...Kumar Professor Padma Baliga English Literature Upto 1900 13 September 2010 The Canterbury Tales and the Panchatantra: Two Frame Narratives contrasted The East has a wonderful tradition in teaching morals through interesting tales; India has given the world the earliest such tales in the form of the Panchatantra, the Hitopadesa and even the Puranas. The Canterbury Tales and the Panchatantra are both frame narratives- often known as ‘story within a story.’ Yet the target audience of both these works is different. And this arises from the nature of these works. Whilst The Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer originally for a courtly, upper class audience, the Panchatantra was written to teach the high morals and sensibilities of Vedic literature to three disinterested princes in the simplest language, using animals as symbols and characters. Indeed, the Panchatantra and its derivative work, the Hitopadesa are often dismissed as stories for children. Though these fables are indeed vastly instructive, they also teach a way of thriving in the material world and a way of life itself; the Panchatantra is referred to as a niti-shastra. This paper attempts to contrast the Canterbury Tales with the Panchatantra and illustrate the manner in which the latter is a niti-shastra without being merely populated by abstruse, pithy phrases. We know that in The Canterbury Tales, a group of about 30 pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the Thames from London...
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...Matthew Derrick L. Uy Lit 126.1 Edward-David E. Ruiz, Ph.D. October 3, 2014 Detective Play: Just Under Our Noses The Nun’s Priest’s Tale of the Cock and Hen, Chanticleer and Pertelote Analysis “For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.” ― Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene Stories and tales allow us to take a step back into the past and dance with its maker. Even though little is known about someone, much like Sappho, whom is only known through the bits and pieces her of work recovered; we come to know what their tastes in topics are, what words they favor, and how they weave them together into something wonderful, among many other things. As for the Nun’s Priest, even for such an enigma, it is possible to dissect how he is like, through his tale, according to Chaucer. His story begins with a widow, that is the mother of two, characterized to be a patient, loving, and content woman. This claim is shown explicitly and implicitly as the story tells us of how she had little, but made the most out of it in examples such as her small income and possessions, her provision for herself and daughters (301), her health not depending on any extravagance, but only good diet, exercise, and heart’s content (302), and her naming of her animals (302, 303), which may display affection and attachment. How is this relevant if the title is the cock and the hen? It can be seen as a foil to the fable to be told. The general mood that pervades the introductory lines is...
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...Legend of Sleepy Hollow” alongside Tim Burton’s filmic adaption of the story, titled “Sleepy Hollow,” a number of fascinating similarities and differences emerge. Though elements of the characters and settings of Burton’s film borrow heavily from Irving’s text, the overall structuring of the film is significantly different, and representations of various elements are crucially re-imagined. Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” was released on November 19, 1999, a few months before the new millennium. Set in 1799, Burton’s film modifies the 1790 date that Irving’s text is set in, showing an acute concern with living out anxieties surrounding millennial change in the ‘safe’ formats of film and of established folk legend. Irving’s tale, written in 1820, also works with antiquity, but in a different manner: it lives out colonial cultural anxieties of Irving’s present, as he seems to be concerned with constructing archetypes of folk and with placing folk culture in the new American literary landscape. Examining the two versions of the tale, then, provides a fascinating peek into the transformation of concerns and values in America from Irving’s nineteenth century landscape to Burton’s twentieth (on the verge of twenty-first) century. Burton makes several significant moves that modify the basics of Irving’s tale, frequently at the cost of the folk elements of Irving’s version. The frame narrative of Irving’s story—the tale, part of a series titled “The Sketch Book,” begins with the preface...
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...This diagnostic writing exercise will help your instructor discover who you are as a writer. The essay will be used to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and it will allow the instructor the opportunity to identify grammatical, stylistic, and mechanical problems specific to each student. Do not fret over the idea that grammar, style, and mechanics will be evaluated in this assignment. This diagnostic writing exercise is merely one way to take a look at any particular patterns that exist in your writing. You will earn full credit for completing this assignment as long as you follow instructions. A narrative is a story that you tell to an audience for a reason. You can use your own experience or your role as an observer to frame a narrative, but the story itself should stir readers into thinking about and remembering their own stories. As children, we often seek out or create mysteries. Every town seems to have stories of haunted houses or swamp monsters. One reason might be that children have to learn how to conquer a fear of the unknown. Based on your own experience, that of someone else, or a tale from your own imagination, write a narrative essay that tells a story about conquering fear. Your essay should be 550 to 800 words. For the purposes of this essay, please do not worry about incorporating any external sources. For more information about how to write a narrative essay, please review the major elements that define narrative in Chapter...
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...creating a book of instructional exercises or teaching aids. The best tools any teacher can have for presenting literature to students are a love of books, a sense of the beauty of language, and a joy in the magic of story. Only then the literature can be shared effectively with children. The Context for Children Literature i. History of Children’s Literature ii. The Study of Childhood iii. The Study of Literature iv. Picture Storybook v. Fantasy In researcher courses, the emphasis on the primary works-the picture books, folktales, poetry, fantasies, realistic novels, and information books. The text is intended as a supplement, to provide background about the...
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...the first school was in France.” (Martha Graham and Modern Dance) it wasn’t until the nineteenth century when ballet changed to the two popular forms we know today, Romantic and Classical. The boundaries of romantic ballet was to express moods, emotions and actions of the characters, it was concerned with ‘mysterious and mythical themes, haunted by supernatural, feminine creatures, beyond the grasp of mortal men.’ (Martha Graham and Modern Dance) after many years,...
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...The Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh is the oldest to have survived into the modern era. Thus the greatest value of Gilgamesh is that it opens a window for modern readers into their collective past. The tale’s content reveals much about humanity’s earliest social and religious concerns, while its form reveals equivalent insights about the relationship between instruction and entertainment in an oral culture. The story of Gilgamesh reveals both a desire to commemorate the hero’s greatness and an obligation to learn from his flaws. The first thing the audience learns from the story is that Gilgamesh builds protective walls around the city, a great gift to his society. When the audience next learns that the king has been abusive to the young men of the city and has deflowered young maidens, their disapproval of these acts is tempered by their initial approval of his great accomplishment. Overall, the early portions of the story demonstrate that the abiding criterion for judgment is not the happiness of the individual, even if that individual is the king, but the good of society as a whole. When Gilgamesh exercises the kingly privilege in deflowering maidens, his actions may be legal, but they fail to provide any benefit for Uruk and are therefore condemned. Thus does the audience learn that greatness entails responsibility, not just strength. Crucial to the lesson of the story is Gilgamesh’s status as two-thirds god, one-third human. Kings are more than human and therefore are revered;...
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...The Role of the Teacher: “There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.“ Robert Frost The above quote, is a very concise way of defining the role of the Teachers in our lives. It does not label any specific teacher as good or bad but in very simple terms puts forth what possible effects teachers will have on their students. My favourite teacher was Mrs. Alphonso Thomas who taught us English. I still remember our first lesson with her in my 6th grade. It was the famed tale of King Arthur. At that age, it was a normal tendency, for students to judge the difficulty of the lesson or chapter by the number of pages it covered in the textbook and to everybody’s disdain, King Arthur’s tale was divided into 3 parts covering a quarter of the whole book. This notion itself had reduced the motivation of the students to a considerable degree. To the surprise of the whole class though, Mrs. Thomas started did not start with the lesson straight away instead she first introduced herself and then asked each of the students to introduce themselves as she had just done. Through this activity she was breaking the ice and also trying to gauge the learning capacities of each of the students on a general level. The introductions had also eased the fear of expression and was constantly improving the communication between the students and her. She had also succeeded...
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...A Lion Called Christian is an incredible true story of two young men met up with a young lion by a chance in a crowded market. They are Anthony(Ace) Bourke and John Rendall, both are adventurers who were fresh off from university traveling around the country. They happened to visit the pet department of Harrod’s Department Store in London, 1969 where they were surprised to find lion cubs for sale. Ace and John were charmed by one of the lion cub in the cage due to his calmness and playful personality, they already got a name for him after the two had a little commenting about him. They decided to bought the lion with the intention of providing it a better life than the zoo could if the zoo ever get to purchased the lion. For several months,...
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...such an aim to be futile. The inability of any mortal or immortal to change prescribed outcomes stems from the three Fates: sisters Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who assigns each person’s destiny; and Atropos, who carries the scissors to snip the thread of life at its end. These three divinities pervade all the stories of Greek myth, whether they be stories of gods, goddesses, demigods, heroes, or mortals and regardless of the exploits recounted. Nothing can be done to alter or prolong the destiny of one’s life, regardless of the number of preparations or precautions taken. This inflexibility applies just as much to Zeus as to the lowliest mortal, as we see in Zeus’s hounding of Prometheus to divulge the name of the woman who will bear the offspring that one day will kill him. Though this lesson is somewhat consoling—the way of the world cannot be bent to match the whims of those in authority—it is also very disturbing. The prospect of free will seems rather remote, and even acts of great valor and bravery seem completely useless. The myths provide an interesting counterpoint to this uselessness, however. In virtually all the stories in which a character does everything in his power to block a negative fate, and yet falls prey to it, we see that his efforts to subvert fate typically provide exactly the circumstances required for the prescribed fate to arise. In other words, the resisting characers themselves provide the path to fate’s fulfillment. A perfect...
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...the key to an enriched life, full of learning new perspectives that previously I was unaware of. I feel as if reading and writing marked a turning point in my life as I developed the skills to understand myself and others in greater depths. From listening to stories from my parents, to being inspired to express my thoughts through a journal, and my brother being greatly involved with reading, people have continued to encourage my development in reading and writing. When I was younger, my mom read the book The Windigos Return to my brother and I. This book had...
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...Three Little Pigs: Four Interpretations - An Exercise in Paraphrasing By The Walden University Writing Center Staff This exercise is designed to help you improve your paraphrasing skills. You'll also get practice at writing a compare-and-contrast interpretive paper, which will help you with the process used in KAMs and other course papers. Three interpretations of the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs appear here, along with a mini-research study about wolves and pigs. To help you improve your writing skills, you can approach these pages in two ways: First, read the assigned questions below. Then read through the four short interpretive texts. Next, take some time to write a brief paper in which you answer the questions posed at the beginning. Were you able to easily summarize using your own words? Were you able to write without having the original source open in front of you? Did you include proper in-text citations? Assigned Questions 1. In no more than four paragraphs, summarize the story of the three pigs. (Refer to either the Higley or Ashliman version for direct quotes.) 2. Compare and contrast these four interpretations of the story, using direct quotes and paraphrases as appropriate. Try not to be judgmental; use the author's evidence for support. 3. Offer a brief critical analysis of the interpretations. What were the strengths and weaknesses, if any, of each? Three Little Pigs: Four Interpretations Gomez (1999) Literature...
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...Realism of the 20th century was peculiar with the influence of modernism and psychologism. However, it was characterized by its attention to details, as well as its attempt to recreate reality as it was, without any decorative language. It tried to reproduce the most detail and objective life of Great Britain before and after World Wars. Realism represented the social life and paid much attention to domestic problems. Its representatives showed tragic vision of life using satire and dark humour, but still their vision of life is much more optimistic than the modernistic one. Talking about their characters, they were social types depicted in their everyday life dealing with their virtues, morals, profession, relationships, worldview etc. Narrative form used by realists is characterized by several narrative characters in order to create an objective vision of life. The most prominent among the writers who continued the traditions of realism were: J. Galsworthy, A. Bennett, H. Wells, B. Shaw; and their followers R. Aldington, G. Orwell, J. Priestley, and E. Waugh. The Novel is certainly the most important literary form of the period. The realistic novel is represented by such novelistic forms as: the social and social-psychological novel (J. Galsworthy, E. Waugh, R. Aldington) the social-domestic novel (A. Bennett, H. Wells) the comic or satirical novel (E. Waugh) family chronicle or epic cycle (J. Galsworthy) science fiction (H. Wells). Despite all this...
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...Exercise: A Tale of Two Stories In your careers thus far, you have likely encountered workplace situations when your values conflicted with what you were asked to do. Often it is not easy to align your own personal values and purpose with those of your boss, your co-workers, your direct reports or your firm. This exercise is designed to help you identify and develop the competencies necessary to achieve that alignment. Objectives 1. To reflect on your previous experiences, successful and less so, at effectively voicing and acting on your values in the workplace. 2. To discover which conditions and problem definitions empower you to effectively voice your values, and which tend to inhibit that action. Instructions: Part I Recall a time in your work experience when your values1 conflicted with what you were expected to do in a particular, non-trivial management decision, and you spoke up and acted to resolve the conflict. Consider the following 4 questions and write down your thoughts and brief responses: o What did you do, and what was the impact? o What motivated you to speak up and act? o How satisfied are you? How would you like to have responded? (This question is not about rejecting or defending past actions but rather about imagining your Ideal Scenario.) o What would have made it easier for you to speak/act? Things within your own control Things within the control of others 1 In this exercise, a “values conflict” refers to a disagreement that has an...
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...in Victorian Europe and America Answer Key for “Setting the Stage” and “As You Read” questions…………Page 3 Questions For Discussion……………………………………………………….Page 6 END OF ANSWER KEY PART TWO Study Guide for Students………………………………………………………..Page 7 • History and Setting • The Triangle Trade • Geography • European Colonialism Questions: Setting the Stage…………………………………………………..Page 7 Questions: As You Read……………………………………………………….Page 8 Questions: After Your Reading………………………………………………..Page 9 Vocabulary Exercises………………………………………………………….Page 10 END OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES PART THREE Parents’ Footnotes – Plot Synopsis…………………………………………..Page 12 Answers to Vocabulary Exercises………………………………………….…Page 13 References / Internet Resources……………………………………………..Page 14 1 Literature Study Guide: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Part One: For the Parent/Teacher Recommended Ages/Grade Level: Ages 12 and up or Grades 7 and up. Edition used: Children’s Classics, Random House Value Publishing, 1998 Ed. Part One: Overview for Parents: ______________________________________________________ Treasure Island is an adventure novel set in England during the 1700’s. This is one of the classic adventure tales; countless children have embarked on life-long reading adventures after having become “hooked” by Treasure Island or other tales of this type. Typical of Victorian novels, it can spark discussions about history, politics, morality, along with issues of social classes, wealth, poverty, etc. The vocabulary and...
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