Dear students:
Read the following dictionary entries from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries; how do they expose the historicity of concepts such as "literature" and "poetry"? After that, please do the following activities, in groups or in pairs, to be handed in next Friday (April 1).
Edmund Coote, The English School-master (1596)
Literature: learning.
Randle Cotgrave, A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611)
Literature: f. Literature, learning.
John Bullokar, An English Expositor (1616)
Literature. Learning: knowledge in bookes.
Henry Cockeram, English Dictionary (1623)
Literature. Learning.
Edward Phillips, The New World of English Words (1658)
Literature: (lat.) knowledge in letters, learning.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
Literature: skill in Letters, or learning.
* * *
John Bullokar, An English Expositor (1616)
Poesie: The writing of a Poet; a Poets worke.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
A Poet: one that writes or makes verses.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
A Tragick Poet: one well skill'd in the writing of tragedies.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
A Bard: or old British Poet.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
A Poetess: or female poet.
John Kersey the younger, English Dictionary (1702)
A Rimer: versifier, or riming poet.
Source: http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/
Activities:
1) In groups or in pairs, discuss the historicity of key concepts such as “literature”, “poetry”, “author”. Use Eliot’s, Koselleck’s and Eagleton's essays as a point of reflection, as well as the previous discussion we had last class.
2) Discuss and then give examples of the “coexistence”, such as Koselleck terms it, of "different eras" in the same historical “present”.
3) Considering that Shakespeare (as any other school-trained author of his time) had learned ancient Rhetoric and Poetics; had read Greek and Latin authors, such as Homer, Plutarch and Virgil; knew the Medieval epic and lyric poems not only of England, but also of France, answer the following questions:
a) How do you relate the case of Shakespeare with Eliot’s idea of “the conception of poetry as a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written”?
b) How do you explain Eliot’s assertion that emotion “has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet”?
Any doubt, send me an email. Next class, we will discuss further Eagleton's introduction to Literary Theory. Enjoy your readings and activities. ;)
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