britishlit2finale

1895

Oscar Wilde arrested for "gross indecency"

Ishiguro 1989

Remains of the Day author and year

Moore and Lloyd 1988 published by DC Comics but first appeared as a serial book in "Warrior" 1982-85

V for Vendetta author and year

1919

WWI ends with Treaty of Versailles

1914

WWI starts

Samuel Beckett 1953

Waiting for Godot author and year

Do-what-you- want is freedom from . It is without leaders take-what-you-want is freedom to . it is without order freedom to is just the freedom to do what you want, its is chaotic, without order freedom from is the freedom from the ideologies of the government, it is freedom to have your own ideologies, it is freedom.

What is the difference and significance of the "Land of Do-What-You-Want" vs. the "Land of Take-What-You-Want"?

It was written to mimic modern day London. And race and ethnicity play crucial roles in the state of the modern world, since globalization is bringing very different people together. "What's past is prologue."

What is the importance of the major characters in the White Teeth coming from different backgrounds and being another race other than white?

Archie is one of the only characters who seems to actually fit in in this novel, he is also very boring.

What is the significance of Archie flipping coins in White Teeth? How does this action tie into the themes of the novel? What does this show about his character?

The characters fail to realize that this very act of waiting is a choice; instead, they view it as a mandatory part of their daily routine. Even when these men manage to make a conscious decision, they can't translate that mental choice into a physical act. They often "decide" to leave the stage, only to find that they are unable to move. Such inaction leads to stagnancy and repetition in the seemingly endless cycle of their lives. Vladimir and Estragon are fully aware of their situation and of their ability to choose, but the uncertainty surrounding the result of any potential action prevents them from breaking the stagnant cycle of their waiting.

What role does choice have in the play Waiting for Godot? What kinds of choices do the characters make? Are the characters free or are they, as Estragon asks, "Tied"?

Kipling 1899

White Man's Burden author and year

Zadie Smith 2000

White Teeth who wrote it and what year

Henry Labouchere

Who made "gross indecency" a crime

Brooke

Who wrote the poem "III. The Dead" in 1914

White Teeth Zadie Smith Alsana is saying it is not skin color that makes people different, it is where you are from. She asks 3 questions and says if you answer yes to any of them you live a volatile and carefree life. She says it is the feelings you have that make you different, and if you life under safe skies, you know nothing of this feeling.

"...the real difference between people was not color... The real difference was far more fundamental."

Sassoon

"A Working Party" 1918

V for Vendetta Lloyd and Moore V to Evey

"Anarchy wears two faces, both Creator and Destroyer. Thus Destroyers topple empires; make a canvas of clean rubble where creators can then build a better world. Rubble, once achieved makes further ruins' means irrelevant. Away with our explosives, then! Away with our Destroyers! They have no place within our better world. But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most unlovely and most unforgivable, let's drink their health, then meet with them no more."

White Teeth Zadie Smith Samad is breaking down at this point, he is questioning his roots. He is realizing that he has fought for a country that he will never belong to because of his past roots. He wants answers and control and he is not getting either.

"And then you begin to give up the very idea of belonging... and I begin to believe that birthplaces are accidents, that everything is an accident. But if you believe that, where do you go? What do you do? What does anything matter?"

Owen

"Anthem for the Doomed Youth" 1917

Owen

"Apologia Pro Poemate Mao" 1918?

V for Vendetta Moore and Lloyd V He is talking about his idea of anarchy and how he can spread the idea, and it cannot be killed if he can convince Evey to continue his will

"Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea... and ideas are bulletproof"

Owen

"Dulce Et Decorum Est" 1920

V for Vendetta Moore and Lloyed V to Evey V kidnapped Evey and tortured her to break her out of her own personal prison of happiness, V wanted Evey to see that the happiness she thought she had was not real, it was created by the government and she was manipulated into thinking she was "happy" he wanted to show her how terrible the government is to people who aren't "normal"

"I didn't put you in a prison, I just showed you the bars."

Remains of the Day Ishguro Stevens seems to be crying and Lord Darlington asks if he is okay. Stevens is upset about his father's health but has too much dignity to admit he's upset - he apologizes to Lord Darlington which shows how dedicated he is to his job and his boss.

"I'm very sorry, sir. The strains of a hard day."

V for Vendetta Lloyd and Moore Evey over loud speaker "everyone believes anarchy is dead... but reports of my death were exaggerated" Every has now taken V's place

"Reports of my death were exaggerated."

White Teeth Zadie Smith Irie To Irie, the Chalfens seem almost impossibly English. She can't see herself or her identity as important or interesting because she is too busy wanting to "merge with them."

"She just wanted to, well, kind of, merge with them. She wanted their Englishness. Their Chalfenishness. The purity of it. It didn't occur to her that the Chalfens were, after a fashion, immigrants too (third generation, by way of Germany and Poland, né Chalfenovsky), or that they might be as needy of her as she was of them. To Irie, the Chalfens were more English than the English."

Sassoon

"The One Legged Man" 1918

Sassoon

"They" 1917

V for Vendetta Lloyd and Moore V ?

"Tonight, you much choose what comes next. Lives of our own, or a return to chains. Choose carefully."

Brooke

"V. The Soldier" 1917

Waiting for Godot Samuel Becket Vladimir to audience/ Estragen Vladimir first asks himself what will happen tomorrow. He outlines all the mundane events he foresees: his conversation with Estragon, the carrot, etc. He knows he will then try to remember what happened today, but even if he accurately recalls it all, there won't be any truth there in his memories, since there is nothing of meaning in the events of the day to ponder. There is only banality and purposelessness. Now, Pozzo has just claimed that the problem with life is time; we don't have enough time, so life is too fleeting for us to find meaning. But here, Vladimir disagrees: the problem isn't time, he says—we obviously have plenty of that. The problem is what we do with that time: we fill it with empty habits. These habits are what deaden our lives, or strip it of meaning, probably because habit is action without thought or purpose.

"Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be?" "At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on"

Remains of the Day Ishiguro Stevens This quotation is taken from the section titled: "Day One—Evening / Salisbury." When Stevens says that the "greatness" of the landscape stems from its restraint and its lack of demonstrativeness, he is also saying something about himself. He is constantly restrained, hiding his emotions in much the same way that the English landscape does not disclose anything dramatically or loudly. This narrow view on Stevens's part is one that eventually crumbles by the end of the story, when he realizes that his façade of calm has circumscribed his entire existence with indifference.

"What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."

White Teeth Zadie Smith common question for the characters in this books such as Alsana, Samad, Magid, Millat, Irie appearance based question, implies that the don't belong in England.

"Yes, yes, of course, but where originally?"

V for Vendetta Moore and Lloyd

"You see them? Standing with their numbers on their blank and different faces, numbering in miniature, the ranks of painted, wooden men... your pretty empire took so long to build. Now with the snap of history's fingers, down it goes"

1800

Act of Union created

1815

Battle of Waterloo

Beckett is commenting on the fact that we waste so much time anticipating and waiting to do things and waiting for things to happen. Theatre of the Absurd emphasizes the absurdity of human existing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development.

Beckett's Waiting for Godot is seen as a benchmark for what has been termed "The Theatre of the Absurd." Explain how the play is absurdist and what Beckett's purpose is in using the absurd. How is Beckett using absurdity to comment on life or reality and why?

White Teeth Zadie Smith Archie noticed Clara's beauty as she walked down the steps. Before she was beautiful she was ugly. She lost roots when Ryan Topps made her lose her teeth, she also lost her "roots" when she drifted away from Jehovah's Wittnesses

But Archie did not pluck Clara Bowden from a vacuum. And it's about time people told the truth about beautiful women. They do not shimmer down staircases. They do not descend, as was once supposed, from on high, attached to nothing other than wings. Clara was from somewhere. She had roots."

Talk about ideology of anarchy and ideology of the government's fascism

Explain how Althusser's concepts of ideology and interpellation could be applied to V for Vendetta's characters, themes, and/or plot. In what ways might we see ideology and/or interpellation in action?

Kipling's White Man's Burden shows that he believes its the white mans duty to "help" the natives and civilize them- this runs parallel with the "white men" being the normal ones in England- like in White Teeth. Labouchere's The Brown Man's Burden is a reply to Kipling, showing how imperialism affects the majority of the people, the natives- this runs parallel to how people of different ethnicities in London are treated differently by the "white people"

Explain how the poems The White Man's Burden and The Brown Man's Burden parallel the racial and cultural issues found within Heart of Darkness.

Closure- reading between the lines- understanding what happens between panels. Frame- the panel itself Gutter- between the panels V for Vendetta

Explain the ideas of Closure, Frame, and Gutter and give an example of it from a text we read this semester.

Conrad 1899

Heart of Darkness author and year

He ignores his bosses condolences and essentially ignores the fact that his dad has passed away- just to keep his dignity to the reader. "What is a 'good' butler?" he has dedicated his life to being a butler

How are we supposed to interpret Stevens' emotional response to his father's passing?

We already know that teeth do important work as a universal symbol of humanity - White Teeth is populated by characters from different races and ethnicities and of different ages, who speak different languages and have very different ways at looking at the world.

How does the title White Teeth as well as the motif of teeth, in general, contribute to the reader's understanding of the work? What could the author be trying to say?

"V. The Soldier" Brooke often contrast with Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est" focuses on the positive aspect of fighting and/or dying for one's country and the pride that comes with it. He is that to die for one's country is something a soldier would be proud of himself for... later in the poem he says "in hearts at peace, under an English Heaven"

If I should die, think only this of me: / That there's some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England. There shall be /In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;/ A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Dulce et Decorum est Owen This poem is talking about the brutality of war, discouraging fighting in war. It ends with the title "Dulce et Decorum Est" which translates to "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country" which he is being sarcastic

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, / My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie;

1895, Oscar Wilde

Importance of Being Earnest author and year?

Ishiguro beds these clues in the narrative so cleverly that by the end it's hard to believe anything Stevens says. Events are always proving him wrong, casting doubt on his original presentations and conspiring against him. He also was a dedicated butler to a Nazi sympathizer for a very long time

In Remains of the Day, can we fully trust Stevens as a narrator? What are some clues that he may not remember as accurately as he claims or that we may not be getting the full picture?

Mark Smith

Magid's fake name when he becomes and "English man"