FAMOUS WRITER AND ACTOR - WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare's drama is the climax of the Elizabethan Age. We can find the compendium of all the problems and the creative potentialities of the whole English Renaissance.

His scholastic instruction was quite incomplete, but William's spirit of observation and his intellectual curiosity opened to his works the horizons of a cognitive and creative process typical of a great artist. In 1582, when he was eighteen years old, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, a woman who was eight years older than him, but, in spite of the birth of three children, the marriage, according to the allusions leaking out from his plays, was not a happy one. For this reason in 1592 Shakespeare was in London, working both as an actor and as a writer. There is no information about Shakespeare's qualities as an actor.

In 1594, one of his plays was send to press for the first time, Titus Andronicus, which was published anonymously. From then on, others of his works were published, but when Shakespeare died, a little number of his plays had been printed in the shape of book and he had taken care of the edition of none of them. This variety reveals the author's commercial and experimental purposes, but it is also indicative of the nature of his genius, capable to draw on every kind of source and to transform the inspiring models while preserving the stylistic distinctions. On the stylistic level, there are many echoes of his contemporaries and predecessors.

It has been proved that the popular Elizabethan theatre often was the result of collaborations, so it is possible that some works signed with the name of William Shakespeare had been written by more than only one author. Shakespeare demonstrates his genius in putting in the mouth of the characters the significant and enlightening cue, besides his capability in the contamination of the genres, a technique which enriches their human meaning and brings to very original results.

The ironic bitterness was then ransomed by the tragic plays by Othello, Macbeth, King Lear (written between 1604 and 1606) are no longer tragedies caused by fate, like Romeo and Juliet, or by a will of revenge, as it happens in Titus Andronicus or in Hamlet; they are more likely explorations of the original faults of the human nature and of the experiences that these faults can redeem.

A bitter background remained in the style of Shakespeare, maybe because of the negative attitude reflected in it. The other “roman plays” composed during those years, limited the range of the themes, as the first one was an inquiry about love and the second about the concept of nobility.

In my opinion, in this early age he faced a lot of consequences and the experience makes him a good writer and in order reaching these popular success.

MALAYSIAN FOLKTALE

Sang Kancil and Sang Buaya is one of my evergreen favourite. I still remember when I was small, my teacher in school used to tell me stories on folktales from Malaysia and other continents. I will be very happy because the animals in the story will talk and they have their own tricks to make the other animal believe in what they do.

This story is about a mouse deer who act as Sang Kancil plays a trick over a crocodile who is Sang Buaya. Actually, Sang Kancil wants to cross the river in order to get some food. So, it does not know how to cross. As a result, Sang Kancil asks Sang Buaya and other crocodiles to queue so that it Sang Kancil can count the crocodiles in that particular river. The crocodiles without hesitation queue in the river. They did not realize the Sang Kancil is playing a trick on them.

Actually, Sang Kancil wants these crocodiles blindly follow its instructions. Sang Kancil, started counting these crocodiles and managed to cross the river.  At last, this Sang Kancil fulfill its need by making these crocodiles as a tool to cross the river.

So the moral of the story is do not believe a stranger.

ONLINE TASK 2

1. Do we have a canon for Malaysian literary works? Let's say we do, who do you think are in it? Consider the fact that their works are well-known and most importantly included as part of the school syllabus- (both in BM and English)

Yes we have canons for Malaysian literary works.

1. Dato' Shahnon Ahmad
2. Kamaluddin Muhamad for Keris Mas
3. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh
4. Datuk Abdullah Hussain
5. Datuk Dr. Usman Awang
6. Datuk A. Samad Said


English Literature

• Novel (SPM) - Jungle of Hope - Kamaluddin Muhamad
• Poem (PMR) - The Dead Crow - Datuk A. Samad Said
  

Malay Literature

• Short Story - SPM - Dato' Shahnon Ahmad
• Poem - SPM - Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh

2. The poems by Erica Jong raises some feminist issues. What are they?

In Erica Jong's poems she raised some feminist issues and those are gender bias, women's rights and interest, family relationship, sex-positive issues and male dominance in love.
3. Do you think they are suitable to teach at the secondary school level? Explain.

The poems are not suitable to teach at the secondary school level because it touches on sexuality and the explicit meaning that will spoil the teenagers way of thinking and behaviours.
4. Is Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?

Hillary Tham's poems are more appropriate and suitable because she is used to Malaysian style of living and she is a local writer. I think the poems are suitable to teach because the issues used in the poems are mostly from Malaysia and it can attract students previous knowledge and more feminine to the students. the uses of the language are simple and easy for the students understand the messages.

5. The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?

'Humans' are toward the world of materialistic and possessive and they are not satisfied with what they have. They keep on searching for more until the end. It become universal when ones experience this situation in reality. For example, this girl who isbsearching for someone who is perfect enough to get marry but end up showing his true colour to her. Nowadays, people are not satisfied and cannot tolerate with their family relationship and end up their relationship by finding someone better (they say so) then before.  This experience can be a good teacher for the students and we as teacher should teach them on how to be grateful with what they have and dont be greedy to search for better than nothing at all.

6. From your findings about his background, tell me about the dilemma he conveys through the poem CROSS.

Langston Hughesis a mix blood. He is an African American. His mother is black and his father is white. He steps in the world of confusion after his parents demise. He felt helpless when he thought of how he will die, whether as a black or as white and unfulfilled hopes of this African American who live in a dominant white society. So, here all of his writings will be based on how he felt and foreshadow how the readers perseption and indirect meaning on his writing. Moreover, in his poem CROSS he used sarcastic words and curses for their parents because his father died in a fine house whereas his mother died in a shack. He felt that the white are being more upscale and the blacks live in poverty and bound down to earth. He realised his fault and felt sorry for what he has written.

7. I find "Dinner Guest: Me" laden with irony and sarcasm. Briefly state if you feel the same.

I think "Dinner Guest: Me" is laden with irony and sarcasm because a white invited him to a restaurant and discussed about race with him. At the same time he felt ashamed to be there and the white felt that he hold the throne to be white. At the last line he answer that the solution for this problem is to wait.

The lines in the poem which represents irony and sarcasm are:

Line 1& 2
I know I am
The Negro Problem

Line 9,10,11
Of darkness U.S.A.--
Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night

Line 14
"I'm so ashamed of being white."

8. The experience in the poem Harlem is one that is true for many people. Do you agree?

Yes, of course I agree. It is because of the unequal treatment within the blacks and the whites. When the whites take dominant, blacks assume that the dominance will jeopardise their rights. So, here the marginalized group faced a lot of frustration. During the Civil War, the blacks fight for their equal rights but the whites continue prejudice against blacks. In order to segregate these blacks upon everything they do, they are forced not to use the infrastructure as the whites by indirectly show that blacks are marginalized .

9. Langston Hughes fights for the voice of his people. What is the movement called?
The New Negro Movement.

ONLINE TASK 1

ONLINE TASK 1

Folktale

The Son of the Turtle Spirit is a Chinese folktale.

List some of the well-known folktales from Malaysia .

1.      The Sang Kancil and Sang Buaya

2.      Si Tanggang

3.      Bawang Putih and Bawang Merah

4.      Badang

5.      Mat Jenin

6.      The Catfish in The River

7.       The Woodpecker’s Crown 

8.       The Cockerel That Crows

9.       The Haunted Cave

10.   Raja Bersiung

List some of the possible issues found in “The Son of the Turtle Spirit”

v  Chinese people believe that there are spirits that commits during the seventh month of the year because the gate of hell will be opened during this period. Moreover they believe that the turtle has spirits that manifests at night and disappear at dawn. Besides that, they also believe that their elder’s remains are very important because it affects the wealth and the well being of the deceased descendants.

v  Besides that, these Chinese also believe in ‘faith because sometimes what we planned might not happened and it will be done in the other way round. That shows our faith is in our God’s hand. Things will happen as how ‘HE’ planned. 

Are those issues universal in nature or are they only relevant in the Chinese culture?

*    These issues are universal because whenever the issues in the story relate to their own experience so they will use the moral values in order to commit with present days. At the same time these issues are also relevent in the Chinese culture.

Fables


What are the other morals that can be gotten from the other fables by Aesop?

List at least two.

1.      The Miser – Don’t be greedy, it won’t get you anywhere.

2.      The Farmer and The Fox – Your act of revenge may destroy what you care for.

3.      The Ant and the Grasshopper - It is best to prepare for the days of necessity

4.      The Ant and the Dove - One good turn deserves another.

Myths

One well-known literary figure from the Elizabethan age used Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe as a model to one of his famous plays. Who is he and what is the play?

v  Shakespeare and the famous play is Romeo and Juliet.

Legends

List some of the popular legends we have in Malaysia

1.      The Curse of Batu Gajah

2.      How Malacca Got Its Name

3.      Magical Lake of Pregnant Maiden

4.      The Legend Of Mahsuri

5.      The Seven Magical Wells.

6.      Mystical Cave of Stories

7.      Kedah’s Legendary Fanged King

8.      Perak Royalty Rituals

9.      The Dragon of Lake Chini

10.  Legend of Perhentian Island

The legend provided in the module is that of King Arthur taken from Book 1of Le Mort d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur) by Sir Thomas Malory who was an expert in Arthurian Literature. The module suggests that you think of how you could adapt the text for students as it is written in an archaic language.

Look at the questions below. Answers can be found on internet sources. This will help you get a basic understanding of what Le Mort d’Arthur is about.

1. Who is Thomas Malory?

·         He is the author of Le Mort d’ Arthur and was apparently a firmly established folk hero. He is the central figure in numerous ancient Welsh and Irish legends, and by the early twelfth century, some scholars think, he may have been known in northern Italy and France, where names possibly derived from Arthurian folklore occur. The earliest recorded tradition concerning Arthur represents him as a leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

2. When was Le Mort d’Arthur written?

·         Le Morte d'Arthur, completed in 1469, is the first major work of prose fiction in English and remains today one of the greatest.

3. How many books/ parts are there in LMDA?

·         8 books / 2 parts

  4. What is book 8 about?

·         Book 8 is about The Death of King Arthur.

5. Who were the two people who had an affair?

·         Queen Giunevere and Sir Lancelot

6. Book 6 has a strong connection to a popular modern fiction which is now a movie. What is the title of the popular modern fiction?

               

·         The Noble Tale of The Sangreal

7. State three well-known facts about King Arthur/ his time as a King

·         King Arthur was betrayed by his greatest knight, Sir Lancelot.

·         King Arthur was raised by Sir Ector who had a son named Kay.

·         King Arthur was the son of King Uther and Igraine.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Think of 2 ways in which you can use folktales/fables/myths or legends in the classroom. Explain briefly.

1.      Teacher can use role-play and simulation in the classroom. The best example is the mock trial. So teacher can ask the students to be in groups and act out the folktales/ fables/ myths or legends. So, from here the teacher can choose the students for the story telling competition.

2.      Teacher can asks the students to choose any characters and wear the clothes as if the character in the story. So from here the teacher can do the activities like matching characters and traits, analyzing the characters and their relationships and so on. Here, the students can be involved solely into the characters that they like the most.

THE GIRL IN THE BOY'S AND GIRL'S BY ALICE MUNRO

The girl in this short story really interest me because she wants to feel her life freely and live her life to the fullest. I assume that the writer Alice Munro probably modeled after her own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm and tried to develope her own identity in a man's world. When I read through the story, I felt surprise that the character seems to change the real girl's attitude. The girl really respect her father's work and she loved to help him outdoor rather that helping her mother's indoor. She also felt that her father's work as 'ritualistically important'. For me, I felt that I must support her as what she wants to be and it is normal in this democratic world.                                                        

  

TEACHERS' RESPONSIBILITIES

          Nowadays, our education system is forcing the teachers' to be knowledgable and must equip with the latest technology in order to spoon feed the students with model of answers, notes and various form of guidance in order to regurgitate in the exam hall.
          Our education system are now more to exam-oriented and practising the students to memorize the possible answers for the national examinations. So, we as the teachers' are facing problems to cultivate critical thinking and learning. Teachers' have less opportunity to florish and give space to students to ask questions and encouraged them to contribute ideas and inputs.
          We the teachers' with bursting knowledge should claim that in order to nurture and cultivate the intellectual approach of inquiry, openess of mind and anaylitical thinking, we must foster the students with clarity of critical understanding of any situations 

BETTER SPEAKER & WRITER

As a teacher of English, I would like to share some tips on how to be a better speaker and writer. When I flip through the Star Magazine last Sunday, 23rd January, I came accross an article related to pronunciation and writing skills. These skills can be improved quickly with will, practice and a bit of hard work. There are 10 regular ways that these skills can be readily applied to enhance the quality of personal communication. Those are
1) using superior adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs to express ideas
2) using 'clefting' to give emphasis in conversation and communication
3) using phrase and clause equivalents instead of single words to qualify another word
4) using alternative forms of punctuations
5) using words as alternative parts of speech
6) using different stress when pronouncing words as nouns, verbs and adjectives
7) using selected words and constructions when speaking or writing so as not to offend or to achieve the best response
8) using the thesaurus and the dictionary with purpose and effect
9) using appropriate colloquial and idiomatic terminology for effect
10) using different words and constructions to commence sentences when speaking and writing
This article really attracted me and I hope it will be useful for all the teachers' and students out there...