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Hello, everyone!
I am Ms. Carroll,
your English teacher
for English 12 College Prep Online.
We are currently starting
unit number 3
called The Collective Perspective.
During this unit
you're going to be reading
the play Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw.
I would like to give you
an overview of the assessment
that you will be responsible for completing
by the end of the unit.
This way
you will know what to focus on
while you're reading the play.
By understanding the assessment now,
you will be better prepared
for the assessment
at the end of the unit.
As you know,
the focus of this entire course
is the idea of perspective,
and the essay for this unit
fits into that theme.
During Unit 1
you expressed your own personal perspective
while writing an argumentative research paper
on a contemporary issue.
During Unit 2
which is titled Perception is Everything,
you learned about two different literary theories:
reader response criticism and cultural criticism.
During this current unit,
you will be learning about
three new types of literary criticism:
archetypal criticism,
Marxist criticism,
and feminist criticism.
After learning about these
three critical perspectives
and after reading the play Pygmalion,
you will be asked to write an essay
analyzing the play
using one of the three new terms:
archetypal, Marxist, or feminist critical perspective.
So,
let me give you a brief overview
of the definitions
of the three new terms for this unit.
Using our Word Wall here,
you can see that I have placed
all three of the new terms
on the Q section of our QHT chart.
For the majority of students,
these words are completely new to you.
So, probably, you have never heard of them before,
and you probably don't know them
well enough to teach them to somebody else.
But you do probably have a lot of questions about them,
and that's why I put the words
on the Q section of the QHT chart.
Archetypal criticism deals with the similarities
of patterns in the literature
of widely diverse cultures.
For example, most cultures have stories
that present a hero's journey.
This would be an example of a recurring character type
or an archetypal character.
Characters, images, motifs, and story patterns
can all be archetypes.
Marxist criticism asserts that economics
is the foundation for all social, political, and ideological reality.
The presence of economic inequalities is a power structure
that drives history and influences differences
in religion, race, ethnicity, and gender.
Feminist criticism focuses on relationships between genders.
It examines the patterns of
thought, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations
between and within the sexes.
For example, a feminist reading of a novel may take into account
the idea of power relationships between the men and women of the novel.
This, of course, is just an overview of the definitions
of archetypal, Marxist, and feminist critical perspectives.
You will learn about these terms in more detail
as you work your way through the course content of the unit.
In order to prepare yourself for the essay,
the entire time you are reading Pygmalion
you should be thinking about these three critical lenses.
Take notes, write down quotes, and record page numbers
of parts of the play that you think could
be analyzed using these three criticisms.
By the time you finish reading the play,
you should have many ideas and many possible quotes
to use in your essay to support an analysis through each of these three lenses.
You will then decide which of the three criticisms you want to use for your paper,
devise a thesis statement, select quotes, and write your paper.
Being thorough and diligent with your note taking while reading
will save you much time and energy
when it comes time to write the paper.
As always, if you have any questions or any concerns
while you are reading the play
or while you are completing the unit's content,
please let me know.
Remember you should be taking lots of notes
on archetypal criticism, Marxist criticism, and feminist criticism.
Good luck reading, enjoy the play, and remember to analyze!
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