Welcome to a new semester of literature in 2010

Hi all. This semester there are a number of new groups working in WordPress (StudentBlogs) towards their WordPress Literature e-Portfolios. For each of these groups I have set up a dedicated group which you can join. But this should not restrict your venturing outside your group and making friends with others. This semester I have a group studying Shakespeare and the Renaissance (Third Year: ENGL2010), a group studying Prudence and Passion: Nineteenth Century Literature (Second Year: ENGL200), a group studying Introduction to Literature through the Clemente Program at Nagle Centre in Campbelltown ENGL104, and a group of Indigenous students also studying Shakespeare through Residential School. This last group live all over the country: Alice Springs, Normanton (Gulf Country), Coffs Harbour….

So I hope you will find my site a place where you can come regularly to find out news that connects all the groups together and where also you can find weekly suggestions for your weekly Literature Journal. Remember your e-Portfolio builds on what you put in your Literature Journal, and you are also required to post a comment on at least one other ACU literature journal blog each week. There is also a WordPress Help line (explore the entry page to StudentBlogs and explore the Groups that you can join).

You will also find my entries (edited) at http:michaelgriffith1.wordpress.com. As I have told many of you, it is very easy to set up a free WordPress.com account (simply go to WordPress.com) and then you can export your studentblog entries across to there if you want your blogs to be more public. This is entirely your choice.

So here are topics for your Week 1 Literature Journal- and remember you can of course make up your own topics.

Shakespeare and The Renaissance:
1/ Compose a sonnet using Shakespeare’s form as a model. Illustrate it with some visual material
2/ Has Shakespeare’s radicalism surprised or challenged you? Do you think his message in “My Mistress’s Eyes…” still has relevance today?

The Nineteenth Century:
1/ Do you feel closer to the Romantics now that you have seen extracts from the film “Pandemonium”? Do you feel at home with the concerns of people like Coleridge and Wordsworth?
2/ Write your own short poem about an awesome experience of nature such as Coleridge managed in Frost at Midnight. Keep it very conversational and close to your own experience. Illustrate it with some visual material.