Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Reflective Blog on Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

"Truth is stranger than fiction." - Edgar Allan Poe


It has always been a pleasure, pride and privilege to discuss short stories by Edgar Allan Poe with students. New interpretations and perspectives emerge from each discussion and new techniques of teaching are learnt with each session. That's the charm of teaching literature. However, the quality of teaching depends on the outcome of learning and one of the ways to measure the outcome is to assign some post-task.

Hence, here is a list of areas to be pondered over in preparing a reflective blog on the aforementioned works. Students are expected to think on the below given points, read the stories once again and answer the questions with utmost sincerity and zeal.

Please do comment the links of your blogs in the comment box here and don't forget to tag me in social media posts about the same.


Answer the following questions:-

01) Make a comparative study of 'The Tell-tale Heart' and 'The Black Cat'.

02) Elucidate various narrative techniques in Poe's stories. How far do they help in achieving the 'pre-conceived effect'?

03)  Write a note on the various psychological disorders to be found in the characters of the stories and their significance to that particular text.

04) Analyze the genre of short story keeping in mind Poe's works. References of stories by other writers and/or regional writers are expected in it.

05) Read the translation of 'The Tell-tale Heart' by Mr. Paresh Vyas and published in a leading Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar dated 18-08-'19. Note down your observations about that translation.

Feel free to ask for any assistance needed in this.

Heartiest wishes...!!!

Thanks.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories : Pre-Task

Pre-thinking Task for Poe's Stories

 


Horror, macabre, bloodshed, crime, death, perversity, insanity.....
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All these links pop up on the screen of our mind when we think of Poe's stories.

Why is that so?

One of the reasons is:-
The writer creates an ambience of spine-chilling terror without the use of audio-visual tools and that too, almost 150 years ago when there was no emoji, no gif and no software!👌👏

How does he do so?

One of the answers is:-
Words, words, words (to use Hamletian phrase!)
His remarkably placed adjectives and efficacious phrases need a special attention when we study his stories.

What can be done to observe his usage of linguistic craftsmanship?

One of the techniques is:-
We can observe this phenomenon in a few gems of regional literature before doing the same to the aforementioned writer's works.
They are:-
• āŠŪાāŠĻāŠļંāŠ˜ - āŠĄૉ. āŠœāŠŊંāŠĪ āŠ–āŠĪ્āŠ°ી 
CLICK HERE to read the story.

• āŠŠાāŠĻāŠ•ોāŠ° āŠĄોāŠķી - āŠāŠĩેāŠ°āŠšંāŠĶ āŠŪેāŠ˜ાāŠĢી 
The first one is attached herewith as a scanned copy. Read it.
The other is available on Jalso App (treasure of regional literature in form of audiovisual). TO LISTEN TO THIS AUDIO, PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE JALSO APP FROM PLAYSTORE.

INSTRUCTIONS:-
Download Jalso app from Playstore, open a folder named "VAACHIKAM: Dramatic Reading" and there you will find the story - or -
Click on the below given link:-


Hence, your PRE-THINKING TASK is:-
1. Read the first Gujarati story and listen to the audio recitation of the second story. Observe how the two wordsmiths work wonders through words! (Absolute obsession of alliteration😀)
2. List out various adjectives that contribute the most in creating the "pre-established design" or effect that the author intended to create.
3. Which are the phrases you find frightening? How are they placed in the text?
4. Can you find out any other lexical varieties such as figures of speech like simile, metaphor, personification etc? Briefly explain their significance in the story.
5. What is the impact of listening  to the stories on your mind? Which Rasas/emotions erupt in you during and after the reading/listening sessions?
Please feel free to make an apt use of emoticons, gif etc as and where applicable in your answers.

Prepare a blog for the given task and share your link in the comment section here. The deadline for this task is 16th of August 10 am.
You can refer to my blog of similar activity given to the previous batch (September 2018) and their responses:-


Wish you all the very best!👍
Happy Learning!