The Fairy Queene

This letter was a difficult text to understand, at least for me. The way it was written is what makes it hard to get the meaning at the first I read it.

Now that I know what an allegory is, I think this letter was an interesting way to critique the King. This letter takes place in the Fairy land of a Fairy Queen, which makes it something unreal, helping Spencer's purpose. Spencer wrote this letter to say what he disliked from the Kingdom such as social, political and religious issues by giving a hidden message in order to not be punished. He talked about King Arthur because he was virtuous. The witer wanted protection and that’s why he decided to say everything he thought was wrong by giving a message that could just be understood between the lines and not explicitly.

Afer reading the letter and writing this post, I must say that I liked this way of writing because it makes people thought beyond of what is in the paper.

What's women desire?

Although we can not expect the same from every women because not all of them have the same point of view of what role they want in the world or have different desires, I might say that the woman from the tail was not so different from the kind of woman we see now. However she was totally different from the stereotype of women at those times. Her rebel thoughts and her desires of independence were as what many women at these times want. She wanted to feel free by showing that she had the power of decision in her relationships, be respected for what she did more than for what she was, a woman. This woman’s desire was to be understood in a narrow minded society, just as the women’s desire from the 21st century. Maybe a difference could be that many women now, look for someone who can protect them and make a life in order to feel safe, which is the contrast of what the woman from the tail did. She was so self confident that she did not have the need of a man to do something. That’s why this woman went against the world and society’s rules, shouting for her real needs as a woman.

"Truth" by Chaucer.

I think that Chacer called this poem "Truth" because the message he wants to give is that most of the people don't say the truth about their lives and if they change that characteristic, and say the truth, then they will find the way to freedom. That's why he mentions the frase "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty" refering to those who show others a reality which has nothing to do with what they live. Trying to be what they are not, having many things which they even can not afford. All this just to climb in society by living a false life.

This poem is related to religious beliefs. We can find this relation when he thanks God and also asks us to let our spirit be led because the truth shall deliver us. It means that if we say the truth, as God willing, we will be free.

All what he says is related to reality, adn that's what I thought afetr reading this beautiful poem. Many people don't cherish what they have or don't feel proud of the simple things that life gives. They give importance to material things just to live like others and to fit in higher status. It is a real issue in society, people living in lies losing themselves and selling their souls.

My definition of an epic poem

I would define an epic poem as something that tells ancient stories of Kings and Wars. It is the kind of poetry that use old fashioned language in order to Express the history in a beautiful way. Maybe epic poems don`t tell real stories and go into the fiction to show the beautiful side of those ancient wars.

What Literature is for me

When I was asked to define Literature, what first came to my mind was the word “expression”. I think of Literature as a way to show different worlds in order to express what we feel, and at the same time give others the chance to understand an amount of realities. Literature also permits people to dream and be immersed in those dreams through the books’ letters. Therefore, it can not exist if there are not people who read, because a reader is who gives life to a story by living it as if it was real at the moment of being reading. As Art needs of its creator to be expressed and someone else to be interpreted, Literature needs to be interpreted by someone who is not the writer, and that interpretation is very subjective because it depends on the person’s culture.

Summarising the main idea on this reflection, Literature exists thanks to the reader, because literature is directed to someone, and the interpretation of this, varies according to each person's experiences, knowledge or culture.

Reflection made on quotations from slides 7 and 8.

Language, Culture and their effects on Education

Language and culture are two different terms. However, the purpose of this essay is to explain that they are related one another in the sense that both of them are ways through which people from all over the world express themselves by showing their ideas and thoughts. This essay will also refer to how language and culture are also related to education and how it affects in this. Nevertheless, before starting with details and all the explanations, a definition of language and culture must be given.

Language is a type of communication that is learned in the process of our life. And is not something we get naturally. It has symbols such as codes, sounds or gestures which have meanings created by the people. All these symbols have form but the meaning can not be discovered as simply as their forms because most of them are abstract. Moreover some of the words have important and powerful meanings which can be offensive for some people if they are not used correctly. Language is also exposed to a continuous change, many new words are appearing day by day and the meaning of words used in the past can get a new meaning over the time. We can find different languages from one country to another or maybe it changes depending on social classes, the place where we live, the people we share with, etc. It is expressed through different ways, for example it can be spoken, written and even gestures that mean something.

On the other hand, what we know as culture is all kind of expressions or customs that identify certain ethnic groups, in other words, the people’s behavior. For instance, "knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by people from a specific society" ( Primitive Culture. Edward B.Tylor. 1871). As well as Language, culture keeps changing. Culture is also symbolic, for example when we say the word “home” we immediately associate it with a structure where a family lives, however it may have a totally different meaning for other cultures. "Culture is grown and groomed and it’s what enables us to be, it means that thanks to culture we can interact and understand one another. But it can also impede communication and understanding with others because of the differences from one culture to another" (Kramsch, C., 1998. Language and Culture. Oxford University Press)

Now, from these definitions we can start talking about the relationship between them both.

Through language people express facts, ideas, knowledge about the world. It expresses each cultural reality, the way people see the world and all this is symbolized by language, giving a representation of the social groups. Social identity, which is values, attitudes and beliefs are also demonstrated by language. With this we can see that Language shows the people’s culture, permitting to know what group we belong to and it is not showed by just one way but there are different sorts of language expressions. For example, first, there is written language which means knowing how to write an appropriated document, second we have discourse community which is the use of certain topics we can have similar with the other person,finally, speech community which involves values and attitude. Of course all this depends on the context. Therefore Language and Culture are a complement, because Language is produced by Culture and language is one of the ways through which culture expresses itself. As it’s said in the text “Language and Culture” by Claire Kramsch, “Culture is the product of socially and historically situated discourse communities, that are to a large extent imagined communities, created and shaped by language”. We need language because if we don’t have it, we can not spread history over the time and if we don’t have history, then we would not have the knowledge of the amounts of cultures and the understanding of them.

Both language and culture have a big importance inside a classroom or in schools. Nowadays we can find a huge amount of cultures or subcultures that are present in the school. Therefore, teachers must have close relationships with the students so that they can have knowledge of the cultures they belong to. Once the teacher knows the students culture, he or she will be able to understand them better because each student is part of a culture. As a result of that, not all the students will express in the same way, either it is the way they speak or the way they use the language because it varies and there is a specific vocabulary in each culture.





Bibliography:


- “Language and Culture” by Claire Kramsch.

- http://anthro.palomar.edu/language/language_2.htm

- Deacon, Terrence William (1998). The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain.

- wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Machines or Human Beings?

In the movie “Modern Times” Charles Chaplin is living in the era of progress and modernity. A period of time when getting a job was so difficult and the working conditions were not appropriate.

Charles Chaplin is a man who works in a factory where the owner’s only interest is production. Charles is forced to work hard, fast and without stopping in order to produce as much as it’s possible in every single day. His boss is always watching at him to make sure if he is working, as a machine, because if he is not he could loose his job immediately. The treat from the boss through the workers is aweful. It seems like they were machines that just have to produce all day because the more fast they work, the more happy is their boss. As it is a era of progress, modernity and technology, they make a machine to feed the workers to keep them working even in lunch time. Chaplin loose his job and is taken to jail where he get use to live because the conditions there are better than outside. In jail he doesn’t have the need to work and he knows he will receive food afterwords. Nevertheless, he is not in jail for ever, so once he is free, he starts getting into troubles just to go back to jail because of the bad conditions outside, and at the same time he falls in love with a poor woman. They both fall deeply in love and make plans for the future, such as buying a house and make a family life together.

While the time pass, he fortunately finds a new job in another factory but unluckily he is fired again.

His life and the life of most of the people from that time is hard and sad, working a lot to live in very poor conditions, in other words just to survive, while the owners of the factories get rich doing nothing.

I have never seen a Charles Chaplin’s movie before and this as the first one I see, I really liked it. I think that even though there are no voices, it shows the reality of those times in a funny way. The message is clear, what the movie is supposed to represent is very well done. It shows poverty, bad treats to the worker society, aweful conditions of work, in short, it is what they called progress and modernity and unfortunately it is the kind of progress we have nowadays. No big changes are seen in terms of the relationship between boss and worker or the conditions for them to work.