For those of you who can’t be here tomorrow and would still like to know what we’re doing, you can now download the file with the questions the others will be asking each other in the lesson tomorrow.
January 23, 2008
January 13, 2008
The History Boys – Additional Reading
Our test is coming up and of course you’ve all been doing nothing but reading the play and the introduction, right?So, in case you feel there’s nothing left to do (or if you haven’t actually started studying and need some help), here’s some reading material. It is not required, but highly recommended.The ultimate cheat sheet for The History Boys is the workpack put out by the Birmingham Rep Theatre. There’s a thorough plot summary, a brief description of the characters and a discussion of the most important themes; in addition, there are interviews with Bennett, Hytner and one of the actors.Slate Magazine has an article about why it’s really sad that Irwin comes across as the villain. Personally, I think that this article is completely misguided and that Irwin isn’t the villain at all, but this review goes to show that perhaps something was lost in translation from a British stage to a U.S. movie theater. For more of the same, you can listen to the Slate Spoiler podcast on the film, in which the reviewers are also puzzled by the good guy teacher – bad guy teacher conundrum:
This teacher (Irwin) wants them to challenge assumptions, I think, well, he must be the good guy teacher. …I think the reason it took so long for me to catch on to that was that I went in there thinking “challenging assumptions is good, you know, it’s the Dead Poets Society model teaching, and groping boys is bad…”
Don’t even get me started on The Dead Poets Society. I think these Slate people have got it all wrong, but they are very interesting to listen to.Though not a direct answer to the Slate article, the interview with Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner in the Daily Telegraph challenges the assumption that any one of the teachers is the hero or the villain. It gives some very interesting background information on the play and the production development.Have fun!
January 10, 2008
A subjunctive history map
What if the Nazis had conquered New York in Word War 2? Melissa Gould does a mental/geographical experiment in which everything is renamed to resemble Berlin.
In this ironic linking of the two cities I know most intimately I am proposing a city in which I would not, in fact, be allowed to exist. Yet NEU-YORK is paradoxically an homage to the German language — my father’s mother tongue which I also speak fluently — and the poetic aspects of the German culture, the very same culture that German and Austrian Jews rightfully identified as their own, and which might have been mine to embrace had the historical continuum not been broken.
It is rather brilliantly done, with all the ancient fonts and washed-out colours, but personally, I am really and truly creeped out by this sinister vision (it’s even got a “Hohenschönhausen” subway station! Creepissimo!) It’s probably the same gut reaction that has kept be from reading Robert Harris’ Fatherland.
Found (of course) at Strange Maps.
January 6, 2008
Scenes in the History Boys, Act II
I hope you’ve all got round to reading the second act of The History Boys, as you were supposed to. Here’s a list of the scenes in both acts.
Haven’t read it? Then do the following: a) be ashamed of yourself and b) have a look at the Background Pack the Birmingham Rep Theatre kindly put together for the new production.
December 12, 2007
Quizlet – Learning, Sharing, Testing
Quizlet is a free, highly useful and easy-to-use online tool for studying vocabulary and sharing your vocabulary lists with others. Once you have signed up, you can create word lists or any other type of information lists and then study them, as well as share them with other members of this course.
Let’s work with Quizlet today. (more…)
December 6, 2007
Feel the truth!
A propos of spin doctors (“The loss of liberty is the price we pay for freedom” type of thing), let me point you to the extremely funny and wonderfully malicious Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report as he introduces the new word “truthiness”. (more…)
December 5, 2007
Scenes in The History Boys, Act 1
As you’re reading the play, dividing the acts up into scenes might help you to keep track of what’s going on. I’ve compiled a table with scene numbers and titles and corresponding pages. The scene titles are my own and are just given to make the scenes easier to identify. Please copy the scene number into your own text copy.
If you want to do a little research, check out this little forum called Subjunctive History. They have a very handy list of quotations and allusions for the first act, and a discussion group about the play.
