Literary Perspectives on the Individual - Part 1: Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale

Dear All,

What happens when individuals when they are put into a totalitarian political system in which ideology (in this case, the christian religion) is used to reduce women to their wombs? Please explore this question and other issues further in Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Some material you might find useful in this context:

* Definition of Dystopia (from: Read * Write * Think):

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson926/DefinitionCharacteristics.pdf

* Handmaid's Tale - movie version: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VdFkF6vtLE&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dyoutube%2520handmaid%27s%2520tale%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D9%26ved%3D0CGIQFjAI%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv%253D8VdFkF6vtLE%26ei%3DGtp8UKTqM8_SigL4zYCQAQ%26usg%3DAFQjCNHUFHe_e3DiNdhTVNTw59Ag01ueFQ%26sig2%3Dqyw4XTMQFimhQq_xgbcIbg&has_verified=1

* Selected Interviews with Margaret Atwood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn2pq3SiqHc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_DknrnHT8&list=PL47889828BC8FC6BD &

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWuGRZkuUv4&list=PL47889828BC8FC6BD

* Selected Video Projects about the Handmaid's Tale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEHa0rWb8zA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgYZoBzLUcE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIGYT7aX6bI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8_8zVEoJsM

Please also read Margaret Atwood's short literary essay, "The Female Body" in this context:

http://www.stanford.edu/~jonahw/AOE-SM10/Readings/Atwood-FemaleBody.pdf

... as well as her poem "Spelling":

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spelling/

I hope you find the novel as well as the additional material interesting!

Gudrun

Historical Perspectives on the Individual - Part 2: Comparisons

Not only the rights of the individual change over time but the very concept of individuality depends on the historical, social, economical, political, and cultural context.

Please choose two texts from different times and try to read them as a comment on the concept of the individual. You can either choose fictional or non-fictional texts. Please focus both on differences and on similarities of the two historical perspectives.

Then find two more texts that are from the same two periods and cultures. Do they have exactly the same view on the individual as your first two texts? How would you interpret your discoveries?

Please post your results as comment if you wish - and let us know which texts you have compared.

Thank you,

gudrun

Cultural Perspectives on the Individual - Part 1: Reflections on Culture and Identity

Hi All,

What is culture and what role does it play in shaping individual identity? Please reflect on this topic first on your own and then have a look at the following clips:

1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOm2Z4mB7E

2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmJ-AhEGNQ

3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBeRNOxNBk

4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3GG8PkSIe0

5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoCLCAQJ6_A


Comments welcome :)

Thank you,

gudrun

Historical Perspectives on the Individual - Part 1: Elie Wiesel's Night

Dear All,

Another perspective - or lens - we can use to look at the individual is history. Of course, history, too, provides not one single view but a myriad of times, places, and perspectives.

A particularly sad chapter in history has been looked at more often than many others - probably because it is a chapter whose cruelty is beyond comprehension for most "normal" individuals. The chapter of history I am talking about is the Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel, one of the most famous Holocaust survivors, too, has tried to shed more light on this particularly dark chapter of human history.

Please read Elie Wiesel's Night and think about the following questions:

1) How does the historical experience of the author get transformed in(to) the book?
2) How does the experience of the holocaust change the understanding of the concept of "self" of the protagonist?
3) What can we, as individuals, learn from Night?

Topics for for further discussion:

1) The Individual and the State
2) Politics and Personal Responsibility
3) The Self and the Other
4) Despair and Hope
5) [Add Your Own Topic Suggestion]

You can find some background information about Night - including some links to excellent interviews with Elie Wiesel - in the post of November 7th, 2012:
http://perspectives-on-the-individual.blogspot.ca/2012/11/when-words-fail-elie-wiesels-night.html

Thank you!

gudrun

Philosophical Perspectives on the Individual - Part 1: Western Philosophy, 1: Hegel & Marx

The most obvious way to look at the concept of "the Individual" is, of course, from a philosophical perspective - or, more precisely, from a number of different philosophical perspectives.

If you are not too familiar with what philosophy is and what it does, here a brief introduction:

http://onlinephilosophyclass.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/what-is-philosophy/
This clip is also available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySS0bNeWZOg


Let's start our investigation of the individual through the eyes of philosophy by first looking at some of the most famous Western philosophers: Hegel and Marx - here mediated by Peter Singer:

1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxjnG1X510A
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDjXBr3RtKk
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYX9UP55ISc
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Eg_fLP-5U
5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbwZw0wy_n0

What concept of the individual do you think underlies Hegel's ideas? And how does this concept change in Marx? Please comment!

More philosophical perspectives will follow later.

Thank you,

Gudrun

Welcome to a New Beginning!

Dear All,

Welcome to a new year, a new blog, and a new course!
We will focus this term on philosophical, psychological, political, and literary perspectives on the individual. Please feel free to add comments and ideas - as well as links to useful texts, clips, and websites - any time you like!

Since we will analyze several poems, novels, essays, and other texts during the next months, here a link to some "tools" that you might find helpful. Please click on Handout #3: "Tools for Textual Analysis": https://sites.google.com/site/gudrundreher/9-research/teaching-material/1st-year-university-english-toolkit

Thank you!

Gudrun

Reflections on the Individual - Your Topics

No comments from me this time. This is YOUR space!