Literature Engaged

 It would pretty much be wrong if I did not post about my interactions with "The Faerie Queene" considering I have been working on it for literal weeks. I think that this text is laced with so much symbolism, and so much religion, and so, so, so much older English that it would be very difficult to teach in the classroom. Regardless, I think that there are some important themes that can be dissected in this work, though they may not fit the curriculum for a high school classroom. For example, Book Three, the one I have been reading for so long, is directly about chastity, and the different versions and reasons for it. This is not something that I believe can be taught in a high school classroom, though I still greatly enjoyed talking about it in the college classroom. Britomart is one of the coolest women I have ever read about, and Amoret is a woman who I would not find to be amazing at face-value, but upon an intensive study on her I have found that she is quite amazing, as...

 "The Rape of The Lock" was an interesting read I had in another class this semester. It was one that I actually found to be funny and interesting in a class I had determined was kind of mundane. It is a mock epic, and it would pair nicely in a unit of real epics. The students would be able to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of this mock-epic and a real epic. They would be able to see how the structures are the same, they would be able to see the role that the supernatural play in each of them, and it would be something funny and light-hearted to follow a real epic like "The Aeneid." (I mention this one because of how much I dislike Odysseus, though I guess his epic might actually pair better). Regardless of what real epic is taught, the function of the epic poem will still be similar and the students will be able to analyze the texts and see what makes one real, and what makes one a mockery. A fun activity the students might enjoy doing is out...