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martes, 29 de noviembre de 2011

PROYECTO PROGRAMA UNIVERSIDAD DE VERANO 2012


Taller de literatura y cine en idioma inglés: una aproximación al género policial: El Taller de literatura y cine en idioma inglés nivel avanzado ofrece a los asistentes una ocasión para acercarse y abordar críticamente los géneros policiales británico y estadounidense.

Docentes: Bilevich, Gabriela Elena  y Sarasa, María Cristina
Colaboradora: Calvete, Marcela Beatriz

En consonancia con los objetivos de la Universidad de Verano, el presente curso está destinado a un público amplio que posea conocimientos de idioma inglés a nivel superior y desee ampliar su práctica del idioma en el marco de una modalidad de taller de cine y literatura en torno a un género accesible como es el policial.
En la enseñanza de las tradicionalmente denominadas lenguas extranjeras (LEs), el desarrollo de las tecnologías de la comunicación permite a estudiantes y docentes acceder a múltiples representaciones textuales y digitales de las diversas culturas de esas LEs. Estas creaciones exploran y reescriben el presente y el pasado de las heterogéneas sociedades donde se hablan las llamadas LEs, en un rico intercambio entre, por ejemplo, la historia, la sociedad, la cultura, el cine y la literatura. Los variados modos culturales de apropiación e imaginación de estas producciones, tanto de carácter popular como académico, impactan en las instituciones formativas en todos los niveles de la enseñanza, que han incorporado la textualidad mediática en sus intervenciones didácticas, complementándola con la impresa.
Como profesoras de inglés y formadoras de docentes en la lengua inglesa, ya de comunicación internacional, hemos abordado la enseñanza del idioma a través de la alfabetización mediática en el ámbito de nuestras cátedras del Profesorado de Inglés de la Facultad de Humanidades de la UNMDP. Asimismo, en las producciones para nuestros grupos de investigación—Problemas de la Literatura Comparada y de Investigaciones en Educación y Estudios Culturales— hemos problematizado en diversos foros las relaciones entre el lenguaje, el cine de ficción, la historia, la cultura, la sociedad y la literatura. Finalmente, hemos dictado diversos cursos de Extensión para formación docente sobre el cine, la literatura y al enseñanza del idioma inglés (desde 1995 a 2008 inclusive) en la Facultad de Humanidades, y hemos dado cuenta de nuestro trabajo de extensión en presentaciones en varias jornadas y congresos. Nuestras intervenciones didácticas pretenden crear espacios críticos para examinar algunas de las múltiples culturas y gentes que hablan la lengua inglesa como primera o segunda lengua o como lenguaje de comunicación internacional. El marco de nuestro trabajo en el área se inscribe, por una parte, en los estudios culturales y de traducción así como en los estudios fílmicos y, por otra, en la alfabetización mediática y crítica y la relevancia de la narrativa para las buenas prácticas de la enseñanza y las del aprendizaje.
Este taller es una experiencia didáctica donde se problematizan representaciones fílmicas y literarias del género policial británico y estadounidense. La elección del género policial es apropiada para un curso de verano por su atractivo amplio y su accesibilidad. Permite, por otra parte, abordar convenciones y rupturas genéricas tanto literarias como fílmicas mientras se explora el trasfondo histórico, social y cultural de las diversas representaciones ofrecidas. Asimismo, el análisis de las decisiones autorales respecto del género representacional, de sus definiciones de éste, del rol de los individuos frente a la sociedad y de los modos de investigación, así como de los vínculos entre lo público y lo privado permiten indagar acerca de cómo, aparte de re-presentar aspectos ligados a sus contextos nacionales (angloparlantes) de producción, estos textos se resignifican pues permiten ahondar en temas más amplios y globales que, a su vez, admiten nuevas miradas al interior de la cultura materna. Todo esto, permitiendo a los asistentes practicar la lengua extranjera en un entorno distendido y multimedial a través de diversas actividades de lectura de textos impresos y mediáticos, observación guiada de DVDs y VCRs, escritura individual y colaborativa, debates grupales y cruzados, juegos de roles e intervenciones textuales.
Los materiales que utilizaremos estarán disponibles con anterioridad al curso, y serán ofrecidos a los asistentes en el programa durante la primera clase. Estos incluyen, en primer lugar, una selección de relatos cortos protagonizados por Sherlock Holmes, escogidos de las obras completas de Arthur Conan Doyle. Estos textos nos permitirán establecer las convenciones del género, analizar crítica y postcolonialmente a sus personajes y entorno así como profundizar sobre las lógicas de investigación. Luego, examinaremos producciones fílmicas y/o televisivas que nos muestren un Sherlock Holmes canónico, así como otras que rompan con las convenciones de ese canon. Luego, examinaremos también algunos relatos cortos de Agatha Christie que abordan principalmente un crimen en una casa de campo para observar a continuación cómo, en el año 2001, el director estadounidense Robert Altman emprende superficialmente la representación de un crimen en una casa aristocrática británica (Gosford Park) en 1932 para romper profundamente con las convenciones literarias, políticas y sociales del género.
Posteriormente, en la segunda mitad del taller, se abordará el género policial “negro” estadounidense. En primer lugar, también se procederá a seleccionar cuentos y fragmentos de novelas de la producción de Dashiell Hammett y fragmentos de las obras de Raymond Chandler para establecer las convenciones de estos relatos negros. Estas lecturas se acompañarán de una selección de adaptaciones fílmicas de la producción de estos autores, lo que nos permitirá en esta instancia problematizar las películas como traducciones intersemióticas. Además se trabajará la satirización de convenciones del policial negro norteamericano a través del film Cliente muerto no paga (1982) del director Carl Reiner. Para concluir, hemos seleccionado fragmentos de la obra de Dennis Lehane, cuyos textos reinscriben las convenciones de la tradición negra y la novela de detectives, como ejemplo de la actualización del género.
Finalmente, los asistentes al taller, habiéndose organizado en pequeños grupos colaborativos de trabajo, y con la guía de los docentes del taller, presentarán ante sus compañeros su propio análisis de una obra policial de su elección. De esta manera, el grupo compartirá su problematización de las temáticas del taller, al mismo tiempo que participa de una instancia de construcción compartida del conocimiento.
Fechas tentativas: Días 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27 y 29 de febrero de 2012.
Duración del curso: 16 horas reloj = 4 semanas = 2 encuentros semanales de 2 horas cada uno = lunes y miércoles de 19:30 a 21:30 (sujeto a la disponibilidad horaria del Laboratorio de Idiomas—lugar sugerido).




jueves, 24 de noviembre de 2011

Request for ICI Students

This is a special request for ICI students: I´m uploading a copy of a questionnaire I handed in last Thursday. I would ask you, as a personal favor, to complete it and leave a copy at the pigeon hole at Departament. For those who already did it, thanks a million!
Questionnaire

http://www.4shared.com/file/aMNy6sbG/ENTREVISTAICI2011.html


PS: It was a real pleasure working with you people this year. I hope we will you again soon!

miércoles, 23 de noviembre de 2011

Last ICI Writing


Explain the opening lines of the film: “Michael Collins's life and death defined the period in its triumph, terror, and tragedy.” By A. Lesca with some editing by MCS.

The production Michael Collins narrates the life and death of the homonymous Irish leader who fought for Ireland’s independence. The film opens with a text that explains that Ireland was the earliest, the closest, and the most difficult colony for the British to control. Even though several rebellions had taken place, all of them had failed to free the Irish from British rule. In 1916, the Easter Rising took place. This rebellion did not succeed in itself but it led to the development of a new type of warfare to fight against British domination. In 1919, Collins became the mastermind of the War of Independence (1919-1921), which eventually drove the British out of most of the island. On the one hand, the British information system was broken and, on the other, the occupying British forces were defeated by guerrilla warfare. The British Government was finally forced to call a truce and to negotiate with the Irish. Within the opening lines of the film the final statement “Michael Collins’ life and death defined the period in its triumph, terror, and tragedy. This is his story” is used to summarize the essence of the production.
This quote refers to Michael Collins’s key role in changing Irish history once and for all. He was devoted to fighting the British forces by unconventional means to achieve the dreamed Irish Republic. His victory first involved the wrecking of the British intelligence system. However, Collins’ greatest achievement was his leadership in the War of Independence. For the first time in their history, the Irish gained the chance of diplomatically negotiating with the British, who agreed, by the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, to the creation of an Irish Free State within the British Empire and Commonwealth. This realization can be listed as Collins’ greatest feat.
The IRB leader accomplished these triumphs through sheer terror. He introduced guerrilla warfare, which had as a key objective instilling fear into British forces and Irish informers. In order to inflict and spread terror, intelligence had to be gathered as to the best ways of eliminating the enemy. The British were not passive either: they violently counterattacked, sometimes killing non combatant civilians. Bloody Sunday, on 21 November 1920, is an example of Collins’ use to panic to simultaneously kill nineteen Cairo Gang members who had been sent by the British Government to Dublin to eliminate Collins and his Twelve Apostles. In retaliation for this outrage, that same afternoon, the RUC and the Auxiliaries indiscriminately fired into a crowd watching a Gaelic football game in Croke Park, killing fourteen civilians. In order to halt this escalating violence, the British Government called the truce which would eventually result in the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Michael Collins considered the Anglo-Irish Treaty, his triumph achieved through terror, as a stepping stone towards complete freedom. However, its ratification by a majority of the Irish people unleashed a national tragedy in the form of a fratricidal war. Many Republicans regarded it as a mistake since it had precisely failed to achieve the republic. The effect of the Treaty was the division of the IRA into pro- and anti-Treatyists, or Regulars and Irregulars. In this way, the Treaty disastrously unleashed terror over Ireland once more. During the subsequent Civil War, former bothers in arms in the War of Independence killed one another. The greatest tragedy of all came on 22 August, 1922, when Michael Collins fell, victim to an Irregular ambush in West Cork, his native land. In his thirty one years of life, Collins had, albeit often violently, accomplished what many had not even dreamed of. His greatest misfortune was having fallen, as Jordan puts it “in an attempt to eliminate the gun form Irish politics.”

lunes, 21 de noviembre de 2011

ICI Writing


The heroic representation of Michael Collins by B.Antía

Michael Collins is a 1996 biopic directed by Neil Jordan. It dramatizes the life of Michael Collins, the leader of the IRA who wages a guerrilla campaign against British rule during the War of Independence. Although Michael Collins’ actions first legitimize the use of force as the only means to resist imperialist domination, he later supports the Anglo-Irish Treaty in order to avoid engendering further violence. However, the ratification of the Treaty gives place to fierce disagreement among Republicans and, eventually, the Civil War breaks out. In MC, the main character is depicted as a hero who is determined to pay the price of liberation with his own life. As stated in the closing titles of the film, Collins “died, paradoxically, in an attempt to finally remove the gun from Irish politics.”
Neil Jordan’s epic biography Michael Collins approaches these crucial events in the Irish struggle for independence by narrating the deeds of a great man. It is not the historical forces governing the period which are brought into focus in this production, then, but the impact of a single prominent leader. By stressing the role of the individual in the development of history, Jordan conceives Michael Collins as the brave man in charge of successfully leading the land and its people towards freedom. In this way, Collins is portrayed as a hero, who fully devotes himself to the Republican cause and is determined to die for the sake of liberating his nation. He is shown as a true patriot who resorts to violence only because the British have left him with no other choice. This is clear when he claims “I hate them [the British] for making hate necessary. And I’ll do what I have to end it.” Thus, Michael Collins is represented as a man of conviction who remains loyal to his land until the end of his life.
In all, the representation of Michael Collins in the film exalts his strong commitment to the Irish cause as well as his courage and intelligence as a military leader. He is pictured as a heroic man willing to pay the price of freedom and peace with the blackening of his name by his enemies and even with his life. He is regarded as an outstanding fighter who greatly shaped the history of Irish independence and died while trying to make his country a better place to live in. As stated in the opening lines, “his life and death defined the period, in its triumph, terror and tragedy.” This powerful representation of Michael Collins turns him into an epic figure and a history-maker.

 Explain the title of Fools of Fortune in reference to one character by B. Antía
 William Trevor’s novel Fools of Fortune is mostly set in the first decades of the 20th century in Co. Cork, Ireland, at the time of the War of Independence and the Civil War. The Quintons, an affluent Anglo-Irish family, have their Kilneagh estate burned out by the Black and Tans in retaliation for the death of a local informer to the Tans at the hands of Republicans working at Mr. Quinton’s mill. This attack results in Mr. Quinton’s, his two little daughters’, and several servants’ deaths. Unable to bear her enormous grief, Mrs. Quinton becomes an alcoholic and eventually commits suicide. Willie Quinton, the family’s son and heir, has witnessed the destruction of his family by the Tans and feels compelled by his mother’s death to take revenge. Thus, he murders sergeant Rudkin, the Tan in charge of the squad that burned Kilneagh, and goes into exile for forty years. In the meantime, Marianne, his cousin and childhood love, gives birth to their child Imelda, who will seek refuge from suffering in insanity and silence. Trapped by these dramatic events which have shadowed his life, Willie is one of the characters who best represent a “fool of fortune.”
The Anglo-Irish war directly influences Willie Quinton’s life as he becomes a participant in the recurring the pattern of violence that has affected his native land for centuries. Thus, the young man becomes a tragic figure and a victim of his grim national and domestic destiny. The historical forces at work in Ireland, set in motion seven hundred years before, highly exceed Willie’s control. Having lost his family as a consequence of the War, Willie is doomed from the very beginning to misfortune. Although eager at first to forget the massacre of his family, after his mother’s death he is constrained to take revenge. Thus, even suspecting Marianne is pregnant with their child, he vanishes from Cork to retaliate against the Quintons’ murderer. From then on, he wanders from one country to another, without anybody at Kilneagh talking about his whereabouts. However, as a “fool of fortune”, Willie “will never escape the shadows of destruction that pervade Kilneagh” (Trevor, 1983:166). Instead, he will keep on ruining his life and that of his loved ones, bound by the cycle of pain and brutality which has governed Ireland the Quintons’ lives for so many years.
In Fools of fortune, Willie Quinton is caught by tragedy, both national and personal, which leads him to renounce his happiness. The same devastating forces which have dominated Ireland for so many centuries prevent him from enjoying his life with Marianne and Imelda. As Marianne puts it, “destruction casts shadows which are always there” (Trevor, 1983:165). Willie, as well as the rest of the characters in the novel, cannot escape from “the battlefield continuing” (Trevor, 1983:169) which has become part of their lives, full of sorrow and havoc. In all, Willie Quinton, apparently, can do nothing but remain subjected to the disastrous effects that the War of Independence has had in his life. The same violence that has wrecked Ireland affects Willie’s private sphere and makes him a “fool of fortune” unable to avoid his fate.




IHI - Glorious Revolution

Have a look at this interview to Prof. Pincus, please.

Prof. Steven Pincus: "1688: The First Modern Revolution"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-tHvXuIaiw

ICI Friday Presentations


8:00: Cotleroff, Gomez Ferrante, Salandro: The Last King of Scotland (postcolonial patterns, psychology of oppression)
8.30: Alessandria, Arce, Marino: Ryan's Daughter (British representation of the War of Independence)
9:00: Maddio, Romero, Giuliano: The Last September (identity)
9.30: Martínez, Lucas, Lunghi: Hunger (nation born in bloodbath)
10:00: Zagame, Jensen, Casado: Hotel Rwanda (private and public, representation of heroes)
10:30: Arias, Furlan, Prior: Some Mothers' Sons (the role of mothers)
11:00: Lesca, Gómez, Bentivegna: Martín Fierro (oppression)
11.30: Avignón, Lizarralde: Outsourced (the local and the global)
12:00: Altamiranda, Biasco, Goyeneche: Pan's Labyrinth (the public and the private and post-conflict societies)
12.30: Ferreiro J., Lazarte: Gran Torino (multiculturalism)
13:00: Antía, Salvini: West Is West (long distance nationalism)
13.30: Parise, Rossi: London River (multiculturalism, the danger of a single story)
14:00: Yañez, Robles: Bowling for Columbine (violence and identity)

sábado, 19 de noviembre de 2011

IHI_Mock test

Session I
10.15 - 10.45 = Pilar, Teresa & Luis

10.45 - 11.15 = Milagros, Natalia & Silvina

11.15 - 11.45 = Julia, Leila & Camila

Session II

12.15 - 12.45 = Analía, Luciana & Leonardo

12.45 - 13.15 = Belen,Rocío & Melina

IHI News Wednesday November 23rd

The St. Cecily's (Patron Saint of MdP) holiday is official and mandatory for the School of Humanities.

  • On Wednesday at 8:00 Marcela will deal with the Bill of Rights as scheduled.
  • From 10:00 to 14:00 Ana will hold mock-test interviews with the different groups according to the following schedulePls use the CBox to let us know which time your group is taking the mock-text (first come, first served basis)

Session I 

10.15 - 10.45 =
10.45 - 11.15 =
11.15 - 11.45 =


Session II
12.15 - 12.45 =
12.45 - 13.15 =

  • Simultaneously, from 10:00 to 14:00 I' ll personally take Ana's two classes (while she's administering the individual mock tests) and finish dealing with the Bill of Rights. I will also be happy to answer any other questions.
  • For her part, Andrea will be available from 11:00 to 13:00 so that those who attend the different discussion sessions can talk to her if necessary. Pls use the CBox to let her know who's meeting with her and when.
We hope that in this way we can finish the course as normally as possible. We have nothing against holidays but we like them scheduled well in advance. This is the first time ever we have a holiday on November 22nd.

sábado, 12 de noviembre de 2011

More Writing



All characters, even minor ones, fall victim to (larger, historical) forces they neither understand nor control, “fools of fortune to the end. By G. Gómez Ferrante

            The expression “fortune’s fool” can be traced back to medieval times, when many popular sayings suggested that destiny favored imbeciles. This notion was reinforced by Goddess Fortuna’s wheel, which, by spinning capriciously, changed people’s fate. The nature of the Wheel of Fortune also hinted at the fact that oafs were favored by it, since they had nothing to lose and everything to win. Thus, in medieval times the idea that fools were blessed with luck was widely held. Shakespeare immortalized the meaning of the phrase in the Renaissance. In Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Timon of Athens a fool of fortune was someone who could not escape his fate; he was fortune’s puppet. Similarly, in Trevor’s 1984 novel, Fools of Fortune, most characters are unable to escape their fates and lead miserable lives.
            It is easy to show how the main characters in Trevor’s novel are puppets of fate. However, minor personages also fit Shakespeare’s view, for instance, Miss Halliwell, the Cork schoolteacher. Miss Halliwell was a spinster, a condition that must have been frowned upon by the community or, at least, that was how she perceived it. However, her marital status was not her chosen state. There were historical forces at work that converged to make her lack of choice possible. The Great Famine of 1845, for instance, reduced the Irish population enormously. One million Irish died during the Famine and another million emigrated so as to survive. Then the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War also meant that more men from rural areas were gone to fight. Thus, the supply of men for Miss Halliwell to marry was scarce. Because of this, most people in the community felt sorry for her: “Ah, good Miss Halliwell! A born teacher, a privilege to have her in Cork.” (Trevor, 1984: 59) This comment from Mr. Lanigan shows that he was being condescending towards her, since she had not had the chance to marry, leave the city and lead a better life.
            In her desperation, Miss Halliwell developed an unhealthy love for Willie. Even though she knew nothing good could come out of it, she tried to entice Willie during her French lessons. Being in pain herself because of her plight, Miss Halliwell felt identified with Willie’s bereavement. Moreover, she assumed that he was in so much pain, that, in consoling him, he would fall for her. “When they told me about you (Willie), when they told me what had happened, I knew there would never be another child in this room who could mean as much to me as you have.” (Trevor, 1984:64) Miss Halliwell’s remark exemplifies her expectations to comfort Willie and her manipulations to make him like her. She also knew that Willie’s mother was not in a proper state to take care of him. She wanted to exploit every misfortune Willie was suffering so as to profit from his pain. Miss Halliwell wanted to feel loved. Nevertheless, she accomplished the opposite; Willie despised her for her actions: “I was glad I had been cruel to Miss Halliwell.” (Trevor, 1984:65) All her efforts were in vain, and, because of Willie’s hatred towards her, Miss Halliwell grew resentful and bitter. She had become a victim of her own machinations. In failing to meet her goal, she ruined her life even more than it already was.
            In all, Trevor’s characters in his novel fall victims to fate. Most of them are slaves to forces which they cannot control and which affect their lives in ways they cannot even conceive. Miss Halliwell’s case exemplifies this. She is an innocent victim of the Great Famine of the previous century. She was not even born, and her life was already been doomed by its effects. Moreover, and as a consequence of this, she became desperate and fell for a boy who destroyed her last hope of being loved. Therefore, Miss Halliwell became embittered to the point of suggesting that Marianne had an abortion. She was unable to accept the fact that Willie had fallen in love with somebody other than herself. Thus, Ms. Halliwell was a fool of fortune, prisoner to both historical forces and to her own designs. 

viernes, 11 de noviembre de 2011

G. Patterson I Am One of thePeople

Patterson I Am One


Explain the following quote adapted from Beard’s review of Fools of Fortune: All characters, ‘even minor ones fall victim to larger, historical forces they neither understand nor control, ‘fools of fortune’ to the end.’ By E. Bentivegna
Fools of Fortune is a novel written by William Trevor which expands from 1918 to 1983. It narrates the hardships suffered by the Quinton family as a result of the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). The novel shows how the violence and bloodshed of the public sphere trap good-hearted people and turn them into tragic figures. In the words of Mr. Quinton, the characters of the story are ‘fools of fortune,’ as they are bound by forces beyond their control, and, as a result, condemned to lead unhappy lives. This idea of predestination and doom is evidenced in the novel throughout the lives of the members of the Quinton family, mainly Mr. and Mrs. Quinton, Willie, his lover Marianne and their daughter Imelda.
The Quintons are affluent mill owners who belong to the landed upper class of Anglo-Irish origin, commonly known as the Ascendancy. In the context of the War of Independence, the Quintons, by birth and background, should side with the British. However, because of their deep Irish roots, they consider themselves truly Irish and favor the Republicans. Seen as traitors to their class, they become acquainted with one of the Republican leaders, Michael Collins, and support his cause financially.
Problems arise when one of Mr. Quinton’s mill employees, Doyle, is executed. On suspicion of his being an informer, his Republican co-workers hang him from a tree and cut his tongue to show he has betrayed his country. Mr. Quinton chooses to ignore this situation: he neither praises nor punishes his workers. This inaction raises suspicion among the British forces. Doyle informed to Sergeant Rudkin, a Black and Tan, who, in retaliation for his partner’s death, led the Tans to burn the Kilneagh estate. The fire causes the death of Mr. Quinton and his two daughters, while some members of the household are shot. This tragic event indicates how the difficult position held by the Anglo-Irish family during the War determines their fortune. If they had remained loyal to their class, they would have probably been murdered by the IRA. As they choose to uphold their Irish roots and support the Republicans, they are attacked by the Black and Tans. No matter which side they took, they are unable to escape their fate as members both of the Ascendancy and as Republican supporters. In this way, the historical events occurring in Ireland are juxtaposed with the domestic life at Kilneagh in such a way that private characters cannot escape their public pull.
After the tragedy at Kilneagh, Mrs. Quinton and Willie move to Cork to reconstruct their shattered lives. Mrs. Quinton suffers from a deep depression as she is unable to cope with her bereavement. She resorts to alcohol as a means to escape from her misery and eventually develops an obsession with Rudkin, the Tan responsible for the murders and suffering in her family. This fixation brings about more distress to her life, and it is because of her misery that she ends up committing suicide. Having endured more suffering than her husband and daughters, Mrs. Quinton becomes another tragic victim of the confrontations existing in the aftermath of the War of Independence, forces she can neither understand nor control.
In this sense, Willie is a fool of fortune himself as by these terrible quirks of fate, he loses all the members of his direct family. In Cork, Willie experiences his childhood and adolescence in great distress. Not only does he grieve the deaths of his father and sisters, but he also needs to take care of his depressed mother and cope with all his pain on his own. He finds some relief and happiness when he meets and eventually falls in love with his English cousin, Marianne. However, just when he is trying to reshape his life, his mother commits suicide. As Mrs. Quinton longed for revenge for the death of her loved ones, this episode revives Willie’s grief. Thus, in a way, he is forced to avenge the deaths of his family by killing Sergeant Rudkin. Revenge costs Willie his freedom, and he becomes a fugitive living in exile for more than forty years.
In exile, Willie takes a long time to learn that Marianne has become pregnant during the first and only time they made love. She, for her part, feels abandoned and returns to Kilneagh to raise their child, Imelda, with the aid of Willie’s aunts. In this sense, Marianne is also a fool of fortune as she is victim of her innocence: she is disowned by her English family for bearing an illegitimate child and left alone to raise Imelda. The little girl, in turn, is caught up by the same forces beyond her grasp as she suffers both from her father’s absence and from the cruel information provided by her mother regarding their past. Marianne, distressed and abandoned, tells her daughter of the past atrocities at Kilneagh which eventually overwhelm the child and leave her traumatized to the point of muteness.
            In short, the novel narrates the lives of the Quintons as victims of the violence and suffering inherent to the War of Independence. The author chooses an intertextual reference to Shakespeare in the title to portray this view. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the lives of the homonymous characters are determined by a struggle that is beyond their control: the family feud between Montages and Capulets. In the same way, William Trevor chooses this reference as a means to narrate the story of an Anglo-Irish family who were doomed to suffer in the context of the birth of the Irish Republic.

In the light of these lines from W. H. Auden’s poem September 1, 1939 discuss cyclical and transgenerational violence in Fools of Fortune: ‘I and the public know what all school children learn, those to whom evil is done do evil in return.’ By E. Bentivegna
Fools of Fortune is a novel written by William Trevor which narrates the hardships experienced by the Quinton family in the context of the Irish War of Independence. This process was a struggle which brought about extensive violence, bloodshed and suffering to the Irish and British people alike. Through guerrilla warfare, the IRA killed British officers, G-men, and Irish informers in the Republic’s name. As IRA tactics were not those of traditional war, the imperialist forces could not suppress the Irish through conventional warfare. Therefore, they resorted to indiscriminated violence both towards Republican activists and civilians, as a means to crush rebellion. It was in this context that the Quintons, an affluent Anglo-Irish family, decided to ignore their English roots and side with the Republicans. As they supposedly sheltered the murderers of an Irish informer, the Black and Tans burned the Kilneagh estate. Thus, as a result of their commitment to the Republican cause and the widespread violence throughout the land, Mr. Quinton and his two daughters died in the fire and some members of the household were shot.
According to Auden’s quotation, the Quinton family suffered so much during the War, that they were bound to make others suffer in the future. This was mainly evidenced through the long-suffering lives of Willie and his cousin and lover Marianne, and the way in which they harmed their daughter Imelda. Willie and Marianne reproduced past horrors at Kilneagh: not only did they suffer for their tragedies and losses, but they also continued the cycle of violence in their own family.
On the one hand, Willie perpetrated violence by murdering Sergeant Rudkin, the Black and Tan responsible for the murder of his family. Mrs. Quinton’s suicide forced Willie to fill his mother’s thirst for revenge. By leaving to England to kill Rudkin, he became part of the cycle of violence in which a murder could only be avenged by another murder. After all the misfortunes he had experienced, Willie set to ‘do evil in return.’
On the other hand, Marianne reproduced the cycle of violence by her gory retellings of past atrocities at Kilneagh to Imelda. As a consequence of his crime, Willie had gone into exile as a fugitive, abandoning Marianne and his unknown daughter. This long, perverse absence was terribly harmful for Imelda, as she did not have any relation with her father. To make matters worse, Marianne drove her insane with cruel stories about her family and her land. The child felt overwhelmed by the traumatic events of the War and became obsessed, to the point of insanity and muteness. On several occasions, Imelda was disturbed by the vivid imaginings of the violence employed by the Tans at Kilneagh. Her agitated state of mind was evidenced by her odd behavior and her silent suffering. Moreover, Imelda’s curiosity helped worsen her obsession as she was constantly overhearing conversations and secretly reading her mother’s diary pages and newspaper accounts about her father’s murder of Rudkin. 
In short, violence travelled from generation to generation, and, as a result, the ultimate victim was Imelda, who became insane not because she underwent hardship in war time, but because of her entanglement in the historical cycles of violence which so tragically affected her family. This assertion suggests that moments of intense tragedy are hardly ever overcome, as Imelda, born in a time of peace, suffered the consequences of her parents’ traumatic past.


miércoles, 9 de noviembre de 2011

martes, 8 de noviembre de 2011

Narrating Good Teaching and Learning Experiences (FINAL)

This week we will narrate good teaching/learnign experiences we have had.
In order to help you with some categories, and also because the topic concerns our professional development, I will be uploading a series of papers, some of which you may find interesting at present or for the future. I'll upload a number of papers until Thursday so as not to overload our IP addresses downloading files from Megaupload
Good teaching: definition
The famous Dr Fox experiment
Positive expectations
Good University teaching


All these (above and below) can also help you with F. McCourt
More on good teaching
Parker Palmer The Courage to Teach
The odyssey of good teaching
Teaching matters


These are the final uploads
Good teachers & good doctors
Good medical practices

jueves, 3 de noviembre de 2011

SECOND-HAND BOOKS SALE

November 4th  and 5th   (from 4:00 to 7.00pm)
Novels, readers, dictionaries, textbooks with cassettes and CDs at very low prices
869 Independencia Ave. (between Maipú and Chacabuco)
 Please, feel free to send this information to whoever may be interested.
From: Andrea Giorno angio59@hotmail.com