June, 4th – Néstor Cevasco
We discussed in Language and Culture IV some aspects of feudalism taking into accoount Fisher’s text. We explored the relationship between vassals and lords, the act of Homage, and the centralization of power in the case of William the Conqueror.
May 21st –Néstor Cevasco
May 20th - Néstor Cevasco
We continued reading Beowulf till a passage describing the appearance of a second female monster in Herot, who is worst than the former Grendel. We also read Borges and discussed the use of kennings in Anglo-Saxon poetry.
May 14th – Daniela Duhalde
We read Beowulf and reached a passage describing Grendel’s defeat in Herot. We discussed on some elements of Anglo-Saxon poetry and alliteration.
May 13rd – Jésica Pereyra
During this class, we talked a bit about our experience as teachers, having in mind that some of us have started with the observations for our Prácticas. Then, we started discussing about the new assignment. We gathered information and created our hypotheses.
At first, we compared a fragment (the first 20 lines) of the poem Beowulf in old English with a fragment of a new edition of the same poem. Then, we discussed a bit about the manuscript of the poem, and we also commented the main reasons why Beowulf is a very important poem. Later in the class, we made a few comments on the poem (from fit 3 to almost 9) and we talked about its origin and the role of Christianity in it.
May 7th –Néstor Cevasco
This Thursday 7th, we discussed on Anglosaxonism and several issues related to this. One of these was connected to the belief, popular or not, of relating Anglo-Saxonism to the idea of a superior race. We concluded that this feeling just takes part of a mere nationalistic feeling, and negative for this matter. In addition to this, we explored the originary myths of the English as a race stating two main theories. One is the Trojan, in other words, conceiving the English as descendants of Trojans. The other one is the the Anglo-Saxon.
May 6th –Daniela Duhalde
During this class we discussed about the 1st assignment.
Then, we started discussing the text Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity by Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles. We said that there are two meanings to the term Anglo-Saxonism.
Then, we mentioned that the Anglo-Saxon is considered an origin myth, that is to say, a myth that talks about the origin of the English identity. We mentioned that the Anglo-Saxon myth and the Trojan myth considered the origin of the English people.
April, 23rd – Jésica López
During this class we commented on the text A poetics to Postmodernism, by Hutcheon, Linda ( 1988). We read the First part: “Theorizing the postmodern; Toward a poetics.”
First of all, we commented on the term ‘poetics’ which has to do with the analysis of texts from an artistic point of view and the elements that make particular a text. After that, we began talking about certain characteristics that identify postmodernism. Some of them were: discontinuity, disruption, dislocation, decentring, indeterminacy and antitotalization. As regards the past, the author argues that postmodernism rethinks history in an ironic, critical and even contradictory way. As an example, we watched the film Brazil, which illustrated some of the concepts mentioned above.
April 22nd - Jésica Pereyra
We commented on the text “The leading facts of English history”,” Fourth Period”, “The coming of the Saxon, the battles of the tribes- British becomes England”, by Montgomery.At first, we discussed on the battle between the Britors and the Picts and Scots (The Picts and Scots attacked the Britors from the north, who were also being attacked by the Saxons from the south). We also talked about King Arthur but we agreed that we are going to discuss this topic on our “Language and Culture Blog”. Another relevant topic we mentioned was Christianity and how it was introduced into the island, we made a few comments on its origins and on the political influence Christianity had, too. Then, we talked about the Danish and the reason why the Saxons were easily convinced to accept Christianity as a new religion.
April 15th - Daniela Duhalde
During this class, we discussed Montgomery’s Leading Facts of English History. Third Period. Roman Britain,55 b.C.; 43-410 A.D. A civilization which did not civilize. Taking into account the subtitle, we tried to discover the writer’s point of view on what he wrote: how a stable civilization could not civilize barbarics.The author mentions Caesar’s campaigns to Britain and how the Romans did to establish there after several invations. He also mentioned the expedition against the Druids, kind of priests that were Britons’ religious image, and how the Romans introduced Crhistianity.Other thing that Montgomery mentions in this text is how the Romans built roads to join the five important provinces they had divided the territory into; also they built up enormous walls to prevent invasions.Finally, we discussed how and why the Romans abandoned Britain: there was a barbaric invasion, so the Roman emperor recalled their troops.
