World Lit

[HJ:)]

Okay, well, I have some ideas of what I am going to write,,

but I don't know HOW TO START IT OFF. can you give me some tips???

Thanks

[Hyperbole]

Well, for WL1 we were advised to show why our aspect was worth exploring, so I started my essay off by linking the aspect to "the real world" and making it sound important. Since I was writing about ill characters in two works, I said some things about how humans have always been worried by the existence of illness and how this has been portrayed in literature in many ways throughout the years. Then I went on to say that that was the case in novels so and so, and that this essay would compare and contrast these characters. Immediately after that I started bringing up my points of comparison.

As with all essays, the beginning should be interesting and make the reader want to read on while showing what the essay is all about.

[Capa]

I think it is good to be inspired by ToK essays or History essays (if you have history?) when writing WL. You should put your idea (the task you have chosen) into a context and try to make it sound interesting. Also, look at the criterias, I don't have it in front of me but I think it says quite a lot about the introduction, follow it carefully to get a 7.

We were also told to write the facts aboutnthe books in the intro (name, author, year etc.)

[moneyfaery]

I think it is good to be inspired by ToK essays or History essays (if you have history?) when writing WL. You should put your idea (the task you have chosen) into a context and try to make it sound interesting. Also, look at the criterias, I don't have it in front of me but I think it says quite a lot about the introduction, follow it carefully to get a 7.

We were also told to write the facts aboutnthe books in the intro (name, author, year etc.)

Um... no. You don't need to and should not mention the year the book was written because the examiner frankly doesn't give a ****. You should state your thesis and arguments in the introductory paragraph to give a sense of direction to the essay. You should also briefly state the works you're comparing and their authors, but that is only so the examiner knows what you're writing about.

[keemo]

it is probably best to write your essay about something you've covered in class.

or something that you've read very, very carefully and really liked.

This will give you a HUGE boost in the speed of your progress since you've already read it, and because you read it in class, you've talked about the literature of the book etc.

also have a few classic written pieces next to you.

its always easier to write like a poet when you have something pretty inspirational to look at. A good book, a good short story, something you can open and say hey thats a good word.

[hermine0817]

Our teacher told us that we have to cover the books we did in class in our first WorldLit. Last year, a student accidentally gave in a worldlit concerning a book they didn't cover in class, and the IBO downgraded her harshly because of that. In our case, we have covered 3 books for the choice of WorldLit 1, and we had to choose 2 of these and compare a theme/topic etc. from these books. After all, WorldLit has to be a comparative essay. So your ideas should be centered around the similarities and differences between two novels about one theme.

[EDIT] If it helps you, mine is the "Use of Setting to convey Character Relationships and Personalities in Like Water for Chocolate and The Sand Child." The title has to be edited though. It is apparently not MLA style.

Edited February 8, 2009 by hermine0817

[moneyfaery]

There are actually 4 books for use in WL essays e.g. we had Lysistrata, Death and the Maiden, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and Like Water for Chocolate.

Obvious similarities? Death and sex.

[avrila]

Yes. Exactly like what hermione has said. It needs to be comparative and specific.

To add up, it's better if you could have at least 5 points plus the intro and ending.

It is encourages to quotes from the novel to indicate that you have strong evidence.

[Rebekah]

This is the Wolrd Lit Starter Handout I gave to my A1 class last year we did Lysistrata, Tale of Genji, The Cherry Orchard and A Doll's House and Waiting for Godot in part 4:

World Literature Assignment Starters

Assignment One

Comparative pieces: The Cherry Orchard / A Doll’s House / Lysistrata

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In the plays, The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov, and A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, the main character’s beliefs are a combination of reality and illusion that shape the plot of these dramatic works. The ability of the characters to reject and / or accept an illusion, along with their reliance on their foolish pride, leads to the upheaval of their lives.

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The characters in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard are victims of social change. The aristocratic, stagnant characters are the ones whose lives go to pieces because their identities rely so heavily upon the property they own and the social status they hold, both of which lose their value overt the course of these plays.

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Despite Henrik Ibsen's insistence that he was `more of a poet and less of a social philosopher' and Anton Chekhov's intention to make The Cherry Orchard into a `light comedy', both A Doll's House and The Cherry Orchard present themes of social change; the first through a 19th century woman's struggle for self liberation, and the latter through the unfulfilled longings and eventual collapse of a wealthy Russian family.

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From the beginning of civilization, money and property ownership has been a symbol of liberty and independence. A Doll's House and The Cherry Orchard both present characters trapped by a lack of wealth, and the psychological stigma they associate with that.

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The critique of economic policies is a common theme in many works of literature. In Aristophanes Lysistrata he is criticizing the way that Athens handled the money of Greece. In The Cherry Orchard Chekhov makes a scathing criticism of the economic policies of pre-revolutionary Russia. Though both plays are proclaimed as light hearted comedies, both explore these themes in great depth and shine a revealing light on the discrepancies of the policies of their time.

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“All the World is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Shakespeare ----From As You Like It (II, vii, 139-143)

Many plays are vehicles for larger political messages on behalf of the writers who script them. This has been true from the ancient Greeks, to the modern day stage. In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, a greater social and political criticism is made through comedy to highlight the faults of the governing powers of his time. In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the playwright shines a harsh light on the very real issue of women’s rights in the late nineteenth century, and in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, the audience watches as the events on the stage transform into a very real representation of the collapse of Russian society. Each playwright exploits his characters on the stage to varying degrees but all with the same effect – to make a criticism of the world at large.

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Assignment 2A

Possible comparisons:

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• A Doll’s House and Taste of Honey – Realism Vs. Kitchen sink drama

• Waiting for Godot and Of Mice and Men – Two tramps alone in the world

• Tale of Genji and Joy Luck Club – How women roles are portrayed in Asian Societies

• Lysistrata and Merchant of Venice – The hidden strength of women to achieve their goals

• The Cherry Orchard and The Awakening – The illusions and delusions of women in high society

• A Doll’s House and The Awakening – Self-destruction of women who choose to control their own lives.

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Assignment 2B

Creative response (MUST INCLUDE A Statement of Intent)

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• Rewrite The Cherry Orchard into a fairy tale with a moral at the end of the story.

• Write a critic’s review of the film Waiting for Godot, basing your ideas on your own views of your reading of the text.

• An additional scene for any of the plays read

• A diary entry of Varya when she realizes that Lopakhin will not propose to her and she will be left alone

• A letter to Nora from Torvald asking her to forgive him and return

• A Post script for the characters of The Cherry Orchard, explaining what happened to them after they left the old house, or for the characters of A Doll’s House after Nora has left the house.

• An editorial newspaper article objecting to the censorship by exclusion of Lysistrata from a school syllabus based on its “obscene nature”.

• A transcript of an imaginary interview with Murasaki Shibuku asking her about her life and what inspired her to write her celebrated novel, and how she feels now that it has become such an icon of Japanese culture.

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A Doll’s House – Assignment 2C

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The play, A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, has been considered a landmark in drama for its portrayal of realistic people, places, and situations. Ibsen confines his story to the middle class. He writes of a society that is limited not only by its means of livelihood but also its outlook. Ibsen portrays his characters as preoccupied with work and money, showing a reduction of values in society and a lack of quality people with morals. Ibsen takes this realistic story and fills it with universal significance, by holding a mirror up to the society of his day and using the male figures on his stage as catalysts for Nora's ultimate self-actualization.

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Extract: Act One: Enter Nora – Exit Helmer

The opening act of any play is significant for its affect on the audience but never more so than in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Henrik Ibsen successfully manages to introduce many of the play’s themes and issues into the opening vision on stage. In the first scene of the first act of this play we are immediately introduced to Nora and Torvald and the foibles of their relationship. The seemingly happy couple quickly reveal, through their conversation, how little they know about each other’s lives and how oddly matched they really are.

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In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer is portrayed as a very complex and brave woman. Ibsen creates for his audience a heroine of new standards for the 18th century stage of realism. Through her development as a character we trace Nora through her delusions into her enlightenment. Throughout the course of the play she is viewed as both a victim of her circumstances and at the same time entirely to blame for the actions she committed.

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The Cherry Orchard: Assignment 2C

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The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov is a dramatic play set at a cherry orchard in Russia. Some of the characters that help set the dramatic setting of the play are the three neighboring landowners; Lyuboff, Lopakhin, and Pishtchik. These characters find life difficult because they fail to understand each other and because they passively submit to their environmental situations without making an effort to rise above them.

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Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard introduces readers to a pre-Revolution Russian family faced with the impending sale of their estate, the Cherry Orchard. The main character in the play is the owner of the cherry orchard, Lyubov Andreyevna. It is in the play that Lyubov must ultimately decide whether to allow her Cherry Orchard to be cut down to make room for villas or to sell the entire estate to pay off her debts. It is her unconditional love for both the cherry orchard and what it symbolizes to her that allows her to put the estate up for sale rather than have the orchard cut down.

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Extract: Act 2 from when Trofimov enters and sits down (pg 362) to when Firs says “Before they gave us freedom.” (pg 366)

This extract from Act 2 exposes the deep conflict of the play and highlights the elements of an allegory within Chekhov’s comedy, The Cherry Orchard. It not only explicitly lays out the possible futures for Russian society, but also foreshadows the loss and confusion of the final act. This segment is particularly significant to the play for its development of plot, but more significantly for the relationship it draws between the characters on the stage and the lives of the audience that it was written for.

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Lysistrata- Assignment 2C

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Extract: The Yarn analogy

The analogy made by Lysistrata in Aristophanes’ play by the same name, is probably the first time the audience gets the feeling in this rambunctious comedy that Aristophanes might have had more up his sleeve than merely giving his audience a good laugh. Set in Athens during the times of the Peloponnesian War, this play explores many political themes of the day in an obscenely comedic manner. However, in this extract the character, Lysistrata, outlines for the men of her city a plan for her people, that is clear and concise. Her character transcends the ridiculousness of the situation and sends a very simple message to the audience about the playwright’s feelings of nepotism and economic foolishness that was going on in Greece’s government at that time.

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Waiting For Godot, Assignment 2C

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What are we doing here? This is a question that simply does not have a right or wrong answer. It's a question that is thought about often by many. From person to person the answer to this philosophical question differs. This is a question that many of the existential writers of the 20th century tried to explore. Beckett is no exception. In Waiting for Godot, Beckett’s tramps, Vladamir and Estragon have found an answer to that constant question; they are waiting for Godot. However, as many who came before them, their answer leaves them with even more questions than before.

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Extract: Lucky’s Speech

In Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, his two main characters are interrupted by a traveling guest and his “pig”. Their presence in the play appears a mystery – more nonsense from a giant in the genre of the theatre of the absurd – but when Lucky’s hat is placed on his head by Valdamir and the pig is asked to think, the critique that Beckett has made on the world he lives in becomes quite clear.

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Tale of Genji – Assignment 2C

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Extract: Chapter 2 Rainy Day conversation with Tuno-Chujo

The epic novel || |by Murasaki Shibiku is beautiful and rich in its description and character development. In this extract from chapter Two “The Broom Tree” the reader gets a beautiful insight into the character Genji, who he is, and what drives him forward. His interaction with his best friend Tuno Chujo helps the reader visualize and embody the hero of this great novel.

My students found these very helpful to kick start their ideas...maybe they will help you.

[y.v]

- Let the reader know what you're going to be talking about in the rest of your essay

- State your thesis

- State your 3 arguments