Drama started this week. We looked today at the Language of Drama, how it differs from the language of poetry and prose. We also looked at a wonderful episode from Midsummer Night’s Dream: what a knockout performance of “Pyramus and Thisbe”! brought tears to many an eye. Shakespeare has a knack of celebrating the lowly…
WordPress Literature Journal Entries for Weeks 8 and 9
Hi all… here are some ideas following on from some of the great discussions we have been having. For our fellow Shakespeareans: take one of the sonnets that you have found really interesting and quote the first line and then try to compose a sonnet of your own with Shakespeare’s first line as your own…..…
After Easter
Hi all- hope you had a fruitful and restful Easter break. 19th Century: This week in the 19th Century we had our last session on Dickens’ Hard Times and turned to look at an amazing poem by Matthew Arnold (Dickens’ contemporary) “The Scholar Gypsy”. Like Dickens Arnold tried to find an alternative to the social…
Clemente Campbelltown Week 5 Prose
Hello all: thank you for such a great session at today’s class and for all your creative contributions. I loved sharing your poems and your reflections with the whole class. This is an excellent start for the writing component of our work together. Let us see how many of you can compose a poem or…
Week 5
For all trusted Shakespeareans we had a wonderful, jam-packed week, following on the heels of our visit to Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear. This week we visited the Shakespeare Room at the State Library, an amazing space that pays tribute to Shakespeare’s fame and importance in the Australian context. Plans for the room began in 1913…
Week 5
For all trusted Shakespeareans we had a wonderful, jam-packed week, following on the heels of our visit to Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear. This week we visited the Shakespeare Room at the State Library, an amazing space that pays tribute to Shakespeare’s fame and importance in the Australian context. Plans for the room began in 1913…
Literature Journal Weeks 5 and 6
Ye Olde Trusted Shakespeareans What an amazing night that was with Bell Shakespear and King Lear. This was an extraordinary production that brought Shakespeare and his language and his insights to life in powerful new ways. Especially arresting was the way that Peter Carrol (the Fool) and John Bell (King Lear) played a kind of…
Welcome to Clemente Students at Nagle (St Vincents) Campbelltown
Hello all. This is the place where you can come to get ideas each week for what to write about and where you can also come to connect with each other and with other students studying literature at Australian Catholic University. You can easily create your own blog space by simply going into the WordPress…
Art Gallery Time!
Then Nineteenth Century group went to the NSW Art Gallery to explore Romanticism and Victorianism against the background of the Enlightenment. Thank you all for making the visit stimulating and enjoyable. I will post a few images below to help you formulate your own Literature Journal entry for this week. Remember this is a really…
Ideas for Literature Journal in Week 3
Great to see so many of you posting up excellent content on the reading and ideas of the last few weeks. It is also good to see the number of constructive comments that are being produced for your peers. Next week we move with the 19th Century Group to the Art Gallery of NSW for…
Week 2 Ideas for your Literature Journal
The weeks are already flying past and we are into week 3 next week. Thank you everyone for making the start so enjoyable. I think we are all flying with Wordsworth and or Shakespeare! For my second year nineteenth century group I have a couple of ideas for your WordPress Literature Journal this week. 1/…
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…
David Malouf visits our Clemente students at Mission Australia
David Malouf- my old teacher at Sydney University in the early seventies- agreed to come and speak to the handful of Clemente students studying “Remembering Babylon” as part of the Sacred Australia unit that I am teaching at Mission Australia in Surrey Hills. The book is such a beautiful celebration of the real importance of…
Extension for Sacred Australia Essay
A few of you have requested some additional time for handing in your Malouf essay. So in fairness to all I will extend the time for one whole week for all. If you have already completed your essay this will give you time to go over it and fine tune it. This week the class…
See My WordPress Site "outside" in WordPress.com
As an experiment for all to see go to https://michaelgriffith1.wordpress.com/ There you will see my exported WordPress Blogs for this semester for all the world to see… easy peasy… but what you need to do is go to Dashboard and then Export into a WordPress XML file and then open a WordPress.com account ( a…
Journey to the Art Gallery with Clemente Mission Australia students
Hi all- don’t miss out on this amazing artistic feast that is sitting temporarily right next to the doors of the NSW Art Gallery. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi has converted the two statues that sit boringly and unrecognizably next to the doors of the gallery into something that reflects astonishingly on the place of War…
Journey to the Art Gallery with Clemente Mission Australia Students
Hi all- don’t miss out on this amazing artistic feast that is sitting temporarily right next to the doors of the NSW Art Gallery. Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi has converted the two statues that sit boringly and unrecognizably next to the doors of the gallery into something that reflects astonishingly on the place of War…
Sacred Australia Week 5
Your topic for this week is on page 8 of your main workbook. Please do a draft in your workbook and then upload this to your WordPress (Studentblog) Literature Journal. Remember a requirement for completing this unit is to upload one entry each week and also to post a comment on someone else’s entry in…
On Campus Literature Bloggers
Hi all: you may have noticed that I have posted a couple of entries in relation to the group of disadvantaged Clemente students completing the unit “Sacred Australia” through Mission Australia. These students, when they complete four Clemente units have completed a Certificate that allows them to enter university and complete a full degree. Many…
To All My Trusted On-Campus WordPress Literature Bloggers
Hi all: you may have noticed that I have posted a couple of entries in relation to the group of disadvantaged Clemente students completing the unit “Sacred Australia” through Mission Australia. These students, when they complete four Clemente units have completed a Certificate that allows them to enter university and complete a full degree. Many…
Sacred Australia Week 4
Thank you all for your hearty participation in today’s discussion. You can see that landscape plays an important part in our thinking. In Australia landscape was initially something that people found very difficult to relate to. Gradually artists, writers, musicians began to celebrate aspects of our landscape. People were especially drawn to things in our…
Blake's Illustrations of The Book of Job
We had an extraordinary visit to this amazing collection of Blake’s engravings, owned by the NSW Art Gallery, but only put on display very rarely. They depict Blake’s unique interpretation of the timeless story. It is an interpretation that brings Job’s predicament very much into the 21st Century. It was our task to try to…
Blake's Illustrations of The Book of Job
We had an extraordinary visit to this amazing collection of Blake’s engravings, owned by the NSW Art Gallery, but only put on display very rarely. They depict Blake’s unique interpretation of the timeless story. It is an interpretation that brings Job’s predicament very much into the 21st Century. It was our task to try to…
Blake’s Illustrations of The Book of Job
We had an extraordinary visit to this amazing collection of Blake’s engravings, owned by the NSW Art Gallery, but only put on display very rarely. They depict Blake’s unique interpretation of the timeless story. It is an interpretation that brings Job’s predicament very much into the 21st Century. It was our task to try to…
Suggestions for Entries Week 9
Suggestions for Week 9. All have until 11.59 on Saturday to complete these entries- remember these are just suggestions, you are encouraged to write from your own experience in response to the literature we have been studying and/or your own life experience OzLiteans Can you think of a moment in your own life which was…
Sacred Australia at Mission Australia
I am having such a great time working with this group of Clemente students at Mission Australia. They are such a lively, interested and passionate group of students who really have a need to connect with the core meanings of the literature we are studying. So far we have looked at poetry by Judith Wright-…
Suggestions for Entries Week 8
Blakeans- can you begin to speculate why Blake wants a marriage between Heaven and Hell? How can he dare to yoke these opposites together. Did he have a death wish? Was he determined to be burned at the stake?! Can you write an entry which gives voice to your confusion or your understanding of this…
Suggestions for Entries Week 7
Hi Folks- remember that you now have time extended to 11.59pm Saturday to get your entries for each week up and tidied. For this week our Blakeans could dramatize Earth’s answer to the summons given to it by the Bard. Use your own words and your own language. How does Earth feel? What does Earth…
Suggestions for Entries Week 6
Blakeans have entered the complex and paradoxical world of Innocence and Experience. How can Experience, that sullying of the purity of innocence, actually be the gateway to the innocence that the human spirit desires? Can you write a short prose piece or even a poem that captures this paradox…. and do we have any artists…
Suggestions for Entries Week 5
HI all- this has been a busy week for us all. Now how to bring real focus into your experience of literature this week. For Blakeans I believe it is time for you to write a short piece on Blake’s sexual radicalism. Do you think he is still challenging in today’s society? Or perhaps you…
Vale John Van Gulik
It is with great sadness that I have to write of John Van Gulik’s passing. He was a brilliant, gifted student with great insight and enthusiasm for the things that really mattered in literature. He had a tough life but he brought his hard-won insights to every class that he participated in. I/we will miss…
Blogging Suggestions for Week of 17th August
Blakeans: Write a letter to Samuel Palmer commending him for his insight into Blake but also asking him two other questions about Blake that you would really like to know. Respond to someone’s letter in the Blake group, pretending that you are Palmer and offering answers to the questions you have received. Write an entry…
Art Gallery Visit 2009
Fabulous visit to the Art Gallery of NSW yesterday exploring links between Australian painting and Australian Literature. The tour started down in the aboriginal exhibition “The Dreamers” where the focus was on Ronnie Tjampitjnpa, especially his “Tingari Story at Walungura” 1981. He was one of a number of artists who went to settle at Papunya…
J.K. Rowling's Favourite poem
I was intrigued to discover that this deeply reflective poem by Walt Whitman- from his "Leaves of Grass" was/is Rowling’s favourite poem: Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, That may-be identity beyond the grave is a…
J.K. Rowling's Favourite poem
I was intrigued to discover that this deeply reflective poem by Walt Whitman- from his "Leaves of Grass" was/is Rowling’s favourite poem: Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, That may-be identity beyond the grave is a…
J.K. Rowling’s Favourite poem
I was intrigued to discover that this deeply reflective poem by Walt Whitman- from his "Leaves of Grass" was/is Rowling’s favourite poem: Of the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all—that we may be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all, That may-be identity beyond the grave is a…
STOP PRESS- The Effectiveness of LiveJournal in the ClassRoom
Former ACU Student Justine Zarebski has given a lecture to ACU Third Year Students sharing with them the challenges of her current teaching, but also the creative power that was given her by being introduced to LiveJournal while a student at ACU. Here is the Article in ACU Update:http://www.acu.edu.au/191426And here is a link to two…
Teaching Week 3
William Blake and Henry Lawson! What an amazing feast to have these two radically different authors on my teaching diet this week. Lawson so earthed, so in touch with the immediate feelings and aspirations of his bedevilled Australian characters, Blake so in touch with the cosmic import with the contrary living forces around him, for…
Ideas for your Literature Journal for Week 3
Please go to either of the following two addresses to see a list of ideas for your Literature Journal (whether you are doing Australian Literature or William Blake: The Visionary Imagination): http://michaelgriffith.livejournal.com or https://michaelgriffith1.wordpress.com Enjoy…… when I work out how to import seamlessly from either of these two sites the content should appear here as…
Former Student Turned Poet
Young Jang who completed Literature at ACU a few years ago now is still a very active on-line poet, writing in both LiveJournal http://youngjang.livejournal.com/ AND in WordPress http://youngjoon.wordpress.com. It is well worth checking out his poetry: he has come a huge distance since finishing uni and seems to write something almost every day. MG http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/85420229/6243147
Happy Birthday
Let’s hope you can really study welll this semester and make a good meal of Mr Blake….many happy returns for your B’day! MG
The beginning of Multi-Blogging
I am experimenting with a number of Blogging options, one here suggested by one of the wise bloggers in our community: post to LiveJournal then import to ACU WordPressMU (as well as to WordPress.com)… an interesting palette of purple possibilities opening up here….
The beginning of Multi-Blogging
I am experimenting with a number of Blogging options, one here suggested by one of the wise bloggers in our community: post to LiveJournal then import to ACU WordPressMU (as well as to WordPress.com)… an interesting palette of purple possibilities opening up here….
OZ LIT Families
Hi all- so I have created a dummy OZ Lit Family Group for you to have a look at. If each Group Leader creates one of these (calling it OZ Lit Family 1, OZ Lit Family 2, OZ Lit Family 3…. etc) and then INVITES each member of their family into the group then this…
Entry Suggestions for Writing
William Blake and AssociatesCritical and/or Creative Describe an experience that you have had that picks up some of the miraculous quality that Ginsberg describes in his essay on Blake.orImagine an experience that a character (in your next novel) might have that mirrors something of the quality that Malouf is able to present in his depictions…
Home is where the heART is
What an amazing, extraordinary event that was last night at the Belvoir Street Theatre with the Sydney Street Choir performing their version of the Orpheus and Eurydice story. I took some of my William Blake students with the intention of connecting them with immediate Blakean issues. These are still deeply part of our own society,…
http://michaelgriffith.livejournal.com
Just for the record I am continuing to post into my LJ account so that I can keep a public face and keep open to other friends and colleagues at other unis around the world. From time to time I will be posting stuff up into my LJ that is of wider interest than our…
Home is Where the heArt is
What an amazing, extraordinary event that was last night at the Belvoir Street Theatre with the Sydney Street Choir performing their version of the Orpheus and Eurydice story. I took some of my William Blake students with the intention of connecting them with immediate Blakean issues. These are still deeply part of our own society,…
Billy Blake- Ideas for first Literature Journal Entries- Week 2
lj-embed>Here are some ideas for your Literature Journal for Week 2. Remember that you will be marked on entries titled Literature Journal Week 1, 2 etc… but you are free to write as much as you want in other entries. I hope to see this space continuing as a free-wheeling creative space where you can…
Ideas for your Literature Journal for Week 2
Australian Literature Here are some ideas for your Literature Blog for week 2. Of course you don’t have to use these ideas. You are at liberty to write about whatever aspect of literature has taken your fancy. You are also at liberty to write about your own life experiences, sparked off perhaps by your reading…
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Spring 2025 
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