Some Fabulous Posts from Students working on Twentieth Century Literature in 2020 the year of Covid 19

These students, many of them bound to their home/bedroom offices since March 2020 are working passionately on their literary understanding. These blogs show a heightened creativity in times of crisis and reveal a wonderful range of experiences triggered by their reading of early twentieth century authors. What comes through very strongly is the extent to which students are both comforted by and shocked by the extent to which the times in the 1920s were not dissimilar to the times in the 2020s. At all events these blogs show active, creative young minds making sense of their own complex experiences, filtered through their creative and critical reading of some of the greats of the early twentieth century: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Siegfried Sassoon, May Cannan, Wilfred Owen, Viriginia Woolf, Picasso, Munch, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and more…. enjoy:

Sarah Vella’s reflections on Prufrock and Covid 19

https://sarahv02.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/my-experience-of-the-situation-described-in-the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/

Holly Ibrahim’s reflections on the isolation caused by the Pandemic:https://hollysliteratureblog.art.blog/2020/08/26/blog-3

Jessica Dilworth’s poem inspired by “The Waste Land”:

https://jdengl.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/week-4-the-waste-land/

Isabella Di Giandomenica’s celebration of her Italian Grandparents:

Week 3, Blog 1 – Describe an experience in your own life where you seem to have touched something much deeper than your ordinary everyday experience

Emilee McNaught’s reflections on Wilfred Owen’s horror at war and the continuing relevance of his message today:

https://emileemcnaught.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/dear-wilfred-owen/

Amadeus’s video VLOG on Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”:

https://amadeustjiong.wordpress.com/2020/08/13/blog-entry-1/

Isabel Toma’scelebration of the arrival of her cousin/brother- wonderful heart-warming piece!

https://isabeltomablog.wordpress.com/blog-1/

Maria Khattar’s heartbreaking blog about the violent explosion in her own homeland Beirut:

https://mariasblog920751433.wordpress.com/blog/

Mariama Biro Saibou’s wonderful multi-cultural version of T.S. Eliot – : https://mebsliterature.art.blog/2020/08/25/engl202-blog-3-creative/

Holly Ibrahim’s reflection on the Egyptian roots of her being: https://hollysliteratureblog.art.blog/2020/08/13/blog-1-2/comment-page-1/#comment-32

Vanessa Mitchell catches a bus at 15 over the harbour bridge… https://vanessareflection.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/blog-1-describe-an-experience-in-your-own-life-where-you-seem-to-have-touched-something-much-deeper-than-your-ordinary-everyday-experience/

Teneille Jacobsen’s moment of being an MC at a wedding: https://thebestofliterature.art.blog/2020/08/13/three-words-and-a-wedding/

Alexander Licata’s amazing transformation of Rupert Brooke’s Soldier into an anti-war poem: https://alexanderlicata.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/your-soldier/

Evelyn Kavvalos’s understanding of how Wilfred Owen has a strong message for our own times of isolation:

Dear Mr Realist

Georgia Houlihan’s amazing resource kit on the First World War poets : https://georgiahoulihan.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/20th-century-literature-blog-post-2-british-poetry-of-world-war-i-mini-digital-kit-critical/comment-page-1/#comment-45

Andrew Carloss’s powerful, and honest reevaluation of his attitudes to war and memorials through his response to Sassoon’s poem on the Menin Gate. It is wonderful to see Sassoon’s insights resonating more than 100 years after they were written.https://andrewcarlossengl202.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/blog-post-2/

Emilee McNaught’s powerful interpretation of T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock” and the relevance of the experience to our own times:

https://emileemcnaught.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/j-alfred-prufrock-inaction-fragmentation-meaning/

Charmaine Laoulach’s Imagist poem about the homeless in mid-winter,  in August! https://charmaineslitblog.wordpress.com/category/critical-blogs/

Amadeus Tjiong’s ekphrastic poem on Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) https://amadeustjiong.wordpress.com/2020/08/13/engl202-task-2/

Sarah Weaver’s reflections on Sassoon: “I fought thinking it was honourable and died in some of the most inhumane ways and all I got was this plaque”- https://sarahweaverengl202.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/blog-2-19-08-2020-siegfried-sassoon/

Reilly Winch’s powerful condemnation of a world that is STILL enmeshed in so much violence despite what we haven’t learned through two world wars. https://reillywinch15.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/dear-owen/