silence - this word also rustles across the page
and parts the boughs
that have sprouted from the word "woods."

Lying in wait, set to pounce on the blank page,
are letters up to no good,
clutches of clauses so subordinate
they'll never let her get away.

Each drop of ink contains a fair supply
of hunters, equipped with squinting eyes behind their sights,
prepared to swarm the sloping pen at any moment,
surround the doe, and slowly aim their guns.

They forget that what's here isn't life.
Other laws, black on white, obtain.
The twinkling of an eye will take as long as I say,
and will, if I wish, divide into tiny eternities,
full of bullets stopped in mid-flight.
Not a thing will ever happen unless I say so.
Without my blessing, not a leaf will fall,
not a blade of grass will bend beneath that little hoof's full stop.

Is there then a world
where I rule absolutely on fate?
A time I bind with chains of signs?
An existence become endless at my bidding?

The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.


- Wislawa Szymborska


Answer in a 3-5 page essay the guide question below (maximum score is 50 points):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)

Compare and contrast the different functions of writing in the movie "Atonement" and in the poem "The Joy of Writing" by Polish Nobel Prize for Literature winner Wislawa Szymborska.

Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 22, 2008, during the first hour of our class period: 2:30-3:30. I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.