So, In the beginning of the semester, we made an influence map where we found pictures to represent what we thought of when we thought of what it meant to be British. My images were probably pretty generic in what people would think of. I had a picture of the Royal Wedding, tea, the "Keep Calm and Carry on Sign", and images of Shakespeare, but now that the semester is over I feel like many of my ideas have evolved from where they began. This made me think about what I would change from our original assignment based on what I've learned over the semester.
To begin with, I would still leave my image of Peter Pan flying across London. For whatever reason, when someone says England this is the first things I think of. I think partly because, at a young age, it showed a very physical place that was full of magic and fantasy. I think this representation has been a huge part of what we learned this semester. Magic in the world, for whatever reason, has been represented in the text we read like
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, The Wife of Bath's Tale, Doctor Faustus, and Gulliver's Travels. Each of these tales goes beyond the natural world and exposes the reader to a fantasy one. So yes, after I've rambled, Peter Pan, would stay.
The Canterbury Tales would be another image that would have to be added to my map. For one thing, beside reading the tales in this class, I also took the Chaucer class, and we pretty much read the whole thing, so it definitely has influenced my view of medieval and British culture.
The Canterbury Tales is an interesting text because it examines, so many different issue like social differences, gender roles, and religious influence. There were some stories like "The Knight's Tale" that showed the nobility, and in a lot of ways, what we expect from British culture, but then there were surprises like "The Miller's Tale" and how they behaved. I also like the storytelling aspect of
The Canterbury Tales, and how the tone and style of story changes with each character. The story is filled with different layers between the story of the pilgrimage to each travelers own stories. It has a complex style, but after working through that text all semester it has really influenced my ideas of medieval times.
An image of an angel and devil would also be added to my map now as well. I had never thought about how mooch of British Literature focused on the characters of God, angels, demons, and the devil. We saw reoccurring ideas of sin and redemption. Multiple texts showed this idea where character went out in search of Hell or supported it's ideas, but questions in discussion were also raised about when is it too late to be redeemed? We saw the ideas of Hell and Sin, and the ideas of redemption in text like
Doctor Faustus and Paradise Lost, but the idea of sin and redemption was not one that I had previously associated with the idea of "Britain".
The last idea that I would add is the idea of the government, and how it has evolved. This was not an area the I thought about. I knew that the Royal family is face of the government, but that parliament was in charge more, but I never thought of the evolution of this system. When I thing of England, I think of Kings and Queens like King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. Many of our texts addressed the idea of government, but it also showed how the perception of government changed over time. In
Rule Britania, there was an extreme pride in being British but then by the time we get to
Gulliver's Travels the author is mocking the system with satire. Even in
Measure for Measure the behavior of government officials in charge is assessed.
Post 5/5
First of all I love the idea of this post! Very creative. Anyways, I just wanted to add that I agree with the idea of being surprised by the amount of references to angels and demons in our readings. It is not something I would have associated with British literature and it made what we read all the more interesting because of the switch back and forth of religion and humanity
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