2013年11月27日 星期三

Western Literature(Week 12 ) 單字筆記

Topic : Euripides, Medea

— cide

1.patricide (v.)
/ˋpætrɪ͵saɪd/
the crime of killing your own father

2.suicide (v.)
/ˋsuə͵saɪd/
the act of killing yourself intentionally, or a person who has done this

The suicide rate among men between the ages of 16 and 25 has risen alarmingly.

3.homicide (n.)
/ˋhɑmə͵saɪd/
(an act of) murder

He was convicted of homicide.

4.insecticide (n.)
/ɪnˋsɛktə͵saɪd/
a chemical substance made and used for killing insects, especially those thateat plants

5.herbicide (n.)
/ˋhɝbə͵saɪd/
a chemical that is used to destroy plants, especially weeds

6.exile (v.)
/ˋɛksaɪl/
to send or keep someone away from his or her own country or home, esp. for political reasons

Western Literature(Week 12 ) 上課筆記

Topic : Euripides, Medea


1. Quiz 4on Oedipus

(1)Laius
    In Greek mythology, King Laius, or Laios of Thebes was a divine hero and key personage in the Theban founding myth.


(2)Creon
    Creonis a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus.


(3)Delphi














    Delphi is both anarchaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. The site of Delphi was believed to be determined by Zeus when he sought to find the centre of Grandmother Earth.

(4)Sphinx




    A sphinx is a mythical creature with, as a minimum, the body of a lion and a human head.

(5)Antigone




    In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother.


(6) Corinth











2. Textbook

(1) None of these deaths occurs on stage.
    (當時血腥場面不會發生在舞台劇的舞台上)

(2)Fortune favors the boat .
    (機會是給大膽進取的人)

(3)hubris 傲慢
a. Up in The Air (型男飛行日誌)
















(4)挑戰極限的故事(Icarus , Baleraphone)

2013年11月20日 星期三

Western Literature(Week 11 ) 單字筆記

Topic : Sophocles, Oedipus the King

1.apology (n.)
/əˋpɑlədʒɪ/
an act of saying that you are sorry

I have an apology to make to you – I opened your letter by mistake.

2.hubris (adj.)
/ˋhjubrɪs/
an extreme and unreasonable feeling of pride and confidence in yourself

Hubris brought him down in the end.

3.orchestra (n.)
/ˋɔrkɪstrə/
a large group of musicians playing different instruments and usually organized to play together and led by a conductor

the New York Philharmonic Orchestra

4. chorus (n.)
/ˋkorəs/
a part of a song that is repeated, usually after each verse

I’ll sing the verses but I’d like all of you to join in the chorus.

5.prey (n.)
/pre/
a creature that is hunted and killed for food by another animal

The prey had been sighted.

6.foreshadow (v.)
/forˋʃædo/
to act as a warning or sign of a future event

The recent outbreak of violence was foreshadowed by isolated incidents in the cityearlier this year.

Western Literature(Week 11 ) 上課筆記

Topic : Sophocles, Oedipus the King

1. Sappho (寫情愛詩)















    Sappho was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets.The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

2. gay
He is a gay . (X)  
He is gay .    (O)

3. 女生「蕾絲邊」出處
Deathless Aphrodite of spangled Mind

4.悲劇三大詩人
(Aeschylus) , Sophocles, Euripides 

5. 亞歷山大的帝王學「讀聖賢書,所為何事?」
(1)Aristotle

     Although an inferior race, the Persians control at least four fifths of the known world. But, is it possible that the source of Egypt's mighty river Nile could rise in these distant mountains of the outer Earth? If so, an experienced navigator could find his way here, by this river, east, down into the great plains of India, out into the eastern ocean and end of the world, and by this route, up the Nile, back to Egypt, into the Middle Sea and home to Greece.

(2)passion (no retraint)←→reason (retraint)

(3)hubris 傲慢

a. Up in The Air (型男飛行日誌)


6. Song : Hark the Herald Angels song





Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"


Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"


Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"


2013年11月13日 星期三

Western Literature(Week 10 ) 單字筆記

Topic : The Greek Tragedy

1.marshmallow (n.)
/ˋmɑrʃ͵mælo/
a soft, often white, candy made mainly of sugar


We roasted marshmallows over the campfire.

2.malicious (adj.)
/məˋlɪʃəs/
intending to cause harm, esp. by hurting someone’s feelings or reputation


He says she threatened him and spied on him, among other malicious activities.

3.malignant
/məˋlɪgnənt/
(of a disease or tissue growing because of a disease) leading to death


The pathologist’s report said the tumor was malignant.

4.obscene
/əbˋsin/
offensive, rude, or shocking, usually because of being too obviously related tosex or showing sex


He was jailed for making obscene phone calls.

5.obstacle
/ˋɑbstək!/
something that blocks you so that movement, going forward, or action is prevented or made more difficult


The biggest obstacle in our way was a tree trunk in the road.

Western Literature(Week 10 ) 上課筆記


Topic : The Greek Tragedy

1.Before the formal class

(1) Christmas Carol 




          It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Andy Williams
There'll be parties for hosting 

Marshmallows for toasting 

And caroling out in the snow 
There'll be scary ghost stories 
And tales of the glories of 
Christmases long, long ago 

It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much mistltoeing 
And hearts will be glowing 
When love ones are near 
It's the the most wonderful time of the year 

(2)marshmallow (放進熱咖啡或熱巧克力)





(3)movie : While You Were Sleeping


2. What is tragedy?
    Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization.

3. Dionysus
 






    Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, wine making and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology.

4. Prometheus 

    In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay, and who defies the gods and gives fire to humanity, an act that enabled progress and civilization.

5. Song : Today by John Dener 





6.Satyr play

    Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to the bawdy satire of burlesque. They featured choruses of satyrs, were based on Greek mythology, and were rife with mock drunkenness, brazen sexuality, pranks, sight gags, and general merriment.

2013年11月6日 星期三

Western Literature(Week 9 ) 期中考

Topic : Mid-tern


Essay


1. What role does fate play in the emotional and psychological effect of The Iliad? Why does Homer make his characters aware of their impending dooms?

     Homer’s original audience would already have been intimately familiar with the story The Iliad tells. Making his characters cognizant of their fates merely puts them on par with the epic’s audience. In deciding to make his characters knowledgeable about their own futures, he loses the effect of dramatic irony, in which the audience watches characters stumble toward ends that it alone knows in advance. But Homer doesn’t sacrifice drama; in fact, this technique renders the characters more compelling. They do not fall to ruin out of ignorance, but instead become tragic figures who go knowingly to their doom because they have no real choice. In the case of Hector and Achilles, their willing submission to a fate they recognize but cannot evade renders them not only tragic but emphatically heroic.



2. How does Homer portray the relationship between gods and men in the Odyssey? What roles do the gods play in human life? How does this portrayal differ from that found in the Iliad?

    In the Iliad, the gods relate to human beings either as external powers that influence the lives of mortals from without, as when Apollo unleashes plague upon the Achaeans, or from within, as when Aphrodite incites Helen to make love to Paris or when Athena gives Diomedes courage in battle. In the Odyssey, the gods are often much less grand. They function more as spiritual guides and supporters for their human subjects, sometimes assuming mortal disguises in order to do so. The actions of the gods sometimes remain otherworldly, as when Poseidon decides to wreck the ship of the Phaeacians, but generally they grant direct aid to particular individuals. In a sense, the change in the behavior of the gods is wholly appropriate to the shift in focus between the two epics. The Iliad depicts a violent and glorious war, and the gods act as frighteningly powerful, supernatural forces. The Odyssey, in contrast, chronicles a long journey, and the gods frequently act to guide and advise the wandering hero.

3. To what extent is the Aeneid a political poem? Is it propaganda?

    The Aeneid’s main purpose is to create a myth of origins that consolidates Rome’s historical and cultural identity. This search for origins of a race or culture is a political endeavor, in that it seeks to justify the Roman Empire’s existence and to glorify the empire through the poem’s greatness. Yet the Aeneid is also an artistic endeavor, and therefore to dismiss the poem as mere propaganda is to ignore its obvious artistic merit.

In many of the passages referring explicitly to the emperor Augustus—in Anchises’s presentation of the future of Rome, for example—Virgil’s language suggests an honest and heartfelt appreciation of Augustus’s greatness. It is worth noting, however, that in addition to being the emperor, Augustus was also Virgil’s patron. It would thus have been impossible for Virgil to criticize him outright in his work. One can argue that Virgil may not have truly believed in Augustus’s greatness and that the impossibility of explicit criticism forced him to resort to subtle irony in order to air any grievances regarding Augustus’s policies or ideology.