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ELIT 17 Class 19

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+AGENDA Countdown Recitation 8 Discussion: The Tempest and “Of

Cannibals”

Lecture: Sonnets Style and Format Activity: Scansion

Discussion Self-assessment on homework

+Count Down

Class 19: TodayRecitation Of CannibalsSonnetsDiscussion:

Homework Grades

Class 20RecitationsHomework Self-

Assessments dueExam 3 PreparationFinal paper discussion

Final: Tuesday, Dec. 8 1:45-3:45

Essay #2 Due Before Class

Exam #3 Comprehensive

+Recitation 281. Segen Gebrehiwet

2. Nam Bui3. Harsimran Chana4. Alexandra Sanchez5. Chloe Robertson6. Kevin Stevenson7. Felicia Recendez8. Jason Shuieh

“Of Cannibals” by Michel de Montaigne

Montaigne lived in an age of adventure and exploration, and, as a result, he heard many tales of strange and fascinating people elsewhere. One such tale originated from the explorer Villegaignon. During a French expedition to South America in 1557, he encountered a tribe of cannibals in Brazil (then referred to as “Antarctic France”). The crew returned with some of those people they had come across, and Montaigne was lucky enough not only to meet one of these cannibals at Rouen in 1562 but also to employ a servant who had spent a dozen years living among them in their native land.

Based both on his first hand knowledge and the interviews of his servant, Montaigne reverses the egocentric European belief in the superiority of Western culture. “Of Cannibals” asserts that the cannibals are not simple, ignorant, and barbarous as some claim, but rather live in harmony with nature, employ useful and virtuous skills, and enjoy a perfect religious life and governmental system. Montaigne asserts it is the European who has bastardized nature and her works, while the “savage” lives in a state of purity.

Clearly, as authors were to do for centuries afterward, Montaigne romanticizes “the noble savage” in his essay. He idealizes the life of Brazilian tribal peoples; nonetheless, he sees the dignity, nobility, intelligence, and harmony of their lives. He is one of the first great thinkers to question the Eurocentric view of human behavior, the notion that the standard for human behavior is white, Christian, and European. Montaigne forces the readers to confront themselves and their own social behavior; he points out the distance in character between the cannibals and his audience. Montaigne tries hard throughout his essay to find fault with the cannibals’ behavior and way of life but can offer only one, slightly humorous, observation: They do not wear trousers.

Discuss these questions in your groups!

1. At the beginning of this essay, which some see as an early example of cultural anthropology, what does Montaigne say about who we think the “barbarians” are?

2. What does he say is the normal “criterion of truth and reason” for most people?

3. What did the one witty cannibal say when inviting his captors to eat him?

4. In his description of cannibal society, Montaigne keeps comparing it to the European society of his day — what is he suggesting through this comparison?

5. What are two criticisms of the European society which the three cannibals make at the end of the essay?

Gonzalo, as Act 5 shows, has never approved of what was done to Prospero. In his speech in 2.1 (on the ideal commonwealth, echoing Montaigne’s essay “Of Cannibals”), he expresses distaste for the more cynical and divisive features of government and society—exploitation of labor, expropriation of land and extremes of luxury, poverty, drunkenness, gluttony. Discuss Gonzalo’s speech in the context of Montaigne’s essay.

GONZALO: I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contrariesExecute all things, for no kind of trafficWould I admit; no name of magistrate;Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,And use of service, none; contract, succession,Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;No occupation; all men idle, all,And women too, but innocent and pure;No sovereignty—[…]GONZALO: All things in common nature should produceWithout sweat or endeavor; treason, felony,Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engineWould I not have; but nature should bring forthOf its own kind all foison, all abundance,To feed my innocent people.[…]GONZALO: I would with such perfection govern, sir,T’ excel the Golden Age.

2.1.164-184

Montaigne states that a group of native people lived in a utopian-like society:“… A nation wherein there is no manner of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no science of numbers, no name of magistrate or political superiority; no use of service, riches or poverty, no contracts, no succession, no dividends, no properties, no employments.”

Gonzalo’s speech in Act two Scene one almost directly parallels how Montaigne refers to the society the native people have: “Letters should not be known; riches, poverty/Bourn, bound of land, tilth. vineyard, none;/No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;/No occupation; all men idle, all” (2.1.162-169). Gonzalo states that he would love to live in a society that is nearly identical to the one Montaigne refers to, but Sebastian and Antonio mock his vision and do not agree with it.

Questions

The play can be read as Shakespeare’s commentary on European exploration of new lands. Prospero lands on an island with a native inhabitant, Caliban, a being he considers savage and uncivilized. He teaches this “native” his language and customs, but this nurturing does not affect the creature’s nature, at least from Prospero’s point of view. But Prospero does not drive Caliban away, rather he enslaves him, forcing him to do work he considers beneath himself and his noble daughter. As modern readers, sensitive to the legacy of colonialism, we need to ask if Shakespeare sees this as the right order; what are his views of imperialism and colonialism? What are our twentieth century reactions to the depiction of the relationship between the master and slave, shown in this play? How does Montaigne’s essay complicate our view of colonialism?

Questions

The theme of Utopianism is linked to the explorations of new lands. Europeans were intrigued with the possibilities presented for new beginnings in these “new” lands. Was it possible to create an ideal state when given a chance to begin anew? Could humans hope to recreate a “golden age,” in places not yet subject to the ills of European social order? Could there be different forms of government? Consider both Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals” in your response.

+Shakespeare’s Sonnets

The composition dates of Shakespeare’s sonnets is unknown, though it is likely that he wrote them over a period of several years, beginning in the early 1590s. Some of them were being circulated in manuscript form among his friends as early as 1598. In 1599 two of them—138 and 144—were published in The Passionate Pilgrim, a verse anthology written by several authors. The sonnets as we know them were certainly completed no later than 1609, when they were published by Thomas Thorpe under the title Shake-speares Sonnets. According to Shakespearean scholars, it is likely that Thorpe obtained the manuscript on which he based his publication from someone other than the Shakespeare. Few believe that Shakespeare oversaw the publication of Thorpe’s edition because the text is riddled with errors. Still, Thorpe's 1609 compilation is the source for all modern texts of the sonnets.

+Shakespearean Sonnet ConventionsWith only a few exceptions—Sonnets 99, 126, and 145—Shakespeare's verses follow the established English form of the sonnet. Each is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, comprising four sections: three quatrains, or groups of four lines, followed by a couplet of two lines. It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.” Often the first two quatrains explain a problem or ask a question. The last quatrain and the couplet offer a solution to the problem or an answer to the question. Sometimes, particularly in Shakespearean sonnets, this “turn” does not occur until the final couplet, where it is a commentary on the previous twelve lines. It should be noted that some of Shakespeare's final couplets do not fit the conventional strategy of summary. Shakespeare did, however, employ the traditional English sonnet rhyme-scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

+Iambic Pentameter

Meter: Iambic pentameterUnstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-DetroitFive feet (10 syllables)

Shall I compare the too a summer’s dayDetroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-DetroitThough art more lovely and more temperateDetroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit

+Sonnet Conventions

14 linesStrict rhyme schemeSpecific structureWe’re going to talk about three specific

typesShakespearean (English)Petrarchan (Italian)Spenserian

+The Spenserian Sonnet

Form: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by a couplet.

Content: It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.”

Meter: Iambic pentameter Unstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables) Rhyme scheme:

abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

Is it | her na | ture or | is it | her will,To be so cruel to an humbled foe?If nature, then she may it mend with skill,If will, then she at will may will forgo.

But if her nature and her will be so,that she will plague the man that loves her most:And take delight t'increase a wretch's woe,Then all her nature's goodly gifts are lost.

And that same glorious beauty's idle boast,Is but a bait such wretches to beguile:As being long in her love's tempest tossed,She means at last to make her piteous spoil.

Of fairest fair let never it be named,That so fair beauty was so foully shamed.

In this example, you can see how Spenser links the idea of each quatrain into a continuous thought, which he reflects in the rhyme scheme. We also find that the final couplet, once again distinguished by elements of rhyme, characteristically presents a different idea from the rest of the sonnet or comments on it in some way.

Sonnet No. 41, from Amoretti

+The Petrarchan Sonnet Form: 14 lines: octave and a sestet Content: The octave forms proposition that

describes problem, asks question, or sets situation. The sestet proposes turn or resolution.

Meter: Iambic pentameter Unstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables) Rhyme scheme: octave:

abba abba Rhyme scheme for sestet:

Can be arranged in various ways:cdcdcd cdccdccdecde cdcdee

"London, 1802” by William Wordsworth

1. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:2. England hath need of thee: she is a fen3. Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,4. Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and

bower,5. Have forfeited their ancient English dower6. Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;7. Oh! raise us up, return to us again;8. And give us manners, virtue, freedom,

power.9. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; 10.Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like

the sea:11.Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,12.So didst thou travel on life's common way,13.In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart14.The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

The Petrarchan Sonnet is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. In accordance with the principle, a change from one rhyme group to another signifies a change in subject matter. This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta,or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced

+The Shakespearian SonnetForm: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by

a couplet. Content: It is essential that a sonnet

contain a “turn” or “volta.” Meter: Iambic pentameterUnstressed, stressed pattern

Detroit Five feet (10 syllables)Rhyme scheme:

abab, cdcd, efef, gg

+Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of

May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a

date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course

untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his

shadeWhen in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18William Shakespeare

+

__________

Shakespearean Sonnet Form and Structure__________________Iambicpentameter A

B

BA

C

C

D

D

E

E

F

F

GG

Quatrain

Quatrain

Quatrain

Couplet

octave

sestet

Volta

Lines!

14

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shadeWhen in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

+The Subject

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

The speaker starts by asking whether he should compare his subject to with a summer’s day. Then, instead of considering that further, he gives us a thesis of sorts. The object of his description is more "lovely" and more "temperate" than a summer’s day.

+Lines 3-8

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

These line focus on a personification of nature, explaining the cycles of life and details of summer.

+Lines 7-8And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

With these lines, the speaker gets even broader in his philosophy, declaring that everything beautiful must eventually fade away and lose its charm, either by chance or by the natural flow of time.

+The Turn: Lines 9-10

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

Here is a classic example of a "turn." Suddenly (though it was foreshadowed a bit in line 8), the tone and direction of the poem change dramatically: the speaker pronounces that the person he’s speaking to isn’t subject to all of these rules of nature. The speaker argues that, unlike the real summer, his beloved’s summer will never end nor will his/her beauty ever fade.

+Lines 11-14

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Shakespeare shatters the fourth wall and successfully predicts that this poem will continue to be read, analyzed, and re-analyzed for all time. In other words, by allowing us to try to give life to "thee" (figuring out who he/she was), the speaker and the poem itself give "thee" life.

+Now You Try: Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

+In Groups

Work together on Sonnet 71.

Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

+Scan it, name it, and find the figurative language

Lines 1 through 4

+Lines 5 through 8

+Lines 9 through 12

+Lines 13 and 14

+Homework

Work on final paper Complete self-assessment on

homework: due before next meeting

Prepare for recitation