EXTRA, EXTRA: British Lit students got your Christmas reading here!

For their final project of the semester, British Literature students were assigned to show how much they understood William Shakespeare's Macbeth by making a graphic novel interpretation of the famous story. If you're looking for some cool comics to read over the Christmas break, consider a few of these great stories!

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A Day

Aleena and Belle	Annika and Sally	Brian and Samuel
Chanda and Emily	Christine and Kevin	Joyce and Sian
Kelly and Mandy	Patrick and Robert

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B Day

Amy and Anderson	Grace C. and Janelle	Grace Y. and Kathrina
Krikki and Vivian	Minnie and Takako

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Thanks so much for your hard work, Brit Lit—excellent job!

British Lit: Who is Akira Kurosawa?

Originally posted 11/27/11.

In case you're interested in 1) how Mr. Webb spent his break, and 2) what's happening next in British Lit class, take a peek at this awesome-sauce movie trailer.



Any thoughts?

Is MacBeth a psychopath? British Lit will soon find out...

British Lit students know that they'll have 3 essays assigned to them this semester, but we've only done one up to this point. The assignment that they'll have over Thanksgiving break will be to work on their second one, going over what we've covered in MacBeth. But the question, though, is what exactly should we do the essay over?

In reading this play this semester, it's become more and more apparent that there's something... strange going on in MacBeth's mind, and that we would be smart to explore exactly what is happening. As a hint, the assignment will focus on analyzing if the titular character is a psychopath. Question, though—do you know what a psychopath is? I've got 3 things for you to do:

1. Watch these 3 videos:
   
   
   
   
   
2. Read these articles:
   Wikipedia's entry on Psychopathy
   
   The Psychopath: The Mask of Sanity
   What "Psychopath" Means (Scientific American)
   The List of Psychopathy Symptoms: Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare
   ‘The Psychopath Test,’ by Jon Ronson - Review - NYTimes.com
   
   
3. Take these tests:
   Self-Assessment on Psychopathy / Narcissistic Personality Disorder
   A psychopathy test on my shared Evernote

Once you've gone over all this, you should be more prepared for when I give you the specifics of the assignment later this/next week. Thanks!

蜘蛛巣城 = MacBeth (?) You're about to find out.

Pretty cool film, huh? Now comes the bad part. (You had to know there was a bad part.)

1. 

   The Criterion Essay

   First off, read the following essay that looks deeply into the differences between MacBeth and Throne of Blood. Stephen Prince, the author of the essay, does a heck of a job of not just saying "THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT ONE IS IN JAPAN AND THE OTHER IS IN WHEREVER MACBETH IS, TEACH-AH!" If Prince writes this essay for me, I'm giving him an A. If a students uses the comparison above... well... you'll have the chance to make this paper better, next Fall, when you take this class again. [READ: You will fail.]
   
2. Secondly, please post a comment on that article following the rules of commenting from earlier in the semester:
   
   
   1. compliment the writer in a SPECIFIC way.
   2. ask a question related to the post.
   3. add new information, opinions, or perspectives.
      
      

   I will give you points for doing this (or give you a 0% for not doing it) by NEXT CLASS, so please do this as soon as possible!
   
3. Finally, the hard part: by NEXT CLASS, I want a first draft of a 5¶^(minimum) essay. To make this really easy on you, I have graciously provided you with the perfect thesis sentence:

   The key difference between William Shakespeare's MacBeth and Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is [WHATEVER YOU THINK], easily seen through [EVIDENCE A], [EVIDENCE B], and [EVIDENCE C].

   This sentence must be in your essay for get points for the thesis. You are not required to use that sentence in your essay, but if you use your own thesis, it must be better than mine. And it won't be. Good luck.
   
   You MUST bring me your first draft TYPED UP AND PRINTED OUT by NEXT CLASS. Failure to do so will result in an automatic 10% markdown of your final essay score. We will be doing 7i together in class, so not getting it to me means you didn't do it. Make sure it happens.

If we have time in class, we'll read the article together; if not, it is your responsibility to do on your own. Same with commenting. No excuses on getting the first draft done, either. The semester is not over! MANY of you have been complaining about your grades being low—this is your chance to pull them up. Unfortunately, it's also the chance for you to ruin them, so work hard!

MacBeth + Animaniacs = Greatest MacBeth clip on YouTube clip EVER (?)

When Mrs. Webb and I were young, we both used to watch a TV show called Animaniacs. It was a really hilarious Warner Brothers cartoon that was kind of the equivalent of a Sponge Bob, but 1) not as annoying, and 2) occasionally educational. I still think of many of the jokes I heard on there, like, 20 years earlier.

Today, I was working on some stuff online, and I stumbled upon this. For your viewing pleasure, the 3 witches of Macbeth... Animaniacs style.



For extra awesome sauce life credit, check out the related video about all the countries of the world. Learn the whole song and I'll buy you lunch.